Travel day 18 light rain
======= River ========
As you approach the area on your map where Yellyyark is marked you encounter a small river. You have seen signs of hunting trails but not anything with enough traffic to support a goblin village of any size. Musharib stratches his head and look sat you says "I do not know which way to go I have seen no sign of a village. Maybe it is across the river? or upstream or downstream. This is where on the map was marked.
========== Rare plants =============
The characters find a Wukka tree with 5 ripe wukka nuts
============== Aldani Prophecy ============
As lindal bring your attention to the river you see a ripple in the water ahead an insect like head pokes out of the water and then dives beneath the water again. Several minutes later you see a crustacean walking upright on the beach holding a stick with a cloth tied to it which it waves in your direction. Mushirib whispers "It is one of the Aldani, I thought they were just a legend". Azaka throws herself prone facing their direction. The creature calls out and you notice its oddly human lips as it calls out in Chultan.
"We have chosen you - heroes of legend who arrived as the prophet foretold."
"Hail travelers, I am Ankhanyu of the Aldani. My people have chosen you - heroes of legend who arrived as the prophet foretold to save us from a creature that blights us and our children. Ubtau sent you to aid us in our time of need. We beseech your aid in dealing with this great threat to our people. This cruel tyrant threatens our children and depletes our food source. Can you rid us of the menace posed by this foul King Toba? We know of the village you seek moved elsewhere a few months back and we can show you where if you will aid us."
"As the great prophet spoke - In the land forsaken by the flying ant tribe you will meet those who come from the swamps where creatures do not die but once and the outsiders wage a war they can not win. These travelers will turn night into day as they stand tall against a threat that was once an ally in aid of an ally who is a friend to their enemies. If you offer them a blessing of your people and help them find what they seek they may help you with the problem your people call King Toba. For something you possess will help them deal with the Sharks who haunt the waters they will visit soon and it will be of great boon to them where it is no more than a past momento of your people."
"You will know they as there will be a dragon riding a dragon, and a prince who is not a prince with a cloak that flaps in no wind and a dwarf who is not a dwarf, and a human who may have any face and any name, and a little fellow with big knives who you will miss unless you have seen him in action in which case you will not take your eyes off him. They will be accompanied by woman whose darkest secret is known by all, and a dwarf who longs for his lost homeland."
"The sage also said - 'Also let them know that I will be in Oralunga as will their friend whom others seek though at a crisis of faith as he is torn between two duties he has sworn an oath to perform. Also warn them that they will meeting old acquaintance but the meeting will not go as planned.' "
(Perception 16 - The lobsterman speaking has a ring on a thong around his neck. This ring shimmers faintly and catches Lindal's eye)
(Perception 21 - Lindal sidles up to the Aldani and stealthily cuts the thong pocketing the ring.)
Notes: The Aldani ring of swimming is no good to the Aldani who have no fingers and the ring appears to be of ancient Chultan make. The turtle has been eating their food and is a threat to their families but the Aldani have very little to offer the party beyond this ring.
============= Snapping turtle - King Toba =============
The giant snapping turtle was of unusual size and was encrusted with crystalline essence form the mage war. Toba likes to sun himself on the beaches during the day. When group investigates snapping turtle it will appear as a large boulder but will attack anything within 30 feet or attack. Chultans refer to the beast as King Toba. Residual magic from the Spellplague has crystallized parts of its shell and can cause resonance with magic similar to wild magic effects. The shell's magic effect grants King Toba advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects since they are disrupted and Toba is otherwise immune to the wild magic effects having lived through the original spellplague.
Treasure. If the mighty turtle is defeated, 3d6 crystals can be harvested from its shell and sold for 10 gp each. The Aldani offer a ring of swimming. It is of ancient make and has the spirit of a Lobster inside and used ot be used by their fisherfolks to harvest the bounty from the swamps long ago before they displease Ubtau and he turned his eyes from them and this land.
(Talking to Aldani they describe the flying village and Investigate 12 get party the Yellyark handout which is described as the coolest thing they have ever received) The party decided to disguise Celadon as a Hobgoblin and let him be the face for the party since he speaks fluent Batiri.
DAY 19. Light Rain slowly turning to a TROPICAL STORM
============== Yellyark =============
The Aldani directions lead you to a small stream that a joins the river and up the stream the jungle grows more heavily traveled. As you proceed towards where they say the goblin camp is currently located you see more and more frequent signs of passage and of battle. There are frog shaped humanoid bodies hung from the trees and studded with arrows grizzly warnings to those entering Batiri territory Musharib warns you. The jungle grows silent and you proceed in silence as best you can
(Group stealth checks - median 12)
You can hear the village before you see it. Singing, hammering, clashing weapons, and talking sounds fill the jungle. Also the sounds of children playing. It must be a sizable village to have so much noise you also notice frequent mounds of dirt some of which have scuttling insects crawling in or out of them.
(Failed Perception to notice the group of goblins skulking in bushes around the village quite well hidden)
(Perception 16 - Notices the bent down trees near village - something odd to arrangement)
Celadon calls for the goblin queen to meet with him Warleader Grubzug of the flaming sands tribe. He impresses her with his flattery and talks about having a alliance between their tribes as they need to come together in the face of the never ending undead plague. The goblin tribe actually has a clever solution to the undead. Their camp is surrounded by fire ants and recently dead are offered up to their ant guardians eliminating the threat of goblins rising as undead so long as they get offered to the ants in time.
While Celadon is distracting the goblin leaders Lindal is turned invisible and scouts teh goblin village finding the mechanism to launch the village through the air as well as finding the valuable sin the Queens quarters including the gueens war mask which is A Batiri goblin mask made of painted wood, set with nine gemstones (10 gp each) he also loots 20 gold, 96 silver, 274 copper while the Queen and Celadon are having a rapid marriage to ally their tribes.
But at this point Celadon detects a flaw in the party's plan which was to loot the treasury and then launch the village through the air. The village is built to fly once launched by there are no safety measures to protect anyone in the village at the time. It is a deathtrap meant to launch the tribes belongings to the next preprepared site when the camp is threatened bu the tribe needs to make its own way to the new site. Celadon draws out the wedding ceremonies until Eddie also notices the problem. Eddy has two signals prepared for lindal 1) kill the queen 2) launch the village. Improvising Eddie makes it sound like a Tyrannosaurus Rex is crashing towards the village which results in the village being abandoned.
Warleader Grubzug so impresses Queen Grabstab that after trading his cloak of magic flapping for the shield guardian control amulet the Queen feels that she is not yet worthy to be his wife and hands him back his cloak saying she will look forward to the day where she sees him again. The party watches as the goblins launch their village towards "safety" but the surrounding trees have grown sinc ethe trajectory was plotted resulting in a horrifying crash and most of the village going one way while several huts broke off and flew in other directions.
That night the arty cams in one of these huts 50 feet up in the jungle canopy. Eddy identifies the control amulet and learns it will work form quite a ways away. Also the ring is identified and will let someone hold breath 10 minutes at a time and swim underwater at 40'. The party then takes some of the goblin's stolen flaming fist rowboats. And uses them to makes their way back toward the shrine of the trickster god. Which they finally have an idea of how to beat. But first they scout towards the Iron god and find teh goblin tribe is camped around him. So instead of going in and liberating him they just travel away for a day and then summon the Iron god to come join them.
DAY 20. TROPICAL STORM dwindles to a heavy rain LONG-REST in tree top hut from goblin village errant launch
DAY 21. Heavy rain dwindles to normal rain
============= Old friends from the Zhentarim =============
Traveling through the jungle on the way back to camp vengeance and your boats you startle a flying snake. You are looking forward to making it back to camp righteousness tonight thanks to the boats.
Before the group travels much longer Eddie gets a whispered voice in his head. It is the rich accented voice of Ryoka.
"So Eddie, or should I call you DeVeers? I have heard you have been in contact with a certain Arctus Cimber. Where is he now? Tell me and i will leave you and your group alone"
(If Eddie does not lie convincingly the Zhents ambush the group by the river. Eddy however realizes that the spell is not a sending but is in fact a short range message spell and stalls for time effectively)
Ryoka is not impressed and springs his ambush but ruins it with a monologue
"I have trudged through so much crap to find you. You know I am getting sick of all the betrayals. First you do not turn over the information you earned in the fort but instead tell those simpering so called princes who are little more than merchants with egos and guards. Then you were unreachable and unscryable for months as I wanted to hire you to help me negotiate a deal with the pirates. So I even thought you were dead until I hear back from a trusted associate that you were just traveling in the company of a certain Artus Cimber whom is of most interest to the Zhentirium organization. And while he is no longer scryable you are.
So we portal down here but are days off route. Then the wizard supposed to port me back to Port Nyanzaru ran off with one of my guides as if I was not paying him enough! I finally pick your trail up again at that stinking Camp Breakfast or whatever they call it. They believed me when I told them how we were looking for our friends and how we were supposed to meet with you and even told us which direction you went off in so I could intercept you though the boats are a suprize. I thought you left those at the camp. I would have missed you yet again if it wasn't for the fact. have eyes and ears everywhere even here in the jungle.So tell me where is Artus? And I even gave you a last chance to tell me the truth and you LIE? As if I am not a face of the real power here in Chult? You think your "princes" will protect you? Their authority doesn't even protect their vaunted village that they style as a city. You even brought us one I can ransom back at my leisure. I am sick of your lies we will question your corpses because at least those can not lie."
The Zhent patrol with Ryoka and his flying snake has a Tabaxi scout (river mist), 4 thugs, and 8 tribal warriors and an assassin intent on traveling through the wilderness in search of Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter... They surprise party via a magical illusion and want to know where Artus is to be found. Eddie and Celadon just hit them with the truth. These Zhents are no where near the power they think they are. There are fucking demigods fighting in chult and this wanna be gangster doesn't even know who the real players are. (Note the players were exagerating their relationships but dropped enough bombs to keep Ryoka uncertain including the location of his dead wizard and the fact that Flask of Wine had died and been given a burial by them.). RIver mist ran off to where the part indicated her brother was buried half a day upriver meanwhile Ryoka struggled to come to a decision the party just sail their boats right on by as if he was the last thing they were worried about and Ryoka held his men back no longer sure that they were the easy targets he thought. This is seconded by the fact that 10 seconds later a hulking metal figure plows through the camp in the party's wake.
=========== Crocodile and man - trickster shrine ============
DAY 22. No Rain
Freya and Lindal go into the shrine with Lindal riding on Freya's shoulders. It helps them bypass almost all of the traps. There are a few dicey moments as they need to know where to step and also need to decide and get off the pillar before lightning bolt incinerates them. But they think fast, make only one mistake and even in falling off the pillar they stay together so their landing does not activate the other traps in the temple.
Treasure: Malachite figurine of wondrous power (crocodile)
============ Verbal obedient reanimated native woman ================
While the others are exploring the shrine Celadon finally gets to take a look at Vorn who looks right back at him.
The statue creaks and rumbles for a bit and then makes a sound like an old woman's voice. "Boy, now what pranks have you been playing on old Nana? I hope you are ok that fall looked like a bad one honey. I tried to catch you but you know how these old bones aren't what they used to be. Wait and who would you all be? Blessed be! Where is my master?" There is some more conversation and the party travel several days upriver to the city with no problems. Resting in the city the party exchange Vorn for a spellbook PACKED with spells as high as sixth level. Eddie then disappears for three days transcribing spells while Lindal liquidates the party's treasure and the group makes a few select purchases.
Inspiration
Everyone - for getting level 5
Experience (challenge based) 1115 Individual => 6881 cumalative,
King Toba - (easy) 125
Goblin camp - (hard) 375
Old friends - (medium) 250
Trickster shrine - (hard) 375
Challenge based XP notes from - https://dmdavid.com/tag/using-experience-points-to-make-your-dd-game-more-compelling/
The party had 2 allies [Seraph, Musharib] whom got no XP.
Treasure
Aldani ring of swimming
loot from goblin camp - Batiri goblin mask made of painted wood, set with nine gemstones (10 gp each) he also loots 20 gold, 96 silver, 274
V.O.R.N.
Ring of swimming - gives swimming speed of 40` while wearing ring.
Malachite figurine of crocodile - This malachite statuette of a crocodile can become a Crocodile for up to 6 hours. Once it has been used, it cannot be used again until 2 days have passed. The crocodile knows common and will obey whomever said it's command word.