Tomb of Annihilation - Session 21
General Summary
Thinking back to the tracks they saw near Nanny Pu'pu's tree, Ixtli warns Koya and Oklo that yuan-ti may be in the Basin for some foul purpose. They have not seen any such creatures, they tell him, perhaps due to the seclusion of Tal'mayu. But the information is concerning to them. With so much of their strength killed, turned traitor, or dispatched to Omu, they are vulnerable to any attack. There are no nearby Aldani settlements they could turn to for help; other villages are spread out across the basin, and contact between them is infrequent.
Taruka returns with several other villagers and, on the far side of the bowl-like gathering space, they begin loading the bodies of the fallen onto stretchers for burial. Suddenly a cry goes up as a dead guard's hand claws out the throat of a villager. The living Aldani scramble away as the undead guard and one of his fellows lurch to their feet. The blue light is gone from their eyes.
Chibuzo, Dolan, Ixtli, and Mokomoko attack with missiles both magical and mundane, but cannot prevent the zombies from clawing and biting those around them. Two villagers are killed before Taruka and the others can attain a safe distance. Still giant-sized, Dunch runs toward the foes, while behind him Oklo takes Koya by the arm and leads the matriarch to safety.
Maneuvering for a clear shot, Chibuzo closes the range, then fires an arrow right between a zombie lizardfolk's eyes. As it drops dead, Ixtli dashes forward, spearing and kicking the other, who sinks its jaws into Dunch. Then another of the dead guards rises, shambling towards Chibuzo. Dolan speaks, and a flash of light streaks from his hand toward the newly risen undead, exploding in a burst of radiance that illuminates the entire bowl. The creature staggers backward, clutching at its face. Dropping his bow, Chibuzo hurls Atsu's Lance at the same enemy, striking with the sound of thunder. Still mobile, the zombie lunges at the ranger but snaps its heavy jaws shut on empty air. A crossbow bolt from Mokomoko puts it to rest. Dunch and Ixtli evade the talons of the remaining foe, until Ixtli's claws and Dunch's greatsword take it down.
Leery of further risings, Dunch sets about decapitating the bodies of the other three guards with one of his enlarged handaxes, before doing the same with the remaining corpses. Ixtli seeks out Koya, explaining the Death Curse and its effects. She is startled and confused at first—this is the first that Tal'mayu has witnessed the spontaneous arising of the undead—but is mollified when Ixtli states that they are seeking its cause with the aid of Saja N'baza.
Dunch shortly resumes his normal size, and the villagers return for the bodies of their fallen comrades. They are reluctant to touch the corpses of the monstrous guards, however, and the adventurers take on the task instead. The bodies are loaded onto rafts which are poled to the village's burial ground: a strip of dry land containing one of the pillars of rock that rise around Tal'mayu. The bodies of the normal-sized Aldani are placed into open niches carved into the pillar, but the alcoves are too small to hold the remains of Nayarak's enlarged followers. Instead their carcasses are left atop large rocks close by.
It is midmorning by the time the bodies are disposed of. The day has turned out hot and humid, under a clear sky. Although still numerous, there are thankfully fewer insects in the village than the adventurers would have expected.
The Temple of Val'Kurat is some two days journey from Tal'mayu, Koya tells them, although guided by Dunch the party can expect to cover the distance much more quickly. They resolve to depart forthwith. While they eat a quick lunch of fresh fish and fruit, Koya tells them what to expect. As they travel south on the river, they will come to a sharp bend in the river just before the second lake of the Aldani Basin. Once around the bend, the temple will be clearly visible to the left, some four hundred feet from the shore. The only entrance into the temple is from the top.
Before they leave, Oklo gives each of them a gourd containing some 20 doses of a salve that repels insects. An application of the salve will last all day.
The adventurers board their canoes one more and paddle south, keeping the lake's shoreline to their left. Before long they reach the river, and must row against the current.
As daylight ends, Dolan finds them a place to camp: high and dry for their tents, with a good spot to beach the canoes. After their meal, Mokomoko asks Chibuzo for a game of anuli—and wins for the first time! Gracious in defeat, Chibuzo congratulates him, while Mokomoko looks very pleased with himself.
The next day dawns cloudy, with gusts of wind. After two and a half to three hours of travel, the party sees the river curve sharply ahead. Intending to scout out the lake, they bring the canoes ashore and set out overland, but their passage through the swamp is slow and noisy, especially for the more heavily armoured among them. In the end only Ixtli and Dolan sneak ahead through the fallen trees and ankle-deep marshy water.
The thick foliage extends right up to the shore of the lake. They emerge to the sight of a ziggurat of green stone rising out of the waters not far away. A set of stairs climb up the building's three visible tiers to the top, where a canopy of stone rests atop four pillars. Ixtli scans the structure with Chibuzo's loaned spyglass. He sees no-one, but on the side of the temple closest to the shore, he spots a raft pulled up onto the foot of the stairs.
They return to the others and report their findings, but the discussion is cut short when Dolan and Dunch hear a screech from the direction of the lake that is unlike any animal they're familiar with. The adventurers quickly board the canoes and paddle around the bend and into the lake. The raft Ixtli saw earlier is now in the water, and the solitary figure aboard is hurriedly rowing away from the ziggurat. Standing at the foot of the stairs is an eight-foot-tall humanoid creature with bluish-green skin and stringy black hair—a troll! Dunch remembers a few childhood tales of such creatures: difficult to kill, and possessing an endless hunger. The creature shrieks again and dives into the water. With the lenses of Nyemba's Might, Dunch zooms in on the raft. The person aboard is Akachi!
No sooner has he told the others than Chibuzo, already wearing the Helm of Water Breathing, jumps overboard and starts swimming towards the raft. He quickly outpaces the canoes. Dunch, now paddling solitaire, shouts "Akachi!" She turns towards the sound, then adjusts course to head in their direction. Dunch and the others make their best possible speed towards her, while the troll remains out of sight underwater.
Part of Akachi's crude raft has broken off by the time Chibuzo reaches her. He passes underneath the makeshift vessel, but sees no sign of the troll in the murk before he pops his head out of the water on the far side.
Akachi is simultaneously both surprised and unsurprised at his sudden appearance. "Chibuzo—where did you come from? It doesn't matter—help me get out of here!" Chibuzo tries to push the raft from behind, while watching for the troll.
Suddenly he feels talons tearing into his calf from below. Unafraid of drowning thanks to the Helm, he lets himself get pulled under, but then feels sharp teeth sink into his thigh. The huge troll confronts him through the clouded waters, its eyes glowing with a blue fire. Chibuzo skewers it in the shoulder. A trickle of blackish-blue blood seeps into the lake for a moment, then stops.
The troll bites Chibuzo again as the two foes break the surface. Chibuzo responds with Atsu's Lance, first casting Searing Smite to strike with a white-hot spearhead, then Shocking Grasp to electrocute the foe. The troll screams as it is set aflame, and momentarily obscured by an explosion of steam and blood from the water. Chibuzo tries to spear it again, but its rubbery hide resists his attack.
The raft and the canoes finally rendezvous, and Ixtli and Mokomoko make space in their canoe to bring Akachi aboard.
The fires in the troll's flesh quickly fizzle out. The troll roars, and from behind it a wave materializes and swamps over Chibuzo. The ranger is bludgeoned by the wave, pushed backwards thirty feet, and shoved underwater. The troll dives beneath the surface. Though the others keep watch as Chibuzo recovers and climbs back into Dunch's canoe, they see no sign of it.
Akachi is surprised to learn that the party is here to battle Nayarak and save Kurat, and shocked to learn of the end of the Ravengard Expedition. "We need to go back to my camp," Akachi tells them, "the drum is there." She came here with Balan, who went in to scout the temple through a hidden tunnel in the lakebed. When he didn't return, Akachi buried the drum at their camp and infiltrated in search of him.
After some debate while Dolan casts a healing spell on Chibuzo, they decide that the drum is probably safer where it is—and that if they strike now, they might gain ground before the troll Chibuzo fought can raise the alarm. But they decide to remain together rather than send some of their number in search of the tunnel.
Leaving the canoes at the foot of the stairs, they climb the ziggurat. The platform at the top is recessed five feet below the peak of the staircase. Each of the pillars bearing the stone roof is carved to depict a lizardfolk in robes reaching up to the sky. The other sides of the ziggurat also contain stairs leading down to the water, but the lack of wet tracks here suggest that the troll hasn't re-entered the temple by this method.
A spiral staircase leads into the darkness below. Chibuzo once more summons the power of the Gem of Brightness to light their path.
In the lead, Dunch arrives at the bottom of the stairs to find a square room with an open doorway at each corner. Tapestries on the walls depict a sleeping dragon, and the temple itself. He also finds Akachi's scimitar, and returns it to her.
Through one of the open doors he sees a short hallway leading to a room with a bed of soil and a burnt tree, under what looks like daylight. Going to investigate, the barbarian finds a glyph carved in the ceiling that emits a bright light. Humanoid tracks are visible in the dirt, and doors lead to the left and right. He rejoins the others.
Down another hall leading from the central staircase, a room can be seen with a statue of a long serpentine dragon, suspended lengthwise above a long basin or pool of water. The whole party goes to investigate.
The room is narrow and rectangular, some seventy feet long and fifteen feet wide. The basin extends almost the entire length. The dragon depicted by the statue is similar to the one shown in the tapestry, and to the one Dunch saw in the spirit world. This must represent Kurat, they conclude. A horn of clear crystal protrudes from the dragon's forehead.
An alcove in one wall holds a stone tablet, carved in Aldani script. Examining it, Akachi relates that it tells of the first Dreamwatchers, who built this temple above Kurat's home after being saved by Saja N'baza and coming under the dragon's guidance.
Then Ixtli and Akachi hear the noise of something approaching from the far end of the hall. In the humid chamber, the moisture on the far wall suddenly turns to frost, and an eight foot troll covered in shards of ice, its eyes glowing blue, comes around the corner and into the room.
Chibuzo swiftly looses an arrow at the foe, then moves close enough to hurl Atsu's Lance. But his weapons fail to penetrate the creature's rubbery skin. It roars as it squeezes itself through the narrow passage between the basin and the wall, and the water in the basin begins to ice over.
Ixtli closes with the creature, spearing it twice, then kicking it twice more, inflicting further necrotic damage. Unable to maneuver past him, Dunch approaches from the other side of the basin and stabs at the troll, but can't quite reach it past the suspended statue. Dolan attacks with a Fire Bolt, and although the fire seems not very damaging, it halts the monster's regeneration. None of the other party members can attack in the room's narrow confines.
Chibuzo is now close enough to the creature that his still-wet hair begins to freeze. He spears the troll twice, electrocuting it twice more with Shocking Grasp and burning it with Searing Smite, but the foul thing stays up. Dunch's greatsword misses, while Mokomoko's spear thrust only hits the statue, causing a long hairline fracture. Chibuzo dodges the still-burning troll's claws, but can't evade its fangs. As it bites him, Dunch strikes a retaliatory blow, hacking it in the leg. The troll falls face-first into the basin, flash-freezing the surface of the water before its dark blood begins to seep into the pool, and the ice starts to melt. Ensuring that its death is final, Dolan casts Acid Splash until its head dissolves.
Taking the short passage from which the troll emerged, the party finds another set of spiral stairs leading downwards. Deciding to press on, the adventurers head downwards.
The stairs end in a small square room, with an open passage in each wall. From one direction they can hear squishing and tearing sounds, like something being eaten, while from the opposite direction comes the sound of falling water. Mokomoko and Elmar remain next to the staircase, while the others head towards the more disturbing sounds, down a short passage that opens into a larger room. As the clanking sound of Dunch's armoured footfalls echo down the hallway, the noises from the room suddenly stop.
The adventurers emerge in a rectangular room that may have once been a dormitory, but is now a larder for trolls, piled with lizardfolk bodies and reeking with the stench of viscera and rotting meat. Two trolls are here feeding, their eyes glowing blue. One of them has a skin that looks made of rock.
Ixtli moves to engage the other troll, spearing it twice, then kicking and biting its rubbery flesh. Dunch chops at the same troll, while Chibuzo hurls Atsu's Lance at the rocky troll, smiting it with the power of thunder before it claws him in answer. The other troll rakes Ixtli with its claws, then disappears.
With only one target left, Dolan hits the rocky troll with a Fire Bolt. Dunch moves through the space where the other troll was, but finds nothing. He slashes the rocky troll, but although it takes some damage it resists non-magical attacks. In rapid succession, the rocky troll dodges Chibuzo's spear, Akachi's scimitar, and Dolan's second Fire Bolt, before Ixtli finally connects with a flurry of blows and the Blood Spear. Then the other troll rematerializes behind Dolan, sinking its teeth into him, while the rocky troll steps into the stone wall behind itself, withstanding glancing blows from Dunch and Chibuzo.
The barbarian shouts out a warning to Mokomoko and Elmar, then slashes the visible troll. The monstrous humanoid takes two more slashes from Akachi's scimitar before it is struck by another Fire Bolt from Dolan. The troll bursts into flame, then crumples to the ground in a burning heap.
Suddenly Elmar cries out as the rocky troll steps out of the wall in the narrow confines of the staircase room. The creature claws Elmar twice, then bites him, despite Mokomoko's best effort to protect the archaeologist. While Elmar stabs at the troll with his short sword, the other party members rush back down the passage to join the fight. Ixtli spears the troll twice, smiting it further with his Hand of Harm. Chibuzo bludgeons it with his warhammer, but the non-magical blow has limited effect. Finally Dolan hits with yet another Fire Bolt. The monster bursts into flame and collapses.
In the battle's aftermath, they look quickly through the doorway where they heard the sounds of water falling. A short passage leads to a huge, circular domed chamber of rough-cut stone, perhaps a hundred feet across. A five-foot-wide walkway surrounds a central pit into which water spews from a fountain at floor level. A dark lake is dimly visible some eighty feet below, with perhaps a bit of land on one side. They see no-one.