D&D 5E (2014) Tomb of Annihilation - how's it going so far?! **spoilers**

[Nebulous]

On page 57 of the adventure, under 10G. Stores, there's a heavy reinforced door AC 17 20hp, and oddly enough the notation - "immunity to poison and psychic damage." ???

Who would try to poison or mindf*** a wooden door?

 

[pukunui]

Most objects are immune to poison and psychic damage, and they point that out pretty much every time. I did notice one crystalline object in the tomb (don't remember the page) that was not immune to psychic. Not sure if that was a typo or deliberate.

 

[CapnZapp]

Who would try to poison or mindf*** a wooden door?

Sounds like the start of a great adventure!

Be sure to post back once you have the answer

 

[Bitbrain]

On page 57 of the adventure, under 10G. Stores, there's a heavy reinforced door AC 17 20hp, and oddly enough the notation - "immunity to poison and psychic damage." ???

Who would try to poison or mindf*** a wooden door?

The Fiendlock in the primary campaign in my group. No joke.
He once tried to use the Dreadful Word invocation on a piece of "strange machinery", believing it was a mimic in disguise.
It wasn't.
But the carpet he was standing on was . . .

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

Sean's posted guide, doesn't have quite the level of detail some were wanting (linking NPC's, locations, etc) although his ideas for stringing together exploration portion in Chapter 2 are pretty sweet. Gives some great ideas for linking GM choice locations together.

http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.ca/2017/10/dungeons-dragons-how-to-run-tomb-of.html

 

[Burnside]

In the pre-planning stages of a ToA campaign for one of my groups. I have two quite different bones to pick with this adventure.

1. Would it have killed them to devote a page or two of the book to laying out 2 or 3 suggested optional plot/location flowcharts/paths for working through the story? I don't think it would have ruined the sacred magic of the Holy Sandbox to have at least included something like this as an EXAMPLE of how the book can run. It really doesn't need to be QUITE so difficult to run these hardcovers as they make it.

2. I'm pretty sure I hate the Death Curse. Not because it's too hard on the players. But because resurrection being so common that making it unavailable would instantly alarm everybody on the planet is kind of stupid imo. A world where raise dead is available at every corner drugstore is such a radical departure from our own that the very way we think about death would be entirely different. I'm surprised to see that resurrection mechanics are apparently common enough in most people's campaigns that this central plot point is not an issue for them.

Also, death in FR is for poor people, and even the good gods apparently think so. I recognize that there is a real-world parallel there, and that wealth insulating the wealthy from things that kill poor people is very much a dynamic common to both FR and our world. But I'm picturing a lot of FR peasants who have always had to live and die like regular ham-and-eggers playing the world's smallest violins for adventurers and their wealthy patrons who have suddenly lost the ability to buy themselves back from the grave. And is it really that heroic to crusade for the return of the status quo of Resurrection for the One Percent? If I was some farmer whose kid got kicked in the head and brained by a horse and I had to bury him, and then I see dead adventurers being carted into the local Temple of Tymora and then strolling back out minutes later, I'd laugh my ass off if the death curse happened. ("Good work, Acererak!")

Dead should for the most part mean dead, I think. Your mileage may vary, of course. None of my players has ever had a character resurrected, and none of them have ever known an NPC to be resurrected.

I'll be making the Death Curse something else in my campaign. Probably just that souls are not being allowed to pass on to the afterlife, and also that people are being stricken with the curse at random - no relation to having been brought back from the dead. So victims are not limited to Wealthy Retired Adventurers (ugh).

 

[Banesfinger]

I'd laugh my ass off if the death curse happened. ("Good work, Acererak!")

I thought the same thing Burnside. There might be a whole contingent of people (factions?) that may not want to Curse to end. Perhaps this could be a whole new nemesis of encounters in the jungle: people trying to stop adventurers from succeeding.

Myself, I've also framed the adventure in my own unique way:

If I understand the basic plot correctly: Acererak wants the atropal to feed/store enough souls in the Soulmonger so that it can become an evil ‘death god’. That ‘death god’ would kill everyone so that only undead creatures would be left inhabiting the world.
Using this premise, and that Acererak gets amusement from the suffering/death of adventurers to his traps, then why would he keep his tomb a secret?

I propose the following:
As in the original adventure, when the first signs of the Death Curse were discovered around the world, many divinations and auguries were cast to determine its cause. In addition to discovering that the source of the curse is in Chult, these divinations also specifically point to the city of Umu. Not only that, but Acererak personally took credit for it (a brazen calling card).

This would taunt many would-be adventurers to Chult…and probably to their deaths (which is what Acererak wants). And the most powerful adventurers (Elminster, Drizzt, etc) are probably all suffering from the curse (having died at least once in their careers) and now too weakened to hunt down Acererak (or just fear permanent death).

Instead of a trickle of adventurers trying to uncover the mysterious clues in a sandbox crawl to Umu, this would be more akin to a ‘gold-rush’ of would-be heroes all flooding into Port Nyanzaru, each jockeying to hire guides and porters, so they can be the first to ‘save the world’ from Acererak and his curse.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

Point #1 totally agree.

Point #2 agree as well, assuming adventurer types are common (in my game anyway they aren't - they are exceptional people).

That being said, I've never had a PC resurrected, and dead is usually dead. I think souls being consumed (eventually) rather than passing on is the point.

 

[shoak1]

1. Would it have killed them to devote a page or two of the book to laying out 2 or 3 suggested optional plot/location flowcharts/paths for working through the story? I don't think it would have ruined the scared magic of the Holy Sandbox to have at least included something like this as an EXAMPLE of how the book can run. It really doesn't need to be QUITE so difficult to run these hardcovers as they make it.

Its part of the whole 4e backlash. The zealots of Holy Sandbox (which clearly include the designers) will yield not so much as an inch - I think they are quite happy with other playstyles leaving D and D because that way less chance of a counter-revolution lol.

btw I was gonna go with The Precioussssssss to label 5e sandbox but I think Holy Sandbox works even better, gj.

 

[hawkeyefan]

In the pre-planning stages of a ToA campaign for one of my groups. I have two quite different bones to pick with this adventure.

1. Would it have killed them to devote a page or two of the book to laying out 2 or 3 suggested optional plot/location flowcharts/paths for working through the story? I don't think it would have ruined the sacred magic of the Holy Sandbox to have at least included something like this as an EXAMPLE of how the book can run. It really doesn't need to be QUITE so difficult to run these hardcovers as they make it.

While I agree that it wouldn't have hurt them to include a "linear summary", doesn't the order of the chapters kind of lend itself to that? Just have your PCs travel by boat along the river from Nyanzaru south and have all the locations you'd like to use be places along the river.

2. I'm pretty sure I hate the Death Curse. Not because it's too hard on the players. But because resurrection being so common that making it unavailable would instantly alarm everybody on the planet is kind of stupid imo. A world where raise dead is available at every corner drugstore is such a radical departure from our own that the very way we think about death would be entirely different. I'm surprised to see that resurrection mechanics are apparently common enough in most people's campaigns that this central plot point is not an issue for them.

This is kind of the default expectation of Forgotten Realms. Such magic is more common than I would personally like. I've toned it down but not eliminated it, so the curse is still raising a few eyebrows around the world. Including my PCs.

So, although I agree with you aesthetically, I don't think it's that big an obstacle. Pretty easy to change things as needed and still have the motivation for the adventure in place.

Also, death in FR is for poor people, and even the good gods apparently think so. I recognize that there is a real-world parallel there, and that wealth insulating the wealthy from things that kill poor people is very much a dynamic common to both FR and our world. But I'm picturing a lot of FR peasants who have always had to live and die like regular ham-and-eggers playing the world's smallest violins for adventurers and their wealthy patrons who have suddenly lost the ability to buy themselves back from the grave. And is it really that heroic to crusade for the return of the status quo of Resurrection for the One Percent? If I was some farmer whose kid got kicked in the head and brained by a horse and I had to bury him, and then I see dead adventurers being carted into the local Temple of Tymora and then strolling back out minutes later, I'd laugh my ass off if the death curse happened. ("Good work, Acererak!")

Well, the curse is not the actual threat. If's more a symptom of the threat. Acererak's plan is not just to bother the folks who've had the resources to be raised from the dead. And his goal will potentially threaten everyone....a cryptic hint toward this ahould be all that's needed to motivate heroic minded PCs.

I like the angle of a PC who goes out of his way to point this out to Syndrane and maybe the Merchant Princes. Could create some interesting dynamics and role play opportunities.

Dead should for the most part mean dead, I think. Your mileage may vary, of course. None of my players has ever had a character resurrected, and none of them have ever known an NPC to be resurrected.

I'll be making the Death Curse something else in my campaign. Probably just that souls are not being allowed to pass on to the afterlife, and also that people are being stricken with the curse at random - no relation to having been brought back from the dead. So victims are not limited to Wealthy Retired Adventurers (ugh).

Nice solution. Although as I said above, many more than the wealthy stand to suffer because of this.