Tomb of Annihilation - Session 08
General Summary
From the expedition's vantage point at the edge of the jungle, the lower city of Mbala looks to have been divided into four villages, spaced out in a rough semicircle at the bottom of the cliff, with fields in the middle surrounding a central raised mound of earth. The fields they can see are now overgrown, and the wooden, thatch-roofed buildings old and decayed. The most distant village, the one closest to the cliff, has been partially buried by a rockslide. A thousand feet above them, the winged forms of what appear to be pteranodons circle against the blue sky.
Something about them causes Ixtli to look more closely. Their movement is different than the dinosaurs they saw before. He alerts Chibuzo, who examines them with the spyglass he found in Dovan Hornwood's belongings. These are not lizards, but something else: pterafolk, large bipedal human-dinosaur hybrids with clawed limbs, featherless wings, and elongated, pteranodon-like heads. Akachi describes them as territorial, aggressive, and dangerous, and dissuades Chibuzo from trying to talk to them.
While the rest of the expedition remains in the jungle, the adventurers approach one of the nearby clusters of buildings, staying out of sight under the tree line as much as possible. The buildings in this village are arrayed in a circle around a stone statue of a gorilla, which is surprisingly still adorned with wind chimes and carved animal figures. A nearby hut is in much better repair than the others, with a thin column of smoke rising from the chimney.
Chibuzo sneaks up to investigate. He is some 50 feet away when someone comes shuffling into view: a shrunken old woman, supporting herself with a staff festooned with small animal skulls and other trinkets. Her cloudy eyes suggest she is at least partially blinded by cataracts. When Chibuzo calls out to her, she peers about briefly before resuming her progress. When he calls again more loudly, she squints into the distance, then pulls back in surprise. "I can't see you," she answers when he introduces himself. "Come closer, come closer. What brings you to Mbala?" she asks happily. "I haven't had guests in so long."
When he asks how long she has been here, she appears downcast. "I've been here alone. Long, long time. Everyone else is long gone. Long dead." She ushers him in to her simple hut. Looking about, Chibuzo sees a bed, a small fire, and various plants and herbs hung up to dry. "The people of the village built this for me," she tells him. "I was the witch doctor here." She quickly assents when Chibuzo asks if he can bring his companions. "There's more of you?!" she exclaims with delight. "Of course, bring your friends!" As Chibuzo goes to fetch the others, he looks over the nearby fields. Those nearest to the hut are being cultivated. In the distance he sees what looks like a man dragging a plough, but the man is huge, perhaps eight and a half feet tall.
He summons the others, and Dunch goes to bring the rest of the expedition. "Is it safe?" Gero asks him. Dunch hesitates. "I still have questions, but I don't know where else to camp." Gero and Akachi accompany him back to the hut, while the others follow more slowly.
The old woman welcomes them, and gladly answers their questions. The villagers used to call her Nanny Pu'pu, she tells them, while the figure in the fields is Hondo. "They are all that's left of Mbala," she says sadly. Sixty years ago, Ras Nsi came with soldiers, snake-men—"yuan-ti, they are called"—and killed all the other villagers.
She dislikes the pterafolk, who regularly attack her. There are half a dozen of them, she says, nesting in the Tomb of the Sky Kings in the side of the cliff; Sky King was one of the titles of the King of Mbala. "Down here," she motions about, "is where the farmers and workers of Mbala dwelt. At the top of the plateau lived the kings and the nobles. The Tomb of the Sky Kings is where they crowned the kings and laid them to rest." The path going up the cliffside splits, she explains, with one path going to the top, the other to the Tombs.
The people of Mbala revered the animal spirits, she says: the tiger, the eagle, the gorilla, and the boar. A village was dedicated to each. The eagle village, where the regent once lived, is overgrown now. The boar village is infested with giant spiders, and the tiger village was partially buried by a landslide. The mound in the centre was once the village meeting place. Then Ras Nsi killed the other villagers there, and now it houses their remains. She doesn't know why Ras Nsi came to their village. To prove himself to the snake-men, perhaps, or to find the Kimbala that lived up above. Gero eagerly interjects to explain that Kimbala were the adherents of Saja N'baza and lived in the shrine dedicated to her worship.
"Why are you here?" she asks them. "Few people come to Mbala anymore." When told that they travel to Orolunga, she nods. "Ah yes. Not too far from here. Quicker from the top of the plateau." There is a small walled city at the top, she explains, and a monument at the city's western edge from which the kings would gaze at Orolunga.
Dolan asks her of the Aldani. "They keep to themselves," she answers. A very long time ago, they used to live in the jungle where Orolunga is now, before they moved to the Basin.
Dunch asks if, being a witch doctor, she has any magic to trade. She chuckles quietly to herself. "Tell you what," she says, "if you get rid of the ptera people, I'll make you some potions. Very special." She also suggests they examine the old regent's house in the eagle village; he used to dabble in alchemy, and it's said he had a secret lab to conduct his experiments.
The setting sun passes behind the plateau, and the village falls into shadow. Nanny Pu’pu eagerly accepts Chibuzo's invitation to join them for dinner. Gero stays with her longer, asking questions and taking notes.
The expedition makes camp among the ruins of the old buildings but keeps the campfires small and scattered so as to attract less attention. By the time the camp is set up, Hondo returns. It is a patchwork person, a flesh golem, made up of parts from different people all sewn together. It stands quietly next to Nanny Pu’pu's hut, taking no notice of the stares from the members of the expedition.
Bellin openly expresses to Dolan her revulsion at the unnatural being. "Is this what these people are really like? Maybe they deserved what happened to them." Begrudgingly, she accepts his argument that the bodies were, after all, already dead.
That night, having come to suspect that Mokomoko may be in magical communication with someone, Chibuzo tries to observe him more closely during their watch. At one point he sees Mokomoko stop and mutter a few words to the empty air, but he is too far away to make anything out.
Morning comes, and the adventurers decide to investigate the regent's house. Crossing the fields towards the eagle village, they pass by the central mound, which is topped by a large rectangular stone slab some three feet tall, scorched by flame but without any other markings. Arranged in a circle around the earthen mass are many smaller dirt mounds, overgrown with grasses and other foliage.
They pass into the heavily overgrown ruins of the eagle village and head towards the most prominent structure, the low stone walls that are all that remain of the regent's house after the collapse of the wooden walls and thatch roof. Spotting movement in the foliage that has sprouted throughout the ruins, Chibuzo and Ixtli prod at the plants with their spears.
Abruptly two of the coiling vines come to life and slither towards them. Ixtli is injured when a vine seizes him and tries to squeeze the life from him. The vines are attached to two larger plant masses, both of which now erupt with prehensile creepers: vine blights! Simultaneously four small, humanoid figures made of wood and covered with thorns skitter out of the plant cover. One of these needle blights sprays Dunch with its piercing thorns.
With a slash of his short sword, Chibuzo frees Ixtli from the grasping vine, then stabs the nearest mass of tentacles with his yklwa. Ixtli follows suit, spearing the vine blight, then biting it savagely. As it falls dead, he unleashes a flying kick on the nearest needle blight. Consumed with rage, Dunch aims a mighty blow at a needle blight, which explodes into splinters. Two more of them swarm over him, clawing at his flesh with their wooden talons. Dolan lobs a mote of fire at the remaining vine blight, then ducks as a spray of thorns passes overhead. Ndidi makes a running jump over the stone wall, landing on a needle blight with her full weight. Its arms snap like twigs; she seizes it in her jaws and tears it to pieces. Ixtli spears the vine blight; it bursts into flames when Dolan hits it with another fire bolt, the green vines crisping and blackening. More blows from Dunch, Chibuzo, Ndidi, and Ixtli kill the last of the needle blights.
In the aftermath, the adventurers spot a trap door buried under the dirt in one corner of the building. Dunch quickly smashes through its rusted lock with his axe. A ladder leads downward; a dank odour rises from the darkness below.
They descend the ladder, and Chibuzo activates the Gem of Brightness. They find themselves standing in a few inches of water in a circular room some twenty feet across. Doors open into other rooms to the east and west. A 30-foot corridor extends to the north, filled wall-to-wall with mushrooms, including three purplish ones larger than the rest. Keeping a distance, Dolan experimentally casts a fire bolt on one of them. It emits a haze of spores, and the tendrils atop it writhe and squirm.
Venturing into the east room, they find a small, damp room with a wooden floor and a table covered in beakers, mortars and pestles, and other alchemical apparatus. A wooden shelf holds a musty book and 10 stoppered vials. Three of these contain a cloudy liquid with what looks like an eyeball floating in it, while the fourth has a yellow fluid streaked with black that swirls of its own accord. The remaining six vials are only filled with a blackish sludge. Dolan takes the book and the vials for further investigation.
In the west room, the walls have partially collapsed. Dirt and debris cover a work bench and a table; after Chibuzo sweeps the worst of it aside, they see a set of manacles affixed to the table. They find a rusted flensing knife, which Dolan again takes.
Returning to the corridor, Dolan gestures and, with a few magical words, summons Tasha's Caustic Brew: a stream of acid that sprays the entire hallway. The smaller fungi wither and burst as the acid hits them, releasing a vast cloud of spores. The larger purple mushrooms take longer to die, but eventually they too collapse, their tendrils grasping at the air until they fall still.
In the aftermath, the spores remain in the corridor, hanging in the still air. Dolan tries to burn them with a mote of flame, but with little effect. Finally, Ixtli makes use of his ability to hold his breath for an extended period, and simply walks through the spores.
The corridor descends slightly, and it is in deeper water that he comes to the swollen wooden door at the end of the corridor. Pushing it open, he finds a small chamber containing a wooden chest, still locked. He retrieves it and returns to the others, pausing to rinse off any clinging spores once he is free of the hanging cloud.
They put the chest on the table in the apparent dissection room, and Dolan delicately dissolves the lock with a bubble of acid. But when they open the chest, a thin glass bubble drops from the lid and shatters, releasing a cloud of gas. All of them take burns, and Ixtli is both poisoned and paralyzed.
The chest contains 25 gold ingots stamped with the symbol of the Kimbala, as well as a cloth pouch containing a powder or dust of some kind, and a wand of blackish metal with a glass bulb embedded in it. Dolan uses the scroll of Detect Magic that they recovered from the ziggurat beneath Port Nyanzaru. The wand and the dust detect as magic, as well as four of the ten vials they found earlier—all except the ones filled with sludge.
Ixtli's condition remains unchanged, so the others haul him back to the surface with a rope and drag him back to camp. On their return, Nanny Pu’pu remarks, "good thing that gas was 60 years old." There's nothing she can do for him; he'll have to wait until the effects pass. She recognizes the "eyeball" potions, saying that the Kimbala used them to see and hear faraway places.
Dolan decides to test one. As he opens it, the eyeball within disappears; quaffing it, he finds that it is a Potion of Clairvoyance, allowing him to spy on a familiar location, or a nearby unfamiliar one. He thinks of Grandfather Zitembe's office in the Temple of Zann, and finds himself observing it, though the office is empty at the moment. Dunch takes one of the potions while the other is set aside for Ixtli.
Chibuzo asks his brother to identify the other items. Gero casts his spells and reports that the wand is a Wand of Magic Detection with three charges, regaining some or all of its charges each dawn. The powder is Dust of Disappearance, granting invisibility for a short time to those it affects. The yellowish potion is a Potion of Speed, granting the effects of the spell Haste to the drinker. Dolan takes the Wand, Chibuzo the Dust, and the Potion of Speed is again set aside for Ixtli.
It is still midmorning. The mobile members of the party take a long rest to recover from the injuries sustained in the eagle village, but Ixtli remains frozen in place. Finally, after the sun has gone down—some 12 hours after their encounter with the trapped chest—he stirs again and is quickly back to normal.
That evening, Chibuzo resolves to bring the situation with Mokomoko to a head and conceals himself along Mokomoko's patrol route to spy. His target passes close by his hiding spot without noticing him. At one point during the watch, Mokomoko stops and speaks: "We're still here. They're searching the village for something." After a pause, he resumes his patrol.
The next morning, Chibuzo informs the others, and they bring their findings to General Voss. The general is upset at this betrayal, and angry at himself for having hired the man as a guard. Chibuzo calls Mokomoko behind a hut, where the other adventurers and the General are waiting, and confronts him with what he saw and heard.
Mokomoko's face takes on a panicked expression, and he stutters and stammers in his reply. "I had to," he says, "they made me."
"Who made you?" Chibuzo asks.
"Rashaad al-Tahir. They have my brother in their fort. Unless I report back to him on where you are, they'll hurt him, they'll kill him." From under his clothes he draws out a small luminous crystal. "Every night he contacts me, asks me for a report. I have only a few words to reply. He'll know if it's not me."
"This is how it's going to be," Chibuzo tells him sternly. "When you make your report, we'll be there. We'll tell you what to say. And—we'll do what we can to get your brother back."
Mokomoko looks downcast. "I'm ashamed. I wanted to tell you earlier but... I was afraid." He adds that he is certain there is a party of Rashaad's people nearby, following them. General Voss takes responsibility for Mokomoko.
Leaving the camp, the adventurers start their journey up the cliff. Following Nanny Pu’pu's directions, they find an upwards path a few hundred yards west of the collapsed cliff face. The path narrows as it ascends to a width of about five feet and is littered with rocks and debris. After a few hours' walk, the path splits. A nearby sign in Old Marakuran points one way to the city, and the other to the Tomb of the Sky Kings.
After a half mile walk, they catch sight of a grand structure in the distance, embedded in the cliff. Semicircular stairs carved in stone lead to an open circular chamber containing multiple stone columns. Inside the chamber, or perched on the stairs in the morning sun, are four of the scaly green pterafolk, each some ten feet tall. They have not yet noticed the party.
The adventurers decide to use the Dust of Disappearance. They gather in a circle and Chibuzo tosses it lightly into the air; they turn invisible as it lands on them. The stealthier members of the party—Chibuzo, Ixtli, and Ndidi—head to the platform first. As they climb the last steps, they find that there are two more of the creatures in the interior of the chamber, which they have transformed into a huge nest.
Following afterwards, Dunch and Dolan make it partway up the remaining switchback when Dunch moves a bit too suddenly, and the clanking sound of his scale mail suddenly echoes across the cliff face. The pterafolk look up sharply at the sound.
Seizing the moment, Chibuzo attacks, firing an arrow in the back of the nearest creature and casting a spell that causes an explosion of thorns on those nearby. Ixtli spears another, causing a deep wound, then kicks it in the spine. Ndidi pounces on a third but it dodges out of her way. Like her companions, her attack causes her to become visible once again, but their enemies are too surprised to react.
On the path, Dolan casts Enlarge on Dunch. The now twelve-foot half-orc climbs the remaining distance to the columned chamber, bellows in rage, and hammers the nearest pterafolk with his battleaxe, crushing it into a lifeless pulp.
Ixtli spears his opponent, slaying it, then moves to attack Ndidi's foe, sinking his teeth into its left wing and then kicking it in the torso. Ndidi crushes the life from it with her jaws.
Dolan fires a barrage of magic missiles that kills the pterafolk struck by Chibuzo's arrow. Chibuzo moves in on the next enemy, piercing it with his yklwa and summoning the power of Atsu's Lance. A flash of lightning fills the chamber, and the creature writhes in pain as an aura of electricity surrounds it. Dunch's battleaxe carves a bloody wound in the other remaining pterafolk.
Desperate to escape with their lives, the last two creatures launch themselves from the chamber into the open air. Dunch and Ixtli fire their bows but miss. Then Dolan raises his hand, and four glowing darts of magical force shoot towards the creatures. The missiles strike one, then the other, and their lifeless forms plummet out of the sky towards the jungle a thousand feet below.