pukunui
Legend
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR TOMB OF ANNIHILATION AHEAD
Hi all,
I am currently running Tomb of Annihilation for the second time. With this campaign, I decided not to introduce the death curse straight away so that the players could have a chance to freely explore the various locations in Chult without the time pressure element. Instead, I had them start off in Waterdeep wanting to join Acquisitions Incorporated. I ran the initial chapter of the Orrery of the Wanderer adventure, but then I had Omin Dran send them to Chult to investigate what had happened to the previous franchise, the Company of the Yellow Banner.
I put the Yellow Banner's manor on the hill overlooking Port Nyanzaru and then transposed the manor dungeon from Orrery chapter two. I made it so agents of Ras Nsi were the ones who'd attacked the Company's headquarters, although I never firmly established why they'd done it, and the players didn't follow up on that. They just reported back to Head Office that the franchisees seemed to be all dead and then proceeded to take over.
We then spent the next few levels exploring Chult at our leisure. I had various guides, like Azaka, the dwarves, and even the dandies, hire them to do their personal quests. I also had Zhanthi hire them to explore the Snout of Omgar (from the Tortle Package). They've just returned from doing that. They're now level 7, and I am wanting to introduce the death curse and get them headed towards Omu. However, there are a few loose ends that I feel I should tie up first. I'm just not sure how best to go about doing so.
One thread has to do with the Flaming Fists. Previously, the PCs went along to Fort Beluarian, got a charter, and then did some jobs for Liara Portyr. But their relationship with the Fists soured when a patrol confiscated half the treasure they'd pulled up from Needle's hidden trove. (I'd doubled the amount of treasure so they weren't actually being cheated of anything but the players didn't know that.)
More recently, they captured one of the pirate captains, and he traded his life for the information that the Fists are in league with the pirates. Back in town, they hired an intern to track Flaming Fist movements in the city to see if they could get any evidence to that effect. We used the scrutineering downtime activity for that, and they were successful, but the players don't seem to want to do anything with that information. I'm wondering, though, if I should make it so the intern was found out, and now Liara is worried that the party will expose her ... so she sends some assassins to silence them. But would she do that in town, where things might come back to haunt her, or would she wait until they were out in the jungle and do it anonymously?
The other has to do with Ras Nsi and the yuan-ti. As often as I could, I dropped Ras Nsi's name and history into events as they explored Chult, building him up as this mythical bogeyman. When they went to the Snout of Omgar, they visited the Shrine of Fangs, where the talking snakes told them that Ras Nsi was not only still alive but had also joined the yuan-ti of lost Omu in their quest to free Dendar the Night Serpent. That was quite the bombshell, but I feel like I still need to make things a bit more personal for my players. Ras Nsi needs to strike at them and make them want to go after him personally. But how do I do that? Just have some random assassins attack the PCs in their manor like what happened to their predecessors?
The PCs did bring along a wyrmling bronze dragon named Dabshabah (see chapter one of the Orrery of the Wanderer). Perhaps Ras Nsi's agents could kidnap her and take her back to Omu? If I did that, I'd have to leave some kind of clue as to who had taken her and where.
As an aside, I'm intending to point the players in the direction of Orolunga to visit the naga there. I am going to have Xandala ask to accompany them, and if they haven't hired Salida themselves, she will be working for Xandala as a porter so she can spy on the party.
I'm just not feeling confident about how to explore these threads in a way that will be satisfying for both my players and me. I kind of want to ignore them and just get on with the death curse plot, but I feel I ought to try and resolve them first.
Any suggestions you might have will be most appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read through this.
Hi all,
I am currently running Tomb of Annihilation for the second time. With this campaign, I decided not to introduce the death curse straight away so that the players could have a chance to freely explore the various locations in Chult without the time pressure element. Instead, I had them start off in Waterdeep wanting to join Acquisitions Incorporated. I ran the initial chapter of the Orrery of the Wanderer adventure, but then I had Omin Dran send them to Chult to investigate what had happened to the previous franchise, the Company of the Yellow Banner.
I put the Yellow Banner's manor on the hill overlooking Port Nyanzaru and then transposed the manor dungeon from Orrery chapter two. I made it so agents of Ras Nsi were the ones who'd attacked the Company's headquarters, although I never firmly established why they'd done it, and the players didn't follow up on that. They just reported back to Head Office that the franchisees seemed to be all dead and then proceeded to take over.
We then spent the next few levels exploring Chult at our leisure. I had various guides, like Azaka, the dwarves, and even the dandies, hire them to do their personal quests. I also had Zhanthi hire them to explore the Snout of Omgar (from the Tortle Package). They've just returned from doing that. They're now level 7, and I am wanting to introduce the death curse and get them headed towards Omu. However, there are a few loose ends that I feel I should tie up first. I'm just not sure how best to go about doing so.
One thread has to do with the Flaming Fists. Previously, the PCs went along to Fort Beluarian, got a charter, and then did some jobs for Liara Portyr. But their relationship with the Fists soured when a patrol confiscated half the treasure they'd pulled up from Needle's hidden trove. (I'd doubled the amount of treasure so they weren't actually being cheated of anything but the players didn't know that.)
More recently, they captured one of the pirate captains, and he traded his life for the information that the Fists are in league with the pirates. Back in town, they hired an intern to track Flaming Fist movements in the city to see if they could get any evidence to that effect. We used the scrutineering downtime activity for that, and they were successful, but the players don't seem to want to do anything with that information. I'm wondering, though, if I should make it so the intern was found out, and now Liara is worried that the party will expose her ... so she sends some assassins to silence them. But would she do that in town, where things might come back to haunt her, or would she wait until they were out in the jungle and do it anonymously?
The other has to do with Ras Nsi and the yuan-ti. As often as I could, I dropped Ras Nsi's name and history into events as they explored Chult, building him up as this mythical bogeyman. When they went to the Snout of Omgar, they visited the Shrine of Fangs, where the talking snakes told them that Ras Nsi was not only still alive but had also joined the yuan-ti of lost Omu in their quest to free Dendar the Night Serpent. That was quite the bombshell, but I feel like I still need to make things a bit more personal for my players. Ras Nsi needs to strike at them and make them want to go after him personally. But how do I do that? Just have some random assassins attack the PCs in their manor like what happened to their predecessors?
The PCs did bring along a wyrmling bronze dragon named Dabshabah (see chapter one of the Orrery of the Wanderer). Perhaps Ras Nsi's agents could kidnap her and take her back to Omu? If I did that, I'd have to leave some kind of clue as to who had taken her and where.
As an aside, I'm intending to point the players in the direction of Orolunga to visit the naga there. I am going to have Xandala ask to accompany them, and if they haven't hired Salida themselves, she will be working for Xandala as a porter so she can spy on the party.
I'm just not feeling confident about how to explore these threads in a way that will be satisfying for both my players and me. I kind of want to ignore them and just get on with the death curse plot, but I feel I ought to try and resolve them first.
Any suggestions you might have will be most appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read through this.