Into Chult -Tomb Thoughts #1

Note: I have not read the book, so if my spelling of NPC names and/or locations is off, it is because I am taking my best guess at spelling them.

For the first time since the D&D Next Playtest back in 2012 or 2013 I've got the opportunity to play in a D&D 5th Edition campaign. Now, I've played a few 5e one shots, probably 2-3 a year on average, but I haven't had the chance to play the same PC for concurrent session in a 5th Edition D&D game since it was released in 2014. Since my darling wife wanted to play D&D with Dinosaurs (aka Tomb of Annihilation) but my DM'ing plate is full, we have tricked DM extraordinaire Thomas into running the module for us and three others. (PS. Thomas has an excellent new DM's Guild Supplement out, Mercy & Justice).

Since I've been spoiled with an excellent player in my online 2nd Edition games who takes detailed and copious notes, I decided that I should attempt to take notes for the group for our Tomb of Annihilation game. And since I'm taking the notes anyway, I figure I'll also include them here on the blog as well as giving my impressions as a player moving through the module and put it all together into these posts that I'm going to refer to as "Tomb Thoughts".

Photo of my character sheet for Ordulin Bellweather, sheet is Dyson Logos' Fifth Edition Character Sheets.

Now, since I rarely get to play 5e, I showed excellent restraint and only stated out a dozen or so potential PCs and only wrote up brief backgrounds for half of those. But since I can't recall seeing a Warlock PC in any of my 5e campaigns, I settled on Ordulin (Darvin) Bellweather, a Half-Elf Archaeologist Hexblade Warlock. I went whole hog on a terrible pop-culture archaeologist rip-off too, having Ordulin adopt the name of a Realms location that seemed the most like Indiana in my five minutes of quick wiki-searching and deciding to use a whip for a melee weapon despite the low damage.

Initial Thoughts after Session 1

I'll include my character and session write-ups below, in case you want to skip those. The first session went pretty well, we started in Port Nyanzaru and Thomas gave each of our characters a few hooks. We could have probably wandered around the city doing some exploration, but I probably pushed a little hard for our party to take the very first mission we heard about. In hindsight, as I wrote up the session notes, I could see how my DM experience led me to urge the party to take action and be decisive instead of dawdling, so I need to remember to try and keep some of that in check as we move forward. We managed to make it through the evening without fighting anything, instead diving into the factional intrigues of the Merchant Princes. We traveled from Port Nyanzaru up to Fort Beluarian and back, and so far the locations seem interesting and fairly memorable, though we have not seen much. The biggest thing that stood out, was that Thomas took the time to print out the Guide pitches for us, which made deciding on a guide much easier and quicker than it would have been otherwise. It was fantastic to have the guide portrait and their sales pitches to help us decide on the guide for us. We only played for about three and a half hours, but it seemed like we were able to accomplish quite a bit, visiting two major locations, having conversations with a half-dozen NPCs, getting into some potentially dangerous shenanigans and even plotting out our travels for quite a while.

Ordulin [Darvin] Bellweather

• Half-Elf Warlock-Hexblade
• Chaotic Good
• Archaeologist
• Trait: Fame is more important to me than money.
• Ideals: Death Wish. Nothing is more exhilarating than a narrow escape from the jaws of death. (Chaotic)
• Bonds: I want to find my mentor (Grim Gauntletfist, who disappeared on an expedition some time ago.
• Flaws: I have a secret fear of some common wild animal-and In my work, I see them everywhere. (Spiders)
• Proficiencies
• Skills: Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, History, Investigation, Survival
• Languages: Common, Elvish, Chondathan, Chultish
• Backstory
• Son of a Half-Elven Father, Darvin Bellweather Sr, and a human mother from Chult, Ordulin was raised by Grim Gauntletfist, Half-Orc Rogue Archaeologist. Darvin Sr died before Darvin Jr was born in the jungles of Chult and his mother died during childbirth, leaving Grim to bring the infant Darvin back to Waterdeep to train as an archaeologist.
• When Darvin Jr was 16 he had a falling out with Grim and went to find his own fortune, taking on the nom de guerre of Ordulin. While exploring the ruins of a goblin mine, Ordulin fell and broke his leg, he prayed to any being who would listen. A mysterious voice answered, becoming Ordulin’s patron and he awoke at the entrance of the mine, with a strange black leather whip next to him and dragged himself to the nearest village where he recovered and began to discover his Hexblade abilities.
• After his near death experience, Ordulin went to apologize to his mentor, but found that Grim had gone back to Chult, so Ordulin followed. He’s learned that Grim disappeared while working for Wakanga O’tamu and so Ordulin has resolved to start there.

The Other PCs

• Sami Shingu - Human Fighter Folk Hero
• Bernadette Blackblade - Half-Elf Barbarian Urban Bounty Hunter
• Thexidon Darkhart - Wood Elf Ranger Outlander
• Sirus Red - Tiefling Wizard Hermit

Session 1

Having met on the boat from Waterdeep to Port Nyanzaru, the party, Sami Shingu, Bernadette Blackblade, Thexidon Darkhart, Cyrus Red and Ordulin Bellweather, decide to travel together in Chult. After acclimating to Chult and Port Nyanzaru for a few weeks, the group determines they need a job to afford a guide and/or an expeditionary charter from the Flaming Fist who have a base at Fort Belurarian.

1st of Tarsakh

Bernadette, as a bounty hunter, has made contacts in the city and one of them is Wretched Abebi, a beggar who used to work with the Merchant Prince Jubal. Abebi tells the party of one Belym, who is desperate to save his husband, Druza, from the executioner’s run. Druza is a dockworker who should have been working on the day he is alleged to have stolen the glowing nuts, but the Harbormaster Zindar did not appear at his trial to vouch for his attendance. The party visits the docks and deal with a clerk instead of the harbormaster. They get the clerk to show them the ledger that shows Druza was paid for his work that day and then Sami distracts the clerk while Ordulin steals the ledger.

The party goes to see Kwayothé hoping to prove Druza’s innocence to her and have her save him. Cyrus is able to determine with his religious knowledge that she probably worships Kosuth, the cold god of fire (really a powerful elemental). Bernadette and Cyrus catch her muttering that Harbormaster Zindar was in league with Zhanti as the party relays the sad tale of Druza to her. She refuses to outright save Druza, instead telling the party that a life must be traded for a life and telling them she will postpone the execution if they travel to Fort Beluarian to “deal” with the guide Shago for her. The party demurs and says they are not assassins, but they will attempt to capture Shago, which Kwayothé accepts, though she makes it clear that she will kill him if the party brings him back. She also refuses to say why she wants him “dealt’ with. She offers to delay the execution for a tenday and also to let the party travel with some of her underlings by boat to the Fort. The party lets her believe that they have agreed and leave.

Then the party visits the Merchant Prince Zhanti. Zhanti has jewel encrusted skulls in her villa, probably belonging to Chultan royalty who are her ancestors. The party tells her of Kwayothé’s schemes and deduce that Shago is somehow related to her. Zhanti offers to make sure that Druza is spared if the party delivers a message to Shago for her. The party agrees to that offer and furthermore accepts her offer of patronage. Zhanti gives the party 200gp stipend to cover a writ of exploration from the Flaming Fist, a guide for the jungles and supplies for an overland journey down to the mouth of the River Tath to investigate and deal with pirates she suspects are harboring there. Furthermore, there is a 2000gp bounty for each pirate ship and an additional 500gp bounty for a live pirate captain. She also tells the party that she has heard the Zhentarim have been funding the pirates and perhaps even some of the activity in Fort Beluarian. The party accepts her terms and take her gold.

2nd day of Tarsakh

The party leave for Fort Beluarian, traveling with Kwayothé’s people. They arrive at the fort three days layer (5 Tarsakh). There is a tall keep, a temple to Helm and the fort flies the flag of Balder’s Gate. They deliver the Zhanti’s letter to Shago, who is shocked when he sees who it is from and listens to the party tell him of Kwayothé’s plot against him. Sami spots that the letter is written in a strange mixture of at least 3 languages. Shago says that he is to “go” with the PCs and that he will “slip through their fingers by jumping off the boat. He also admits he would not be the best guide for where the party wants to go, and that the other guides at Fort Beluarian probably are not either. He does cover the cost of the boat back to Port Nyanzaru for the PCs.

10th day of Tarsakh

The party arrives back in Port Nyanzaru, let Kwayothé know that Shago “escaped” them and meet with Undril Silvertusk, telling her they wish to travel to Camp Vengeance with her. She appraises them of her opinion of the various guides in the town and the party settles on Kwilgok, the tortle and former dinosaur racer even though he will be slower overland with his anklyosaurus.

The Party’s Plan

• Travel down the River Soshenstar with Undril to Camp Vengeance
• Continue down the river to the basin and find the village of Mbala that Ordulin has a map to.
• Continue south to the River Tath and travel down it to find the pirates who have been causing Zhanti so much trouble.