Dice, Camera, Action: Episode 71 - Tomb of Annihilation

Episode 71: Flower Power

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Chris is wearing a D&D winter hat with a pom pom on it. I can't stop looking at it.

The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard

The waffle crew has to cross a bridge that has a brontosaurus lurking underneath it. Its neck is long enough to almost reach the bridge.

Evelyn really wants to befriend it, but the group urges her to leave it alone. They cross without incident, and a few days later they come to Orolunga.

There's a ziggurat here. Inside it is an oracle who supposedly can help the heroes on their quest. This should be fun.

There are a lot of steps to climb to get up to the top of the ziggurat. These steps have magical obstacles that must be overcome.

As the heroes climb the first set of steps, the vines covering them get thicker and thicker, stopping them from ascending further. Evelyn is flying. She loses all ability to move further up.

Paultin spots a little black creature (it's a forest spirit known as a chwinga). It is holding a purple orchid and an orange orchid. It bounds up the stairs, unimpeded by the vines.

The group does what it did and are able to make their way up the stairs. Technically, Evelyn has no sense of smell, but she is able to get up there too.

They make a crown of flowers for their owlbear, Waffles.

They try to ascend the second flight of steps. Turns to gravel. Purple orchid in one hand, and a red orchid in the other. Done.

They get to the 3rd flight. It is covered in poisonous snakes! This time, the chwinga swallows a snake. It throws the flowers away.

Paultin's been killing it on this one. He's figuring out what to do every step of the way. Paultin wants Evelyn to swallow the snake. The snake uses its tongue to tickle her lips.

She lets it slither into her mouth and she swallows it. She feels it vanish. The rest of the group does the same. Now they can go inside! Waffles and Dragonbait will wait outside.

Inside the ziggurat, they find a naga coiled around a hookah, making puffs of smoke in the air. Each cloud puff looks like a different thing - a dragon, a ship, a carriage, etc.

The naga wants Diath to smoke the hookah. Paultin and Strix smoke it.

Diath says he's trying to find a spellbook and the glasses of Mr. Fox. The waffle crew seeks the Soulmonger and wants to know how to destroy it.

• The naga proceeds to dump piles of information on the group:
• The things they seek are in the lost city of Omu. 
• The naga says that Dendar wants to swallow the sun. 
• The naga points out that Ras Nsi is suffering from the death curse too.
• She tells the group about the trickster gods.
• She offers to heal the group. Evelyn has an ow-y. The naga licks her wounds until they're healed. Evelyn likes this.

The naga wants the group to "shed their skins" and receive enlightenment. Paultin is up for this. The naga licks him and peels the skin off his face. There's another Paultin underneath. The old skin is cracking.

Nate laughs hysterically. The group is in disbelief.

He is granted the blessing of wound closure. While he has the blessing, he stabilizes whenever he drops to 0. This lasts until the next new moon, which is about 30 days away.

The naga points out that "other forces" might have the cubes required to get into the tomb.

The naga tells the group that once they leave the ziggurat. they can't come back.

Strix asks about Skizzixes. The naga knows someone who looks like Strix... all will be made clear when you meet yourself.

Acererak's phylactery is not on this world. The group seems interested in finding his phylactery. That would be awesome.

Evelyn asks more questions and it comes out that there are doubles of everyone but Evelyn. The hags!

Paultin freaks out and asks, "What if we're the fake ones?!"

The naga urges the group to focus on killing Ras Nsi.

The chat starts speculating. What is the name of this bizarro Waffle Crew? The chat is split between "Pancake Crew" and "Falafel Crew." I like Falafel better. My theories on what this crew is like:

• Evelyn - Evil paladin of Dendar
• Diath - Kleptomaniac, hits things with his daggers.
• Strix - Neat freak.
• Paultin - Sober.

The heroes go outside. The stars look vast and wavy. One star winks at Evelyn. That's where we stop!

Overall

Really good episode! Chris is using stuff from page 180 of Tomb of Annihilation. I'm excited to see  what he does with it!