Returning to look for the other 3 cubes in order to enter the tomb of annihilation. And I basically focused on going for the puzzles and skip the fights. I lure them up the waterfall to let them see the vision of Ohm being destroyed to add some mystery to the whole ordeal and then allow them to see the final shrines as they look out of the city. And they basically went on a straight line to get them all. First was the shrine of Nangnang the Grung (a frog like creature). It's supposed to be full with grungs that guard the treasure and if you haven't saved one of the sons of the leader there is a big battle, but that takes to much time so I just skip that idea. Right to the puzzle, how to enter the locked door. Well, the first obstacle is the first door where you are supposed to use strength in order to push it open. None of the characters have that so after two tries I just check my spell list and see that Destinova have Knock so I cast that spell to just enter. And then we have the puzzle door. You are supposed to figure out that one person have to gather the fake treasures in the room and from there go the door and let it open, If there is another people with treasure it doesn't open. We just used knock again since they aren't that smart so why bother?
Next was the shrine of Obo'Laka the Zebo. It was an interesting premise. You first enter a corridor with 8 torch holders and then in the next rom you find a pool where there is a sun in the roof, but a moon in the reflection of the water. After some speculating they jump in and ends up in a room with a moon on the floor, but a sun in the reflection of the pool. There's a door they enter and in there they find a another cube, but there is a petrified statue of a Thay Wizard standing beside it and 8 lit torches around the room. Here there is a problem which I get from reading the book. All characters in the campaign can use mage hand and since they don't get in direct contact with the cube, they won't be affected. You are supposed to deactivate the trap by finding a secret door leading back to the beginning of the shrine so that you can take the torches and put them in the first corridor, since they will extinguish in the water of the pool. To not trivialize the whole ordeal I made the pool water dispel the mage hand so that they actually have to do the puzzle.
The final shrine was the shrine of Moa the snake. It was the most fun shrine in reading. First it stands on top of a pillar in a lake of lava, but they clear that with an arcane gate spell. Then they enter the shrine and finds a cube standing in the middle of a room guarded by stone archers. They grab the cube with mage hand and the statues begin rotating and firing arrows at them, they get back in the corridor and the trap floor activates trying to send them into a pool of green acid. All four clears the saving throw, they get out and the cube turns to a puff of smoke. They return, search the room again and finds a secret door which leads to a room with a broken snake statue. They grab the cube, once again get fired at from the statues, avoid the trapped corridor, gets out and... the cube turns to green smoke. I find this rather funny. They return and looks again and find yet another secret door and another room, this time with a whole statue. They get the cube and the traps don't activate. They now got all the cubes.
I hadn't planned this far ahead so it was a bit of improvising, but I recall most of the beginning traps, with the fake door in the beginning. They get to the obelisk, get the clue and finds the passageway and the tunnel. They also see the three gargoyles standing looking down on them. They enter the tunnel and see torches light up as they pass and even finds Unkh's statue and get the pendent that hanged around it. They go to the passageway and finds the trap, block the air flow for the gas and starts putting in cubes. I think it was a bad idea to do this in the afternoon with one of the players being out until way after midnight. She can be a bit... thorny when she hasn't slept properly and puzzles isn't their greatest forte. They try so many combinations on the first door and none work, they read the text on the obelisk over and over again so in the end I have to step in to point out that there seems to be something missing since their is only 8 holes for the cubes, when we in fact have 9. They go out again and as they pass the obelisk the pendent begins showing them to the hidden passageway. And here they get stuck again since they get that Unkh should be in the middle, they get that the other cubes should be oppose each others, but they just can't figure put that Unkh always should be in the middle (missing the diagonal cubes). So I have to step in and the youngest sister is so feed up with all this.
They get to the next door, the timer shows up and Freya in panic pulls the lever and the floor opens and the other three falls down on the spike taking damage in different ways. They get out and enter the T-section with the poisoned arrows and trap plates (I assume they got this from Indianan Jones). They begin by meticously check for traps, reach the statue head and see the darkness. Freya puts in a stick and it gets destroyed by the monster inside the mouth so they decide to just leave it. They head right to the grand staircase, decode to back and finds the grate with the rushing water and then see the crystal window that shows them the room with the skeletons on the thrones. They go back to the staircase and from here we call it quits for today.
Finally getting somewhere, but if my sisters don't get their sleep before playing the next time I assume we might never finish this module as everyone is angry at each other. I think on the other hand that we haven't that much time on our hand with the trajectory of all our lives, but that is just me. Happy New Year everybody, see you in 2026 (although as of writing it's only a couple of weeks away from 2025 beginning.
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