The forces of the United Lord's Alliance Forces (ULAF) have pursued "Dirty Red", a Thayan necromancer, to Chult.

My party are Alpha Squad, an elite special forces group who will be tasked with preventing Dirty Red from raising an undead army in the Chultan jungles.

What movie references, batiri traps, etc should I include to give my players the full "Green Hell" experience in the jungle?

So, we had our final boss fight with Acererak and the Atropal last week! My party was victorious in destroying the Soul Monger and killing the Atropal, but all of the characters but one died, the last one escaping through the portal and finding themselves back in Omu.

After running the campaign weekly for about a year, I loved it. It was so much fun. Big thank you to everyone on this sub, and to the collected resources online, for all the inspiration and tips!

I figured I would add my own experiences and wisdom in case it helps the next person who comes along!

The party:
Pretty classic composition of Paladin, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Barbarian. (Some classes changed with character deaths, but this overall comp stayed the same)

What worked really well:
-My players really got engaged with the jungle exploration, the set pieces, all the various NPCs and villains, and even the Tomb had them on a tightrope walk of caution versus risk that they had a lot of fun with.

-The path and locations they took in the jungle had a very spiritual/mystical theme, so I included dreams that were related to Ubtao as ways to give hints and lore. This also allowed more hag fun, as a flip side to the Ubtao dreams were Nightmares from the Hags, making them loom larger in the overall narrative.

-Establishing deadliness from the start and making big rolls in the open helped to put fear in the players hearts. A couple players had multiple character deaths, and I warned everyone to have backups ready to go, but I made sure no one felt left out. (I gave a prize for the best character death at the end)

-Rather than just the random encounter tables, I also had some clocks I kept track of for other factions to make moves or encounter the party. This worked especially well in Omu!

What didn’t work as well:
-I ran the intro as written, and I agree with the overall consensus that it’s weak. When I next run it, I will probably do a shipwreck intro and have the death curse hit a little later to allow more time in Port Nyanzaru. Putting the players in a rushed feeling right off the bat is not as good. That said, the death curse is a very good clock that forces the players to keep moving and take risks once it does hit.

Major highlights (according to my players):
Port Nyanzaru
-I ran a Yuan-Ti home invasion of the Merchant Prince manor they were staying in, and they all mentioned that was one of their favourite combats.
Chult
-Nangalore was a big hit
-Camp Righteous and Camp Vengance as a back-to-back pair worked really well
-Ataaz Muhahah was very fun (I had the monkeys be Su-Monsters)
Omu
-Shagambi’s Temple was a very tense fight they all loved.
-The King of Feathers scared the crap out of them everytime he showed up.
-They cooked up their own ambush for the Red Wizards and had a very tense combat.
The Tomb
-Room 67, the most Heavy Metal of rooms.
-All of floor 6, unlocking the skeleton door, was a very fun puzzle for all.
-Room 49 had everyone on edge.
-Room 52 was a favourite.
-Room 43 didn’t go off, but was creepy enough that they all mentioned it as a highlight at the end.

My big important takeaway:
After reading this adventure over and over, reading commentary about it, looking up the old adventures that inspired it, and now having run it with a group of players that all had very different levels of experience, there is one big thing to consider about this module.

Tomb of Annihilation is about LEGACY.

The legacy of Ubtao and what his presence in Chult meant then and what his absence means now.
The legacy of colonialism in a land under its own power again.
Ras Nsi and Artus Cimber are stuck in the past, a representation of the legacy of Mezro.
The Death Curse is a perversion of legacy, because your soul is supposed to move on and it is instead being used as fuel.
Even on a meta level, the whole adventure is about legacy, honouring a more old-school way of playing D&D.

So if you’re looking to run this adventure yourself, and you’re trying to find the big thematic hook to get characters into it: Legacy is that theme.

I’m happy to go into further details if people have any questions, and thanks again to all those in the sub who came before and shared their experiences. :)

My party is currently at Wongo’s shrine and likely to encounter the kobolds at the red bazaar in our next session this weekend. I’m particularly excited for this because one of my PCs is a kobold sorcerer from Wyrmheart Mine that still carries the statue of Kurtulmak with her. I think this will be an opportunity for some great roleplay.
I’m interested to hear how other DMs played Kakarol and the other kobolds in Omu and how they would have them react to another kobold sorcerer. My first thought is that Kakarol would try to fend off anyone that could threaten his position, but the other kobolds might be likely to follow a new sorcerer if Kakarol is defeated. Let me know your ideas, thoughts, or how the kobolds were played in your game!

I want to have Nanny Pupu send the party on 3 side quests to get what she needs to cure the curse. I was going to expand the money shaft already there, grab a magic item from the wizards in the Heart of Ubtoa, and we come to my question.....wdyt of the last quest is to grab hair or nails from one of her sisters?

I ran ToA for 7 level 16 PCs. Here are my edits to certain rooms in order to make it a challenging experience. Please steal.

1. Athletics check is character level (16)

2. Replace wights with Liches

3. 8d10 fire damage

4. 3000 gp

5. Hexagon skeleton is in a jar.

6. Add a box among the library containing Diamond Phoenix Scrolls, a magic item that, when used, performs a greater restoration spell.

Withers is a full on Lich, he respawns everytime his door closes

1. Characters see themselves through the mask, make a DC 16 wisdom save, failure by 4 or less is frightened, by 5 or more is petrified

2. Last character through automatically makes the sheet dex save, failure chops in half and kills.

3. Locusts do a flat 100 piercing damage per round

4. Statue has two real eyes and two illusory eyes, uses 1 attack to grab at one

5. Clay Golem has 4 attacks per turn

6. Skeleton is behind last curtain eating its own arm.

7. Skeleton is running around the warriors.

8. Random Demon Lord is riding the Z-rex

9. Acheron: city-sized Ochre Oblex

Gehenna: Pyroclastic Dragon (red)

Mechanus: Marut

Bator: Bel/Titivilus

Shadowfell: Nightwalker

67: round 1 = fire

Round 2 = spines & beards

Round 3 = barbs and bone

Round 4 = ice devils and Horned devil

Round 5 = Pit Fiend and chain devil

Round 6 = Moloch

Gristlecracker's Hags & Grimoire, Gold Best Seller on DMsGuild, is discounted by 31% for Halloween Sales!

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Your guide to weird magic, encounters, and hags!

Gristlecracker’s Hags and Grimoire provides new mechanics, guidelines, and tactics for using hags, magic, and the esoteric in your Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. This guide is designed for all levels of play and dungeon mastery, and uses a hybrid D&D 2014 (5e) format that includes the best of the old mixed with a few innovations of the D&D 2024 systems that do not dilute the game experience.

Every aspect of fantasy magic is improved or introduced: covens, curses, familiars, hags, magic geometry, talismans, spells, and spell mechanics. This supplement is designed to help you make your future games containing magic and hags as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Inside, you will find:

- An underwater adventure seed about a Book of Keeping

- 68 supernatural encounters

- New magic rules, mechanics, and variations

- Hags as player characters

- 112 supernatural creatures and NPCs

- 52 magic spells, with new tags: remote and moonlight

- 80 magic items

- Esoteragons (not just magic circles!)

- 28 toxic and intoxicating plants

- An improved and more intuitive Intoxicated condition mechanic

- 200 tchotchkes

- Professional layout using over 168 pictures on 262 pages

- No AI Art used

Musharib (albino dwarf spirit warrior) is the guide of my party. I've played him as a nature-loving hippie who prefers non-combat solutions whenever possible. He has bonded greatly with the group's triceratops.

Would I break my game if I made Musharib an avatar of Ubtao, wanting to influence the fate of Chult by helping the party find the way? Do you have any ideas about how to play this, and how to reveal it in a satisfying way?

I am thinking of making small hints throughout:

• Dinosaurs will never hurt him.
• When he maps out a path on the ground etc., it somehow looks maze-like everytime.
• When speaking, he will often use maze metaphors.

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

The inevitable has happened and my party has purchased some dino eggs. I set out to build some management mechanics for both (a) the egg phase and (b) the actual, hatched, "I'm a mother" phase.

Seeking feedback on the meat and potatoes, particularly surrounding the hatched dino portion. Is it too complex? Is it balanced? Is it an egregious slap in the face for any Beast Master Ranger characters, in terms of action economy?

All feedback welcome, thanks!

The journey around Chult continues! In this episode, half of the party delve deep into the lost city of Mezro, their goal to slay the hordes of undead that dwell within. Dark work is at play, however, as they are not the only explorers attempting to unlock the secrets of the ruined city...
The other half of the party are dealing with the fallout from the massive attack on the pirate hideout (detailed in Part 12), as it seems winning the battle was only half of the challenge...

Appreciate all the support for the series so far! Thank you for allowing me to share with other ToA adventurers. This module is fantastic, and this is a a way for all to be able to experience it!

The red dragon Tzindelor (almost sounds like Xandala if you use a bit of imagination), AKA Tinder ... I'm thinking of making her shape-shifted form Xandala. The characters already met and were betrayed by her. To meet her later in Wyrmheart where she can turn into her "true form", a red dragon, would be cool. No?

What do you think? Would anything stop me from doing this?

As the party begins their expedition with a quick and easy adventure to Fort Beluarian to purchase their writ of exploration they face a crossroads in the path. This stretch of coast has an ominous pillar layed with Baitri Masks marking their territory. Do the players ignore the warning and continue their adventure through the coast? Maybe fighting the Inkcasters and Puffermen that guard the path? Maybe encounter a coven or sea giant and his pet along the way? Or will they take a detour, extending their voyage by two days to head inland- potentially finding a spiney surprise, a druid cursed for digging too deep, and the renowned alpha of the region that the locals call the Chataranga? Maybe the hunt bounty Ifan Talro'a placed wasnt worth it after all...

Wish me luck (and my players) luck this Tombsday!

I ran the Ruins of Mbala and it went great. Several members got infected with mummy rot and needed to see the Nanny for some healing. She was happy to, ofc, for the teeny, tiny price of a lock of hair.

They, understandably, wished to long rest, so they decided to bed down outside of Nanny's hut. They rolled poorly on survival. Just for good measure I asked them to make concealed (visible only to the me/GM) perception checks. A few rolled low, one rolled a Nat 1.

The photo represents where they're all sleeping. I let the wizard use mold earth to create dirt igloo's for them, so they're not actually as exposed as it seems.

I do plan to have some of the monkeys steal their stuff, but give me your best ideas.

Also, one character agreed to do one service for her. She said she would call on him. What might she ask of him?

As for the hairs, I think Nanny is going to take them to the sisters, perhaps to win favor, but also open to ideas for this too.

My party just finished some homebrew stuff and I'm a bit burnt out on trying to do everything and have heard good things of those book. Has anyone adjusted the whole book up a few levels? I've heard the jungle is mostly low level stuff but I really want to try a hex crawl so I want to use that stuff and basically just level up them up whenever they would have normally leveled up so instead of 1->2 we go 5->6. I know a lot of combats would need to be adjusted but does anyone have any experience with it?

After two great years running around Chult, the company of heroes has made their way into the tomb…unfortunately one of the original players has to leave the campaign in a month. It’s pretty tough since they have come such a long way together, but real life…I’d like for them to finish things as an intact group.

Anyhow, the party has just hit level 3 in the tomb and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to speed things along to the end. I was going to excise any non-story related encounters, any less than essential combat to get them to the main event and hopefully some wrap-up time afterwards. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Is there any way to get out of the tomb other than via the ebon pool?

Hello there!

I’m about to start ToA in a couple of weeks and I just would like to kindly ask some advice 🙂

Are there any tips on how to tie together different quests and side quests in order to have the players enjoy the full extent of the book contents?

I understand there is a huge Compendium on this sub-reddit but it is indeed quite vast and I thought that maybe someone can help navigate through it?

We have completed Descent into Avernus, Curse of Strahd and Call of the Netherdeep and I have planted hidden “seeds” of a meta plot e high will bring the players to Vecna: Eve of Ruin since /Vecna is “studying” different immortal beings such as Zariel, Strahd, Alyxian and now the Atropal/Acererak on his quest to reach Godhood…

Any suggestions about which material I can use? My biggest concerns is the hex crawl since I'm afraid it can be quite misleading for the players and that it might result a bit annoying... it would be great to use random encounters to enhance and spread some info on Chult Lore and on the main plot... or basically are there like 5 places you think are not to miss because they are fun and might be tied to the main plot?

I can't remember seeing it in the book, but are there different ways of finding out where Omu is? Or did anyone create their own way of finding it? Or did you just put it in their path when you were ready?

We're playing 5.5e (5 level 9, ranger, druid, sorcerer, barb, cleric) so as much as possible I'm using 5.5e monster stat blocks and in preparation for fighting Belchorzh (using his name to avoid direct spoilers to any players who stumble on the post). The 5.5e stat block adds a bunch more damage to his attacks. My players don't really have any anti invisibility and they are also greedy so the fight will happen, especially as I rolled for extra loot so they are going to want the magical items on offer.

My question is, how common have others seen tpk in this encounter? Because I'm worried that I'm about to kill the entire party, especially given that my greedy players will be harried throughout the rest of the floor if they try to run.

Players just reached level 5, which grants access to Tiny Hut. Currently I have it so they can't long rest outside a designated safe space. I don't want to ban it, but I want to keep the pressure up.

Any advice or shared experience welcome.

Hi all,

My teen crew just completed ToA with an epic fight against Acererak with a significantly extended ending.

Spoilers for the whole module

We started Tomb of Annihilation in January 2025 and played the last session last weekend: 28 sessions over 22 months, six players, and we finished at level 10. I ran it under the 2024 rules, which took some adjusting, and I have a few thoughts.

I've written the whole campaign up for other DMs. It covers what I added, what I cut, the house rules, and what actually happened at our table, which was not always what I'd planned.

(Part One: The City and the Crocodile)

How I set up my table. Session zero with *Cellar of Death*, a dinosaur race, and a ball I added at Zhanthi's villa, with eight party games, yuan-ti assassins and a letter to steal, and the Camp Righteous dungeon that changed their religion.

(Part Two: The Jungle and the Tomb)

Eighteen months of hexcrawl and six levels of Acererak's dungeon. The nine trickster gods each got a pop-culture impression for the possessed player to perform (the TikToker, the frat bro, the anime protagonist). It ends with a guide to running a 2017 module on the 2024 rules.

(The Ending)

I rebuilt the finale from scratch. As written, Acererak would have wiped my team in under three rounds (Disrupt Life alone would have done about 222 damage a round), so I retuned him and added a few things:

• The souls in the Soulmonger are 200 dice in a jar. Each character gets one scoop during the final battle, as harm or healing, but every soul they spend is one that doesn't go home. At the end, you roll the whole jar and count the sixes.
• A scripted sacrifice in round one (to reduce player DPS on the Atropal). That player carries on as a ghost inside the Soulmonger, attacking it from the inside. Thus, when they destroy the Soulmonger, he can be resurrected!
• A hundred undead with one hit point each, then five personal shadow trials.
• Three guards: while any of them stands, Acererak can't be killed. Plus a sphere of annihilation that always shows where it's going a round ahead.
• Boon cards from Ubtao, an ending for every corner of Chult.

(PDF of my Acererak, the God-King of Death)

Two A4 pages: his stat block retuned for six level 10 characters, spells and legendary actions, the lair actions he never had in the book, and his three guards.

Happy to answer questions about any of it. I'd love to hear how other tables handled the finale, especially at lower levels.

From my table to yours, be well, and have fun.

I am feeling pretty satisfied with how this battle map turned out. I am using Gabriel Picard's assets inside Photoshop for Damage, Giant Caves, and Rocks and Holes to build out this final boss battle at the bottom of a demon-infested mine.

In Photoshop I played around with various LUTs and gradients to get the final look of the Hell-light spilling into the cave, where The Skin Splicer (Dybbyuk possed undead doppelganger) is trying to open a pit to the Abyss to return home using the arcane power of two spell tomes stolen from within Mezro and hunted by the Wizard in my party as his personal ("why the hell did I come to this jungle in the first place?" quest.

My plan is to take place over 4 rounds while the Skin Splicer uses every trick I can think of to continue reading out ot both books, protected by 4 Hell Hounds.

Every round, he succeeds in widening the Abyssal Tear - and it's my party's job to stop him.

On the 4th round, I add a Glabrezu to the mix - and Dybbyuk escapes.

If the Skin Splicer dies - the Dybbyuk is revealed and can body hop into any of the underdark creasture's corpses I have sprinkled around the cave, using it's ability "Horrifying Possession" for this very purpose.

If they can get both books off me and survive this - they deserve to level up to level 9 before Omu.