Tomb of Annihilation Story Summary and Review 

Maybe Acerak's plan is to create a bound god and then eat it? His method might not be able to power him directly, but if he makes a weak godling he can consume...

As a new DM, about a dozen sessions into this campaign, I wish i had seen this video first lol. I have found the lack of direction quite challenging through this first "hex crawl" section of the game. Awesome Video.

Good summary and review. I find it hilarious how you pronounce almost every word differently from mostly everyone else: Nyanzaru, Omu, Acererak, Atropal etc...

Always excited to see your notification, Dave. Great job as usual.

Thank you this overview video has helped put a few things in place for me. My group and I are new to the game and played through a beginner adventure together where I was the player. Then I decided I would try to be the dungeon master and this is the adventure we selected because dinosaurs, zombies, jungle setting, etcetera sounded fun. I got through my first session smoothly (after an intense week of research) adding some encounters to get everybody to the city, from here it was really hard to find the outline of the way the story goes from the book. Your video has been helpful in giving me a better idea of what to look for as a novice.

exellent review once again, thank you. I might pick this one up and try it out for my players.

damn homie, great video i'm currently adapting tomb into pathfinder 1e for a party of new players and this was incredibly helpful thank you!

Thanks for the video Draven, really appreciated your analysis. I totally agree that the folks at Wizards need to work on better layout/organization for their hardback adventures, and *especially* should be thinking more inclusively for newer DMs. I've been meeting a lot more new DMs in this last year, so there's definitely a need for it.

Great review, thanks

Thanks for the video, really helps me understand how I'll fit it into my D&D campaign I'm running. I've set up a Homebrew world where my PC's are a family, similar to GoT in that the lord of a household rules quite a lot of land. The world isn't that of the forgotten realms but I can easily just slot Chult onto it. The lord of their family was their father but he went missing under dubious circumstances. His death was faked by someone and by the time they realised it was too late. For a few sessions now the characters have been trying to find out what happened to their father several years ago, they've received an invitation from an individual who sent them a coded message advising there was some information. (they are level 4) From here they will meet with the said individual and hopefully strike a bargain. "I will teleport you to the Island your father inhabits, in return I want you to investigate something for me while you are there." -- explain the death curse, yada yada but only vague symptoms and explain that the informant understands it's originating from Chult. Kinda sewing the exisiting campaign together but, using your advice of not telling them about the soul monger from the start. In fact, the more they investigate Port Nyanzaru to find information about their father, they will find information about the soul monger and realise that the two stories are intertwined. The Father was taken by someone, and put into a group of 'adventurers' and told to find and destroy the soulmonger. The father would do this after realising what it is and what it's capable of. I like this book but I think you're right, the launching of the adventure needs work. I think if you set it into an already existing campaign and start from level 3,-5 - tying in other reasons to be there and reveal the soul mongers 'time bomb' effect just a little bit later, it will give the players time to relax a little bit and enjoy the sights of the port and the jungle. I intend to let them be there for 5 days or so before the '20 days' have passed and they find out exactly what it is that's causing it. (he's been ressurected before, and thus will die if it doesn't get destroyed) I think the Lich Acererak too, if he has failed in the past to become a god himself, perhaps this particular setting with the Soul Monger and feeding the Atropal is simply an experiment. Why doesn't he defend it before it's destroyed? He's incredibly smart first of all. Think of it this way, he doesn't want to confront them because the Soul Monger essentially keeps him mortal. He could lose his soul to the soulmonger, until it's destroyed he doesn't want to risk being 'mortal' where he could in fact die if his soul is consumed by the Atropal. Now, in my head I'd like to see him come to defend the Atropal from being destroyed. The Soul Monger is destroyed and this signals him to descend upon the group, rather than seeing all of his experiments and hard work come to nothing. This would almost certainly guarantee a confrontation with him, and like you said, if they manage to survive the encounter, Acererak will promise revenge upon them. When they return home and leave Chult, Acererak would begin plotting against them almost immediately. This is my take on it, I can't wait. Good luck with your campaign. Love the video.

Best reviews of books so far I've seen.

It says in the stat block for "Acererak" under his bond "why be a God when I can be a creator of gods?" So it seems obvious why he is doing what he is doing. It also explains what happens in the book when the adventurers defeat the Atropal.

Thanx, man. This was very helpful.

Such a great, clear overview. Love your reviews. Thanks! This book really seems like an attempt to cross Isle of Dread (dinosaurs and wilderness exploration) with Tomb of Horrors (a dungeon full of puzzles and traps - even a rolling juggernaut). It really seems like they wrote his as a Wilderness ruleset and adventure to use it with. The dinosaurs really throw me off and make it feel less fantasy-ish. I think I may have my players start this level 3ish like you suggest, and have NPCs they met in the previous town start to die from the curse. It might be a better hook.

Awesome review and great suggestions. Hoping to pick this one up soon.

You mentioned this wasn't necessarily your favorite published adventure. I'm curious, what are some of your favorites for 5e? Thanks for all the reviews and videos.

In one of the opening sections in the book, it mentions that if your character dies in TOA you can come back with a new character at the same level. But I imagine the items/gold would be gone.

I never played this adventure per se, but I once used an Atropol in a homebrewed Lost City to replace Zargon. First off I played it up as a cthulhu based adventure. I played at the Atropol as just as screaing baby with godlike powers, and its worshippers are basically doing the religious version of jangling keys in front of its face, and making silly faces at it to keep it happy, and as such have basically gone insane tryign to keep up with a screaming undead baby gods hunger for worship when that screaming undead baby god doesn't even know how it wants to be worshipped.

Hi, thx a lot for the idea of starting ToA after letting the characters discover Chult. Do you have so adventure-ideas/moduls to start with?

After having run this for about.. 8-9 sessions, I think you're right. Being a newer DM, I found the book to be incredibly confusing and I'm often lost and have to wing it. I've made up for it by doing extra time to learn about the area and the inhabitants... Too much is handed to the players when they start off and it would have been more fun to have the characters run around for a while before the death curse starts. That would also make up for the time factor, because quite honestly there's not enough time to enjoy the play through because you need to figure out where the death curse is coming from and get there as quick as possible.

excellent review Draven, i will admit i was turned off by the setting of this adventure when it was announced but now that I see the detail that went into this adventure by wizards i will be picking it up now. thanks again.

Great video on story of the ToA. I'm actually going to run a campaign around the story of the ToA myself. I actually started planning this campaign once I found out WotC was going to make this their next story. My current campaign is winding down but three characters were killed in the last part of our story and their souls are captured in a green gem which of course is a relic and going to be tied to the Soul Monger. My plan is to start the new campaign 15 years later after this current one ends where one of the NPC's close to my current heroes hires this new group of adventures to seek out and destroy the Soul Monger freeing his friends. So the players will have motivation to destroy this relic.I also plan to start the characters at sea and have them gain a couple levels on the way to Chult and do some of the books side quests. I also plan to have Acererak more involved and probably have the characters around 12th to 13th level at the end. I might even have Acererak show up soon in my current campaign to take the green gem from the characters if the timing works.If my players are successful they will have some higher level characters from both my past and this campaign to use in some one shot adventures. Either way my players will have fun because they have been begging me to run a jungle adventure which was the original plan of my current campaign, they got side tracked 10 to 12 levels later and still no jungle exploration. Can't wait to start this one.

What if the characters first kill the stillborn god and then kill Acerak. That way Acerak's soul cannot go back to its phalactery due to the untouched Soulmonger.

26:10. OK, turning a strength into a weakness. 1) The module has the diseas killing people who have been resurrected. + 2) The module is unbalanced in areas and can TPK too easily. = Each character gets a free resurretion spell cast on them by their faction.

We made a ton of money when i(the ranger) took on a t-Rex I. The dinosaur race, he was given 8-1 payout for low odds. The fighter bet almost all of our money on him. I won. We were attacked by assassins sent by another of the racers

Can WotC please make second adventures that lead to higher level play or create an adventure that goes up to 20th level? That would be great. Really excited to run this but would love to give my players an experience of playing up to that highest level. Currently creating my own world to play in and then we can get up to that level but I feel like they have created these features in the PHB but do not put them to use in their prewritten campaigns. Rant over. Excellent videos and I always look forward to when they are posted.

You only have about 40 days to complete the adventure right off the bat. If you start at lvl 1 it will be very difficult if not impossible to complete. Not to mention traveling through the jungle if you go by the rules takes a really long time if you don't know where omu is.

"Designed to support levels 1 through 11"

Great review. My only feedback would be pronunciation of some names. Acererak (a-ser-er-ak) and Artus Cimber (not Climber). Otherwise, good stuff!

Wait... this story summary/review contains spoilers?!?! Oh my god!!!! Here I was... looking for the spoiler free breakdown of a story. Haha kidding. Nice video man

This seems like a cross between the Isle of Dread and The Tomb of Horrors. My problem is with Dinosaurs... I never thought they belonged in D&D.

I'm planning to adjust this so its starting for level 9 players right after another campaign. Anyone got any tips?

As far as AL play. I would just suggest starting a new character for ToA

The Day, Night & Twilight "A storm has been brewing for nearly a year now. Horrors beyond imagining flee this natural occurrence openly. Sadly those unkempt too find their very existence in a state of wonder as only an intoxicated mind would hail..such a thing. Land, Air & Sea of places clearly foreign to the material world have fused instantaneously causing quite a benefit to those residing in civilization especially. Many a being descended, ascended, transcended or each have made their-self known to those simply mortal be they of sin or innocence in hope of discovering for their-self what has transpired as there simply is no evidence of a sentience of any sort having had any-thing to do with this apocalypse. It seems nature.......has come calling for all who have molested to know peace be it requested or not." whispers the shadowy figure. The storm continues to roil, churn & reverberate. What moments of solitude there are truly ring in eloquence.

I do wish people would practice saying Acererak.

I found this adventure that could be used as an introduction. It gets players to level 2 and gives them all a reason to do it. What do you think? : rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons/3rd%20Party/5th%20Edition/DMGuild%20Adept/Cellar%20of%20Death%20v2.pdf

My biggest disappointment with all of DND's hardcover module adventures is the lack of hand out maps. (Yah, this one has a lot compared to any of the other ones I've purchased, but they're NOT hand outs. You'd have to cut out the pages ( I found them online) etc. Which is great (FINALLY they're online) BUT omg. that big pull out map at the back of Chult, is awesome. great size. (but what do you do? Give it to your players and have them write on it?? WOW. Massive fail from the company if you ask me, (if it was Dry erase, then that would be different) But I don't think it is. I take good care of my books, and for the price we pay I don't want to write in them unless absolutely necessary. (so it would be a one time use??) Same as the utter disappointment the map pack kind was for the Mad Mage adventure. (they were basically cardstock, page size) I miss the boxed sets. What do you think? We've been running one version of the same campaign of characters for the last 12 years or so, with what started with The Red Hand of Doom (if anyone has played that or remembers it) Where one of the warriors there died brutally at the hands of a Green Spawn razorfiend in the swamps of Elsir Vale. His name was Rexor, and we dubbed those beasts "Rexor Killers" SO instead of using Cindra Sylvane as the one granting our current group the Soulmonger quest. They have an attachment to him. etc. The Red Hand of Doom had a fort in it, and we ended up converting that into a fort used by a new Knight Hood called "The Knights of Vraath Keep" so in the past 12 years or so, we've played their offspring, and a few years ago decided to try a "Sons of Anarchy" type game, (Loosely based, mostly in name only) of a group comparable to the X force (who would do the things the Knights of Vraath Keep couldn't do because of the darker nature in politics, etc) SO were created "The Sons of Vraath Keep" and their logo's being the Greenspawn Razorfiend. They're currently lvl 11. I'll be sending these guys out, and I think I'll raise the DC a little bit of the fiends on Chult instead. I didn't see how a group of lvl 1-5 could possibly make it in that jungle. Not the way we play anyways. Thanks for the review. Definitely clear cut!! The most in depth one I've seen! I'll definitely watch more of your videos. Again, what is your opinion on the lack of legit pull out, write able maps? Or access to maps in general? I'd pay extra if I had to for LEGIT pull out, foldable, maps they can actually use mini's on.

Do they just not ever create content for high levels anymore because it 'could' affect sales? God no one has any balls anymore. This seems mid-range content. Thank god for Hasbro. I like the idea that it can affect Lich, gives players an option to play an evil character with motive. I also like that they involved Valindra. I think she is a really cool character. They probably did this so they could tie it in to the Neverwinter MMO more, but still cool to see.

I'm not an active player but the imaginary campaig I run in my head misses the days of modules. I don't like the full campaign stories. I much prefered building a campaign over time by buying the specific modules you liked and linking them together. I think they should get back to module making with options on how to vary the level of the module for your campaign.

14:30 problems with levels

Great review! I agree that the characters should be higher level than 1st at the outset. I find it silly the Syndra would recruit such low level characters for such a major task. I ran my players through Keep of the Borderlands (yes, THAT Keep of the Borderlands) first and they where well into 3rd level by the time they arrived at Port Nyanzaru. One thing I really played up was Withers. There is so much potential with that guy both in terms of an antagonist as well as an opportunity for comic relief. Cheers!

You use the 1st level restart rule? Harsh

Ouch pronunciation. There's a guide in the beginning of the book if you actually took a good look at it.

If you want the Lich to play a more prominent role, couldn't you just customize his role so he can?

It just seems like WOTC has gotten lazy by just recycling old villains. No reason at all why they needed to bring Acererak into this adventure and on top of that entirely change his nature. An arch-lich? WTF? He was a demi-lich in Greyhawk! Quit being lazy and come up with new villains and plots. This is essentially a mash-up of multiple adventures from older editions. And the vast majority of the "new" monsters are just updates of 1st edition monsters. There are a few interesting things in here, but just can't see buying it. Same issues with all the 5E adventures thus far, recycled and overblown. How about producing something short and original? Not to throw shade on your review, which is fine. Just annoyed at WOTC.