D&D 5E Teleporting to ruined Mezro?

[Quickleaf]

The PCs in my Tomb of Annihilation game gained the alliance of an ancient elven lich (who originated pre-Mezro days & has only heard of Mezro's description or possibly visited once) – an NPC I added to the story. In exchange for releasing the elven lich from an demiplane prison, the PCs entreat the lich to teleport them to Mezro, a ruined city that doesn't actually exist on the Material Plane and is sequestered on its own demiplane. The ruins left behind are part of an elaborate decoy created by the barae (governing "super-paladins" of Ubtao).

How would you adjudicate this?

Is "Mezro" a "False Description" as in a place that doesn't exist?
Or is "Mezro" a "Described"/"Viewed Once" location?

 

[CapnZapp]

The PCs in my Tomb of Annihilation game gained the alliance of an ancient elven lich (who originated pre-Mezro days & has only heard of Mezro's description or possibly visited once) – an NPC I added to the story. In exchange for releasing the elven lich from an demiplane prison, the PCs entreat the lich to teleport them to Mezro, a ruined city that doesn't actually exist on the Material Plane and is sequestered on its own demiplane. The ruins left behind are part of an elaborate decoy created by the barae (governing "super-paladins" of Ubtao).

How would you adjudicate this?

Is "Mezro" a "False Description" as in a place that doesn't exist?
Or is "Mezro" a "Described"/"Viewed Once" location?

Ruined Mezro exists very much. It has been looted clean by the Flaming Fist over the past year. You can definitely teleport there. The ruins are detailed in "Ruins of Mezro".

Un-ruined Mezro, on the other hand, is hidden somewhere in the multiverse and cannot be accessed without a lengthy quest. The details ate, TTBOMK, unknown at this time.

I hope the third and final adventure Risen Mists will reveal all details about what happened to "real" Mezro. It was supposed to be out late last year, but got delayed.

 

[Eltab]

You arrive in the Prime Material Plane (ruined) Mezro. Or maybe nearby, if your Teleport roll was low. You can't get to the hidden Mezro like that because it has been hidden, by people who know enough magic to have seen that possibility and plan accordingly.

 

[Quickleaf]

Ruined Mezro exists very much. It has been looted clean by the Flaming Fist over the past year. You can definitely teleport there. The ruins are detailed in "Ruins of Mezro".

Un-ruined Mezro, on the other hand, is hidden somewhere in the multiverse and cannot be accessed without a lengthy quest. The details ate, TTBOMK, unknown at this time.

I hope the third and final adventure Risen Mists will reveal all details about what happened to "real" Mezro. It was supposed to be out late last year, but got delayed.

You arrive in the Prime Material Plane (ruined) Mezro. Or maybe nearby, if your Teleport roll was low. You can't get to the hidden Mezro like that because it has been hidden, by people who know enough magic to have seen that possibility and plan accordingly.

OK, assuming I treat ancient elven lich's conception of Mezro as functionally equivalent to "ruins of Mezro created by barae in place where the city once stood."

Player made teleport d100 roll; it turned up 68 - "off target." I further rolled 36 miles to the south, which is pretty close to Ataaz Muhahah.

How do you narrate an "off target" teleport?

EDIT: I'm ruling the elven lich cast teleport on willing PCs without teleporting herself along with them.

 

[CapnZapp]

OK, assuming I treat ancient elven lich's conception of Mezro as functionally equivalent to "ruins of Mezro created by barae in place where the city once stood."

I'm not sure it's not even simpler: AFAIK the ruins could very well just be the original city, minus its inhabitants, who were whisked off to a magical copy somewhere.

In short, anyone's conception of Mezro would lead... to Mezro. Just that there's nobody there (except monsters and Flaming Fist mercenaries) and that the buildings have deteriorated as you'd expect from a century of tropical jungle levels of decay.

How do you narrate an "off target" teleport?

Up to you as the DM.

If you want the target to be a mystery ("has Mezro always been a gorge with monkeys?") say nothing.

If you want the players to understand they're off target, feel free to describe the teleportation as "you're free-falling incredibly fast, and at the last minute, you're veered off a large circular structure (it went by too fast for you to see any details) and down to a deep gorge infested with monkeys. You appear to have landed off-target, as much as a week's river-rafting away from Mezro."

 

[Eltab]

How do you narrate an "off target" teleport?

Creativity moment: how do you imagine that a Teleport spell works? Make up (or copy) some details from elsewhere - such as a Star Trek transporter beam, or see Axler's Deathlands series. Do the PCs have to walk into the circle after it is enabled? Do they start inside the circle and the effect surrounds them? Is there any 'force' they would feel (like falling or a push or a squeeze)? Is it instantaneous or does it take a moment / longer time? If the spell malfunctions do the PCs even know from "inside" the effect? Can they see the world go by (like a bullet train) -or- just 'bamf' from point to point -or- incoherent sensory data they can't interpret?

I would have the PCs feel like they were pushed out of the lich's lair then yanked sideways. They see/feel/hear things they cannot make sense out of, more painful and unpleasant as the journey goes. Their sense of time is messed up, but it seemed brief. They appear in a small clearing somewhere in the jungle with no good view of the general area. (Maybe down in that ravine?) They feel sick to their stomach -or- dizzy -or- collapse in a heap exhausted -or- pain-stricken. (CON Save time?) Magic runes fade from the ground all around them. The runes look blurred and scrambled compared to the runes in the lich's lair; a trained Arcana check could get hints as to the scope and scale of the problem by reading them.

Step One: find out where they are. My Tabaxi ToA character would want to climb a tall tree to get a view. Others might notice the bridge over the ravine could be a good place from which to look around.
… And back to the adventure.