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

[Quickleaf]

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.

While we’re not there yet, I decided early on that the Tomb was the lair of the Sewn Sisters (so I could draw on some cool ideas in Volos Guide to Monsters), and that the “Mirror Tomb” in Area 19 was simply the Border Ethereal Plane. This is a way the PCs could turn Ethereal en masse and go after the Sewn Sisters. It requires backtracking several dungeon levels, during which the Night hags surely conjure up stuff to oppose the PCs, but it definitely is a way forward.

 

[Stormdale]

Quickleaf, I like that solution!

 

[pukunui]

While we’re not there yet, I decided early on that the Tomb was the lair of the Sewn Sisters (so I could draw on some cool ideas in Volos Guide to Monsters), and that the “Mirror Tomb” in Area 19 was simply the Border Ethereal Plane. This is a way the PCs could turn Ethereal en masse and go after the Sewn Sisters. It requires backtracking several dungeon levels, during which the Night hags surely conjure up stuff to oppose the PCs, but it definitely is a way forward.

That is a way forward, I suppose. I personally didn't like the concept of the "mirror tomb" myself, at least not one that the PCs could actually explore. The whole thing seemed extremely tedious.

By making it the Border Ethereal, did you get rid of the whole "auto-reset" aspect of the mirror tomb?

 

[Quickleaf]

That is a way forward, I suppose. I personally didn't like the concept of the "mirror tomb" myself, at least not one that the PCs could actually explore. The whole thing seemed extremely tedious.

By making it the Border Ethereal, did you get rid of the whole "auto-reset" aspect of the mirror tomb?

This is all theoretical, because my party is still in Mezro, but yes I would get rid of the “auto-reset” aspect entirely and play it up as a spooky section of the Border Ethereal which is confined by the existing structure of the Tomb on Material Plane because of gorgon’s blood in the mortar. That’s an older edition trick I’m foreshadowing by including gorgon skeletons, relics of Omu depicting gorgon sacrifice, and I think there’s a bull/Minotaur skull or mask in the Tomb which I’m replacing with a gorgon skull or mask.

 

[pukunui]

This is all theoretical, because my party is still in Mezro, but yes I would get rid of the “auto-reset” aspect entirely and play it up as a spooky section of the Border Ethereal which is confined by the existing structure of the Tomb on Material Plane because of gorgon’s blood in the mortar.

OK, so the gravity ring on level 2 doesn't lead to an actual mirror tomb, it just provides a way to enter the Border Ethereal. That could work. The only trouble is: my players completely ignored the gravity ring. They looted Devlin's body but didn't explore the ring itself. How can I clue them in?

That said, I'm not keen on prolonging this adventure any more than I have to. I'm tired of the tomb and want to move on to something else. Hopefully the one ethereal PC will be able to reclaim the key from the hags without too much difficulty. With one of them dead already, the coven is broken, so the two surviving hags aren't as much of a threat anyway. The only real trouble is that the other PCs can't help.

That’s an older edition trick I’m foreshadowing by including gorgon skeletons, relics of Omu depicting gorgon sacrifice, and I think there’s a bull/Minotaur skull or mask in the Tomb which I’m replacing with a gorgon skull or mask.

Yes, there are several minotaur and bull skulls around the tomb. Two that come to mind are the big minotaur skull attached to the throne in the room with the blind artists on level 4 and the bull's skull holding the ivory ring above the arch leading to the Mechanus chain room on level 5. You could make either or both of those gorgon skulls instead.

There are also all the minotaur skeletons in Unkh's tomb, plus the live minotaurs in Unkh's maze and the one trapped in the mirror (all on level 4).

 

[Quickleaf]

OK, so the gravity ring on level 2 doesn't lead to an actual mirror tomb, it just provides a way to enter the Border Ethereal. That could work. The only trouble is: my players completely ignored the gravity ring. They looted Devlin's body but didn't explore the ring itself. How can I clue them in?

That said, I'm not keen on prolonging this adventure any more than I have to. I'm tired of the tomb and want to move on to something else. Hopefully the one ethereal PC will be able to reclaim the key from the hags without too much difficulty. With one of them dead already, the coven is broken, so the two surviving hags aren't as much of a threat anyway. The only real trouble is that the other PCs can't help.

Mr. Threadneedle, or one of the “child soul toys”, or the imprisoned clone (all in Area 71) might be able to inform PCs of the Portal to Border Ethereal.

You could allow a spellcaster PC to reverse magic on hag’s eye carried by Mr. Threadneedle to look into Border Ethereal or even cast certain spells into Border Ethereal (e.g. charms/divinations/psychic damage only).

Maybe there’s a ritual book describing the hag’s minions drinking from the Cauldron to journey to the Border Ethereal in “spirit form”, with long lasting consequences if their “spirit form” is destroyed (i.e. reduced to 0 hit points).

Yes, there are several minotaur and bull skulls around the tomb. Two that come to mind are the big minotaur skull attached to the throne in the room with the blind artists on level 4 and the bull's skull holding the ivory ring above the arch leading to the Mechanus chain room on level 5. You could make either or both of those gorgon skulls instead.

There are also all the minotaur skeletons in Unkh's tomb, plus the live minotaurs in Unkh's maze and the one trapped in the mirror (all on level 4).

Yes, those ones! Thanks

 

[Mull Ponders]

Being in the Border Ethereal doesn't do much for the hags. They can't leave the tomb that way. In the write-up for spells with restrictions in the tomb it says "The caster enters the Border Ethereal but can’t move through surfaces or doors in the tomb. Ethereal characters might encounter one or more of the Sewn Sisters." So the hags can't move around very much. And they are pitifully weak without the coven spells.

 

[pukunui]

Unless they are immune to those restrictions! Doesn’t it also say that the tomb’s denizens don’t set off any of the traps and stuff like that?

 

[Mull Ponders]

Unless they are immune to those restrictions! Doesn’t it also say that the tomb’s denizens don’t set off any of the traps and stuff like that?

A skeleton key doesn't set off some traps. Withers has the amulet that gets around a certain restriction. I don't see much else.

I play the Night Hags as cowards, like Dragons. The book says if you kill two the last will bargain for her life, so they are not fighting to the death. Which could be the answer, your ethereal player only has to incapacitate or kill one hag and the other will give up.

 

[Quickleaf]

My players may go searching for Ras Nsi’s old palace - which is described as greatly diminished from its former glory (under “Possessions” in that wiki article):

Nsi lived in a literally moving palace. The four-towered mansion, complete with low defensive walls, stained-glass windows, waving banners, and white stone, was built upon a massive platform carried by twelve gigantic skeletal tortoises.[10] By the late 1480s, the palace had been abandoned, as it had been ruined by rampaging undead.

The PCs may go there to recover Dragonbait’s stolen voice, which I’m treating as a curse of muteness places upon him by one of the Sewn Sisters.

ToA describes the Nsi wastes as a bonestrewn wasteland with the demolishment of Nsi’s palace so complete that the jungle has swallowed most of it.

Taking some artistic license with the site, interpreting it as a lurking place of one of the Sewn Sisters when she’s not in the Tomb, how might I depict this place to my players?

I have the beginnings of a map I’m doing by hand...