Tomb of Annihilation - Session 22
General Summary
Feeling the effects of their battles with the trolls, the adventurers decide to find a place to rest. They go back up the stairs and through the room with the dragon statue to return to a room Dunch saw earlier, with the burnt tree under a glyph shining with the bright light of day.
Chibuzo inspects the doors leading from the room. There are three: the first is at the end of the short passage between the tree room and the staircase to the top of the ziggurat—the route by which they came in. The second opens into a corridor they don't explore. The third leads to a room with a smoky, earthy smell, evidently a workshop of some kind. A wooden bench with mortars and pestles, wooden cups, and similar implements lines one wall, and bundles of dried plants hang from the ceiling. One corner of the room contains a small fire pit; another holds a stone basin containing a little water. A passage leads elsewhere in the complex.
The party spikes all three doors shut and takes a short rest under the bright light of the glyph overhead. Chibuzo and Ixtli particularly welcome this opportunity to recover.
After about an hour, they are starting to think about resuming their exploration of the temple—when a leaf sprouts in the door leading to the workshop. Then another, and suddenly the door explodes in a riot of greenery. A troll stands on the other side, vines and plants growing from its head in place of hair.
Chibuzo swiftly raises the Gem of Brightness, blinding the creature with a brilliant beam of light, while a raging Dunch advances to stand toe-to-toe with the troll, stabbing it twice with his greatsword. The blind troll howls, clawing ineffectually at the half-orc. From the wreckage of the door, vines sprout, clutching at Dunch, but the barbarian stays free of their grasp. Behind Chibuzo, something smashes into the door leading to the unexplored corridor. The spike holds, but a trickle of water flows into the room from beneath the door.
With a word, Dolan blesses Dunch, Chibuzo, and Ixtli with fortune in battle, then smites the plant troll with three magic missiles. Chibuzo braces the door behind him, while Ixtli and Elmar prepare to fight whatever comes through. Mokomoko and Akachi also stand ready, unable to get past Dunch to attack. After cutting one of the troll's arms clean off, the half-orc slashes the troll again and it collapses to the ground. But then it rises again, restored by its unnatural regenerative powers. Dunch avoids the grasp of its dismembered arm grabs but is clawed by the risen troll.
While Dunch dodges more of the blinded troll's attacks, and the severed arm flops about, the hammering at the door behind Chibuzo continues, and he can hear the sound of sloshing water. Then several of them hear the sound of the third door being forced open—the one in the passage leading to the stairs up. Akachi goes to look, but sees nothing except the smashed door.
Suddenly the door behind Chibuzo is blown off its hinges as a torrent of water bursts into the room. Other than Ixtli and Elmar, standing ready on either side of the door, the whole party is bludgeoned by the force of the wave. Through the ruins of the door, the same water troll Chibuzo fought earlier is visible in a small room at the end of the hallway. A connecting passage leads off to one side.
Akachi is still shaking off the water when a robed lizardfolk steps into view down the hall to the staircase room, throwing three obsidian spikes at Akachi before slipping back out of sight. Mokomoko partially deflects one of the spikes with his shield, while behind Akachi, Elmar lobs a lit torch down the passage so that it lands next to the stairs.
Dunch chops the troll twice and it collapses to the ground again. Before it can revive itself, Dolan moves into the workshop and conjures a splash of acid on the creature. The dismembered arm stops moving and the surrounding vines shrivel away as the troll finally dies.
Dashing back through the tree room, Dunch runs down the hallway to engage the water troll. It stands in a small room with a raised platform on the far side and a few reed mats and wooden cups scattered about—possibly a meditation room. Dried blood on the wall suggests there was violence here recently.
Ixtli slips past Dunch into the connecting passage, which leads back to the hall between the staircase up and the room with the dragon statue. Following the light of Elmar's torch back to the staircase room, he finds the Aldani there pressed against the wall. Ixtli spears him twice, then blocks his unarmed attacks before the Aldani turns to flee. Ixtli stabs him as he passes, but the enemy makes it out one of the other doors.
The water troll claws Dunch twice, while Dolan returns to the tree room, firing three magic missiles down the hall. As the missiles impact the troll's rubbery flesh, Dunch hacks off its leg, then, as it topples over, chops it again. The prone troll claws him through Nyemba's Might.
Mokomoko enters the staircase room, picks up the torch, then moves to follow the fleeing Aldani. Moving more swiftly, Ixtli takes the torch from him, catches up to the robed figure, and bites him. The enemy monk responds with an unarmed attack, but Ixtli withstands his foe's attempt at a stunning strike.
The Aldani retreats further while Akachi joins Mokomoko and Ixtli in pursuit. They enter a long, rectangular room with a central row of pillars, filled with vines. The room extends out of the light of Ixtli's torch. The Aldani flees out of sight down a nearby passage that connects to both the room with the dragon statue and the stairs leading down.
Arriving at the head of the staircase, Ixtli halts and listens, hearing only the faint sound of a single person moving. He stands guard until the sounds fade away.
Meanwhile, after lighting another torch, Elmar checks the corpse of the plant troll for any valuables. Finding nothing, he explores the contents of the workshop, finding three sealed, liquid-filled clay vials.
In the close-quarters battle with the water troll, Dolan casts Blindness on their foe, but the troll shrugs off the spell. But behind Dolan, Chibuzo raises the Gem of Brightness once more, and the creature is blinded by a beam of light. Dunch continues to stab at the troll, while Dolan pummels it with more magic missiles, but it will not die. Recovering its sight all too quickly, the troll claws Dunch, then ensnares him in its huge arms. It gnaws on his armour but its fangs cannot pierce Nyemba's Might.
Finally Chibuzo spears the troll past the grappled barbarian, casting Searing Smite as he does so. The white-hot spearhead impales the troll in the abdomen, and it abruptly dissolves into a watery goo. "There, grandpa," Chibuzo mutters, patting Atsu's Lance. "I always finish what I start." He is still savouring his finishing blow when he feels something tickling at the back of his throat, and is seized by a coughing fit. In the aftermath he finds he has coughed up several leeches that squirm in his palm. Tossing them to the ground, he crushes them underfoot.
The party regroups and heads back downstairs, after Dolan examines the vials found by Elmar and confirms that they detect as magical.
On the level below, they check the other two passages leading out from the stairs. Down one path, a short flight of stairs opens into a small dormitory, with no apparent exits. The opposite direction leads down a few steps, through a nondescript connecting room and into another corridor. Exploring further, they find an open door to the right that reveals a large, hexagonal room filled with small low tables but otherwise empty. The passage continues left into a long rectangular room with tables along the walls, piled with wooden plates and cups. The passage continues straight ahead, while another corridor to their left leads back to the circular room they saw earlier with the falling water.
Leaving the barrel undisturbed, they continue straight ahead, discovering a room with a circular staircase down and, at the end of the corridor, a large rectangular room partially filled with water. Vines emerge from out of the ceiling and down the walls, which are partially crumbled away, and debris litters the water. A door out of the waterlogged room leads to a ruined hallway, its walls cracked and fissured. The corridor is partially submerged, and seems to lead to another wrecked hallway where a staircase up is visible.
Abandoning the exploration of these ruins, the party heads back and then down the stairs. They descend further than before, and anticipate that by now they must be below the water level of the lake.
At the bottom, the only passage away from the stairs turns left and opens into a wide rectangular corridor, with central pillars spaced every ten feet or so. To the left, the pillared corridor opens into a large pentagonal room strewn with rubble and littered with ceramic tiles fallen from the ceiling mosaics. Two side doors lead into small, simply furnished rooms that they speculate were used for meditation. When they return up the pillared corridor, which extends further into the distance, to their left is a short empty hall, while to the right a corridor of finished stone transitions to rough-hewn rock. Lights are visible from the large chamber beyond, and two Aldani bearing obsidian-toothed clubs and tortoise-shell shields stand guard. Spotting the light from the Gem of Brightness in turn, they call out to the chamber behind them. Akachi translates as she draws her scimitar: "They're shouting a warning to Nayarak." The party rushes forward to attack.
The passage opens into an enormous cavern. A perimeter of flat stone encompasses a short four- or five-foot drop to a sandy beach that surrounds a central lake. Ahead and to their right as they enter, water from the circular chamber they saw above falls into the pool. An island in the middle of the lake is lit by four braziers, while overhead, crystals embedded in the ceiling glitter with reflected light like the stars. Further to the right, a wooden walkway connects the beach to the island, where they can see a large commanding Aldani, four more club-wielding guards, and a troll, its eyes glowing blue and its putrid-green skin covered in bulbous growths.
Standing in their way are the two guards. Ixtli advances, spearing the first guard, but his next thrust is partially deflected by the second guard's intercepting shield. Ixtli kicks the first guard instead. Chibuzo closes and hurls Atsu's Lance at the second guard, but this time it's the first guard who blocks the worst of the impact. In fury Dunch charges forward to stab the first guard, but then the guards counter-attack, the jagged obsidian teeth of their clubs tearing into both Dunch and Ixtli. Out on the island, the commanding Aldani—Nayarak, they assume—speaks a command. Two guards hasten down the walkway towards the shore, while the troll wades directly towards the adventurers through the water.
After Dolan casts Haste on Ixtli, the monk spears one of the guards, then kicks him dead and advances into the cavern directly behind the second guard, clearing a path for Akachi to follow behind him. The Marakuran translates: "Nayarak told his followers to keep us back while he attempts the ritual."
Chibuzo closes with and spears the remaining guard, then Dolan speaks a Word of Radiance. But the luminescence does not quite kill the Aldani, who clubs the sorcerer twice in return. Dunch hacks at the guard repeatedly, but the guard intercepts every blow with his shield, then attacks Dolan again—but this time Mokomoko is able to shield the sorcerer from the worst of the damage.
The new guards from the island reach the shore and hurl a barrage of javelins at Akachi, who deflects two of them but is struck by three more. Dolan and Ixtli notice with surprise that although the javelins clearly pierce her, she seems unhurt. With surprising speed, the troll also reaches the shore, moving right behind Ixtli.
The Anasazi first spears and kills the second of the original guards, then spins about to stab the troll. But when punctured by the Blood Spear, the troll's flesh erupts in a poisonous spray that washes over both Ixtli and Chibuzo. Ixtli's kick has the same effect, and his attempt to stun the troll fails to overcome the giant's robust constitution. Deciding that he is ill-suited for this fight, Ixtli summons mystic energies to disengage from the troll and close with the two newly arrived guards instead. Dunch also advances on the Aldani, while Chibuzo steps away from the troll, eager to avoid any more of its noxious discharge. Mokomoko and Akachi fire missiles at the troll but miss.
Raising the Staff of Swarming Insects, Dolan summons a cloud of wasps that engulfs Narayak and the remaining guards on the island. The wasps swarm and sting, before Nayarak manages to extricate himself from the cloud. He picks up a great two-handed maul, then gazes at the shore and casts a spell. Akachi momentarily stops and puts her hand to her head, but manages to shake off whatever Nayarak tried to do.
Dunch attacks one of the guards, though his companion's shield partially deflects one of the blows. Chibuzo, Akachi, Mokomoko, and Elmar bombard the troll with missiles, while Dolan blasts it with a lightning bolt. A particularly large pustule on its neck explodes, spraying poisonous goo over the cavern walls, but the creature otherwise seems hardly affected. It advances, then savagely slashes at its own body with its claws. Poison spatters over Dunch, Dolan, Elmark, Akachi, and Mokomoko, with Mokomoko taking the worst of it. With a sinking feeling, they also hear more troll-like cries from the part of the cavern still shrouded in darkness.
Although his speed is no longer enhanced by Dolan's spell, Ixtli uses the Blood Spear to finish the guard wounded by Dunch, then spears, kicks, and bites the other to kill him as well. He moves towards the walkway, while on the island, Nayarak fires bolts of lightning at Akachi and Dunch, hitting them both. From behind the party, the Aldani monk they fought earlier suddenly appears in the same passage they entered by, hurling obsidian darts at Chibuzo. One dart strikes true. Then, two more Aldani guards appear from behind the monk, hurling their javelins. First one spear strikes Chibuzo, then another, and the ranger collapses to the ground, unconscious and dying. Elmar is hit by two more of their missiles. The enemy monk dashes past them, heading towards the walkway.
Dolan raises the Staff of Swarming Insects once more and enlarges five of wasps to giant size. Three of the great insects sting Nayarak, injuring him further with their venomous stings, while the other two battle the guards. Ixtli moves further down the walkway, then pauses. Darkness pours out of his mouth and nose, and the form of Yollotl takes shape next to him. The shadow moves closer to the island, then points at Nayarak and casts Toll the Dead. A doleful bell sounds, further injuring the traitorous witch doctor. Nayarak casts a spell, and a portal opens before him. Stepping through, he vanishes, then reappears next to the guards in the passage leading out of the cavern. He speaks a command in Aldani.
Dunch quaffs a healing potion and slashes the enemy monk. The barbarian dodges or parries the Aldani's return strikes, then—as his foe turns to dive into the lake and escape—stabs him again. The monk's corpse falls into the water face-first.
While Chibuzo struggles to regain consciousness, Akachi stoops to rummage through his belongings, while the troll claws her. Though the physical talons have no apparent effect, Akachi is injured by the oozing poison. Finding what she sought, she turns and raises the Gem of Brightness. A beam of light strikes the troll and it clutches its eyes as it staggers backwards, blinded.
While the guards on the island futilely swing at the giant wasps, Ixtli comes up the walkway behind them. He kills one with two blows of the Blood Spear, then kicks the other to death. Looking briefly about the island, he sees glyphs carved into the rocky surface, creating a chain of symbols around the island's perimeter. In the middle, the ghostly outline of a black dragon is visible, coiled up as if sleeping. Ixtli and Yollotl both head back down the walkway towards the shore, while the wasps fly directly across the water towards the troll.
In response to Nayarak's command, one of his remaining guards starts to run down the side of the cavern and into darkness. Dunch moves towards him, then hurls the Iron Bands of Binding he received from Zanthi Tadala. The metal bands snap about the Aldani, stopping him in his tracks.
The blinded troll claws and bites at Akachi again, still doing no physical damage but injuring her with its poison. Eager to stop its regeneration, Dolan hits it with a Fire Bolt, burning its flesh but causing another eruption of poison that splashes over Akachi and the prone and comatose Chibuzo. Two of the giant wasps are also killed by the venom.
Elmar samples the contents of one of the vials he retrieved from the workshop, finding it to be a Potion of Superior Healing. He pours the potion down Chibuzo's throat, and the ranger opens his eyes.
From the cavern entrance, Nayarak casts a spell. On one knee next to Chibuzo, Elmar looks up at the Aldani, then draws his short sword and tries to stab the man he just healed. Rolling aside, Chibuzo manages to avoid the blow.
Then Nayarak casts another spell. Dolan is seized with fear and racked with pain as his head fills with a cacophony of whispers. He collapses into unconsciousness, and the remaining giant wasps vanish.