ToA: Session 35

## **Welcome to the Jungle (Reprise)**

As the D-squad and CGC react to the aggressive statue, Fargus takes the chance to strike, aiming for one of its shining red gemstone eyes. But as soon as he makes contact with it, he vanishes in a flash of red, reappearing in the jungle bathed in red. One by one the rest of the teams do the same, following Fargus into what is some odd, otherworldly version of the jungle and its ever-present Ziggurat. Once the entire party is present, the light begins to intensify, making all of the warm colored things of the forest especially vivid before them.

## **Signs in the Sky**

As the group stand before the Ziggurat, their eyes are drawn to the yellow sky where a series of cold, blue lights appear and quickly shift between four signs. A set of wings, then a bowed head, then a heart, and finally a sun setting on the horizon. As the stars vanish back into the sky, instead a crown of stars appears on the head of each member of the Company of the Golden Coin. The D-squad, in contrast, get to roll their eyes.

## **Step by Step**

Together the two groups head to the first step of the ziggurat, guarded by strange and painful plants that sting and stab at the members of the D-squad, while the CGC walk through undeterred. Alrund is gifted an axe made of stars, while Kinlek beseeches Ubtao for help in allowing the squad to pass, recalling a story that boils down to Ubtao helps those who help themselves. The squad then notices a Chwonga with a flower in its hand, and watch as it ascends the steps with ease. Taking the hint, the squad finds the same flower and are allowed to pass up to the next step, one crumbling with waves of time.

The second step continues the favoritism by having the CGC able to simply fly up the center of the case, while every stone the squad steps on crumbles to dust and forces them back to the start of the level. At the next level they watch as Sivis is gifted a cloak of shadows. This time, the squad finds a chwonga holding a bright red feather. Kinlek, tapping into his bond with nature calls forth a red parrot from the jungle, which Neb plucks the feathers of and with these feathers in hand, the squad flies up to the third step.

The third step greets the squad with a mess of snakes. Neb notices that the snakes are strange, being a mix of all sorts of venomous snakes that should not be anywhere near each other, let alone all in a bundle like this. To no one's surprise the CGC has already made it up to the next level, where they are gifted with yet more shiny goodies and bullshit. As they enter the temple at the top, they are each gifted a cloak of peacock feathers, Cutlass is given a staff with the image of Ubtao, and Wren is given a wand. The Squad, for all their efforts, have to swallow snakes. It is once again a Chowanga that shows them the way, with how they must use the flower to agitate a snake and then the feather to pacify it, before laying down and facing the snake so it may enter them and allow them to slither up to the final level. Neb uses his poison kit to make an antivenom for a coral snake before doing the task. Kinlek speaks to the snake to have it agree to not harm him, while Fargus just says fuck it what do I care about some venom? And again the three make it up to the final level, but not without one more run through the soul-wringer.

## **Inside Everyone are Two Snakes**

As the Squad slither their way up to the temple, each one of them is forced to confront every evil deed they have done in their lives. The deaths on their consciouses, the people they abandoned, the evil they helped grow whether by their own hand or simply doing nothing at all when they could have stopped it. The three land on the top of the Ziggurat, shaken and feeling exposed to their most vulnerable nerves. Neb takes a moment to stare at his white, changeling hands. Fargus fights back the writhing snake in his stomach, and Kinlek desperately seeks some numbness in his shrooms. Once the group has composed themselves again, they look back out into the jungle to see eight Chowangas give them a final wave before vanishing.

## **Target Acquired**

The Squad see no sign of the CGC here, and looking into the arches of the temple they see only an empty, dusty square. The outside is decorated with the labyrinth of Ubtao, running the entire way around, and thankfully it does not teleport them anywhere when touched. The smell of honeysuckle hits them as they near the entrance, and with kinlek at the lead the team enters the arches, only to find themselves in a well lived in room, decorated with many intriguing items and trinkets, and occupied by the shaman Saran Basa, and two others; Artus Cimber and Dragonbait.

## **You Have My Sword**

The Squad speak to the Oracle and Artus, explaining their purpose of being there. It becomes clear to the Squad in all of this that the original mission of finding Artus and his ring is nowhere near as important as stopping the illness spreading through the jungle and its people. Artus tells the squad his story, how he is charged with protecting the ring from evil and that he and his wife were separated countless years ago when Mezro fell. He seeks to find Mezro and reunite with her. Neb makes the offer to help him reunite with Elisandra, if he will aid them in stopping the spread of the taint. Artus is wary of the group, having been offered many deals in the past all in attempts to get his ring, but with the team openly defying the request of Silvane, they manage to make it clear they are sincere. Dragonbait steps forth first, showing his sword in allegiance, and revealing to the team that he is the weilder of a legendary Holy Avenger. With their alliance agreed upon, Dragonbait asks the Oracle for the path to Omu.

**With fresh blessings upon the team and two new powerful allies, will they make it to Omu to stop this vile disease? Will they make good on reuniting Artus and Elisandra? Will the CGC get TPK'd when their shiny toys turn out to be bullshit? Find out next time on The D-Squad, Tomb of Annihilation!**