[ToA Spoilers] Ideas for more involved NPCs

[ruy343]

This is a thread intended for DMs of ToA.

I'm about to start a Tomb of Annihilation campaign, and I am left with feeling like the book doesn't spell out the NPCs that should play a major role, unlike other adventures, like Curse of Strahd. That's all well and fine, because it lets me personalize things, but I'd just like some perspective from others about how they did this.

Some specific questions I have are:

In your games, why is Acererak creating the Atropal? In The Lazy Dungeon Master it reiterates the simple point that good villains think they're right, while great villains actually are right. How can I make Acererak actually right or think he's right?

How can I give the players an end goal early on, without making the hexcrawl through the jungle feel pointless?

Which NPCs did you find compelling and worth making recurring characters/villains? How do you keep these characters alive in the imaginations of the players while adventuring through the deadly jungles of Chult?

[Unoriginal]

Spoilers ahead


I am left with feeling like the book doesn't spell out the NPCs that should play a major role, unlike other adventures, like Curse of Strahd.

There are quire a few relatively important NPCs , though.


In The Lazy Dungeon Master it reiterates the simple point that good villains think they're right, while great villains actually are right.

Sorry, but this is utterly wrong. You can't make a generalization like that. There can be trash villains who are right, and there can be great villains who are genuinely aware they're doing something wrong and are fine with it.

Saying "no, great villains must be right" is missing the whole range of great villains just to pretend a tiny, tiny minority are the real great villains and then "no true Scotsman" the rest.



In your games, why is Acererak creating the Atropal?

Same reason as in the book: he wants to make a new god of death to help with his schemes.




How can I make Acererak actually right or think he's right?


You can't, not without profoundly butchering who Acererak is.

Acererak is basically a live version of a forum troll, and a complete sociopath unable to see people as anything but cans of energy drink, tools, or toys.




How can I give the players an end goal early on, without making the hexcrawl through the jungle feel pointless?

What do you mean? The end goal is "find what is causing the Death Curse and end it".

If it's not enough for you, you could send them after Ras Nsi, too, who is responsible for the undead infestation in Chult. Or you could go for one of the side quests, maybe with one of the guides, like freeing the dwarven mine and forge.




Which NPCs did you find compelling and worth making recurring characters/villains?


We didn't play a lot, so not many of the NPCs would qualify, but Faroul and Gondolo were quite fun recurring characters, in my opinion.

Especially when one of the PCs revealed herself to be far more inept than them.



How do you keep these characters alive in the imaginations of the players while adventuring through the deadly jungles of Chult?

By making them adventure with the PCs? Or by having the NPCs be memorable when they meet the PCs and maybe tell them something about what the PCs are going to face later that the PCs will remember.

[ruy343]

Allow me to re-state what I'm looking for:

I understand that Acererak is a troll (who kills people when he's done). I get that. It's classic, 1979 D&D. However, in my more "modern" adventure, I'd rather he have more... soul than that.

I'd rather Acererak have a reason behind what he's doing besides the "because it will further my schemes".

Is the Atropal able to consistently feed him the soul-energy he needs to avoid becoming a Demilich if he fails to consume souls?

Is the Atropal a way to overcome alignment-based afterlife screening and put everyone in the same place and cease separating loved ones (or has he been deluded to believe that?)?

Is the Atropal a long-dead Cthulhu-esque god that Acererak has agreed to revive in exchange for something that he desperately wants? (What is that something?)

I mean, I just want something meatier than "because it's fun" or "because it's what he does". I get that he's written to follow his classic character, but I want more than that.

The same goes for a number of the other NPCs... but I suppose the only one that I'm really stuck on is Acererak. the book comes up with a number of motivations for many NPCs, so I can use those on the fly... but Acererak is a mystery to me.

[Unoriginal]

Allow me to re-state what I'm looking for:

I understand that Acererak is a troll (who kills people when he's done). I get that. It's classic, 1979 D&D. However, in my more "modern" adventure, I'd rather he have more... soul than that.

Why? Him being soulless (though not literally so) is the whole point.



I'd rather Acererak have a reason behind what he's doing besides the "because it will further my schemes".

It gives him more power and let him do a middle finger to his many enemies (especially among the gods). It's a pretty solid reason to me.



Is the Atropal able to consistently feed him the soul-energy he needs to avoid becoming a Demilich if he fails to consume souls?

Acererak doesn't need to worry about that: even assuming he somehow doesn't eat enough souls, he figured out a way to not be hindered by the Demilich state, letting him keep his mind and making him much more dangerous.

it would let him have a very powerful minion, though, which is nice



Is the Atropal a way to overcome alignment-based afterlife screening and put everyone in the same place

Nope, that's the Soulmonger's power. And it works on a planet-sized scale, which is pretty nice overall.



and cease separating loved ones (or has he been deluded to believe that?)?

Wait, what? Why would he care about separating loved ones?



Is the Atropal a long-dead Cthulhu-esque god that Acererak has agreed to revive in exchange for something that he desperately wants? (What is that something?)

Nope. The Atropal is the remains of a non-finished titan Acererak found and went "yeah, I can work with that".



I mean, I just want something meatier than "because it's fun" or "because it's what he does". I get that he's written to follow his classic character, but I want more than that.

"He's a cruel person who wants more power and who would get an incredible amount if he succeed" isn't enough?


but Acererak is a mystery to me.

I think it's more you don't like Acererak and want to use a different character instead.


If you want a more concrete than just "he get a super-powerful minion, defeat the Night Serpent, and do a middle finger to all the gods who have stakes on Faerun", then here's something:

If the Atropal become a death god, then Acererak would have the potential to go to the Shadowfell and destroy/absorb/imprison the Raven Queen. Which would not only grant him control to one of the best places to farm undead, he could also pluck any souls before they reach the plane they're destined to go AND allow him to torment them in personalized demiplanes for eternity (or until he gets bored).

And with that power, he could literally force Hell to pay him a tribute just to get the souls they need. That's right, he could ransom the souls who are due to the Nine Hells by cosmic right.

Now if he tried that he would likely get destroyed for a while, but none the less he has the power to do so.

[NRSASD]

@ruy343: You're welcome to search for a compelling motivation to give Acererack more soul (I mean, he has closets full of the stuff ripped from other people, but I digress) but doing so negates what Acererack is. The whole tomb of Annihilation is a side hustle for him, a hobby he indulges in when he takes a break from decimating Prime Material Planes. He's basically Xykon but even more so.

If he has a compelling story arc, with a tragic motivation, backstory, etc., you're fundamentally changing who the character Acererak is. He's not a real character, so much as he is an elemental force of evil that will be there long after your party has faded to dust.

In my honest opinion, giving him a backstory, making him relatable, fundamentally weakens who he already is: the epitome of evil your party will ever encounter.

[Unoriginal]

@ruy343: You're welcome to search for a compelling motivation to give Acererack more soul (I mean, he has closets full of the stuff ripped from other people, but I digress) but doing so negates what Acererack is. The whole tomb of Annihilation is a side hustle for him, a hobby he indulges in when he takes a break from decimating Prime Material Planes. He's basically Xykon but even more so.

If he has a compelling story arc, with a tragic motivation, backstory, etc., you're fundamentally changing who the character Acererak is. He's not a real character, so much as he is an elemental force of evil that will be there long after your party has faded to dust.

In my honest opinion, giving him a backstory, making him relatable, fundamentally weakens who he already is: the epitome of evil your party will ever encounter.

Well, I agree with most of this, but I wouldn't say that Acererak isn't a real character.

He is a character. He has a personality, motivations, even a personal style. It's just that he is, in the end, an illustration of uncaring evil: the kind of person who would snuff out a life not out of hatred, but out of disinterest for anything but their personal satisfaction.

[WOTC_GM]

Here's my thoughts as a DM that is about 4-5 sessions away from finishing a ToA campaign.



In your games, why is Acererak creating the Atropal? In The Lazy Dungeon Master it reiterates the simple point that good villains think they're right, while great villains actually are right. How can I make Acererak actually right or think he's right?

Acererak is creating the Atropal as a side project. He's set up a machine that draws in the souls of the departed, which the Atropal then feeds off of. There's nothing to do with being right, this is just another one of Acererak's schemes to gather more power. The Atropal itself is basically a stillborn death god that is slowly growing in strength.


How can I give the players an end goal early on, without making the hexcrawl through the jungle feel pointless?

This is stated in the book I believe. The main pull is supposed to be that the party have been hired by (The NPC who's name I cannot recall) to go to the island of Chult, and to discover what is causing the death curse that is currently affecting the planet. They also are supposed to be on a time limit, as anyone who had been brought back by magic in the past is now starting to decay, losing a permanent -1 HP per day. The woman who hires the party to find the source of the curse is herself decaying, which should push the party to explore and move at a decent pace. There's lots of wiggle room here to put in your own reasons though, as perhaps the party has a close friend or family who is now dying, or maybe (although this would suck for the player) they themselves are starting to decay, having been brought back from death some time in the past.

If the players are starting off at level 1, you could even have them go to the island or start on the island as an alternate plot hook, with the party meeting an NPC while there who then asks them to go explore the island in search of Ras Ni/The Ancient evil that dwells within etc. Alternatively you can always just give the players personal reasons for being/going to Chult, perhaps they have ties to the Order of the Gauntlet or the Company of the Yellow Banner which would give them a great reason to want/need to explore the island.


Which NPCs did you find compelling and worth making recurring characters/villains? How do you keep these characters alive in the imaginations of the players while adventuring through the deadly jungles of Chult?

I enjoyed most of the guides/side NPC's that are presented in the book. I would just read through all of them and pick out 3-5 that you like the most and have those presented to the party as options while exploring the port city.

What I did was to have one of the Merchant princes invite the party to his home for a dinner party, in which multiple NPC guides were present and that gave the party a chance to get to know everyone. They ended up going with Hew Hackingstone, whom I enjoyed roleplaying greatly.

As far as recurring villains go, I only really had Valindra Shadowmantle as a recurring frenemy, along with the hag sisters. There are plenty of other NPC's in the jungle itself that you could choose to also recur, depending on where and who your party encounters.


I understand that Acererak is a troll (who kills people when he's done). I get that. It's classic, 1979 D&D. However, in my more "modern" adventure, I'd rather he have more... soul than that.

Dealers choice really. Acererak isn't even supposed to be the "Main" villain of the story. He's relatively unaware that the PC's are even coming to stop his plans up until the very end, as he has far more important things to be focusing on than a part of comparatively weak adventurers. He isn't like Strahd who was constantly showing up and knocking the party down or taunting them. The three hag sisters/Withers are the ones that are responsible for maintaining the tomb and watching over the Atropal.


For my campaign, once my party had arrived in Omu I started to have them roll wisdom checks during long rests, and those who failed would see visions of Omu in it's prime, followed by a cloaked figure hovering in the air that would always appear and bring death and destruction to the city. The PC's would then wake up in a cold sweat, occasionally with a point of exhaustion.

This gave my players a nudge towards figuring out what happened and an opponent for them to focus on, without outright stating what or who this mysterious opponent was. I personally plan on having him pop in during the Atropal fight at the end of the campaign, most likely after they drop the Atropal to half health.


I'd rather Acererak have a reason behind what he's doing besides the "because it will further my schemes".

Generally speaking anything any evil villain does is ultimately to further their schemes. In this instance, Acererak found the Atropal, set up a nice comfy dungeon for it to sit inside and grow, and is planning on popping back in once it's fully grown. At which point he now has his own personal death god to overthrow the current god of death and upset the balance of the world as we know it. If you don't feel that his reasons or schemes make sense or have enough depth to them, you could always make the stakes larger by having the party be conscripted by the current god of death/gods in general to prevent a new god from being created, without ever going so far as to mention an Atropal. This would give the players more of a reason to need to visit Chult and explore the island in search of this unknown entity.


Is the Atropal able to consistently feed him the soul-energy he needs to avoid becoming a Demilich if he fails to consume souls?

The Atropal, to my knowledge, has nothing to do with feeding soul energy to Acererak. Acererak has multiple deadly dungeons set up, specifically to lure in foolish adventurers and harvest their souls. Acererak is not at all worried about not having enough souls to consume.


Is the Atropal a way to overcome alignment-based afterlife screening and put everyone in the same place and cease separating loved ones (or has he been deluded to believe that?)?

No, not to my knowledge. I don't think he cares one way or the other. The Soulmonger gathers any soul from every creature, regardless of alignment.


Is the Atropal a long-dead Cthulhu-esque god that Acererak has agreed to revive in exchange for something that he desperately wants? (What is that something?)

I mean, I just want something meatier than "because it's fun" or "because it's what he does". I get that he's written to follow his classic character, but I want more than that.

The same goes for a number of the other NPCs... but I suppose the only one that I'm really stuck on is Acererak. the book comes up with a number of motivations for many NPCs, so I can use those on the fly... but Acererak is a mystery to me.

See above!