r/Tombofannihilation • • Oct 29 '18

RESOURCE Online Resources Collection for ToA

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dnd-compendium.com
326 Upvotes

r/Tombofannihilation • • Sep 08 '21

Chult Supplements by Location and Tier

533 Upvotes

There 3 main storylines of Chult:

  1. The death curse: Caused by the soulmonger, the souls are being drained to awaken a dark god. A pyramid scheme devised by the demilich Acererak who uses Ras Nsi who uses the Yaun Ti who uses slaves and captives to feed the curse. This story is told over "Tomb of Annihilation".
  2. The lost city of Mezro: Artus Cimber seeks the way to Mezro, a great city that has left this plane of existence, to find his lost love. Everyone want's his fancy magic ring. This story is told over "The Lost City of Mezro". (Also please help yourself to my WIP redone maps for this module)
  3. Dendar, the night serpent: Yaun-Ti are using any power they can to awaken their god sleeping beneath the peaks of flame, Dendar, the night serpent. This story is told over the "D&D Adventurer's League".

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Tiers?

Just in case you are new to DMing 5e; there are 4 power tiers in the game: levels 1-4, 5-10, 11-16, and 17-20. At each tier classes get a large jump in power, usually with the Extra Attack feature, better spells, or other such damage boosters. Tiers makes it a little easier for you to guess when you should use a module, but as always, a DM must think on their feet and make weak encounters stronger or vice versa depending on your players - it's just a rule of thumb to get you started.

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Supplements by Location

Broken down by general location on the map.

Starters

  • Cellar of Death (Tier 1): Reveal the origin of the death curse and give your characters a reason to care about it.
  • Return of the Lizard King (Tier 1): An alternative start to get your characters from anywhere in the world to the tomb (possibly bypassing all of Chult).
  • Tomb of Annihilation Expanded, Part 1 Port Nyanzaru (Tier 1): Sail on a ship with Syndra to Chult, less of an adventure, more of good flavor text for your arrival.
    • Personal Grade: B, I used this general idea and flavor text presented here. The sailing time allowed them to get to know Syndra and Xandala. Had some pirates board the ship before Aremag scared them off. Next time I would plan to borrow more ideas from the module below and weave them all together for some more high-seas adventure and foreshadowing.
  • The Brazen Pegasus-A Seafaring Adventure to Chult (Tier 1): Like above, but a full adventure while on the boat to Chult.
  • Tomb of Annihilation DM's Resources (Resource): Ideas for brining characters in from Phandelver, Saltmarsh, or Dragon heist or hooks for individual characters to want to join Syndra's quest.

Northern/General Chult

Port Nyanzaru

  • Encounters in Port Nyanzaru (Tier 1+): Various encounters. Great way to flesh out the port.
    • Personal Grade: B, something for everyone.
  • Tomb of Annihilation Companion (Tier 1+): Dino races and watertubes, purely optional.
    • Personal Grade: B+, I have no interest in the watertubes (too high-magic), but I finally got my party to do a dino race, and from the many versions of the race, I choose this one and it worked great.
  • Tomb of Annihilation Expanded, Part 1 Port Nyanzaru (Tier 1+): Details on the executioner's run, random encounters.
  • All Eyes on Chult (Tier 1): Zindar enlists your aid in investigating mysterious ships. An investigation building to a battle in one of the prince's manors.
    • Personal grade: A+, absolutely a hit with my players. A quick and solid little adventure with some possible lasting implications tied into pirate or zhentarim plots.
  • Escape from Malar's Throat (Tier 1): Zombies attack Malar's Throat.
  • DDAL07-01 - A City on the Edge (Tier 1): Yaun ti are smuggling in a relic to help them awaken Dendar. Alternate dino-race rules.
    • Personal grade: B. I used a modified version of this for my game. I think it's a nice introduction to the Yaun-ti schemes and many NPCs at the port. A great starter mission.
  • DDAL07-03 - A Day at the Races (Tier 1): Join the dinosaur race and squalsh a stampede. Part one of "The Jungle Has Fangs" trilogy.
    • Personal grade: B. One of the quests in DDAL0701 City on the Edge has the players racing dinosaurs, so grab this up and Tomb of Annihilation Companion's dinosaur racing rules, and weave it all together! A grand race with a stampede at the end caused by the Yaun Ti to distract as they try to steal your prize.
  • DDAL07-06 - Fester and Burn (Tier 2): A catacomb crawl under the oldtown for tier 2. Part 1 of "The Rot from Within" trilogy.
  • DDAL07-07 - Rotting Roots (Tier 2): Zombie attack on Malar's throat, trek into the mountains to Matalo to do battle in the tummy of a trex zombie. Part two of "The Rot from Within" trilogy.
  • DDAL07-09 - Unusual Opposition (Tier 3): Find out more about the Yuan Ti.
  • The Thundering Lizard (Resource): A pure resource only. People, menus, nice maps. Very useful if it's your party's inn of choice.
  • Kaya's House of Repose (Resource): A pure resource only. People, menus, nice maps. Very useful if it's your party's inn of choice.

Jungle

Ocean

  • Tortle Package (Tier 1): Adds a new race of turtle-people and their city, Ahoyhoy, to the map, as well as a small dungeon crawl.
    • Personal Grade: C, You need to add your own reasons why your players would want to sail all the way out here, but if you do, its a nice location. Another player recommended it as a staging-point for a new party if yours wipes in the Tomb.
  • Tomb of Annihilation Expanded, Part 6 Omu (Tier 2): Castaway gnomes on an island.
  • DDAL07-11 - A Lesson in Love (Tier 3): A trip underwater into the bay of chult.
  • DDAL07-17 - Cauldron of Sapphire (Tier 4): A trip to an underwater trench to battle Dagon and find a remnant of the atropal. Part three of the "Broken Chain" series.

The Mines

Matolo (Not on the map, located in Mistcliff Mountains)

  • DDAL07-07 - Rotting Roots (Tier 2): Zombie attack on Malar's throat, trek into the mountains to Matalo to do battle in the tummy of a trex zombie. Part two of "The Rot from Within" trilogy.
  • DDAL07-08 - Putting the Dead to Rest (Tier 2): Travel to Matalo, part three of "The Rot from Within" trilogy).
  • Ruins of Matalo (Tier 2): Intel points you to Camp Vengeance to learn about the origins of the zombie hordes, which eventually leads you to a necromancer in the ruins of Matalo.

Eastern Chult

Mezro

Nsi Wastes

Ishau

Hisari

Western Chult

Camp Vengeance

  • Ruins of Matalo (Tier 2): Intel points you to Camp Vengeance to learn about the origins of the zombie hordes, which eventually leads you to a necromancer in the ruins of Matalo.
  • The Siege of Camp Vengeance - A module I am working on.

Andali Basin

  • Curse of the Aldani (Tier 1): New settlement in the basin with cursed lobsterfolk.
    • Personal Grade: B, my party begrudgingly helped the cursed aldani but where super happy when they broke the curse. Helped me get them to the heart to introduce the Red Wizards too.

Mbala

Mauratal (Not on map, ruined city on mesa south of M'bala)

Orolunga

Southern Chult

Shilku / Wyrmheart Mine / Hrakhamar

  • Secrets of Shilku Expanded (Tier 1+): Adds a dwarf outpost and fleshes out Hrakhamar and Wyrmheart Mine.
    • Personal Grade: B. Musharib was my party's first guide, taking the offer of his free services to help him free Hrakhamar. This supplement has a lot of great material, tying what is happening in the forge directly to the tomb and finishing things off with a volcano-top battle. My own personal advice: Make Hew one of the dwarf prisoners in Hrakhamar so he can get the party to Wyrmheart Mine after. My party loved Hew, he was insane and fun, and everyone felt it when the dragon burned him alive. Good times.

Omu

Tomb of Annihilation

Land of Ash and Smoke

Peaks of Flame

Valley of Dread

The Bakumora (Not on map, the isolated patch of jungle near Sanrach mountains)

Other Chult Locations (Drop anywhere!)

Other Chult Resources

  • Beasts of the Jungle Rot (Resource): A pure resource for more zombie dinos and a price guide for dino bits.
  • Adventure Sidekicks: Tomb of Annihilation (Resource): Need some sidekicks and loveable fodder?
  • Raiders of the Lost Tomb (Resource): 3rd party races, archetypes, and a ton of spells fit for Chult. I advise caution when using this kind of resource.
  • Secret Societies of Chult: The Mage Hunters (Resource): Wizard tradition, monsters.
  • Secret Societies of Chult: The Spiritlords (Resource): Druid circle, monsters.
  • Sinners of Chult - A Collection of Jungle Villains (Resource): Some villains for you to drop in.
  • Sinners of Chult 2 - Even More Jungle Villains (Resource): More villans for you to drop in.
  • A Guide to Tomb of Annihilation (Resource): A barebones bullet-point rundown of ToA. Useful reminders and basic mechanics for all the situations.
    • Personal Grade: C. It's basically all of ToA without any of the lore or fluff; just the essential barebones of what and where. This could be a handy tool if you don't have a physical copy of the book, and need a pdf or printout to reference.
  • Tomb of Annihilation DM's Resources (Resource): A very handy resource for a rundown of locations and people and how they piece together.
    • Personal Grade: B. Recommended reading, if only for brainstorming your approaches or refresher on lore. I only don't rank it A, because its nothing new or essential, but a great collation of existing information.
  • Jungles of Chult Factbook (Resource): Summed up history and lore of all of Chult, including information from previous editions! Also has some encounter resources.
    • Personal Grade: A, A fantastic resource if you want to deep-dive into the history and lore of Chult. Everything you want to know about everywhere summed up.
  • 35 Magical Items for Tomb of Annihilation (Resource): Some new magic items.
    • Personal Grade: B+, Some real gems in here, all thematically appropriate for the setting. Consider carefully when and how you use these, as many are very much game changers, but when you need a prize for something players went out of their way for, this has you covered. Some grammar and technical errors, so be ready to proofread and patch.

Recommended Additions

Here are a few more supplements that, while unspecific to Chult, are easy to draw from:

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Tying it all together

This is just my ideas for tying it all together. Feel free to draw inspiration from it or not.

Edit: There is also this excellent source for tying it all together, step by step.

Tier 1: Setup and exploration

  • Start with Cellar of Death.
  • Then the teleport to chult, or if you want some sea/pirate fun; boat ride presented in The Brazen Pegasus-A Seafaring Adventure to Chult or Tomb of Annihilation Expanded, Part 1 Port Nyanzaru. Have Zindar give them a proper greeting as they get off the boat and let them wander the city for a day or two. Dinosaur races, rumor gathering, social stuff.
  • Kick things off with All Eyes on Chult, DDAL07-01, 02, or, 03 or another intro adventure to get the party going.
  • After they have got their fill of adventures in the Port, send them on to Jungle exploration and non-story related locations to get characters close to level 5/Tier 2. Try to drop hints/lore about all the major players: Ubtao, Ras Nsi, the Yuan-ti, the Red Wizards, the Yellow Banner, the Sewn Sisters. Finally have them come across a npc that tells them the Oracle of Oralunga has the answers they need.
    • The only story-critical locations I would avoid during tier 1 would be Oralunga, Nangalore, and of course Omu.

Tier 2: Getting answers

  • Lost City of Mezro Part 1: Point the players to Orolunga and the oracle there for answers. The oracle is nowhere to be found, only Artus who is also seeking the missing oracle as well to ask about Mezro. He leads the party to the Tamalka, the caretakers of the temple, to find out what happened to the oracle (makes Artus useful for something!).
  • Tamalka: Things happen pretty much as is in the module. Wainrath tells them that the oracle has been missing from Oralunga for years now, since the Heart of the Wild was stolen from their allies, the Obanashi tribe. He sends them to the Obanashi temple. (Also please help yourself to my WIP redone maps for this module, I plan to eventually make a post for all my suggested improvements of LCoM)
  • Seething Halls: Players explore the halls while Artus goes off to find the surviving Obanashi in their secret refuge he knows about nearby.
    • Suggested changes: Lets tie this into the story better. Once the players enter the Seething Halls, add some ghostly visions. Show an undead and yaun-ti army, lead by Ras Nsi and Kolate, massacring the Obanashi tribe. The heart was made by Ubtao to channel life energy into Chult from a pocket of feywild. Have Ras Nsi steal the heart to take it to a pocket of shadowfell (the dark hallow) to channel necrotic energy. This energy causes all the random undead to rise, who Ras Nsi then marks with his symbol so he may control them. All of this death and destruction is a means to restoring the powers taken from him when he was banished (he lost the ability to raise dead, but retained the ability to command them, if marked). Making this change requires that you slightly alter the timeline of when the heart was stolen, from 100 years ago, after the spell plague, to 48ish, right after Ras Nsi joined the Yaun-ti. I did this to show what he is willing to do to reclaim his power.
    • Also, plz improve on the puzzles presented in this temple, they suck and need fleshing out to be good. I might write up my rework of this chapter in the near future with the puzzles I used and all my changes, along with new maps.
  • The Dark Hallow: The surviving Obanashi lead everyone to the Dark Hallow, where they know the heart is, but have been unable to reach it.
    • I had Ras Nsi betray Kolate, murder and bind him to the tree, so that he may serve as it's guardian and keep the necrotic energy flowing. Kolate not happy about this fate is happy to drop some hints at what is to come.
  • Return the heart, restore the oracle, get your answers! Artus is sent off to retrieve the Mezroan tablet in the Samarach mountains and you are on your path to the tomb.
    • Got more places you want your players to explore? Do what I did; One of Ras Nsi's retained barae powers is to hide a city, which he now uses to ward Omu, making it hidden from anyone looking for it (those not specifically seeking it can still stumble in). His spies and agents however have a pendant that let them through the ward. Have the oracle tell you where these pendants are, a hint of who wears them, and plant them in places you want the players to visit before they go to the tomb. If you players have yet to visit Mezro, this is the time to put one there and do Lost City of Mezro Part 4. "The Rot from Within" AL series goes well here too.
  • Level 7ish: Omu time! Time to build up the Yaun-ti. Hint at Dendar and darker things.
  • Level 9-10ish: Tomb time!
  • Soulmonger stopped, all is well! Dance party.

Tier 3: Marysue Artus and Mezro

  • After the hangover, the oracle or Mesika contacts the players to let them know Artus is in trouble, lost in the Bakumora. Time to get to Lost City of Mezro Part 2 and 3.
    • Lets replace/combine Votaran fortress with the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish! I plan to have a time-skip of 1 or 2 years caused by moving through the Bakumora or something in Votaran fortress, so that there is time for the Red Wizards and yaun-ti to pillage and experiment with the soul monger for their AL modules.
  • Artus is getting his smooch on with his lost love, but not all is well. The red wizards and the yaun-ti are messing around with the remnants of the soul monger. Time to focus on the Adventurer's League stuff to the end!

Tier 4: Dendar Awakens!

  • Hopefully you have had the Yuan-ti be a constant pain in the butt, because its time to do The Broken Chain (DDAL07-14 to 18) and put an end to it all.
    • Pshaw, Imma homebrew the hell out of this ending. I am thinking a remnant of Ubtao comes back, fights it from without while you fight it from within (inside his guts, literally).

So that's my current battle plan. We have been going for 1 year, and I just finished Lost City of Mezro Part 1, giving my players a list of talismans to fetch. They are back at Camp Vengeance right now, under siege by one of these Yaun-ti agents and an army of undead.

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I will continue to add my personal grade to any of these supplements I use. Lastly, if anyone knows of modules and content I missed, let me know and I will get it on the list! Thanks!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 2h ago

QUESTION I'm running a Chult campaign inspired by vietnam war films, what should I include?

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38 Upvotes

The forces of the United Lord's Alliance Forces (ULAF) have pursued "Dirty Red", a Thayan necromancer, to Chult.

My party are Alpha Squad, an elite special forces group who will be tasked with preventing Dirty Red from raising an undead army in the Chultan jungles.

What movie references, batiri traps, etc should I include to give my players the full "Green Hell" experience in the jungle?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 12h ago

Finished my campaign of ToA! Lessons learned!

58 Upvotes

So, we had our final boss fight with Acererak and the Atropal last week! My party was victorious in destroying the Soul Monger and killing the Atropal, but all of the characters but one died, the last one escaping through the portal and finding themselves back in Omu.

After running the campaign weekly for about a year, I loved it. It was so much fun. Big thank you to everyone on this sub, and to the collected resources online, for all the inspiration and tips!

I figured I would add my own experiences and wisdom in case it helps the next person who comes along!

The party:
Pretty classic composition of Paladin, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Barbarian. (Some classes changed with character deaths, but this overall comp stayed the same)

What worked really well:
-My players really got engaged with the jungle exploration, the set pieces, all the various NPCs and villains, and even the Tomb had them on a tightrope walk of caution versus risk that they had a lot of fun with.

-The path and locations they took in the jungle had a very spiritual/mystical theme, so I included dreams that were related to Ubtao as ways to give hints and lore. This also allowed more hag fun, as a flip side to the Ubtao dreams were Nightmares from the Hags, making them loom larger in the overall narrative.

-Establishing deadliness from the start and making big rolls in the open helped to put fear in the players hearts. A couple players had multiple character deaths, and I warned everyone to have backups ready to go, but I made sure no one felt left out. (I gave a prize for the best character death at the end)

-Rather than just the random encounter tables, I also had some clocks I kept track of for other factions to make moves or encounter the party. This worked especially well in Omu!

What didn’t work as well:
-I ran the intro as written, and I agree with the overall consensus that it’s weak. When I next run it, I will probably do a shipwreck intro and have the death curse hit a little later to allow more time in Port Nyanzaru. Putting the players in a rushed feeling right off the bat is not as good. That said, the death curse is a very good clock that forces the players to keep moving and take risks once it does hit.

Major highlights (according to my players):
Port Nyanzaru
-I ran a Yuan-Ti home invasion of the Merchant Prince manor they were staying in, and they all mentioned that was one of their favourite combats.
Chult
-Nangalore was a big hit
-Camp Righteous and Camp Vengance as a back-to-back pair worked really well
-Ataaz Muhahah was very fun (I had the monkeys be Su-Monsters)
Omu
-Shagambi’s Temple was a very tense fight they all loved.
-The King of Feathers scared the crap out of them everytime he showed up.
-They cooked up their own ambush for the Red Wizards and had a very tense combat.
The Tomb
-Room 67, the most Heavy Metal of rooms.
-All of floor 6, unlocking the skeleton door, was a very fun puzzle for all.
-Room 49 had everyone on edge.
-Room 52 was a favourite.
-Room 43 didn’t go off, but was creepy enough that they all mentioned it as a highlight at the end.

My big important takeaway:
After reading this adventure over and over, reading commentary about it, looking up the old adventures that inspired it, and now having run it with a group of players that all had very different levels of experience, there is one big thing to consider about this module.

Tomb of Annihilation is about LEGACY.

The legacy of Ubtao and what his presence in Chult meant then and what his absence means now.
The legacy of colonialism in a land under its own power again.
Ras Nsi and Artus Cimber are stuck in the past, a representation of the legacy of Mezro.
The Death Curse is a perversion of legacy, because your soul is supposed to move on and it is instead being used as fuel.
Even on a meta level, the whole adventure is about legacy, honouring a more old-school way of playing D&D.

So if you’re looking to run this adventure yourself, and you’re trying to find the big thematic hook to get characters into it: Legacy is that theme.

I’m happy to go into further details if people have any questions, and thanks again to all those in the sub who came before and shared their experiences. :)


r/Tombofannihilation • • 8h ago

DISCUSSION Kobold Sorcerer PC and Omuan Kobolds

4 Upvotes

My party is currently at Wongo’s shrine and likely to encounter the kobolds at the red bazaar in our next session this weekend. I’m particularly excited for this because one of my PCs is a kobold sorcerer from Wyrmheart Mine that still carries the statue of Kurtulmak with her. I think this will be an opportunity for some great roleplay.
I’m interested to hear how other DMs played Kakarol and the other kobolds in Omu and how they would have them react to another kobold sorcerer. My first thought is that Kakarol would try to fend off anyone that could threaten his position, but the other kobolds might be likely to follow a new sorcerer if Kakarol is defeated. Let me know your ideas, thoughts, or how the kobolds were played in your game!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 15h ago

It's Spooky Season!

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2 Upvotes

r/Tombofannihilation • • 1d ago

A player of mine started the campaign with a curse he needs a hag to cure.... we're going to get to Mbala in the next session

6 Upvotes

I want to have Nanny Pupu send the party on 3 side quests to get what she needs to cure the curse. I was going to expand the money shaft already there, grab a magic item from the wizards in the Heart of Ubtoa, and we come to my question.....wdyt of the last quest is to grab hair or nails from one of her sisters?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 3d ago

High level Tomb of the 9 Gods

9 Upvotes

I ran ToA for 7 level 16 PCs. Here are my edits to certain rooms in order to make it a challenging experience. Please steal.

  1. Athletics check is character level (16)

  2. Replace wights with Liches

  3. 8d10 fire damage

  4. 3000 gp

  5. Hexagon skeleton is in a jar.

  6. Add a box among the library containing Diamond Phoenix Scrolls, a magic item that, when used, performs a greater restoration spell.

Withers is a full on Lich, he respawns everytime his door closes

  1. Characters see themselves through the mask, make a DC 16 wisdom save, failure by 4 or less is frightened, by 5 or more is petrified

  2. Last character through automatically makes the sheet dex save, failure chops in half and kills.

  3. Locusts do a flat 100 piercing damage per round

  4. Statue has two real eyes and two illusory eyes, uses 1 attack to grab at one

  5. Clay Golem has 4 attacks per turn

  6. Skeleton is behind last curtain eating its own arm.

  7. Skeleton is running around the warriors.

  8. Random Demon Lord is riding the Z-rex

  9. Acheron: city-sized Ochre Oblex

Gehenna: Pyroclastic Dragon (red)

Mechanus: Marut

Bator: Bel/Titivilus

Shadowfell: Nightwalker

67: round 1 = fire

Round 2 = spines & beards

Round 3 = barbs and bone

Round 4 = ice devils and Horned devil

Round 5 = Pit Fiend and chain devil

Round 6 = Moloch


r/Tombofannihilation • • 3d ago

PAY FOR SUPPLEMENT Gristlecracker's Hags & Grimoire is discounted by 31% for Halloween Sales!

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11 Upvotes

Gristlecracker's Hags & Grimoire, Gold Best Seller on DMsGuild, is discounted by 31% for Halloween Sales!

You can find it here until Halloween: https://www.dmsguild.com/it/product/517804/gristlecracker-s-hags-grimoire?src=hottest

Your guide to weird magic, encounters, and hags!

Gristlecracker’s Hags and Grimoire provides new mechanics, guidelines, and tactics for using hags, magic, and the esoteric in your Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. This guide is designed for all levels of play and dungeon mastery, and uses a hybrid D&D 2014 (5e) format that includes the best of the old mixed with a few innovations of the D&D 2024 systems that do not dilute the game experience.

Every aspect of fantasy magic is improved or introduced: covens, curses, familiars, hags, magic geometry, talismans, spells, and spell mechanics. This supplement is designed to help you make your future games containing magic and hags as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Inside, you will find:

- An underwater adventure seed about a Book of Keeping

- 68 supernatural encounters

- New magic rules, mechanics, and variations

- Hags as player characters

- 112 supernatural creatures and NPCs

- 52 magic spells, with new tags: remote and moonlight

- 80 magic items

- Esoteragons (not just magic circles!)

- 28 toxic and intoxicating plants

- An improved and more intuitive Intoxicated condition mechanic

- 200 tchotchkes

- Professional layout using over 168 pictures on 262 pages

- No AI Art used


r/Tombofannihilation • • 5d ago

Musharib the guide is an avatar of Ubtao. Thoughts?

12 Upvotes

Musharib (albino dwarf spirit warrior) is the guide of my party. I've played him as a nature-loving hippie who prefers non-combat solutions whenever possible. He has bonded greatly with the group's triceratops.

Would I break my game if I made Musharib an avatar of Ubtao, wanting to influence the fate of Chult by helping the party find the way? Do you have any ideas about how to play this, and how to reveal it in a satisfying way?

I am thinking of making small hints throughout:

  • Dinosaurs will never hurt him.
  • When he maps out a path on the ground etc., it somehow looks maze-like everytime.
  • When speaking, he will often use maze metaphors.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 6d ago

DISCUSSION Pet Mechanics -- Seeking Feedback

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4 Upvotes

The inevitable has happened and my party has purchased some dino eggs. I set out to build some management mechanics for both (a) the egg phase and (b) the actual, hatched, "I'm a mother" phase.

Seeking feedback on the meat and potatoes, particularly surrounding the hatched dino portion. Is it too complex? Is it balanced? Is it an egregious slap in the face for any Beast Master Ranger characters, in terms of action economy?

All feedback welcome, thanks!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 7d ago

STORY Mezro: Ruins of the Lost City | Tomb of Annihilation - Full Story Retelling (Part 13)

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11 Upvotes

The journey around Chult continues! In this episode, half of the party delve deep into the lost city of Mezro, their goal to slay the hordes of undead that dwell within. Dark work is at play, however, as they are not the only explorers attempting to unlock the secrets of the ruined city...
The other half of the party are dealing with the fallout from the massive attack on the pirate hideout (detailed in Part 12), as it seems winning the battle was only half of the challenge...

Appreciate all the support for the series so far! Thank you for allowing me to share with other ToA adventurers. This module is fantastic, and this is a a way for all to be able to experience it!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 7d ago

Could Xandala and Tinder be one and the same?

14 Upvotes

The red dragon Tzindelor (almost sounds like Xandala if you use a bit of imagination), AKA Tinder ... I'm thinking of making her shape-shifted form Xandala. The characters already met and were betrayed by her. To meet her later in Wyrmheart where she can turn into her "true form", a red dragon, would be cool. No?

What do you think? Would anything stop me from doing this?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 8d ago

ART The First Jungle Forray

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43 Upvotes

As the party begins their expedition with a quick and easy adventure to Fort Beluarian to purchase their writ of exploration they face a crossroads in the path. This stretch of coast has an ominous pillar layed with Baitri Masks marking their territory. Do the players ignore the warning and continue their adventure through the coast? Maybe fighting the Inkcasters and Puffermen that guard the path? Maybe encounter a coven or sea giant and his pet along the way? Or will they take a detour, extending their voyage by two days to head inland- potentially finding a spiney surprise, a druid cursed for digging too deep, and the renowned alpha of the region that the locals call the Chataranga? Maybe the hunt bounty Ifan Talro'a placed wasnt worth it after all...

Wish me luck (and my players) luck this Tombsday!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 8d ago

QUESTION Napping next to Nanny's

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22 Upvotes

I ran the Ruins of Mbala and it went great. Several members got infected with mummy rot and needed to see the Nanny for some healing. She was happy to, ofc, for the teeny, tiny price of a lock of hair.

They, understandably, wished to long rest, so they decided to bed down outside of Nanny's hut. They rolled poorly on survival. Just for good measure I asked them to make concealed (visible only to the me/GM) perception checks. A few rolled low, one rolled a Nat 1.

The photo represents where they're all sleeping. I let the wizard use mold earth to create dirt igloo's for them, so they're not actually as exposed as it seems.

I do plan to have some of the monkeys steal their stuff, but give me your best ideas.

Also, one character agreed to do one service for her. She said she would call on him. What might she ask of him?

As for the hairs, I think Nanny is going to take them to the sisters, perhaps to win favor, but also open to ideas for this too.


r/Tombofannihilation • • 8d ago

QUESTION Adjusting the level up advice (5-16)

3 Upvotes

My party just finished some homebrew stuff and I'm a bit burnt out on trying to do everything and have heard good things of those book. Has anyone adjusted the whole book up a few levels? I've heard the jungle is mostly low level stuff but I really want to try a hex crawl so I want to use that stuff and basically just level up them up whenever they would have normally leveled up so instead of 1->2 we go 5->6. I know a lot of combats would need to be adjusted but does anyone have any experience with it?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 9d ago

QUESTION Need to wrap things up…

5 Upvotes

After two great years running around Chult, the company of heroes has made their way into the tomb…unfortunately one of the original players has to leave the campaign in a month. It’s pretty tough since they have come such a long way together, but real life…I’d like for them to finish things as an intact group.

Anyhow, the party has just hit level 3 in the tomb and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to speed things along to the end. I was going to excise any non-story related encounters, any less than essential combat to get them to the main event and hopefully some wrap-up time afterwards. Any suggestions would be appreciated!


r/Tombofannihilation • • 12d ago

Getting out of the tomb Spoiler

6 Upvotes

Is there any way to get out of the tomb other than via the ebon pool?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 13d ago

Hello there!

14 Upvotes

Hello there!

I’m about to start ToA in a couple of weeks and I just would like to kindly ask some advice 🙂

Are there any tips on how to tie together different quests and side quests in order to have the players enjoy the full extent of the book contents?

I understand there is a huge Compendium on this sub-reddit but it is indeed quite vast and I thought that maybe someone can help navigate through it?

We have completed Descent into Avernus, Curse of Strahd and Call of the Netherdeep and I have planted hidden “seeds” of a meta plot e high will bring the players to Vecna: Eve of Ruin since /Vecna is “studying” different immortal beings such as Zariel, Strahd, Alyxian and now the Atropal/Acererak on his quest to reach Godhood…

Any suggestions about which material I can use? My biggest concerns is the hex crawl since I'm afraid it can be quite misleading for the players and that it might result a bit annoying... it would be great to use random encounters to enhance and spread some info on Chult Lore and on the main plot... or basically are there like 5 places you think are not to miss because they are fun and might be tied to the main plot?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 13d ago

How did your characters find Omu?

6 Upvotes

I can't remember seeing it in the book, but are there different ways of finding out where Omu is? Or did anyone create their own way of finding it? Or did you just put it in their path when you were ready?


r/Tombofannihilation • • 13d ago

QUESTION I'm a little worried about Belchorzh

10 Upvotes

We're playing 5.5e (5 level 9, ranger, druid, sorcerer, barb, cleric) so as much as possible I'm using 5.5e monster stat blocks and in preparation for fighting Belchorzh (using his name to avoid direct spoilers to any players who stumble on the post). The 5.5e stat block adds a bunch more damage to his attacks. My players don't really have any anti invisibility and they are also greedy so the fight will happen, especially as I rolled for extra loot so they are going to want the magical items on offer.

My question is, how common have others seen tpk in this encounter? Because I'm worried that I'm about to kill the entire party, especially given that my greedy players will be harried throughout the rest of the floor if they try to run.


r/Tombofannihilation • • 13d ago

QUESTION Tiny Hut in the Jungle

18 Upvotes

Players just reached level 5, which grants access to Tiny Hut. Currently I have it so they can't long rest outside a designated safe space. I don't want to ban it, but I want to keep the pressure up.

Any advice or shared experience welcome.


r/Tombofannihilation • • 14d ago

ART My take on the Executioner's Run 48x18 200px

Post image
14 Upvotes

r/Tombofannihilation • • 14d ago

We finished Tomb of Annihilation! 28 sessions with my teenagers, written up in three parts, plus a free Acererak stat sheet for a level 10 party

34 Upvotes

Hi all,

My teen crew just completed ToA with an epic fight against Acererak with a significantly extended ending.

Spoilers for the whole module

We started Tomb of Annihilation in January 2025 and played the last session last weekend: 28 sessions over 22 months, six players, and we finished at level 10. I ran it under the 2024 rules, which took some adjusting, and I have a few thoughts.

I've written the whole campaign up for other DMs. It covers what I added, what I cut, the house rules, and what actually happened at our table, which was not always what I'd planned.

(Part One: The City and the Crocodile)

How I set up my table. Session zero with *Cellar of Death*, a dinosaur race, and a ball I added at Zhanthi's villa, with eight party games, yuan-ti assassins and a letter to steal, and the Camp Righteous dungeon that changed their religion.

(Part Two: The Jungle and the Tomb)

Eighteen months of hexcrawl and six levels of Acererak's dungeon. The nine trickster gods each got a pop-culture impression for the possessed player to perform (the TikToker, the frat bro, the anime protagonist). It ends with a guide to running a 2017 module on the 2024 rules.

(The Ending)

I rebuilt the finale from scratch. As written, Acererak would have wiped my team in under three rounds (Disrupt Life alone would have done about 222 damage a round), so I retuned him and added a few things:

  • The souls in the Soulmonger are 200 dice in a jar. Each character gets one scoop during the final battle, as harm or healing, but every soul they spend is one that doesn't go home. At the end, you roll the whole jar and count the sixes.
  • A scripted sacrifice in round one (to reduce player DPS on the Atropal). That player carries on as a ghost inside the Soulmonger, attacking it from the inside. Thus, when they destroy the Soulmonger, he can be resurrected!
  • A hundred undead with one hit point each, then five personal shadow trials.
  • Three guards: while any of them stands, Acererak can't be killed. Plus a sphere of annihilation that always shows where it's going a round ahead.
  • Boon cards from Ubtao, an ending for every corner of Chult.

(PDF of my Acererak, the God-King of Death)

Two A4 pages: his stat block retuned for six level 10 characters, spells and legendary actions, the lair actions he never had in the book, and his three guards.

Happy to answer questions about any of it. I'd love to hear how other tables handled the finale, especially at lower levels.

From my table to yours, be well, and have fun.


r/Tombofannihilation • • 14d ago

STORY Dungeons & Dragons: Tomb of Annihilation (TOA) [Wrecked Before the Wrecked Star Goddess?] Episode 48

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4 Upvotes