GM WhtKnt's Saltmarsh and Beyond (Inactive)

Game Master WhtKnt

Strength: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

Eristinian watches the others slam their shoulders into the door to force it open before simply saying, "Let me have a go." He steps up to the door, and give it a kick very near to the latch. The door shudders, possibly loosened by the others' efforts.

Yes, you could take 20 on it, but that will destroy any chance of surprising the denizens, but of course, that's negligible now.

The door swings open on creaking hinges. At first, you think that you have opened a door to the outside. Plants cover every square inch of this room; puffballs, cacti, flowering plants, bushes, mushrooms, toadstools. Everywhere you look are plants. The walls are very nearly obscured by vegetation and climbing ivy. The air is damp and thick with humidity. The floor is covered in a mossy carpet.

The others move too quickly for Caelryl to stop them from opening the door. "Good thing it wasn't connected to the last room. This looks out of place. I wonder if the former resident wizard had anything to do with this room," he says as he peers into the room looking for anything dangerous.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Knowledge(nature): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

There is plenty of danger here, and great beauty as well. There are:

Purple Toadstools - Caelryl identifies these as a deadly poison
Pink Puffballs - Unknown
Brown Shelf Fungus - Unknown
Pasty White Puffballs - Unknown
Red Toadstools with White Spots - Unknown
Blue-grey Morels - Vile-tasting and nausea-inducing, according to Caelryl
Cacti with Red Flowers - Unknown
Black-and-Yellow Puffballs - Unknown

"Uh wow!" breathed Tasius, this place was weirder than ever. "So some of these are really poisonous? Maybe we should leave this alone?"

"Spell components, possibly," Eristinan offers, glancing over the fungi-covered room. "Or possibly alchemical reagents, though I would have expected a lab nearby. Perhaps the goblins took over that area for themselves? Either way, given time, I could probably extract the poison from the fungi and give us a weapon to use against the goblins, but it would take time and resources I don't have at the moment."

Caelryl nods in agreement to Tasius' statement. "Who knows what is in there waiting for us and with that large room of goblins nearby, I think we should move on right now. Let's continue North."

"Right then north it is". replied Tasius. He cautiously headed north, aware there could be goblins or stranger things anywhere.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

The group continues along the passage heading north until they find themselves at the crossroads where the bodies lay.

"My, my...what happened here?"

Amanda moves cautiously forward to examine the bodies.

There are five bodies in the crossroads:

Body 1 is a human warrior, slumped against the wall. His sword is broken in half and his armor has been stripped.

Body 2 is a mage of some sort, impaled against a wall. His robes are mageguild, and though he rots, he is held upright by a spear thrust through his body and broken off.

Body 3 is another warrior, this time a dwarf. He lies face down just east of the intersection. It appears he crawled here, dragging blood, and died as a trail of blood leads from the steps to where he is, and pooled. The blood is now long dried. The dwarf is lying on top of a broken war hammer and beside him lies a money bag, turned inside out.

Body 4 is a human female, also stripped of her armor, sprawled against the northeast corner.

Body 5 is small and lithe, a halfling, with dark clothing and a mask.

All of the bodies have begun to decompose and the smell is horrible!

"Hmm, back to the main entrance. I suppose we could go back to the plant room to check that out. If we have problems, we're right by the exit. I'm concerned about the barracks near the exit. If an alarm is rung while we are deeper inside, we could be cut off from the exit. Although attacking an unknown sized force isn't a good idea either. Another option would be to explore the rooms in the middle of the map we found," he says to no one in particular as if thinking out loud.

Bump

Galfon sighs. "We're gonna need to tackle the goblins sooner or later," he remarks, eyeing the corpses woefully. "Maybe we should try to get them to come to us. Pick a good position from which we can retreat easily. Mow down the underlings and try to draw out the leader. We'd just need something loud to get their attention."

"Well I can be loud!", the little halfling lass comments while looking around for a good place to fight from.

"If we want to get their attention, how about we go back to the cheifs room?" suggested Tasuis, "Could try the retreat like you say if we find superior numbers."

"I'd like to think we're more prepared to deal with the chief this time," Eristinian says. "He caught us off-balance the first time."

"Right you are." agreed Tasius, "Lead on I'll be by your side."

When Eristinian was ready to go Tasius followed him, keeping alert. There was no telling when the goblins might attack again and they'd all seen what could happen if they where ambushed.
Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

OK lets start our hunt in the Cheif's room. I can't remember where that is on the map, sorry.

Everyone in agreeance?

"Let's teach that goblin a lesson he won't soon forget!"

Galfon nods. "All right. Let's see what we can do."

I think we should try to avoid the chief until we've leveled up. I don't think he came into the room expecting us either so he could have more guards with him.

The group heads back in the direction of the chief's room, despite Caelryl's concerns. You are now outside the secret door to the chief's chamber (actually just down the hall from it).

The map is updated!

Should I continue, or have you guys lost interest? Is it just that you tire of goblin-hunting? There is more here than meets the eye, but I can gloss over the goblin hunt and move on to something else if you prefer.