DDAL Jasper runs Tomb of Annihilation. season 7

[jasper]

City on the Edge 07-01. Did a speed run of this 5 missions 3 hours very little roleplay.
Mission 1. Again the group was able to force the door open to the final boss. But I did give a chance to stop the trap before they trigger it.
Mission 2. If you run this I suggest you change the rules of the race. To speed up the race, you can only attempt do Dash, Jab, Taunt, or Trip twice. Also let the players roll for the npc obstacles.
Mission 3. I made the Hazards on the job last through out the mission. Do not drop the number grungs on a strong party or very strong party just at one or two wildiling.
Mission 4. Due to speed run, I don't think any changes are needed.
Mission 5. Due to speed run, I don't think any changes are needed.

 

[Raunalyn]

My party just arrived in Omu after 8 sessions. They didn't stay in Nyanzaru very long and took Inete as their guide. They stopped at Camp Righteous and Camp Vengeance along the way (they took a canoe down), then went straight for the Aldani Basin. They went ahead and climbed M'bala to get the lay of the land (encountering Nanny Pu'pu, who escaped after forcing the group to fight her flying monkeys and flesh golem), and then decided to head for Orolunga after seeing it from the top of M'bala. There, they learned of Omu and made a bee-line.

They are almost 5th level, so things will be a little difficult right now (I allowed them to rescue the group in the ship, so they have some extra manpower to help them, though it is a constraint on their supplies). At the moment, they are trying to establish a base of operations inside the city and do some exploration.

Magic items have been beyond scarce, but I've attributed it to the fact that they've been trekking through the jungle...Omu will have magic items for them.

 

[jasper]

I would suggest running some tier 1 modules to give the group some magic. They may need it.

 

[jasper]

Toa Session 9
Chapter 3
XP 4,230
GP 294
Renown 1
Downtime 10
PCS KIA 8 Souls ate 4 Monsters killed 206
Days 15 afternoon to Day 13 1400
Bare Nekkid Buddy Shielder of Kobolds
Only had 3 people so was having to downgrade monsters and encounters on the fly. The group snuck back into the King’s of Feathers lair. The king did try to eat them but the group did a whopping 79 in two rounds and on his initiative he misty step away. Ok this was just a warm up fight and I wanted to get the group some magic items. They discover the Tomb of the Nine Gods but did not have enough puzzle pieces. While exploring some of the ruins two became overcome with Mad Monkey madness. Buddy thought he was invisible until lunch on day 12. (I also told Buddy no murderhoboing). The bard forgot who she was and why they were here. I did give out roleplaying rewards to both players. As a joke while exploring the bazaar Grrrr (with 4 “r’s) casted suggestion on Buddy to strip.
OKAY I BEEN PLAYING SINCE OCTOBER 1980, I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS SURPRISE AND AMUSED AT WHAT HAPPEN NEXT. This is the first time of three of the night I had to walk away from the table. Not tick but amused and trying to collect myself.
So even before I tell the player give a saving throw, he announces his player is stripping down totally. This is right after one tripped the trap to warn the monsters in the cellar. So Bare Nekkid Buddy is in the bazaar when a kobold clan boils out to see a nude human fighter, a tabaxi bard who looks confuse, and half-orc fighter caster. I call for an intimidation check. 20+. So Kakarol is confused and frighten because according to Buddy the took on the King of Feathers while Buddy was Nekkid. Now the Niranath the bard (who want to be murderhoboing tonight) tried to persuade Kakarol that buddy lying. Yes, I did have a role reversal at the table, the murder hobo was going for laughs and the smart player was going for murder hoboing. So even with the bard trying to turn this into a combat Buddy is now called Bare Nekkid Buddy Shielder of Kobolds. The kobolds give the group the treasure for protection. And the group now have a safe haven in OMU.
The next combat is with a bunch a Grung. The elite warrior goes first and charms everyone but Buddy (who now has his clothes on). The warrior ends his turn in front of Buddy. Buddy yells at the Grung “what do you want?”. The Grung chirps back. The Niranath mentions she is wearing the crown (circle of blasting) from the Grung king. Since the players are still stunned, Bare Nekkid Buddy gives the crown to the warrior. OK SECOND TIME, I have to walk away and collect myself. The Grungs start retreat with crown when the other players come out of their stun. Ouch those poor frogs they lasted less than a round and a half. Only two escaped.
The group gets to Papazotl’s shrine and nearly get TPKed by the crocs. We did all agree the second part of the shrine was stupid. They approach Nangnang’s shrine. The half-orc throws out a minor illusion of the group kicking the first group of Grungs and a little bit on how the bard got her crown. One skill check later the Grungs are opening the shrine for them. Now it took 20 minutes to figure how to get the puzzle cube and I was giggling all through it. And packing away my stuff.

Ok that was a weird night. Now I had nights where players show up to blow off steam. But the player who is currently playing Buddy generally gets bored and goes murderhobo and does not care if I kill his pc. This is same player that last week was shooting the Boar Paladin. He surprise the hell out us. He also I think has 10+ of his pcs on my skull. We told after the game was over that he did great. I gave a bonus of 100 xp for role playing and 3 inspiration which carry over. that is illegal but damn when deserves it.

 

[jasper]

ddAL07-03 Day at the races.
Reran this locally. I am still not happy with how the betting or who wins the place your bets roll. Suggest you do the following. Take the bets. Assign each dino a color die. Break down the scene into two parts. The race where you roll dice and the party part. Roll the dice announce the standing. Cut to party first player and let them do the investigation. Go back to race. Swap back and forth until the party has all it rolls. Last roll final leg of the race and if tie use the players hand out 1.
The other parts if you have time use the attack defend from D. to the other races.

 

[jasper]

Ok, I felt the need to give some of my players an xp boost so I ran DDAL 07-02 Over the Edge. However most of my regulars did not show. Oh well.
This was all melee group with one pc running a warlock split class but no healing in the group.
Mission 1 is great remember to reskin the monsters as dinosaur skeletons and the exploding tricks is fun. I did have a player who had already played the module let some things slip in the underground, so I tossed the puzzle and sent in the undead.
Mission 2. OK NO TPK but they were all throwing out what to do and could not come up with a plan. So after a few minutes I just had them roll initiative and tell me what they were going to do. The most fun was them trying to figure out how to climb the cliff (most have forgotten pitons.). I changed the map of the final encounter and FIRST TIME I HAVE SEEN PEOPLE PUT OUT BALL BEARING OR CALTROPS.
Mission 3. OK, This was a bust due to everyone be paranoid. They did enter the farm house, made insight rolls against Gustav and generally just went sideways.
Mission 4. This was the last mission of the night and I rushed it. So I can't give it a review.
Mission 5. They were impressed with the weretigers and some want to convert their pcs to were. But were talked out of it. I dropped the symbols in the crypt. But since the group discussed tactics and other stuff after the altar opened, I had the monsters prepared and this was the most deadly combat of the night as the fireball did a lot of damage. The group spread out and did some good tactics of hitting the spell caster asap.

 

[jasper]

On Sunday I ran A Walk in the Park ddal07-04.
First Prince Wadumu is proud to announce his engagement to PRINCESS Glory Gobin. Now a snark.
"THERE ON PAGE 11. IN THE RIGHT HAND BOTTOM CORNER. IN AVERAGE FONT. AFTER ALL THE INFO DUMPS ON WADUMU. AFTER ALL THE MENTIONS OF WANDERLOST! UNDER C. WE FIGHT BY NIGHT. DO WE FIND OUT THE FOLLOWING ...A GRUNG MUST DIE TO MAKE WANDERLOST.." Now I thought I read this mod thoroughly but BS BS BS something like this should have been mention before the last page. A paragraph or two before the boss fight.
!@#$%^&*(
Ok that is out my system. I had a strong group due to a power gamer and lots of time. So I threw in the fishing for the satchel which was fun as the group killed Kenny and caught the satchel before it fell to the valley floor. The satchel shop was fun as the group were trying to use their backgrounds to get the more info but I had to make them flesh out their background. Just because you a Noble Goblin Princess from the where (player had to create more background) or a soldier from where (oh Sword Coast this is CHULT!).
As normal for me, the mudslide was the most deadly of the encounters. And I and most of the group (not the goblin princess) had fun when Wadumu tried to reenact the Princess and the Frog.

 

[jasper]

On Sunday I did Whispers in the Dark, DDAL07-05. Ok, only two of the group from the last game, sat down. This threw any plans I had to made out the door. I was running with a weak group so I downgraded the boss but kept the legendary actions. This did make the final combat last longer. WARNING if you are running with a WEAK group you will need to reduce the average damage on some the monsters.
GRRRRR. Ok the editing needs work. This is SEASON 7. There is no reason the Grung should change colors in the same paragraph.
****
On Saturday I did a pick up game for a Family (nearly had 3 generations playing). The youngest was a six year old. I ran them thru A Walk in the Park DDAL07-04 and include the fishing part. MAN. 6 year kids can be mean. Also except for been bored and fishing my dwarf mini off the map with her keychain she did good.

 

[jasper]

Ok, it seems that I was too mean and icky nasty running the hardcover and my players fled. Or are working on their bank of PCs so they don't mind losing PCS. I will be running some tier 2 and other modules to get my regulars to a higher level but not out Tier the book before I go back to the book.
I did rerun City on the Edge with half the table being new to 5E. It became mostly a teaching session which does work out. On mission one the group did capture one the first minions. He turn over the pass words and told the group about the traps.

 

[jasper]

I ran Fester and Burn 07-06 Friday night. The set up is okay. Especially when one or more players want to rescue the bar owner. I could have done a better job on the final battle about the auto collapse. I suggest the dm make some changes. I gave the group 2 rounds instead of 1 to grab the prisoners before fleeing.
....
Rotting Roots 07-07 reads like it going to be a fun house dungeon. BUT this is only if players buy in. I had a player argue with me for a few minutes about not going into the barrels and "gee is this dungeon where you take damage before you begin". Then he stated he could cast fly on himself and another pc. He did not take well when I mention he could have said that in the beginning instead griping about the set up.
The same player did not want to fight the beholder zombies and talked the group into sneaking around them. All but 1 pc roll high on stealth.
The group had good luck on the bridge and did not break it.
I drew out and expanded the map in Part 4. I also had everyone roll initiative before going in. I moved the quick sand deeper into the lair and let the pcs attempt to jump it. And had the swamp be the stomach. Since I had drew out and changed the map, I extended the time to escape the monster. Since I had one KIA and the problem player was telling everyone a big dino was coming as soon as they escaped the stomach, I dropped the fight with Big ONE.
.......
Sunday I ran Cellar of Death DDHC-TOA-4
Two small problems. Three of us (at least) had already played through the mod. Second only 2 people wanted to play level one pcs. I had 2 first, 1 third, and the rest fourth. On most of encounters with skeletons and ghouls, I added one extra undead until I matched the party or had 1 more than the party. On rooms 6 and 7 I had the blood pour out in the hallway. I also changed the affect. If they failed a DC 13 con save they had disadvantage on Con saves for the rest of the mod. If they saved they gain 5 temp hit points. I also set an alarm to go off 2 hours after they entered the dungeon. The group was fighting the Flesh Golem when it sounded. And some of them still wanted to fight it. But they retreated. And went to the To the treasure room.
Rats forgot to them about all the treasure need to correct that.