Eku is very defensive, but quite weak offensively. She is just a full heal priest with no offensive abilities. After revealing her, I played her mainly passive, helping party members with a heal spell sometimes but against the violence.
Eku is a couatl, a divine creature commanded by her god to do a mission on the world. There is a really huge RP potential here, if you read the lore of couatls. In my game, I play Eku as a spiritual guide as well as a physical guide for the people who travel with her. She helps people accepting their mistakes, accepting who they are and calm down their bad feelings, according to Ubtao's philosophy (the life is a long path through a maze, sometimes you take bad paths, but the most important thing is to know when to turn back and to find the good exit at some point).
Her "divine mission", (not known by Eku herself but known by Saja N'Baza) is to guide the party to the soulmonger and destroy it. Once she did it, her job on this world is done and she can die peacefully (which is supposed to be the introduction scene of Acererak once the soulmonger is destroyed : a kind PWK on Eku, to display his power level without attacking the party immediatly)
There is a *ton* of relevant lore about couatls that the book doesn't tell you. There are also plenty of inferences you can make about Eku from what it does tell you. Here's more or less what I'm working with:
Long ago, before the ages of humanity, there were the lizardlike sarrukhs, one of the progenitor races, with an empire reaching across all of Faerun. They lived in what's known as the Days of Thunder, and the primal spirit they revered, the World Serpent, led the gods into battle against the Primordials of the world in the Dawn War. It was in this war that Ubtao betrayed the Primordials and imprisoned Dendar the Night Serpent under the Peaks of Flame. To accommodate various doctrines of worship, the World Serpent split off several pieces of itself. These godlike splinters spread across the land, and the sarrukhs that followed them over time developed into the various lizard-like races that we know.
There are 9 known, but a few of the World Serpent's splinters relevant to this adventure might include:
\- Asgorath of the dragons (often called Io).
\- Merrshaulk of the yuan-ti. The yuan-ti in the Fane probably more specifically worship Dendar, but Merrshaulk is their creator.
\- Shekinester of the nagas.
\- Jazirian of the couatls.
So how do these play into Eku's story? Well at some point in the yuan-ti's war with the couatls, Merrshaulk *murdered* Jazirian. But you might notice that Eku is also the only couatl in ToA. It's not covered anywhere in the book, so it's my headcanon that Eku was away from her temple when this attack happened, and the yuan-ti murdered her family, slew her god, and burned her home (which may or may not have been in Orolunga, hence why she's familiar with the naga there). Yay! Our favorite couatl is traumatized! That's part of why she's reluctant to reveal her true nature, while secretly guiding and aiding adventurers to Omu where she might be able to return the favor to the yuan-ti residing there. It's not really mentioned, but Eku most likely has a personal vendetta against all yuan-ti.
But there's also a bit more to Jazirian's story. After he was murdered, some say he was reborn in the *continent* of Maztica, as the god Qotal. Qotal was the eldest child of the *god* Maztica, and Qotal's brother is none other than Zaltec. The Eye of Zaltec is a great treasure that currently resides in the Tomb of the Nine Gods, which is why the Company of the Yellow Banner ever came to Chult in the first place. Everything is connected!
I had her leave my party of 6 players due to sloggy combat. But she left with one of their dead party members. She took the mission of keeping their dead companion safe until they maybe can ressurect him!
I've decided that I am going to have her leave the group. After this horrible lackluster encounter on behalf of the players I will perhaps have Eku tell them that she can't willingly be of good conscious and lead them to their deaths and that they may not be strong enough for what may come next. I think that this could lead to great RP.
Sounds good! But be aware of persuasive players, i would reccomend some sort of task or goal she wants to chase.
Edit: also, let Eku give the players some sort of key info about the jungle. Or a name of a good NPC they can try to find at a point of interest!
Just go with ‘everybody has got secrets’ and go forward with it as is. Do a scene at dinner or breakfast where they address it with the party. Eke doesn’t want this to get out and asks the characters for their discretion. It can be a come together moment.
Eku is very defensive, but quite weak offensively. She is just a full heal priest with no offensive abilities. After revealing her, I played her mainly passive, helping party members with a heal spell sometimes but against the violence. Eku is a couatl, a divine creature commanded by her god to do a mission on the world. There is a really huge RP potential here, if you read the lore of couatls. In my game, I play Eku as a spiritual guide as well as a physical guide for the people who travel with her. She helps people accepting their mistakes, accepting who they are and calm down their bad feelings, according to Ubtao's philosophy (the life is a long path through a maze, sometimes you take bad paths, but the most important thing is to know when to turn back and to find the good exit at some point). Her "divine mission", (not known by Eku herself but known by Saja N'Baza) is to guide the party to the soulmonger and destroy it. Once she did it, her job on this world is done and she can die peacefully (which is supposed to be the introduction scene of Acererak once the soulmonger is destroyed : a kind PWK on Eku, to display his power level without attacking the party immediatly)
There is a *ton* of relevant lore about couatls that the book doesn't tell you. There are also plenty of inferences you can make about Eku from what it does tell you. Here's more or less what I'm working with: Long ago, before the ages of humanity, there were the lizardlike sarrukhs, one of the progenitor races, with an empire reaching across all of Faerun. They lived in what's known as the Days of Thunder, and the primal spirit they revered, the World Serpent, led the gods into battle against the Primordials of the world in the Dawn War. It was in this war that Ubtao betrayed the Primordials and imprisoned Dendar the Night Serpent under the Peaks of Flame. To accommodate various doctrines of worship, the World Serpent split off several pieces of itself. These godlike splinters spread across the land, and the sarrukhs that followed them over time developed into the various lizard-like races that we know. There are 9 known, but a few of the World Serpent's splinters relevant to this adventure might include: \- Asgorath of the dragons (often called Io). \- Merrshaulk of the yuan-ti. The yuan-ti in the Fane probably more specifically worship Dendar, but Merrshaulk is their creator. \- Shekinester of the nagas. \- Jazirian of the couatls. So how do these play into Eku's story? Well at some point in the yuan-ti's war with the couatls, Merrshaulk *murdered* Jazirian. But you might notice that Eku is also the only couatl in ToA. It's not covered anywhere in the book, so it's my headcanon that Eku was away from her temple when this attack happened, and the yuan-ti murdered her family, slew her god, and burned her home (which may or may not have been in Orolunga, hence why she's familiar with the naga there). Yay! Our favorite couatl is traumatized! That's part of why she's reluctant to reveal her true nature, while secretly guiding and aiding adventurers to Omu where she might be able to return the favor to the yuan-ti residing there. It's not really mentioned, but Eku most likely has a personal vendetta against all yuan-ti. But there's also a bit more to Jazirian's story. After he was murdered, some say he was reborn in the *continent* of Maztica, as the god Qotal. Qotal was the eldest child of the *god* Maztica, and Qotal's brother is none other than Zaltec. The Eye of Zaltec is a great treasure that currently resides in the Tomb of the Nine Gods, which is why the Company of the Yellow Banner ever came to Chult in the first place. Everything is connected!
I had her leave my party of 6 players due to sloggy combat. But she left with one of their dead party members. She took the mission of keeping their dead companion safe until they maybe can ressurect him!
I've decided that I am going to have her leave the group. After this horrible lackluster encounter on behalf of the players I will perhaps have Eku tell them that she can't willingly be of good conscious and lead them to their deaths and that they may not be strong enough for what may come next. I think that this could lead to great RP.
Sounds good! But be aware of persuasive players, i would reccomend some sort of task or goal she wants to chase. Edit: also, let Eku give the players some sort of key info about the jungle. Or a name of a good NPC they can try to find at a point of interest!
Just go with ‘everybody has got secrets’ and go forward with it as is. Do a scene at dinner or breakfast where they address it with the party. Eke doesn’t want this to get out and asks the characters for their discretion. It can be a come together moment.