erynavensara-blog

[erynavensara-blog]

Cats: The Mewsical

Still pouting a little over Zaphiel, I hand the kamadan kittens over to River Mist and Flask of Wine. They’re adorable, but I can’t carry all three of them! At least we found some cool items on the dead adventurers: a magical new rapier for me, some fabulous glamoured armour for Zaphiel, and a badass maul for Marduk. I guess that was worth nearly dying for. Right?

Moving on, we meet a man who looks a bit like the dude that creepy magic-flinging lady - Xandala - was looking for. He seems nice enough and introduces himself as Art Archer, a man on a mission to find an elf called Elisande. We speak for a bit, and Zaphiel tells Art about the death curse. Seems that Art is so focused on finding this woman that he hasn’t realised the world is falling apart around him. Before we realised Art was cool, I tried to hide with my new kamakitten friend, but the little shit bit me! Maybe I didn’t think this through...

Marduk decides to take the honour of butchering the kittens for meat (better than them starving to death on their own, I suppose...) and we carry on towards Mbala. River Mist mentions that there’s a lady who lives there who can bring people back from the dead, even now. She must be pretty powerful to stop the curse from preventing resurrection. We should meet her. Oh, then Mist kindly tells us that she worships a being called the Lord of Bones and has bone servants... maybe we shouldn’t meet her. But if she can bring people back, maybe it’s a lesser evil required to save Sindra, or one of our allies if they fall?

We eventually reach Mbala; the thing is huge! There’s a pathway that leads all the way to the top of the rock formation, so we spend a few hours trekking up and clearing any debris along the way. We may need to make a hasty retreat if our encounter with the lady doesn’t go so well.

The view from the top is astounding. We spend some time poring over the map and charting any new areas we see. Some places of note are a weird shipwreck in the middle of the jungle and a floating rock, way in the distance to the east. Unless that ship can fly, that shit is weird. I guess floating rocks are strange too.

After our drawing session, we carry on through a super creepy gate. The wood is rotten, and the gate is in a depression of the rock. Said depression is filled with what looks like hundreds of humanoid skulls, all picked clean by something sharp. That’s totally not creepy...

After Zaphiel silences the area (no harm in being careful!) we carefully wade through the death ballpit and find ourselves on the large plateau. Judging from all the empty stone foundations on the floor, there used to be a large city here. I guess this is where all the skulls came from. We also notice a hut towards the center of the dead city, but it doesn’t seem to match the foundations surrounding it. River Mist seems to think this is where the lady lives, so we creep forward and see if she’s in a mood for guests.

Well, I definitely didn’t expect a tiny, ugly old lady to come out of that hut! She doesn’t really look all that powerful. Can she really raise the dead? The lady greets us and tells us her name is Nanny Pupu (I had to try pretty hard not to laugh at that) and that she can indeed raise the dead... after another person is sacrified for it. Marduk and Zaphiel seemed poised to kill her, but I wanted to hold off on it. I don’t mean to say one life is worth more than another, but what if she really is our only chance to save Sindra?

Instead we decide to help Nanny Pupu. If she owes us a favour, then we can get her to bring Sindra back if we’re too late. She says there are some pterafolk in caves beneath the plateau that killed the city and are trying to kill her. I’m not totally sure I believe her, but pterafolk are shits from what I’ve read, so we might as well kill two pterabirds with one stone. I’m so funny. There’s a small tunnel we can squeeze through to get to the nest, but Pupu says that Marduk - being as big and manly as he is - needs oiling down to fit through. Zaphiel and I volunteered, but Pupu insisted on being the one to coat him. What a shame.

Well, we dealt with the pterafolk, but we didn’t have fun doing it. I sucked during that fight, I don’t know what’s going on! Maybe my new rapier is cursed or something, I just can’t seem to hit things. And to make matters worse, despite my best efforts we lost River Mist. Now we have to deal with her idiot brother, who was too busy sucking on pterafolk eggs to help his sister. At least there’s a shitload of loot down here, it looks like these pteras have been picking adventurers off from the forests and devouring them here.

Time for a quick rest before we make our way back to Nanny Pupu.

#j&w #d&d #D&D shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Lost Property

During the night, I send Mildred - oh yeah, I turned Malcolm into a spider after Niles kicked him to death, the twat - to scout Niles’ tent and see what he’s doing with our map. He spends quite a few hours with it, fixing mistakes on his own map and generally studying it. Yawn. Zaphiel, Marduk and I have a team huddle and decide we’re going to grab the map and run.

When Niles finally retires, he locks the map in a lockbox at the end of his bed. My specialty. Zaphiel casts invisibility on me and I sneak in. I decide that breaking into the box is probably safer than trying to pickpocket the key - who sleeps with a key in their pocket? - and I succeed amazingly, as I always do. I take our map, and see two other smaller locked boxes. One sounds like it could have gems in it, and the other one is pretty heavy. I take the lighter of the two as recompense for our mental anguish and loss of canoes. Might as well earn something while I’m here.

While that’s happening, Zaphiel disguises himself as the day guard, and relieves the night guard of his duty. Smart man. We all meet up at one of the guard posts and lower ourselves off the wall into the disgusting sewage. I had to hold my breath wading through that or I surely would have purged my stomach all over Marduk. As soon as we’re clear of the camp, I feverishly prestidigitate everyone clean. Phew! Well, now we should carry on traveling to the place east of Mbala - Orolunga? Right now, that’s our only lead about the death curse. Poor Syndra only has about fifty days left. We need to get a move on!

On our travels, we notice another Emerald Enclave perch in the canopy. One of them recognises us from a couple weeks ago, and we’re offered wine and sanctuary. Perfect. The Enclave folks kindly tell us that we’ve been travelling in the wrong direction, and they tell us how to get to Mbala. They also mention that Orolunga is a ziggurat, so that should hopefully be easy to find. We also notice a strange floating island to our east. I want to see what’s going on there. First things first, though.

That night, we find ourselves in the way of a fleeing giant boar, who is running away from a pack of raptors. Sadly, they all turn their sights to us, so we despatch them, but not after Zaphiel is almost brought down by the boar. Ouch! After dusting ourselves off and having a well deserved and cleaner night’s rest, we carry on our way to Mbala. Oh, and I checked that lockbox I stole, it had three greater healing potions and three potions of heroism in it! Considering our current state, that is a lot better than gems.

While hacking and slashing through the dense undergrowth, we disturb a very strange creature. It’s a giant cat, but it has snake heads as well as a cat head. I’ve read about these before, I’m pretty sure it’s a kamadan! It looks so cool, but so scary! We defeat it, and we realise that it is a female which has recently given birth. She must have a den somewhere; maybe there are some kittens! I run off and start searching aimlessly while my manly barbarian friend easily finds the den, and it does indeed contain kittens. There is also a pile of humanoids inside the den, some dead, some alive. I’m too distracted by the kittens, though. They don’t have their snake heads yet and they’re already as big as Malcolm! I want to keep one!

The next thing I felt was claws sinking into my back, and a pulse of pain from several small pairs of fangs. And all went dark.

I wake up, flat on my face, to find that daddy kamadan has come to protect his young. Holy hells, that was painful. I get myself out of the way and help take this one down too, but papa cat nearly downs Zaphiel too. I’m starting to realise the error of my ways, but I was just distracted by the idea of cute kittens! I’ve wanted a new pet since Malcolm died; conjuring him as a familiar just isn’t the same.

One dead male kamadan later, we pause to catch our breath. Well, I did. Zaphiel came up to me and slapped me in the face! What?! I mean, I know I did something stupid by going after the kittens, but I don’t think I deserved that! Dejected, I try to hug Zaphiel and thank him for saving my life, but he doesn’t seem to be in the mood at the moment. Thanks for making me feel like a jerk, you jerk.

Marduk and I check out the den while Zaphiel fumes. We find four dead adventurers and two tabaxi who we recognise as River Mist and Flask of Wine. Shit. I’m pretty sure Istimar mentioned that these guys are Zhents. I need to be careful around them! We wake Flask of Wine up, and he mutters something about a witch in Mbala and coming back as a zombie - weird - and it soon becomes clear that we woke up the wrong cat. He seems a bit special, the bad kind of special. We decide to loot the dead adventurers, it’s not like they’ll need their gear anymore. We find a few magical items! Jackpot! A few identifications reveal a vicious rapier (mine!), a furious maul, and some glamoured studded leather. That leather is perfect for my pal Zaphiel! Hopefully he appreciates me identifiying it for him.

We’re all pretty much spent now, so we decide to take an hour to rest and wait for the other tabaxi to wake up. Maybe these two catmen can get us to Mbala, since the grey one seems to like it so much.

#j&w #d&d #D&D shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Bisected and Baffled

Well, our shelter and transport problems were solved when we woke up. Istimar and Xandala were nowhere to be seen! I can’t believe he left me! He spends fifteen years trying to find me only to fuck off with the first pretty face that he meets. I am absolutely fuming.

The bastard left me a letter, and a weird coin. I decided to read it with Zaphiel there for moral support, and I noticed that he wasn’t even trying to peep. The letter basically said that Alyssa - my evil alter ago - used to be in the Zhentarim and she was also a pretty high ranking member of them, and the coin was proof of that - a Zhent coin with A.A, my initials, scrawled on it in my writing. Fuck. Do the Harpers even know? Will they want me dead if they find out? What if the Zhentarim find out that their Alyssa is alive? Ugh, I can worry about this later, first we need to get to Camp Vengeance alive. I tell Zaphiel about my Zhent connection, just for safety reasons, but I don’t tell him about my family. According to Istimar’s letter, my family is evil as fuck. Great.

Well, we arrive at Camp Vengeance - seems we can navigate ourselves just fine without a stupid guide - and it is horrendous. The smell just hits you as soon as you get close, it smells like a literal shithole. It’s a fortified camp - looks like they learned from their mistakes at Camp Righteous - and there’s a dug moat around it that I’m pretty sure is filled with sewage. Lovely. Nahk, being a Gauntlet himself, gets us into the camp pretty easily, and it’s not much better inside. The whole place is covered in mud and sewage and is just a disgusting place to be. I feel like they could have chosen a better place to build the camp.

The commander of the camp, Niles Breakbone, appears. As soon as he started talking, I knew I hated him. He seems to think that he can order us around and take our canoes - yes! they stole our canoes! - and threaten us with the stockade if we talk back to him. Yeah... Zaphiel got a bit testy with him. I wonder what’s up with that. Niles mentions that the camp’s hospital tent is overflowing with the sick and injured, so we offer to help. As a group we manage to get a good amount of their ill back on their feet, and Sister Cyas, a cleric of Helm, is very grateful. She seems nice, the only nice person here perhaps. Cyas doesn’t seem to like the commander and doubts his sanity. She suggests we talk to the first mates, Ord and Perne. They seemed a bit more sympathetic.

After a terrible night sleeping near the digusting, overflowing latrines, we are called to meet with Niles Breakbone, and he orders us to take the remaining sick and injured back to Port Nyanzaru to be healed. Is he fucking joking? We’ve already wasted enough time in the jungle, the last time I want to do is spend well over a week going back where we came! We refuse, and Niles seems to believe that it would only take a few days to get back to the port city. Zaphiel shows him otherwise by showing Niles our map. No! We need to keep that hidden! And the next thing we know, Niles snatches it off Zaphiel and orders us all to leave. I don’t think so, matey. Zaphiel drops an aura of silence in the tent and Marduk and I try to attack Niles. Without that map, we’re dead.

One failed fight later, we’re all thrown into the stockade, aside from Nahk who seemed too conflicted to help either side of the fray. Thralgar manages to weasel his way out of it too, since he’s needed to heal the injured. Bitch please, I can heal people too! Niles seems to be out for blood. Luckily, we’ve gained the favour of Cyas, Ord and Perne, and they vote against murdering us. Because that’s what it would have been, murder. We’re just trying to protect what we own!

During the court martial, Niles seems to realise that Zaphiel isn’t exactly into women, and it looks like Niles has a problem with that. Maybe Niles is simply denying his true nature? I decided to grab Zaphiel for a quick makeout sesh to prove Niles wrong, and hopefully keep him from discriminating us further. I think it worked. Zaphiel is a good kisser, shame he’s into dudes.

One court martial later, I’m left outside the camp with no weapons - they even stole my magic dagger - and one Zaphiel. Thralgar offered to stay behind at the camp to heal the sick, and Nahk seems to remain loyal to the Gauntlets too. Marduk’s sentence was a one-on-one fight with Ord, since Marduk took a decent chunk out of him when we were fighting Niles and he wanted to regain his honour. Ord regained nothing. I knew Marduk would win, he can shrug off massive blows no problem. He’s so manly.

After about an hour, Zaphiel and I are let back into the camp and my weapons are returned. It seems that Thralgar offered to stay permanently in return for our lives. I guess dwarves aren’t so bad after all.

Now we need a night’s rest and some time to figure out how on earth we’re going to get our map back. What a shitty day.

#j&w #D&D shenanigans #d&d #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

From Bad to Worse

Oh man, this statue thing is scary! There's dust everywhere, bones lying around, and some suspiciously partially decomposed bodies lying around. Marduk and I move into the statue chamber, and nothing moves. Seems okay. There's a giant pedestal-looking thing in the middle of the chamber, with stairs on it leading up to what looks like a... jug? Is that seriously the treasure, a jug?! Better fuckin' be worth it. We call Thralgar and Musharib for some backup, just in case, and head up the stairs. Good job I'm a clean freak, dusting the stairs revealed some ominous looking glyphs, but when Marduk stood on one, nothing happened. I reckon they'd probably blow up if I wasn't on his back.

Everything goes to shit as soon as we find the jug. I pick it up, and the place rumbles. Debris starts to fall from the ceiling, and all those creepy-looking corpses on the floor decide to wake up. I should have burned them while I was down there! Ugh. Luckily, all the zombies seem to be scared of Thralgar - I don't even think he looks remotely intimidating - and they run, giving Marduk and I chance to flee. Sadly, we're sandwiched by some goblins on our way out of the narrow corridor. Fuck. At least we've bought some time with the zombies and we can focus on bringing the goblins down. During the fight, we hear more civilised shouting coming from the goblins. I see a rather fantastic specimen, a strange-looking halforc that glows with divine might. He's pretty distracting.

Eventually we manage to kill all of the goblins and zombies, thanks to our halforc friend, who says his name is Nahk and he was on his way to Camp Vengeance when he heard the ruckus coming from all of us. Good job he decided to help, too! We decide to have a rest, but Thralgar goes to free a young axebeak that was stuck in a fenced area, and the dumb bird freaks out and calls for its flock. We end up having to fight while tired and bloodied, and a damn dinosaur joins the fray, I guess hoping for a bit of poultry with dinner. Now can we rest?

One catnap later, we move to leave the camp with our pretty new friend, but even more zombies appear from the river and decide we're a perfect post-swim snack. Can today even get any worse?! Turns out it can, these zombies seem a bit stronger than the ones we’ve fought previously, and when Marduk took the arm of one of them, the arm kept moving and tried to claw at him! What the fuck?! Luckily, Thralgar was able to scare some of the ugly bastards, so it could have been much worse. We cross the river when the undead are all dead - again - and decide to rest. We need it. An expert Identify spell from yours truly reveals the jug to be an alchemy jug. Now we don’t have to worry about drinking water, and get free booze! Sweet.

I take some time to move away from the camp and see if the Chwinga are around. I've only read about these guys, so I don't really know if there's a way to contact them, but they're the only ones who can help me find poor Shago now. I hope he's alive. I sit and call out to the Chwinga - makes me feel a bit stupid, to be honest - and ask them if they can tell me if he's okay. I feel like no one is listening until my mind flashes to Shago, and it looks like he's moving back to Port Nyanzaru. Oh Shago, please don't do anything stupid. I hope the blue fog is doing this, and not him. I hope he doesn't get himself killed. Reassured that he's at least alive, I feel like I can rest.

The next day, we carry on moving to Camp Vengeance. We notice a bunch of flying dinosaurs following us, which was a bit worrying, but none of us can do anything to try and scare them off. I was sort of glad to see that a red dragon - yes! a fucking red dragon! - appeared and scared them off. Luckily, the dragon didn’t see us. I definitely don’t want to mess with one of those. The rest of the day goes relatively quickly, but camping for the night turned out to be a disaster.

During first watch, Marduk and Nahk are attacked by some creepy plant things, and the stupid flying dinosaurs from earlier today decide that now is the perfect time to completely fuck us over. So we’re fighting an assassin vine, a creepy yellow plant, weird yellow plant zombies and a bunch of dinosaurs. Fantastic.

We manage to survive, mostly, but the fight just makes me even more suspicious of Xandala. The three canoes we have are reduced to one, and our six tents reduced to two because she decided to cast massively powerful spells over everything. I mean, yeah, she killed a lot of the zombies and pteranodons, but now we have no shelter and no transport. Oh, and Musharib died too. I didn’t really like him that much anyway, I don’t think dwarves like elves very much.

Zaphiel and I decide to snuggle up in one of the remaining tents and try to get a decent night’s sleep.

#j&w #D&D shenanigans #d&d #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Truth to the Madness

After the whole triceratops debacle, we decide to set up camp and rest. I see Shago making eyes at me, so I return his glances. I can tell he’s interested, but I’m not sure I’m into the whole jungle sex thing. Sounds... sweatier than I prefer. And the best sex is sweaty. The following morning, we set out to leave with our new triceratops babies, who are being temperamental. I’m starting to doubt my grand plan of capturing them, but now we don’t have much choice. It would be cruel to leave them on their own, and I don’t really want to kill them after all the effort we went through to capture them in the first place. Luckily, Zaphiel seems pretty good with animals and he managed to calm them down.

After a fairly uneventful days travel, we hear some voices in the canopy. A few elven-looking people are having an argument, and they didn’t quite notice us coming. Luckily they don’t seem to be the nasty type, and they explain that they’re part of an Emerald Enclave scouting party keeping watch on the undead territory, and they tell us that the territory is spreading. Maybe the death curse has something to do with this? We didn’t really have any relevant information to offer in return, so I gave them some of my conjured healing potions. Just in case. We also sold our saurian quarry to them; the babies would be safe with the Enclave and I honestly didn’t think we’d get them back to Nyanzaru before someone killed the poor things out of frustration!

Nearing Nyanzaru, we collectively decide that maybe it’s time to tell Shago the truth. We let him know that someone wants him dead and that we want to smuggle him into Nyanzaru and to his mother’s home before we discuss it further. Shago isn’t impressed with the cowardly notion of being turned invisible until I remind the lad that it’s not just for his safety, but ours too. If Kwayothe finds out that we didn’t kill Shago, we could all be in a lot of trouble.

Arriving at Zhanthi’s, we use our truthful cover of finding information about the pirate problem to gain entry to her home, where once we are in private, we reveal Shago and they are reunited. Pretty sweet to watch, to be honest. I wish I could remember my mother. There is little mention of a woman called Wynona in Alyssa’s my journal, and I think that’s her my mother? I seemed to like her, anyway. I think she is - or was - a really powerful bladesinger. Maybe I have it in my blood.

We decide to tell Zhanthi the truth: Kwayothe wants Shago dead and she asked us to do it, likely because we have no affiliations in Chult yet. Zhanthi has decided to take matters into her own hands and try to find a way to deal with Kwayothe, and while she does that, she wants us to hire Shago and get him out of Nyanzaru. Pretty scary when you’re safer in the jungle than the city! Istimar and Zaphiel don’t seem to like Shago at all. I mean, he’s not the best guide I’ve ever seen, but he’s a good person and he makes an effort. Plus, I think even the most seasoned guide would have a hard time getting through that jungle. I didn’t even think we were making any progress until we found the river leading to the Port!

When our sad business was revealed and somewhat sorted, Zhanthi asked us about the pirates. We were about to tell her about Liara’s involvement, when she asked for more privacy. Zaphiel gave me a look, maybe Zhanthi doesn’t want to talk about this in front of Shago? It seems Shago may have more of an attachment to the Fists than I ever did, so I decided to try and keep him distracted while everyone spoke to Zhanthi. What better way than a bath, some fine spirits, and a comfy bed? I think we both had a good time, but it felt like Shago was distracted. Maybe he knows something is going on with the Fists, or is worried for his mother’s safety? Hmm. I’ll have to talk to him when I get chance.

We stay the night in Nyanzaru, resupply (Zhanthi was kind enough to send out some staff to buy supplies for us) and I send a coded letter to Syndra, basically updating her on what’s been happening, letting her know we’re alive, and where we’re going next. I hope she’s doing okay. We find out that Azaka has sadly left the Port with another group of adventurers since we’ve been gone longer than a week, but Musharib is still waiting for us. I guess he’ll do. We leave for Camp Vengeance with Musharib, Shago and Xandala (she’s still following us?)

Canoeing down one of the rivers, we don’t meet much resistance aside from a stupid snake that tried to drown Istimar. It didn’t take much to kill it. Further on, we come near some strange blue fog. Musharib told us to avoid it, so Thralgar manages to brush some of it aside with some magic. He can’t get through all of it, and our canoes are sailing right into it. We all hold our breath and hope that’s enough to stop it. We were okay until we camped, anyway. Zaphiel suddenly went deaf and blind, and Thralgar couldn’t stop twitching? What is even going on? Everyone else seemed alright, though Istimar was hovering unnaturally close to Marduk. Maybe he’s just scared or something? I’ll have to talk to him once we’re settled.

Zaphiel was freaking out because of his ailments. Don’t blame him really, going deaf must be a bard’s worst nightmare! I stayed with him and tried to comfort him until he fell asleep, then I went to check on Shago and see how he was doing, maybe talk to him about his previous distraction. At least, that was my plan, but the bastard has gone missing! Did the blue fog get to him too? Did he know about Liara? Does he want to go back and stick it to Kwayothe? The little shit didn’t even leave a note! Gotta say, I’m pretty mad. I make the stupid decision of bashing on someone’s tent and yelling before running after Shago, but luckily nothing attacks me and everyone is roused eventually. After realising my folly, I give up and quickly return to camp. Musharib said it looks like Shago had too large of a head start before we realised he was gone. Fuck. Zhanthi gave us one job, and we failed already. If he was affected by the fog, he could be too incapacitated to defend himself! What if he’s dead already?! I’m pretty adamant on finding Shago - in hindsight, probably being a bit irrational - but no one else really wants to find him. Thralgar makes a shitty comment about me only wanting him back so I can ride his dick, and I was a sliver away from attacking him. Perhaps the fire bolt that whooshed over his stupid head will teach him. I should have burned that ridiculous beard of his.

We waste a day searching the area for Shago (Zaphiel was fine in the morning, so we decided to carry on - maybe Thralgar will recover in time?), and we leave clues in our camp so he would know where to find us if he ever came back. We press on to Camp Righteous, which is abandoned and looks like any items of value or usefulness have been taken out of the camp. We heard this camp was overrun before we got to Chult, so hopefully Camp Vengeance is still standing. There are no bodies, so I guess they were either eaten or buried. What if they were taken to add to the army of undead? Sheesh. Musharib tells us about the giant statue in the camp, an eighty-foot depiction of a man carrying a crocodile on his back. Tale told of a man who wanted to cross a river, and a crocodile offered to help if he owed him a favour. The man agreed, and then the crocodile asked the man to carry him among the realms of humankind. I guess that’ll teach him to make promises.

Musharib also mentioned that there is treasure inside the statue, but it’s also fraught with traps. Some trial and error, bruised egos and arses later, we realised that the trapped corridor won’t spring if you piggyback someone, just like in the fable. Thralgar was still twitchy and Istimar seemed more interested in watching us get dropped, slashed and flung around, so I decided to get on Marduk (no, not in that way, sadly) and we climbed up to a door. It had weird glowing symbols on it, so we tried to press them. It seemed like that was a trap, because a thunderous blast went off and sent Marduk sprawling down a ledge. When he recovered and got back up, I hopped back on and tried the door. The damn thing just opened. Has someone been here before? Maybe the treasure has already been taken.

Only one way to find out! Better make sure everyone else takes watch while man (Marduk) and crocodile (yours truly) delve into the creepy-ass statue.

#j&w #d&d #D&D shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Walking Through Fire

It’s been about a week since I last wrote in here. I didn’t really want to write anything. Fai is the second person we’ve lost since first hearing about the Death Curse, and I think it’s starting to sink in. Fai isn’t going to come back, ever. It used to be, if a noble or an adventurer or just anyone with enough money died prematurely, someone could pay a powerful cleric or druid to bring them back.

Not anymore.

Does that mean I can never bring Brianna back? I’ve been trying to get the money together for a resurrection for years - I even buried Brianna in her favourite dress so she’ll look pretty for me when she returns - but can that even happen anymore? Will ending the Death Curse mean that we can resurrect people again, like... the ones we lost before the Curse? Or are they lost forever? Where is Brianna now?

Dread musing aside, we had to focus. We’re stuck in the middle of the jungle, one man down, and we had Shago and Xandala to keep alive. That said, I think Xandala can take care of herself, if she had a hold of her magic. She could easily take us all out if she wanted to. Ugh. Shago tells us that we’re still a ways from the undead-infested jungle, so we should be safe to bury Fai normally. As we do that, and as Thralgar gives Fai his last rites, a little creature shows up. A tiny, humanoid-looking spirit floats over to Fai’s corpse and touches it gently. Oh! It’s a Chwinga! I’ve read about these little things! They’re elemental spirits that live in the jungle and like to follow people, sometimes granting them boons if they’re deemed worthy. It looks like the little guy saw something in us. Maybe it knows we’re trying to help?

Thralgar uttered something in a strange language after the little Chwinga left, and he said that it feels like Fai’s body is fully protected from the undead scourge. It was beautiful to watch the Chwinga, and at least now we have some reassurance that we have allies in the jungle. Maybe there’s hope for us yet! We decide to make camp as it’s getting late. Zaphiel and I decide to share a tent, partly because he’s an expert cuddler and partly because I want to make Istimar jealous.

The following morning, I decide to try and fluster Istimar even more. He mentioned something about Alyssa being so free that she didn’t wear underwear, so I decided to do the same. I left my undergarments poking out of my bag - I hope he notices! You’ve gotta try and have a bit of fun in dark times. It’s not like I need clothes now anyway, the beautiful dragon scales I got from the elixir are doing a good job of protecting my assets.

I use our more spacious marching order - maybe if we’re not as close together, we’ll be harder to attack and flank - to talk to Zaphiel. We’re both glum, but he seemed pretty worried about me. He noticed that I wasn’t myself back at the Fort, and I figured I owed him something after all he’s done for me. I mentioned that I used to be in the Fists because I needed a job, and that I had a girlfriend there, who died. I told him I deserted the Fists after that, and I was worried that someone at the Fort would realise I used to be one of them. I don’t know if they punish deserters, but I didn’t want to find out! I didn’t tell him about the content of the nightmares though. I just want to forget about that until we get back... maybe I can deal with it a bit better when I feel a bit safer. Zaphiel’s late-night snuggles are definitely helping to tone them down, though. I hope he’s doing okay. He didn’t sound so sure when I asked him.

A few relatively uneventful days pass. You know when you feel like you’re being followed, but you can’t see or hear anything? I’ve been having a weird feeling like that for a couple days now. It’s probably just anxiety. I don’t think Shago totally knows where we are in the jungle; he might have gotten us lost. I really hope he gets us back to Nyanzaru. We stumble upon a group of strange goblins wearing creepy masks - I think I read about these guys once - who had attacked an adventurers’ camp and killed the people there. We decide to attack them, and I use a spell that I read about in Alyssa’s book but never got chance to use - Ice Knife! So cool. I hurt some goblins, but I’m pretty sure I also ended the life of one of the adventurers. They looked dead! Things were looking up, and now we have another person who might never come back. Ugh. I also almost hurt Thralgar and Marduk with that spell, so maybe I should just not use it. Ha.

That night, after killing goblins and looting the camp - not like the people there needed the stuff - I decide to try and take my mind off things and go up to Zaphiel. Might be going a bit far here, but I quietly ask him if he wants to make out a bit and see how much it annoys Istimar. Sadly, Zaphiel isn’t up to it, so we just cuddle instead. Baby steps!

The next day, we stumble upon a huge dinosaur! I think Shago said it was a triceratops! We tried to back away from it, but Shago’s jungle machete seems to have startled her. Yes, her. Zaphiel tries to scare her off by conjuring an illusion of a tyrannosaurus rex screech - we saw one of those horrors on our way to Fort Belurian - but all it does is scare the triceratops’ babies. Ugh. We don’t really have a choice, she can move a lot faster than we can I bet, and her idiot babies panicked and ran right into us!

Regretfully, we take down the triceratops. Shago impressed me this time, he fought well and dealt some serious blows to the mother. He even somehow found time to flirt with me during the battle, ha! I really hope we can save this guy from Kwayothe. He’s only young, and has a lot of heart. I decide to let him have some of the spoils from the fight, and he creates a rather good-looking helmet out of the skull of one of the babies (Marduk got a bit too angry and killed one, and we lost another before I asked that we keep the babies alive). We managed to capture two of the babies, and Shago told us that we can sell them in Port Nyanzaru, if we can get them back there. Hopefully the surviving babies can have a good life in the Port city.

Before we even think about that, it’s time to rest. We had a long day, and Shago thinks we’re relatively close to Nyanzaru now. He told us the journey would take us a week, but it’s looking closer to nine or so days now. I’m worried about Syndra.

#j&w #d&d #D&D shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

From the Frying Pan...

Oh man. I might be hungover to hells, but I haven’t slept that well in quite some time. Waking up with a guy who didn’t want my body is really refreshing. Zaphiel’s arm made a very comfortable pillow, and I’m pretty sure I drooled on him. Oh well, I’m sure he won’t mind too much. Istimar very rudely woke us up, calling us lovebirds?! Ha, I think someone might be a little jealous. I should see if Zaphiel will play up a fake romance with me, just to fuck with Istimar. He made some snide remark about how boring I am because Alyssa never wore underwear (not like Zaphiel would be interested if I wasn’t, plus he’d already seen too much of my tattoo), so I’m sure Istimar is deserving of some fuckery. I’ll think of something.

I am also filled in on what happened while I was drinking away my sorrows last night. It turned out Fai and Istimar have really fucking big balls, because they decided to explore the more restricted areas of Fort Belurian to try and get this dirt we need to link the Fists with the pirates. They didn’t find any evidence, but they did steal a bunch of cool shit from them. Some scrolls, magical arrows and a quiver that seems to work a lot like our bag of holding. Not a bad haul, but we need to keep that stuff hidden.

I am also told that Istimar’s friend who wanted us to make the distraction at Fort Belurian in the first place was caught sneaking around the fort after hours, and it seems that the break-in and thefts were pinned on him. Phew! I was also told that he is likely dinosaur food. Not so great. A bit brutal, but better him than us, I suppose. We also picked up a mission to deliver ghoul heads to Fort Belurian in return for gold, as well as a recon mission to find the creature creating absurdly large footprints in the jungle. The money sounds good, but I’d rather stay the fuck away from Fort Belurian after what we’ve done there. If any more attention is brought to us, they might realise I used to be with the Fists!

After all this sneaky talk, we go down to breakfast. I decided to tease Istimar, asking if he hit that - Xandala - last night. Xandala seems to be the most sheltered woman I’ve ever met. She was asking if Istimar is prone to violence, because he didn’t hit her last night! I had to stop myself from laughing at her naivete. It’s honestly kinda cute. I decided to try and play it up a bit, and I gave her the origami pseudodragon I’ve been working on. Maybe if I get into her good graces, I’ll find out what’s really going on between her and Istimar. I was a little creeped out though, because now Xandala seems to think we’re suddenly best friends, and we should make a blood pact and I should give her some of my hair or something? Who raised her?! I asked that very question and made her cry. Seems she misses her daddy. Oops. I’ll have to try again to make her like me.

After breakfast, we meet up with Shago and decide to leave Fort Belurian with the exploration charter Marduk pretty much fucked Liara into giving us. See, I always say sex can be more about fun! It’s pretty fun though regardless. Anyway, we leave and enter the jungle. It’s a bit exciting! I’ve read about the jungle, but I’ve never explored it until now.

Not far into our travels, my worst enemy shows up. Twig blights. And they brought some bigger friends. A giant vine thing that tried to kill us! It wasn’t so bad, and we dealt with them pretty quickly. Moving on, we carry on our way back to Port Nyanzaru. A few hours later, all hell rains down on us. Before I could even blink, a giant snake shoots out of the trees and clamps its teeth down on Fai, killing him in a single blow. I couldn’t believe it, but there were five more of these creatures that had to go down. I had to wait to try and help Fai. Luckily, Xandala is getting a bit better at this whole magic thing, and she was able to kill three of the snakes with a single fireball. I’m glad she didn’t manage to hit some of us with it! She seems quite strong, considering her total lack of confidence in her abilities.

We decide to skin the snakes and take their meat, and we are left figuring out what to do about Fai. The little guy is really dead! That’s the third person who joined us, who is now dead. Is it even worth it to be here? What would I even gain from getting my memory back? How many more will die until we either all perish, or finally find this Soulmonger? Can we even bring the dead back when the Soulmonger is stopped and the curse hopefully ended?

These are too many questions for one day, and we need to make camp. We need to mourn our friend.

#j&w #d&d #D&D shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

The Gang Arrives in Fort Disaster

We all arise, tired and damp, none of us having had a good night’s rest, and take one of the rowboats to shore. A plate-wearing (what an idiot) guy from the Fists sees us, and I’m pretty sure he recognizes me. Shit, it’s Gruta! He sees through my lies, but luckily Istimar distracts him by pointing out how crappy and rusted his armour looks now. I guess Istimar can be useful sometimes. It’s a fourteen-mile walk to Fort Belurian, so we start trekking. During our long walk, we see a huge dinosaur chasing some smaller ones through the jungle. I just run and hide behind someone, I do not want to mess with one of those. It was monstrous!

Istimar uses our walk to tell us that he has intel that suggests that the Flaming Fists at Fort Belurian are working with the pirates. Would have been nice to know this before, buddy. Istimar wants to create a distraction in Fort Belurian so whoever he’s been talking to on his solo excursions around Port Nyanzaru can steal proof of this unholy alliance off the Flaming Fists. Zaphiel told me that Istimar is working with the Zhentarim, but it looked like Istimar was telling the truth when he said he wasn’t. That said, it looked like Zaphiel was speaking true, too. Who do I believe? The Zhentarim are evil money-grabbing cretins!

This deal with the Fists just makes it all worse for me. I pretty much deserted them about twelve years ago. I was working for them in Baldur’s Gate to make some coin, and that’s where I met Brianna, remember? She was the love of my life, and she was taken from me by a rowdy drunkard. I couldn’t deal with it, so I just left Baldur’s Gate without telling anyone. I’m not sure how the Fists deal with people who just leave, so I’ll have to try and keep quiet.

Arriving at Fort Belurian, I see the flag of Baldur’s Gate flying above and my heart just drops. Everything about my time with the Fists and the fun I had with Brianna just comes flooding back, and I want to just forget it all. I need a drink. I glumly follow the party while we try to find some information and our good friend Shago.

I am quickly distracted by the merchants who supply the Fists here. It seems they try to peddle their wares to adventurers too, as I see a man trying to auction off a weird creature. Wait. Is that an almiraj?! I’ve only read about these creatures! They’re giant, adorable rabbits with a horn on their head! I’ve wanted one of these ever since I saw a diagram of one during my time researching Chult! I quickly go over to the almiraj, angry that such a majestic creature is cramped into such a small cage. A noblewoman also seems to be interested in the almiraj, and she has a lot of fun talking down to me. The bitch. If I wasn’t so nervous about making my presence known to the Fists, someone would have had to tear me off her! Further inspection finds that the almiraj is a fake! Good job I had a closer look at it; I was prepared to spend all of my money to get my hands on one of these creatures! I told the bitch that the almiraj is a fake, and she didn’t believe me. Silly cow. Her loss! I threw her some shade and moved on.

The grumpy sods who work at the Fort - pretty sure they don’t even want to be here - finally direct us to Liara Portyr, the leading officer who can sell us a charter for roaming the jungles. When we finally get to her, I hear that she is talking to Gruta - crap! Hopefully stowing my hat and coat will be enough to not attract his attention again. After waiting a while, and seeing Fai and Istimar walk off into another room, I approach the halls where Zaphiel and Thralgar are entertaining Gruta and get myself a stiff drink.

A few cups in, I see Marduk leave with Liara, who has been pretty much eyefucking him the moment she saw him. Have fun, Marduk! She’s pretty hot for her age - for a human, anyway. Fai and Istimar come into the room about half an hour later, and Istimar looks like a small child who’s had his paws in the cookie jar. No doubt he’s been up to something bad. Whatever, I grab a few drinks to take to bed with me. Malcolm can be my pillow for the night.

When I’m suitably inebriated, I fall asleep. I was hoping the drink would make me forget about Brianna and hopefully have a restful sleep, but neither happened. This time it was nightmares where K’lahu was using both myself and Brianna, and there was nothing I could do about it. Luckily, I’m awoken by knocks on my door. Opening my eyes, I see Fai trying to curl up on my bed. Hell no, little dude. You can find your own bed.

Opening the door, I see Zaphiel. He wants to fill me in on whatever he was doing while I was drowning my sorrows, but I’m honestly too drunk to remember. Something about Istimar and Fai making a huge mistake and Istimar’s contact coming up with a plan? I don’t know. As Zaphiel is about to leave, I ask him to stay with me. Maybe just having another person with me will help me sleep. He agrees and quietly plays calming music as I rest, and I’m soon calmly sleeping.

He’s such a good bard.

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Set Sail for the Sea of Dreams (or Nightmares)

Well, time to go! I get a lovely surprise on our way out, though. Looks like Istimar has found a pretty little bird to hang on his shoulder. She even has dragon scales, like me. Is he seriously trying to make me jealous? Psh. Not gonna work.

Anyway, little birdie said she’s lost her daddy and can we help find him? We have more important things to do, like get on a boat and find Shago! Why did Istimar agree to help this kid? She’s been looking at him all doe-eyed all the way to the docks.

Speaking of doe-eyed, oh my. We finally see the harbourmaster, who is busy in conversation with our captain. I’ve never seen a dragonborn before - they’re pretty rare - but this guy is absolutely stunning. His golden scales just shimmer in the sunlight, and he’s so tall and muscled! Plus, I heard from the clerk that he knows his way around magic. I just can’t stop staring at him!

After picking my jaw up off the floor, my allies tell me that we have acquired passage on the boat for a small fee, which may or may not be waived if we protect the boat from pirates. We also overheard that Zhanthi - remember, one of the merchant princes? - will reward anyone who can kill or capture any pirates terrorising the waters outside Nyanzaru. Sadly our gnomish captain isn’t at all interested in that mission, as much as we’d appreciate the extra coin and favour with Zhanthi.

We leave Nyanzaru, and now our glorious captain Ortimay decides it is the perfect time (you know, when we can’t decide to scrap the mission to save or kill Shago), to tell us that a dragon turtle roams these waters and occasionally demands tribute from people. The fuck?! One of those things chewed a boat apart! I don’t want to mess with one of those! Super conveniently, said dragon turtle shows up, tosses me and a few others off the damn ship, and demands tribute. How about you fucking let me back on the ship so I can give you some shit, you stupid reptile?!

Wet clothes and two hundred gold later, the dragon turtle leaves us alone. Phew! That was scary. I’ve had enough of scary for one week. We progress onwards, and I decide to take watch with the captain. I’m pretty sure she has a thing for me, but I’m not really into people who keep the truth from us and nearly get us killed. Grr.

Not long into my watch, a storm rolls in and it seems some merfolk take this opportunity to attack the boat, poking several holes in it with their stupid spears. Ortimay demands we dive into the sea and fight the merfolk while she tries to keep control of the ship, which is fast coming to a stop as she tries to maneuver it around the winds. Sure, fighting fish people in the freezing sea sounds like a perfect night to me.

Fight over, we find some pretty expensive looking rings, and a dagger that turns out to be magical. If I throw it, it comes back! That’ll prove useful. The ship needs some repairs done, so we all pitch in. I can’t do much on my own, so I summon a servant to help. So does Istimar. Pretty sure he’s copying me. Before my servant leaves, I use it to harass him a bit. I find out he’s ticklish, good...

We decide to try and get some sleep before the boat arrives at Fort Belurian. I don’t really sleep so well, I guess my experience with K’lahu is getting the better of me. I have several nightmares where he just beats me senseless and, you know, uses me. Kills me when he’s done. And my friends aren’t there to help me. Why can’t I wake up?

I hear a humming sound on the edges of my fantasms, a soothing sound, and a touch on my hand. I can’t tell if it’s real, but it just makes the horror fade, and I slide into a deeper rest. That’s better.

#j&w #d&d #D&D shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

The Crew

Well, after all the death and abandonment, I should probably give myself a refresher course on our motley crew before we set sail for Fort Belurian:

ERYN

Yours truly. Sexy sun elf with a hint of red (remember, you drank that gross blood potion thing that gives you dragon powers) who likes to stab and slash with a magical flair.

FAI

The cute little gnome wizard who pines for his mentor. He’s quite smart, but doesn’t really pay attention to things outside of his book. I kinda wanna read it.

ISTIMAR

My half-drow friend from the old days, when I was called Alyssa. From what he says, I used to be a terrible person. He likes that, though. I’m still not totally sure what his intentions are, but he seems to be nice. At least, when he’s not treating me like a common harlot.

MARDUK

The rippling muscles of this hard-tempered barbarian are difficult to not look at. I’m not really certain what his deal is, but he definitely likes his food and ale! He likes food and fighting, I wonder if there are any other Fs he likes... I’ll have to talk to him at some point and see if he’ll open up.

THRALGAR

Hehe. The new guy. I think he’s really mad at me for desecrating his bed. Maybe he’s one of those celibate holy types? He seems okay though, I bet he’ll help us in a pinch. I heard he healed Sanjay after his unfortunate collision with a tankard.

ZAPHIEL

The forbidden fruit. Pretty sure this bard likes men more than he likes me. I’ll have to ask him. I still really like him, after what he did during the incident with K’lahu, just reassuring me that everything will be okay... Zaphiel is a good man under all that flamboyance and bravado. I still need to thank him.

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Grumpy Dwarves and Dark Dealings

After dealing with K’lahu and having a quick breather, we decide to seek out Azaka despite our contract with Musharib. I preferred her little advertisement in the inn anyway, she seems calm and collected. Sanjay kindly gets us a meeting with her. She looks very capable, she’s tall and strong and has scars. I wonder if she’s into women? Anyway, she’s definitely my favourite out of the two guides we’ve met. Has a no-nonsense approach to things. She wants some help with getting a mask back from some pterafolk, and will guide us for free if we help her. I’m in!

I return to the tavern with some time to kill before the evening, so I start to scribe some spells from the book Wakanga gave me. When I go to the bar for some food, I consider a potentially evil prank I can play on Thralgar. You see, when I first met Thralgar, he could barely speak to me and looked like he wanted to be as far away from him as possible. Now I know I’m gorgeous, so it’s not that. Maybe powerful women scare him. Maybe powerful women who wait in his bed will scare him more...

In need of a distraction, myself and Zaphiel go to see Wakanga. I hoped Zaphiel wouldn’t be there long, but it turns out all three of us had a rather enjoyable watermelon juice bath party. At least the cleanup was easier. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of attention I got from Zaphiel, maybe he’s not into me? Oh well, there are plenty of other men for me! At least Wakanga knows what he’s doing.

Dragging Zaphiel back from Wakanga’s during the early hours of the morning (I don’t think he can go as long as I can, ha), Sanjay greets us at the door with a royal summons from Kwayothe; she wants to see us in the morning. Guess she’s calling in that favour. Sigh. I notice that Thralgar and Marduk are still awake. Perfect timing. Like the sly fox I am, I decide to break into his room and wait on his bed wearing my adorable one-piece. The tattoo is covered, but pretty much nothing else is.

Totally worth it! He opened his door, took one look at me, basically stopped working for a seconds and then bolted away! I definitely needed that laugh. Time to go sleep in my own room.

Due to leave with Azaka, we all drag ourselves out of bed pretty early. Sadly, Sanjay has an unfortunate message for us: a royal summons to see Kwayothe. I guess she’s calling in her favour earlier than expected! We send a messenger to apologise to Azaka and ask her to wait for us, then make our way to Kwayothe.

Now I see her, I get why Zaphiel was a bit intimidated by Kwayothe the first time. She’s a very powerful-looking woman, and her bodyguards look like perfect specimens! It’s almost scary how beautiful they are. Anyway, Kwayothe has decided to use us as her personal killing crew, because she wants a person called Shago, a guide working out of Fort Belurian, dead within a tenday. As much as I don’t want to kill someone, I also don’t want to get on the wrong side of a merchant prince so soon into our time here. Kwayothe is taking a no-questions-asked approach, so we decide to speak to people we trust for answers.

We gather some information from Wakanga - who was sadly working in his office, so no fun there - and Syndra, who was staying at Wakanga’s mansion. We find out that Shago is the fucking son of a merchant prince, and on top of that, he sounds like a really good guy! Why does Kwayothe want him dead? Syndra can only think of one reason, that reason being that Shago and his mother are the only princes with royal blood in them. Plus, Kwayothe may want to make a move on Shago’s mothers market. Why sell fruits and insect repellent when you can sell precious gems? Syndra also tells us that there are rumours that Kwayothe worships and evil fire god and has a pet succubus. Great. Maybe that’s why her bodyguards are so damn attractive.

Still conflicted, we decide to head to the harbour and see if there are any boats going to Fort Belurian. A stupid task like this could waste up to a week of the seventy-odd days we have left to save Syndra, but right now it seems like we have little choice. I was hoping to follow a rumour and see if the Order of the Gauntlet camp can be protected - it could be a decent shelter while we’re in the jungle - but this foolish quest might prevent us from getting there in time.

At the harbour, Zaphiel speaks to a clerk who provides us the name of a boat - the Brazen Pegasus - that can take us to Fort Belurian when the tides go out that evening. Well, that wasn’t too difficult. The clerk also wouldn’t stop gushing about the harbourmaster, a dragonborn called Zindar. I don’t think I’ve seen one of those up close! Note: meet Zindar.

We get back to the inn to kill some time to find that Marduk, Fai and Thralgar have been making some trouble of their own. Somehow, Fai beat Marduk in an armwrestling match and he got so mad he threw a tankard at Sanjay and knocked him out?! What happened to not causing trouble? We patch Sanjay up and pay him for the trouble before sitting down for a meal. We have a few hours to kill before the boat leaves. We still don’t know what we’re going to do about Shago...

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

For Want of Wisdom

By Oghma’s scrolls, I’m a fucking idiot. I feel like a complete buffoon simply writing this all down.

So we were going to find that gladiator, K’lahu, yeah? Well, we found him. He was with all his mates, and we needed a way to get him away from them so we could bully him for his money. Even that sentence sounded stupid. We couldn’t really think of anything, so I decided to use what the gods gave me and see if I can woo him out of the tavern and away from his friends. I tell my friends to keep an eye on me and follow me if K’lahu and I start to move. I hope they keep up, this gladiator dude really isn’t my type...

Well, I managed to woo K’lahu, and he seemed pretty excited that he didn’t need to put any effort into bagging a girl for the day. I guess that’s nice? Whatever, I take him out the back of the inn.

I really hope my allies are close behind...

K’lahu decides to do the dirty in a nearby alley... the fuck? This isn’t my kind of thing, pal! And the dolt isn’t even listening to me. He must have taken too many hits to the head. Well, I’m weak as a bird, so there wasn’t really much I can do at this point, unless I want to risk him calling out for his friends. The gladiator picks me up and dumps me on a table... this is when I start to get worried.

Where is everyone?!

I feel a gentle squeeze on my hand. That must be Zaphiel or Fai or something, I’m sure one of them knows how to turn invisible. Thank you. I felt a bit safer knowing someone was with me, other than the brute anyway. I mean, I could have tried my new dragon breath on his stupid dick or just stabbed him in the face, but he looks a lot better at fighting than I am. I needed backup, fast!

I see my friends turn the corner to the alley just as K’lahu starts removing his breeches, ugh. Luckily they distract him long enough for me to extricate myself from his grip, and I just lean against the wall and watch what happens. I didn’t feel like I could do anything at that point, for the first time in my life I was truly scared. Even those disgusting giant rats had nothing on this.

In a bit of a haze, I see that Fai - ah, so it must have been Zaphiel who held my hand - casts a spell on the gladiator and makes him go and pay Sanjay before things take a violent turn. If my mind wasn’t in such a haze, I would have been disappointed that we didn’t fight him.

That fifty gold reward was totally worth it.

Right?

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Slippery Misadventures

Why did I think that was a good idea? At the time, it was super sexy and fun, but dear gods the cleanup is horrendous. It’s amazing where that oil has ended up. Even prestidigitation isn’t helping much. I decide to flip flop my way back to the inn, still partly covered in the oil.

I’m gonna kill Istimar though. When I got back, it seems most of the party is still in the bar area, and Istimar rushes up to me and starts... mothering me? Like, trying to clean my oily face and rearranging my clothes for me. Who does he think he is? I’ve been on my own for years, I know how to take care of myself! And if I do go and have some messy fun, I can clean up on my own! It’s like he has a problem with me going out for sex. It’s not like I’m the only one who does it! Grr. I might have to talk to him later.

When I’m cleaned up, I reconvene with the group and learn that Shadow, our tabaxi friend, has disappeared and left his bag of holding for me to keep. He was muttering something about his tribe, so maybe he went back to help them considering the shitty situation here. I don’t blame him to be honest.

I fill in the group with the quest Wakanga gave us, but I left out the whole shield guardian thing. I kinda wanna see what it looks like, and I’m not sure if we can trust our new guy. Maybe once I’ve seen him fight and made sure he’s more than a cute face. I’m filled in on a quest our enchanting bard, Zaphiel, accepted off a dyemaker: he’s being threatened by the Ypteka society - seem like a bunch of vigilantes who mete out their version of justice on those who slight the merchant princes - because he bought some fruit off the black market. All this over some fruit? Seems harsh. It seems we have agreed to go and see Kwayothe, one of the merchant princes, to beg forgiveness for his ‘sin.’

That night, I decide it’s prank time. I go all out, waste some time, and find the super manly guard who first escorted me to Wakanga’s, and I have a bit of fun with him before enacting my plan. Everyone had to be asleep! I sneak my way into Istimar’s room - he looks so small and cute when he’s sleeping! - and take his Mystra pendant. I then go to Zaphiel’s room, and hide the pendant in his pack. I’m surprised no one woke up, I’m not exactly the quietest of people. Job done.

In the morning, I decide to sleep in while everyone else runs their errands. Zaphiel and Marduk decide to go help the dyemaker, who said he would meet us to go to see Kwayothe. Istimar and Fai go to meet a man called Volo, who attracted their attention while touring the city and said he could get us a meeting with the best guides.

We meet up at lunch. I feel a lot better after that rest! From what I heard, Kwayothe has a stern but fair aura to her, and she says it’s not the crime that matters, but that a merchant prince has been disrespected. Regardless, she agrees to pardon the dyemaker as long as Zaphiel owes her a favour. I’m sure this will end well... Unrelated, the trip to Volo turned out to be a bust, and Volo ended up being a useless buffoon, at least to Istimar. Oh well.

Fai also told us that his dwarven friend, Thralgar, is interested in joining our jungle excursion. He detests the undead that thrive there, and also wants the Soulmonger destroyed. Sweet, the more the merrier! Plus, he said he has healing magic, and we can always use some quick fixes for our hurts. He seems okay, but has a kind of grumpy look to him. I dunno, I’ll have to get to know him. Thralgar had got a guide, Musharib, to meet with Fai and Istimar. It seems that they’ve signed a contract with him before consulting the rest of us. Okay then.

Istimar was quite angry at me, too. It seems he somehow knew I’d been in his room last night and stolen his pendant! What a spoilsport, he could have at least played along. And Zaphiel, the sweetie, even tried to take the blame for it! He’s so precious.

On our way out to find a guide, the barkeep, Sanjay Gupta, asks me a favour. It seems he made a bet with a gladiator, and the gladiator, called K’lahu, lost. Sanjay is owed five hundred gold, but K’lahu hasn’t paid up. Can we get the money for him? Sure... Sanjay warns us that the gladiators aren’t to be messed with, if we get attacked by the debtor and his friends, chances are we’re dead. Great. This gladiator is to be found in the Firehammer Tavern, so we decide to go there and try to find some guides while we’re at it.

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

The Big City

Holy shit this is hot. Syndra warned us of the climate, but fucking hell. Gonna be sweating my tits off in this place.

After recovering from the heat smacking me in the face, I take a look around. Wow. This place is amazing! Reading about it is one thing, seeing it in person is another! The colours! The smells! Flowers everywhere! I could totally see myself settling down here. We are greeted by a powerful-looking man surrounded by bodyguards. He tell us his name is Wakanga, and Syndra says he is one of the seven merchant princes, and that she will be staying with him until she feels strong enough to go home. Gotta say, I was expecting some stuck-up snob to be a prince, but this Wakanga guy is really laid back! He also has an eye for me too, maybe I can use that... I mean, he’s also not bad on the eyes either, but I bet it would be beneficial to literally get in bed with a prince. He even offered me an oil bath! Not sure what that is, but it sounds slippery.

With my sordid plots in mind, Syndra advises us to tour the city, get supplies and find a place to stay. She mentions an inn called the Thundering Lizard, good for the more fun-loving people like myself. Sounds like a plan! Turns out you need things like insect repellent and raincatchers if you want to survive in the jungle. Starting to think that offering to explore the jungle may be a mistake...

On our way out of the docks, Marduk bumps into a small child, buried in its book. Oh, nevermind, it’s a gnome. He looks a bit strange, but also kinda adorable. Said gnome introduces himself as Fai, and says he is looking for his mentor in the jungle and wants some help. He says he knows magic and can defend himself. I suppose he’ll do, the more help we can get, the better! Added bonus: he also knows where the inn is.

Arriving at the inn, Istimar decides to get us all to look at guides and see about meeting some, to see if we click with one and hopefully trust them enough to lead us through the jungle and back again. My upper brain wasn’t really doing much thinking, so I stealthed away like I do and I hired bodyguards to take me to Wakanga’s. I don’t really know how safe this place is, so I’d better take precautions.

I find my way into Wakanga’s house - seems he was expecting me - and am greeted by himself and Syndra. I ask them for help; Syndra said the dangers were greater than she thought... does she really think we can stop this Soulmonger thing? Luckily, Wakanga really does seem to like me, because he gives me a spellbook with a bunch of cool spells in (not that I can learn them, but maybe our new gnomish friend can!) and even gives me a token that lets us buy some magical items, tax-free. Yeah! Wakanga mentions that the wizard’s journal is one that an old friend of his had, who disappeared fifteen years ago. Wakanga would like us to go and find out what happened to the man, with a possible reward being a shield guardian... if we can find its amulet. At least the book has a diagram of it in, and Wakanga has kindly marked our map with the rough location of our quarry. A shield guardian could definitely help us out! What a guy.

Before I leave, Wakanga repeats his offer for the oil bath. Well, I can’t exactly say no after he’s been so nice, right?

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Revelations and Ruminations

The party decides to split up to get our shit done before Syndra takes us to Chult. She mentioned the only city in Chult, Port Nyanzaru, and that she was a friend of one of the merchant princes there. I think I read about them in my research, they’re pretty damn powerful. Need to make sure we don’t get on the wrong side of those guys...

I ask to speak with Syndra in private. She seems to know a hell of a lot of about Chult - maybe she knows something about my tattoos too? She bamfs us into a sealed room, and I show her the goods. She does a load of cool shit with the tattoo, stuff I’d never thought of. It kinda looks like she turns it into a giant illusion with several layers to it. She doesn’t really like what she sees, though. She says our enemies are stronger than she thought, and that there was some hidden magic within my tattoo.

After casting Identify on me (I always forget that you can cast that on people, ugh) she realises that there is a spell embedded within my tattoo that casts a modified version of a spell called Mind Blank on me every single day. That would explain why my memory is gone, whoever cast it has hidden it away in my mind, and no holy magic - or anything else, for that matter - can retrieve it. I suppose it stops the more nefarious folks from getting their greasy mitts on whatever it was that I knew before getting zapped. It must have been important for someone to go through the work of creating such a spell to use on me.

Syndra explains that a person called Valindra Shadowmantle is the one who created the tattoo, and that she is rumoured to be a lich. As much as I want answers, I don’t really want to go lich hunting right now. Sounds a bit suicidal. I thank her for the help and return to the group, who all seem ready. We made quite a lot of coin in the sunless citadel, and we’ve converted it into gems for easy carrying (and hiding).

Well, time to go to Chult!

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

No Rest for the Weary

Dragging ourselves back to Oakhurst, most of us feeling worse for wear, we decide to try and get a night’s rest in before the thirty-odd mile journey to Neverwinter in the morning. Well, before that, I had business to attend to. I made a quick stop at the bar on my way to my room to grab my good friend Maverick, and drag him to my bed. Sleep is okay, but sometimes you just need  a man to make you feel better.

I arrived for breakfast to see a grumpy Istimar. Turns out instead of going to bed like a sensible person would, he took it upon himself to get us some horses and a wagon to get us to Neverwinter. I mean, I’m sure he could have done that after some sleep, or asked someone to help him, but whatever. I bet I could have done a better job of it too, all he got us was a shitty old nag and an untrained stallion. This’ll be a fun ride. I let someone else sit on the horses, I was still a bit tender from, erm, nearly dying to a troll. Yeah.

Well, we seem to make it to Neverwinter in time, but we had to push the horses, and sadly the poor nag Rociante died in the streets. I’m sure someone’ll clean that up, we have more important business to attend to! We make our way to the docks.

Oh, oh my. I guess we were late, but that’s probably a good thing. A fucking dragon turtle just ate our boat! It was leaving the docks and it just got fucking destroyed! I’ve never even seen a dragon turtle before, and I bloody hope I never do again. We all decide we need a drink.

A whisper in my ear, “hey sexy,” makes me groan. Why wasn’t Zelly on that boat? “Girl, you hurt my feelings,” oops. I forget that I can be heard when someone uses that spell on me. Oh well, I’m sure she knew already. My favourite buddy Zelarwen shows up, seemingly glad that we were late for the boat, and she has a plan. She takes us to a really posh mansion. I mean, so posh you could steal a doorknob and be set for life.

A raspy and weak voice greets us. A woman called Syndra Silvane explains to us that she was the reason we were going on that boat. It seems that the death curse going around has affected Syndra, and she has been withering away for the past few weeks. She does look pretty rough...

Syndra explains to us that she used to be an adventurer, and during her time she died and was brought back to life. As such, she is slowly fading away, and no one is able to help her. She has learned through the Harpers that the cause of the curse is an ancient artifact called the Soulmonger, and she also learned that the Soulmonger is in Chult (well, I guess that is what my tattoos are about...). She describes Chult as a peninsula of hot and humid climate, covered in jungles and marred by goblinoids and the undead. Syndra provides us with a map of Chult, but because of the harshness of the area, hardly any part of it has been mapped.

The retired adventurer offers to teleport us there, free of charge, if we agree to be her next expedition (turns out the last two died? Sounds promising...) and try to stop the curse. I feel like I have to try, this tattoo was put on my back to lead me there, so maybe I am supposed to try and end this? Syndra says she has about eighty days left before she perishes.

We decide to make preparations before we depart.

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #tomb of annihilation

[erynavensara-blog]

Getting Trolled, Hard

Like every adventurer should, we start cleaning up the sunless citadel of any beasties still lurking within. We found a room with what looked like a giant beer barrel inside it, but it had pipes running into the walls. As stupid people do, we decide to crack it open and look inside, only to be attacked by two very angry mephits. I guess we just broke their house, so their anger is understandable. What we didn’t know was that the little blights can summon more of their kind, so that fight ended up being a bit harder than it had to be.

After a quick rest (those little shits burned me!), we hear some meek “hello?” calls from the entrance of the citadel. I decide to go check it out while everyone else was busy doing less important things, and I see a rather cute man in strange clothing calling out. He doesn’t look too threatening, so I went to see what was up. Turns out he’s from the Harpers; a bard called Zaphiel who was sent by Zelarwen to hurry us up and help us get to Neverwinter before our boat to Chult left. I guess he can help us finish up here.

New bard in tow, carry on through a creepy looking door with some dragon’s face on it. I think we were told it was Ashardalon, an ancient red dragon that terrorised the lands some time ago. We got the door’s key off the kobolds, so I guess they were too scared to check their master’s hidden passages, too.

What happened next was the pinnacle of stupidity.

Opening the door, we see a room with ancient statues of elven warriors, and a glowing, humming crystal ball. Creepy musty room with a lit up arcane object in it, let’s be careful, yeah? Nope, Istimar decides to poke the bear - or in this case, the crystal ball. Hum turns to creepy as fuck music and suddenly everyone but Istimar is fleeing for their lives out of the citadel. To make matters worse, the music wakes a bunch of giant rats up, much to my displeasure.

After overcoming the creepy music and mopping up the last of the disgusting rats, we make our way back to the room, only to find that the door was shut. Has the idiot locked himself in? We check down a corridor leading to the next area, and he’s face down in the dust. I just thought he’d decided to take a nap, but Marduk found some poison arrows stuck in his face and his ass. Pretty funny, but now we have to wait for the imbecile to wake up.

Moving on, we come to an ominous looking mausoleum, with even more elven statues and a large coffin in the middle. Weird though, the coffin looked more like it was keeping something from getting out of it, instead of trying to stop people getting in for whatever treasure this ancient sarcophagus may hold. I decided to watch Marduk flex those muscles of his and break open the coffin.

The weirdest thing was inside it.

A troll!

A really nice-sounding troll with a high elven accent!

I wanted to help him, he sounded so polite and didn’t attack us for no reason. He was a bit gross though, he looked kind of like a zombie - at least, what I’ve read about them - but he seemed to be of sound mind. Well, he was of sound mind, but I guess I just look too delicious because he tried to take a bite out of me.

Yup, that happened.

I guess Istimar was right when he was trying to signal us to attack, but I just feel bad for the poor chap. I guess I know not to trust creepy undead trolls now. We fought it, but the ugly fucker knocked me out, and next thing I know I’ve been dragged to the side while everyone else put it down with some flames. It kinda looked like Istimar was going to drag me away and run? At least, Zaphiel didn’t seem too happy with him.

Well, it looked like our work here was done. We were completely out of healing potions and resting wouldn’t do us any good, so we decide to risk the walk back to Oakhurst with two of us a sneeze away from passing out (again). That was the longest walk of my life.

#j&w #d&d #d&d shenanigans #sunlesscitadel