Written by the Almighty DM

Players present: Sophitia, Zyldi, Nor, Kanye, Elgard

• Sophitia leaps out of the boat and assumes her angelic form, flying back toward the ceiling of the cavern. She lets loose a powerful GUIDING BOLT that smashes into the Hydra and causes one of the heads to wither and die.
• Kanye tries to distract it with the bell – this proves ineffective. He throws the bell at the Hydra in frustration
• Elgard, not wanting to draw attention to himself, plays dead and sinks beneath the water. As he does this he casts WATER BREATHING on the party.
• Nor stabs it from the water
• Zyldi transforms herself into a Giant Constrictor Snake and grapples with the Hydra. It is unable to move
• The many wounds on the Hydra begin to knit themselves back together and close as new heads burst forth from the body, more than replacing the heads that had been severed
• Sophitia launches another GUIDING BOLT
• Kanye angles the boat close and smashes recklessly with his hammer
• Elgard swims underneath the creature and decides it would be fun to cast FIREBALL from under the water. An explosion rocks the cavern and the screeching Hydra reacts with panic at the introduction of fire magic
• Nor stabs his blade into the side of the beast and climbs onto its body. He notices the Hydra’s regeneration has been slowed after getting blasted with the FIREBALL
• Zyldi constricts the Hydra
• The Hydra fails to regenerate new heads as it bites at Kanye. It begins to attack more frantically as the fire magic halts its regeneration
• Sophitia SACRED FLAMES it
• Elgard shoots more fire magic from below
• Kanye pushes some of the remaining Hydra heads against the cavern wall and smashes them to a pulp, killing the beast. He cuts a head off as the beast dies

• They want to summon Dendar the Night Serpent to destroy the world
• Acererak the Arch Lich came to Omu years ago, murdered the Nine Trickster Gods and forced the Omuans to build a giant tomb for their gods. After completing the tomb Acererak killed all of the Omuans
• Acererak told Ras Nsi a few months ago that he could help them unlock the Iron Gate to unleash Dendar upon the world. In return, Ras was to prevent anyone from entering the Tomb of the Nine Gods
• After hearing about the Death Curse Ras believes Acererak is playing him for a fool and is willing to help [title redacted] with their quest

• Vials of Yuan-Ti poison
• A spell scroll of GREATER RESTORATION
• An IMMOVABLE ROD that he got off a dead Red Wizard
• Nangnang’s Puzzle Cube

Written by the Almighty DM

Players Present: Kanye, Nor, Sophitia, Elgard, Zyldi

BOA? I HARDLY KNOW HER!

After a short rest back at Papazotl’s Shrine, Zyldi offers to Wildshape into a snake and scout out the Fane of the Night Serpent. She transforms into a Giant Contrictor Snake and heads to the entrance. 

There is a Malison and 4 Broodguards guarding the front gate. The gate has small holes for snakes at the bottom, but these are much too small for Zyldi’s giant form. She intimidates the guards who open the gate up for her, and begins her exploration as the gate slides shut behind her.

As she explores this enormous compound, she makes the following discoveries:

• There are lamps around so seeing is not an issue
• The place is teeming with snakes, Broodguards, Malisons, and the occasional Pureblood
• Large room near the gate has a giant snake statue, a triceratops, carts, and some mysterious eight-legged lizard creatures chained within 2 dark alcoves
• Wall reliefs showing the rise of Ras Nsi, Dendar the night serpent eating the nightmares of sleeping Chultans, and the rise of the Serpent from the Iron Gate to devour the sun
• A sacrificial altar that feeds blood into a cauldron that sits in the middle of a foul Cathedral
• Zyldi hears moaning from some slave pits kept near the altar. There is an unknown group of people being kept in horrifying conditions
• A venom distillery
• Another Giant Constrictor Snake is counting items in a storeroom, and speaks to Zyldi in Common as she enters the room. Zyldi acts like she has no idea what he’s saying, and he slithers over her which creeps her out immensely

Having explored all she can as a giant snake, she decides that she needs to become a small snake. The main gate is closed and there are no other exits to be found. 

SLITHER IN TO DANGER

There are swarms of snakes in a pit right next to the main gate. Zyldi slithers to the bottom of the pit, pops out of her Wildshape, and spends 6 agonizing seconds POLYMORPHING into a small garter snake. She slithers out of the pit and resumes her exploration, knowing she only has 1 hour to find a way out. 

Beyond the storeroom she finds a slave encampment within an earthen cave. The slaves are guarded, and beyond this small cave she finds an underground lake.

• There are 2 rowboats chained to the shore. Each boat has a cowbell on a hook at the bow of the ship. There are 4 Broodguards guarding these boats 
• The lake is In a massive cavern
• There is a pillar in a wide grotto whose base is heaped with bones 
• Near this pillar Zyldi feels something HUGE moving beneath the water-
• At the north end of the cavern there is an opening into a throne room. Zyldi slithers in and sees Ras Nsi addressing several Malisons. Near him is his champion, a huge Pureblood with grey scales. Also in this room are several Broodguards, one of whom sees Zyldi and shoos her back into the lake before she can explore further
• A tunnel near the south end of the cavern has a skeleton covered in a buttery mold. There is a brass key around the neck. Zyldi slithers the necklace off the dead body and onto hers, disturbing the Mold in the process. Her Druidic constitution steels her against its effects, and she slithers on key in…hand? 
• At the south end of the cavern there is a tunnel right near the lake that leads to the surface. 

After emerging from the secret back entrance, Zyldi snakes her way as fast as she can back to home base. She is very traumatized by what she has seen in this foul temple. 

RELIVING HISSSSSSSSTORY 

Upon waking from her nightmares, Zyldi gains a fresh insight on what she saw down in the depths. Though she only saw him for an instant, she noticed Ras Nsi was covered in bandages. 

Not yet knowing what this means, our brave heroes plan their assault. These snakes are going to pay.

Written by the Almighty DM

Players Present: Kanye, Nor, Sophitia, Zyldi, Elgard

EXPLOSIVE RESULTS
After hiding out for another day, the party hears explosions coming from the direction of the Red Wizard camp. Zyldi wastes no time turning into an owl to go scout what is happening. She sees a few snakes fleeing and 4 dead Yuan-Ti along the edge of the camp, along with several dead mercenaries. The Wizards quickly pack up their camp and head out. As they are gathering their things, Zagmira RAISES DEAD on the fallen mercenaries and uses these fresh zombies to help carry supplies to a new spot. Zyldi notices the 2 Puzzle Cubes hidden in Zagmira’s robes. They huddle near a dense clot of buildings and begin scheming. 

Zyldi returns and reports on what she’s seen. There is a discussion: Do we continue hiding and hope the Yuan-Ti finish off the Wizards, or do we strike the Wizards now while they’re weakened? They decide to at least talk to the Wizards – dealing diplomacy and, if needed, death. 

The secret word is determined – if anyone in the group says “fireball”, Elgard will cast FIREBALL on the biggest group of wizards he can find. 

Before they leave, Rhan presents Kanye with his finished club. It is 8 feet tall and looks like it could hold up a building – or tear one down. Kanye hoists it over his shoulder and grins.

BLOWING UP THE LIES

Zyldi leads them to the street where the Wizards were hiding. At the far end of the street, Zagmira and Gareth step out to face the party. Sophitia and Elgard stealthily climb up buildings facing the street and see that there are 6 Red Wizards up on the rooftops watching the scene unfold below. Elgard casts ALTER SELF to make himself look just like a Red Wizard while Sophitia remains hidden.

Nor, Kanye, and Zyldi step up and begin to talk to Zagmira. They let her know they obtained another puzzle cube, but heard a commotion and came to check on them. Zagmira tells them “I’ve got bad news and good news. The bad news is that we were attacked by the Yuan-Ti. The good news is that our friend Valindra sent us reinforcements!” With the snap of her finger the rooftop group reveals itself – 6 figures in Red Wizard robes surrounding the party. Elgard steps forward as one of them and goes unnoticed as an “extra” wizard. 

Zagmira and Gareth urge the party to infiltrate the Yuan-Ti temple and meet with their ally. She says “We’ll watch over any Cubes you may have gathered while you’re down there – wouldn’t want them falling into the wrong hands”. Nor does not go for this idea and suggests that Zagmira’s group join forces with [title redacted] and do a full frontal assault on the temple. It is revealed that Yuan-Ti are naturally magic resistant and would easily fend off this attack. 

Nor tries to convince Zagmira that a frontal assault is a good idea, and unintentionally mentions the super-secret-code word “FIREBALL”. Elgard unleashes a huge FIREBALL that nails Zagmira, Gareth, 2 Wizards, and 2 Mercenaries dressed like Wizards. The mercenaries’ charred corpses are blown from the rooftops, and Zagmira’s bluff of extra wizard reinforcements is shone false. The smoking survivors prepare for battle.

However, as the smoke is clearing, Zyldi yells out “How dare you! We came to speak to you in good faith and this is how we’re treated? We’re trying to help you!” The wizards, confused, begin looking back and forth to each other to see who cast the spell. 

Zagmira calls out “Who dared cast that! I gave no orders! Reveal yourself!” They quickly determine that Elgard is the culprit. “Who are you? What is your name? Get down here!”. Elgard replies “Well, ma’am, I got confused, and, well, seein as how there was a bunch of shoutin and stuff, I thought you wanted us to blow things up.”

Gareth storms forward and says “Get your ass down here right now!” Kanye and Nor begin casually surrounding Gareth as he confidently strides toward the disobedient wizard. 

Zyldi says “Well, just don’t let it happen again!” 

Zagmira replies “No no no, that’s not how we do things. Disobedience deserves to be punished, and our friends need to know that this hostility was not our intent!” She summons a giant spectral BIGBY’S HAND and attempts to slap Elgard off the rooftop and to his knees. Against all odds, Elgard is able to expertly dodge this magic force, and Sophitia is fooled into believing their wizard is athletic. 

Zagmira, suddenly suspicious, says “Why don’t you just give me all of your cubes, last chance. We’re not stupid. I know you’ve been lying to us, all the other shrines are empty. No more games” Zyldi responds by turning into an Allosaurus and trying to bite Zag’s face off! 

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE

• Zagmira is able to fend off the worst of Zyldi’s attacks by casting SHEILD from her magic staff
• Kanye hits Gareth with his new giant hammer, knocking the wind out of him
• Gareth stands up, pulls out his magical mace and uses it to cast FEAR. Nor and Sophitia are affected.
• Sophitia shakes off the effects of the fear and prepares to jump into the fray
• Nor runs as far away from Gareth as he can, using his movement to scale a building with a Wizard on top of it
• Elgard jumps off the roof, runs halfway across the street and shoots a LIGHTENING BOLT out of his hand. The bolt blows a hole through Gareth’s body and deals significant harm to Zagmira.
• Kanye and Nor are upset that Elgard just casually killed Gareth like it was no big deal
• Zagmira punches Elgard with BIGBY’S HAND and casts  POISON CLOUD on most of the party. Elgard goes down.
• Thazma (a Red Wizard) casts RAISE DEAD on Gareth and the other fallen mercenaries, and also brings forth the other zombies that were in hiding, bringing 7 zombies into the mix
• Since [title redacted] is too scattered among the Wizards and their allies there are no good groups to cast FIREBALL on, the remaining two wizards both cast a CONE OF COLD, one on Nor, one on Kanye. A Mercenary dies as collateral damage, but our heroes stand strong. 
• Zyldi continues her assault on Zagmira and is able to draw more blood on her. She’s not down yet, but her apex predator senses are telling her that this prey is very weakened
• Kanye climbs a building and hits a wizard with his giant club, sending the top half of his body flying into the jungle
• Sophitia leaps off her building, lands in the middle of the zombie hoard, holds up her holy symbol and DESTROYS UNDEAD. The hoard of zombies is reduced to ash except for one. Sophitia then sings a HEALING WORD at Elgard bringing him back into the action
• Nor runs at the wizard on rooftop and plunges his blade deep into his stomach. Blood pouring out of his mouth, the Wizard smiles and begins to cast a spell
• Right before the spell can go off, Elgard sends another FIREBALL onto the battlefield, killing all but Zagmira and the lone zombie. Nor watches as the wizard on the end of his blade is consumed by the fire and is annoyed that Elgard stole yet another kill from him
• Zyldi, finally able to pounce Zagmira to the ground, bites her head and tears it off her body. 
• The final zombie dies too 

OUT OF THE FIRE AND INTO THE TREASURE PAN

Victorious, our heroes gain the following treasures:-

• 1,000 gold
• A STAFF of DEFENSE which allows wizards to cast MAGE ARMOR and SHIELD using charges from the staff
• a purple IOUN STONE that stores spells
• MACE OF TERROR
• GAUNTLETS of OGRE STRENGTH
• 2 Puzzle Cubes: Moa the Jaculi, and Unkh the Flail Snail

Kanye takes the gauntlets, Elgard takes the staff, Nor takes the Ioun Stone. It still has a FIREBALL spell in it, so this should prove very useful for our fighter. No one wants the MACE, so they will haggle with The Merchant on a price. 

Players Present: Zyldi, Seraphina, Elgard, Nor, Kanye, Kulu,

Players Missing: Galliard, Rahn

The party begins their descent into the cave. The lizard man is scurrying ahead of them, and without much hesitation, Elgard releases a firebolt and fries the little Kobold to a crisp.

Once further in, the party encounters a shallow stream that crosses the entire path. Looking beyond the stream in the fire-lit cave, they see circular steps that go to a dias with a hallway that continues further on.

Zyldi and Kulu enter the shallow water and walk a few steps without issue. Nor follows as well, and as soon as he steps foot, his foot is caught in a bear trap. He lets out a manly yell. More kobolds come forward, three of them with shields, and then a few more scurry out from hidden passages in the walls.

ENCOUNTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Kanye throws a kobold into one of the bear traps
• Kulu quickly identifies all the bear traps and keeps the party from stepping in any more
• Zyldi sprints for the dias, skillfully dodges falling into the collapsing staircase, and artfully takes out 2 of the 3 kobolds operating levers
• Seraphina eventually joins Zyldi at the top and takes out the remaining kobold, securing the dias
• Nor misses everything
• Kanye wedges himself into one of the side passages and starts to crawl through the tiny tunnels, murdering kobolds as he goes
• Elgard is covered in sticky ichor that is slowly sapping his health. He throws a firebolt at himself to rid himself of the filth. It is successful.
• Kulu is also covered in the ichor and trusts Elgard enough to have him also firebolt her.

Having successfully taken out the little kobolds, [title redacted] peaks into the hallway that is at the top of the dias. Inside is a giant circular room. Most notably in the room is a giant horde of treasure, atop which stands a more formidable (comparatively) kobold sorcerer. He calls out the party and introduces himself as Kakerol, the Kobold Sorcerer.

He calls out: “Bow before the Wyrm!”

The party bluffs: “Oh, you mean George.”

The kobold is aghast, “His name is not George.”

They share some dialogue where Kakerol says he serves the Wyrm and also some skeletal type dude. He will one day turn Kakerol into (something cool? Was a dragon? Or a Wyrm?) as long as he serves his bidding. And his bidding is that he and his kobold fiends reset all the shrines as explorers come to try and find the 9 cubes.

Elgard casts Charm Person on Kakerol, and it is a success. Kakerol offers them advice on the various shrines and their traps. The party asks if they will be given a kobold guide, who will obviously be able to reset the traps right away after they are done, so it will save time for all involved. Kakerol agrees. But before they leave, they are given the honor of meeting the “death cat”. Or, as others would call it, a skunk.

A kobold accompanies them to the shrine of Papazotl. Orvex translates for them the writing above the shrine, “Papazotl bows before no one.” After gaining some more pointless history of the Ubtao shrines (Papazotl, the crane, sent the froghemonth to do his dirty work to talk to Ubtao, etc etc etc), the party ignores the 4 crocodiles in the water that surrounds the temple and walk right on in.

A team effort to push open the temple door reveals a room that has 6 bare chested dude statues on the wall. They each have heads of various animals. A pedastool in the central part of the room has a riddle upon it.

“Comes in the sunshine; leaves in the night; Hides in the darkness; does not bite; Always joined to its caster; never strays from its master.” They answered shadow pretty quickly.

The kobold points to the bat statue, and Elgard casts light on it. A secret passageway is revealed. In this passage is a etching on the walls of a lot of dashes and specific dashes are highlighted. The party determines that once they insert the riddle into this cypher, the following phrase is revealed. “Cover eyes”

After a few general attempts, the party covers the eyes of all the statues in the main room, and the cube reveals itself. Kanye grabs it, and the 5th cube is recovered.

The party rests in the shrine that night. In the morning a knock is heard, and a man saying he knows Galliard is hawking a bunch of his wares in a magnificent coat that stores many items. The party buys some useful, and some questionable useful things.

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.

Players Present: Zyldi, Elgard, Seraphina, Nor, Galliard, Rahn, Eridor, Kanye

Players Missing: Kulu

Written by the Almighty DM

Chester leads Zyldi to a tree that has enough bananas on it to provide the whole party with a nutritious breakfast, cementing his place as Such a Good Boy. As the party is finishing up their meal a familiar woman is suddenly in their midst. She hands Galliard a scroll and tells him “Once you know how to get to the Soulmonger, tell me immediately”. She then thanks him for his hard work and vanishes, and a few things happen at once:

• Seraphina uses her Divine Sense and knows that this woman is a powerful undead
• Divine Sense also tells her that Chester is a fiend

The party then launches into a huge debate over the following topics:

• What the hell just happened? Who was that?
• What did she give Galliard?
• Chester is a fiend? but I thought he was a good boy?
• Kanye, looking for more of Galliard’s scrolls, discovered that Galliard and Rhan have been carrying around the slowly decomposing bodies of Kilgore and YikYak in their cart.
• What do we do with these bodies?

After some spirited conversation the following things come to light, and decisions are made:

• The lady was none other than Zaldara, the Duchess of Rot, from the beginning of the parties adventure. Galliard has been in constant contact with her since the raid on her tower, and she gave him a scroll to teach him the spell “Animate Dead”. Galliard is convinced that she can help him make his undead Death Metal band the best it can be, and has been accepting her sporadic and maybe-eventually-harmful tutelage
• Galliard acquired Kilgore’s body legally and within the bounds of Kilgore’s own will, and therefore should be allowed to keep her. YikYak’s body was destroyed as compromise
• Chester may be a Good Boy, but he is a fiend, so we can’t trust him. Zyldi tells him that he can no longer travel with them and has him leave the party. Sad music plays as he tearfully walks away

What a day! But wait, it is only the morning. Right before midday the group comes upon an area where the branches are thick and overgrown. As they begin to hack away at the branches, a woman made of vines and leaves appears from the jungle and implores them not to harm her forest any more. She introduces herself as the Wimba Bride, and is saddened over the damage that the undead have done to her forest. She retracts the vines and gives the party passage and begs them not to hurt the forest any more. They agree, and she disappears. 

That evening as the party is setting up camp the Wimba Bride reappears and thanks them for respecting her forest. She offers them a soup made from Tonga Leaves as thanks. The Tonga Leaf is not anything that Zyldi has heard of from talking to the locals or from Q’Washa, but nevertheless Nor and Eridor give it a try. After a few sips they begin convulsing and seizing, and the Wimba Bride’s face twists up in an unnatural grin, and gold coins appear over her eye-sockets. Ants begin to pour out of her skull and begin to bite Nor and Eridor. As the party begins to mount an offensive against this threat she vanishes into the Ethereal Plane, leaving behind only a cackling laughter. Nor and Eridor have some slightly bloody bite marks but are no worse for the wear. 

That night Nor and Eridor experience terrible dreams. Whenever Nor falls asleep, all he can see is the terrifying Hag’s face as she drills a hole into his head and ants pour into the hole. Kanye sits with his friend through the night, comforting him through the fitful nightmares. When morning comes, Nor feels worse than the day before. 

Disheartened by the events of the previous night, they press onward. Chester bursts back into view and begs Zyldi to follow. Zyldi, knowing it is probably a trap, decides to go anyway. She sees a tall tree stump that wiggles. She decides not to approach and calls out. As the party comes upon the sight, the stump transforms into a withered old woman with a bag sewn around her neck. The bag looks like an old black sack, and there are things moving around inside it. This old woman (…ok, it’s another Hag) lunges forward and rakes her nails across Zyldi’s face, doing minimal damage but drawing blood. She then vanishes into the Ethereal Plane. Elgard notices as he comes upon this scene that Chester vanishes at the same time, like he is somehow a part of or tied to this Hag woman. 

That night Zyldi has fitful dreams where she is in a sack that is thrown into the ocean. There are other creatures in the sack with her – a bird, a snake, and a vicious canine – and she is torn to shreds as the wakes up. Nor, however, is able to finally sleep through the night and begin his recovery from his previous ordeal. 

Zyldi, like Nor, feels worse after her night of nightmares, but takes heart that it may be a temporary condition. 

The party travels for a few more days, fights a few more battles with some undead off camera, and finally arrive at OMU: THE FORBIDDEN CITY. 

The city is enclosed by sheer cliffs 100 feet high. Ruined buildings and stone boulevards sit in the overgrown basin underneath colorful birds that glide overhead. A waterfall plunges down one corner of the cliffs, forming a thick river that rushes its way through the eastern half of the city before dropping down even further into a lava pit down in the southeastern corner of the city. Steam rises ominously over the ruined palace near this molten pit. 

Galliard takes out a pen and paper and sits down to study and sketch out this scene. The first thing he notices is that every 100 feet or so along the cliff there is a Gargoyle keeping watch over the city. However, there are two spots where the Gargoyles have a gap in their line: in the northeast corner where the waterfall goes over the cliff, and in the southwestern corner where there is a gap in the wall that leads to some natural stairs and a path into the city. 

Which path will they choose? 

Players Present: Zyldi, Elgard, Seraphina, Kanye, Nor, Eridor,

Players Missing: Galliard, Rahn, Kulu

Written by the Almighty DM

Our heroes are journeying through the deepest, darkest parts of the jungle on their way to the Forbidden City of Omu. As they begin to trek, they hear a tiny bark and a little yorkshire terrier comes into the clearing. This pitiful (and cute!) little dog is what Seraphina saw the previous night: he has dirty fur, is starving, and gives those puppy dog eyes to the party. Zyldi immediately fills out the paperwork, pays the adoption fee, and names her new dog Chester. He leads the party to some Ryath Root, and is dubbed a Good Boy.

Kanye stops the party’s journey and begins the 10 minute process of casting his “Speak with Animals” ritual. He asks Chester why he is here: “Master brought me here” Where is master: “Master is gone” What happened to master: “Master is…gone” and Who is master: “Man in nice clothes”. The party assumes Chester was an unprepared tourist’s purse dog. Zyldi has Chester ride in her pack so he can see up high, and he is a good boy and loves it. They are now best friends.

Boom……Boom……BOOM…..BOOOM the sound is getting closer, something HUGE is approaching. Everyone hides as a Zombie Tyrannosaurus Rex bursts into the clearing. It takes a few steps and stops…sniffs…and convulses, shudders, and vomits up a zombie. It lifts its head, sniffs again, and locks in on Elgard’s position. Elgard takes this moment to cast a new spell he’s been cooking up: the oxygen escapes everyone’s lungs as a giant Fireball erupts around the TRex, blowing the human zombie to smithereens and setting the local plant life ablaze. Kanye rushes in to protect his wizard friend and is able to fend off multiple deadly bites with his shield. The party goes nova on the poor undead dino, causing it to vomit up more zombies. A wild tail swing knocks Seraphina and Nor down, which only makes them mad. Elgard continues to set the world on fire, burning up the extra zombies, while Kanye finally gets snatched up into the jaws of the beast. The bite would have killed most mortals, but Kanye’s iron resolve is able to keep him in the fight. Nor is able to use his superior battlefield leadership to help turn the tide of battle, while Seraphina uses her Celestial powers to fly into the air and bring down a Radiant blow upon the neck of the TRex, severing the head. The remaining zombies in the gut of the great TRex are quickly dispatched, and several TRex teeth are looted. 

Later that same day, an organized platoon of undead descends upon the party: an Ogre Zombie, four Skeleton Archers firing from cover, Three Ghouls with a Ghast leader, all led by an evil Wight in Black Armor, wielding a black spiked sword. 

Kanye, Nor, and Seraphina all rush the Wight and begin putting the pressure on. His Ogre acts as a bodyguard, but the two are no match for the ferocity of the attacks that are dealt upon them. 
Zyldi calls upon the power of the jungle and stops the Ghouls and Ghast dead (ha!) in their tracks with some grasping vines. Elgard and Zyldi are then able to fight off these undead foes from safety while the archers miss with their arrows. 

Once the Wight is dealt with, Kanye runs over to the Skeleton Archers and hits them like a bowling ball. After some intense bone-crunching work the party declares victory and sets up camp for the night. Nor recovers the wicked looking blade that the Wight was using and it is later identified as a Sword of Life Stealing.

What new horrors await [title redacted] as they get closer to Omu?