D&D 5E ToA: Ending (spoilers)

[robus]

So I finally read through to the end of the adventure and it kind of seems to peter out...

Destroying the soul monger releases the souls, great. But otherwise the tomb is unaffected? It seemed to me that enormous energies were tied up into this planet wide soul reaper, so destroying it should be a cataclysmic event and giving the PCs a new challenge of perhaps inviting their certain doom if the device is destroyed.

Also the body bag reveal is a bit sad, Artus Cimber, or some other random person. I kind of wish they’d put a heads up at the beginning of the adventure. There’s going to be an opportunity to rescue some person at the end so think about who that might be while you’re reading through...

So for my ending, here’ s how i’d have it go:

Destroying the soulmonger causes the tomb to start collapsing the only exit available is the mist wall at the end but now lava is splashing around making things quite hairy.

When/if the PCs make it through the mist wall they encounter the body bag within which lies the princess of Omu, recently abducted by Acererak. The room is shaking but seems somewhat removed from the cataclysm they recently left.

Acererak appears in the room and declares that they all shall die for wrecking his beautiful machine and makes an attack on the princess.

if the PCs survive Acererak’s rage they can try and rescue the princess and figure how to escape the rapidly disintegrating tomb.

Something like that. I want the PCs to gasping when they finally make it out!

 

[Valmarius]

That's a good call putting the Omuan Princess in the bag. If the party have met her and know about her lineage and the possibility of restoring Chult's royal family, that makes for a pretty cool reveal.
Also makes sense that she would be an appropriate sacrifice, royal blood and all that.

Works even better if you've previously played up her infatuation with one of the PCs.

As for the crumbling ruins. Easiest thing to do is have the place start to shake, and rubble falls to block the skeleton gate or the hag's general area. Forcing them to find another way out.
It also means they're not going to spend an age chatting to the arcanaloth in the library, which would make for a rather dull final encounter in my mind.

 

[robus]

The arcanaloth was a weird thing to add in to the end. In fact the whole ending was weird. I’m going to have to think about it some more....

 

[CapnZapp]

I don't have Princess Mluxa... Maxalaxa... Mwaxanaré's stats here, but I can't imagine her surviving even a single attack against a CR 23(?) lich, so I guess my question is:

How are you suggesting we boost her stats so the heroes get a fighting chance of actually rescuing her alive?

Letting Mr A waste all his attacks on killing her body reel deed, only to resurrect her afterwards doesn't sound like the dramatic, heroic scene you have in mind...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[robus]

I don't have Princess Mluxa... Maxalaxa... Mwaxanaré's stats here, but I can't imagine her surviving even a single attack against a CR 23(?) lich, so I guess my question is:

How are you suggesting we boost her stats so the heroes get a fighting chance of actually rescuing her alive?

Letting Mr A waste all his attacks on killing her body reel deed, only to resurrect her afterwards doesn't sound like the dramatic, heroic scene you have in mind...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

I’ll admit to not having all the details figured out, but most likely he would focus fire on the PCs before finishing off the Princess. I wouldn’t have him kill her first thing. If he won initiative I’d have him wistfully mention the pleasure it would give him but he’s going to save that for dessert...

 

[CapnZapp]

Your suggestion (with the princess) is the best I've found (not much discussion about the ending of the adventure at all), so I'm going with her.

Not sure about the clichéd "bond villain HQ destruction ending", but I will definitely block the regular exit.

They need to use the Ebon Pool or teleportation (which brings them to the Otyugh room, which then leads on to the surface level of the tomb).

I didn't see any use for having more than one black marble, so I'm tweaking the room slightly:
By tossing a pearl into the ooze, that character is sucked into it (and teleported to area 1 as described).

To be clear, you need one marble per character.

There are six marbles to be had.

The point is to achieve that chilling sensation of despair ("we're trapped") just before your D&D brain starts to kick in ("...except for our awesome powers")

Zapp

PS. I have six players. If we include the Princess and various other NPCs they might want to haul out of the tomb, they will need to get creative. Of course, they're 14th level so I'm sure they will pull it off, whatever they end up doing.

 

[CapnZapp]

but I will definitely block the regular exit

Any character going through the mist gate can no longer go through the Skeleton Gate.

(Meaning that once you visit area 78 you can return to area 77 but no longer to area 71: the Skeleton Gate is closed to them - even if still open to someone else! I don't expect this to end any other way than the whole party being unable to return to area 71. On the other hand, I would be flabbergasted if they didn't bring the marbles they've found.)

PS. Just as a single example of why I'm not overly worried, here's a D&D specific trick my group might well try: if we kill one of our party, that PC turns into an object that can be carried when plopping a marble into the pool, thus allowing one marble to ship across two PCs. Then simply resurrect said PC, and profit.