The New D&D Adventure Is - Tomb of Annihilation!

Tomb of Annihilation is in the Forgotten Realms set in the Lost Continent of Chult - Away from the Sword Coast (the hosts of the live stream are very interested with undead dinosaurs). Acererak is, as many predicted, the source of this plotline as the Archlich is more or less "eating" resurrection magic from the rest of the Forgotten Realms and causing a zombie apocalypse. Pendleton Ward from Adventure Time is a creative consultant on this adventure.

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More updates will be coming through the Dungeons & Dragons marathon live stream live on Twitch throughout the weekend.

 

[werecorpse]

I don't run games set in forgotten realms I use homebrew or homebrewed greyhawk so have got used to moving stuff. I'm happy with an adventure with a hook of something messing with resurrection magic, that's a cool fairly innovative hook IMO. It works for me that it's an arch lich and whether it's Acererak or some other dude is something I can just rename. As for it being in Chult I'll just change that to Amedio or Hepmanoland and use most of the stuff. The important aspect is the jungle exploration old ruins and undead which sounds like fun. The original Tomb of Horrors module was evocative but IMO mechanically uninteresting so using the themes and so forth but with a more modern less gotcha approach intrigues me. So while this isn't my dream come true it's got enough in it that I'm looking forward to it.

That board game looks like fun too.

 

[Jester David]

The exact tweet: "Our next storyline, Tomb of Annihilation, is coming! There's more news tomorrow, when I'll be joining the fun. #DnD #StreamofAnnihilation" Source: https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/870772732153155584

He and Mike Mearls both retweeted the Xanathar's Guide to Everything image, where-as Chris Perkins did not. This suggests to me that Xanathar's Guide will indeed be the second fall release and it will be the mechanical expansion.

Or, more likely, Mearls and Crawford weren't busy running, prepping, and then running another game. And thus had time to hit Twitter...

 

[SigmaOne]

I'm liking the 1.5 hour stream format. The Grungs are particularly entertaining, and it's cool to see these various streamers all playing together.

 

[Prakriti]

New art. Dwarf-like, shadowy figures currently attacking the party.

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[pukunui]

Which doesn't seem to bother any of the other gods that dwell in Hell or the Abyss.
And she wasn't portrayed as trapped before.

From page 10 of The Rise of Tiamat:

Tiamat has long threatened Faerûn, often appearing in lands such as Chessenta and Unther to drive mortals to worship her awesome power. Although mortals don’t know it, the end of the Sundering and the Era of Upheaval also put an end to such direct meddling by the gods. Without powerful magic and mortal aid, Tiamat cannot travel from her home in Avernus into the world.

 

[werecorpse]

New art. Dwarf-like, shadowy figures currently attacking the party.

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Quick! Poke 'em in the eyes and set fire to their beards!

 

[Demetrios1453]

New art. Dwarf-like, shadowy figures currently attacking the party.

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That's presumably a wild/jungle dwarf (although with Acererak's symbol on his arm, probably one turned to the dark side), a dwarven subrace that makes Chult their home. Looks like they aren't skipping over any previous Chult lore/information in this one!

On a similar note, I very much like the fact they appear to be taking the whole dinosaur thing and just running wild with it. Given their real-world associations, sometimes dinosaurs get short shrift in D&D, and I am really happy to see them being embraced here...

 

[Jester David]

From page 10 of The Rise of Tiamat:

Page 5 of Hoard of the Dragon Queen:

With the assembled mask, the cult can release Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells.

And page 25:

Most characters should recognize Tiamat from folktales and know she was banished to the Nine Hells long ago and remains imprisoned there.

It states pretty clearly that not only can she not get to the material plane, but that she can't leave Hell. It's her prison.

The line in RoT almost seems to be a retcon (in a section mostly about summoning devils). Possibly in response to early feedback from previews of HotDQ...

 

[Shasarak]

Ok, so Chult sounds cool and Dinosaurs sound cool but Undead Apocalypse? Errr, mmm.

Just a straight Indianna Jones vs Chult vs Acererak would have been cool enough for me.

 

[TerraDave]

So you go to the Ilse of Dread to find the Tomb of Horrors to stop a Zombie Apocalypse?

And they call it Chult to give the needed FR tie in?