What is this line about "a dose of poison" in the Dungrunglung section of the Tomb of Annihilation adventure talking about?

Question

The Tomb of Annihilation module has a section on Dungrunglung, where the grung King is trying to conduct a great ritual. The sidebar "The Great Ritual", on page 51, reveals to the DM the plan of one of the King's priests to fool him. I've reproduced a specific paragraph (emphasis mine):

Krr’ook’s Plan. A while ago, Krr’ook found a box of Nolzur’s marvelous pigments, which she hid from the king. She plans to paint an image of Nangnang of such quality that Groak will be fooled into thinking it’s the real goddess. Krr’ook hopes that one of the adventurers will have the skill to illustrate Nangnang convincingly. She’s willing to give the magical pigments as a reward to the adventurers if all goes well. As a further reward, Krr’ook offers a ring of jumping. Anyone touched by a dose of poison must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take 5 (2d4) poison damage. A dose of poison is used up once it deals damage to a creature.

What is the last part of the text talking about? What poison doses are players touching? Was this some formatting-gone-wrong issue?

Answer 1

Those sentences were removed in errata as "junk text".

On June 19th, 2020, D&D Beyond published a list of changes in the 6th printing of Tomb of Annihilation published starting June 17, 2020. Among those changes is the following entry:

Chapter 2

The Great Ritual (sidebar) (p. 51). In the "Krr'ook's Plans" subsection of the sidebar, delete the last two sentences: "Anyone touched by a dose of poison . . . To a creature." (This is junk text.) Deleting this text will shorten the sidebar.

The previous text of that paragraph is quoted in the question. Now that paragraph simply ends with the following sentence:

As a further reward, Krr’ook offers a ring of jumping.

As you guessed in the question, it was indeed some formatting-gone-wrong issue or editing error; the quoted lines have nothing to do with the context they appear in, and have been removed.

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Wizards of the Coast did not initially release an errata PDF when these changes were made to the digital version, though newer printings of the physical books included the same changes.

In December 2021, WotC eventually released an errata PDF for the book (including some additional changes to other parts of the book). The relevant line of the PDF simply notes that the last 2 lines of the sidebar were removed, and lacks any commentary about the reason why.

Answer 2

It appears to be an editing error, and originally most likely related to the party being offered or asking for doses of grung poison as a reward

The highlighted text has been removed in the 6th printing of the Tomb of Annihilation module. It has also been updated on D&D Beyond and mentioned in their official errata thread:

• The Great Ritual (sidebar) (p. 51). In the "Krr'ook's Plans" subsection of the sidebar, delete the last two sentences: "Anyone touched by a dose of poison . . . To a creature." (This is junk text.) Deleting this text will shorten the sidebar.

WotC did also eventually publish an errata document for ToA which reflects the state of the newer printings:

The Great Ritual (p. 51). In the “Krr’ook’s Plans” subsection, the last two sentences have been removed.

Speculating on why it was there in the first place, all Grung (as described in Appendix D) use poisoned weapons, and the DC and damage described in this paragraph matches the DC and damage of the grungs' poisoned weapon - so, the poison being mentioned in this paragraph is almost certainly just normal grung poison. In the context in which it's placed, immediately following on from the mention of the rewards that Krr'ook is willing to offer the characters for helping execute her plan, the most likely explanation is that it was originally intended that the party might also be offered, or ask for, doses of grung poison in exchange for their assistance. Presumably that option didn't survive editing, but the description of the poison did.