D&D 5E Tomb of Annihilation campaign recaps

[Nebulous]

Nice. I'll use that. I was going to make him teleport as a bonus action so that when he first sees them he will teleport behind them and attack from the back. I'll also play him as highly intelligent (but still savage), so he will recognise the weakest characters and make use of opportunities. If he looks like being defeated he will get the heck away and then start stalking the party once he has healed (if they are still in Omu).

"Clever Girl"....

I think I want to make it deadly enough that they run from and hide and it becomes an ongoing threat, or the PCs try to get allies to fight it. Note that I boosted the Misty Step from the normal 30' to 60'. That's going to get it out of range of melee fighters very fast.

EDIT- And that bonus 30 feet might be TOO good. I'll have to see. Or I could give it limited super steps. Maybe 2 or 3 per short rest, and the rest of the time it is 30'.

 

[Nebulous]

@Nebulous, you skipped Dungrunglung?

Unfortunately yes, but that was the only scenario I missed in the jungle. In retrospect I wished I had squeezed it in, it looked like fun. You know though, I could probably retrofit it into Omu or something as illusory or teleportation encounter.

EDIT - Well, there IS a faction of grungs in Omu, I wonder if there could be an underground tunnel to leads to Dungrulung outside the city proper?

 

[sim-h]

EDIT - Well, there IS a faction of grungs in Omu, I wonder if there could be an underground tunnel to leads to Dungrulung outside the city proper?

Not even underground - they could just lead the players out of Omu and over to 'nearby' Dungrunglung, if the incentive was enough. EDIT - maybe they took Nangnang's puzzle cube there!

My next session has been delayed a couple of times, frustratingly. Still no idea when we can fit the next one in, might be a month before I can relate the (I hope) slave revolt.

 

[Nebulous]

Not even underground - they could just lead the players out of Omu and over to 'nearby' Dungrunglung, if the incentive was enough. EDIT - maybe they took Nangnang's puzzle cube there!

My next session has been delayed a couple of times, frustratingly. Still no idea when we can fit the next one in, might be a month before I can relate the (I hope) slave revolt.

Well, I was thinking of a "secret" entrance and exit to Omu, besides area #1 or trying to fly in, which I have made so dangerous that the PCs won't attempt it.

Oh! Yeah, they took Nang Nang's puzzle cube there!!! That's a good idea.

 

[Nebulous]

Session #23 - Magmus

https://app.box.com/s/wz0rj722vf657t594bzv4ehzycp5ze82


So of course Magmus is not in the scenario, but I wanted a monster stronger than Tinder because Artus with a greater artifact is a game changer. AND I really, really wanted to kill Artus. You'll see what happens....

 

[Rabbitbait]

On day 112 of the campaign the group encountered THE KING OF FEATHERS.

https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/forum/3041203/

The only adjustment I made to the creatures stats was to change the misty step to a teleport. It scared the snot out of the group who promptly saw 4 NPC's get torn apart. Most of the group spent a good deal of the battle just trying to get away from the dinosaur. Good stuff.

 

[Nebulous]

On day 112 of the campaign the group encountered THE KING OF FEATHERS.

https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/forum/3041203/

The only adjustment I made to the creatures stats was to change the misty step to a teleport. It scared the snot out of the group who promptly saw 4 NPC's get torn apart. Most of the group spent a good deal of the battle just trying to get away from the dinosaur. Good stuff.

Cool session. So you didn't make any changes to the King and he still killed 2 characters? At 5th level? I think I'm still going to use the beefed up version. How does teleport functionally differ from Misty step? Can you bite somebody in a grapple and then take them with? Or is the range just unlimited beyond 30 feet?

 

[Nebulous]

I *totally* botched the Froghemoth encounter, I'm so embarrassed. I'm a pretty darn experienced DM but I forgot to use the grapple attack (and grappler feat I gave it) on each tentacle attack. That thing should have killed someone, but at least it escaped alive to fight another day. I think i'll bring it back in another body of water.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Cool session. So you didn't make any changes to the King and he still killed 2 characters? At 5th level? I think I'm still going to use the beefed up version. How does teleport functionally differ from Misty step? Can you bite somebody in a grapple and then take them with? Or is the range just unlimited beyond 30 feet?

The only people killed were NPCs. There were the two tibaxi, and then there were two of the thugs that had been hanging out with the red wizards - I had named them, but they still just had basic thug stats. They made good cannon fodder, but that's mainly because the player semi-controlling them had left them hanging at the back.

I did teleport as a bonus action, but only in line of sight. That mixed with legendary action of automatically succeeding at saves and the bee swarms really put the scares up the group. I wanted to play the dinosaur as raging, but still intelligent so I had planned that he would teleport to the back of the group knowing that the most squishy characters are there. However I think having the tibaxi as the first line of attack was a wise move. It gave the group a round to work out what they were going to do and showed that the dinosaur can kill with a bite. I also played it as smart enough to teleport away when the tables turned on it, but it's natural instinct was to teleport back towards it's 'nest'.

The dinosaur isn't actually too hard to kill, but the damage it does along the way is deadly.

I *totally* botched the Froghemoth encounter, I'm so embarrassed. I'm a pretty darn experienced DM but I forgot to use the grapple attack (and grappler feat I gave it) on each tentacle attack. That thing should have killed someone, but at least it escaped alive to fight another day. I think i'll bring it back in another body of water.

That was a scary early encounter in Omu for us and was the first PC death. It set the scene well though and the players realised that they needed to be a bit more careful. The grapple was cool. I sort of saw it as 'The Watcher in the Water' from Lord of the Rings.

I think that our next session might involve going into the Fane of the Night Serpent. That makes me nervous as there are a lot of angles that I could take with this and a heap of different ways it could go. It also feels pretty deadly. The characters are 7th level now though so they are a bit tougher. I've been giving extra xp every time they gain a puzzle cube as I wanted them to be higher level before they go into the tomb.

I have thought that when they go into the fane that there will be places where there is hallucinogenic smoke wafting around and it will give me the opportunity to do foreshadowing visions in the characters dreams when they have a long rest.

 

[Nebulous]

I did teleport as a bonus action, but only in line of sight. That mixed with legendary action of automatically succeeding at saves and the bee swarms really put the scares up the group. I wanted to play the dinosaur as raging, but still intelligent so I had planned that he would teleport to the back of the group knowing that the most squishy characters are there. However I think having the tibaxi as the first line of attack was a wise move. It gave the group a round to work out what they were going to do and showed that the dinosaur can kill with a bite. I also played it as smart enough to teleport away when the tables turned on it, but it's natural instinct was to teleport back towards it's 'nest'.

The dinosaur isn't actually too hard to kill, but the damage it does along the way is deadly.

Hmm, line of sight teleport is pretty scary. It would near impossible to pin it down for long. I know my players well, they could potentially dish out 200 points of damage in 2 rounds, killing the T-rex, so I need to be careful. When the barbarian crits with his lance it's just an ridiculous amount of damage.

I'd prefer for the King to attack and retreat, and they know it is constant threat in the city. Also, i would personally have it resurrected at a later date, or another dino is upgraded to the King, so that there would always be one in Omu.

I think that our next session might involve going into the Fane of the Night Serpent. That makes me nervous as there are a lot of angles that I could take with this and a heap of different ways it could go. It also feels pretty deadly. The characters are 7th level now though so they are a bit tougher. I've been giving extra xp every time they gain a puzzle cube as I wanted them to be higher level before they go into the tomb.

My guys have Volo's Book of Monsters, so they were able to read about the yuan-ti as soon as they learned about them in Omu. THAT scared them. They only have one of the puzzle cubes so far, so we have a lot left to do on the surface level, and I'm probably going to have the grungs take a puzzle cube of Nang Nang to Drungulung, and that will be a whole other session.

I really like Omu, it's a big sandbox that can go all kinds of directions.