"Beware the Froghemoth!" - Tomb of Annihilation, Chapter 26

The party rounded the jutting finger created by the cliff. Orvex pointed out the compound to the right in which his group had camped when they were attacked and captured by the nagini. They had arrived at their destination.

A rectangular pool of murky water stretched before the vine-draped shrine. Partially submerged docks made of rotten wooden planks sat just underneath the surface. The docks were covered with moss and water plants. The shards of a toppled monolith formed stepping stones to the middle of the pool, where a statue of a stone frog rose above the water.

The party carefully made their way around the left side of the pool. Bramble and Apparently noticed three eyes attached to a long eyestalk the size of a man's arm sticking out of the water. They had barely enough time to alert their companions when the massive bulk of a giant frog-shaped creature heaved itself out of the shallow murk!

CHAPTER 26, "BEWARE THE FROGHEMOTH!"

THE EXPEDITION

• Bramble Wolf - a theran barbarian wise-man (Wildhunt Shifter Druid) searching for the legendary origin of his tribe.
• Apparently Jones - a blue-skinned demijin caravan guide and animal trainer (Air Genasi Ranger) from Akasa, the land of sky mountains. Having failed to find work in Port Nyanzaru as an animal handler, she has joined the expedition to the interior as a scout.
• Chak'sa - Apparently's honker (parasaurolophus) companion.
• Xoc-Wik - a b'alam warrior (Tabaxi Fighter) from the jungles of Bres, searching for those responsible for the destruction of his tribe.
• Zeynap Shiravadakar - a Eusebean smuggler (Human Warlock) bearing the spirit of a celestial unicorn.
• Argent Truth-Sayer - a golden azi knight errant of Bahamut (Dragonborn Paladin) in the service of Bahamut, sent on a holy mission to join the expedition to destroy the Soul Monger. 

NPCs

• Eku - a mysterious shape-changing wise-woman from Chult, hired as a guide.
• Tony - rough and tumble dinosaur wrangler who wished to learn from Apparently, possibly from 19th century Boston on Earth. 
• Orvex Ocrammas - translator and guide for hire; rescued from the Fane of the Night Serpent.

Froghemoth!

Zeynap reacted quickly by channeling the magical power of his celestial patron into a witch-bolt of electrical energy. Lightning began streaking towards the massive warty enemy. The froghemoth writhed in agony and lashed a tentacle out at Zeynap. Zeynap was caught up and lifted off the ground.  Xoc-Wik moved away from the froghemoth and climbed up the cliff wall behind them. Bramble summoned his "wall of bears" to block the froghemoth's movement.

DM Note- Zeynap getting his witch-bolt started on the first action of the first turn set the stage for this battle. Zeynap's witch-bolt does lightning damage. The froghemoth is resistant to lightning damage but if it does take any electric damage, it suffers -2 AC, half movement, cannot perform its multi-attack, and cannot perform any reactions. When Xoc-Wik moved away, I at first had the froghemoth grab him, but then realized he had no reactions, so I sullenly had to allow Xoc-Wik to escape. 

Zeynap managed to maintain a continuous stream of electricity arcing into the froghemoth. The froghemoth lashed out its long tongue, its bulbous tip slapped onto Zeynap and dragged him close. Zeynap was drawn into the creature's mouth but managed to avoid being consumed.

DM Note- In another strike against the froghemoth, I rolled a 3. Not a good round for Froghemoth!

The froghemoth soon fell to the continuous barrage of Xoc-Wik's arrows, Bramble's bears, and Zeynap's electrical witch-bolt. It exploded, sending blubbery chunks flying and splashing into the fetid pool.

The Stone Key
The door to the shrine stood closed.  A keyhole was clearly visible on the stone door. Rather than try to force the door, the party spent ten minutes poking the floating remains of the froghemoth with sticks hoping in vain to find some sort of key. Xoc-Wik thought about the rotting docks that led, submerged, to the frog statue in the center of the pool and concluded that it must house a hidden key.

Zeynap tried one of the docks with a gentle nudge of one foot. The dock plank was slick and rotten and gave easily under the pressure of his foot. Bramble sent one of the bears onto another dock. The dock gave way beneath the bear. The bear was forced to swim out of the murky pool.

Xoc-Wik positioned himself by the door to the shrine and got a running start. The feline archer hurled his body through the air. He landed against the side of the statue's base, slick with moss and slime, and slid into the water with a scrabble and an angry howl.

DM Note- Xoc-Wik rolled a 3 on his Acrobatics check. We all shared the vision of one of the funny cat videos where the cat tries to leap from one counter to another and fails.

Xoc-Wik managed to climb up the front of the statue. He found a stone key resting in the mouth of the statue.

"Be careful! It will probably try to bite your hand off!" shouted Bramble.

Xoc-Wik nodded and used an arrow to pry the key loose. The statue offered no response. He pocketed the key and swam back to the side of the pool.

Xoc-Wik looked like a wet cat, angry and disheveled. He took a deep breath and a wave of magic swept over him. He was suddenly dry! He held up his thumb and smiled a toothy grin towards his companions. 

Shrine of Kubazan
The party made their way to the entrance to the shrine adjacent to the pool. Two obelisks flanked the stone doors of the entrance. Carved into the lintel above this locked gate was an inscription written in Old Omuan. Orvex was called forward to translate. He informed them that the inscription read “Kubazan urges us to tread without fear and to give back as much as we take.”

Xoc-Wik opened the doors with the stone key. Steps descended to a ledge overlooking a pit of sharpened stakes. An alcove on the far wall held a pedestal with a stone cube resting on it. A relief carved into the back of the alcove showed a monstrous frog with tentacles fighting a crane. Wooden beams radiated from the walls at floor height, with four-foot gaps between them. Carved frog heads extruded from the walls above the beams.

Xoc-Wik suggested that the inscription referred to the cube. They had to leave something of equal size or value. Bramble suggested they leave an equal weight in valuable gems and provided a gem for Xoc-Wik to use.

Xoc-Wik, assuming the wooden poles to be trapped, used his retractable climbing claws to scramble along the walls to the far wall. He exchanged the gemstone for the cube and scrambled back. They retreated from the shrine and closed the doors behind them.

"Well, that was easy!" said Xoc-Wik.

DM Note- I didn't think about how light a gem could be. In retrospect, I regret not doing the Indiana Jones thing and have the trap triggered anyway. 

Shrine of Shagambi
The party retraced their steps and made their way to the next likely shrine - the walled compound located alongside the lava lake.

The party passed the obelisks flanking the entrance to the compound and saw a round stone building. The obelisks were decorated with carvings of jaguars with six snakes sprouting from their shoulders - the dreaded kamadans. Orvex translated the old Omuan inscription: "Shagambi teaches us to fight evil with honor." Reliefs on the monoliths further showed Shagambi overseeing Chultan warriors as they trained with spears and shields.

The entrance into the building was a heavy iron door. No single person could move the door so Bramble ran a rope through the handle. Everyone, including the two spirit bears, grabbed a section of rope and pulled. Together they were able to open the vault-like door.

Steps descended into a fifteen-foot-high, moss-covered room. Four statues of Omuan warriors stood in alcoves to either side, overlooking a barred gladiatorial pit in the floor. Each statue looked like it was meant to hold a spear, but its weapon was missing. On the far side of the chamber, a stone pedestal stood conspicuously bare. A relief on the wall behind it showed a monstrous jaguar
with six snakes protruding from its shoulders, fighting off a squat, frog-like humanoid armed with a spear. To the left of the relief was a narrow tunnel with stairs leading down.

Bramble was the last to enter the building. As he did so, he spotted a kamadan stalking along the roof of the structure. He entered quickly and informed the others. The spirit-bears squeezed in behind him.

Xoc-Wik led the way down the tunnel, followed by Bramble and Zeynap. Bramble assigned the spirit-bears to guard the entrance in case the kamadan entered.

The tunnel descended sharply and curved to the left, eventually opening into the fifteen foot barred chamber they saw in the floor above. Xoc-Wik stepped into the room and heard a clank, followed by the sound of chains and rising portcullises.

"Be ready!" he warned, "I think we're about to have company!"

Fight with Honor
Zeynap prepared to hurl magical hex bolts at anything that emerged from the tunnel on the other side of the chamber. Xoc-Wik clambered up the wall of the chamber and squeezed through the bars of the ceiling to take an archery position on the floor of the room above. Bramble transformed himself into a saber-toothed cat and moved in front of the far tunnel.

Soon the sound of marching feet could be heard from the far tunnel. Around the corner emerged two warriors made of terracotta and animated through ancient magic. Each warrior carried a bronze spear in one hand and a clay shield in the other. Xoc-Wik attacked the first terracotta warrior with two arrows. The first arrow struck home while the second arrow arced behind the warrior and struck another warrior around the corner. 

Bramble held the front but Xoc-Wik and Zeynap had difficulty hitting the target. The terracotta warrior kept striking Bramble and the theran druid was eventually forced to regain his natural form. Bramble then called upon the spirits of nature and transformed his shape into that of a colossal ape!

The massive gorilla completely filled the chamber! Bramble's new form began grabbing and smashing terracotta warriors.

DM Note- Bramble player was LOVING the new mini I made for him. He was also loving the damage his new form could rack out. 

Xoc-Wik leaped onto Bramble's simian back and climbed down, repositioning himself next to Zeynap in the opposite tunnel. From his new vantage point he had better visibility into the far tunnel and had better luck loosing arrows into targets that were previously unseen.

All four of the terracotta warriors were soon defeated. As each was destroyed a bronze spear clattered to the floor.

DM Note- and I JUST realized that the section states that they only leave behind their spears if the warriors are defeated INSIDE the 15' x 15' room. As all of these guys were defeated in the hallway, the spears technically should have disappeared and re-formed when they did. Dang it! 

Zeynap and Bramble collected the bronze spears while Xoc-Wik inspected the source of the terracotta warriors. He found four cells with a warrior slowly reforming within each cell.

They returned to the upper floor and placed the spears into the hands of the statues. There was the sound of mechanical gears and grinding stone. The pedestal rotated and a small stone cube arose from a hidden door. They obtained the cube and decided to take a short rest.

Attack of the Kamadans

An hour later, the party exited the shrine, minus the bears which had returned to the spirit world. The coast appeared clear. There were no apparent signs of the kamadan spotted earlier so  they made their way past some bushes and trees.

A kamadan appeared on the roof of the shrine. The party made haste to escape. A second kamadan appeared from the bushes and exhaled a cloud of white dust. Bramble, Xoc-Wik, and Zeynap turned their heads and covered their faces but Orvex fell unconscious. The other kamadan breathed its own cloud of white dust from the roof but the would-be victims remained unaffected.

Bramble transformed himself into a polar bear and engaged the kamadan in the bushes. The kamadan turned to flee but was brought down by Xoc-Wik's arrows. Zeynap attacked the kamadan on the roof and the creature turned to flee.

Xoc-Wik climbed onto the roof and gave chase. He followed the kamadan to the rear of the shrine and found it cowering under a cart protecting a clutch of cubs. He sighed and took the kamadan's life with an arrow.

Xoc-Wik hopped down and scooped the orphaned cubs into his arms. He brought them back to the rest of the party. Zeynap declared, "Ooh, those will be worth something back in town."

"No," interrupted Bramble, glaring at Xoc-Wik, "They're not for sale. I'm going to raise them myself."

TO BE CONTINUED...