This Chult's Got a Death Curse!

The session opened on a stranger note than most, with the party stepping into a rap battle against Killa-T Rex of Killah-T Rex and the Veloci-rappers. The contest came in the shadow of a real problem: his band had been kidnapped by pirates, and the whole affair carried the rough energy of Port Nyanzaru trying to laugh in the face of danger. The group mostly held its own through the performance, with only a few stumbles, and the aftermath worked in their favor. The concert cleared out the Thundering Lizard so thoroughly that the party was able to stay there for free and enjoy an unusually good night’s rest.

From there the tone shifted back toward mystery. The party went into the nearby wild growth to investigate a strange blight that was killing flowers and other plant life in the area. They managed to avoid some of the surrounding hazards simply by carefully stepping over what looked dangerous, but caution did not spare them a fight, and soon needle blights and twig blights were upon them. Pushing deeper, they came upon grungs gathered around a strange black rock and fought them for it, uncovering enough clues to realize this was not some local superstition but part of something much larger. In the aftermath they spoke with Screaming Wind about a letter tied to the matter, and the shape of the conspiracy began to come into view.

The rock proved to be a piece of the Amulet of Death, one of several fragments being smuggled into the city. What had looked like a scattered series of odd encounters now connected to a hidden political and religious plot inside Port Nyanzaru itself. The party learned that a merchant prince was secretly trying to collect and move the amulet’s pieces to Ras Nsi through illicit channels, hoping to place the artifact in the hands of the yuan-ti. Ras Nsi, already afflicted by the Death Curse, believed the amulet might preserve his life long enough to pursue an even darker ambition: raising Dendar the Night Serpent. What began as dead flowers and frogfolk worshipping a stone ended as the first clear glimpse of an apocalyptic design moving beneath the city’s bright surface.

Once they knew what they were dealing with, the party followed the trail into open conflict. They fought yuan-ti in an abandoned textile house, battling serpentine agents hidden inside the city and pressing closer to the local leadership behind the operation. That trail led them to a final clash with Lekhet in a clearing, where the struggle over the Amulet of Death came fully into the open. By the end of the session, the party had not only survived a bizarre sequence of performances, blights, grung worship, and snake-infested ambushes, but had also uncovered a direct link between Port Nyanzaru’s intrigues, Ras Nsi’s desperation, and the gathering threat of Dendar herself.

The investigation into the old city’s disappearances led the party into a feeding pit, where puzzle-solving gave way to a fight against zombies and their master. The group fought through the dead, killed Viplo, and managed to save some prisoners even though not everyone could be rescued. In the aftermath they recovered a black gem that appeared to be a fragment of the Amulet of Death, and suddenly the case was no longer local mischief but part of a larger magical design.

Alastar Bol’s explanations added a grim layer of Chultan truth. These were not ordinary shambling dead but local undead that required headshots to put down properly, and Viplo had seemingly been using the amulet fragment to lure victims into his trap. The party also met Soggy Wren, who wanted the amulet piece turned over to the Ytepka Society for safekeeping, making clear that other factions had already taken an interest in these relics.

By the end of the session, the heroes had earned a little comfort in the form of free lodging and trivia winnings, but the real reward was information. They now knew there were multiple amulet fragments, that the undead problem was connected to them, and that even early victories in Chult tended to uncover something deeper and older underneath.

The group took on the smuggling lead at Tiryki Anchorage, and the session became a careful infiltration instead of a straightforward brawl. Betty created a distraction, Vogun worked the grate, and the party pushed through the smugglers’ passage while handling traps with surprising efficiency. Small advantages piled up quickly as they manipulated bells, pulleys, and pressure points to draw enemies into bad positions before springing the fight on their terms.

Once violence came, it came fast. Sanuya was overwhelmed, the surviving smugglers lost heart, and Philomena seized control of the operation with the blunt confidence of someone who had no interest in pretending otherwise. The group questioned the smugglers, learned more about Nahu and the wider organization behind the ring, and started piecing together local succession politics and the sort of shadow economy thriving beneath Port Nyanzaru’s polished face.

The session closed with the party holding real leverage. They had broken the passage, cowed the smugglers, acquired a raptor egg, and walked away with better information than they had when they entered. More than that, they were learning how to operate in Chult’s gray spaces, where force, improvisation, and interrogation were often more useful than any official authority.

The party woke in Herleef’s villa to find that their recent deeds had started to matter. Whispers of “Wonas” followed them through Port Nyanzaru, and the session opened with the sense that they had crossed a threshold from anonymous newcomers to recognized problem-solvers. Herleef also brought new correspondence, and with it several competing opportunities that pulled the party deeper into the city’s factional life.

What followed was less a single linear adventure than a widening of the campaign’s map. Calls for help came from multiple directions: smuggling tied to a dangerous item, trouble in Malar’s Throat, and the disappearance of Derio. Each lead represented a different face of the city, from criminal networks to civic hardship to religious duty, and the party had to start choosing what kind of mark it wanted to leave on Chult.

By session’s end, the most important development was not one fight or one treasure haul but the party’s new standing. They had reached second level, earned attention from organized factions, and become woven into Port Nyanzaru’s daily life. The city was no longer simply where Syndra had sent them. It was becoming theirs to answer, exploit, protect, or disappoint.

The group’s first stop was the Temple of Sune, where the outing turned into a kind of makeover trial as each member submitted to lessons in dress, grooming, posture, and presentation in hopes of gaining a little extra charm before the day’s more serious business. The effort was earnest but only partly successful, and for all the primping and correction, the party left without the social edge they had hoped to acquire.

From there they were drawn to a public bathhouse troubled by a quieter mystery: belongings had been vanishing, and the staff wanted answers. The investigation led not to an ordinary thief but to a cursed water elemental, driven to steal because it had been left without care. Rather than destroy it, the party chose mercy. They recovered the stolen goods, accepted everything the creature surrendered, and promised that someone would come each day to feed it so it would no longer need to take from bathhouse patrons to survive. Pizza was absent for that part of the affair, but the rest of the group resolved the matter cleanly and left the bathhouse with a strange new obligation.

Their next stop was the Temple of Savras, where they met Grandfather Zitembe and spent time buried in Chultan lore. They read what they could on Mezro and Omu, received additional information on Port Nyanzaru itself, and in the process protected Zitembe from Zhentarim rough handling when hired muscle tried to intimidate him. That thread of civic duty carried directly into the courthouse, where the party helped Herleef plead his case before the merchant princes. One of the souls restored by the destruction of the Soulmonger, Herleef had awakened in the refuse pit after death and come to beg the city to end its practice of dumping corpses there. He did not know why he had returned when others had not, but feared that his wife or daughter, who had died alongside him, might still be lying among the dead. Even without the hoped-for boost to their charisma, the party argued well enough to sway the court, and Port Nyanzaru’s practice was brought to an end.

The session closed on a lighter note, with the party throwing itself into a pie-eating contest after a day of temples, mysteries, and public petitioning. Bart, Betty, Philomena, and Vogun all put in strong performances, with Betty ultimately edging out the others despite nearly gagging at the finish. Their prize was a Box of Colding, a practical treasure with immediate value to anyone planning to brave Chult’s heat and keep provisions fresh in the jungle. It was an oddly domestic reward for a wandering company of adventurers, but a useful one, and the kind of victory that made the city feel a little more like an ally than an obstacle.