D&D 5E (2014) [SPOILERS] Enhancing Tomb of Annihilation

[Quickleaf]

My first crafting project in a while: a Temple of Ubtao where the Zombie Killer Diamond is safeguarded...for Sunday's game...

https://i.*****.com/4kjda9b.jpg

 

[robus]

Listening to Critical Role and hearing them navigate through a reef, it made me think of the pirate cove in Chult with the simple single check to navigate the reef there. The way Matt handled it was great and this seems like a great opportunity for a skill challenge where multiple successes are needed to safely make it through.

For more info on Skill Challenges: https://critical-hits.com/blog/2016/08/16/skill-challenges-in-5th-edition-dd/

[video=youtube;GvOeqDpkBm8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvOeqDpkBm8[/video]

 

[robus]

Index updated! Sorry it has been a while!

 

[snaggle2th]

Hello Hive Mind: Looking for help with Azaka.

My party have selected her as their guide, and have just finished Firefinger, where she revealed herself as a weretiger. They have just leveled up to 3rd. I don't want her to just turn into a big meat shield, but I also don't want her to leave in a way that has the players saying "DM just didn't want us to have a weretiger". I decided she would tell them that she needs to be gone for a week around the full moon, for everyone's safety. The full moon comes in two weeks, so according to my calculations, they will just be leaving Kir Sabal with flight powers. Azaka will tell them that she can track them in tiger form, as long as they hit a certain landmark (maybe the Heart of Ubtao). So, to sum up, she will be away for about two weeks, but will probably be back around the time they hit Omu. At that point, she won't be quite so unbalancing, and could make a dramatic first death in the Tomb--to let them know sh*t is getting real.

What caught me off guard, and what I'm looking for help with, is that one of the players asked if she could be cured. I have established that she has family in Port Nyanzaru, who don't want her around much. So, I am left with the problem: why would she not have just had a local cleric cast Remove Curse on her? By rules as written, that would work unless she was born a weretiger, but I have already established she is not from a family of weretigers.

To be clear, I am fine with the PCs curing her, I just thinking it should be a little more interesting narratively than hitting a high enough level to cast a third level cleric spell. I would just like there to be some sort of a wrinkle. Here are my ideas so far:
- Don't just want it to be a matter of money--that just seems lame.
- Remove Curse could work, but would also require a component like belladonna or a silvered blade. Azaka can't know this already, or she would have arranged it herself.
- Remove Curse could work, but during the ritual, 'the beast' comes out. She accidentally killed a cleric, and hasn't wanted to try it since.
- Azaka was born a weretiger, but to normal parents, because her mother was cursed by an anonymous old crone (Nanny Pu'pu). The crone has to be found and slain before the curse can be lifted.

So far, I am leaning toward one of the last two options. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Quickleaf]

Hello Hive Mind: Looking for help with Azaka.

Certainly you have the right idea for making remove curse itself more interesting. Personally, I'd delve more into the culture. So Azaka is from a family of non-weretigers, but she just reacquired a family heirloom which is a tiger-like magic mask. That says something about her family! Maybe they revere the Cat Lord via its servants in Chult (weretigers) or maybe their daughter was made into a weretiger in some kind of ritual (her parents believing being a weretiger is a superior state, or a weretiger is destined to rule Chult, or some such).

Now tie that into the ToA page 14 blurb about weretigers:

Weretiger prides avoid outsiders, including adventurers, but a few evil weretigers enjoy making a sport of hunting intruders who come to plunder their land. Since weretigers can appear human, they readily pose as Chultan hunters, guides, rescuers, or explorers to lure in prey. These evil wcreligers usually worship Malar, the god of the hunt.

While ToA doesn't follow up on the whole evil weretigers bit very much, you certainly could. Maybe there's a "cult" of evil weretigers that would view Azaka (or any weretiger) attempting to undo the curse as betrayal. Maybe they've indirectly threatened to kill her family if she ever tried, or maybe the threat is just implicit in the cult her parents belong to.

So in addition to whatever requirements you come up with for the remove curse ritual, the "cult" of evil weretigers would have to be dealt with. You could make it an ongoing quest leading up to a showdown in Omu. You could make it a side quest adapting Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. You could work the origins of the weretiger-ism curse to one of the hags.

 

[CapnZapp]

One suggestion is perhaps start a separate thread? It seems the Curse of were creatures could interest many more posters than those also interested in this module?

(Just be sure to add spoiler warnings where appropriate)

 

[snaggle2th]

Certainly you have the right idea for making remove curse itself more interesting. Personally, I'd delve more into the culture.

Man, there was a lot there. Thanks for all the ideas. I will definitely work in some evil weretigers.

 

[Eltab]

Here are my ideas so far:
- Don't just want it to be a matter of money--that just seems lame.
- Remove Curse could work, but would also require a component like belladonna or a silvered blade. Azaka can't know this already, or she would have arranged it herself.
- Remove Curse could work, but during the ritual, 'the beast' comes out. She accidentally killed a cleric, and hasn't wanted to try it since.
- Azaka was born a weretiger, but to normal parents, because her mother was cursed by an anonymous old crone (Nanny Pu'pu). The crone has to be found and slain before the curse can be lifted.

So far, I am leaning toward one of the last two options. Anyone have any other suggestions?

To lift the curse ... Azaka wants nothing to do with this project, because {Option 3} happened, more than once, and she is resigned to her condition. She won't put any more decency-intending blood on her claws.
The PCs must do research without Azaka around. They discover they have to kill Nanny Pu'pu with a silver blade, then the 'were-spirit within Azuka' will be weakened enough that they can kill IT with the same silver blade.

Come to think of it, maybe the PCs have to find the Nine Trickster Gods and talk to their spirits about this. One of the PCs must be inhabited by a Trickster Gods' spirit and participate in the ritual to be able to control Azuka's were-tiger spirit and draw it forth without it being unleashed to commit bloodshed. (Of course Azuka has no way to know this part beforehand !)

 

[jayoungr]

I skimmed and didn't see a link to this discussion, so I'm putting it here:

A non-canon timeline of Chult for ToA DMs

(This post in the thread includes some more canon-friendly corrections and additions.)

 

[Anthony Winter]

I will most likely have PCs ready to head south to tackle the undead menace following rise of tiamat.
Do you think the adventures could be scaled up to challenge 16th level PCs?

Sometimes you cant just make monsters tougher - especially when it is about bypassing traps etc..