Tomorrow, we will once again dive into the Tomb of Annihilation. We started the campaign on . As a group, we gather for dinner, homebrews, and about two-and-a-half hours of play. At the same time that we started that campaign, I started a briefly lived second campaign with my daughters and their friends. With two concurrent campaigns, I chose not to publish session notes. I did not want to have each group spoil the exploration of the others. When my daughters’ campaign sputtered out, I didn’t pick up writing session notes.
We set a goal to play every week, but due to travel and work schedules, we average gaming about every other week. The group started at first level, and have now reached eleventh level. They have explored deep into the Tomb of the Nine Gods.
The party started as a musical band. Their patron asked for their help; The group was not the patron’s first (nor second) choice. But as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. Why not enlist first level characters to save the world?
Along the way, the band negotiated with a sentient group of prawns. To secure passage through the prawns’ territory, the band agreed to play mood music while the prawns mated in the surrounding waters.
The band also appeased a group of hungry lizardfolk by sharing their food and playing music.
Slowly, the jungles of Chuult ground down the group. First, they lost their band manager and guitarist in a daring assault on a windswept natural stone tower. Later a T-Rex munched down another of their ranks.
Their last round of character deaths came as they explored a rather dangerous shrine in the lost city of Omu. Three of the five characters died. Only one player has their initial starting character. One player is now on their third character.
Throughout the campaign, the party has enlisted the help of Non-Player Characters (NPCs 📖).
They railed in frustration at a guide ill-equipped to help them survive the jungles. They eventually dismissed the guide, having reclaimed a treasure that the guide sought. The guide had a severe fear of heights and almost refused to climb the natural tower that housed the guide’s treasure. During this encounter, two of the player characters died. This soured the groups already wavering opinion of their guide.
They convinced Trevor, a veteran and mercenary for the Red Wizards, to join their ranks. He survived deep into the Tomb but died during a bodak ambush.
update:I forgot to mention that they also teamed up with a dao and briefly with a gray slaad.
In one location, they bolstered their ranks by releasing a slew of NPCs from a magical trap. A champion, minotaur, drow wizard, and human spy. This felt a bit like the opening sequence of Out of the Abyss. In the first session of that adventure campaign, the Player Characters (PCs 📖) are imprisoned along with a cadre of others.
And for a brief moment, an awakened lizard named Octavian joined them. But Octavian and the human spy ran off/disappeared.
We’re having fun, and I’m looking forward to wrapping up such a long-running campaign. Then, I’m certain, we’ll dive into something else.