1. Hex Crawl Steps
This Article has 5 Sections
MICAH'S PRONUNCIATIONS (not definitive) Ataaz Muhahah - ah-TAH-ahz moo-HA-HA Azaka Stormfang - ah-ZAH-kah Bwayes O'tamu - BWAYZ oh-TAH-moo Dungrunglung - DUN-grung-lung (but I always says DUN-grug-lug) Eblis - eh-BLEE Eku - EE-koo Faroul - fah-ROOL Gondolo - GON-doh-loh King Groak - (frog sound) GROKE Kir Sabal - KEER suh-BALL Krr'ook - (frog sound) grr-OOK Mezro - MEZZ-ro Mwaxanare - MWAWKS-uh-NAH-ray Na - NAH Nangalore - NANN-galore Nephyr - NEFF-ear River Olung - OH-lung River Tiryki - tear-YEE-key (alt: "teriyaki") Omu - OH-moo Port Castigliar - kah-STEE-lee-ar Roark - (frog sound) RORK Thiru-taya - THEER-oo-TIE-ah Ubtao - ub-TAY-oh (have also heard UB-tao) Zalkoré - zahl-CORE-ay 2. Eastern Chult - Overview & ThemesThe River Tiryki and River Olung - High on Heights Firefinger > Ataaz Muhahah > Wreck of the Narwhal > Needle's Bones > Kir Sabal > Nangalore > Omu The eastern path(s) to Omu have so much content, it's likely your players will be fully leveled and ready for Chapter 3 by the end of this single trek. Of course, if you are using milestones for leveling, this is easy enough to cheat if you want to treat this as one of two legs in, as mentioned in the Jungle Basics (2 levels per leg if they start in at 2nd level). The themes of this region are heights and highs...and lost (weretiger) love:
Between the mysticism of Kir Sabal and Mezro; the psychedelic experiences that can be had in Nangalore, Ataaz Muhahah, and Drungrunglug (and areas of Mezro, if you choose to use Lost City of Mezro); and all the falling damage that comes from some of these locations, there is plenty of material for exploring the themes of highs and heights. I'll provide some extras as well. When prepping in this region, keep Alice in Wonderland in mind. This region is similarly strange, bizarre, and alien. It's dark and forbidding and labyrinthine. And it's a land of contrasts: the tiny against the towering, the muddy against the mystical. Also, keep the notion of lost love in mind and employ it whenever you can. Bwayes|Scarecrow lost the love of Azaka Stormfang|Okoyeh, Zalkoré|Ophelia lost the love of Thiru-taya, the Tabaxi lost the love of their god Ubtao, and then there's Princess Mwaxanare|Veruca Salt and Na|Russell who lost the love of their parents through tragedy. LORE NOTES Before moving on, check the lore notes page to make sure you're dumping the right lore at the best times. 3. Adventure HooksThere are 6 actual adventure hooks into the eastern jungles of Chult. They point to Firefinger, Kir Sabal, Needle's Bones, Dungrunglung, and Mezro in various ways. The other 4 provided by the book would need to be massaged to get them there (marked with an asterisk). SIDE QUEST HOOKS 1. "Help the Lord's Alliance" p.17* Lerek Dashlynd|Thor wants a map that shows the accurate locations of Nangalore and Orolunga. Maybe Lerek knows the general region they can be found in, which would get them started on into the jungle. GUIDE HOOKS 1. Azaka Stormfang p.33 Azaka is willing to work as a guide for free if they will retrieve the Mask of the Beast from the Firefinger [4230] first. 2. Eku p.34 Eku is on good terms with the Aarakocra at Kir Sabal and can suggest going there to consult them. She knows the way to Omu, though not necessarily that it is the destination they seek. 3. Faroul & Gondolo p.34 Faroul & Gondolo have a map to Needle's Bones and want to get the dragon's hoard there. 4. River & Flask p.35 River & Flask know the way to Firefinger and Dungrunglung. They have no particular goals there, but these are destinations into this region. RUMOR HOOKS Rumor 01-05 p.36 Points the players directly toward Kir Sabal and suggests the route down the Olung River. The hook of the last royal heir of Chult is a pretty compelling one—especially if this person might know things that denizens of Port Nyanzaru wouldn't. Rumor 13-17 p.36 Describes how to get to Firefinger and that it is tall—which may offer a high vantage from which to survey the jungle. Rumor 22-28 p.36* While buying a charter of exploration, Liara Portyr can mention that the Flaming Fist are searching the ruins of Mezro, the original capital of the region. Rumor 29-33 p.36* Gives instructions for how to find Needle's Bones by way of Mezro, Ataaz Muhahah, and Kir Sabal. Why does this hook relate to the Death Curse? Unclear, but maybe there's a super-useful treasure to be had there? Maybe Needle was a famous map or lore collector? Rumor 34-40 p.36* Points to the mystery of Mezro. Also: Artus Cimber's subplot is in this, if you like. 4. River Tiryki OverviewPort Nyanzaru [4120] to Firefinger [4230] = 11 hexes/130 miles Firefinger [4230] to Dungrunglung [4034] = 5 hexes/50 miles It's probable that your players will take this route by canoe. This means they are traveling:
River Mouth [4222]: I recommend opening the river with a scene that emphasizes the jungle's dark strangeness. I would begin any first river launch similarly: Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. …can become… Going down River Tiryki is like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of Toril, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air is warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There is no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. Once they're in, shift the tone to the jungle's weird darkness, isolation. They can hear the Batiri watching them from beyond the emerald fronds, little eyes in the darkness and that chit-chit-chitting they do to scare interlopers. Flavor your random encounters this way too. Waterfall [4229] [NOTE: it was brought to my attention that you don't go over waterfalls when traveling UP-river—which, of COURSE is true. None of my players caught on to something so silly as "facts" before, so no one batted an eye. IF, however, geological basics matter to you, then you might want to skip this particular absurdity. OR, hand-wave it as an effect of the Second Sundering or something! Anyway, thank you, /u/erschraeggit for pointing this out so I don't look so dumb!] I included a waterfall scene to preface the Firefinger and its heights. Run this like every waterfall gag you've seen in a movie:
Firefinger [4230] (p.52) NOTE: I will be providing detailed guides for locations later. I'll link them here when I do. Firefinger is one of many signal towers in the jungle that was used to communicate between the Tabaxi, Eshowe, and Thinguth going back some 4300 years ago back when they were unified. Legendarily, it was built by Ubtao himself. This one is 300 feet tall, though, some are said to have been 3x that height. These are similar to the beacon systems used in Agamemnon and The Lord of the Rings. It is apparently the only one left intact (though, a creative DM may want to put in others if it serves their story). At 300 feet, the furthest another beacon could be seen would be about 40 miles. That puts the likely remains of the nearest ones at [3731] and [3233] (the two leading to Mbala) and [4126] (the one leading to Port Nyanzaru). This location has 3 acts:
Recommendation & Changes:
Dungrunglung [4034] (p.49) There are two main ways that your players would end up in Dungrunglung:
It's not an obvious goal for the party in itself, though it fits with the regional theme of psychedelics. It has some real "King Lear set in Munchkinland" vibes. At Dungrunglung, the players can learn some lore about the Trickster Gods (p.92), and if you're ready to move them on to Act III, you can have Krr'ook|Ivanka tell them to go to Omu (say this tribe of grungs were expatriates of Omu, led by their insane king who is maybe the estranged brother or cousin of the OTHER insane grung king, Yorb). The shrine is protected by a magical thorn maze and houses a giant mud statue in the middle of nowhere. Weird. If the party stumbles upon it randomly, table-talk a bit and let the team know they are outnumbered when the time comes so they realize they need to surrender. If River & Flask lead them there, they know the password ("Roook, roook, erp!"—an amusing burp joke) into the grung village. This is a palace intrigue scenario that employs a fun skill challenge in which the party is going to dupe the insane grung, King Groak|Trump, into believing he has successfully summoned the Trickster Goddess, Nangnang (she's dead—her spirit is in a petrified grung egg in Omu). This ruse will involve the use of the wildling Krr'ook's|Ivanka Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments—a super-fun item for players to have. King Groak wants to mate with the (deceased) goddess, Nangnang, so this ties into our lost love theme nicely. This scenario could turn X-rated at some tables, so be prepared for that (remember your safety tools). Either the ruse ends with success and a helpful King Groak or it fails—and the team must flee or something. 5. River Olung OverviewPort Castigliar [4927] to Mezro [4230] = 3 hexes/30 miles Mezro [4230] to Ataaz Muhahah [4632] = 3 hexes/30 miles Ataaz Muhahah [4632] to Kir Sabal [4638] = 11 hexes/110 miles (20 of which on foot) If you want to hurry your players through "Chapter 2: The Land of Chult" quickly, you can fast-track them through all the key lore right down this little river. In Ring of Winter, it's where Artus Cimber arrived to the peninsula. It's probable that your players will take this route by canoe after sailing there on the Brazen Pegasus (450 miles from Port Nyanzaru; 390 from Fort Beluarian — upwards of 5 days to get there). The journey down the Olung River will be:
Kitcher's Inlet & Port Castigliar [4927] (p.82) Port Castigliar was a sorry excuse for an outpost. It consisted of seven tin huts, two small plots of vegetables, a large but ramshackle supply depot, and a graveyard. The latter was more densely populated than the land for five miles in any direction. Canonically considered part of Refuge Bay (p.82), Port Castigliar is where Artus Cimber|Indiana Jones first arrives at Chult in The Ring of Winter novel. Not much to see here except its ruins. The book takes place over a hundred years ago, before Ras Nsi lost control of his undead. They have since run everyone out and all that's left are a couple hundred defiled Sword Coast graves as well as the remains of the supply depot and tin huts. It is here that the adventurers will launch their canoes after arriving by ship. River Mouth - Reprise [4928]: I recommend opening the river with a scene that emphasizes the jungle's dark strangeness. Going down River Tiryki is like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of Toril, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air is warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There is no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. Mezro [4729] (p.74) Mezro is given short-shrift in this adventure. Mezro was THE capitol of the landmass for thousands of years! (-2637 DR to 1385 DR) It's one of the few locations that's been marked on this map since FIRST EDITION. But now…? They tell us it's a ruin, that Artus Cimber has a lost love he wants to recover to restore it, and that the Flaming Fist do some training there (but have cleared it out)—but that's it. The treatment of Mezro in the campaign guide can be summed up with the last line of the description: Neither treasure nor clues remain for the player characters to find here. Lame. This location can certainly be handled this way—as a destitute hole in the ground. OR you can use it as the lore-hub it lends itself to be. Recommendations & Changes: Supplements like Adventurer's League's Lost City of Mezro have a lot of great additional content to employ, especially the stuff in "Chapter 4: Ruins of Mezro." It's only 15 bucks for the pdf. Ataaz Muhahah [4632] (p41) The Laughing Bridge! (Muhahah. Get it? Laughing? "Mwa-ha-ha?") This location really only works for the characters traveling on foot (perhaps from Mezro or Firefinger), not those canoeing down the River Olung—though, really greedy ones might climb up if you tell them they see the sparkle of emerald light from a statue atop the bridge!) Ataaz means "gorge" in Tabaxi. There are two other Ataazes on the peninsula, neither of which have bridges on them (though, maybe they should?) This one is a 100-foot drop (10d6 falling damage) and is a perfect D&D encounter. I love it because it confronts player foolishness with deadliness. The bridge challenge has two parts:
If the players ignore the giant emeralds in the Shrine's eyes, passing this bridge is a cake-walk. Even 1st level characters will be able to safely get to the other side. I have never seen a group of players who could resist stealing the gems from a statue though. Don't forget to tear up those character sheets! Bonus points for laughing a "mwa-ha-ha!" while you do it. Meanwhile, to the east...These two locations, The Wreck of the Narwhal and Needle's Bones, aren't directly on the course of the River Olung, but they are in the region and—if your players are coming by way of River Tiryki—the logical next points of interest for an over-land trek to Kir Sabal. So I will include them, inserted, here. Wreck of Narwhal [5134] (p.84) I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? The Narwhal is the galleon that Artus Cimber arrived on back in 1362 DR (he has a Ring of Winter, which makes him immortal). Since then, the Spellplague happened (the global upheaval that marks the line between D&D 3.5 and 4.0) and apparently tossed the wreckage deep into the jungle, some 80 miles south of where it had been last seen in text (this doesn't really make sense, but it's fan-service, so roll with it). Why would your players happen upon it? They probably wouldn't, unless they are lost in the hex-crawl. Or, you can just hand-wave the location and drop it in their way (that's what I did). "Wreck of the Narwhal" has two main components:
The vegepygmies are the crows to Bwayes' Scarecrow when Dorothy meets him: Boo! You see, I can't even scare a crow! They come from miles around just to eat in my field and laugh in my face! Oh, I'm a failure, because I haven't got a brain. The irony, of course, is that Scarecrow is the smart one all along. Likewise, Bwayes blames himself as a fool for his tragedy, but he lacks acumen only compared to his cousin. The book (as usual) handles language barriers in a tricky way. Don't make Bwayes a grunting mute for too long. Have him return to conversational Common quickly. Visit the introductory scene in Wizard of OZ for inspiration on how to run him. Recommendation & Changes:
Here's what I think: The Tragedy of Bwayes O'Tamu Bwayes and Wakanga O'Tamu were best friends with Azaka Stormfang as children: inseparable scamps, trouble-makers-in-arms. Both boys loved the girl, but as they grew to maturity, it was inevitable that she would come to love Bwayes, the fellow jungle guide, instead of Wakanga, the academic. Recognizing their love, Wakanga acquiesced. But he would no longer speak to Bwayes, his youth made him resentful. In a jungle attack, Bwayes was infected with lycanthropy. By the end of the next moon, he realized what he had become: a weretiger. He had massacred a household. He hid. Desperate, Bwayes came to Wakanga for help and the scholar agreed, setting aside his jealousy. In weeks he discovered an artifact that prevents lycanthropic transformation: The Mask of the Beast. He mortgaged his assets and bought it for his cousin. Bwayes joined Azaka under cover of darkness. He confessed that terrible things had happened and that he must now always wear a mask, but he could not bring himself to confess the full truth to her. They lay together under the full moon, and after he fell asleep, she found she could not resist seeing her lover's face. Azaka Stormfang removed the sleeping Bwayes' mask and was attacked in the full moon light by her transformed lover. When Bwayes came out of the stupor, he found her torn body on the grasses beneath him. He fled believing he'd murdered his true love. Azaka the weretiger woke to pterafolk scavenging their campsite. She scared them off, but they got the mask. In the intervening years, she has learned the nature of the mask and how to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Bwayes has been missing.
Needle's Bones [4837] (p.80) Needle's Bones is a fun puzzle location. Play it as-written. I found that using a terrain and props approach to the scenario helped with the puzzle-solving (though, not sure the water and soy-sauce pond made much difference). Ormalagos ("Needle") is included here as fan-service for those who read the Forgotten Realms novel, The Rage. Kir Sabal [4638] (p.68) Kir Sabal is a diplomatic rest-over, Tomb of Annihilation's analog to the Emerald City. The monastery is set high on the side of a plateau, 500 feet up (50d6 falling damage). Though the aarakocra run this monastery as their own, they did not build it. Presumably, Kir Sabal was built by tabaxi (the cat people, not the Chultans) in the time Ubtao ruled the land. They left it abandoned at some time in the past (Kir Sabal has no canon lore that I can find; it was invented for this module) and the aarakocra moved in later. Note: the aarakocra do NOT worship Ubtao or even know of him. They meditate about their own stuff. How to Play Kir Sabal For the most part, treat the setting like a kung fu movie. The characters have arrived at the Shaolin Temple and must prove their eligibility through patience and menial chores. They have to wait outside in the elements for some time (days? weeks?). Then, as they literally work their way to its inner sanctums, they learn truths. Wax on, wax off, etc. Once inside, the place is a lore-dump and a palace intrigue, but a weird (and maybe funny?) one. It's also offers the following adventure hooks:
Weirdness of Kir Sabal Aarakocra only live to be about 30 years old, which means "incredibly old" as Asharra|Mother Teresa is described is a relative term. She's probably no older than 40. This means they must have settled this location from their home, the Plane of Air, maybe 30 years ago. Thus, Teacher Asharra doesn't know much about the Toril other than what she picked up from the books in the shrine. Play up on her false wisdom as a gag. There must also be a portal to the plane of air somewhere nearby, maybe within the shrine. It's somewhere that Mwaxanare|Vespa can reach, because she has been communicating with the Wind Dukes of Aaqa behind Asharra's back to become a warlock. Her pursuit of power here is the engine of the palace intrigue, if you want to explore it. Nangalore [4341] (p.74) Jerry: What is this about? If your players took the eastern course through the jungle, Nangalore is the big boss for this chapter. After navigating a psychedelic hanging garden, they'll face a medusa and will:
A hanging garden is one formed in terraces rising one above another. It does not refer to things hanging down, but to the overhanging terraces upon which trees are growing. The most famous is one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Though the book provides a lovely map of the location, it probably works best in theater of the mind (or maybe a good VTT with Fog of War on). Obfuscation is a major part of this location and having players see what's going on would screw it up. Note the 3D model I made of Nangalore above: massive trees blot out much of the facility and, because of the various levels, visibility is even further limited. The map is also somewhat confusing unless you study it closely. I've provided here a labeled one. Nangalore is strewn with hints about the presence of a medusa. Don't try to hide them from your players; make it obvious. Much of Tomb of Annihilation is about introducing players to weird Gygaxian monsters, but everyone knows about Medusa. Let them have this bit of insight. It's cooler to walk into the situation with mirrors-at-the-ready and feel smart than to stumble in and be blindsided and suddenly dead. Also, be sure it's obvious that the medusa is pining over her lost love. The graffiti around the garden points to this, but make sure it's emphasized so they have a sense of it before they parlay with Zalkore. Nangalore is a psychedelic experience. Be sure to embrace it. The sheltered gardens (5A, 5B, 5C, 5D) expose the characters to a specialty charming poison. Note:
Lore Dump Much of what Zalkore will explain to the players is about the Omuan line, the Yuan-ti invasion of Omu, and the broad history of ancient Chult. Zalkore will recommend that the Death Curse is certainly coming from Omu. The eblis are intelligent and speak common. They know about the events in Omu since her reign. Note that two generations go unnamed in the adventure, Zalkore's daughter and great-granddaughter. Omuan Lineage: Na N'Buso Ch'gakare (First King of Omuan Line - beheaded the king who ruled Omu before him) Zalkore (Medusa, lover of Thiru-taya) Unnamed Daughter (Mrembo) Napaka, the Last Queen of Omu (200 yrs ago) Unnamed Daughter (Aiberu) Razaan & Omek (fled to Kir Sabal with an infant 17 years ago and died in the last 6 years) Mwaxanare & Na ("Na" must mean "Great" or "King") Medusa Attack! The guide indicates that your players can get through their meeting diplomatically—but don't do this. Eventually, Zalkore gets triggered by the players and flips out. Remember to run the eblis effectively. They're not dumb birds; they're intelligent spellcasting stork-men. And don't skip out on the summoning of Thiru-Taya's spirit!
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This Article has 5 Sections
1. Hex Crawl Steps*
2. "Chapter 2: The Land of Chult" OverviewA third of this campaign (HALF of its non-Tomb content) is the jungle hex-crawl by page-count (and much more if you are going by the amount of adventuring the content implies). It's THE major part of the game besides the dungeon itself (the other parts are Port Nyanzaru, Omu, and the Fane of the Night Serpent, if you forgot). I advise buying some Tabs to put in the book at pages 37 & 90 so you can flip to the section easily. This chapter of the game serves two primary purposes in the campaign:
The realities of running the hex-crawl as-written (see above) are tricky. It can be tedious and frustrating for players. It can waste a lot of game time (remember: most gaming groups break up after SIX sessions!). This is not desirable. What to Emphasize The hex-crawl should telegraph three motifs to our players. Not "tedious, wasteful, and frustrating," but:
The game is called Tomb of Annihilation. Its whole reputation is centered on its deadliness (and the deadliness of its predecessor, the Tomb of Horrors). So whenever you are preparing a section of the jungle to describe, remember to emphasize that deadliness when appropriate. This game is also Chris Perkins & Co's attempt to give us a tour through the weirdness of old D&D content—particularly the creatures found in Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio, but also a bunch of old modules, adventures, and sourcebooks from the olden days (The Jungles of Chult, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, 3rd Ed) as well as the novel Ring of Winter. It's a lot, so dive into it at your own peril. This weirdness/nostalgia is a part of what's going on, though. Chult is ancient. D&D already is rested on the conceit that there are medieval fantasy characters running around on the bones of ancient, forgotten lore. Playing in Chult adds another layer of antiquity to that, being the bones upon which THAT ancient lore was built. Remember to emphasize the primordial in your game. What to Avoid Avoid making your limited time tedious, wasteful , or frustrating. Hex-crawls were a part of D&D in its early days, but fell out of fashion in the late 80s. WotC included it here to show a new generation what the old days were like. When your players enter the jungle, run the hex-crawl exploration as-written (see p.37 or top of every one of my jungle pages). They'll find the randomized adventuring exciting because it's new to them. It may seem chaotically random for a DM, but players love dice-generated content. Roll with it for now. BUT... If the players keep having similar encounters, the game can become dull. Likewise, if they have their survival gear pinned down (water, food, bug repellant, etc), then the relevant checks for them become tedious. Emphasize these only until they are conquered; then hand-wave them away (unless your players are still loving them!). If every game-night is consumed with random encounters with no keyed-location (a geographical point of interest), relevant lore, or clues to the end-goal, everyone starts to feel like they're wasting time. Find ways to point them toward keyed locations. If players cannot figure out where to go, they'll probably get frustrated. Don't be afraid to provide them with clues often. I'll provide suggestions for this throughout the guide. Grinding vs Realization Players are meant to reach about 5th or 6th level by the time they reach Omu. Whether you use an XP system or milestones, it will take a fair amount of adventuring to reach this goal: 6500-14,000 XP (equivalent to killing 280 Batiri goblins or grungs, 140 firenewts or pterafolk, or 2.37 young red dragons PER CHARACTER). This means you cannot have them rush off to Omu as soon as they arrive at Port Nyanzaru. They'll be too squishy when they arrive. Instead, they will need to grind through some parts of the jungle to level up, then learn where they are going when they are ready. I recommend:
3. A N0te on Hex-CrawlingThis module approaches hex-crawling differently than the old days.
This means the hex-crawl is not about exploring Chult, but a game mechanic that derails players from their already-known destinations. Remember: "Mīlle viae dūcunt hominēs per saecula Omu" — a thousand roads lead men forever to Omu. Moreover, the rules for running the hex-crawl in this adventure are not very clearly expressed. The rules for the navigation are in one place (p.37), determining weather another (p.11), water foraging another (p.38), rain catchers another (p.32), and random encounters yet another (p.193). Meanhwhile, rules for Rangers, Outlanders, and exhaustion are in a totally different book (PHB p.91, p.136, & p.291 respectively). Therefore, I highly recommend you use the procedure developed by Technoskald on his website here. He has consolidated and organized all the steps into a single place in a clear way. Consider using Reddit user /u/limithron's Random Encounter Generator. (Don't forget to thank him for making it!). It's a handy tool. AGAIN: if the randomized hex-crawling becomes un-fun and tedious, hand-wave that part of travel away and run the game like typical D&D. It's fine. I promise. 4. 1000 Roads to OmuThere are an infinite number of ways your players can find their way to Omu, but there are really only a handful of likely paths they'll take. We'll look at these left-to-right on our map (west-to-east). 1. The Western March - The Merry Old Land of OZ (link to guide forthcoming) Yellyark > Vorn > Mbala > Orolunga > Omu Adventure Hooks "Help the Lord's Alliance" p.17 "Seek Wisdom at Orolunga" p.17 Azaka Stormfang p.33 Eku p.34 River & Flask p. 35 Rumor 93-96 p.36 Wakanga O'tamu - Wizard's Journal, p.27 The subject of the northwestern jungle is the Wizard of OZ. Emphasize the themes "no place like home" and the value of intelligence, compassion, and bravery. Saja N'baza|OZ can tell them to go to Omu. Yellyark = Munchkinland, Vorn = Tin-Man, Nanny Pu'pu = Wicked Witch, Saja N'baza = Wizard of OZ 2. Sail to the Southwest - Journey of Descent (link to guide forthcoming) Jahaka Anchorage > Wyrmheart Mine > Hrakhamar > Omu Adventure Hooks "Hunt Pirates" p.17 Hew Hackinstone p.34 Musharib p.34 Rumor 41-45 p.36 Rumor 51-55 p.36 Rumor 56-60 p.36 (sort of) The subject of the southwest region of Chult is colonization and theft. The three main examples to emphasize are theft of property (pirates), resources (mines/forges), and people (prisoners/genocide). Tzindelor/Tinder|Tab can tell them to go to Omu. 3. River Shoshenstar - Into the Heart of Darkness...er...Ubtao (link to guide forthcoming) Camp Righteous > Camp Vengeance > Heart of Ubtao > Omu Adventure Hooks "Escort a Priest to Camp Vengeance" p.17 "Explore the Aldani Basin" p.17 Eku p.34 Rumor 61-65 p.36 Rumor 88-92 p.36 Rumor 93-96 p.36 The subject of the trip down River Shoshenstar is Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now! Emphasize the themes of colonialism, imperialism, and racism. Valindra Shadowmantle|Lydia from Beetlejuice can tell them to go to Omu. Fort Beluarian = Central Station/I Field Force Headquarters, Camp Righteous = Russian hut/army outpost, Camp Vengeance = Inner Station/Angkor temple, Niles Breakbone = Kurz 4. River Tiryki and/or River Olung - High on Heights Firefinger > Ataaz Muhahah > Wreck of the Narwhal > Needle's Bones > Kir Sabal > Nangalore > Omu Adventure Hooks "Help the Lord's Alliance" p.17 Azaka Stormfang p.33 Eku p.34 Faroul & Gondolo p.34 River & Flask p.35 Rumor 01-05 p.36 Rumor 13-17 p.36 Rumor 22-28 p.36 Rumor 29-33 p.36 Rumor 34-40 p.36 The subject of the eastern jungles of Chult is heights and highs. Emphasize the themes of falling damage and psychedelic mysticism (and also: weretiger love). Technically, this path is two paths combined, but they are so closely aligned thematically, and overlap so practically, that I'll treat them as one. Separately, they are: Firefinger > Ataaz Muhahah > Needle's Bones > Kir Sabal > Nangalore > Omu (if by land) and Port Castigliar > Ataaz Muhahah > Kir Sabal > Nangalore > Omu (if by sea) Teacher Asharra|Mother Teresa or Zalkore|Ophelia can tell them to go to Omu. 5. Some Other Roads to Omu No matter whether your players take the bait of the hooks above or not, over time they should learn that their destination is Omu. The book says these other characters can point them in the right direction:
5. Handling Random Encounters in the JungleRandom encounter generators like the ones on p.193 are both classic and cool, however, they don't always work thematically with what's going on in your adventure and sometimes it's not clear how to make them cool.
When preparing for your coming session, it's okay to plan a non-random encounter or two if appropriate for your theme. Your players will not mind at all that a pre-planned thing happened when normally there would be a random one. Flavor your random encounters with the day's weather, the regional themes of encounter, and the lore of the adventure. I find it tough to run the random encounters with just the little information in the descriptions. They're only a short paragraph usually. I will provide a linked list of these encounters on the Table of Contents that you can run directly from—including flavor text, stat blocks, and appropriate flavorings to help your game. Until then, remember to emphasize heat and rain and soggy feet and thundering torrents when the weather calls for it. I suggest making the northern half of the peninsula a facsimile of every Vietnam or Amazon rain-forest film you've ever seen—and the southern jungles of the peninsula like Savage Land or Skull Island. I wish there was an easy way to point to how the lore could be organized, but I don't have one. You'll just have to do your best until I can get the other pages up! This Article has 5 Sections
MICAH'S PRONUNCIATION GUIDE (not definitive) Aremag - AIR-uh-mag Beluarion - bell-oo-AIR-ee-an Fort Beluarian - bell-oo-AIR-ee-an Korhie Donadrue - Corey DONNA-drew Gruta Haldottir - GROOT-uh HALL-daughter Liara Portyr - lee-AH-ra POOR-tur Rahl Zuberi - RALL zoo-BARE-ee Shilau M’wenye - SHEE-lauw muh-WHEN-yay Sigbeorn Dunebar - sig-BAY-orn DUNE-eh-bar River Tiryki - tir-EE-key 1. Heading NorthThe first place the players are likely to head after Port Nyanzaru is Fort Beluarian to purchase their charter of exploration. They will probably charter a ship like The Brazen Pegasus (10 mph sloop; Ortimay; 10 gp/day) for this, but they may decide to ford River Tiryki and then hike. Sailing = 10 hexes by sea + 2 hexes on foot (120 miles; 2-3 days) Hiking = 7 hexes on foot (70 miles; 7-14 days) We'll presume for this article that they are sailing because I'll handle hex-crawl elsewhere. 2. Aremag the Dragon TurtleNOTE: Characters will need upwards of 400 gp in treasure to cover Aremag's extortion. The Aremag | Dragon Turtle scenario ("Bay of Chult," p. 42) is included as fan-service for people who have read the Ring of Winter novel starring Artus Cimber. Off the starboard bow, an island had seemingly risen from the sea. The dark, rocky mound was almost half the length of the Narwhal. Gorgeous patterns of silver glittered all along the gentle curve of its sides, broken in places by trailers of seaweed. A sharp ridge ran along the center, leading to another, smaller mound-- Poop deck. That's the part of a boat's deck in the back. Use this information as you see fit. This scenario has 3 main purposes:
It makes sense to not say outright that Aremag is a dragon turtle, though. Instead, have her be vague and say that they'll need to pay up to 400 gp in bribes or fees to get to their destination—or at least, only use Aremag's name, not his species when she talks about him. On the other hand, the players might be prepared for him because they read the novel or picked up a relevant rumor about the monster. It doesn't matter much. Aremag speaks only draconic and aquan. Ortimay can tell the players they'll need someone who can speak one of these, which may cause them to ready a languages spell or bring in a hireling who speaks one. If you like, one of Ortimay's Bandit Captain languages can be one of them—maybe aquan since she's a pirate. I would let the players to solve the language problem themselves. Emphasize that this will come up often in the jungles. Aremag is meant to be un-fightable—at least, not at low levels (CR17). It's gargantuan, so takes up a 20' x 20' space on a grid and has a 15' reach. It's just a fun mini-game that sucks up player money. RUNNING THE AREMAG SEQUENCE Start with the flavor text on p. 43 if you like. Emphasize dangerousness and the sharks. Get the ship spinning. Show them the art above. The art is great. I would probably do theater of the mind so a 4" x 4" mini doesn't detract from the drama. NPCs can help coach players on what they should/could do throughout (like holding the bag out, suggesting they bluff, etc).
BONUS IDEAS: IDEA: You will need to decide how often this bribe has to happen. Is it every time a ship comes through the Bay of Chult [3815]? This seems problematically expensive if trade really exists between the Sword Coast and the peninsula. The novel implies that Aremag has monthly dues that are paid. “We’ve paid your toll already this month, Aremag,” she shouted. “If you’ve damaged my ship, you’ll be the one to pay for her repairs.” If this is the matter, then the players might be good-to-go for 30 days of unharassed sailing after the bribe. If not, then ships would either find a way to dodge dealing with Aremag or one of the governments would be really interested in killing him. IDEA: You could have an NPC ponder where the monster puts all that loot. It must be similar to a real dragon's hoard by now. This could later lead to a quest to get it, if the players want. But don't forget: Aremag is a CR17 monster. IDEA: There is a giant snapping turtle named Ol' Cholms in the Gray Harbor of Baldur's Gate—which is probably where your characters are from. If the players sail to Chult instead of teleport, I'd include an encounter with it in the voyage. Otherwise, before they set sail to encounter Aremag, create a memory with a flashback mini-game in which the players dealt with the giant snapping turtle years before. Maybe they were all Level-0 friends gone fishing and the turtle attacks their little boat, capsizing them and making them almost drown. After they "remember" this, their expectations for Aremag will be lowered. IDEA: There is a giant snapping turtle named King Toba in Snapping Turtle Bay [4768] on the south end of the peninsula (p. 83). Ortimay or sailors may be familiar with him. He may also have been learned about through the rumor tables on p. 36. King Toba's shell is covered with giant crystals since the Spellplague. 3. Beluarian Landing & TrailThe book doesn't give us much information about Beluarian Landing, but it's an important element: it's probably the player's first look at the jungle-land they'll be entering. As they often do, the writers imply things with it that I'll spell out explicitly here. This is what they give us on p. 55 (the poor place doesn't even get a location number!): Everything being shipped in or out of the fort goes through Beluarian Landing, which is nothing more than a stretch of beach with a few log buildings above the tide line. Ships anchor a half-mile offshore, and people and supplies are ferried back and forth on rowboats. Six Flaming Fist guards defend this station; their chief duty is rowing the boats back and forth. In case of danger, they can barricade themselves inside the stoutest log building or row out to sea until whatever threatens them loses interest and wanders away. The guards (called "Fists"—the lowest rank in the Flaming Fist) aren't meant to be a combat threat to the party. Instead, they will ford them over from The Brazen Pegasus to shore. I use characters from The Muppet Show as the bases of the characters at Fort Beluarian. Lean into the "the furthermost outpost of the realm" trope (think Major Fambrough at Fort Sedgewick in Dances with Wolves) and have these Flaming Fist mercenaries having abandoned their uniform codes. They're wearing undershirts instead of their mail, tied-on sweaty headbands instead of helms, and they're unshaven and hungover. They're annoyed with the heat. They go by nicknames. They are friendly to the PCs because they see other Sword Coast folks as their kin. Play up on this colonizer/racist dynamic. They refer to Chultans with othering language. For example: natives, savages. If the party tries to question them, they're basically helpful:
Guards x 6 Coots | Scooter , Ratman , Ghost, Gramps, Pagan, and Snake On the trail to the fort, any players who didn't secure jungle supplies to protect them from bugs, water for travel, etc should feel the pinch. These necessaries can be bought when they get to the fort, but they're more expensive than back in Port Nyanzaru. If the players leave for the Fort between 8am and 10am, then they will be traveling with a small mob of travelers, merchants, etc. They will not be attacked. If they travel AFTER 10am, then they will be alone. If you like, have them get ambushed by something on the way. I recommend the sea-hag encounter from p. 202. (See appendix at the bottom of this post). Fort Beluarian [4515]Fort Beluarian is run by 60 Flaming Fist. It's a busy and prosperous place—built on the exploitation of Chultan resources by colonizers. If you've ever seen The Emerald Forest, this should give the impression of the construction site at the edge of the jungle. A hundred and fifty years ago, Flaming Fist mercenaries came to Chult to colonize and exploit, and one of that commission's two leaders was a man from Baldur's Gate named Beluarion—for whom the fort is named. The culture in the fort is generally positive and busy. The Flaming Fist are getting rich. In the wake of the Amnian expulsion, they are the primary Sword Coast profiteer here (also being a major part of the Port Nyanzaru wall guards and holding control over the northern part of the jungle). So long as they are disciplined mercenaries, Liara Portyr | Kermit tolerates a loosening of normal expectations. The jungle is hot and there's no one but the "savages" there to judge them for sweat-stained clothes. She's only very strict about steel maintenance, since the heavy rains breed rust. If the party is in the fort for over a day, she requests their presence in 10C - The Hall. There are four main types of people moving about in the fort:
Unless the PCs infiltrate (such as in "Create a Distraction at Fort Beluarian" side quest, p. 17 and below) and get caught—or try to ATTACK the fort, the experience should be pretty friendly. They can stock up on goods, hire some guides if needed, learn rumors and lore, and attain audience with Liara Portyr to attain the charter of exploration (50gp). Flaming Fist Guards: they're all around the place and alert. They have a +2 on perception checks, and if they're on-duty, they make active checks regularly. In combat guards are very weak—only CR1/8—so you will need to throw a whole mess of them at your party if things go south. Play them hard in a fight. Use these strategies:
This, though, is all meaningful only if a combat breaks out. If not, they are generally 'tough-guy friendly,' seeing Sword Coasters as natural allies. SHOPPING Pretty much anything the party needs can be bought in the shops of the bazaar, but they cost more: 25% more for armor & weapons (location 2), 50% more for gear (PHB p. 145, 149-150). NPCs (numbers match map locations) 1. Gatehouse - 6 guards on the parapet | Statler & Waldorf. Two are manning the gate itself from up there Flame Statler and Flame Waldorf. They're friendly to visitors, but mock their fellow Beluarians. 2. Armorer - Korhie Donadrue | Gonzo: spy who loves to gossip, been in Chult since before the revolution; he knows a lot of lore from his own adventures into the bush a long time ago. He's sympathetic to Chultans, a rare non-racist amongst the Flaming Fist here. 4. Bazaar - besides the 12 merchants selling goods in the bazaar, the characters might meet and hire the outlaw guides here (though, they might be any of number of places in the fort): Qawasha | Bob Ross Directs to undead regions always. Suggests getting writ. Druid. Qawasha’s vegepygmy companion Kupalué “Weed” | I am koo-pah-LOO-ay, would not be in the fort because he's so weird. Instead, he'd be out in the jungle waiting for Quwasha go collect him. I recommend reading the three-part fiction about these two published in Dragon+ magazine: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Shago | Annie Son of Zhanthi. Fears becoming undead. Wants to impress Liara Portyr. Gladiator. 5. Temple of Helm - Shilau M’wenye | Rowlf the Dog: father was a Chultan priest, mother was a ninja from Kara-tur. He looks for the best in everyone. Has many reasons, mostly to help children, for why people should donate to the temple (Helm is a god of paladins and guards). 6. Stables - Thaeven the Bald | Beaker: commoner with +4 Animal Handling. Complains constantly about how there's no way to take good care of these horses here. Riding horses x2: Suckerpunch (bay), Marinara (palamino) Armored war horses x5: Chubbs (black), Cinder (dapple gray), Maestro (paint), Pennywhistle (brown), Sultan (black) 8. Provisioner - Jaro | Animal: old Chultan commoner. Will only sell simple goods to Flaming Fist, but at normal PHB prices—"No civilians allowed!" 10A. Courtyard - Scooter, Sweetums, Tanis, Sturm: The guards turn the party away when they arrive, but can take their names down for an appointment with Liara Portyr. Roll to see how long they'll have to wait, 2d8 business hours, to get in. The players can shop or meet NPCs while they wait. When let in, they will be greeted by Gruta Haldottir | Miss Piggy. 10B. Raptor Pen - Rahl Zuberi | Fozzie the Bear: Chultan tribal warrior with +4 Animal Handling. Covered in scars, tattoos, and missing half of his right hand. He drinks at the provisioner's and likes to pull pranks (often, accidentally backfiring on himself):
10C. Hall - Liara Portyr | Kermit: the Blaze of the Flaming Fist holds court here, sitting at the end of a humble mess-hall table. Papers and files are piled near her, but she sits with her men. She runs a tight ship, but is not cruel. Nearly-overwhelmed leader and manager. Typically, there will be some guards here, for security, but also to sometimes eat, report, make queries, etc. All sorts of varied NPCs (complaining albino dwarf miners, Batiri complaining about borders being encroached, Chultans of various stripes, adventurers seeking charters, Tabaxi trying to sell nonsense, etc) meet with her all day long. If the team comes here per Liara's orders, she will conscript the team and send them on one of her Agents of the Flaming Fist quests described on p.56. Decide ahead of time which one you want her to give them; each awards the group with a free charter of exploration.
10D. Kitchen - Sigbeorn Dunebar | Swedish Chef: has been in Chult longer than anyone. He has been there for 40 years, saw the old colonizers, explored the old jungles, and witnessed the expulsion of the Amnians. He knows lore. But mostly, he loves cooking! 10E. Castellan (manager) - Gruta Haldottir | Miss Piggy: Will be the one to introduce the team to Liara Portyr. Very intimidating knight. Has the keys to 10G. Running "Create a Distraction at Fort Beluarian" from p. 17Rokah |Sean Connery James Bond Spy Rokah could approach the party anywhere, but if they do something big in public, that can trigger him trying to hire them. He could also think they look like an effective troupe and approach them cold. Rokah needs an escort to Fort Beluarian and a distraction while he ransacks the commander's (Blaze Liara Portyr) quarters. His superiors (Zhentarim, but don't say this—say "people who work directly for the merchant princes") suspect the Flaming Fist are in league with the pirates, and he has been tasked with finding the evidence. The party should be warm to this since Zindar offered rewards for bringing down pirates as soon as they arrived. In return, he offers to pay for their charter of exploration (50gp), introduce them to the best wilderness guides in Chult and pay for hiring them (River Mist & Flask of Wine), and will cover passage to and from the fort (the Brazen Pegasus, most likely). Assure the party that this is a low-risk endeavor. The garrison has 58 mercenaries stationed at it, but they'd only need to distract enough that he could get into the Inner Bailey and snoop around. That location has only a dozen or so guards in it at any given time and Liara Portyr holds court in its Hall (10C). Rokah should have a map of the fort—provide either the one in the book on p.55 or trace off a rough hand-drawn one. This will allow the players to plot out their distraction plan. The distraction will need to last some set amount of time. I would determine this randomly. Roll a d12 when the distraction begins in order to determine how long his search goes. On a 12, he fails to find any evidence, but otherwise he finds the sending stone in her iron box (10I). Rokah will pay the necessary costs of Aramag the Dragon-Turtle. From Beluarian Landing on up to the Fort, the party should be attacked by something. I used a trio of sea hags (pretending to be women in trouble on the road) because that was the random beach encounter that came up (p. 195), but you could throw whatever you like at them. If successful, Rokah fulfills his promises to the party. He also may provide them access to Zhanthi, who is ultimately behind this mission. Appendix A: The Sea Hag EncounterThe SEA HAGS random encounter is found on p. 202 of the adventure. PURPOSE:
Here's the text for the encounter from p. 202: The characters encounter three sea hags that comprise a coven. Their favorite trick is to pull a damaged or abandoned canoe onto a riverbank and pretend to be stranded or wounded explorers in need of rescue. I'll talk about how to present this below, but let's pin down the safe-guards to prevent a TPK first.
NPCs for SAVING THE CHARACTERS: Here are the members of the Company of the Yellow Banner with stat block links and descriptions.
If the Company of the Yellow Banner shows up, let the hags flee unless they kill some of them fast. The sea hags can show up to harass our heroes later that way.
HOW TO RUN THE SEA HAG ENCOUNTER HAG LOOT: roll 3 times on the treasure drops table on p. 197 OR, they have:
If the players kill a hag, the Sewn Sisters become aware that they are on the peninsula and will start harassing them (coming in dreams, etc). Likewise, Nanny Pupu becomes aware and will know they are coming if they head toward Mbala. The players should be scared of the jungle by now. This Article has 2 Sections:
1. NPCs - Dramatis PersonaeThe ToA book has the NPCs for this section scattered all over the place because they're arranged by topic. Your players will be in one particular area at a given time, so having to flip back and forth between the Merchant Prince section, the Side Quests section, the Encounters Tables, and whatever is a huge pain in the butt. Instead, I have arranged the NPCs for Port Nyanzaru by location on a single page. These follow the numbering used on the Port Nyanzaru map in the book. I have included links to stat blocks when possible. Some of these are non-canon or homebrew NPCs, so if you don't like that, sorry. PRO-TIP: Press Control-F (Command-F on a Mac) to "FIND" a word or name on this page for speedy lookups. (Cell-phones have their own wonky ways to do this, so good luck). OLD CITY (1) BEGGAR'S PALACES Beggar Prince Madame Malaya | Drexl from True Romance South Ziggurat. Prostitution: leverage over many in city. BBB policy. Spy. Beggar Prince Spotless Takataka | Tony Soprano North Ziggurat. Sanitation: ruthless Chultean Waste Services. Gladiator. (2) EXECUTIONER'S RUN Beggar Prince Kamari the Fat | Beetlejuice Lesser Ziggurat. Gambling: runs all the bookies. Dino races, Grand Coliseum, and raptor fights collected in city; Executioner Run bets taken at Lesser Ziggurat. Popular. Commoner. K’lahu | Sleazy girl Watto | "Collect a Debt" p.16 (see below) Female bookie who takes bets at Executioner’s Run. Hires party to collect from Taban: 10% to players (only has 50gp of 500gp debt, which he'll pay once <50hp). Thug. Taban | Clayface Man who owes 500gp to K'lahu; offers to join players when loses. Gladiator. (3) REFUSE PIT Ghouls, otyughs (otyughs foreshadow the obliette in the Tomb). MERCHANT WARD(4) GOLDENTHRONE - THRONE HILL (if there, 1d3 hours for audience w/ MPs) Honor Guard | Spider, Scorpion, Tick, Harvestman, Octopus, Squid, Nautilus, Byte 8 Gladiators. (5) MERCHANT PRINCE'S VILLAS (appear in 3 locations on map) NAME | BASIS | POLITICAL STYLE] Ekene-Afa |Donald Trump | Nelson Mandela Weapons, shields, canoes, rain catchers, and traveling gear. Gladiator. Ifan Talro'a | Jareth the Goblin King | Richard III Beasts. Jealous of Wakanga & Ekene; flying snakes warn Yuan-ti. Noble. Jessamine | Bride of Frankenstein | Gandhi Plants, poisons, and assassinations. Has death curse. Assassin. Jobal | Lando Calrissian | Prince Humperdink Guides and mercenaries. Wants Syndra’s map. Scout. Aazon Talieri | Inigo Montoya Trusted consort loyal to Jobal. Spy. Kwayothe | AOC | Queen of Hearts Fruit, wine, oil, perfume, tej (mead), and insect repellant. Has fire ring. Priest. Wakanga O'tamu | Prince | Mitt Romney Magic and lore. Has Wizard’s Journal. Mage. Syndra Silvane | Dolly Parton Stricken by the death curse. Staying with Wakanga. Archmage. Zhanthi | McGonnagal | Mitch McConnell Gems, jewelry, cloth, and armor. Ytepka member with Zhentari ties. Noble. (7) TEMPLE OF SAVRAS Grandfather Zitembe | Rafiki Knows curse is in Omu. Make him a secret Eshowe descendant. If asked to sooth, "a jungle city far to the south, enclosed by cliffs and crawling with snakes--a black obelisk draped in vines." 3 Zhent Assassins wanting info about Artus Cimber. Priest. Inete | Fiver Granddaughter of Grandfather Zitembe. Has had visions of red wizards running a base in Aldani Basin. Suggests visiting Temple of Savras (so probably not met there). Acolyte. 3 Zhentarim Assassins: Vlargak, Mocesti, & Jathen | Weasels from Roger Rabbit Want Zitembe to do spell to aid their search (scrying? divinations?). 500gp ruby. Assassins. (10) JEWEL MARKET Zhanthi's guards and spies. HARBOR WARDBRAZEN PEGASUS Ortimay Swift-and-Dark | Cockney street-urchin Female gnome captain of the Brazen Pegasus; clever and calm. Bandit. Grig Ruddell | Coach Beard from Ted Lasso Gray-bearded first-mate of Brazen Pegasus. Hulking and silent except orders. Veteran. 6 Sailors | Archer, Cyril, Krieger, Lana, Cheryl, Pam Various ethnicities. Bandits. (12) STATUE Na N'buso, the Great King. Just a big statue. (13) HARBORMASTER'S OFFICE Zindar | Santa Half gold-dragon harbormaster. Ytepka Society member. Offering 2k gp for each pirate ship and 500 gp per captured captain. Uses spells for work; message, detect thoughts, knock, clairvoyance s, dominate beast, etc. Stats. (15) FORT NYANZARU Castellan Paihikara | Cyclops Leader of a fort that hasn't done any actual fighting in decades. Noble. Officers Ajabu, Mnyama, Malaika, & Ysman | Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, & Iceman Loyal to the Merchant Princes. Veteran. 40 Soldiers Loyal to the Merchant Princes. Guards. MARKET WARD - THRONE HILL(18) RED BAZAAR THE THUNDERING LIZARD - 5 sp / night Azaka Stormfang | Okoyeh from Black Panther Free if group finds “family heirloom” Mask of the Beast. Saja N’baza ally. Acrophobic. Weretiger. Emeka Isrit | Arthur/Billie Madison--an ex-adventurer owner. Night: sloppy-drunk bartender, free drinks (only sells tej). Daytime: competent manager. Hew Hackinstone | Private Pyle Guide. Insane dwarf. Survived dragon attack at Wrymheart Mine and wants to return. Berserker. Musharib | Kuil “I have spoken” Guide. Wants Gauntlet from Hrakhamar. Super-bigoted against non-dwarves. Albino dwarf spirit warrior. Salida | Jessie from Toy Story, but insulting Guide. Tries to join to report to Ras Nsi. Yuan-ti pureblood. Undril Silvertusk | Ted Lasso Female half-orc priest of Torm. Just came to town and realized buying a horse wouldn't cut it. Seeks party to Camp Vengeance, but will stand against Breakbone if things go south. Priest w/ 60ft darkvision. Volothamp “Volo” Geddarm | Mel Brooks' King Louie Famous author from Waterdeep on Chult book tour. Selling guides for 50gp. Will pay for new monster information for his books. Friends with Jobal. Volo. KAYA'S HOUSE OF REPOSE - 1 gp/night Eku | Glinda the Good Witch Guide. Cannot lie. Couatl disguised as middle age woman. Knows Omu location. Enemy of Nanny Pu’pu. Couatl. Faroul | Rosencrantz Guide. Calishite (Spanish Moore) partner to Gondolo. Gambling addict, has map to Needle’s Bones. Tells tales. Owns Zongo the triceratops. Scout. Gondolo | Guildenstern Guide. Halfling. Drunk. Faux poet philosopher. Lucky/survivor. Scout. Kaya | Morticia Addams Elegant and kind Chultan owner. Has access to the Merchant Princes and royalty. Noble. Ronhip Foechuckle | Tom Cruise Hipster bartender. Knows everything about booze. Commoner. (20) GRAND COLISEUM - YKHVAZI HILL Ekene-Afa |Donald Trump | Nelson Mandela - Only at Coliseum for major events. Weapons, shields, canoes, rain catchers, and traveling gear. Not typically accessible at Coliseum. Gladiator. Beggar Prince Kamari the Fat | Beetlejuice - Only at Coliseum for major events. Gambling: runs all the bookies (thugs). Popular. Commoner. Suggested Events for Holidays: Heroes of Legend vs pirates. Gladiator. Velociraptors vs tigers Mages vs ghouls, skeletons, or zombies. (21) HALL OF GOLD - MOUNT SIBASA Temple of Waukeen. Bridge connects Mount Sibasa to the Grand Coliseum on Yklwazi Hill. Sibonseni - “Mother of Prosperity” | Oprah Beloved chief priestess. Super-diva rides who rides a sedan chair. Servants toss coppers. Priest. (22) PUBLIC BATHHOUSE EVERYONE All Chultans bathe every day at these places. The elite go to the Temple of Sune; the commoners go here. You can introduce your characters to any plot hook at these places. (23) DYE WORKS Omala | Mad Hatter Colorist got iron token from Ytepka Society and needs escort to Kwayothé ("Help a Dyeing Man" below). Commoner. MALAR'S THROATGate is called Ubtao's Jaws; runoff from jungle dumps goods from here into the city Flask of Wine | Sylvester the Cat Unregistered guide. Male. Sociable, but mostly repeats River’s last words; Seeking Artus Cimber. Tabaxi hunter. River Mist | Henrietta Pussycat Unregistered guide. Female. Seeking Altus Cimber for Zentarim. Tabaxi hunter. (24) TEMPLE OF TYMORA Encounter 6 (see below) Besieged by 2d6 zombies and 2d6 skeletons led by a ghoul. If players defeat undead, temple rewards them 5 gallons of tej and a potion of healing. SOUTHERN HILLTOP MANSION Altered from Adventurer's League Beggar Prince Pock-marked Po, “The Hideous Prince” | The Godfather Protection. Old, pock-faced man, always calm. Attendant "lovelies" (bandits) (use CR to make hard). Golden spyglass. Veteran. TIRYKI ANCHORAGENo shelter from dino or undead attacks. Folk must rush into Tiryki Gate to get protection. Dinosaur Handlers Commoner. with +5 Animal Handling Pirates and Sailors Bandits. Lady Death's Dealers Operate in groups of 4 on street corners. Thug. Flask of Wine | Sylvester the Cat Unregistered guide. Male. Sociable, but mostly repeats River’s last words; Seeking Artus Cimber. Tabaxi hunter. River Mist | Henrietta Pussycat Unregistered guide. Female. Seeking Altus Cimber for Zentarim. Tabaxi hunter. HUMBLE CABIN (not a findable place) Beggar Prince Irokuro Kika, "Lady Death" | Ruth from Ozarks Drugs. Allied to Po. Childhood friend to Kwayothe and philosophical mentor. Revolutionary. Assassin. NOT AT PORT NYANZARU, BUT COULD COME UPKupalué “Weed” | I am koo-pah-LOO-ay. At Fort Beluarian. Qawasha’s vegepygmy companion Qawasha | Bob Ross At Fort Beluarian with vegepygmy. Directs to undead regions always. Suggests getting writ. Druid. Shago | Annie At Fort Beluarian. Son of Zhanthi. Fears becoming undead. Wants to impress Liara Portyr. Gladiator. SIDE QUESTS & ENCOUNTERS - NON-LOCATIONAL NPCsThese NPCs and encounters aren't tied to a particular location in the city, but could be hooked to players in many places. If the NPCs would likely be in a location, though, I included them above as well. SIDE QUESTS (p.16) 1. COLLECT A DEBT K’lahu | Sleazy girl Watto Female bookie who takes bets at Executioner’s Run. Hires party to collect from Taban: 10% to players (only has 50gp of 500gp debt, which he'll pay once <50hp). Thug. K'lahu could be anywhere, but likely will be met in the crowd outside Executioner's Run or in the Lesser Ziggurat. Wherever in the city she meets them, K'lahu will approach the team with flattery, saying they look like just the type of people to help her—and make a little money! She'd like the party to go shake down this guy, Taban, who owes money to Kamari the Fat because he's kind of a bruiser and she's worried her men aren't up to it. Taban | Clayface Man who owes 500gp to Taban; offers to join players when loses (free canon-fodder for the Tomb's traps!). Gladiator. He could be anywhere in the city. If you want this to be a small encounter, put him in the crowd at Executioner's Run and K'lahu points him out. Then it's just a matter of following him discretely into an alleyway for the rough-up. Or, if you want to stretch it out, the group can shylock around the city and track him down like bounty hunters. Does the party deliver the whole 500gp worth of gemstones to K'lahu? If so, she'll tell Taban that from now on, his bets need to be paid in advance—he's lost all his credit. She might, afterward, invite the party to meet Kamari the Fat, who is always looking to hire reliable enforcers. Does the party take the gems and keep them? Then they've made an enemy with Kamari the Fat. He'll get a sanction issued from Jessamine and hire her assassins to take the party out in their sleep. 2. CREATE A DISTRACTION AT FORT BELUARIAN Rokah |Sean Connery James Bond Spy Rokah could approach the party anywhere, but if they do something big in public, that can trigger him trying to hire them. He could also think they look like an effective troupe and approach them cold. Rokah needs an escort to Fort Beluarian and a distraction while he ransacks the commander's (Blaze Liara Portyr) quarters. His superiors (Zhentarim, but don't say this—say "people who work directly for the merchant princes") suspect the Flaming Fist are in league with the pirates, and he has been tasked with finding the evidence. The party should be warm to this since Zindar offered rewards for bringing down pirates as soon as they arrived. In return, he offers to pay for their charter of exploration (50gp), introduce them to the best wilderness guides in Chult and pay for hiring them (River Mist & Flask of Wine), and will cover passage to and from the fort (the Brazen Pegasus, most likely). Assure the party that this is a low-risk endeavor. The garrison has 58 mercenaries stationed at it, but they'd only need to distract enough that he could get into the Inner Bailey and snoop around. That location has only a dozen or so guards in it at any given time and Liara Portyr holds court in its Hall (10C). Rokah should have a map of the fort—provide either the one in the book on p.55 or trace off a rough hand-drawn one. This will allow the players to plot out their distraction plan. The distraction will need to last some set amount of time. I would determine this randomly. Roll a d12 when the distraction begins in order to determine how long his search goes. On a 12, he fails to find any evidence, but otherwise he finds the sending stone in her iron box (10I). Rokah will pay the necessary costs of Aramag the Dragon-Turtle. From Beluarian Landing on up to the Fort, the party should be attacked by something. I used a trio of sea hags (pretending to be women in trouble on the road) because that was the random beach encounter that came up (p. 195), but you could throw whatever you like at them. If successful, Rokah fulfills his promises to the party. He also may provide them access to Zhanthi, who is ultimately behind this mission. 3. ESCORT A PRIEST TO CAMP VENGEANCE Undril Silvertusk | Ted Lasso Priest w/ 60ft darkvision. Female half-orc priest of Torm. Just came to town and realized buying a horse wouldn't cut it in the jungle. Seeks party to Camp Vengeance to deliver a "packet of dispatches" from superiors in the Order of the Gauntlet. Undril is broke. She probably has just enough money for a couple night's lodgings and a horse (75gp). She should seem upset and worried. Maybe even crying. She's a sore thumb wherever she is, because she's A) a half-orc and B) in shining chainmail armor. We are not told what is in the packet of dispatches, though Undril will consider it her duty to protect them and keep them secret. Breakbone orders an on-foot party to head north and clean out undead—so maybe the missive said that reinforcements are not coming because the riverway is too dangerous. If they came bay canoe, he sends them with his sick to Port Nyanzaru—so maybe the notes say that the losses are too great, so he must retreat (he's gone nuts, so he misinterprets this to be because of his sick needing treatment, not to abandon the fight). However: I think the coolest would be for the dispatches to include a statement ordering Breakbone to be relieved of command, with Ord Firebeard assuming the position, due to general incompetence. He would pretend not to have read it and continue in charge illegitimately. If players can find out what's in these ahead of time, it could shape the outcome of the Breakbone encounters quite a lot. If Breakbone tries to punish the party for balking at anything, the book describes various ways his orders can be challenged, but Undril's loyalty to them is the main thing. She'll stand up to him and convince him to let them go. Breakbone is basically Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now!, so I'd lean into that. When the players are getting close to Camp Vengeance, I'd watch the movie again and then maybe refresh my readings of Heart of Darkness. I'll give my ideas about how to run that on a later blog post about the location specifically. 4. EXPLORE THE ALDANI BASIN Inete | Fiver Acolyte. Granddaughter of Grandfather Zitembe. Has had visions of red wizards running a base in Aldani Basin. Suggests visiting Temple of Savras to get her supplies. She'll provide her own food and supplies and donate another 100 gp to the expedition's expenses. This is probably introduced after the team has been in the jungle before and already up some levels. If the party reaches Aldani Basin, they'll find the base easily enough—it's the giant floating earthmote, Heart of Ubtao (p.58). In it, they'll discover the elven lich Valindra Shadowmantle | Lydia from Beetlejuice, who will reveal to them the nature of the Soulmonger and that it is in Omu. She is power-player in Forgotten Realms lore, but here incognito. I'd play this lightly—like, have her be pretty gothy the whole time, and if pressed at all, will state outright that she's a lich, ho-hum. Inete will be incensed that Valindra is using this sacred place for her base (as will any traditionalist Chultans in the group). Valindra is in charge of all the Red Wizards of Thay that are exploring Omu and Chult. 5. FIND ARTUS CIMBER Xandala | “Naughty Zute!” handmaid from Holy Grail Sorcerer. Half-elf claiming to be the daughter of Artus Cimber and worried to find him. Really a betrayer character who will, when they find him, cast Dominate Person, take the Ring of Winter, and flee. She has light scales all over her. Summerwise | Cute and Mute Pseudodragon Summerwise can be persuaded to turn on Xandala, but why would the party suspect her of foul play? You didn't hint at it, did you? Xandala doesn't come with any direction or plan for the party, just a loose desire to find Artus. You'll need to decide where Artus is and how the party might track him into the jungle, if at all. 6. HELP A DYEING MAN Omala | Mad Hatter Commoner Colorist got iron token from Ytepka Society and needs escort to Kwayothé at Goldenthrone. Though he'd likely be found at the Dye Works, it would also make sense for him to go to The Thundering Lizard or elsewhere to seek out a party to help him. Omala's crime is strange. He used contraband Dancing Monkey Fruit "to make and sell dyes." The effect of the fruit comes when eaten or drunk, so why would he do this? Would clothing dyed with the fruit have a poisoning effect too, but the book not mention it? Was it a food dye? It's unclear. Instead, I'll infer what I can from the description and lay out how I'd run this: The fruit makes an excellent chartreuse clothing dye. Normally, Omala buys from Kwayothe for 5 gp per fruit and uses 1,000 of them per month. Last month, a black-market trader came to Omala with an offer: Dancing Monkey Fruit fresh out of the jungle for 1 gp a piece. The trader had a month's worth, no questions asked. Omala couldn't resist, so he made the deal—defrauding Kwayothe for 5,000 gp. He'd have got away with it too, but the Ytepka Society have eyes in every business—and noticed. His fraud triggered their dropping the iron coin. Kwayothe is terrifying, Rumor has it she tortures people to death with her beautiful pets. Omala strikes out to The Thundering Lizard (or wherever) trying to find a capable group of protectors who will escort him to the Goldenthrone to meet her and ensure she won't kill him on the spot. He cannot pay them because he has only the 4,000 gp that he saved from the purchase and will need to pay Kwayothe the full 50,000 gp to make amends. He's shy 1,000 gp. Kwayothe is willing to forgive Omala the 1000 gp deficit if the characters agree to secretly assassinate Shago within the next 10 days. If the characters succeed, Kwayothe will pay them 1000 gp out of the pile Omala paid her (inadvertently creating an enemy of Zhanthi). If the characters fail, Kwayothe has Omala killed. 7. HELP THE LORD'S ALLIANCE Lord Lerek Dashlynd | Thor (a terrible spy) Spy Illuskan offering a ship for an accurate map of Chult that includes Nangalor and Orolunga. The Player's Map does not have these locations listed, so they will either need to find these locations through adventuring or get them marked accurately by Eku (knows both) and/or Azaka Stormfang (knows Orolunga). In turn, this side quest is only really possible later in the adventure. Why does the Lord's Alliance want to know these two places? Nangalore is home to Zalkore N'Buso, the last queen of Omu. Orolunga is the home of Saja N'baza the all-knowing Naga. I think this happened because someone from the Lord's Alliance was guided by Eku into the jungle and she told them that answers could be found in these two places. Ironically, I have Lerek spending time every week in the same diner that Eku frequents (Kaya's). If Lerek hires the party before they have been in the jungle, doing research about where these places are would be their quest. They could go to Goldenthrone, Temple of Savras, pursue rumors, etc. to get on the right track. 8. HUNT PIRATES Zindar | Santa Half-Dragon. Half gold-dragon harbormaster. Ytepka Society member. Offering 2000 gp for each pirate ship and 500 gp per captured captain. The first side quest the players get, but it will probably not be possible until they return to Port Nyanzaru the first time. He knows the ship names: Dragonfang, Emerald Eye, and Stirge. The players can capture these at sea from a ship like the Brazen Pegasus or their own, like if Lerek gave them one. Or, they might wrangle them out of Jahaka Anchorage over land. Succeeding at this immediately elevates the party in public standing. Zhanthi will praise them from a balcony. They'll be recognized in the streets of Port Nyanzaru as heroes. 9. SAVE AN INNOCENT MAN Belym | Ernie Commoner Gay husband offers 25 sp to save husband from Executioner's Run. Belym's husband is Draza | Bert who apparently is a victim of mistaken identity. The vibe of this encounter is urgency, so he runs up to the party as they are watching the trials at Executioner's Run. "You look like good and capable people. That man, the man second back in the line, that is my husband! He is innocent!" The party cannot stop the man from dropping into the pit, but they can surreptitiously help him cross the gauntlet. If they are not sneaky enough, guards come and arrest them, etc. If they succeed at helping the man, word travels amongst the commoners that these foreigners are good people. This gives them advantage on persuasion checks with commoners and populists in the future. 10. SEEK WISDOM AT OROLUNGA Eshek | Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster Acolyte of Savras A possessed man tells the party, “SPEAK TO THE GUARDIAN OF OROLGUNGA!!!” and passes out. This is a random encounter, best used if a party is too focused on some other path. Or, it could be cool to do it as soon as they leave the docks their first day in the city! Azaka Stormfang and Eku both know the location of Orolgunga, so this could be a good segue to them. The Temple of Savras, obviously, could offer more help too. ENCOUNTERS (p.193)
1. A PARROT POOPS ON A RANDOM CHARACTER'S HEAD Roll a die to choose the party member. Or, choose the one who would be funniest. Bonus: have this happen to this character every time you roll below a 16 for Port Nyanzaru Random Encounters to create a running gag. 2. DINOSAUR RAMPAGE The text indicates that an ankylosaurus goes nuts and has to be calmed or put down, but this wouldn't apply to different parts of the city. So, choose different ones as you like. This is where I got my idea for the triceratops/almiraj encounter at the end of Session 1. 3. STOP! THIEF! A merchant shouts, "Stop! Thief!" as a furtive youngster named "Gord" (Commoner) rushes past the characters. lf the thief is caught, the grateful merchant can introduce characters to a merchant prince (maybe to suggest they be hired as guards?) or provide them one other favor. If this happens outside the wall, then the introduction could be to a Beggar Prince. 4. OOPS! ALL PIRATES! A drunk foreign sailor--(unarmored veteran AC:10)--is loudly trying to pick a fight with three local commoners, who are clearly no match for the lout. If the characters intervene, the grateful locals become a reliable source of information about Port Nyanzaru, but the sailor and his shipmates ambush the characters elsewhere in the city later on. First off, make the sailors pirates. All the pirate ships in the book are manned by Chultans, but change that. Make this the Calishite crew of the Emerald Eye in town to get supplies. Second-mate Bestir is the lout. This creates a beef between the party and a particular pirate crew. The locals are a trio of college boys out carousing (Derise, Sanka, & Junior). Junior had too much and threw up—right on Voltan's belly. Voltan flew into a racist rage, which is going on when the party happens upon them. These guys are educated about lore, technology, history, languages, as well as current political events. 5. BEGGAR PROPHECY A beggar (Commoner) grabs a character by the arm and shouts, "The ancient one beneath the Forbidden City gives birth to a terrible new god! The snake-men know! They know!" Then he stumbles away into the crowd. Passersby tell the adventurers to ignore the beggar and that his predictions are wrong most of the time. We'll call him Teiresias. 6. UNDEAD SIEGE Alarm horns declare that undead are attacking Malar's Throat. Mercenaries keep the monsters out ofthe city proper, but people are trapped in the temple of Tymora and besieged by 2d6 zombies and 2d6 skeletons led by a ghoul. If the characters defeat the undead, the temple rewards them with 5 gallons of tej and a potion of healing (2d4+2). How this would work if the characters are not in or near Malar's Throat is unclear. Maybe just opt for another parrot poop if they're not. 7. YUAN-TI ATTACK Shouts of "Look out!" give a character a briefwarning as a water barrel, building stone, or other heavy weight crashes down. The character must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be struck, taking 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage. Any character who succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check spots a disguised yuan-ti pureblood slinking away from the scene. The players would have no idea what a yuan-ti is, let alone one in disguise, but say that they thought the man had reptilian eyes for a moment. 8. BEG TO BET A tabaxi minstrel, Ball of Wax | Snagglepus, asks one of the characters for a gold piece for her to bet, promising to pay it back. If the character agrees, the Ball makes good on her promise the next day, returning a pouch containing 10 gp. 9. PICKPOCKET A thief (spy) named Panya tries to pick the pocket of one of the characters (+4 sleight of hand vs passive perception). 10. VOLO The characters run into Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm | Mel Brooks' King Louie who is delivering a copy of his new book to one of the city's merchant princes. There is a 50 percent chance that Volo is drunk. A copy of his guide is 50gp. 11-20. MEET A SIDE QUEST NPC See above section. This Article has 5 Sections
*Note: I will not include a "basis" (few words that remind me how to play a character) for the guides until the "How to Role Play the Guides" section to conserve space. MICAH'S PRONUNCIATIONS (not definitive) Aazon - AY-AY-ZON ​Azaka Stormfang - ah-ZAH-kah Bwayes O'tamu - BWAYZ oh-TAH-moo couatl - ko-OTT'h Eku - EE-koo Faroul - fah-ROOL Fort Beluarian - bell-oo-AIR-ee-an Gondolo - GON-doh-loh Kupalue - koo-pah-LOO-ay Musharib - moo-shah-REEB Port Nyanzaru - NIE-an-ZAH-roo Qawasha - kah-WASH-ah Ras Nsi - RAZ nuh-SEE River Tiryki - tear-YEE-key (alt: "teriyaki") Saja N’baza - SAWJ-ah nuh-BAH-zah Salida - sah-LEE-dah Shago - SHAW-go Zhentarim - ze-HENT-ah-rim 1. Why Guides?
Tomb of Annihilation is supposed to be this super-deadly quest, right? So why include guides at all? It's a fair question.
Honestly, you might not want to use them at all. If your group would really enjoy wandering through hex-after-hex of random encounters in the jungle, that may be just the way to approach the game: don't let the players ever find a guide. However, most people are going to want to have guides to help the party. Guides help the party in 3 main ways:
​The book doesn't give us much information about how these guides vary in these matters, so DMs have to infer it or figure it out themselves. This is a drag because there are 12 guides listed in the book. In my guide breakdowns below, I'll include my note about how each of these things are handled by them. Fortunately, your players will only choose one or two guides at a time, probably, so you don't need to study the other ones very carefully. Learn how to run them for their meeting, but all the minutia can wait until the players have chosen. Then, afterward, study up on that particular guide's information. Easy! 2. Useful and Useless Guides
The spectrum of guides, from the most useful to the least is wide. Every DM will have to decide for themselves how much they're willing to sabotage the journey into the wild.
MOST USEFUL
Guides 1 - 5 are safe choices; the rest are debatable. I was willing to let my players choose any in my campaign, but I can see why someone wouldn't . 3. Registered and Unregistered Guides
Most of the guides are registered with Jobal, but there are a few who are not. Guides who are unregistered face Jobal's punishments if caught working illegitimately--what I call his "BBB" program (I swear to God I came up with this before Joe Biden's agenda!). BBB stands for beaten, blinded, and beheaded.
Apparently he believes in a 3-strikes-your-out program. ​All of the guides found inside the walls at Port Nyanzaru are registered guides--it's where Jobal can keep an eye on everyone. That's Azaka Stormfang, Eku, Faroul & Gondolo, Hew Hackinstone, Musharib, and Salida. River & Flask are unregistered guides in Port Nyanzaru, but can only be found outside the walls in Malar's Throat or Tiryki Anchorage. They're the Han Solo guides--useful outlaws. The rest of the guides--Shago​ and Qawasha & Kupalue—are unregistered, so they pick up work out of Fort Beluarian [4515]​. The book implies that Jobal only punishes the guides for working black-market, not the clients. But that's up to you. 4. Paths to the Tomb
Most of the guides have goals that will point the players, more or less, towards Omu and the Tomb of Annihilation. Reddit user /u/Aghris did a great little flow-chart that shows how the guides (and a few other NPCs) get them there. Be sure to go thank him!
I've recreated it here:
Aghris's flowchart is handy for conceptualizing paths to Omu. With it, he's laid out all the connections (I think) to all the locations that these NPCs have in the book.
From this, we can extrapolate a simpler geographical map that shows us how the guides who have agendas in the jungle will get the group closer to their goal. Notice that some of the guides are not represented on the map. They--Salida and Shago--have no avenues to Omu for the players. 5. How to Role Play the Guides
Again, don't try to pin down how to run all of the guides. Just focus on the one(s) that the players hire.
The ToA book strangely put the information you need for the guides in two places in the book--for inconvenience's sake, I suppose. Pages 33-35 give us their biographical information, but then the information about their rates and negotiations are way in the handouts back on pages 244-248. These latter, the "handouts" (bound in a $50 book without perforation, but whatever), should only be handed out if the players have Jobal's assistant Aazon | Inigo Montoya​ introducing them to guides. Remember, the book gets the list wrong of the handouts that go with him. They're 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9, But again, I would role play this information and not use hand-outs at all. Also, my players immediately co-opted the pronunciation of his name, so it's shouted a la Keagan-Michael Key's Substitute Teacher bit, "A-A-ZON!" It's a hoot, so go with it if you like it Recall that there are bulletin boards with the ads for the guides at the The Thundering Lizard, Naya's House of Repose, and the Habormaster's Office,. Here are my graphics for those. ![]() ![]() ![]()
The guides below are organized as they were above: in order of usefulness.
EKU | Glinda the Good Witch
​REGISTERED - Found at Naya's House of Repose or through the Harbormaster
The best guide and your party can't have her. ​ EKU HAS A LISP. SHE CAN NOT LIE. Eku is the most useful of all the guides. By a lot. ​She's a couatl in disguise, so she's super-powerful AND she knows exactly where to go! (Check out the couatl stat-block). But in all my years, I've never seen a single party that had 100% good-aligned characters in it. Someone always wants to be Chaotic Neutral, so the party is screwed. She will only work for parties that have ALL good characters in it. The couatl are ancient, primordial beings--demigods, sort of. They are from Ouroboros the World Serpent, who was contemporary with Dendar the Night Serpent and Ubtao in the first wars that shaped reality and the planes of existence. Wild stuff. The further into Tomb of Annihilation the group gets, the more of this deep, Gygaxian lore gets scraped up. Expect to see a lot of it. ​But let's imagine an all-good party played this game. A paladin group or something. Eku will openly use psionic telepathy as soon as she meets the players to detect their thoughts and alignments. If any of the group members are evil or neutral, she politely refuses to be their guide. But if they're all good, she'll take them on and fast-track them through Chult. Because she knows the way to the end from the outset, if the team were ready to enter the Tomb at session 1, she'd direct them right to it. If the party is starting at level 10 or so, you might consider this. Otherwise, she will send them on the Yellow Brick Road to meet OZ in order to gain the experience they need to survive it. ​Eku is part of a motif in the game that alludes to The Wizard of Oz. She is its Glinda the Good Witch of the North. Azaka Stormfang is its Cowardly Lion. Bwaves is the mindless Scarecrow found amongst the stalks (vegepygmies). VORN is the Tinman, frozen in the forest. The flying monkeys are flying monkeys. Nanny Pu'pu is the green hag Wicked Witch of the West in Mbala. Saja N'baza is the great and powerful OZ. The Wreck of the Star Goddess is OZ's air-balloon, blown off course. ​​Use this how you like, but it's interesting to me that the Baum novels were about colonialism and the conquering of the American west (he was super-racist against Native Americans). Doing a little study about the OZ books and Baum might inform your setting in interesting ways. SAFETY Very smart (18) and full of useful magic (see couatl stat block). Will keep characters out of harm's way, can do greater restoration if things go very wrong, and does magic damage with her attacks. Ideal. DIRECTION Unless the players have some other idea of where to go, Eku will recommend going to meet Saja N'baza at Orolunga [2133]. On the way there, she'll guide them to VORN [2928] and then M'bala [2733] to take care of Nanny Pu'pu. This would be a tough fight, but if the characters are up to about 3rd level or so, and they have Eku on their side, it shouldn't be fatal. Saja N'baza can tell them whatever you want them to know. Then, it's just a matter of grinding around the jungle to level up. Eku gets along well with the Arakokra at Kir Sabal [4638], so the team could head there. and she's familiar with nearby Nangalore [4341] (where she gathers flowers sometimes), so she could help navigate that bad trip of a place. It's safe to assume that Eku has a working familiarity with every location on the map; treat it that way. I mean, if the players could have her as a guide. Which they will not. INFORMATION The only limit to what Eku knows has to do with what she's willing to tell. I assume she even knows about Acererak, the Sewn Sisters, and the Atropol. The book doesn't say so, but I'd play it this way. ​You know. Assuming a party was all good. AZAKA STORMFANG | Okoyeh from Black Panther
​REGISTERED - Found at Thundering Lizard or through the Harbormaster
Probably the best guide for most groups. ​ Azaka Stormfang is hard and capable. She doesn't speak much, but when she does, she's direct and doesn't coddle feelings. She's a weretiger, so her invulnerability to most things makes her feel justifiably superior to most people. She is generally negative about foreigners, but has worked with them enough to know they are privileged and ignorant of the evils their people cause. She shrugs, assuming The big surprise (anagnorisis) is that, once the team gets to Firefinger [4230], she breaks out in a sweat. She's terrified of heights (weretigers are not immune to falling damage). Don't reveal that she's a weretiger until they're close to Firefinger. I had the team deal with an 80-foot waterfall in the River Tiryki a day before they got to it to reveal how bad she was with heights. When creatures "hit" her in fights, roll for what damage they should have delivered, but assure the players that she seems fine. They'll love her. She was turned to a weretiger years ago by her lover, Bwaves O'tamu | Macbeth, who is Wakanga's cousin. The three of them were best friends as teens, but the attack changed everything--and Bwaves became a recluse in the jungles. ​Azaka now seeks a "family heirloom" that the pterafolk at Firefinger have. This is really the Mask of the Beast, which I altered to also prevent lycanthropes from turning on their moon cycles. Azaka is part of a motif in the game that alludes to The Wizard of Oz. She is its Cowardly Lion. SAFETY Super-tough and good in a fight (see weretiger stat block). Will inform adventurers of all the common risks in the jungle before leaving and how to buy the supplies to mitigate them. DIRECTION Can be counted on to keep the team from getting lost and from wandering into greater undead territory. She'll push for them to go to Firefinger [4230] to get the Mask of the Beast, but also knows how to get to Saja N'baza at Orolunga [2133] and really anywhere in the north half of the jungle. INFORMATION Of all the guides, Azaka is the most 'Chultan' (ethnically Tabaxi or Eshowe). She has a middle class familiarity with the political history of the region and an adult's mastery of the lore and traditions of the land. She knows who Ubtao is and the Barae and why Ras Nsi was exiled (attempted genocide against the Eshowe)—and that the undead come from him. She heard bedtime stories as a child about Nanny Pu'pu and hags, heard fables about the trickster gods, and thinks of ch'winga as pests the way some people think about cats (grudgingly admitting fondness for them if pressed). RIVER MIST & FLASK OF WINE | Jay and Silent Bob
​UNREGISTERED - Found in Malar's Throat or Tikyri Anchorage
Fun outlaw guides like Han Solo and Chewbacca...or Jay & Silent Bob? — but cats! ​ River Mist is the leader of the brother-and-sister tabaxi guides. She is the Han Solo of the pair. The book says she wears an eyepatch because she had an accident as a child with a sling. Cooler is to make it from her second time being caught as an unregistered guide. One more time and she's beheaded! She talks like Henrietta Pussycat from Mr. Rogers: 95% meows. But instead of mewling, she's tough--like Han. Flask is the strong silent partner. He repeats the final words that River says sometimes, but mostly keeps quiet. He talks with a lisp, like Sylvester the Cat: "THUFFERING THUCKOTASH!" Play up on cat tropes as hard as you can. Have them go from aloof to suddenly cuddly. Always STARVING to death! Unable to fight off an instinct to hunt when a bird is nearby. Obsessed with small treasures--especially ones up on high shelves. And randomly spastically running around the camp at night. They also approach fights like they're stalking prey and then pounce. Speaking of which, River and Flask fight well enough, but they are especially handy for their speed. Tabaxi hunters can move double speed every other turn, effectively. This means they can use their turn to dash 120 feet if need be, or climb 40! A note on tabaxi: there are two groups of people on Chult called "tabaxi." 100% of the time you see the word in the Tomb of Annihilation book, it will be referring to the cat people like River and Flask. However, as you do research and dig into peripheral materials about this region, you'll find human people called Tabaxi as well. You'll notice that usually, these ones have a capital-T, but not always. All of this came from some tangled nonsense in the lore as the D&D editions came out. Here's how WotC wants us to understand this dichotomy and the lore now. Cat people-tabaxi (what I call the tabaxi race) are from a faux-Mexican land west of Faerun and Chult. They were enslaved and brought to Chult hundreds of years ago. They are lower-case Tabaxi. The native humans of Chult form three main tribes, one of which were called capital-T Tabaxi after the cat-people who were brought there as slaves (what I call ethnic Tabaxi). The other two tribes are the genocided Eshow and turned-to-lobster-men Aldani. SAFETY Flask and River aren't really powerful, but they are pretty effective in a fight with their multi-attack (see tabaxi hunter stat block). Their speed and stealh scores are what make them most interesting--they're like ninjas! DIRECTION Won't get lost in the jungle, but they only know how to lead characters to places near the Tiryki River like the deadly-tall tower Firefinger [4230] and the grung maze-village Drungunglung [3833]. They are superstitious and credulous, so they are all-in on the rumors they've heard about the voodoo priestess in Mbala [2733] who can still raise the dead, despite the death curse. Anything south of the Tiryki River, though, they'll just guess about. INFORMATION River and Flask aren't much on accurate lore. They're too fun for that. They like the pop-culture version of that sort of information--conspiracy theories, false rumors, etc. They DO work for the Zhentarim, but are both good-aligned. They are unwitting servants of the evil fraternity. The Zhents have an interest in the famous adventurer Artus Cimber | Indiana Jones, and because he's an international celebrity. The sourcebook says they'll tell the Zhents about what they learn about the guy, but I'd make this more of a bragging "I can't wait to get back to Port Nyanzaru and tell Kamari the Fat that he was right about Artus being in town!" They spend their time babbling about how they've heard that frost giants are in the jungle and that Artus is going to teleport a city out of another dimension. Note: I would not include Artus Cimber and the Frost Giants in the actual adventure at all. Very non-Chulty content, injected into it for fan service to some novels and a previous official campaign. Up to you, though. Faroul & Gondolo | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
REGISTERED - Found in Naya's House of Repose or through the Harbormaster
An Incompetent Pair with Delusions of Eloquence ​ Rosencratz and Guildenstern in their titular work, Schlubb and Klump from Sin City, Laurel and Hardy, and Owl from Winnie the Pooh are all pretenders to intellectualism. They try to hide their stupidity in a bramble of 10-cent words and purple prosody. Faroul and Gondolo are the same. You could play this subtly so your players fall in for them like Pinocchio did to the cat Honest John and Gideon the Fox. Or, you could play it hard and obvious like Laurel and Hardy who never duped a single straight-man. If your players go wandering into the jungle with only these idiots as their source of wisdom, you'll likely see a TPK before they get a week in though. Something to consider. They could meet each other in the dinosaur race (the duo ride Zongo the farting Triceratops) and play it subtle. Let these be the first guides the team meets. They can be the ones who warn the team that they'll need to hire good guides--like them. The group hires them and then have someone else point out that they're terrible the moment they're ready to head out. Make them make an educated choice. The two men are also desperate gamblers, hounded by Kamari the Fat for their debts. They're like Huck Finn's Duke and Dauphin, always eyeing a new scam and a quick opportunity to make it rich. Play Faroul (the human Spanish Moore type) like Falstaff: full of lies about his bygone glory days. Play Gondolo like the Walrus from Alice in Wonderland: babbling nonsense philosophies to hypnotize prey. ​SAFETY Faroul and Gondolo each have multiattack and keen hearing and sight (see scout stat block). They also have a full-grown triceratops, which can do up to 74HP of damage per turn, no matter HOW flatulent it may be (see triceratops stat block). Unfortunately, the pair are stupid and disloyal and craven. So, the decision between them being in harm's way vs any player is not up for debate--they'll save their own skins. DIRECTION These are anti-guides. They have zero knowledge about the geography of Chult, about jungle terrain, or how to navigate places generally. They are no help to the group in this department. The guiding they do is to Needle's Bones [4837] only. Unless the team can drive them to a character redemption arc, they'll treat finding her dragon horde as their priority. The map they have to that location is the one bit of direction-sense they have. INFORMATION They know nothing and talk a lot. Assume that they've overheard conversations at the track about every bit of lore or rumor that's in the adventure, but get it very, very wrong since they just make everything up on the fly. Make their claims wrong and absurd. Keep a list of sesquipedalian​ words on your DM screen. ​Shago | Annie
UNREGISTERED - Found through the Harbormaster or at Fort Beluarian
Charmingly Positive for an Orphan ​ "HE IS VIGO!" shouted Janosz about Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbuster's II. This line is my guiding star for performing Shago. Every sentence is in that sing-song, ultra-enthusiastic, confident tone. It exudes naïveté, which is what I like most about this guide as a character. Shago has a subtext--just like Annie. Annie, when faced with the horrors of child abuse, white slave trade, and abject poverty leaned on handy idioms and singing songs to brighten her day. What makes her so compelling is that she does understand that darkness. It makes her Pollyanna-ness good, not crappy. Shago is the estranged son of Zhanthi—the most powerful of the Merchant Princes. He is her only son, and as such, must have been raised with at least the suggestion that, when things go back to the way they were—once the Amnians are gone, once the need for the Merchant Princes and the Ytepka Society has passed—he, Shago, will be crowned the King of Chult. Zhanthi, though, raised him in the political world before the revolution. He was raised to befriend the colonizers from the Sword Coast. He would have been a young teen when the warriors he admired were ousted and forced to live at Fort Beluarian [4515]. He apparently defied his mother, left the city and his culture, and became a guide for foreigners. He is an unregistered guide, which puts his mother in a political jam. It must be embarrassing, or at least inconvenient, that her only son so flagrantly denies the authority of her peer, Jobal. Shago probably knows the story of how that merchant prince came by his wealth. In the jungles, he's probably heard that he betrayed his party and took the loot for himself. Ironic, then, that Shago lives as a traitor but for doing what he felt was right. Being unregistered puts any party he's with in danger. It would be most interesting to keep his positive bravado up for a long time in the adventure and only peel back this dark reality underneath--his sophisticated understanding of colonialism, corrupting power, and loyalty later. If the party found itself in Kir Sabal [4638], how would Shago react to learning that the Arakokra has been protecting the royal heirs in Princess Mwaxanare and Prince Na? Would he share his wisdom with them? Or will you "break the cutie" and have him flip out, revealing to himself and everyone else that he'd secretly hoped that he'd be crowned after all the whole time? ​​SAFETY Shago is a gladiator so can do up to 60HP of bludgeoning damage per round between his brute double-damage and multi-attacks [see gladiator stat block]. He's a noble heart, so he'll jump right into a fray to protect his allies, especially the weaker ones. He loves fighting undead, in part because they are a blight but also because he does not have to worry about feeling sad for killing beasts. DIRECTION Shago is highly competent at traveling through Chult and will not get lost in any part of it. He has no particular agenda, but is happy to lead groups to anywhere. The book suggests he knows the ways to Firefinger [4230], Kir Sabal [4638], and the Peaks of Flame [3854], but really, he knows where just about everywhere is on the map. INFORMATION Shago has a ton of accurate lore at his fingertips. He knows about regional monsters, dinos, and wildlife. He knows the history of the royal family, the genocide of Eshowe by Ras Nsi and the Tabaxi, and about the Trickster Gods. He knows about Ubtao and the barae. He even knows a little about the nature of hags around Chult. On the other hand, Shago doesn't really care much about the death curse much or have any insights on where to go to figure it out. ​Musharib | Kuil (the "I have spoken" guy from Mandalorian)
REGISTERED - Found at The Thundering Lizard or through the Harbormaster
Wild-Eyed Zealot who is also Pretty Racist ​ Musharib is not the worst guide; he is the least terrible of the bad guides. He speaks in clipped, gruff sentences. Musharib is openly racist against non-dwarves. He'll talk only to dwarves in the party unless there is no other option. If a non-dwarf interjects, he will glare at them to let them know their input is not wanted—then turn back to the party dwarves. He ignores any following comments from non-dwarves entirely. If a party hires him who are all non-dwarves, he is openly racist to them when they talk. Here's his attitude towards the major playable races along with euphemisms he'll use when referring to them:
Musharib is an albino shield (mountain) dwarf. In Chult they are all albinos--with red rabbit eyes--meant to be like the morlocks from The Time Machine. Chultans are traditionally afraid of them. They are described in earlier TSR texts as inspiring "fear and superstition" in them (you know, because 'primitives' are superstitious.) They had drow-like disadvantages in sunlight in past editions, but that seems to be removed now. ​​SAFETY Musharib is relatively weak in a fight [see albino dwarf spirit warrior stat block]. He is unconcerned for the safety of anyone in the party, even other dwarves. If a character dies, he shrugs; if they get lost or left behind; he shrugs. He's a jerk. He does have some innate spellcasting that has some utility, but overall, pretty crappy guide in terms of keeping the party safe. DIRECTION Musharib will use lies and guile to trick the party into going to going to Hrakhamar [1650] to retrieve Moradin's Gauntlet. When he hears about their quest, Musharib will immediately suggest (correctly, inadvertently) that the source of the Death Curse must be in the most southernmost regions of Chult. He'll convince the party to invest in sea passage around the western coast to expedite their journey there. He'll likely lead them right into being captured by pirates near Jahaka Anchorage [1241]. If they survive that, he'll march them over a volcano to face a dungeon full of deadly firenewts. If he gets the Gauntlet, he'll dismiss the party immediately. Upside: then they're only a short 14-day march through a valley of genocided Eshowe bones patrolled by Firenewts to Omu [2953]. INFORMATION Musharib knows almost nothing about any part of Chult other than Hrakhamar Mine. He blames firenewts for the volcanism that drove his people from the mountains in a diaspora. He knows a bit about Batiri customs and gets along with them okay (but does not like them). If asked about any topic outside of an immediate goal; he ignores it. He is ignorant about others' concerns and does not care. Qawasha & Kapalue ("Weed") | Bob Ross & Groot
UNREGISTERED - Found at Fort Beluarian
Tall Weirdo who talks to his Dog First off, read Adam Lee's story about these two that was published in Dragon+ Magazine. (Part 1, Part 2). It's fascinating. It gives a great sense of Chult from a native's POV, but also curious insights into this pair's motivations. Well-written. It doesn't make these two any less useless, though. They're terrible guides for the party to fall in with. Qawasha actively guides foreigners away from Chultan ruins and toward greater undead territories. He has also in recent years stopped paying Jobal, so he is unregistered. This is inherently dangerous. Qawashe sees resurrection as unnatural, so has no real interest in stopping the death curse. He definitely doesn't want to take foreigners into any as-yet-unpillaged tombs in order to stop it. He resents the "exploration" of foreigners to dig out and take away Chultan artifacts. He's a strange, trippy druid type. He refers to the vegepygmy with him as "Weed" when talking to others, but only communicates to the being through hand signs. Vegepygmies cannot talk, but this one has learned to say the phrase "I am Kapalue," which he must have picked up when the two started interacting. It says this for every context. ​​SAFETY Qawashe is a 4th level druid, so he is pretty effective in combat (see druid stat block). However, he's only interested in ridding the jungles of its undead. Kapalue is a vegepygmy, which are pretty weak at a CR 1/4 (see vegepygmy stat block). Qawasha will try to protect the party from harm generally, guiding them away from dangerous plants, towards good resources, and by fighting off their attackers. But he's also always putting them on the task of killing undead, which is problematic. DIRECTION Qawasha gives only the directions towards greater undead areas, not towards meaningful ruins. He knows the jungles well, though, so he knows how to get most places. If persuaded that the journey would be in the interest of protecting Chult from undead and not the exploitation of its lore, he knows the way. INFORMATION Qawasha knows the lore of Chult well. He is an active follower of Ubtao and knows all about the various ruins throughout the empire. He is happy to educate people about all of its history. Hew Hackinston | Private Pyle
REGISTERED - Found at The Thundering Lizard
Maniac who wants to Fight a Young Red Dragon ​ Hew Hackinstone lost his arm in a dragon attack. He now seeks revenge. He's quite damaged. He won't care that he and the players are outclassed by the monster, he'll trick them into going to Wyrmheart Mine [1753] anyway. This place is pretty cool and gives a great launch point towards Omu [2953] at higher levels, but the dragon part makes it a deal-breaker until then. Play him like Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket after he's snapped. There's no reason the players should choose him, but he makes an interesting encounter at The Thundering Lizard. He can come up and try to hard-sell them repeatedly, in different ways, to hire him. You could incorporate Monty-Python-esque nudge-nudge conspiracy beats in it. Pretty funny. But no. Don't let your players start their jungle quest with a red dragon mission. ​​SAFETY Hew is pretty weak in a fight, despite having advantage on his attacks (see berzerker stat block). The book modifies his berzerker stats down, so he's only doing up to 11HP damage on a hit. He won't go out of his way to protect player characters because he's nuts, not because he's bad. DIRECTION As for general guidance, Hew has no knowledge of greater Chult and is obsessed with getting back to Wyrmheart Mine for revenge. He knows nothing about the jungle or tracking. He has zero interest in the death curse, Acererak, or the Tomb of Annihilation. IF the players kill the dragon for him, though, he will be loyal unto death. He'll even walk right into obvious traps for them. INFORMATION Hew Hackinstone has no knowledge about Chult, its lore, or what's going on in the quest. Salida | Jessie from Toy Story
REGISTERED - Found at The Thundering Lizard, in Naya's House of Repose, or through the Harbormaster
An Evil Yuan-Ti in Disguise ​ TRY TO GET YOUR TEAM TO HIRE SALIDA. MAKE HER A VOLUNTEER IF YOU HAVE TO! Seriously. She's the coolest concept of all the guides. She's an entirely competent guide for 80% of the adventure, then right before they get to Omu, she betrays them! AWESOME. She's sassy and rolls out clever insults all the time. I decided to give her a country twang to make her more disarming. I even changed her token art to be based on Jessie from Toy Story. Isn't she cute! In order to rattle off the clever insults, I spent time one night with the players' character sheets and pre-wrote a bunch so I'd have them ready. Obviously, you will need to do that for YOUR particular group, but here are mine: Stage-Magician Rogue:
Avoid any hint that she is duplicitous or evil. Play her as helpful, fun, and useful until they get all the way to Omu [2953]! Then, she TURNS on them and signals the Yuan-Ti to ambush them! WOO!
She uses as sending stone to communicate with Ras Nsi, but I would avoid letting on about it until the team is very far along with her (if at all). ​SAFETY Salida is a helpful asset most of the time, though not particularly powerful in a fight (see yuan-ti pureblood stat block). She has multi-attack and will fight alongside the players. She is quite smart, so will help in solving puzzles, etc. Besides the betrayal thing, she's great. DIRECTION Salida will not offer any useful help in finding Omu; it's contrary to her fundamental goals. On the other hand, she won't go out of her way to undermine their plans so as to avoid detection as a spy. She is otherwise, a competent guide who can read maps well and not get lost. INFORMATION Salida doesn't have much insight into the lands of Chult for the players. She is generally flippant about it all, seeing the lore of these people as absurd (she is a member of a cult dedicated to the annihilation of the universe--what would she care about Ubtao or his shrines?). She knows plenty of facts about the region and its wildlife, but she mostly just jokes. This Article has 5 Sections
A Pedantic NoteOn page 32 of the guide it says: The city is famous for its weekly dinosaur races through the streets. Faerun does not have weeks. It has Tendays. 1. How Cool is a Dinosaur Race?A good encounter will address two questions:
Most of the racing I've seen was in movies. I'm a movie buff, so I use movies for inspiration, but I also pull from comic books, novels, etc. Ben-Hur, Fast and the Furious, and Pixar's Cars films all have fun race scenes. Grease, Star Wars: Episode I, and Days of Thunder are fine sources too. What makes these races exciting is that they have
Dinosaur Betting - Preliminary NoteThe book gets this totally wrong. Don't follow it or you'll end up very confused. This is NOT how odds are written. Frankly, the dino betting element is boring. Focus on dino racing instead. I'll return to my betting notes at the end. 2. Why to Skip the Race as WrittenHere's how the book suggests you run it:
The whole race is abstracted, so it will really be a bunch of math problems on a sheet of paper in the end. Boring. If you want to run it as the book says, I would print handouts for the players, one for each dino. I don't like this way of running the race. It's not very fun, it's not dangerous, and it doesn't hit our secondary goal of touring the city. 3. Sean McGovern's Dinosaur RaceGo buy Sean McGovern's Tomb of Annihilation Companion (ToAC) right now. It's five bucks well-spent. You'll thank me. I will be stealing a lot of his dino race ideas for mine (I won't include the parts I steal here--so if you don't buy his supplement, you'll have to invent your own), but I won't be stealing how he runs the race itself. I don't like his actual race mechanic (sorry, Sean), so I'll come up with my own. What ToAC does well is threefold. It gives us:
Though this doesn't give the players a tour of everywhere they can go in Port Nyanzaru, it gives them exactly enough to learn the basic layout of the city and some ideas of where they can go to get started having fun. It has 8 stages, each with their learning experiences:
An example of the supplement's challenges is this at Stage 1: Pushing Riders Off the Bridge. Riders can make an opposed strength check to try to knock one another off their dinosaur. The loser of the opposed strength roll must make a DC 10 Dexterity save or fall off the bridge into the crowd below. This lets the player deal with a rival (the NPC doing the pushing or that THEY are pushing), experience some danger with HP loss or even death, and creates a set-back in the race that doesn't put them out entirely. I like all this. I recommend using all of the challenges from the race in the Tomb of Annihilation Companion. But I still don't like the racing mechanic. 4. A More Intuitive RaceThe main problem I see with the race mechanics is that they are complex, but will never be used again in the game. If I'm going to introduce a complex mechanic in a mini-game (like the raptor fight gambling I introduced), I want it to teach my players something that they'll be using later on (ie, flanking rules). The second problem is that they don't feel much like a race. They feel like a bunch of math problems: the first player to add up points to 300, wins. The third problem is that the race race mechanics aren't intuitive. I want my players to look at what we're doing and understand why a rule would be there on-sight. The better way to run the dinosaur race is as a board game. Players always love a mini-game and board games are good fun. All sorts of board games are races, from Candy Land to Life. Even children understand this sort of gameplay. Players go around the table rolling dice to move forward spaces until someone gets to the end of the board. Instead of a bunch of combat mechanics and calculating full and half movement speeds, we'll try to emulate a traditional board game. You can have all the players try to ride in the race if you want, but I would follow these guidelines:
Board Game RulesNOTE: These rules are under construction. Since receiving more feedback, I think they need to be tweaked. In particular, I think that all players need to be stopped at every challenge space, but there are other revisions as well that I think are useful. I'll update this when I can.
In order to run the race as a board game, you'll need to make the board. I like crafting terrain with foam, so that's how I'd build one. If that's not your thing, a board game for the race can be laid out using markers and 3"x5" index cards or just a sheet of paper. Here's a layout of what it might look like. If you'd like something a little nicer, go to your local print-shop (I use Costco Photo Center for this) and print out this 30"x20" game board I put together for you. (Note: this was the official point I decided to set up a Ko-fi account for tips. This gameboard was NOT in my documents folder, I built it for this blog because I have lost my mind now. Thanks. You made me lose my mind. See what you did??) Once you have your game board, you'll need descriptions and rules for the challenges. Again, I would go buy Sean McGovern's Tomb of Annihilation Companion and use his. With only tiny modifications (losing the half-speeds punishments, ditching the mount-swapping and the monkey, altering the flying lizards punishment to a skip-next-turn, cleaning up challenge 6's pit escape, and changing the canoe mechanic to a back-one-space), the race will be pretty fun. Some of the punishments from the challenges can be deadly too, which provides our game with danger. BONUS ADVICE Don't let your players die in this mini-game. If they reach 0 hit points, have rodeo clowns in the crowds rush to their aid and feed them one of Wakanga's healing potions. Rivals & DinosYou're going to need some toy dinosaurs. You could use any tokens you wanted--from another board game, player minis, dice, etc. But just go to the local dollar store and buy some tiny dinosaurs for this. These will represent the rivals and mounts for the players. Leading up to the race, be sure to have at least one of the NPC riders harass your players in some way. I recommend having Ekene-Afa's son, Tyrik, do so. Likewise, it's not a bad idea to have one be helpful. I would recommend having Faroul & Gondolo provide them with tack and harnesses or something so they can meet these feckless guides. Print out offer the following dinosaur cards to your players. If they are racing, they will use their own character sheet stats for Animal Handling, strength checks, etc. If they are running an NPC rider, they will use the card's stats. Zongo and/or Nasty Boy should be run by the DM, not a player. Don't forget that the Rider Stats get replaced by the player character's stats if they are in the race. When running the race, make sure to emphasize the antagonism of the rival (Tyrik). Given any opportunity, he'll try to throw a player character off the track and talk trash. He loves to brag that his mom is heroic Ekene-Afa. Also, don't forget that Zongo farts constantly. Make it stinky. Faroul and Gondolo are idiots, but you may want to conceal this so your party chooses them as their guides. This depends on how bad you want their jungle experience to be. Winning & LootIf your players don't win the race, they won't get prizes. What a bummer. You can move on from there if you like, your party a bunch of losers. Or, you can run the race two more times, doing the three races for the day (ignore the 2-legged vs 4-legged vs unchained. This is goofy and requires more dinosaur leg-knowledge than most of us have). This gives them two more chances to win the following (swiped from Sean McGovern's Tomb of Annihilation Companion).
5. Dinosaur GamblingI would skip betting on the race. However, players may be hungry for money and want to get in on it. If so, ignore the gambling rules in the book. They're gibberish. Instead, let the players bet on who wins the board game. Keep it simple. If they bet 100gp, they can win 100gp. Don't worry about odds and payouts. It's too much math to be fun. It will be interesting to see if any of them try to throw the race over a bet. If so, would Kamari the Fat come after them for taking a fall without his knowledge? Could be cool role-playing. Next Up: Guides!
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1. This Merchant Prince Stuff is Overwhelming!Tomb of Annihilation gives us three pages (p.25-27) of biographical info about the merchant princes and assorted factoids about them in a half-dozen other places. Though this groundwork seems ripe for exciting plots, it's not clear what we're meant to do with them. Getting a sense about what they're on about as a group first is a useful first step. Worse, there are a lot of vectors of intrigue, but it's not organized in an easy way to use. In order to play the princes, we'd need to study and internalize the priorities and allegiances of each one of the princes. I'll try to present these dynamics in a more easily referenced way to run. The book doesn't say exactly how the players are meant to meet or interact with the merchant princes, but it does suggest meeting Wakanga first. I'll put together some paths to all of them for us to use. Finally, The book mentions the "beggar princes"--and says they are a "mocking parallel" of the merchant princes. But none of these are described at all. I get the impression that we're not really supposed to meet them in the game, but they are an interesting opportunity. I'll put together a set of them for us to have on hand. 2. The Ytepka Society and The Rise of the Merchant PrincesFrom 1364-1479, Port Nyanzaru was a Amnish colony. It's now 1490 and it's been only 11 years since the Flaming Fist were removed from the city walls by the revolutionary Merchant Princes and sent packing to Fort Beluarian. Port Nyanzaru is newly independent. NOTE: I have not read the various preceding modules and novels that may flesh out what this part of the world was like before Tomb of Annihilation. It's entirely probable that my background information here DOES NOT MATCH established lore or continuity, but that's okay. I don't mind. For a hundred years, foreigners controlled Port Nyanzaru and funneled Chult's resources out of the peninsula. Then, there was an uprising--and this was orchestrated by the Ytepka Society. The Amnian kleptocracy was managed by 7 bosses and each managed a particular domain, usually attached to an export:
Besides 1 and 2, these are all exports desired by the wealthy and magically ambitious in the rest of the world. The Ytepka Society selected Merchant Princes to take over these roles when they overthrew the colonizers 11 years ago--for good or bad. Who were the Ytepka Society? No one knows! It's implied that there were much more than 50 of them at the time of the revolution. We are told that they are mostly neutral good. I think this is included to let us DMs know that they are a secret society working basically for the "good," but willing to break rules or ignore laws to accomplish that. Which is fine. But why are they secret? It implies two things. It implies that the revolution could not be done with public knowing its leaders. Why? Here are my suggestions:
It also implies that their tactics were both legendary and clandestine. It couldn't have been a totally secret revolution or they would not be able to exert their influence with their Ytepka coins--and it couldn't have been entirely public or there wouldn't be any mystique about what they are. It also means their tactics, at least sometimes, were terrifying. This is reminiscent of the final Mosaic plague of Egypt. In secular terms, this had to have been an attack in which Hebrews snuck into Egyptian homes and murdered the first-born of every Egyptian in the city. This would require both knowing who the first-born were and being able to execute the act of infiltration and assassination of so many thousands. The Ytepka Society did something similar. Maybe they snuck into colonizer and colonizer-friendly homes and destroyed things--or killed a pet--or murdered someone. Maybe they were able to convince the yuan-ti to slither into those homes and kill the youngest family member...or abduct them into their cult! Whatever they did, they left Triceratops Coins in the homes in question. I think every adult Chultan remembers the details of this event but does not talk about it, or at least, not with foreigners. The Ytepka Society selected 7 people to be the Merchant Princes of Port Nyanzaru, which was then monitored by the secret society. It's unlikely that all the current Merchant Princes were the ones first installed (for example, Kwayothé is not an original). However, all of the Merchant Princes know that, if they become too corrupt or stray too far from the interests of native Chultans, the Ytepka Society will remove and replace them. The book names only two members of the Ytepka society: Zindar the Harbormaster | Santa and Zhanthi the Merchant Prince (gems, clothing, armor) | McGonnagal. Since Zhanthi is named as a Ytepka, this implies that none of the other princes are Ytepka or know that she's one--and that the Ytepka always install a Ytepka spy in the ranks of the merchant princes to keep an eye on them--just like they must do in every industry in the city. Zhanthi and the Ytepka are the "good guys" in Port Nyanzaru. Starting with that is helpful for sorting out the political intrigue. 3. Merchant Prince Intrigue Sorted OutThe book (and most online guides) organize the various conflicts among the merchant princes by character. Instead, I'll organize this content by topic. There are 3 main issues of political conflict within Port Nyanzaru.
1. Transparency vs Secrecy (Maps & Information) The characters have a super-map of Chult. It is the most comprehensive map of the peninsula in existence, so they have a stake in the transparency vs secrecy conflict automatically. On the side of secrecy is Jobal's position. He most strongly believes that maps, lore, histories, etc. should be privileged and leveraged to increase Chultan wealth and power. If he discovers that the team has Syndra's map, he'll offer to buy it--then task thieves with taking it--and eventually kill for it. On the side of transparency is Wakanga O'tamu--who believes that shared information is a tide that raises all ships. He is good, so he won't kill to get the super-map--but he would offer trade for it. He would also be interested in making a copy of it--which his scribe could do in only a couple hours.
2. Isolationism vs Globalism (Guards, Guides & Trade) Rather than think about this set of conflicts in terms of colonizer and colonized, it's easier to think in terms of isolationism vs globalism. It's an interesting in-game role-play conflict because both sides can be embraced by either good or evil people for good or evil reasons. Characters will encounter this dynamic in a variety of contexts: by dealing with guards, guides, and buying supplies. Ekene-Afa is the most isolationist of the merchant princes. She sells nothing to the outside world; her products are only used in Chult. She would be happy if Chult cut ties with the foreigners, who once watched gladiator slaves kill each other for sport, and relied on themselves. Wakanga O'tamu is the most globalist thinker of the merchant princes. He is a Harper, which is a secret organization dedicated to disseminating information across all political borders. Ekene-Afa would rather Chultans be totally independent from their former colonizers. 3. Monarchism vs Populism (Who Should Rule) This populism vs monarchism theme is subterranean, but set up throughout the module. It may be that your characters never engage with this topic meaningfully, but this graphing helps lay out the assumptions of the major players. Also, you may decide to allow this tension to come to a head partway through the campaign, in which case this would become more immediately relevant to the players. Zhanthi is a monarchist -- and again, she's meant to be our "good guy." This makes sense because the game, as you move further into Chult, is decidedly monarchistic. Eventually, characters will meet the rightful heirs to the Omuan throne in Kir Sabal and learn about Ubtao's barae. Which is fine. Fantasy as a genre is typically monarchistic. Zhanthi, as the only Ytepka of the merchant princes, and of noble heritage, is a sort of clandestine queen. Kwayothe is so populist, she's a revolutionary. She wants to tear down the government itself and hand it to the oppressed poor of Port Nyanzaru (and then apparently have torture orgies in which she filets rich people!). Zhanthi is a noble and reveres the old royal family--seeing the merchant prince system as a "close enough" attempt to establish something like it. 4. How to Meet the Merchant PrincesYou'll need to decide how much of the merchant prince content your table even wants in your game. It may be that you don't care about them and need only to have them operating in the background. Or it may be that you want them to meet one or two of them before heading off on their adventures. Or it may be that you'd like them to deal with them all in some way. If your players only need supplies, these can be got through the vendors licensed under the merchant princes in the markets. Needing some rain catchers alone wouldn't warrant meeting a merchant prince in most cases. The book provides a suggestion for how to first meet one, Wakanga O'tamu by way of introduction through Syndra Silvane, and also hooks for how they could meet Jobal and Kwayothe, but there are reasons players may interact with the others--including a session that would introduce them all at once. NOTE: For politicians in D&D, I add a shorthand similar to the "basis" that indicates their "political style" for me. Wakanga O'tamu | Prince | Mitt Romney Syndra invites the characters to come to Wakanga's villa when they get to Port Nyanzaru. She suggests that he may have good advice for how to proceed. At his villa, Wakanga is hosting a get-together in preparation of the Dinosaur Races the next day. /u/Pababaloo suggested running a skill challenge (5 successes before 3 failures) to see if the players impress their host once there. Even bad rolls should get your players moving in some right directions:
Jobal | Lando Calrissian | Prince Humperdink The players may meet Jobal while trying to secure a guide, they may win a dinner with him after winning a dino race, or they may be brought before him if they were seen to be working with unlicensed guides.
Kwayothe | AOC | Queen of Hearts The group could meet Kwayothe if they take on the Help a Dying Man side-quest or win a dinner with her in the dino race. If a character has a noble background, she may send her incubus and succubus consorts, Ixis | Nikki Minaj and Indar | Lil Nas X, to seduce them into one of her torture rituals. Ekene-Afa |Donald Trump | Nelson Mandela Players may be introduced to Ekene-Afa through her son Tiryk | Dani Rojas if they meet him through the dino race. They may encounter her personally if they need to buy her magical weapons, which she sells herself. They may also interact with her if they find their way into an arena experience. Players might find themselves in a gladiator fight, sea battle, dino rodeo, etc.--just make it non-fatal. Clowns should be waiting in the wings with healing potions. Ifan Talro'a | Jareth the Goblin King | Richard III If the heroes hire Salida as a guide, she should convince them to go meet Ifan to buy a beast for their journey or get advice (but really so he can send message to the Yuan-ti that they're on their way south!). Otherwise, the only reason to interact with him is if you are playing dark intrigue with the merchants, since Ifan is so negative--which I would avoid. Again: keep their experience in Port Nyanzaru positive. Jessamine | Bride of Frankenstein | Gandhi Jessamine doesn't have much to offer the players unless you are going to make the merchant princes a dark intrigue (which I would avoid). She will help players if she finds out that they're working to stop the death curse, but players won't likely need poisons or assassinations. The main thing she could offer is her political power as the neutral deciding vote amongst the princes. Players may eventually seek Jessamine out after they've trekked into the jungle because she'll buy exotic plants. Zhanthi | McGonnagal | Mitch McConnell The only way the characters would meet Zhanthi early in the game would be if they were able to capture pirates for Zindar--for which, Zhanthi would pay the reward. They likely won't meet her until they start bringing back treasures at higher levels from the jungle. Or, if they learn information about the lost royal family of Omu, they may return to Port Nyanzaru to seek Zhanthi's advice about that. Meet All the Merchant Princes! I have not run it, but a cool gaming session would be one in which the players set aside their characters and got to run a meeting of the merchant princes at the Golden Throne. Each would be given a character synopsis (here's some I wrote up - but no Wakange, since he is already being run by you) that they would use to guide some official policy debate. This would give the players some insight into who they all are, but not require the DM to try to run an array of NPCs at once. Choose one of the topics below or create one of your own:
5. Some Ideas for the Beggar PrincesTomb of Annihilation gives us only the following about the beggar princes who run The Old City: The Old City is run by "beggar princes" in a mocking parallel to the merchant princes of the city proper. They have no official authority, but each of them sits atop a web of debts, favors, incriminating information, and loyal muscle that allows them to get things done with an efficiency that the merchant princes sometimes envy. Unlike the merchant princes, whose positions are based on wealth that passes from generation to generation in the same family, the identities and even the number of the beggar princes changes continually. These are clearly meant to be crime bosses! Woo! Mobster fun! The beggar princes ran their crime syndicate long before the merchant princes came to power. They existed under Amnian colonization as well...and probably under the monarchy before that. Organized crime is a constant. There are two main beggar princes. They get to rule over each of the ziggurats in Old City called The Beggar's Palaces (p.18). These two ziggurats serve as the best protection in Old City during an external attack. A third, smaller ziggurat in Old City is home to a third, lesser, beggar prince. Finally, there is a beggar prince for each of the other sectors of the outer city: Malar's Throat and Tiryki Anchorage. (Add or subtract as you will, of course). 1. Spotless Takataka - North Ziggurat - Sanitation Spotless Takataka | Tony Soprano runs a mostly-legit business through his gang Chultean Waste Services (CWS). His operations run in and out of the walled city and he is welcome at high-prestige events. He has a lot of power because they:
2. Madame Malaya - South Ziggurat - Prostitution Madame Malaya | Drexl from True Romance oversees all the pimps, prostitutes, and escorts in Port Nyanzaru. If she finds anyone hooking independently, the punishments are the same as Jobal's: BBB - beating, blinding, beheading. She has leverage over many people because she knows what they do with her prostitutes. 3. Kamari the Fat - Lesser Ziggurat - Gambling Kamari the Fat | Beetlejuice runs all the bookies in Port Nyanzaru. He's gregarious, friendly, and gruff--but he's also Joker-level ruthless with anyone who rips him off or tries to run books outside of his monopoly. He's as accepted inside the walls as Takataka is, though only ever shows up there for special events at the Grand Coliseum. He's happy amongst his friends and hangers-on, partying like mad, in his decadent ziggurat eternal-rave. Bets on Executioner's Run are handled at the Lesser Ziggurat itself, but bets on the dino races, Grand Coliseum events, and raptor fights are taken and collected by Kamari's bookies around the city. Also, even ship captains pay a cut of the below-decks games to the prince through his agents. 4. Pock-marked Po, “The Hideous Prince” - Southern Hilltop Mansion - Protection Altered from Adventurer's League Pock-marked Po | The Godfather presides over Malar's Throat and dwells in the mansion on the south hill overlooking the city. An old, stooped, pock-faced man seated in a bamboo chair, Po is surrounded by a cadre of young women he calls his "lovelies" who tend to his every need. He surveys everyone and everything with his one good eye, and his golden spyglass, for how it can benefit him. The Hideous Prince narrowly survived an encounter with the yuan-ti. Returning with a small fortune, Po set up a protection racket for denizens of the Malar's Throat forgotten by the merchant princes. Subscribers may retreat into the central hall during any dinosaur or undead attack, their entry secured by the possession of a facial tattoo that indicates they are up-to-date on their dues (these are removed by knifepoint if in arrears). Po is wickedly cunning and has a sharp, silver tongue. He displays professional courtesies in discussion and even when angry, never loses his temper. 5. Irokuro Kika, "Lady Death" - Cabin in Tiryki Anchorage - Drugs Irokuro Kika | Ruth from Ozarks was formerly one of Pock-marked Po's Lovelies, but she came to an agreement with him when the Merchant Princes rose to power. The two beggar princes maintain a close alliance. She lives in a humble cabin, inherited from her parents, in the center of Tiryki Anchorage. She embraces discretion. Very few people know she is a beggar prince; her neighbors know her only as a lady who volunteers at the temple's children's school. They do not know that she singularly tames the smugglers, estranged pirates, and street dealers of the Anchorage. Her sense of justice is unblinking and for-keeps, so the nickname "Lady Death." Her street dealers do all of her dealings for jungle drugs. They are both trustworthy and shrewd. They seek and sell dancing monkey fruit, menga leaves, ryath root, sinda berries, tri-flower frond orange blossoms, wildroot, yahcha, yellow musk creeper, and zabou mushrooms. Irokuro was childhood friends with Kwayothe and is her philosophical mentor. She is a radical populist, but the behind-the-scenes operator, not the charismatic. Next Up: Running the Dinosaur Races!
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MORE THAN JUST A PLACE TO SLEEPIn most D&D games, the characters are going to stay at an inn. You have permission, though, to let players find other places to stay--in this adventure and in others. WHERE the players sleep and wake will determine where and with whom they'll break bread. Hospitality is the traditional foundation for alliances, deals, and favors. The players can stay anywhere in Port Nyanzaru, so long as someone would welcome them. Consider being flexible about this. Most of these options will have cheat sheets so you can run these settings easily. The Thundering Lizard - The Loud One
We'll make this a cross between a Rainforest Cafe and the Mongolian tavern in Raiders of the Lost Ark. During the day, it's a family tourist trap; after dark it devolves into a wild pirate bar. This dichotomy gets amusing when hungover parties are trying to get their breakfasts down. Here's my flavor text for when they find the inn: The Red Bazaar--an open-air market stacked with heaps of shining fresh meat--is full of people from around the world. Over the red table banners, you spot the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex framing the doorway of a building with its mouth. Over the skull arches a giant sign of individual, self-illuminated letters glowing in reds and golds like Vegas: "The Thundering Lizard." Shrieking children are chasing each other in the entryway. If the players arrive during the day, keep the vibe very Chuck E. Cheese: lots of families from around the world, eating with kids. Toddlers are screaming, going wild. Waitresses are frazzled and annoyed. Management is putting out fires with upset families. Trying to secure a room at this time should be a pain in the butt and annoying. It costs 5 sp/night to stay at The Thundering Lizard. If they arrive after dark, it's a wild honkey tonk, full of drunk jeering revelers--many of whom are betting on dinos. Both inns have bulletin boards near their front doors with guide advertisements. If the players want to hire River Mist and Flask of Wine, they need to go outside the walls where Jobal has less reach. Volothamp “Volo” Geddarm | Mel Brooks' King Louie is staying at this inn and doing presentations on monsters once every nine days (a Faerun week). Have him drinking in the bar most nights too, bragging, and hawking his book. He is willing to pay good money for monster information about obscure species, so he'll be very friendly with the characters. ADVICE: The book says that Volo's Guide will give wrong information with the good. Don't do this. False information will confuse and eventually anger your players. Instead, make the information limited. If they ask to look up a monster in the book, hold the page of the Monster Manual up to the player for 60 seconds. It's easiest. Emeka Isrit | Arthur/Billie Madison--an ex-adventurer who runs the place with his family. At night, he's a sloppy-drunk--but super-friendly--bartender. He pours too many free drinks and sometimes slips and falls. During the day, he's a competent manager for the restaurant and hotel. The Thundering Lizard only sells their house-made tej; no other drinks. Tej is a honey wine made from honey, water and the medicinal shrub gesho. It's mellow and sweet, with a acerbic aftertaste that clears the palette in the heat. Tej is 4cp/mug; 2sp/gallon (when not being poured for free). My Drinking Rules: For every typical serving of alcohol after the first, characters should roll a DC12 Con check against being poisoned for 1 hour. Three failures in a row, and they're "double-poisoned"--rolling with double-disadvantage on all checks and periodically throwing up and falling down. You can also use some of the various carousing rules out there if your players are the types to really get into the drinking fantasy. Velociraptor Fights At night, the bar hosts heats of velociraptor fights. In real life, these dinos were the size of chickens, so this is a lot like cock-fighting. The game, though, presents them as they are in the Jurassic Park movies--and that's fine by me. I use the raptor fights as a way to teach players about how mechanics like pack tactics swing fights (similar to flanking and helping actions--which also give advantage on rolls). The fighting pen is a 10'x 10' square. This means that the raptors are always within melee attack range. I present the players with fighting data for the 3 teams of raptors and they are able to bet on the one they think will win the next fight. Here are their combat and gambling information. Players place their bets, then choose two players to run the dino fight against each other. Once one of the teams is knocked unconscious, bets are paid. The creatures are taken out of the pen and given a healing potion and this is repeated. Kaya's House of Repose - The Quiet One
Kaya's House of Repose is an elegant small hotel just barely outside the Merchant Ward. It's twice as expensive as The Thundering Lizard, but the quality of the stay, the range of the services, and the social access it provides is elevated as well. It costs 1 gp/night to stay at Kaya's. Kaya | Morticia Addams is an elegant and kind Chultan noble--and because of this, she has knowledge and access to the Merchant Princes and the royalty in town. If the upper crust is going to go out on the town, it's likely they'll eat at her inn (unless, they're out slumming it, as some do). Unlike The Thundering Lizard, Kaya's offers much better fare than tej and a sampler appetizer platter. Kaya's offers an extensive menu, a wide array of drink options, stabling, spa services, and a tobacconist shop. Consider offering temporary stat boosts and other effects for some of these amenities: +2 temporary hit points after spending the night at Kaya's, +5 temporary hit points for staying in the suite, +2 Charisma for 24 hours after a full spa treatment, or +2 Intelligence for 2 hours after smoking one of the hand-rolled cigars. Be creative; incentivize spending money on the best. Kaya's also houses a full staged theater that seats a 160 people between the floor and mezzanine. A few guides frequent Kaya's. Most significantly, this is the only location where players will find Eku, but she will only join a group of good characters. Similarly, Faroul and Gondolo | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern frequent Kaya's often because they see its clientele as more likely to fall for their BS--and they like the soft life. I include Salida's advertisement at all three notice boards because I think her betrayal is the most interesting to set up, leading into the Fane of the Night Serpent. An ad that connects the players to the Help the Lord's Alliance side quest (p.16) is on the notice board as well. Lerek Dashlynd | Mr. Wednesday occasionally gets a cocktail at the bar and asks if anyone has asked about the notice. This reinforces the map intrigue dynamic in Port Nyanzaru and can be used to send the heroes out into the jungle when you're ready. The main bit of fun for most is the "mixologist" Ronhip Foechuckle | Tom Cruise. He's a slick hipster bartender with rolled up sleeves and knows everything about booze. NOTE: some of his cocktails have special effects when poured--or drunk. Recipes will be followed by ingredient descriptions. RONHIP RECIPES
INGREDIENTS: Amberfire: hot whiskey Cherryfire: cherry whiskey Dragon’s Breath: Moonsea brandy Elverquisst: ruby-colored and fruity; gold flecks, magic makes them form shapes Fireseed: dwarven; in non-dwarves, DC 15 Con, fail = drunkenness; succes = +2 resistance rolls Flamebeard’s Firebrandy: rotgut from Mirabar Garlrawdwarven: buttery syruppy whisky Gulluk: giant booze; made from broth Harborbottom Whiskey: Rotgut; tastes like fish poop Heart of Wine: Zakhara desert or snow mountains Hultail spirits: Cormyr instant-drunk, +2 dmg +2 AC, disadvantage; pass out in 2 rounds for 12 hrs Kumiss: Zakharan mare liquor; sour milk Luiren Rivengut: For cleaning and fire Moon Rum: c. 1372; purple from beets Moonshae Moonshine Old One Eye: excellent cyclopsian pale red Sagecourse: From wildspace; smokey Sake: From Kara-Tur Seawine: Mount Sar liqour Thannaberry: dark blue; sweet, from Khôltar in south Wyvern Whiskey: scale in it; from Nimbral; super-excellent Zzarfortified sherry: orange/almond—elves hate it Merchant Prince's VillaThough the characters may not be able to figure out how to do so right when they arrive in Port Nyanzaru, they might find a way to make themselves guests to one of the Merchant Princes. The game comes with a detailed map and description for a generic Merchant Prince Villa, but I assume this was included as an infiltration and burglary option--not as a lodging option The Merchant Princes live in opulence and luxury. Play that up in the role playing. They have servants and access to all of high society. If the players are in their domain, turn up the dials in terms of intrigue and rumors they can overhear. Some Merchant Princes are more hospitable than others; likewise the accoutrements of each particular villa match the interests of the princes themselves (see p. 27). Double-check the details for each before introducing any villa to the characters. The villas are within the highest walls of Port Nyanzaru--and all have easy access to the political hub Goldenthrone (p.20), the research center of Temple of Savras (p.20), and the elite spas of the Temple of Sune (p.21). They also have cherry views for events like the dinosaur races. Alternative OptionsYour heroes may end up sleeping anywhere in the city. I've put together some options here and some ideas for how to handle them. Ships Any character with a sailor background can secure free passage on ships for the team as crew-members -- but they will sail at the mercy of the captain. Players may decide to sleep below-decks instead of paying for lodgings.
On the Economy The characters might impress a local enough to be invited to sleep in their home. This is an opportunity to dole out un-masked opinions of the Chultans about any of the happenings or people in the city. This could be done in any district, inside or outside the walls.
In the Streets The players may just find an alley behind a bar to sleep in.
UP NEXT: Merchant Princes!
This Article has 4 Sections
The Port Nyanzaru ProblemPort Nyanzaru is a well-fleshed-out section of this campaign. Kudos to all the people who worked on it, because there's a lot here and your group can get into a HUGE mess of fun in that city. The problem it has is this: players leave the city the moment they find a lead into the jungle. Online forums are full of DMs complaining that they spent months setting up intrigue, games, and side-missions that their players skipped. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS TO YOURSELF. First off, internalize Murphy's Law for Dungeon Masters: Don't prep something too much or the players will certainly bypass it. This goes for Port Nyanzaru itself. Deep study it at your own risk. Second off, YOU control when they'll head out of the city (mostly). Remember that YOU control the information and money in the game. Don't give the players any until you are ready. Not knowing where to go will keep them in the city. Being too broke to leave will keep them in the city. There are four (4) primary levers that will launch your characters into the jungle:
2. Goals: Destination, Guide, Supplies, and CharterDESTINATION The destination lever is the worst one of the four to switch on early. Most players (because they're idiots) will ignore all safety concerns once they learn where to go. Avoid giving them a destination until you are ready for them to leave. Your players may be idiots, but they're also frustratingly clever about figuring out goals like this. Here are some likely strategies they may come upon:
Not knowing where to go when the clock is ticking is frustrating. Embrace that and allow it to generate tension in the group! So, how do we get the players to start asking around to the right people? There are two ways this is going to happen and the difference between these methods is like the difference between players solving the logic of a trap vs a rogue rolling a skill check to do it. 1. Your players will figure out that some person may have the expertise they want and seek them out. Maybe they hear that Wakanga is the Merchant Prince in charge of lore. This becomes a mini-adventure you can role-play:
xNOTE: You should read all of p.36 of the book. It's a rumor table, but it makes an important point in the opening text at the top: The best people to talk to are those who actually work or live in the jungle: hunters, guides, and explorers. No skill checks are necessary to get people talking, but to acquire reliable information, characters must go where in-the-know folks gather. Have a respectably wise character say this to them--Zindar, perhaps. Then the players will know that they can find rumors about the soulforge by hanging out in good places. RUMOR TABLE ADVICE:
GUIDES Using the guides to delay the players is very easy. Just make guides unavailable. Early and often, NPCs should say that the group NEEDS a guide to survive the jungle. ...don't want them just rushing off to die out there without one. Here are some ways to make guides unavailable:
Most of the guides have a fee-waiving mechanic, but you may want to suppress this. Using character poverty as a hurdle to getting started is effective. SUPPLIES Don't be secretive about the supplies characters will need to survive the jungle. Unless, of course, they hire on Faroul & Gondolo--in which case, have them wave such worries away or try to hook them up with reduced-price knock-offs of the real things! To survive, players will need:
Maybe have a drunk at the bar break this down for them. CHARTER In order to legally explore the jungle, adventurers need a charter from the Flaming Fists (p.54). It costs $50 gp and signs away half your loot to the mercenary group--but they won't arrest/kill you/take all your stuff in the jungle if they find you with the document. It's a neat idea. I never have my players run into random Flaming Fists out there--there's too much cool other stuff to see to waste time on boring old Sword Coast baddies as random encounters--but a neat idea. However, needing to get an additional $50 gp together to get started--plus find a way to Fort Beluarian--is a fourth time-altering lever at your disposal. 3. Politics: Merchant Princes and ColonizersAs I said elsewhere, you can get pretty deep into colonizer/colonized dynamics in this game if you want. If your players are into it, I think it makes for pretty rich storytelling. On the other hand, if your players are going to jet out into the jungle the moment they find a mission, you will have spent HOURS prepping political dynamics in Port Nyanzaru for nothing. Rather than do all that work yourself, I recommend using the Alex Kurowski's AMAZINGLY detailed resource on these dynamics at 20 Sides to Every Story instead if and when the time comes that you'll need to introduce them. The key political dynamics to understand are these:
NOTE: Before I go on, I want to remind you that despite all this potential for intrigue, backstabbing, politics, etc--I HIGHLY recommend you treat your players positively by everyone in Port Nyanzaru--thought of as strange foreign guests, wherever they go. Get their guards down for the jungle. Anyway, what does all this political dynamic mean in real terms for you running the game?Briefly, this: Your players will probably first find themselves a hotel (there are two) and those are found in the Market Ward. In them, players will meet working class people who have pragmatic, populist ideas. They'll tend to think the Merchant Princes are out of touch (except Ekene-Afa, the gladiator; they usually love her). Old City, Malar's Throat, and Tiryki Anchorage exist outside the walls. They have their own order outside the laws of the Merchant Princes. This means danger, but also access to contraband. Some Chultans miss the Flaming Fist; others don't. Sort of depends on if they got harassed by them in the old days or if they think security was better when they were manning the walls. Some, of course, might have purely philosophical reasons to like or dislike them. Merchant Princes officially approve of each other. Generally. They are politicians, so they will always present a gracious attitude to each other for public consumption; it's behind closed doors that they may hate one another, etc. Regular Chultans probably don't know much about what they really think of each other most of the time. I'll make a full analysis of the Merchant Princes and other NPCS in a later post. 4. Time: Stuff to Do and Fun to be Had![]() How long should the players spend in Port Nyanzaru? It depends on your game and your table, but a lot of DMs find that their players are only in the city for 2-4 days before they head out on their adventures. This is because they learned where to go and got the gear they needed to leave too quickly. On the other hand, how long is too long? This is going to be up to you, Dungeon Master. The way I would calculate this isn't based on time, so much, as on experiences. You can assemble this list in whatever way sounds right to you. Maybe a good way would be to base it on how many it would take to hit level 3 before cutting out to the territories. It's up to you, but have a plan. Some fun things for the players to experience include:
Select some number of these events that you want your players to experience before they can head out. I'll work up guides for most over time that you can use. Then, share information with your players about their goals slowly as they work their way through these experiences. DON'T FORGET!
NEXT UP: PORT NYANZARU LODGINGS
An Analysis of An Opening SessionNOTE: if you'd like to skip the analysis of what did and didn't work with mine, just click past this to "Session I - Play This One." I usually launch campaigns with a strategy that helps players embrace character development.
Rather than have the team pre-assembled in a tavern, I walk each player into the game individually. I study the characters beforehand, then decide how their backgrounds tie into the plot. In Session I, I walk each character into the story with a one-on-one mini-session that gets them to the starting point. This allows me to present strong plot hooks. Doing them in isolation builds suspense, a sense of specialness, and keeps the rest of the team knowing the other characters' hooks in advance. With a larger group, this is pretty obnoxious, so I do the same, but all together. The players just need to consciously avoid metagaming. SO... When I started Tomb of Annihilation, I did this. I introduced each character into the adventure using mini-adventures into the den of Syndra Silvane. In retrospect, knowing how DEADLY this campaign is and how often these characters would die, this whole session now seems like a huge waste of time. Moreover, the campaign is very long, so this intro seems doubly superfluous. I recommend against it. Instead, I would begin Session I as I have outlined next, in the post titled: "Session I - Play This One." [If you'd like to read a summary of what my Session I looked like, you can do so here: "Session I - Baldur's Gate."] |
AuthorMicah Faulkner first started playing D&D back in 1985. He took many years off after high school, but came back in 2016 to find everything new and changed. Now he plays with his wife, son, and sisters every couple weeks. Archives
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IN DEVELOPMENT:
The Playa's Handbook (working title) A supplement for your campaigns with mechanics for romance! Fall in love! Get sticky! Stay tuned! |