Tomb of Annihilation - Session 17
General Summary
The adventurers look out from the Temple of the Maker down Malar's Throat. Advancing towards them they see some thirteen zombies, about the same number of skeletons, and two undead dinosaurs: a zombie triceratops and a skeletal stegosaurus. Small groups of Marakurans flee the danger: nearby, a woman helping an older woman, presumably her mother; some distance away to the right, a family of four; and in the distance to the left, a group of three labourers.
Some eighteen or twenty people have already taken refuge in the temple. After asking a couple of them to close and bar the remaining door if the undead approach, Dunch dashes in front of the woman and her mother and adopts a defensive stance.
The undead advance. A zombie claws at Dunch, grappling him, and a green and black viscous ooze seeps onto him from its suppurating flesh. A pack of zombies surround the labourers, two of whom fall to their grasping hands. One of the skeletons, bearing a longbow, seems to move with more intent than the others, and assumes a good firing position.
Ixtli speaks internally to his shadow, Yollotl. The strange being is willing to join the fight, but warns that he will be at a disadvantage in the sunlight. After advancing into the street—out of sight of the refugees in the temple—Ixtli closes his eyes in concentration. Inky darkness pours from his mouth and nose and assumes a shadowy humanoid form.
Also emerging from the temple, Dolan stands to one side and raises his hand. A bolt of lightning blazes forth, catching a zombie, three skeletons, and the triceratops in its path. The impact scorches the dinosaur's decaying hide, and blasts the four humanoid foes to pieces.
The remaining civilians flee as best they can. The woman and her mother rush towards the temple, while the labourer races down the street and tries to conceal himself between two buildings. As for the family of four, the two children try to run to safety, but halt in fear as they near the miasma surrounding the zombie triceratops. Their father joins them, though he takes a blow in the shoulder from a skeleton's rusty hatchet; but the mother is seized by a zombie.
Chibuzo, already out in the street, casts the spell Zephyr Strike. Moving like the wind, he avoids the zombie in front of him and fires two arrows from his longbow at the triceratops, carving off pieces of its undead flesh. Raging, Dunch puts down a zombie with two blows from his greatsword, while Ixtli stabs another zombie twice, then kicks it to pieces.
Yollotl turns towards the triceratops. The four glowing lights that make up his shadowed face spin rapidly, and then the zombie dinosaur is surrounded by the sound of a heavy bell's mournful toll. The beast groans and rises on two legs; crumples to earth, lifeless and twitching; then explodes in a cloud of poison gas. Chibuzo takes a lungful of the gas, and both of the nearby children are killed. Their father falls to his knees next to their bodies, and a skeleton cuts him down.
Dolan fires another lightning bolt at a zombie, the skeleton with the longbow, and two more skeletons. All except the longbow skeleton explode. Chibuzo fires an arrow into the remaining dinosaur.
After a skeleton slashes Dunch, the skeletal stegosaurus staggers towards him and strikes a heavy blow with its spiked tail. The longbow skeleton's arrows at Dolan both miss, but another bony bow-wielder appears, both of its missiles striking the sorcerer.
As more zombies advance, a skeleton traps the remaining labourer in the narrow space between two buildings, and another hammers its way through the door of an herbalist shop in the middle of the road. As it enters the building, the sound of screaming comes from inside. A moment later a middle-aged man and a teenager come fleeing out of the shop, but they come to a sudden halt when they see the undead all about them.
The woman and her mother make it to safety inside the temple, while the labourer swings his shovel at the approaching skeleton, striking a ringing blow. The skeleton's head goes flying but the unnatural creature remains standing. The young man dashes past the headless thing and down the street.
More zombies rise: one of the recently killed labourers, as well as the two children. A zombie leaps on the teenager, who falls, while another grapples Chibuzo, burning his flesh with its poisonous ooze. The ranger shakes off the grapple, then fires his longbow into a group of zombies and one of the bow-wielding skeletons, casting Hail of Thorns. A burst of sharp spines strike the skeleton and most of the zombies, but they remain standing. His second arrow at the stegosaurus bounces off another plate of bone.
Dolan casts a Guiding Bolt at the first longbow skeleton, who explodes in a shower of bone fragments glowing with a radiant light. Dunch hits a zombie twice. His greatsword slices right through it, but it tenaciously clings to its unnatural life. The stegosaurus deals him a massive blow with its tail.
The headless skeleton pursues the labourer but its flailing limbs fail to connect. The labourer swings his shovel again, this time crushing its rib cage. As it falls to pieces in the street, he finds a building with an unlocked door and retreats inside.
Another skeleton kills the fleeing herbalist, while the remaining archer skeleton fires two arrows into Chibuzo. More zombies move to surround the ranger. Ixtli moves up in support, stabbing a zombie twice, then kicking it until it drops. Yollotl advances to attack the zombies next to Dunch, and fells a zombie with two deft strikes. Wisps of shadow rise continuously from his body, dissipating in the sunlight. Dolan repositions himself behind Ixtli and Chibuzo and casts a Guiding Bolt on the stegosaurus.
Suddenly the group hears shouting and screaming from inside the temple. Sophia appears at the front door and calls, "she got out! She's fighting with Mokomoko!"
Yollotl hits a zombie twice but is grappled. As Ixtli runs into the church, the distance between the lizardman and his shadow becomes too great, and Yollotl dissipates into a mist. Inside, Ixtli finds Lemusi, armed with a dagger, facing off against Mokomoko.
Chibuzo invokes the power of the Circlet of Blasting and hits the stegosaurus with two fiery bolts. He downs a healing potion, then, after a skeleton hits him with a rusty axe, switches to melee weapons: Deathbone and Atsu's Lance.
Dunch dodges the stegosaur's tail, hacks at it, then drives his sword into the side of its skull. The undead beast collapses in a pile of bone. Next the barbarian kills a zombie, then swings at a particularly hapless skeleton whose every blow has missed him. The undead thing explodes under his blade. Dodging more zombies, including the two zombie children, the half-orc moves towards the temple door. Meanwhile, Dolan fires another lightning bolt at five zombies and a skeleton, killing them all.
Inside the temple, Ixtli attacks Lemusi with spear, kick, and bite, but the assassin remains standing. Mokomoko strikes her a glancing blow with his spear. Behind their battle, a skeleton enters the temple, Sophia fleeing on her crutch as best she can. The refugees retreat or cower in fear until two men finally manage to block the skeleton in a corner using a church pew.
Suddenly two party members fall. Outside, the remaining longbow skeleton fires two arrows into Dolan, who drops to the ground, unconscious and dying; while inside, Lemusi stabs Ixtli in the chest. The deadly poison on her blade courses through his body and he collapses.
Still in the street, Chibuzo swings threateningly at his foes, then retreats towards Dolan. He casts a healing spell to revive the sorcerer, then retreats into the temple. More zombies swarm on Dunch. He kills one of them, drags Dolan into the temple, then moves to stand in the doorway, blocking the entry of the undead.
Within the temple, Mokomoko hits Lemusi again but she remains standing. Then Elmar appears from the back room, holding a light crossbow. After he shoots Lemusi in the back, she moves to get a clear shot at Sophia, dodging Mokomoko's spear and hurling her knife. The blade buries itself in the Asturian woman's chest and she falls dead. Too late, Dolan hits the assassin with a volley of magic missiles, and Chibuzo dashes forward to skewer her against the wall with Atsu's Lance. As she dies, she snarls "I still won."
At the doorway, Dunch is momentarily grappled by the swarming undead, taking more damage from the poisonous zombie ooze, before he breaks their hold and closes and bars the door. Chibuzo finishes the skeleton in the corner with a blow to the head.
Kneeling next to Sophia, Dolan removes the dagger, then casts the spell Revivify from a scroll. The dead woman breathes again, and she begins to weep in gratitude.
Searching Lumusi's corpse, Dunch finds another vial of poison in her belt, which he takes for later use.
As the remaining undead claw and scratch ineffectually at the doors, Dolan employs the Ring of the Oracle to heal the injured among those who have sought refuge in the temple. After five minutes have passed, they hear the sounds of shouting and fighting in the streets. Shortly thereafter, someone pounds on the door. "Anyone in there? It's the guard. Your streets have been cleared. You're safe."
They unbar and open the doors to find a dozen soldiers in the street. The remaining undead have all been destroyed. Their leader casts an appraising eye over the armed adventurers, recognizing Chibuzo in particular: "You saved all these people." To Dunch's questions, the man indicates that the presence of undead dinosaurs is uncommon but has been known to happen in the past—although the poison cloud surrounding the triceratops was something he hadn't seen before.
In the aftermath, Chibuzo makes a point to congratulate the shovel-wielding labourer, counselling him that he might want to consider a career in the town guard. He's surprised to learn that the man's name is Gero—named in honour of Chibuzo's brother, no less.
The adventurers remain in the temple until Baelish and Nera return to consciousness, and they can discuss Lemusi's attack. Sophia is still not safe, they agree, and should return to Asturia as soon as possible. "I would like that very much," the young woman says quietly. Nera will arrange passage for her and the general on the ship that's due from Asturia imminently, and will hire some mercenaries to stand guard until the additional templars arrive.
It is still the same day that the Brazen Pegasus returned to Port Nyanzaru. The party splits up to run some errands, resolving to travel in pairs in case of ambush by Rashaad's followers.
Chibuzo and Ixtli first return to the Market Ward and the home of the wizard Musharib, where Chibuzo receives the first of their Amulets of Proof against Detection and Location. They then return to the Temple of Zann, looking for answers about the rune-carved tree used by Nanny Pu'pu to abduct the expedition members. Grandfather Zitembe, still seemingly preoccupied by their meeting with the Merchant Princes, refers them to Fenuku, the head librarian.
Fenuku is a small Marakuran man in his 60s, with wiry white hair and a goatee, his eyes clouded with cataracts. The tree is druidic nature magic, he tells them; the markings are part of a ritual that binds the tree to the caster. Once bound to a tree, the caster can then open a gateway through the tree and travel anywhere on the material plane. There is no way to track where someone may have travelled using the tree, but if the tree were damaged, that should prevent use of the portal.
The adventurers also ask Fenuku of the Firefinger that Akachi mentioned to them some weeks ago. He has heard of it: a 300 foot tall finger of stone used as a beacon or waypoint, somewhere on the eastern edge of the Aldani Basin.
For their part, Dunch and Dolan return to the Tadala villa and request an audience with Zanthi. The guards lead them to the garden where they find the Merchant Prince tending to some exotic flowers. "You have returned," she states. "Good. I trust you have Shago's ring?" After Dunch relinquishes the jewelled band, she turns it over in her hands, her eyes tearing up briefly. "Thank you for returning this—it means a lot to me. Men like Rashaad should never have been granted the influence that they had. This would not have happened if the royal family were here." She looks sharply at them. "Do you expect to confront him again? And—if I gave you the tools to do so—could you return him to the city to face judgment?
It will depend on the circumstances, they respond, but if they can—they will. In return she gives them a magic item: Iron Bands of Binding, a rusty iron sphere that opens into a tangle of metal bands to restrain a foe.
Dunch also asks of her particular interest in the pirates that have plagued the seas around Marakuru. The harbourmaster, Zesiro, is facilitating the bounty against them: 25,000 gold for the capture or destruction of the two remaining pirate vessels, the Dragon Fang and the Stirge.
Their business concluded, Zanthi bids them farewell. "I hope the next time we speak is at Rashaad's execution." Dunch agrees.
The next day, Chibuzo taunts Sayid through the speaking stone: "Your assassin is dead. Do you ever get tired of losing?"