Players Present: Galliard, Kanye, Nor, Seraphina, Rahn, Elgard, Kulu

Players Missing: Zyldi

[title redacted] watched as the vegepygmies sacrificed a Grung, the 18th Prince of somewhere, to the lava gods. Galliard dances along to the sacrificial beat, Seraphina furiously debates whether she should save the creature, but most of the party realize that saving all the things just isn’t gonna happen. “He’s an 18th Prince. He had a lot of family that could have saved him.” They move on.

As they travel along the road in Omu, they discover an abandoned campsite. A helpful letter is found talking of an obelisk to the north that marks the entrance to the Tomb of the Nine Gods. There is also mention of the Eye of Zaltec. The door to the tomb is magically locked.

The party continues onward and find yet another shrine. There is a bunny with a unicorn horn marking the entrance.

“I’Jin teaches us to take the path least expected.” (Which if you think about it, what is “expected” really differs fairly widely between people. But you know, riddles and stuff.)

The path before the party is full of animal visages on individual tiles. Kanye goes first, stepping on one tile at a time. After stepping on the Tiger for a second time, arrows shoot out at him. A second time of landing on the I’Jin, he is once more wounded. It is decided that stepping on the same faces is what is “expected”. Meaning, the least expected, is to step on all different animals…which is consequently a straight line. Also unexpected. The riddle proves true.

Once insides the shrine, a maze presents itself. The party wanders for a bit, but no real challenges present itself – a blade swings down from the ceiling at one point, but it is no big deal. They find the cube sitting on a pedestal in a room. Other than that, the room is barren. The party ties a rope around the cube, exits the room, and pulls the cube out with them. They exit the shrine, and decide that the shrine was broken.

3 cubes have now been aquired.

[title redacted] moves on and finds a chwinga paradise. The chwinga likes Rahn the best. There is a heavy stone disk in the ground that has writing that summarizes to: Queen Napaka says the Omuans fear nothing. Brave new Gods protect them, as Ubtao has abandoned them. Queen Napaka will help the Omuans rise again.

The next stop on their journey brings them to an ampitheater. It is earily silent. No animals or insects speak. Galliard reaches down and finds some very large feathers…the King of the Trex lives here. After talking Galliard down from fighting the beast, they leave.

The night proves fruitful as the party encounters yet another shrine. It has images of a slightly deranged monkey carvings on the obelisk. This is Wongo’s shrine.

A stone plaque above the shrine reads: “Better to be Wongo’s friend than his enemy.” Sure. The legend of Wongo is that he stole water from the palace, and Ubtao was pissed at him. This was the first of many questions that arose from this shrine. Why is Wongo steal water? Doesn’t he live in a humid, rainy jungle? Is palace water somehow more special than normal water? Was there a water shortage?

Regardless, the hints to this shrine continue. The entrance to the shrine contains five openings. One leads to the center of the shrine where a statue of wongo stands, his hands and legs outstretched as though cupped to catch something. On his pedastool reads: “Wongo’s friend knows where to pour the water.” Because clearly this monkey didn’t learn his lesson, and is still greedy for more water.

The other entrances lead down to a mask of an animal carved into the wall. The party members notice that there are eye holes in the mask, and when looked through they focus on one of the limbs that Wongo has outstretched. There is yet more writing next to each of the masks.

• Zebra: “My only friend starved to death.”
• Vulture: “One of the others has no friends.”
• Boar: “The vulture is lucky to be alive.”
• Lion: “I ate one of the boar’s friends.”

After some more assumptions (like, were any of these creatures Wongo’s friends at all?), the party correctly guesses that the Vulture shows the correct limb. Kanye pours the water into the lefthand. Inside his head he hears the psychic voice of Wongo asking him to choose to fight or curse his friends. Kanye is cool and chooses fight.

Four su-monkey’s come out and attacks the party. The battle is decisive and quick as the party takes down all four monkeys.

They move on and continue their journey north. They encounter yet another obelisk, but this one seems different. It is covered in black moss and has the face of a bearded devil on it. There is a place where it is evident that you can place the shrine cubes. The place is filled with obvious traps, and there is a cave network that goes deeper in the cliff face. Seraphina can feel that there is a definite demonic presence in the obelisk. Galliard wants to attack it really, really badly. The rest of the party says no.

The party continues on their journey yet again. While traveling, Seraphina reveals to the party that her dreams are being invaded at night ever since she has come to Omu. She is high above the city, and there is a skeletal figure that keeps moving its way closer to her each night. No one is sure what to make of this, but it is disturbing.

They party makes their way to an abandoned bazaar. As they are exploring, Seraphina triggers a pressure plate trap and goes flying through the air. Galliard and Nor then go through and begin safely triggering all the plate to keep the party from more catapult adventures. As Elgard is exploring, he sees a very large lizard tail disappear around a corner. Kanye chases after it, and it leads him to a cave with a scaly, poopy, earthy smell. Gonna be fun.

Written by the Almighty DM

Players Present: Galliard, Seraphina, Elgard, Zyldi, Kulu

Players Missing: Nor, Kanye, Rahn, Eridor

After a day of rest ‘neath the Tiny Hut our intrepid explorers move carefully toward the next shrine. As they move past the raised walkway an arrow sinks into the stone next to Elgard and the party comes face to face with the Yuan-Ti for the first time. A muscular man with the head of a snake fires additional arrows laced with poison and hits Elgard. The party is rushed by additional Yuan-Ti Malisons: two with snakes for arms, and two that are snakes from the waist down. Seraphina hits one for 60 damage from a critical smite, and it survives the holy onslaught. She is able to fell it with an additional blow, but this gives the party an idea of how tough these guys are. Each hit from either a snake bite or an arrow is laced with deadly poison. As other arrows fly his way Elgard throws up a SHIELD spell that saves his life. After a second Yuan-Ti falls the leader yells out in Draconic “These guys are tougher than we thought, pull back!” Kulu downs a third enemy. 

The remaining foes begin to flee. Seraphina is having none of it, and rushes forward to stop the one that is a snake from the waist down. Seraphina gets constricted by his snake tail and begins to fear for her life, as the leader takes shots at the party from a distance. Suddenly a crossbow bolt shoots out from the distance and kills the one attacking Seraphina, and another bolt fells the remaining enemy. Two human-sized figures emerge from the darkness and Zyldi motions for them to rush to the shrine. They disappear and meet back up with the party once they find Shagambi’s Shrine entrance.

The two figures are elderly Tabaxi Assassins. Kulu is familiar with the pair and lets the party know that Tabaxi prefer to die in battle rather than succumb to old age. The old man is Hooded Lantern and reveals that his destiny is to fall in battle against the King of Feathers. The King of Feathers is the most dangerous T-Rex known to exist and is the undisputed apex predator of Omu. Zyldi asks him why he wants to fight this beast in single combat and he replies that it is simply his destiny. It is not the most productive conversation. 

The elderly Tabaxi woman is named Copper Bell and she is on the hunt for a magic artifact called the Navel of the Moon. She wears a tattered old blanket that she used to comfort her cubs with long ago, and the Navel of the Moon will let her speak with her fallen cubs once again. Elgard and Galliard assure her that if they come upon this item they will get it to her somehow.

They warn [title redacted] that they came to Omu with a third companion – Bag of Nails. Kulu knows of him as the most legendary Tabaxi assassin to have ever lived. Senility has taken hold, and Bag sees everyone as his prey. When asked what to look out for or how to avoid him, Hooded Lantern replies “He comes with Death. You’ll know he’s there when you start dying”. The party thanks the Tabaxi for their help and the info, and they are on their way.

The walled shrine is decorated with images of a jaguar with six snakes sprouting from its shoulders. Above the door reads “Shagambi teaches us to fight evil with honor”. Seraphina and Zyldi get the door open, and descend the steps into a large open room. There are four statues of Omuan warriors that look like they were meant to hold spears. There is a bare pedestal in the back of the room in front of a large relief on the wall that shows Shagambi fighting a squat humanoid frog holding a spear. These statues flank a grate in the floor over a gladiatorial pit in the level below. There is a staircase that winds down to the fighting pit below. 

Orvex tells the tale of Shagambi: “Shagambi the brave kamadan hopped down from her rock and, seeing the evil in the hearts of the Omuans, decided to lance it like a boil. She made a holy spear, but she left it by the riverbank where a crafty grung stole it. Shagambi forgot all about the Omuans in her rage, and chased Nangnang the grung forever across the sky”. Elgard says “Well she shouldn’t have left it by the river! What was she doing leaving her spear unattended?” Orvex tells them he doesn’t write these things, he just knows them. 

Galliard and Seraphina decide that they should go to the fighting pit and stage a play fight to honor this trickster god. Elgard and Orvex hang out up top, and Zyldi and Kulu go in as backup. When Galliard steps on the floor of the room they hear metallic clanking in the room beyond and hear many heavy footsteps. Four Clay Golems begin to enter the room as [title redacted] unleash a torrent of readied actions and spells. Despite this, the constructs keep coming. Each one is seven feet tall and has a bronze spear and a large wooden shield. They bash our heroes with their shields, and when they fall the golems stab their prone victims with the spears. Zyldi turns into a bear and begins a furry furious assault, Seraphina begins a smite fest, Elgard lights the room on fire, Kulu retreats up to the upper room to sneak attack through the grate. 

Seraphina tries to disarm one of the golems, and despite getting a great grip on the spear she is unable to even budge it out of the unfeeling hands. She is knocked down and stabbed for her troubles. Dragle begins to take an alarming amount of damage as well. Finally, one of the golems is dealt a killing blow, and his body crumbles to dust leaving the bronze spear on the ground. Zyldi passes the spear up through the grate to Elgard. Elgard ignores Zyldi, walks away from where she is passing the spear to him, and casts FIREBALL instead. Zyldi is annoyed, but is able to pass it to Orvex who puts it in the hands of one of the statues up top. It clicks into place, but nothing else happens. 

After a second golem falls Zyldi is knocked out of bear form. She places a moonbeam right in front of another golem, waiting for it to pass through and take damage on its next turn. Elgard THUNDERWAVEs that golem out of harm’s way, further annoying Zyldi. Seraphina gets knocked out of the fight. Dragle also gets knocked down and stabbed hard enough that the necromantic energy that holds him together breaks. Dragle crumbles into a pile of dead bones. Galliard lets out a resounding “NOOOO!!!” Zyldi’s Moonbeam is fortunately able to destroy a third golem despite Elgard’s meddling, and she uses her Healing Word to bring Seraphina back up. Seraphina looks at the remaining golem, grabs a bronze spear off the ground and heaves it through him, crumbling him into dust. 

The battered party gathers the remaining three spears and slowly trudges up to the main room. Galliard gathers the bones of his faithful servant, vows that he will never forget Dragle, and immediately begins making plans for his next dark ritual. 

Once the last of the spears is in the hands of the statues the pedestal opens up and Shagambi’s Puzzle Cube emerges. There is much rejoicing in their victory. However, they are racing against formidable new foes to try to be the first to enter the Tomb of the Nine Gods. While they have a good start with the two cubes, will it be enough? Find out next time!

Written by the Almighty DM

Players Present: Nor, Kanye, Seraphina, Rahn, Galliard,

Players Missing: Kulu, Eridor, Elgard, Zyldi

Our intrepid adventurers weigh their options for getting into the Forbidden City. Once Galliard finishes with his hand-drawn map, he shows two promising infiltration points: Go over the waterfall in the north, or go down the stairs to the south. After night falls they decide to head north and check out the waterfall. 

The waterfall plunges violently down into a river that runs through the city streets. Rhan fells a tree and throws it over to see what happens to it. They determine that the pool at the base of the waterfall is deep enough, but the current is very swift and that there is a chance that they will be swept away toward the lava. They decide it would be safest to lower down on a rope-pulley-platform system next to the river. Rhan and Galliard quickly craft a basic platform, attach it to a rope, and lever it against something using engineering and science. They load Kanye into this totally-safe contraption and begin to lower him down the side of the cliff. 

Once Kanye has descended about 20 feet, Rhan’s Dwarven darkvision detects movement off in the distance: a gargoyle headed straight toward their position! It is coming fast, so Rhan and Galliard quickly hoist Kanye back up to the top. The gargoyle flies right to where Kanye was, looks around at the top of the cliff, and flies off. Our heroes breathe a sigh of relief from under the dense foliage and decide to head towards the stairs to the south.

(It should be noted that while Galliard did “help” lower and raise Kanye on the rope platform, Rhan did all of the actual work. Rhan is aware of this, it is not clear if Galliard is)

There is an old abandoned Guardhouse that watches over this entrance to the city. There is graffiti covering one of the walls of this ruined building, some words painted, others etched in:

• “Fear the fangs of Ras Nsi!”
• “Erik, I’ve gone in search of the Nine Shrines. V”
• “The puzzle cubes are the key”
• “Beware the frog monster!” 
• “Who is Unkh?”
• “All hail the King of Feathers!”
• “The snakes are not what they seem”
• “Kubazan=bravery. Shagambi=wisdom. Moa=?”

Reading these words and seeing the remains of long dead campfires, they steel themselves for the challenges that lay ahead. 

Smoke drifts lazily from a walled compound to the north. Upon entering it is clear a large battle has taken place here between the Red Wizards of Thay and the Yuan-Ti. The pungent smell of burning flesh comes from the pile of Yuan-Ti corpses burning in the plaza. A glaive is stuck in the ground to mark the burning pile, and a flag with the symbol of Dendar the Night Serpent flaps in the wind above the pile. Dead wizards and mercenaries are strewn about this plaza, and everything is looted and picked clean.

As they search the ruins Seraphina, Nor, and Kanye hear moaning from beneath a pile of rubble. They uncover a barely conscious man in his early 40s covered in dust, blood, and burn marks. His name is Orvex Orcammus and he is a highly distinguished scholar of Omuan language and history. The Red Wizards of Thay hired him for their expedition and paid him VERY well (“My kid’s education is all paid up!”), but he is not particularly loyal to the Wizards. After giving him some food and tending to his wounds he tells of a terrible Yuan-Ti ambush that happened here a few days ago. The full Thayan expedition had broken up into a few groups to explore the city, but everyone from his group appears to have died in the ambush. The victorious Yuan-Ti burned their honored dead as an offering to their vicious god. 

Orvex fills them in on the Red Wizard activity in Omu: “The Soul Monger is definitely here, and is located within the Tomb of the Nine Gods. Anyone hoping to enter this Tomb must have all 9 of the puzzle cubes from the shrines of the Nine Trickster Gods of Omu. The remaining Wizards are trying to gain entrance even as we speak. From this compound there is easy access to 2 of the shrines that my group was hoping to explore: the shrine of Kubazan the Froghemoth, and Shagambi the Kamadan”

Since it is the closest [title redacted] decide to go after Kubazan’s shrine first. They approach the shrine cautiously: it is a small stone building with a wall surrounding it, and there is a pond out front. Orvex translates the inscription over the locked gate: “Kubazan urges us to tread without fear and to give back as much as we take”. They explore the pond a little bit and Galliard thinks the pond is about 6ft deep. There is a huge statue of a stone frog in the middle of the water and some collapsed docks that float in the murky water. 

As they begin to inspect the door to the shrine something BIG emerges from the water. Tentacles grab Kanye and Dragle, and a giant tongue shoots out, grabs Rhan, and pulls him into the giant maw of a huge Froghemoth! Stomach acid begins to eat away at Rhan, Kanye hacks at the tentacle that holds him, Seraphina and Nor rush forward to face the beast head on. The oversized amphibian sinks its massive teeth into Seraphina, Dragle gets free, Kanye does a giant leap onto the monster and pummels away with his hammer. Nor then jumps to the side and sinks his blade into its side, spilling the Froghemoth’s guts and freeing Rhan. Black ichor shoots out of the wound as the creature writhes in its death throes, covering Nor’s armor in foul smelling goo. Nor is annoyed at the mess but reveling in his victorious killing blow.

They decide to try unlocking the door. They try the lock and BOOM! a glyph of Fear goes off, affecting Galliard, Rhan, and Kanye. Galliard gets the overwhelming sense of frustration and failure that comes from bombing on stage during a performance, Rhan suddenly believes that there is no more meat left in the world, and Kanye was a scared little kid again being left behind by his village. Rhan and Gal quickly were able to shake off the fearful feelings, but Kanye stays scared for an awkwardly long time. Once he comes back Galliard casts KNOCK and the door comes open. 

Orvex is excited to see the inside of a shrine in person. They descend the steps and come to a ledge overlooking a pit of sharpened stakes. An alcove on the far wall holds a pedestal with a stone cube resting on it. Kanye assumes that there is an invisible floor and begins to “Tread Without Fear”, walking right out into the pit….and falls down 30 feet, somehow narrowly avoiding getting impaled by the stakes.

Kanye: “Huh, well that didn’t work” Rest of Party “HOLY SHIT KANYE ALMOST DIED”

They use a rope and hoist Kanye back up to the ledge.

A relief carved onto the wall of the alcove shows a monstrous frog with tentacles fighting a crane. Orvex tells the legend of how Papazotl the eblis, sad that he didn’t have Omuans to play tricks on, sent a marsh frog to reason with Ubtao. The frog decided to wrestle Ubtao instead, which amused him, so he gave the frog tentacles to make it stronger. When Kubazan the froghemoth returned to Papazotl the eblis, he chased Papazotl into the swamp, and the two have been enemies ever since. 

 Wooden beams stick out from the wall at floor height every 4 feet. Carved frog heads come out from the walls high above the beams. Nor decides that he will jump across the beams to the other side, and with some inspiration from Galliard, is able to make the perilous journey. Remembering the words carved into the entrance “Tread without fear and give back as much as you take”, Nor places a bag of gold on the pedestal as he takes the puzzle cube off of it…and nothing happens. He makes it safely back to the ledge and the party returns to the walled compound. 

The puzzle cube has carvings of a froghemoth on it and has a strong aura of Abjuration magic on it. Feeling victorious for their accomplishments, they take a rest beneath Leomund’s Tiny Hut and prepare to take on Shagambi’s shrine the next day.