Tomb of Annihilation - Session 32
General Summary
In the battle's aftermath, Dolan uses the Sceptre of the Honored Voice to detect any magic from the plethora of yuan-ti corpses strewn about the jungle. He detects nothing, but after a moment the corpses start to writhe and twitch. The sorcerer casts a Fire Bolt on the nearest corpse, a snake-headed yuan-ti, and though the flame singes its shoulder and arm, the undead creature keeps moving.
Unlike the party's previous experiences with the Death Curse, the corpses do not rise immediately, and the adventurers seize the moment to flee into the jungle. Taking a last look behind them before the foliage obscures their view, they see three or four of the yuan-ti corpses rising to their feet.
For several minutes the party moves east through difficult terrain, still accompanied by the earth elemental summoned by Ixtli. They hear the sound of falling water ahead, and soon arrive at the edge of a gorge with a raging river at its bottom. To their right, the river pours over the cliff to the city below.
Moving to the edge of the escarpment, they survey the area. The ruins of Omu lie some 140 feet below them; a stone gargoyle, covered in vines, perches thirty feet to the right, while to the left, past the gorge and the waterfall, more gargoyles line the rim of the precipice.
They decide to make their descent here. After tying enough ropes together and then to a tree, they toss the rope down the cliff face, and Yollotl and Dunch each drink Potions of Climbing. Yollotl, Dunch, and Chibuzo start the climb down, while Ixtli, Dolan, and the summoned elemental keep watch at the top.
The descent has only just begun when they hear the rumbling of thunder from somewhere across the city, even though there are no clouds in the sky. Using the lenses of Nyemba's Might, Dunch scans the ruins below them, spotting a yuan-ti patrol moving south along one of the causeways. At the other end of the city, where a stone pillar rises out of a lava-filled crevasse, Dunch sees a low mist hanging over the building atop the pillar—and a bolt of red lightning that flashes down to strike an adjacent tree.
On top of the cliff, Ixtli hears movement to his right. A cloud of leaves and plant matter is left behind as the nearest gargoyle springs into motion and leaps off the cliff, looping around to attack.
Chibuzo swiftly climbs back to the top of the cliff, draws his longbow, and fires a magic arrow into the gargoyle, while Dolan attacks it with magic missiles. Chunks of stone are blasted from the elemental creature but it stays aloft, swooping across the cliff face and clawing at Yollotl in passing. The lizardman finds cover in a divot in the rock, then climbs down the rope as quickly as he can.
As two more gargoyles climb into the sky to the left and right, Dunch lets go of the rope, summons the wings of Nyemba's Might, and flies to attack the first gargoyle. His second blow shatters one of its wings, and it spins away to pulverize itself against the cliff face. Chibuzo fires the last of his magical arrows into the new gargoyles, joined in the attack by Dolan's magic missiles and Ixtli's mundane ones. Meanwhile Yollotl rappels to the bottom of the cliff, landing in a grassy area behind a few palm trees and ruined buildings.
Dunch battles the remaining two gargoyles in the air. After one has its feet blown off by Dolan's magic missiles, it tackles Dunch and starts free-falling towards the ground, while the other gargoyle jabs at him. Dunch manages to free himself and stop his descent, but the stone figures keep clawing him, joined by yet another gargoyle ascending from the far side of the gorge.
Chibuzo hastily climbs down the rope, dropping the last ten feet to the ground. Once the ranger has landed, Ixtli unties the rope, throws it off the cliff, commands the earth elemental to join him below, and uses the Cape of the Mountebank to teleport himself and Dolan to the bottom of the cliff.
After beheading one of his foes, Dunch swoops earthward to join his companions, but is overtaken from behind by a gargoyle who drops onto his back and drives him into the ground. The other remaining gargoyle lands nearby. After Dolan bombards them with magic missiles, and Yollotl unleashes the flaming fists of Bahamut's Fury upon them, Dunch's Maul of Disruption shatters the first gargoyle into pieces, then knocks off the head of the second.
The party collects the rope and decides to look for a spot to hole up. Traversing the riverbank to the southwest, around a broken obelisk that protrudes from the slow-moving water, they come to a building with a domed roof that is still mostly intact, its rooms arranged around a central courtyard garden. Scouting the place, Chibuzo spots half a dozen creatures hanging upside down beneath the dome, their batlike wings and mosquito-like proboscises identifying them as stirges. Dolan disposes of them with a single blast of magic missiles, Ixtli dismisses the earth elemental, and the party takes shelter to rest and recover from the day's battles.
Afternoon turns to night. While they sleep, all of them except Dolan have a troubling dream of a city of whitewashed buildings, with corpses piled in its streets. Parts of the city are disappearing under rising floodwaters, even as other districts burn. Wraiths fly overhead through rising clouds of smoke, and a sphere of darkness grows at the city's heart.
A few hours after sundown, Chibuzo, Ixtli, and Yollotl set out to explore. Under dim moonlight, they move cautiously through the overgrown ruins to approach what the artificer Musharib told them was the entrance to the Tomb of the Nine Gods, near the base of the cliff on the north side of the city. An obelisk, some fifteen feet tall and draped with vines and black moss, stands before a passageway into the cliff face. The cave entrance is obscured by withered creepers; to their right a smaller passage has been carved into the rock. Above the main entrance are three motionless gargoyles, similar to the ones on the cliffs above but with beards made of a mass of tendrils.
After a brief stop back at the domed house, where Yollotl borrows the Cap of Water Breathing from Dunch, the scouting party makes its way through the river towards the purported location of the Shrine of the Kimbala in Omu. Wading through shallow water, they pass a walled compound. When he hears something moving within, Chibuzo cautiously peers through the entrance to see four crocodiles lolling about in the water, in front of a pillared building whose pediment bears a carving of a crane-like bird. The crocodiles don't seem to notice them, and the group moves on.
The river's main channel is much deeper, and Yollotl—unable to swim—dons the Cap and is pulled along by Chibuzo. They navigate the flooded streets to their end, where they come upon what should be the Shrine: a three-story tower. Its pillared ground level is open and flooded, with a spiral staircase leading up to the enclosed second level. The third level is also open, with pillars supporting a domed roof. The building is dark, but in the dim light Ixtli sees a humanoid form on the top level, peering its head around a pillar. Deciding it is not the time to seek battle, they return to the others.
Around about midnight, the reunited party starts travelling south, headed towards the building on its pillar of rock. They follow one of the stone causeways to where it crumbles into the river, then climb down and wade through the water toward the southeast, swimming when the water deepens mid-channel. Regaining dry land, they move through the ruins eastward, then south. Ixtli spots a figure walking atop the wall around the royal palace, perhaps a hundred feet away: a snake-headed yuan-ti. Keeping their heads down, they reach the east-west causeway and climb over it.
Once atop the road, they hear the faint sounds of fighting to the east, and Dunch activates the lenses of Nyemba's Might. When the scene is briefly lit by a flash of fire, he spots that the combatants include a snake-headed yuan-ti duelling one of the snake-bodied yuan-ti.
Throughout the journey, Dunch senses a constant pull from Waka's totem—always in the direction of the royal palace.
The adventurers continue southwards, towards the orange glow of the pool of magma. To the west rise plumes of steam from where the river drains into the great rift. Soon they reach the edge of the cliff, where a two hundred foot pillar of rock rises from the lava below. The column is surmounted by a squat building, surrounded by a crumbling stone wall and overgrown palm trees.
Summoning the wings of Nyemba's Might, Dunch ferries them across one by one, to what seems to be the rear of the building. Seeing firelight on the far side, Dolan and Dunch sneak across the flat roof to observe. A middle-aged Marakuran woman in light red robes and a headdress of red and white feathers sits in front of a campfire, eyeing the flames intently. Without looking at them, she speaks: "You've come. You should be a little more careful about taking to the skies. The gargoyles may find you. But now you and your companions should join me at my fire, my champion." She smiles, and Dunch sees a flash of lightning arc across her eyes.
Dolan summons the others, and they join Nyemba at the fire. "I am glad you heeded my summons," she tells them. "There is much to be done here. What lies beneath the city must be put to an end."
The building behind them, she explains, is one of the nine shrines that the Omuans built to their nine guardian spirits before the city fell. This was the temple of Moa, the jaculi. She came to Omu to save the guardian spirits, but it is too late for that. Now her goal is to avenge them, and stop Lar'lenek.
Dunch and the others relate their experiences since coming to Omu. Nyemba confirms that the gargoyles were created by Lar'lenek to guard the skies over the city. She also suspects that Lar'lenek sent the dream they shared, in order to frighten them away. She advises them to be wary, especially when sleeping, as that dream may not be the last.
She has not seen any of the Aldani, but the name of Taloc is familiar to her. She remembers stories of some entity that dwelt beneath Omu and controlled the kings, and that the influence of this creature led to the expulsion of Saja N'baza from the city. As Glyh'rul, the same creature instructed the lizardfolk of old to create the Crown of Teotenocht, and experimented on other mortals to corrupt them. If it wishes to destroy the Soulmonger now, it can only be for reasons of self-interest or self-preservation.
She too has seen the yuan-ti fighting amongst themselves. The skirmishes only started within the past few days, and she surmises that something must have happened that brought the factions to open violence. When Dunch mentions that the Death Curse affected the yuan-ti after yesterday's battle, she wonders if that may be part of the reason they fight. Those who are beholden to Ras Nsi may be willing to do what he commands, while others realize that the fallen bara may not have their best interests at heart. As for Waka, she doesn't know of any yuan-ti prisoners, but says that the serpent folk have many dark purposes and arts. They can transform humans and other species into one of their own kind, or into simple-minded servants like the broodguards.
Dunch also asks her of the dreamcrysts that Dolan retrieved from Camp Forbearance. Dreamcrysts are sacred stones, Nyemba answers; they bear the spirit of the world and all who live in it within them. These specific crysts are quite powerful, enabling a single use of the enchantments Primordial Ward, True Seeing, and Disintegrate.
Nyemba adds that she has tried to contact Dunch during the past few weeks, but has been unable to do so, and is not sure why. Dunch explains the Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location he wears, and why—relating their encounter with the hag Nanny Pu'pu. "I know this one," Nyemba says. "She dwelt among the people of Mbala and deceived them greatly. She and her sisters were based out of Omu. I am not surprised they returned here." Hags collect souls, and it seems likely that they want a portion of the souls collected by the Soulmonger.
The strengthening Death Curse clearly threatens the living and the dead, and Nyemba offers to conduct a ceremony that will help them ward off its effects. The party sits around the fire, and the loa draws a circle around them. After she chants in a language they do not understand, the fire flares, and embers streak out to their chests. A warm feeling fills them. "This ward will protect you from the effects of the Death Curse for seven days," she tells them.
When the party expresses interest in exploring the shrine of Moa, Nyemba explains that she herself cannot enter it—Lar'lenek has ensorcelled it somehow. But first she tells them a story of the nine guardian spirits, and how they helped the people of Omu gain the favour of Ubtao:
Long, long ago, the god Ubtao hardened his heart and vowed to weep for the people of Omu no longer. The rains stopped, the jungle withered and died, and death swept through Omu.
One morning, a wise zorbo emerged from her hollow tree and spoke to the dying Omuans. To convince Ubtao of their worth, she decided to cook him a stew made from all their good qualities. Catching such virtues wouldn't be easy, so she asked a wily almiraj to help her. The almiraj snuck recklessness in the pot, which she saw as a virtue, and Ubtao spat out the stew when he tasted it. From that day on, Obo'laka the zorbo and I'jin the almiraj became terrible enemies.
At noon, a brave kamadan hopped down from her rock. She saw the evil in the Omuans' hearts and decided to lance it like a troublesome boil. The kamadan fashioned a holy spear, but she left it by the riverbank and a crafty grung stole it. In her rage, Shagambi the kamadan forgot all about the Omuans and chased Nangnang the grung forever across the sky.
When evening came, a wily eblis stepped from his reed hut. He didn't like the Omuans, but without them he'd have no one to play his tricks on. The eblis sent a marsh frog to reason with Ubtao, but the frog was angry and decided to wrestle the god instead. This amused Ubtao, so he gave the frog tentacles to make it stronger. When Kubazan the froghemoth returned to Papazotl the eblis, he chased Papazotl into the swamp with his new tentacles.
That night, a su-monster broke into Ubtao's palace and stole a pail of water for the Omuans. When the god came running to find it, the su-monster hid the pail in a jaculi's burrow. Ubtao asked the jungle animals where his water was hidden, and Moa the jaculi was too honest to lie. When Wongo the su-monster found out how Moa had betrayed him, he vowed to catch the jaculi and eat him up.
All the while, Unkh the flail snail lived deep under the earth. The noise of the other animals fighting made her slither up to the surface, and when day dawned over her shell, the light blinded Ubtao and made his eyes water. Life returned to Omu, and the people built shrines to honour the animals who'd saved them.
The adventurers cautiously set out to explore the shrine. The entrance leads to a short rubble-filled corridor, with three arrow slits set on each side. A stone plaque bears a message in Old Marakuran: "Moa teaches us that secrets hide the truth."
Chibuzo crawls below the arrow slits and comes to an oblong room. Opposite the corridor entrance is a three-foot-high pedestal holding a cube inscribed with the figure of a snake—presumably one of the enchanted puzzle cubes that Musharib told them of. In front of it, a moss-covered mosaic is set in the floor. It seems to depict a monstrous snake with its coils wrapped around a monkey. Lining the walls are twelve statues of Marakuran warriors, bows drawn, aiming into the centre of the room.
Dunch simply walks down the corridor, without incident. Peering through the arrow slits, he sees rooms on either side. The left room holds a statue of a coiled serpent, missing its head. The broken head rests on the floor next to another stone cube, identical to the one on the pedestal. The right room also holds a statue of a stone snake, with yet another identical cube in its jaws.
Dolan joins the others. Casting a spell of Detect Magic, he determines that the cube on the pedestal is surrounded by an aura of illusion magic, while the other cubes don't detect as magical at all.
Dunch brushes the moss from the mosaic to reveal the full picture of Moa in battle with Wongo. Also set in the mosaic is an inscription:
Death rewards a thief deceived.Truth comes from the serpent's mouth.
Summoning his Mage Hand, Dolan plucks the cube from the mouth of the snake in the right room, then carries it out of the shrine. Nothing unusual happens. Leaving it outside, he turns back to the shrine and retrieves the cube from the right room—but this time, when he exits the shrine, the cube dissolves in a puff of green smoke.