Quickleaf
Legend
So I picked up Ruins of Mezro from Will Doyle (EDIT: I call this "Will's notes below) – it's a good starting place for running the false ruined Mezro in Chult. There's a disgraced bara called Ras T'fima who guards the ruins from those seeking the truth of Mezro's location in a Feywild demiplane; Will wrote him as a death knight which was an interesting choice because in the novel Ras T'fima was a "gem mage" who once had control over weather but had his powers stripped by Ubtao for lack of faith. Ras T'fima used the ring's powers to cover up his own lost powers. He was depicted wielding a sword once IIRC, but mainly he fired lightning bolts and healed people. He was much more of a N or LN figure than a CE one (which is death knight's default alignment).
Building off of Will's notes, if my PCs decide to pursue the "real Mezro" storyline, I'm going to flesh out the College of Wizards in Mezro (which is a "shifting rooms / teleporter dungeon") using an adaptation of the Shifting Tower from DCC 73: Emirikol Was Framed, with clues on how to reach "real Mezro" within.
There's a myth in Will's notes of the "Forsaken One" (a crocodilian semi-deity born of Savras & Lleira); in my version the “Forsaken One” is actually Kyuss & the myth is misguided.
My PCs are traveling to Mezro following the Company of the Yellow Banner (who went overland, instead of weighing anchor at Kitcher's Inlet as ToA suggests). From my notes....
[SBLOCK] Brokenbarrel (from Will's notes) remembers well the origins of the Flaming Fist as adventurers organized by the Grand Duke of Baldur’s Gate over a century ago. She even had a soft spot for adventurers…until she suffered the gilded curse and crossed paths with the Company of the Yellow Banner. She lost her best priests in the Library, and the last of her scouts to investigating the Library (hoping to reinstate the scriptorium) and looking for missing soldiers who were supposed to meet with resupply party from Fort Beluarian. Once she single-handedly killed a sarcosuchus by baiting it with a music box that allowed her to hunt it down, but some soldiers have reported hearing eerie music in Flooded Boulevards and Amphitheater.
Hanging on wall of her “audience chamber” is a golden silk banner with yellow swan & moon (150 gp) – claimed as a “fine” from the Company of the Yellow Banner. Brokenbarrel crossed paths with the Yellow Banner and is angry with them. After questioning why they were in Mezro exploring without a charter, Brokenbarrel let them explore after paying a fine & being forbidden from College of Wizards. They were looking for ancient prophecies about a “lost city” and broke their word, entering the College “to loot it” before “fleeing” south along River Olung.
Because of this, Brokenbarrel disallows PCs entering ruins… unless they help her either eliminate the Children of the Crocodile – human-sacrificing cultists in the Agricultural Quarter (in fact, she wants to consult the oracular Mudmaw herself) – or banish Ras T’fima – who she describes as a death knight seeking to claim Mezro for the undead (in fact, she has learned that the curse turning Mezro gold to ash outside the city is caused by Ras T’fima).
Ras T’fima (LN heavily modified death knight) is a disgraced bara, a mage once able to control weather who championed the cause of Mezroans outside city walls who were magically cut off from city’s resources/protection. Many of these were tabaxi who Mezro's barae didn't trust due to prophecy of the Sleeper. Ras T'fima championed these marginalized people who, despite being humans & tabaxi, called themselves "Tabaxi" as a sign of solidarity (EDIT: explaining confusion between AD&D "tabaxi" human tribe & 3e/5e "tabaxi" race). After Ubtao stripped him of his powers, T’fima used gem magic (lightning, healing) to prolong his life and the Ring of Winter to keep his station until Artus Cimber exposed his treachery. When the Spellplague wracked Chult, Ras T’fima arose as a death knight and swore to redeem himself to Ubtao. His undying duty is to protect the holy city from defilers, but he is bitter that the city has once again been sealed off by magic in Chult’s hour of need. He only appears amidst the ruins during heavy rains or fog. As long as he protects Mezro all gold taken from the ruins turns to ash.[/SBLOCK]
