Rumble in the Jungle Report

General Summary

Having an almost four day ride south in canoes down the river Soshenstar, and a near lethal encounter for Arryn with a hungry Displacer Beast, our heroes have at last arrived near the mysterious shrine Jax hired them to investigate. Their guide Eku points out the path that will lead to shrine, but will stay behind and safeguard the canoes and the remaining supplies in them. She informs the group that she will wait for their return no more than four days before taking one of the canoes back to Port Nyranzaru. The dark jungles of Chult beckon our travelers into it's depth.   As the party made their first foray alone into the jungles of Chult, they took their guides Eku's advice and carefully followed the path into the jungle. Swarms of black flies and biting insects occasionally burst out of the disturbed jungle floor, but the bug repellent provided by Jax's contact Jotefan did its job and helped keep the swarm at bay. Only Arryn's loyal mastiffs lacked the bug repellent, depending only upon their fur to help repel the insect swarm.   The thick jungle canopy provided relief from the punishing sun overhead, but the heat and humidity continued to take it toll as the party soldiered on. Some relief was provided by regularly drinking deeply from the water they had brought. As the sun came closer to setting, the widening path they were following was suddenly blocked by a tree uprooting itself and moving into the party's path! Morgim carefully approached this massive curiosity and noted that the tree had been scored with slashing weapons along the bottom half of it's trunk, and it had been partially burnt. As Morgim approached closer, he was surprised to see that the tree had a rudimentary face on it's trunk, and had begun speaking to him in a strange language. Remembering his recently purchased magical hat, he activated its magic and was pleased to discover he had gotten his money's worth. Now able to understand the massive tree's speech, he translated for the party, and in turn communicated back to the tree with simple head nods for yes and no. After realizing that the tree did not intend harm to the party, Conner the mighty Paladin of Moradin stepped forward and used the blessings of his god to soothe the tree's injuries. The mighty tree's burned leaves and scarred trunk were miraculously healed, and the thankful tree shared it's knowledge of the hazards of the road ahead. It specifically warned the party to stay on the path, and to beware of the vines that thirst for blood! It offered to watch over the party as they rested for the night. Sometime late during the midnight hour watch, Morgrim and Eldred heard the faint sound of a distant whip-crack, followed but the brief but horrible scream of some unknown beast deep in the jungle. The tree informed Morgim that one of the aforementioned vines had found itself a meal. Finally the sun rose, and enough daylight filtered down from the jungle canopy for allow our adventurous team to resume their journey. As the party departed, the strange tree wished them well, stating "May death pass you by."   The path continued to widen, and several members of the group noticed the jungle's ground debris seemed unnaturally clear from the path followed, as if an unseen hand was at work keeping it clear. As they pushed forward the jungle's sweltering heat weighed heavily upon those burdened with heavy armor and gear. The wisdom of having ample fresh water allowed them to slowly progress. The swarms of insects disturbed by the party's travel continued to be held at bay by the bug repellent provided to them. Time passed, and lessening of sunlight breaking through the foliage overhead hinted that sunset could only be a few hours away. If their guide had been correct, they should be arriving at the shrine very soon, and so they pushed on.   Thick heavy vines hung down from the trees all around the party, some areas were so dense that they were required to be pushed aside to allow the group to stay on the path. Remembering the tree's warning, everyone was especially watchful and used various tools to move the vines aside. With little light remaining, the party noticed at the side of the path ahead there was a large coil of vines with the desiccated remains of a reptilian creature's limbs jutting out. Arryn noticed that the coil of vines had flowers growing out of them. He recognized them as valuable for use in healing and magics associated with blood. After various precautions, the body of the unfortunate beast was inspected, and the flowers were harvested. It had been discovered that the inside of the coils of the vine were filled with dagger sized thorns that had pierced its victim numerous times, and that the body appeared to had been sucked dry. As the group moved on, more of these horrible coils of vines were discovered, along with the remains of a Batiri goblin, two humanoids dressed in the robes of the Host Tower of the Arcane, and one humanoid was dressed as a local Tabaxi. The party speculated that perhaps the Tabaxi had been the previous group's guide, and used their various skills to guess that these bodies had been there for somewhere over a month. They collected more flowers, and what few items were on the Batiri goblin's corpse.   Despite the group's caution,some of the monstrous Vampiric Vine Blights hidden close to the path and near one of the desiccated corpses remains were able to attack members of the intrepid group. Their long reach and terrible thorns almost killing one of Arryn's trusty war-dogs, and severely injuring Eldred. The might of the Heros of the Host Tower prevailed, and the terrible vines were destroyed. Healing magics were used, and soon both Eldred and Arryn's faithful dog appeared no worse for wear. The noise of the party's battle with the vines had drawn forth three hideous four legged beasts that appeared to be made of vines, branches, thorns, and hatred. The Thornys charged at the party full speed, but our heros quick thinking and action quickly dispatched these foul abominations into nothing put piles of broken sticks and vines. Exhausted but in overall good health, the party pushed forward, determined to reach the shrine before nightfall.   As the light continued to dim, the path came to a sudden stop, and our group had made it to their destination! The lost Shrine of Obtao was lost no longer, and a strange supernatural presence lingered here. The exhausted party chose two small buildings to take refuge in and rest before exploring the main building of the shine the next morning. The tired group fought off the jungles bugs and had a light meal, and settled in for a well needed rest, wisely rotating people through to always have some party members awake for the unexpected. It was a wise choice, because as the mid-point of the night came, the shrine had an unexpected visitor. Standing ten feet high, weighing over 4000 pounds, the massive carnotaurus was shockingly quiet as it drifted into Eldred's field of view. The party had split between the two small buildings, so the two on guard quietly woke those sleeping within and wisely retreated to the back of their improvised shelters. As those who had seen this terrifying beast thought long and hard about if it could fit it's head and neck through the doorways of the rooms they were in, Eldred took a desperate chance and unleashed a spell of silence covering both the party, and their unwelcome guest. The gamble payed off, and the spooked dinosaur ran deep back into the jungle.   Finally morning arrived, and a rested party emerged and set about to do the job they had been hired for. Steeling up their nerves, they boldly entered the main structure of the shrine, and found little more than a spiral stairway leading down. In the room below they discovered a concealed closet door filled with odd round clay disks, a strange doorway stood there with the space beyond obscured by impenetrable darkness. They also saw the back wall was covered in hieroglyphic writings and carved imagery, and an altar covered with the symbols of Obtao. A strange apparatus came out from the top of the altar, made of what looked like brass and shaped like a rod with a few appendages. The rod held a hoop aloft, that contained a golden cone filled with a very small amount of what appeared to be still fresh blood. Above the hoop, the other appendage looked a bit like a two pronged fork, the ends of its tines marked with a bit of blood. The group deciphered the hieroglyphic writings and carved imagery, and discovered that Obtao had left the lands he had created due to a fear of his presence causing his people to fail to find their own path. The shrine was a path and ritual for his followers to help them find their own way and directions for the usage of the clay disks were given. Also discovered was the item missing from the tines of the fork, a small piece of the mighty Obtao's heart, pulled out of his own chest!   The group decided to follow the directions for the use of the clay disks using the tiny portion of the blood remaining in the golden cone. One by one each of them disappeared, and felt their bodies and spirits drawn into the doorway of darkness, somehow following the path they had drawn out on their clay disks with the blood of Obtao. There was just enough of the blood for each member to complete the ritual (barely!). All of the party were confronted with choices, and each received a "gift" for their completion of Obtao's task. During the rite of passage, all had been teleported outside the main building. Because the shrine was large enough to provide a break in the jungle's canopy, they could all see that a surprising amount of time had passed, and that it was well past noon. The entire party could also feel that whatever remnant of Obtao's presence was gone.   Fearing that any delay might cause their guide to depart without them, the group wisely chose to expeditiously reverse their path back through the jungle, and quickly arrived back to a waiting and relived Eku. The events of the last few days weighing upon our heroes, they returned to Port Nyranzaru.

Rewards Granted

1758XP
1. Various magical items from completing Ubtao's maze ritual. 2. Bag with mysterious black tar substance from desiccated goblin corpse. 3. Flimsy Batiri bone dagger.

Missions/Quests Completed

Jax's investigation of the shrine completed. Discovered evidence the the Host Tower of the Arcane was involved with the removal of a relic from the shrine.

Character(s) interacted with

Met a Awakened Tree, fought off Vampiric Vine Blights and Thornys, and made it to the Lost Shrine of Obtao.