D&D 5E Lost City of Omu for high-level PCs (spoilers)

[Quickleaf]

I was happy to have the entire Omu map printed on one sheet of paper, and I probably got 12 sessions out of exploring the ruins. It was the highlight of the campaign and the Tomb exploration part isn't as fun I don't think.

12 sessions? That's a whole lot of time exploring Omu. Eep! I only have 7-8 sessions left to do Omu, the Fane, and the Tomb!

Thinking of making Omu a faster-paced race to the puzzle shrines against Red Wizards for a few sessions, with the threat of Nightmare Haunting looming over them.

Then run the Fane as a 1-session scenario, either an "escape the dungeon", infiltration/rescue/theft, dungeon raid, or whatever approach the PCs take. Really focusing on making the threats in the Fane flow together like one massive running encounter, and on the brewing yuan-ti civil war. I've printed it out as a pieced-together poster map, which I'll cover with black construction paper.

And then the Tomb as a single expedition (i.e. no leaving to rest) cutting out the "drag" areas like the Mirror Tomb (19), the Sewn Sisters' trial rooms (72-76), and the hunting for glass eyes to access the Vault of the Beholder (44) since they're already hunting for skeleton keys (after gathering puzzle cubes!). I've printed each level out at 11x17, laminated them, and covered with DIY gold scratch-off paint – this seemed the most manageable way to handle mapping the large dungeon.

 

[CapnZapp]

Damn that's a good idea, wish I had done that, would make the jungle 1000x more scary. It was never as brutal as I wanted it to be, and with high Survival skills they never got lost. Random encounters didn't happen that often either, I should have just cherry picked ones I liked.

Did you actually run it like that yet or is this a planned thing to do?

I ran it like that. The PCs reached Omu, dunno, last winter perhaps? (The campaign concluded before summer)

And yes, life is entirely too short for repetitive and boring random encounters, especially since that list is filled with interesting stuff.

 

[Nebulous]

12 sessions? That's a whole lot of time exploring Omu. Eep! I only have 7-8 sessions left to do Omu, the Fane, and the Tomb!

Thinking of making Omu a faster-paced race to the puzzle shrines against Red Wizards for a few sessions, with the threat of Nightmare Haunting looming over them.

Then run the Fane as a 1-session scenario, either an "escape the dungeon", infiltration/rescue/theft, dungeon raid, or whatever approach the PCs take. Really focusing on making the threats in the Fane flow together like one massive running encounter, and on the brewing yuan-ti civil war. I've printed it out as a pieced-together poster map, which I'll cover with black construction paper.

And then the Tomb as a single expedition (i.e. no leaving to rest) cutting out the "drag" areas like the Mirror Tomb (19), the Sewn Sisters' trial rooms (72-76), and the hunting for glass eyes to access the Vault of the Beholder (44) since they're already hunting for skeleton keys (after gathering puzzle cubes!). I've printed each level out at 11x17, laminated them, and covered with DIY gold scratch-off paint – this seemed the most manageable way to handle mapping the large dungeon.

Might have been 10 sessions but we only play for 2 hours. I have two levels of the Tomb printed out but I have to add color with marker and pens. I cover unseen Parts with black construction paper.

 

[CapnZapp]

We spent maybe fifty hours in Omu over six to eight sessions.

Roughly the same in the Tomb.

The players enjoyed Omu more. They definitely had dungeonitis after exiting the Tomb! [emoji13]

 

[Umbran]

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