Tomb of the Nine Gods, Day 4: In the Face of Death
General Summary
13 Nightal, The Year of Twelve Warnings (1494 DR)
Day 63 of 79
Tomb of the Nine Gods, Omu, Jungles of Chult
No one wanted to sever a forearm to mimic the painting inside the stone slabs that blocked both exits out of the forbidding chamber, Alice cast a Divination spell to consult with her deity on a way out of the room.
Her deity's response seemed to counter what they thought was a certain way to die. Alice passed on that the information she received, which she cast twice, was to go through the large statue's mouth.
To prove the possibility of death, the group even took one of the slain humanoid and put it halfway into the statue's mouth then pulled it back out. When they did so, the body had been cleanly cut in half by whatever was cutting things inside the dark mouth.
However, Bolte's Batardos wanted to believe in Alice's deity.
Atwix first slowly placed his legs into the statue's dark mouth. When he felt nothing wrong, he then pushed himself into the mouth and disappeared along with Yaka, the golden skull who had been annoying him for days.
The other three waited a full hour to see if Atwix would somehow be able to open any one of the two doors leading into the chamber. But when Atwix never returned, they all decided to dive into the mouth to find their fellow adventurer.
Nip'hto dove in second, followed by Bolte. Alice hesitated but decided to dive into the mouth as well.
...the adventuring company known as Bolte's Bastardos had sadly been destroyed by a deadly trap of Acererak's making.
And so with the Soulmonger still active, the Death Curse continued to plague the Forgotten Realms until a time when another daring adventuring company succeeds in overcoming the deadly perils of the Tomb of Annihilation.
Notes
DM's Note:
Sadly, Bolte's Bastardos TPKd after they all dived into the statue's mouth. Led by a false reading from a Divination spell, which the cleric was not aware was false, the group considered their options but decided to heed the spell's instructions of using the statue's mouth as a means of escaping the chamber where they were trapped.
I have decided to let the Death Curse continue on for at least another year or two in the campaign. Syndra Silvane will die after two weeks since the Soulmonger will still be active. This also means that for the next year or two in the campaign, any attempt at raising the dead, even when using resurrection spells, will fail. It will also cause creatures that were previously raised from death before 23 Eleint, 1494 DR to wither and die within a short period of time.
Here is the complete list of affects caused by the Death Curse:
• Any humanoid on the planet that has been brought back from the dead begins to waste away. Its hit point maximum is reduced by 20 (1 for each day the Soulmonger has been active) and decreases by 1 every midnight until the Soulmonger is destroyed. If a humanoid's hit point maximum drops to 0, it dies. Traveling to another world or plane does nothing to halt the wasting effect once it has begun.
• A humanoid whose hit point maximum is reduced can't increase or restore it. This is true whether the creature's hit point maximum is reduced by the Soulmonger or by some other life-draining effect, such as the touch of a wight, wraith, or similar creature.
• If a humanoid dies anywhere on the planet, its soul becomes trapped inside the SouJmonger. Only the destruction of the Soulmonger can free the trapped soul.
• Any spell that breathes life into the dead (including revivify, raise dead, resurrection, and true resurrection) automatically fails if cast on a humanoid whose soul is either trapped in the Soul monger or bas been devoured by the atropal (see "Soul Devouring" below).
• The Soulmonger does not affect the workings of speak with dead spells or similar magic. The death curse has no effect on preexisting ghosts or spirits.
Here ends the epic, yet deadly module, The Tomb of Annihilation.
A green stone face of devilish countenance
Report Date
29 Dec 2021
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