Okay, if the guy who can cast third level spells at will and can hit you with two Power Word Kills in one encounter is a simulacrum, I don't want to know how the real Acererak was in his prime.
Necro'ing this, but well, the real Acererak was the boss of Tomb of Horrors. IF you actually encountered him (There was a fake in the ToH as well, a zombie gussied up to look like a mighty Lich), then he really only had one attack. He would use it on the strongest member of the party. Instant Death, No Save, no resist, nothing. He straight up eats your fucking soul and you die with nothing short of a max power Wish Spell being able to bring you back.
@@antimatterstudios8395 Kinda? I mean the 'real' Tomb was the whole thing, it's just that the whole of the Tomb of Horrors was one big grift by Acererak. He made the whole thing himself as a way to lure in dumb adventurers so the insane logic breaking puzzle traps would kill them and he could eat their souls for sustenance and get a bunch of free magic items from their corpses.
@@canaryinacoalmine1759 I Demi pitch needs a phylactery for their soul, to stop it from going to the afterlife. They must feed this phylactery souls in order to maintain both it and their own soul. A Demi litch if formed in two ways. The first is that a litch fails to feed its phylactery and degrades into a Demi litch. due to the Demi litch description of Acerac for seeing his own degradation, this might be an inevitability rather than a possibility, likely caused by the phylactery slowly failing. These Demi Litches are lesser than litches The second is the path pioneered by acererak, where becoming a Demi litch is used a the next step in a litches undead evolution/life. This involves taking the litches skull and turning it into their phylactery. Important to know is that if a phylactery is destroyed the litch will not reform if defeated, with a Demi litch only having a phylactery for a physical form (their skull), their phylactories destruction cause’s the end of their immortal life, thus The original Acererak is gone for good.
I've got another little fact of lore for you, regarding the fate of the original Acererak: In the 3.5e book "Tome of Magic" they introduce vestiges, a kind of being who died under such strange conditions, that it was thrown out of the normal bounds of the multiverse. They can now only have sensual experiences inside the Multiverse, by forming pacts with its inhabitants and then entering their bodies and grant the host powers in return. Acererak ist listet as one of those vestiges and explained to have become such a being upon his defeat within the Tomb of Horrors. He had attempted to become one with the Negative Energy Plane and succeeded far enough, that the pull of the plane prevented his soul from drifting to the afterlife, but since it could not enter the Negative Energy Plane either, it remained expelled from the Multiverse. If this lines up with the lore from other sources, I don't know, but the sourcebook is an official one.
This actually helps me out a lot. I tried to run this module as a first-time DM and there were a lot of dots that just weren't connecting and a lot of lore that I didn't feel like I could incorporate organically. This actually gives me a lot of context so I can work on having things feel less shoehorned in. Thanks!
TheBayzent I agree. There are modules and campaigns always set in either grasslands, mountains, and forests. There is so much that can de done with jungles and combo it with deserts.
Professor Rhexx, I just want to say thank you for being consistently excellent over the years. Even when I was a junior in high school, I looked forward to every one of your videos on Skyrim and the rest of the Elder Scrolls. I’m a senior In University now and you are by far my favorite channel on TH-cam because nobody makes lore videos like you. Thank you.
Yes as I sophomore I deeply enjoyed staying up past 11 learning about dragons then dragonborn later the gods and now the planes i always tried to go to bed before 11 but now I go to bed at twelve I hope you enjoy a permanent retirement ten year and much more knowledge
@@killereye Kangaxx literally fights like Acererak in Tomb of Horrors. Both pull out the exact same shit of spamming Soultrap, but since BG didn't have that they used Maze, but the effect is the same (only Soultrap victims never come back)
2:10 what...? The story of the simulacrum was a small little adventure. And TOH has a sequel called Return to the Tomb of Horrors which continues on into the 4e Tomb of Horrors which is a continuation of that where it explains why Acererak survives (I won’t spoil it here in case anyone wants to look) This is a cool theory/self made lore but cannon wise he’s just very *very* difficult to kill because of tendencies to become a vestige. As for why he’s a ArchLich and not Demi-lich, I think that has to do with Demi-Liches being nerfed as a weaker form in 5e. Also 5e seems to have done a soft reboot on him as well hence no mentions of his history other than Oerth
Acererak can't be aan Aarchlich, because those "were good beings during their life" ( Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn, p.90). So Acererak must be lich or demilich. Proof: forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Demilich
Yeah, Rhexx does some awesome videos, but sometimes they are way off base. Lots of non-canon stuff here. Also, the very different Tomb of Horrors for 4e pretty much established that Acererak had been downgraded from the vestige he was in 3e to demilich again.
Bastian Schöls He is described as an ArchLich in TOA meaning that WOTC changed the meaning. (Vecna in MTOF is also described as an ArchLich) Personally I like define the good ones as ArcLich and very powerful Liches as ArchLich for this edition. But yeah that’s just another contradiction in 5E. I suspect this is because Demi-Liches have been downgraded in 5E yet Acererak is supposed to be a more powerful than normal lich.
@@sanddry738 the demilich article in the MM also states that demilichs who seek this path as Accererak did are slightly more powerful than normal liches
@@leobracken2316 I don't have enough friends that would be interested in playing D&D nor do I have enough time? This allows me to be able to experience the world of D&D but not actually play and I really appreciate that.
@@muffinman8744 ok. I was trying to say "I was surprised that someone would like Raid" but I'm not sure I worded that very well. Also I'm pretty certain I misunderstood your comment. Sorry if I seemed rude or something.
I finished playing this last October. I started bringing my little brother to play at our local comic book shop, and over a year and a half later, we were able to wrap it up. He and I are the only ones who survived start to end, (those who didn't die had to leave town or whatever. typical adventure league stuff.) He got Ras Nsi's sword.
I want to say thank you so much for your videos, it helps me with building for my campaigns, and my wife and I enjoy your content immensely! Keep up the amazing work! P.S. I haven't been that scared by an intro since Dead Space
Found out I indeed just watched these video's without subscription, sorry! Real weird since I almost watched every video, so good on you for reminding me! :)
Dude, you have an incredible level of skill at taking in all this story related information and presenting it in an such an interesting and entertaining way. I havent played D&D for a while (I was a second edition player), and you make me really want to play again. Please keep up the great work, and consider doing some DragonLance and Ravenloft stuff!
I always find it interesting that a lot of people who grew up on 2e either love or hate 5e. Most seem to love it. I grew up on 3e so 5e was a disappointment to me as it was extremely flat, streamlined, and changed the dynamics of all power to be 100% on the side of players. And the change in player base mentality has been extremely difficult. You'll find players these days find even the possibility of death to be offensive and a sign of a bad DM.
My very first game was Tomb of Horrors, 2nd edition: I spent about an hour making a first level character and set out for the tomb, only to encounter a lonely goblin on route. Who then won Initiative, Critically Hit with an arrow, and rolled Max Damage... ending my adventure before it even begun!
@@nicholasgeere5125 idk, most stories I hear from older editions is just people dying out of nowhere and if they complain about it, a bunch of purists come out of the woodwork to try and correct them about how they should've summoned a minion before crossing a random corridor.
I would like to thank you MrRhexx. I have been a subscriber for quite some time. My DMing has improved drasticly since watching your videos, your eye for detail is amazing! Thank you again and please keep it up!
Dear Lord, I thought you were corrupted by the Lich of Raid, it is said he bought and persuaded many a kingdom to bow before his knee, you must resist or all is lost.
Thanks so much for this video! I had modified the story of acerak that he stole the tech for the soulmonger from baphomets tower of science (really pale night’s tech) and the king kong aspect of ubtao went to investigate. The whole simulacrum event makes it so much better!
Thank you so very much for this video, this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for in my post-TA campaign that is running. Instant subscription
Wow thank you much Rhexx, the stars must have aligned as I am doing a ToA campaign now and the few questions I didnt really know the answer to and was just going to improv you answered perfectly. Subscribed!
About to run Tomb of Annihilation, and this video helped a lot with motivation and information. You got me to pick up THE RING OF WINTER audible too just to hear one of the NPC stories.
This is great I have really wanted to run TOA for a while, this gives a lot of valuable context to the adventure. Even if the party never encounters this information, when you describe things equipped with historical context it makes the world feel more complex and real. I would probably drop in a book the party could find in Mezro from that tentacle gator's cult where they recorded their visions.
I personally wouldn’t mind having to sit through a 1 minute add every other video, I’ve never even played D&D but love the lore and how detailed you go with it
It's so hard to forget how folks at WoTC are so good at creating worlds and lore, Adventures that (even if badly made like Elemental Evil) have repercussions on the lore, it's also so easy to just look at a Faerun map and ask yourself " What is the Tortured land, the Turnback Mountains and the White Peak?" It's so interesting to read up on equally as a DM or a player. A DM can look up one of these names and create a quest with most likely enough material to make an interesting story, A player that knows that their quest takes place there can acquire information to create a very interesting PC with a purpose in these lands or a connection.
I really needed this video to create a more fleshed out Chult in my mind with more options for players, thank you so much for making one DM's life much easier.
I'm running a heavily modified tomb right now and the party is very close to meeting Artus. This is a prestige game of the same characters that I took through Storm King's Thunder. So my group is familiar with Artus. Could not be more stoked to have more lore a cram into my lore gun for this event. Always love your content thank you.
Aha I had a game that went from storm King's thunder to tomb of annihilation as well but the party accidently set the death curse in motion so they had to shift gears to face the supernatural threat first.
Oh man that's cool. Ya mine is heavily modified I'm doing sort of a Bermuda triangle thing where they thought it would be Chult but it's actually an island of that exists in between worlds plenty of undead and aberrations. Way less civilization (easier on me as a DM).
@@slickrickard That's smart. Yea, no this game happened very early in Storm King's so it was chaos to try and go from the spine of the world to chult. And rather than explore they blitzed to find the city asap. Unfortunately the party died on the fourth floor due to bad luck and player exhaustion cause the dungeon really kicked their teeth in between rough fights and bad rolls. Ironically their mapped time actual had them perish very nearly lined up with the starting time the ToA book says for how long the death curse has been going.
Wow I believe you are one of the Demigods. Fantastic content! This was very impressive and really makes me want to get into this game and world again. I haven’t played since the early beginning of second edition when I was in college. I remember when 2E was manifested and how a lot of my group was excited but some we very upset at the changes. I was working on my dissertation at the time had very little time for anything other than finishing research and writing my paper. I believe I may have only played once or twice with the new rules. I have a grandson that has shown interest in my plethora of old D&D books so maybe I can play again someday. Thanks again for the time you’ve invested. I wish all the best to you and yours!
I can't describe how quickly my hand was drawn to the right arrow of my keyboard at the start of the video, nor the extent of relief and amusement I felt upon "I'm kidding".
Great video! Quick clarification for others wishing to go to the primary sources: I believe one of your sources (unlisted) was 3.5e's Serpent Kingdoms and seems like you're also drawing on the entire Lost City of Mezro series, not just Ruins of Mezro.
Been watching your vids for months, but i usually listen on the way home from work so i didnt even notice i wasnt subbed! great channel and content you have my sub :D
I was reading one of the more recent Drizzt books and it references this adventure, I won't spoil too much but a villain uses a particular item that they say is connected to a lich's tomb in the land of Chult.
If you haven't done a video on the subject already. An in-depth on the Astral Dreadnaught would be awesome to watch. I don't think anyone else has done it either.
I’ve played through most of this and have restarted the campaign with a new group. Can’t wait to hopefully explore more of the area of chult and really get to mess with some of the really cool ass encounters within the module.
I am reasonably certain a WISH spell could escape a demiplane of dread. It specifically calls out under Wish's suggested effects that it can lift creatures from anywhere in the multiverse to anywhere in the multiverse. It's also worth noting this is not a teleport. It is specifically called out as a 'lift', which is not a teleport. That would defeat dimensional anchor or the like as well. As wish is a rewriting of reality, you could think of it as akin to save editing your location in a video game. No matter what barrier is in your way, you are on the other side of it, unless the powers that be have the power to stop you.
Depends how the DM views it to be honest I'd argue. If it really is like Barovia, then NOTHING can get you out, period, save killing the dreadlord, pact with the dark powers, that sort of thing. Supposed to be a unique feature of domains in Ravenloft; although I am working with old ideas here as I haven't looked at much 5th edition stuff dealing with Ravenloft. For example, Mordekainen himself is stuck in Barovia and can't get out, and he surely could just cast wish to leave (if he wasn't an insane deer in the module, but that's another story). Also apologies for the necro.
@@NorthernWind0 Well on page 24 of the module it states "no spell -- not even wish -- allows one to escape from Strahd's domain." So if the area in Tomb of Annihlation functions by the same rules, which I'd think it would if they refer to it as a domain in the demiplane of dread cause that's what Barovia is, then that should also apply I'd think. Of course obviously any DM could change how it works and what not; I've never run TOA but I'd be tempted to alter/change the rules since that is just one small area in the much bigger module/storyline, whereas in Curse of Strahd not being able to leave is kind of the point.
@@erdrickcapet3945 Personally, I feel like this powercreeping of the world around Wish is a little ridiculous. If players are 18th level, can cast Gate or Wish, have overpowered the ending of the entire sourcebook and no longer have any reason to be there, they should not have to worry about being stuck. What can I say, I'm an old school DM. I don't like setting hard and fast rules against my players' ability to interact with the world.
Man Dragonbait. That's going way back. Curse of the Azure Bonds and that series came out ages ago. And Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter. Old school harpers books if I recall.
Honestly, I'd say this adventure was better than Curse of Strahd. They're both solid, but Strahd's strength is that it's heavy on the narrative - everything is interconnected, all tied back to Strahd. It's also the module's greatest weakness, because of how poorly laid out the bits and pieces of the adventure are. ToA doesn't have that problem. Everything is almost beautifully laid out and compartmentalised, with enough references where it's needed to flesh stuff out. ToA was peak 5e, in my humble opinion. Everything after that was subpar, in some cases outright atrocious. *cough*Dragon Heist*cough*
@@olivercharles5581 I mean, where to start? It's not a heist, it's Waterdeep: Benny Hill. Waterdeep: Scooby Doo chase. It has an extremely weak and unconnected start that pigeonholes players into the position of innkeeper. It asks the characters to metagame and investigate an extremely mundane "mystery" in spite of having zero reason to, then actively puts obstacles to impede their investigation (sometimes completely shutting down an angle of progression they may take). It wastes a tonne of space on multiple paths for the sake of replayability, when each path boils down to a linear (and rather mediocre) list of encounters - that culminate in a what's most likely going to be a nearly impossible to win battle. And that's not even mentioning all the villain lairs that as written, the characters will never visit. But don't fret though: this is only a problem if you play the game as-written. You're gonna have to go against the book in some instances, such as being much more lenient and perhaps a little pushy in the Fireball chapter - maybe you can play the city officials off as lazy instead of iron-fisted, leading to them hiring the party instead of hindering them. You're also gonna have to ask the players to work into their characters a desire to cooperate in the whole "running an inn" things, as its somewhat integral to the narrative. There's a decent amount of good advice on r/WaterdeepDragonHeist pertaining to shaping it up into a better adventure. Don't get me wrong, it has fantastic potential: it certainly has the most unique premise in comparison to other modules. It's just really poorly executed. Oh, and the maps are shit. Like, I get some people like to copy them and stuff, but there's no denying how much a sense of place Mike Schley's cartography lends to adventures like ToA.
Tahu Nuva my party got the Inn and named it Boo’ze. It was our favorite part of the adventure. It’s an ok module. The players need to be creative and the dm needs to be adaptable.
@@cfed95 Which is great! I'm not saying that you can't get a good adventure from it (I recently got a fantastic game out of Descent into Avernus, which holds many of the weaknesses WD:DH has), but as a module on its own it's extremely poorly written. For example, my characters expected to actually be heisting - and when presented with the "opportunity" to run a tavern, had pretty much the reaction the Terminator would have if you asked it to play beach volleyball.
I might be remembering wrong here, but didn't the spell plague (or was it Karsus's Folly?) result in the negative energy plane ceasing to exist? And now we only have the shadowfell. If so, what happened to the tower?
@@Trapsarentgay133 Pretty sure the Spell Plague was caused because another god killed an old version of Mystra, not the one we've got today, and it was waaaaay later than Karsus's Folly
@@Trapsarentgay133 Karsus' folly was a different event altogether and had nothing to do with the Spell Plague.It took place a -long time- before the Spell plague. Karsus used his magic to assume the mantel of Mystara, the original goddess of magic. Mystara then killed herself to get her power back from Karsus and became Mystra (the current goddess of magic from 2nd or 3rd edition onward I believe). Mystra then imposed limits on magic so spells of higher then 9th level could no longer be cast. MrRhexx has a video on Karsus' Folly. The Spell Plague is a 4th edition thing and quite recent in Forgotten Realms Cannon History. (the past 150 years or so). The Spell Plague was caused by the god Cyric tricking Tyr into killing Mystra. This caused Magic to go haywire for a while (and Shar stole half of the weave of the magic as well i believe. The part for Shadow Magic). The Spell Plague for Cannon history only ended 10 years prior to the Start point of 5th Edition and was ended with the reforming of the new Tablets of Fate by Ao.
when i was a player in this campaign we ran an extended version of it after we completed the tomb. our dm placed mezro in limbo and artis was looking for mezro because that's where his wife is. when we went to the oracle and were like how to get mezro back we've killed ras n'si she was like all threats need to be destroyed so we had to get rid of cindalor (sp?) where we located a portal to limbo in the back of her lair. when we got to limbo there was an encroaching darkness nearby to mezro we also met a lot of githyanki which was fun and had to deal with that in order to protect mezro and bring it back. when they completed the ritual and we were transported back to the material plane ob'tau actually caught the city and gently placed it back in its old home. it was rad
I was looking forward for something to continue ToA after acererak is defeated and the mezro trilogy looks like a ton of fun and pretty short to run. Thanks a lot ^^
Okay, if the guy who can cast third level spells at will and can hit you with two Power Word Kills in one encounter is a simulacrum, I don't want to know how the real Acererak was in his prime.
He died, though. Maybe, simulacrum got better than the original
Necro'ing this, but well, the real Acererak was the boss of Tomb of Horrors. IF you actually encountered him (There was a fake in the ToH as well, a zombie gussied up to look like a mighty Lich), then he really only had one attack. He would use it on the strongest member of the party. Instant Death, No Save, no resist, nothing. He straight up eats your fucking soul and you die with nothing short of a max power Wish Spell being able to bring you back.
@@McDonaldWilliamT even that was only the entrance to the real tomb though
@@antimatterstudios8395 Kinda? I mean the 'real' Tomb was the whole thing, it's just that the whole of the Tomb of Horrors was one big grift by Acererak. He made the whole thing himself as a way to lure in dumb adventurers so the insane logic breaking puzzle traps would kill them and he could eat their souls for sustenance and get a bunch of free magic items from their corpses.
@@canaryinacoalmine1759 I Demi pitch needs a phylactery for their soul, to stop it from going to the afterlife. They must feed this phylactery souls in order to maintain both it and their own soul.
A Demi litch if formed in two ways. The first is that a litch fails to feed its phylactery and degrades into a Demi litch. due to the Demi litch description of Acerac for seeing his own degradation, this might be an inevitability rather than a possibility, likely caused by the phylactery slowly failing. These Demi Litches are lesser than litches
The second is the path pioneered by acererak, where becoming a Demi litch is used a the next step in a litches undead evolution/life. This involves taking the litches skull and turning it into their phylactery.
Important to know is that if a phylactery is destroyed the litch will not reform if defeated, with a Demi litch only having a phylactery for a physical form (their skull), their phylactories destruction cause’s the end of their immortal life, thus The original Acererak is gone for good.
I've got another little fact of lore for you, regarding the fate of the original Acererak:
In the 3.5e book "Tome of Magic" they introduce vestiges, a kind of being who died under such strange conditions, that it was thrown out of the normal bounds of the multiverse. They can now only have sensual experiences inside the Multiverse, by forming pacts with its inhabitants and then entering their bodies and grant the host powers in return. Acererak ist listet as one of those vestiges and explained to have become such a being upon his defeat within the Tomb of Horrors. He had attempted to become one with the Negative Energy Plane and succeeded far enough, that the pull of the plane prevented his soul from drifting to the afterlife, but since it could not enter the Negative Energy Plane either, it remained expelled from the Multiverse.
If this lines up with the lore from other sources, I don't know, but the sourcebook is an official one.
Omg with the first part you really shocked me
#1 will shock you!
the absolute meme
Yeah... didn't age well
@@MrRhexx your fate whas sealed when you said *_Sponsored_*
@@Max_G4 how so?
This actually helps me out a lot. I tried to run this module as a first-time DM and there were a lot of dots that just weren't connecting and a lot of lore that I didn't feel like I could incorporate organically. This actually gives me a lot of context so I can work on having things feel less shoehorned in. Thanks!
Sounds like there needs to be a “History of Chult” video. I’d be very interested.
I second that. It is one of the less explored but more interesting parts and I love me some jungle adventures.
TheBayzent I agree. There are modules and campaigns always set in either grasslands, mountains, and forests. There is so much that can de done with jungles and combo it with deserts.
ditto! im sick of the sword coast
So wait, the real one dies in tomb of horrors and the current one is a super clone, that DIYed its self a soul? Neato
Decoys Morty!!!
I loved that intro it was amazing,
you need replies man
Professor Rhexx, I just want to say thank you for being consistently excellent over the years. Even when I was a junior in high school, I looked forward to every one of your videos on Skyrim and the rest of the Elder Scrolls. I’m a senior In University now and you are by far my favorite channel on TH-cam because nobody makes lore videos like you. Thank you.
Yes as I sophomore I deeply enjoyed staying up past 11 learning about dragons then dragonborn later the gods and now the planes i always tried to go to bed before 11 but now I go to bed at twelve I hope you enjoy a permanent retirement ten year and much more knowledge
He turned himself into a Demi-Lich, funniest shit I've ever seen.
Bravo!
On defeating the lich named Kangaxx, he pulls dat bs on the party as well. Defeating it only makes it turn into a cheating stronger demilich...
@@killereye Kangaxx literally fights like Acererak in Tomb of Horrors. Both pull out the exact same shit of spamming Soultrap, but since BG didn't have that they used Maze, but the effect is the same (only Soultrap victims never come back)
Adventurer, turn the skull over! Boom, big reveal, I turned myself into a demi-lich! I'm Demi-Lich Acererak!
Wanna make some CHARISMA SAVE against PERMANENT DEATH ?
Everyone ?
4 years late... but the "Raid" joke at the beginning killed me.
Lol, same. 😂
2:10 what...? The story of the simulacrum was a small little adventure. And TOH has a sequel called Return to the Tomb of Horrors which continues on into the 4e Tomb of Horrors which is a continuation of that where it explains why Acererak survives (I won’t spoil it here in case anyone wants to look)
This is a cool theory/self made lore but cannon wise he’s just very *very* difficult to kill because of tendencies to become a vestige. As for why he’s a ArchLich and not Demi-lich, I think that has to do with Demi-Liches being nerfed as a weaker form in 5e. Also 5e seems to have done a soft reboot on him as well hence no mentions of his history other than Oerth
Acererak can't be aan Aarchlich, because those "were good beings during their life" ( Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn, p.90). So Acererak must be lich or demilich.
Proof: forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Demilich
"small little" is redundant. That is all. Glad I got that off my chest.
Yeah, Rhexx does some awesome videos, but sometimes they are way off base. Lots of non-canon stuff here. Also, the very different Tomb of Horrors for 4e pretty much established that Acererak had been downgraded from the vestige he was in 3e to demilich again.
Bastian Schöls He is described as an ArchLich in TOA meaning that WOTC changed the meaning. (Vecna in MTOF is also described as an ArchLich) Personally I like define the good ones as ArcLich and very powerful Liches as ArchLich for this edition. But yeah that’s just another contradiction in 5E. I suspect this is because Demi-Liches have been downgraded in 5E yet Acererak is supposed to be a more powerful than normal lich.
@@sanddry738 the demilich article in the MM also states that demilichs who seek this path as Accererak did are slightly more powerful than normal liches
Dude, I wouldn't care if you were sponsored by raid Shadow Legends... Content is too good.
:0
Wow, you really like him
@@leobracken2316 I don't have enough friends that would be interested in playing D&D nor do I have enough time? This allows me to be able to experience the world of D&D but not actually play and I really appreciate that.
@@muffinman8744 ok. I was trying to say "I was surprised that someone would like Raid" but I'm not sure I worded that very well. Also I'm pretty certain I misunderstood your comment.
Sorry if I seemed rude or
something.
@@leobracken2316 lol no I was not talking about RSL...never even played. I just know from all the memes about it that its viewed as negative.
You almost got me at the beginning! Well played!
I finished playing this last October. I started bringing my little brother to play at our local comic book shop, and over a year and a half later, we were able to wrap it up. He and I are the only ones who survived start to end, (those who didn't die had to leave town or whatever. typical adventure league stuff.) He got Ras Nsi's sword.
I want to say thank you so much for your videos, it helps me with building for my campaigns, and my wife and I enjoy your content immensely! Keep up the amazing work!
P.S. I haven't been that scared by an intro since Dead Space
Found out I indeed just watched these video's without subscription, sorry! Real weird since I almost watched every video, so good on you for reminding me! :)
Dude, you have an incredible level of skill at taking in all this story related information and presenting it in an such an interesting and entertaining way. I havent played D&D for a while (I was a second edition player), and you make me really want to play again.
Please keep up the great work, and consider doing some DragonLance and Ravenloft stuff!
I always find it interesting that a lot of people who grew up on 2e either love or hate 5e. Most seem to love it. I grew up on 3e so 5e was a disappointment to me as it was extremely flat, streamlined, and changed the dynamics of all power to be 100% on the side of players. And the change in player base mentality has been extremely difficult. You'll find players these days find even the possibility of death to be offensive and a sign of a bad DM.
I was a little worried for the first 5 seconds! I was like NOOO not you to!
Too*
That aged badly
My very first game was Tomb of Horrors, 2nd edition:
I spent about an hour making a first level character and set out for the tomb, only to encounter a lonely goblin on route.
Who then won Initiative, Critically Hit with an arrow, and rolled Max Damage... ending my adventure before it even begun!
Now that's the D&D that I legitimately think is better. In 5e you would just recover and never have been in danger.
@tofu1608 yes, but it requires players that are a good sport and want to play a game, and not have the main character experience
@@nicholasgeere5125 the dude in the post literally said he didn't get to play the game
@@lordgrub12345 in general, not this specific situation
@@nicholasgeere5125 idk, most stories I hear from older editions is just people dying out of nowhere and if they complain about it, a bunch of purists come out of the woodwork to try and correct them about how they should've summoned a minion before crossing a random corridor.
I would like to thank you MrRhexx. I have been a subscriber for quite some time. My DMing has improved drasticly since watching your videos, your eye for detail is amazing! Thank you again and please keep it up!
Dear Lord, I thought you were corrupted by the Lich of Raid, it is said he bought and persuaded many a kingdom to bow before his knee, you must resist or all is lost.
A deep dive on Mezro would be a great video! Keep up the kick-ass work Rhexx!
Thanks so much for this video! I had modified the story of acerak that he stole the tech for the soulmonger from baphomets tower of science (really pale night’s tech) and the king kong aspect of ubtao went to investigate. The whole simulacrum event makes it so much better!
Really appreciate all your DnD videos.
I dig them so much!
Thank you so very much for this video, this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for in my post-TA campaign that is running. Instant subscription
I mean, sleeping with someone while in disguise is pretty bad, but you did steal his holy artifact, Leira.
Please do another episode on the city of Mesro , it sounds really interesting and worth a watch!
Wow thank you much Rhexx, the stars must have aligned as I am doing a ToA campaign now and the few questions I didnt really know the answer to and was just going to improv you answered perfectly. Subscribed!
About to run Tomb of Annihilation, and this video helped a lot with motivation and information. You got me to pick up THE RING OF WINTER audible too just to hear one of the NPC stories.
Your videos make great bedtime stories xD
This is great I have really wanted to run TOA for a while, this gives a lot of valuable context to the adventure. Even if the party never encounters this information, when you describe things equipped with historical context it makes the world feel more complex and real. I would probably drop in a book the party could find in Mezro from that tentacle gator's cult where they recorded their visions.
Would love to see a "Temple of Elemental Evil" episode like this.
I personally wouldn’t mind having to sit through a 1 minute add every other video, I’ve never even played D&D but love the lore and how detailed you go with it
You need more subs.The way you describe things makes just so much more memorable
Your videos are always top notch quality. Love this.
It's so hard to forget how folks at WoTC are so good at creating worlds and lore, Adventures that (even if badly made like Elemental Evil) have repercussions on the lore, it's also so easy to just look at a Faerun map and ask yourself " What is the Tortured land, the Turnback Mountains and the White Peak?" It's so interesting to read up on equally as a DM or a player. A DM can look up one of these names and create a quest with most likely enough material to make an interesting story, A player that knows that their quest takes place there can acquire information to create a very interesting PC with a purpose in these lands or a connection.
I really needed this video to create a more fleshed out Chult in my mind with more options for players, thank you so much for making one DM's life much easier.
I'm running a heavily modified tomb right now and the party is very close to meeting Artus. This is a prestige game of the same characters that I took through Storm King's Thunder. So my group is familiar with Artus. Could not be more stoked to have more lore a cram into my lore gun for this event. Always love your content thank you.
Aha I had a game that went from storm King's thunder to tomb of annihilation as well but the party accidently set the death curse in motion so they had to shift gears to face the supernatural threat first.
Oh man that's cool. Ya mine is heavily modified I'm doing sort of a Bermuda triangle thing where they thought it would be Chult but it's actually an island of that exists in between worlds plenty of undead and aberrations. Way less civilization (easier on me as a DM).
@@slickrickard That's smart. Yea, no this game happened very early in Storm King's so it was chaos to try and go from the spine of the world to chult. And rather than explore they blitzed to find the city asap. Unfortunately the party died on the fourth floor due to bad luck and player exhaustion cause the dungeon really kicked their teeth in between rough fights and bad rolls.
Ironically their mapped time actual had them perish very nearly lined up with the starting time the ToA book says for how long the death curse has been going.
That intro.... you absolute MadLad!
Wow I believe you are one of the Demigods. Fantastic content! This was very impressive and really makes me want to get into this game and world again. I haven’t played since the early beginning of second edition when I was in college. I remember when 2E was manifested and how a lot of my group was excited but some we very upset at the changes. I was working on my dissertation at the time had very little time for anything other than finishing research and writing my paper. I believe I may have only played once or twice with the new rules. I have a grandson that has shown interest in my plethora of old D&D books so maybe I can play again someday. Thanks again for the time you’ve invested.
I wish all the best to you and yours!
I really appreciate you giving more insight in Tomb of Annihilation. I was hoping you can tell more.
The Savras child story is so cool and it make a lot of sense about why there is all this savras profecy in the module. I will definetly use it
That intro got me to subscribe. I smooth skipped forward a few seconds when I saw "Raid" then saw the comments. Keep up the good content!
I can't describe how quickly my hand was drawn to the right arrow of my keyboard at the start of the video, nor the extent of relief and amusement I felt upon "I'm kidding".
If Tomb of Annihilation is the 2nd best adventure in D&D 5th edition, then what is the 1st?
the third-best
Curse of Strahd, I think.
Curse of Strahd
Cursed of strahd
CoS is one of the best also, i believe the best has been said to be the mines of phandelver. This is his opinoin if i remember correctly.
Liking and commenting to help the algorithm. Not watching cause i haven't played the adventure yet with my crew.
Thanks for all the work boss
This was surprisingly really interesting!! I didnt expect such a large gem of lore.
This was the first campaign I have ever run with me and my friends so this hits home for me, thank you for the video
Great video! Quick clarification for others wishing to go to the primary sources: I believe one of your sources (unlisted) was 3.5e's Serpent Kingdoms and seems like you're also drawing on the entire Lost City of Mezro series, not just Ruins of Mezro.
Great pacing, insightful, and comprehensive. Keep up the good work!
This is one of very few videos I've seen on YT where I was left wanting more!! Especially on Mezro!
Loved the music you added, really added to the whole vibe of Chult!
learned quite a lot and i might actually throw that dark lord druid into my home game seems like itd be fun.
THAT RAID BAIT. You had me in the first half (of turn), not gonna lie XD
I like the thoughts and weird topics. They help me set the stage for my campaigns
Hey, I've loved your Skyrim vids for years. So happy to find your two cents on this campaign I'm running!
Dude...your lore videos are so good...keep up the greatness :)
Been watching your vids for months, but i usually listen on the way home from work so i didnt even notice i wasnt subbed! great channel and content you have my sub :D
Hey, it's Fuzy675! I came to check out your channel and it's great!
🤩 so much information that you were able to gather. It is amazing !! Thanks so much
Great work on this Its a amazing adventure
Thank you for all of your efforts creating this fantastic content, great quality very interesting and engaging to watch ,
best video start I have seen in a while
this gives me more context for Puffin Forest videos
About to run this campaing, thanks for all this cool lore and context!
His channel is definitely worth subscribing to... thanks for inviting me to the family my friend
Haha... Got me with the raid thing...
I was reading one of the more recent Drizzt books and it references this adventure, I won't spoil too much but a villain uses a particular item that they say is connected to a lich's tomb in the land of Chult.
what is the title of the book ?
If you haven't done a video on the subject already. An in-depth on the Astral Dreadnaught would be awesome to watch. I don't think anyone else has done it either.
Thanks man, you gave me some ideas for when my guys hit Mezro!
love the videos! Can we have a video on Mindflayer and their society
Holy love of god, this is really good stuff man. Subbed.
Me: sees or hears tomb of annihilation
Also me: breaks down crying.
Acererak's phylactery is actually a Nokia that's why he hasn't truly been destroyed
I wanna see a campaign about the guy trying to res mystra. Also a thing on that shadowlands thing with the archdruid sounds awesome.
Need another one of these on the Curse of Strahd!
I’ve played through most of this and have restarted the campaign with a new group. Can’t wait to hopefully explore more of the area of chult and really get to mess with some of the really cool ass encounters within the module.
I am reasonably certain a WISH spell could escape a demiplane of dread. It specifically calls out under Wish's suggested effects that it can lift creatures from anywhere in the multiverse to anywhere in the multiverse. It's also worth noting this is not a teleport. It is specifically called out as a 'lift', which is not a teleport. That would defeat dimensional anchor or the like as well. As wish is a rewriting of reality, you could think of it as akin to save editing your location in a video game. No matter what barrier is in your way, you are on the other side of it, unless the powers that be have the power to stop you.
Depends how the DM views it to be honest I'd argue. If it really is like Barovia, then NOTHING can get you out, period, save killing the dreadlord, pact with the dark powers, that sort of thing. Supposed to be a unique feature of domains in Ravenloft; although I am working with old ideas here as I haven't looked at much 5th edition stuff dealing with Ravenloft. For example, Mordekainen himself is stuck in Barovia and can't get out, and he surely could just cast wish to leave (if he wasn't an insane deer in the module, but that's another story). Also apologies for the necro.
@@erdrickcapet3945 Is it stated that Mordenkainen is stuck?
@@NorthernWind0 Well on page 24 of the module it states "no spell -- not even wish -- allows one to escape from Strahd's domain." So if the area in Tomb of Annihlation functions by the same rules, which I'd think it would if they refer to it as a domain in the demiplane of dread cause that's what Barovia is, then that should also apply I'd think. Of course obviously any DM could change how it works and what not; I've never run TOA but I'd be tempted to alter/change the rules since that is just one small area in the much bigger module/storyline, whereas in Curse of Strahd not being able to leave is kind of the point.
@@erdrickcapet3945 Personally, I feel like this powercreeping of the world around Wish is a little ridiculous. If players are 18th level, can cast Gate or Wish, have overpowered the ending of the entire sourcebook and no longer have any reason to be there, they should not have to worry about being stuck. What can I say, I'm an old school DM. I don't like setting hard and fast rules against my players' ability to interact with the world.
Subbed for that fake out.
Man Dragonbait. That's going way back. Curse of the Azure Bonds and that series came out ages ago. And Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter. Old school harpers books if I recall.
Wait, is the Forsaken One's identity canon, or is that fan made? If so, that's pretty cool.
"i don't have time" = potential future vid topic
Literally never played D&D but I'll be damned if these videos aren't amazingly intruinging
Lol almost had me there, I was just about to roll my eyes, groan and everything. XD
u got me good in those first 3 seconds
2:51 “He turned himself into a p-“
Me: *war flashbacks*
19:07 #5. I want to expand on this further and run it in my game, what sources did you use for this? Mezro Adventure Trilogy? Thank you
Man.. I ran tomb of annihilation and I wish I woulda had this before! So awesome!!
more like 5 reasons to buy the 'Lost City of Mezro' AL module.
Yes. I saw this and then just ran it for my players it was well worth it. Very fun.
Honestly, I'd say this adventure was better than Curse of Strahd. They're both solid, but Strahd's strength is that it's heavy on the narrative - everything is interconnected, all tied back to Strahd. It's also the module's greatest weakness, because of how poorly laid out the bits and pieces of the adventure are. ToA doesn't have that problem. Everything is almost beautifully laid out and compartmentalised, with enough references where it's needed to flesh stuff out.
ToA was peak 5e, in my humble opinion. Everything after that was subpar, in some cases outright atrocious. *cough*Dragon Heist*cough*
Was planning on running dragon heist :-0 why's it rubbish?
I am curious for your reasons, as well.
@@olivercharles5581 I mean, where to start? It's not a heist, it's Waterdeep: Benny Hill. Waterdeep: Scooby Doo chase. It has an extremely weak and unconnected start that pigeonholes players into the position of innkeeper. It asks the characters to metagame and investigate an extremely mundane "mystery" in spite of having zero reason to, then actively puts obstacles to impede their investigation (sometimes completely shutting down an angle of progression they may take). It wastes a tonne of space on multiple paths for the sake of replayability, when each path boils down to a linear (and rather mediocre) list of encounters - that culminate in a what's most likely going to be a nearly impossible to win battle. And that's not even mentioning all the villain lairs that as written, the characters will never visit.
But don't fret though: this is only a problem if you play the game as-written. You're gonna have to go against the book in some instances, such as being much more lenient and perhaps a little pushy in the Fireball chapter - maybe you can play the city officials off as lazy instead of iron-fisted, leading to them hiring the party instead of hindering them. You're also gonna have to ask the players to work into their characters a desire to cooperate in the whole "running an inn" things, as its somewhat integral to the narrative.
There's a decent amount of good advice on r/WaterdeepDragonHeist pertaining to shaping it up into a better adventure. Don't get me wrong, it has fantastic potential: it certainly has the most unique premise in comparison to other modules. It's just really poorly executed.
Oh, and the maps are shit. Like, I get some people like to copy them and stuff, but there's no denying how much a sense of place Mike Schley's cartography lends to adventures like ToA.
Tahu Nuva my party got the Inn and named it Boo’ze. It was our favorite part of the adventure. It’s an ok module. The players need to be creative and the dm needs to be adaptable.
@@cfed95 Which is great! I'm not saying that you can't get a good adventure from it (I recently got a fantastic game out of Descent into Avernus, which holds many of the weaknesses WD:DH has), but as a module on its own it's extremely poorly written.
For example, my characters expected to actually be heisting - and when presented with the "opportunity" to run a tavern, had pretty much the reaction the Terminator would have if you asked it to play beach volleyball.
I might be remembering wrong here, but didn't the spell plague (or was it Karsus's Folly?) result in the negative energy plane ceasing to exist? And now we only have the shadowfell. If so, what happened to the tower?
No, the SHADOW PLANE ceased to exist and was fused with the shadowfell. The negative plane wasn't affected
And karsus folly caused the spell plague
@@Trapsarentgay133 Pretty sure the Spell Plague was caused because another god killed an old version of Mystra, not the one we've got today, and it was waaaaay later than Karsus's Folly
Tardígrado could be ill be honest its been ages since ive played d and d
@@Trapsarentgay133 Karsus' folly was a different event altogether and had nothing to do with the Spell Plague.It took place a -long time- before the Spell plague. Karsus used his magic to assume the mantel of Mystara, the original goddess of magic. Mystara then killed herself to get her power back from Karsus and became Mystra (the current goddess of magic from 2nd or 3rd edition onward I believe). Mystra then imposed limits on magic so spells of higher then 9th level could no longer be cast. MrRhexx has a video on Karsus' Folly. The Spell Plague is a 4th edition thing and quite recent in Forgotten Realms Cannon History. (the past 150 years or so). The Spell Plague was caused by the god Cyric tricking Tyr into killing Mystra. This caused Magic to go haywire for a while (and Shar stole half of the weave of the magic as well i believe. The part for Shadow Magic). The Spell Plague for Cannon history only ended 10 years prior to the Start point of 5th Edition and was ended with the reforming of the new Tablets of Fate by Ao.
Dammit Shar! Now when Dendar swallows the sun again the world will be engulfed in...ooooohhhhh. Clever Goddess.
2:41 Did he beat Acererack in a game of joust?
I can see a mini campaign in that small part of chult just to rescue the NPC, and slay the dark lord.
That intro earned my like haha
Best first 5 seconds on a yt video ever. i laughed so hard thank you!
when i was a player in this campaign we ran an extended version of it after we completed the tomb. our dm placed mezro in limbo and artis was looking for mezro because that's where his wife is. when we went to the oracle and were like how to get mezro back we've killed ras n'si she was like all threats need to be destroyed so we had to get rid of cindalor (sp?) where we located a portal to limbo in the back of her lair. when we got to limbo there was an encroaching darkness nearby to mezro we also met a lot of githyanki which was fun and had to deal with that in order to protect mezro and bring it back.
when they completed the ritual and we were transported back to the material plane ob'tau actually caught the city and gently placed it back in its old home. it was rad
I was looking forward for something to continue ToA after acererak is defeated and the mezro trilogy looks like a ton of fun and pretty short to run. Thanks a lot ^^
best start, made me smile
I would love to see a video for Curse of Strahd tbh!