D&D 5E [SPOILERS] Enhancing Tomb of Annihilation

[pukunui]

My group just collected all the crystal eyeballs and entered the room where the invisible beholder is. The skeleton key for that level just happened to be in there (they didn't know that at the time, so it was a chance encounter). One of them dispelled the magnetic sphere, which crashed to the ground. I had the beholder angrily fire some eye rays but they all missed, so the PCs ran away.

All well and good ... but what happens if they venture back that way at a later date? The crystal eyeballs have all disappeared ... but wouldn't Withers and his tomb dwarves want to reset this level? Surely they'd shut the door and then put all the eyeballs back in their starting places ... the problem is, not all of the eyeballs have starting places. Some of the eyeballs are found on the dead bodies of the Company of the Yellow Banner explorers, but it never says where they got those eyeballs from in the first place.

I will probably not bother having Withers and his dwarves reset the beholder's door, but I thought I would bring it up as a discrepancy in the adventure.


As an aside, I hate to say this, but I'm starting to get bored of the tomb. Six levels is perhaps a few too many. We've just spent two sessions with the players/PCs getting stuck on a number of the puzzles and making very little progress. Ugh.

 

[Stormdale]

Me getting bored was part of the reason I fast forwarded Pukunui- missed levels 3-5 and went straight to 6, getting rid of the collect the keys and using Withers amulet as the key to open to doors in 77.

Stormdale

 

[Raunalyn]

Hah! That´s a really epic encounter! Two party members down and up, spells going around and counterspells. Amazing!

ps: I don´t remember a combat with ten rounds since 5e has been published...

Actually, it was three party members, but yes, it was exciting. Really difficult to keep a party with 3 clerics down...

 

[Nerditorium]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, so I figured I would add it:

When I began the campaign I wanted to have a set adventure for my group without just leaving them to wander around aimlessly. Since I campaign doesn't really start until 5th level (according to the book), I decided to use the first adventure "There is No Honor" from The Savage Tides campaign from Dungeon #139. I changed a few elements to have it set in Port Nyanzaru, but otherwise it ran as written.

It worked wonders! My players were heavily invested, and it allowed them to connect with an NPC (Lady Vanderboren) that would eventually suffer from the Death Curse.

Just thought I would mention the adventure, in case newer DM's might be struggling with how to fill gaps in the campaign with material.

 

[Mull Ponders]

My group is only 1 or 2 sessions from completing this. Since the module proper doesn't start until 5th I ran Lost Mine of Phandelver to start them off and have some equipment. Lost Mine has the best amount of AL legal magic items and is my favorite intro for 5e. So far no one has died, although I counted at least 6 "save or die" situations for individual characters. Inspiration re-rolls saved them 3 times, the others they just made. This is an experienced group of gamers except for one player. They are 9th level heading down to the final area.

(Edit) They have played once a week with a few exceptions since January. I definitely got my money out of the ToA book. I also bought the maps to speed things up so I didn't spend the entire session drawing while they sat around.

 

[sim-h]

Inspiration re-rolls saved them 3 times, the others they just made.

Inspiration doesn't give a re-roll - you expend it before rolling to gain advantage on the dice. Not sure if you did that, or maybe you house-ruled it to allow a re-roll to go easy on your players. Or maybe, just maybe they SHOULD ALL RIGHTFULLY BE DEAD.

 

[Mull Ponders]

Inspiration doesn't give a re-roll - you expend it before rolling to gain advantage on the dice. Not sure if you did that, or maybe you house-ruled it to allow a re-roll to go easy on your players. Or maybe, just maybe they SHOULD ALL RIGHTFULLY BE DEAD.

sim-h is correct, I was ruling Inspiration wrong. In 2 of those cases I think they would have spent it and gotten advantage, the other one probably no. But there is one huge back-to-back encounter left, so the adventure may still get some of them. The players are (mostly) very experienced, they have just skipped a few troublesome things they didn't need to do to complete the mission.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

So in the Fane of the Night Serpent chapter, under the section labeled "Audience with Fenzatha," it says

While the characters sow confusion, she assembles her guards and priests (see areas 6 and 7), ambushes Ras Nsi, and attempts to kill him.

If the coup is thwarted, Fenthaza and her confederates are put to death. If the coup succeeds,....

But there is not direction on how to determine who is successful; the PCs are supposed to "sow confusion," not be part of the abush of Ras Nsi, so it's not a head to head fight, it's something that happens "off stage." I know I could just decide, or roll 2 d20s, but I'm interested in what other people did/planned to do in this scenario.

 

[pukunui]

So my group got all the skeleton keys and completed all the trials and got as far as putting one key in the gate when the Sewn Sisters showed up. They killed one hag, but the other two managed to grab the key from the door and go ethereal. They’re now heading for the ceiling, with the PC who befriended Strawbunde (and thus has the 3x etherealness spell charm) in hot pursuit.

If that PC fails to reclaim the key on her own, is that the end of the adventure?

None of the other PCs can go ethereal, so if the hags escape from the one who can, how will the PCs get through the door? There doesn’t seem to be any other way through except for using all five keys. So if they can’t get that key back, they’re screwed.

 

[Quickleaf]

So in the Fane of the Night Serpent chapter, under the section labeled "Audience with Fenzatha," it says



But there is not direction on how to determine who is successful; the PCs are supposed to "sow confusion," not be part of the abush of Ras Nsi, so it's not a head to head fight, it's something that happens "off stage." I know I could just decide, or roll 2 d20s, but I'm interested in what other people did/planned to do in this scenario.

Not there yet, but my notes are that Fenthaza would attempt to reveal Sekelok’s betrayal, implicating him and his lover Neema (one of Ras Nsi’s concubines) as being behind a slave revolt. With Sekelok executed and Ras Nsi’s suspicions alerted, that gives Fenthaza’s forces (Areas 5,6,7) a roughly equal chance against Ras Nsi’s forces (Area 11) if they act swiftly before Ras Nsi can call reinforcements. In other words, XP totals are 6,400 for Fenthaza’s vs 6,450 for Ras Nsi’s.

Personally, I imagine Fenthaza following up Sekelok’s execution with Invoke Nightmare on Ras Nsi as a surprise, then violence steadily increasing, with PCs encountering signs of yuan-to infighting throughout the Fane. Eventually, I’d have Fenthaza win a narrow and costly victory. Ras Nsi, however, would be entombed in some kind of cruel parody by Fenthaza, only to reawaken as a mummy lord later on!