Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!
Support my channel via Patreon!
Previously on Tomb of Annihilation
Starring:
Mannix, level 10 Yuan-ti Inquisitive Rogue/Divination Wizard – inhabited by Papazotl
Khaless, level 10 Half-Drow Assassin Rogue – inhabited by I’Jin
Gillian, level 10 Triton Bard of Whispers
George, level 10 Tortle Battle Master Fighter/Rogue – inhabited by Moa
Therin, level 10 Hill Dwarf Druid of the Moon – inhabited by Obo’laka
After the fierce battle with the beholder boss on level three, the party sorts through the loot, levels up to ten during a long rest, and descends to level 4 of the Tomb mega-dungeon, coming face-to-face with the Mirror of Life Trapping.
Poor George was still a petrified statue. Therin had cast Greater Restoration from his Necklace of Prayer Beads to restore Mannix in the middle of the beholder battle, but couldn’t restore George without a Long Rest.
Thankfully after that big boss battle, a Long Rest is exactly what they deserved. The non-statue party members divvied up the beholder’s loot, including that level’s skeleton key. Even though George couldn’t benefit from the Long Rest, everyone was able to level up to 10. Therin used the necklace to restore George, and the party returned to the grand staircase, descending to level four.
Level four technically includes two levels. The south and west sections are attached to a balcony overlooking the bottom of the staircase, where a shaft was surrounded by four giant gargoyle statues on colored pedestals.
As I anticipated, the party saw the way down, and turned to explore a different direction. They noted the Acererak clues on the wall, then turned south.
Mannix could hear a faint whispering in his mind as they walked along the hallway. When he hit the end of a T-intersection and glanced both ways, he was forced to make a CHA save against the Mirror of Life Trapping that hung in a a small empty room to the west.
Mannix made the save and curiously approached the 4-ft mirror. He could see blurry images of creatures – humanoid and otherwise, shimmering on the surface. He half-heatedly warned the party about the mirror, but everyone except Therin charged in after Mannix.
Khaless and Gillian both failed their saves (despite Gillian’s +7 CHA save!) and were sucked into the mirror. Only George’s Bandana of Truesight, which blinds him beyond 30-ft, prevented him from the same fate, while Therin and Orvex hung back in the hallway.
Mannix approached the mirror but couldn’t figure out how it worked (Arcana check). It was a solid, magical object affixed to the wall with magical adhesive.
They recalled one of the clues from the plaque when they first descended: “The mirror holds twelve.” The party decided to experiment using a clever trick: Therin would cast Conjure Animals to summon no fewer than eight rats, and send them at the mirror!
What followed was a uniquely interesting combat encounter as we rolled a 1d12 once the Mirror was full of creatures (which was after it sucked in two more rats).
For those of you following the book, I removed the Strige, and swapped out the minotaur,the drow mage, the doppelganger, and the champion for NPCs from our campaign: River Mist, Xandala, Ishmakahl, and Hew Hackinstone. They had all been captured by the Sewn Sisters and placed in the mirror to torment the party with their inevitable demise in the tomb.
Five creatures came out in the first wave, including Hew, Xandala, Khaless, and the Invisible Stalker, which prompted a combat encounter. Thankfully for the party, George’s truesight let them target the creature in the relatively narrow and small area, and it was swiftly dispatched.
Gillian was still stuck, however, so more rats were needed! During the battle George had grabbed Orvex to try and get him sucked into the mirror, but Orvex made the save. George then made the mistake of moving up to fight the stalker, saw the mirror, failed the save, and was sucked in himself!
The Mirror’s 12 extra-dimensional cells began filling up with rats, and spewing things back out, including an insane Omuan, and Ishmakahl the doppleganger. As long as we had at least one rat in play, we could play the soul-slot machine game, though other creatures could easily turn back to the mirror and get sucked in again (bye Ish!).
Things got dicey when a monstrous creature poured out, a massive four-armed gargoyle. We re-entered combat, this time without George. Poor Gillian would end up being stuck the entire time, despite constantly shuffling creatures out of the Mirror.
The four-armed gargoyle is a very powerful creature (CR 10). But so is Khaless. Each dealt about 50 damage to each other in a single round!
During the fight the others remained concerned about getting their fellow party members out of the mirror, but it bit them in the butt when a feral troll slid out of the mirror next! Mannix used Phantasmal Force to goad it into looking back into the mirror, and back it went.
NPCs and monsters were zipped back and forth between the mirror world and the real world while they fought the gargoyle, finally destroying it (nearly single-handily by Khaless). With the troll back in the mirror the party was left with a dilemma. Gillian and George were still trapped, and they were running out of patience. Therin, careful to keep his gaze averted, prepared to cast Dispel Magic, hoping it would bring everyone out. The party readied attacks in case everything spilled out at once, knowing the troll was still in their. Will the plan work? We’ll find out next time!
Voted MVPC – Therin* (*and Therin’s summoned rats)
Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!
Support my channel via Patreon!
RogueWatson 