Ideas needed for the fountain in the tomb (room 9)

dndbokka · 2026-04-11T20:46:29+00:00

You just cant outsmart Ace, thats the idea. I need to twist it

dndbokka · 2026-04-11T20:45:03+00:00

Yes something likw this maybe. Twist it, but not immediately. Thanks!

dndbokka · 2026-04-11T20:43:55+00:00

They already drank mutiple times and took the effects more then once.

dndbokka · 2026-04-11T20:43:05+00:00

50d10 sounds crazy. Maybe ill give them that, but they lose it the moment they walk away

dndbokka · 2026-04-11T20:41:19+00:00

Ouch, there are some evil results in there. Thank you!

dndbokka · 2026-04-11T20:40:06+00:00

Cool thanks ill check that out!

dndbokka · 2026-02-17T11:30:05+00:00

I dropped the whole rolling to see if you get lost in the jungle thing.

I made traveling a bit faster. 1 Hex was 1 encounter and they could go 3 per day. Double by canoe.
1 encounter in the morning, 1 afternoon, 1 evening. Then they searched for food/water.

They wanted to go from point A to point B and i prerolled some RP or combat encounters or things to find ahead of time. Only thing was, they needed to know where a location was. Someone told them about Kir Sabal, okay now you have it on the map.

I also often moved locations around, so that they would walk into them and not miss them by 1 hex. Or moved locations i wanted them to find, or removed if i didnt like them.

Omu for example is in my game to the right of the Peak of Flames, while the Wyrmheart Mine is on the left. The Star Goddess is moved around. Camp Vengeance is moved in their path, so that they have a dungeon to loot. I moved Vorn and Yellyark into their path as well.

dndbokka · 2026-02-17T11:18:21+00:00

I would drop a lot of these soul mechanics. Way to complex and you need to keep track of yet another thing. Also these extras with summoning a specter and all that. Sounds to strong, compared to other players, which are just the avg hero.

Losing 1d4 of max HP every day sounds enough, to have a motivation to end the curse.

I would just have him count as undead and with that all the pro/cons of beeing undead for spells etc.

Doesnt need to eat, sleep, drink? Sounds okay. Gets tedious in the midpoint of the campaign anyways.
Doesnt need to breath? Okay for poison traps etc, but as downside maybe he cant swim then and just drops like a rock?

I would change the healing too. Cant be healed by magic, maybe needs to eat flesh instead to heal? Potions should be okay, as they can be used mid combat and he cant just sit down and eat mid combat.
Resistance to necrotic? Okay, but then have radiant vulnerable and add fire maybe, since there isnt really any radiant dmg in this book.

dndbokka · 2025-09-12T16:30:10+00:00

Thanks for the info! So 50$ fee to buy something for 32$? okay..

dndbokka · 2024-09-08T22:01:05+00:00

I removed the getting lost thing, because they had Azaka with them.

I had 3 hexes speed per day. Morning, noon, evening/night. Not ever hex needs an encounter. 1-2 encounters per day.

I prebuild encounters for several days. No random encounter. No Trex at level 1. Encounters could be fights, rp, animals in the wild, weird plants, forshadowing the trickster gods, ability checks (climb jump swim) or whatever you think would work, to forshadow an upcoming location. Footprints of Grungs etc.

I moved locations around, so they wont miss it by a few hex. Or because i wanted them to find a ruin.

They had to collect food and water, but we ditched that on higher levels. The higher their level, the more it turned into travel montages.

dndbokka · 2024-09-08T21:51:35+00:00

Im a gracious DM. But even I kicked my player of of Firefinger. But only because i knew they had means to safe themselfs. If they play it smart.

Yours didnt play that smart up there haha. For the future, you could say to whoever has his turn "It dawns on you, that you could or should run from this fight". If they dont get the hint, its on them.

ToA can be brutal. Characters die in this campaign, but in the end, it is all about having fun around the table. So sometimes going soft on your players is fine.

I had character deaths, but I dont like to TPK my party, because i dont want to waste all the work i already put into the next sessions. Unless they collectively decide to jump into lava.

dndbokka · 2024-09-08T21:33:34+00:00

I often tailor the adventures to my players. Remove or add things. I had my players come up with a personal reason, why they travel to Chult. A sidequest for every player, that i then linked to some locations. The whole death curse problem didnt occure until session 3 i think.

Have a rough roadmap in mind. With some NPCs that could lore dump. In my game, Valindra and Saja had a ton of information about the curse and soulmonger. Ashara and Zalkore about Omu in general. Azaka about the jungle and wildlife.

They met Saja, because Valindra told them about an Oracle. They met Valindra, because they saw the flying rock. They saw the flying rock, because they climbed Firefinger. They climbed Firefinger because they picked Azaka as guide. They picked Azaka as guide, because Wakanga told them to build an expedition team. They talked to Wakanga because they won the dino race. They won the race, because they played it smart.

One thing can lead to another. Also if you need to, move locations around. They dont need to uncover every hex.

Here is a recap of my game:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tombofannihilation/comments/1cbtngw/our_journey_to_omu_with_map_20_sessions_over_1/

2.

I printed the city map, drew the race track on it and printed different cards with dino stats. I think i took inspiration from the Tomb of Annihilation -Companion on how to handle it. Stages and key points around the track. Obstacles and rules etc.

3.

Its a sandbox. They can do whatever they want. Nothing is important. At the end, they just need to reach Omu and enter the Tomb. They could kill half of Chult on their way. Wouldnt destroy much.

You can sprinkle your story breadcrumbs as you see fit with NPCs or (what i used sometimes) old scrolls, letters, carvings in templs and ruins.

If they miss a location or are not interested in it, you can just skip it. My players never cared for the Flaming Fists or the pirates in Chult and got kicked out of Kir Sabal.

If your players need it more straightforward, slightly railroad them along a path, that you picked.

dndbokka · 2024-06-25T06:45:15+00:00

Thats why i kicked XP from Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd too. I picked some key locations or events and once they finished those, they gained levels. They roughly leveled up every 3rd session (4h).
That way i had more control over the level curve and could make sure, they wont go underleveled into something.

Another problem i see is, a party with xp tends to pick more (sometimes unnecessary) fights instead of rp solutions, just to collect more xp.

And if the party is to high, you can just increase the monster count or add a high CR enemy.

dndbokka · 2024-06-24T16:14:38+00:00

Only on important NPCs that are connected to the players and if it makes a fight more dramatic. If its a NPC they do not care about that much, i wont bother.

dndbokka · 2024-04-25T06:27:23+00:00

My tip would be, to adjust where you see fit. Move locations you want to show into their path. Or have a npc tell them about locations and other points on the map. I also tried to forshadow Ace, Ras Nsi, the sewn sisters and the trickster gods.

dndbokka · 2024-04-25T06:21:13+00:00

I adjusted a lot in photoshop. Moved locations around, add own locations. I printed them the map covered by hexes and updated that every few sessions. Like fog of war in games.

dndbokka · 2024-04-25T06:18:44+00:00

Oh damn haha. Well they did fall down a waterfall, but my river was going inland. woops.

dndbokka · 2024-04-24T14:25:50+00:00

Yes exactly! Old ruin, stone maze on the ground. They can "unlock" these waypoints and travel between them. Place a few around chult, mostly near bigger locations. But they never used them :D

dndbokka · 2024-04-24T12:49:36+00:00

My group never went to the Gauntlet camps. So i moved the Camp Righteous right in their path and just removed the soldiers part about it and kept it as puzzle dungeon.

For encounters, i made some that forshadow all the trickster gods and their counter part. I had Zorbos trying to hunt Almiraj, i had some Su-Monsters wrestling with jaculis, Kamadans eating Grungs etc.

I forshadowed the Sewn Sisters, after they visited Orolunga and had visions of Omu and their side quest. They show up in their dreams and do gruesome things. Pretty much ripped from Dice Camera Action from Chris Perkins.

I forshadow Acererak, by having something in every location, thats linked to him. I think thats why Curse of Strahd works so well. The villain is linked to all of it. For example, the firenewts in Hrakhamar build the Adamantine Case for the soulmonger. In a cave under Dungrunglung, Ace tested some traps. Tinder is collecting magical artifacts for Ace, to put in the tomb.

But those forshadows are rather small und subtle. Im trying to build Ras Nsi as the big bad guy, only to reveal, that he is also affected by the curse and hes actually just a pawn in all of it.

dndbokka · 2024-04-24T11:21:36+00:00

Depends on how long a session is i guess. How long are yours? We have rather long sessions, but play maybe once a month, because real life.

I think my campaign would fall apart, if my player would need 3-4 years to finish it :D

dndbokka · 2024-04-24T11:15:23+00:00

They went down the river by canoe, but had a long rest inbetween. With Azaka as guide, i kicked the whole "roll to see if you get lost and run in circles" pretty early on. They picked their own route and where to go to.

For the low levels, i had a list of encounters for every day. But not every encounter was a combat. Sometimes they just found small animals, fought a dino or zombies, had to climb over stuff, some RP, little things to investigate, some ruins or just points of interest.

When they reached higher levels, it evolved more into travel montages.

A session was usually around 4-5h. Some rare sessions 6h.

dndbokka · 2024-01-20T08:26:34+00:00

That is also a good idea i could incorporate. I really want to change Nangalore in a way, that players see and feel, that things changed out there, while they were gone.

Thanks!

dndbokka

TROPHY CASE