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Previously on Tomb of Annihilation
Starring:
Mannix, level 3 Human Inquisitive Rogue
Khaless, level 3 Half-Drow Assassin Rogue
Gillian, level 3 Triton Bard of Whispers
George, level 3 Tortle Battle Master Fighter
Therin, level 3 Hill Dwarf Druid of the Moon
Yellyark may have been destroyed last week but we we weren’t quite finished with it yet. The escape trap had been triggered, flinging the village hundreds of yards away and killing all the goblins still inside.
Unfortunately one of those goblins was the Queen who wore the control amulet to the Shield Guardian named Vorn. Before setting off after it, the party looted the goblins’ larder tent, the one part of the village not flung off into the air, and found some nice local plants with useful magical effects.
While their NPC allies recuperated, the party followed the tree-torn trail to the site of the crashed village.
They found the mass of destruction but were understandably cautious. Undril had reminded them of the danger of dead bodies during the death curse.
Khaless crept inside to sort through the remains of bodies and junk, finding coins and the headless body of the queen, with nearby head sporting a mask with several nice gemstones. The amulet was nearby but as she grabbed it the dead began to stir, and several goblin zombies rose up.
Yokka also rose as an undead, but his hatred toward the party brought him back as a ghoul. Khaless was ready for him, however, and dealt the newly risen undead a sickening OHKO. Assassins are complete badasses in the opening round of a fight!
The rest of the zombies would have been a simple matter to clean up, but then the ground shook violently and out rose a zombie ankylosaurus! What are the odds the village crushed a dinosaur when it landed!? They heard sounds of an old woman laughing, hauntingly familiar to the nightmares they’d previously experienced.
Khaless was undaunted, leaping onto the creature’s back and stabbing it again and again while the others dealt with the zombies. The dice were not with me this time as I missed nearly all my attacks, only getting a single hit with my powerful undead beast, though nearly downing George with one strike. He responded by climbing onto the creature’s back to join Khaless and everyone was able to concentrate their attacks, eventually bringing it down.
The scene was calm once again. They finally had possession of the guardian amulet as well as a small payout of coins and treasure. They returned to gather their allies and rested off the night.
At this point everyone is low or out of spell slots and hit dice. Undril suggested they seek out the Order of the Gauntlet, believing they must have refortified a new position upriver after losing Camp Righteous.
But first it was time to return to the construct and activate it. Khaless was in possession of the amulet and needed to approach the construct, to awaken it. The three tribes remained in their stalemate positions around the area, not hostile but very curious toward the PCs. Khaless tried to hide the amulet as she approached, but the goblins noticed it, and began freaking out when they recognized their queen’s most prized possession.
Vorn flipped on and revealed the twist. Vorn was really V.O.R.N. – the Valiant Observant Reactionary Nurse, and was originally built by the Advanced Age Ninja Tortle squad that George admired.
Unlike most constructs he is sentient, with a personality that’s more C3PO than ED-209. He also follows the classic three laws of robotics, which puts a bit of a wrinkle in what the PCs were expecting since he can’t be instructed to harm other living creatures (keyword ‘living’). But just being near Khaless he grants her a +2 bonus to AC, resulting in a talkative magic item bonus.
The nearby tribes were not quite sure how to react to their god moving around and speaking to the PCs, but the goblins were still quite upset at seeing the amulet and its effects.
Khaless had Vorn inspect all the offerings the tribes had given it, accepting the Grungs’ and Vegepygmies’ but rejecting the goblins’. That caused several goblins to flee and eventually the others attacked in a rage.
The other two tribes might have left well enough alone, but good ol’ George hates the Grung, and his enmity caused him to fire an arrow at the Grung leader, adding their entire tribe to the fight! At least the vegepygmies decided to leave well enough alone.
I used a lot of hand-waving in his battle as I had a ton of units on the battlefield, letting goblins and grung attack and kill each other during the chaos. Therin shifted to bear form and started slaughtering goblins, while the grung leader was able to get off his stunning chirr and stun Mannix and Khaless for the first round.
Despite the huge amount of enemies, most of the grung and goblins were fighting each other, and the PCs had all their allies with them. The erupting chaos was over relatively quickly, leaving the goblins dead and half the grung fleeing. George chased after them, leaving only one alive to whisper the tales of the dreaded frog-killing tortle.
The party has gained a strange new ally, though their health and spell reserves are dangerously low. Hopefully Undril’s plan works out and they can find a safe heaven soon.
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Support my channel via Patreon!
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