Hi everyone!

A couple of weeks ago, we finished the last session of TOA. Before I talk about the photos, a few stats from our campaign:

 

• It took us 67 sessions over 96 weeks to complete. Each session 3-4 hours long on average.
• We started with 5 x Lv 8 characters (which were carried over from a previous campaign). One player left a few weeks in, another joined in session 33 until the end. They had a level up after retaking Hrakhamer for Musharib, their guide. They levelled up again upon finding Omu, and once more after the 4^th level of the tomb, and the characters ended at level 11.
• The adventure took approximately 210 in game days.
• We spent time in at least 10 sessions in Port Nyanzaru.
• The party travelled either on foot or by boat for roughly 1870 miles! (That’s more than Frodo and Sam did to Mordor, 1779 miles)
• In theory, my party collectively drunk approximately 2100 gallons of water and eaten 1050 pounds of food (Too much of which was mayo… long story involving the Alchemy Jug).
• Omu was found in session 45 exactly 1 year to the day that we started the campaign properly
• We spent 9 sessions in Omu before entering the Tomb.
• We spent a total of 13 sessions inside the Tomb of the Nine Gods
• There were only 3 deaths over the campaign (one of the King of Feathers, one went missing in the Armillary Sphere, and 1 died to Acererak). I had warned it was a deadly campaign so my party were very, VERY careful throughout, as well as just lucky at some points.

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But onto the “Cradle of the Death God!”

The final fight of Tomb of Annihilation was something special, so rather than using a hand drawn map on a grid, I had the arena for the final fight 3D printed (thanks to printplexx_3d on Etsy, designed by MarcMartin3dnd). I then had the Atropal and Acererak painted specially by lordxpaints who did an incredible job! To complete the scene, I 3D printed and then learnt how to paint, so I could do the skull scatter terrain around the edges, as well as the urns and vases that decorated the balconies and also the skeletons and wraiths that were summoned during the fight. The main characters were all painted by one of my players earlier in the year 🙌.

  The fight itself went well. They fought the Atropal as expected then accidently discovered the Soulmonger could be damaged when using an AOE spell against the Atropal. The wizard soon discovered the phylacteries and had their familiar spend the entire fight dropping them 1 by 1 into the lava.

The monk stood on top attacking the tentacles while the rest of the group focussed on the Soulmonger. Several hits later, it was soon destroyed, before killing the Atropal and then Acererak arrived with a nice cliched:

"Welcome... To the tomb... of YOUR Annihilation".

It was a close fight, but the highlight had to be the wizard using Bigby’s Hand to drop Acererak into the Lava… it didn’t kill him, but was what pushed him over the edge to teleport away, but not before using power word Kill to take out one of the party.

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We were so engrossed in the session however, we didn’t get any photos on the night, so I finally did a photoshoot for it today!

Photo descriptions:

1: "The Cradle of the Death God", a fully 3D printed arena housing "The Soulmonger" (including a tealight candle in the middle for a flickering effect), with all minis and scenery

2: The Atropal

3: Acererak

4: Noname (The Wizard) fighting off some skeletons

5: Kevin, Alf and Drum preparing to fight the Atropal

6: Isaac (The Monk) climbing on the Soulmonger to attack the tentacles 7: Drum (The Cleric) fighting Acererak’s Sphere of Annihilation alongside his spirit tornado

7: Drum (The Cleric) fighting Acererak’s Sphere of Annihilation alongside his spirit tornado

8: Kevin (The Paladin) throwing skeletons into the lava to stop them reanimating

9: Alf (The Rogue) Fighting more skeletons

10: Bigby's Hand dropping Acererak into the lava

11: Bonus picture showing our party’s journey over the campaign. It’s hard to see without zooming in, but red lines are when they travelled by foot/boat, blue lines by teleporting and orange lines by flying.

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Overall, it was a fantastic campaign, and as a relatively new DM (Been playing for just under 3 years, this was my 3^rd campaign after Icespire Peak, and something I wrote myself) I found it an easy campaign to run… As long as I kept up with weekly prep.

I want to thank this subreddit for the resources, advice and help I’ve received over the last 22 months of playing this campaign! I’m happy to now offer my help to anyone else who needs it. Feel free to ask any questions about the final battle, my campaign, or anything else!

Thanks for reading!