This will be the journal for my new Pathfinder campaign. It is set in Greyhawk and takes place (at least initially) around the town of Saltmarsh. It is inspired in part by that adventure, but includes a lot of homebrew content and possibly other adventures.
Session #1 (Welcome to Saltmarsh)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 1)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 1)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 1)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 1)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 1)
The campaign begins in the spring of the year 606 CY, some ten years after the events of the Age of Worms. The lands of the Flanaess have had some time to heal, but packs of roving undead are still a hazard in many parts of the continent. The adventurers have travelled from Gradsul to Seaton via a merchant caravel, and from Seaton they have been following the Coast Road west towards Saltmarsh. John Breslow has interests in Saltmarsh. He recently received a deed to his grandfather’s mansion in Saltmarsh, and he has been ordered by his father, a successful merchant in Gradsul, to go there and see to this valuable asset. John’a companions have each agreed to accompany him for various reasons (which are not overly clear at this point). Their journey has thus far been uneventful, but as they get closer to Saltmarsh and emerge from a copse of trees, they happen upon a group of eight bandits a little ways up the road. The bandits are in the process of robbing a peddler and his half orc son. The two victims are standing in the middle of the trail while four hooded and masked archers train bows on them. At the same time, four other bandits are busy picking over the goods on their wagon, which is stuck in some muck- it seems that due to a recent storm the road up ahead is swamped, and not passable by wagon or cart, a lesson that peddler has seemingly learned the hard way. At first, the bandits don’t notice the heroes standing in the shadows of the trees, and this gives several of them the chance to hide among the foliage and try to sneak closer to the bandits. Seymaz stays on the trail and casts a divine favour spell on his great sword. He then steps forward to address the bandits. They tell him that they are “road wardens” out “collecting taxes” and that he had best mind his own business, turn around and be on his way. A couple of them raise bows at him. At this point, John also emerges from hiding and assists Seymaz with the negotiations. They learn that the bandits are loyal to an individual called the Skull King, but when Seymaz doesn’t seem interested in minding his own business one of them fires a shot at him with his bow. The arrow deflects off of the tiefling’s armour, but Freya, who is hiding in some ferns already had a line on the bandit with her crossbow, and she fires at him as soon as he looses his arrow. As one would expect, a battle erupts. Galdriel emerges from the trees with her own bow and fires on an archer, tagging him in the arm. John gulps down one of his mutagens. Ephai fires with his bow and moves closer to the action, as he prefers melee to ranged combat. Seymaz charges down the path with his great sword ready, bellowing a battle cry to Dalt, The half orc escorting the peddler has been stripped of weapons and armour, but he has plenty of fight in him. He sees that the bandits that had previously been covering him with their bows are now distracted, and he takes advantage of this to rush the bandit leader. The leader of the bandits has a short sword drawn, but he isn’t ready for the sudden rush of the big half orc, and both of them slip and fall in the muck, where they find themselves rolling about in a vicious grappling match.
Things get a little ugly, when both Galdriel and Seymaz take arrows and are wounded, but Freya and John help to turn the tide with their respective magics. Freya brings two bandits down with a sleep spell, while John drinks one of his elixirs and grows to twice his height. The magic causes his gear to enlarge with him, and this combined with the power of his mutagen makes him incredibly strong (first level character with a of str 22 I think). He moves up to the prone bandit leader and smashes him with his mace, nearly killing the bandit captain with a single blow. A couple of the other bandits close around their leader and try to protect him, but Seymaz arrives to back up John, and the two of them fight viciously enough to make the bandits abandon their downed leader and start a fighting withdraw. They fire a few more arrows at the heroes, specifically trying to bring down the enlarged, mutated hulk that is John Breslow (John Smash!). They put a couple of arrows in him, and nearly drop him, but Gladriel, Ephai and Freya keep launching arrows at the bandits, inflicting painful wounds. This is enough to fully route the survivors, and they flee to the north. The heroes are content to let them run, as they have injuries of their own and, truth be told, aren’t in much shape to keep up the fighting. They execute the leader of the bandits, and bind the two bandits that Freya took out with her sleep spell.
Next, John takes advantage of the remaining time on his mutagen and enlarge elixir to help the peddler get his wagon out of the mud it got stuck in. The peddler is most grateful for their aid, and after the heroes chat with the peddler and learn that his name is Resten. He introduces them to his half orc son Gram. Gladriel immediately quips that he must take after his mother. It turns out that Resten and Gram travel a route that takes them from Seaton west to Saltmarsh and then north to the town of Burle. Resten explains that he’s heard of this Skull King, and says that he is rumoured to be some kind of bandit lord lairing in the Dreadwood. Bandits loyal to him rob travellers using the Dreadwood road, as well as along the trade route he follows. Fortunately, they don’t take everything from those they rob. They seem to view their robberies more as toll or tax collection. They also aren’t overly violent, unless provoked. The viscount in Seaton has done little to put an end to the bandit raids, and rumour has it that folk from some of the region’s villages have been abandoning their lot as serfs and venturing into the Dreadwood so that they might join the ranks for the growing bandit army.
Due to the trail being swamped from the heavy spring rains, Resten concludes that he won’t be able to continue along the Coast Road with his horse and wagon to Saltmarsh. So even though they are only about 5 miles from the town he is forced to detour north and cut around Saltlake. This detour will cost him an extra day, and cause him to pass by some of the odd little villages of the interior that he generally prefers to avoid. He asks if the heroes will accompany him. At first they look for compensation, but he explains that he has little to offer them other than his gratitude, as he is not a wealthy merchant and can’t afford to hire on guards. Normally, he relies on his faith in Saint Cuthbert and his son’s strength and skill with a blade to protect him and his goods. The heroes agree to go with him anyhow, and they load up the wagon with their two bandit prisoners, as well as some of the gear they salvaged from the bandits.
They travel with Resten and Gram for the remainder of the day, heading north along the salt lake. Rested avoids the villages, but they make their camp along the shores of the lake that night. The following day they trek around the remainder of the lake and arrive in Saltmarsh late in the afternoon. Their day passes without incident, but during the journey they have time to converse with Resten and learn a little about the region. He informs them that John’s grandfather, Frandlor the alchemist, was not a well liked man in Saltmarsh, despite the fact that he and the Company of the Axe helped elevate the town from a backwater fishing village to a thriving trade town. They also learn that Resten is a follower of Saint Cuthbert and that there is a temple of Saint Cuthbert in Saltmarsh that is presided over by a priest named Shepard Ivan who is the son of Ivan the Elder, who was in turn one of Frandlor’s adventuring companions.
Eventually, they reach Saltmarsh. They find it to be a large town sitting on the coast, partially protected by a stone wall that has not been completed. The remainder of the town is defended by wooden palisade and a ditch. Up on a hill at the southern end of the town, sits a stone keep, a temple and the town hall. Resten mentions that the temple is dedicated to Procan the sea god. The heroes pass through the gate into town. They tell their tale of aiding Resten against the Skull King bandits, and they hand over the captured bandits to them, as well as the head of the leader. They inquire about a bounty for the man, but the guards inform them that bounties on bandits are paid in Seaton by the Viscount, not Saltmarsh. Rested leads the adventurers into town, and takes them to an Inn called the Lizard’s Boat. Here they set up to spend the night. The proprietor of the inn is an attractive elven woman named Kailee that is missing a hand. She keeps a large monitor lizard as a pet, and her son is big and ugly half elf named Kelvin.
They take their supper in the common room, and during that time they have a chance to chat with Kailee. They learn the reason why Frandor is not well-liked in Saltmarsh as well as unusually circumstances regarding his death. It seems that Grandpa Frandor was poisoned by a serving girl named Giselle in the Drunken Urchin tavern in Saltmarsh. Prior to his death he had several large metal cages commissioned in town, and afterwards some young women from the town started disappearing. The locals blame him for the girls’ disappearances. Giselle’s sister was one of the girls, which is why people in the town think Giselle poisoned the alchemist. Giselle claimed to be innocent, but the town’s high priest of Procan (god of the sea) used divine magic to discern her guilt, and she was executed for Frandor’s murder. When Frandor died he assumed the form of a changeling. This left a lot of questions about whether he was actually dead. Townsfolk went to his mansion afterwards, but they found no sign of Frandor, the girls, his lab or the big metal cages. Most folk assume that there are secret chambers hidden in the mansion that have not been discovered, for Frandor had the place designed and built, at great expense, by dwarves that were brought in from distant lands, and everyone knows that dwarves are experts at clever stonework. These days folk claim that the mansion is now haunted by Frandor’s ghost and the ghosts of the missing girls. The place is generally avoided. Kailee mentions that a local hunter named Yorst claims that he explored the place and encountered various ghosts and haunts. She tells them that Yorst likes to hang out in a tavern called the Drunken Urchin, should they wish to speak with the man.
Their dinner is interrupted when Sherriff Isiah Crowley enters the common room with a couple of guards. He has gotten word of the adventurers encounter with the bandits and their arrival in town, and he is interested in meeting them. He informs them that Saltmarsh is a peaceful town of goodly folk who don’t like trouble makers. This seems to be a bit of warning towards them; in particular he looks at Seymaz the tiefling when he speaks these words. The sheriff inquires about their business in town, and John explains his relationship to Frandor and makes clear his intention to see to his grandfather’s former home. The sheriff also makes plain that Frandor was not well liked in town. They do get to talking for a while though, and over the course of their conversation with the sheriff they learn that there is a large bounty being offered for the head of the Skull King by the Viscount of Seaton. They also learn that in Saltmarsh there is a bounty being offered for merrow heads, as merrow have been making small, night raids against the town from the water on occasion. The sheriff suspects that the merrow are lairing on in the sea caves below Tern Island. He goes on tell them how the sea caves are known to be a place where various pirate captains of the Crimson Fleet hid their treasure over the years. In fact, Frandor and the Company of the Axe gained their wealth when the recovered a large pirate treasure horde while exploring sea caves, and it was with his share of this plunder that he had his mansion built.
After sheriff Isiah departs, the adventurers decide that they will next visit the Drunken Urchin and see if they can find Yorst the hunter, and find out more about Frandor’s manor.
Session #2 (Investigating Breslow Mansion)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 1)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 1)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 1)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 1)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 1)
The characters finish their supper at the Lizard’s Boat Inn and head over to the seedy fisherman’s tavern called Drunken Urchin. Here they find the hunter named Yorst telling a story to a group of enthralled locals. The bar tender, a short, peg-legged old salt, introduces himself as Angus and informs the party that they are welcome to stay as long as they don’t make trouble. They also note that there is a follower of Kord overseeing one of the tables where several more locals are gathered to watch an arm wrestling contest. Yorst enjoys attention and is happy to have this band of foreigners asking him questions about his exploits into Breslow manour. He hams up the story for the audience of fishermen, and tells of his encounter in the cellar with Frandor’s ghost and the ghosts of the missing girls. He speaks of fleeing the place after being overwhelmed by a supernatural fear unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It is clear that his story has been told several times to his audience, as they all seem very familiar with it. It is also obvious that it grows a little more outlandish with each telling. What isn’t clear is whether the story is an exaggeration or a complete fabrication. After Yorst finishes telling his story John asks him if he’d be willing to take the heroes to the manor the next day. Yorst asks for 1gp in return, which John seems fine with. However, Ephai decides at this point that he wants to pick pocket the man and try to pay him with his own coin. This doesn’t go so well, as Yorst notices the pickpocket attempt and accuses him of being a thief. Ephai tries to fast talk his way out of the accusation but fails to convince the hunter, and Yorst lashes out, punching the aasimar in face. Suddenly the fishermen and sailors are urging the two to fight, which immediately draws the attention of the priest of Kord. He introduces himself as Nestor, and Yorst explains to him that he believes Ephai attempted to pick pocket him. Ephai continues to deny any wrong doing. Nestor decides that the dispute should be seen as an opportunity to honour Kord through a trial by combat, which garners much support from the locals. Ephai and Yorst are herded outside and a circle of spectators gathers around them. Because the offence was not grievous, Nestor decides that the dispute should be resolved with fists not blades. Bets are taken, and the combatants ready themselves. As Yorst is removing his shirt, Ephai initiates the combat by pulling Yorst’s shirt over is head and slugging him in the kidneys. Boos erupt from the crowd at Ephai’s dirty tactics, but the aasimar grew up in one of Iuz’s prisons in the north, and fighting dirty has been his means of surviving thus far. Yorst recovers quickly and goes on the offensive, landing a couple of good punches on Ephai. Then he rushes the rogue, trying to tackle him, but Ephai jumps to the side and trips Yorst. Yorst falls face first into the muck, and Ephai is quick to jump on him and issue him a beating that takes all the fight out of him. Nestor declares Ephai the winner and helps Yorst to his feet. The hunter wipes the muck off his face. Then Ephai asks if he’s still willing to take them to Breslow mansion. Yorst spits out a couple of teeth, nods and says, “for two lions.”
The next morning the party is awakened in their rooms at the Lizard’s Boat by the sounds of chanting outside their windows. They look outside and see a procession of townsfolk being led by robed priests through the misty street. Gladriel recognizes the chanting as prayers to Procan the god of the sea. Apparently Procan is prominent god in the town. That morning during breakfast, they encounter another priest. The man introduces himself as Shepard Ivan, the local priest of Saint Cuthbert. Word spreads quickly in town, and he has heard that John is the grandson of Frandor the alchemist. Ivan explains to John that he is the son of Ivan the elder, who was one of the members of the Company of the Axe that adventured with Frandor years ago. John and Ivan chat for a time, and Ivan indicates that he doesn’t think that Frandor was responsible for the girls disappearing in the days and weeks before his death. This gives John some solace, and when Yorst arrives he is eager to set out and try to find out the truth. The adventurers set out. It is a warm and sunny day- good weather for adventuring.
After a couple of hours, they arrive at Breslow Manor. From the outside the manor looks in good condition, though the grounds are overgrown and clearly have not been maintained in a few years. They see no sign of danger, so Ephai volunteers to do some scouting. He does a once around the manor, but sees no sign of trouble. However, he does note signs of activity. There are signs that someone has been going from the well back and forth to the side door of the house. John and Gladriel search for recent horse hoof prints, hoping to locate the missing knight and his warhorse. They are successful and find tracks leading into some nearby trees. The trail goes only a short distance, and it leads them to a site where there is much flies and tacky blood. It appears that the horse was killed at this spot and more tracks suggest that its corpse was dragged back to the house (likely in pieces). At this point, the adventurers decide that the time has come for them to start investigating the inside of the house. They step through the partially open, wooden doors of the front entrance and immediately note that the place has been thoroughly looted and emptied, but this is hardly surprising, as Yorst and Shepard Ivan had both previously mentioned that after Frandor had “died” (his body had transformed to that of a changeling) a mob of townsfolk went to the manor to try and find the missing girls and confirm that Frandor was truly dead. They didn’t find any missing girls or any sign of Frandor, but they had looted his home. As they start to explore the main floor, Ephai notices signs of faint, but recent boot tracks in the house. Ephai follows one set of tracks into what once might have been a sitting room. The tracks come to an end in the middle of the room, and as he nears this spot a loud and terrible voice suddenly bellows, “Welcome fools, welcome to your deaths!” This is followed by a long burst of ghastly laughter and then silence. Ephai is unable to discern the location of the voice, but as the laughter fades, he hears creaking from the ceiling above. It sounds as though someone is walking on the floor up above.
Seymaz leads the way upstairs, and as he steps into a hall he sees a strange sight- a dagger floating in the air with its blade pointed towards his throat. The dagger starts moving towards the tiefling, but he is not easily intimidated. Suddenly, it accelerates and flies straight for Seymaz’s throat. He swats it away with his greatsword, and it vanishes in poof of smoke. Freya suspects that it might have been some sort of trick, an illusion perhaps. Seymaz heads down the hall towards where the dagger appeared. As he proceeds, he peers into a few rooms that were likely once bedrooms. However, he sees no sign of danger. As he opens the door to the final chamber, something knocks against him, rushing past him. Foot steps echo down the hall, though no one can be seen. Gladriel lashes out with her scimitar hoping to hit whatever it is, but she fails. Then there is a loud thud on the floor of the foyer below. Freya hears someone rush out the front doors. She hurries to the entrance and looks out but can see no one, except perhaps some fresh foot prints and the movement of tall grass. She suspects that someone concealing themself with invisibililty magic just fled the house. After this incident, things are quiet once more. The adventures continue their search of the mansion, and soon enough they find themselves poking around in the attic. While doing so, Seymaz stumbles upon a nest of stirge. About a half dozen of the little nasties attack Seymaz, a couple manage to dig their barbed proboscis into his neck. His allies rush to his aid. Ephai impales one of the stirge on the end of his dagger and rips its proboscis out of the tiefling’s neck, causing Seymaz more pain. The adventurers quickly slash down the remaining stirge, putting a quick end to the bloodthirsty pests. Beyond the stirge nest, the attic seems to contain nothing of interest, so they head down into the cellar.
In the cellar they find several empty shelves that must have once have held an extensive selection of wines; shattered glass covers the floor. Also on the floor is the remains of the missing knight. He is clearly dead, but he still wears his ornate plate armour. There is no sign of his weapons or shield. He is lying face down on the floor, atop a pool of his dried blood. John moves to investigate the corpse while his companions begin searching around the room. Gladriel smells meat cooking, and the smell seems to be coming from behind the far wall. She, Ephai and Semyaz start searching for a secret door. John consumes a mutagen and Freya decides that she should cast her mage armour spell. John flips the body of the knight over and sees that there is a horrific gash in the dead man’s throat. This is clearly the cause of death. Suddenly a swarm of nasty rot grubs swarms out of the neck wound and crawls up his hand and wrist. They try to burrow into his flesh, but his mutagen has toughed his flesh, making it difficult to easily penetrate. John calls on Freya for help and she casts a burning hands spell down at the face of the dead knight. At the same time John thrusts him arm into the flames. The mildly scorch his arm, but the flames burn the grubs away and cook any more that might still be lurking in the corpse.
While the arcanist and alchemist deal with corpses and rot grubs, the rest of the band locates the secret door that they are certain is nearby. The heroes ready themselves for trouble and they push open the door. The stone door opens slowly with a loud grating sound, revealing a large room. The room contains a big trestle table, a fire with haunch of meat cooking on a spit (horse perhaps?), several cots in a row, various supplies and Frandor’s five metal cages. Inside each cage are two female prisoners. Three villainous looking men in leather armour, armed with swords are waiting at the ready with their weapons. A brief parlay takes places as the thugs demand to know who the adventurers are. John explains that this is his land and they are trespassing. The conversation seems to be a stalling tactic more than anything else, as one of the three thugs runs off, possibly to warn the rest of his gang. The heroes fall back into the cellar, hoping the thugs might be dumb enough to try and come at them through the tight doorway, but the goons aren’t that stupid. The adventurers grow impatient and fear reinforcements, so they stop delaying and rush into the room. Seymaz leads the attack, but quickly finds himself being flanked by the two rogues. One of them stabs him real good with a short sword, leaving the tiefling barely clinging to consciousness (0 hp). Fortunately, his companions come to his aid. Ephai is always quick to aid his half brother, and while John distracts one, he stabs the fellow in the back killing him. The remaining thug doesn’t like the idea of taking on a five foes by himself, so he makes run for it, ducking through the opening of another secret door. Seymaz heals himself with divine magic, and the heroes take a moment to decide what to do next. The session ends here.
GMs Notes (Major Campaign Spoilers): I think this campaign is off to a decent start. I'm trying to go with a Saltmarsh sandbox type thing- starting by pointing them towards the mansion from Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. I've kept much of that material the same, but also made some changes. For instance, I've mainly left the layout of the mansion the same, but I got rid of the giant centipedes and spider- primarily because it didn't make much sense to me that the smugglers would allow such vermin to infest the home when they needed to be moving through the rooms regularly to transport supplies, fetch water from the well, signal ships etc...
I've also kind of of cut out one of the main story elements, which is that the smugglers are selling weapons to lizardfolk. This also doesn't make much sense to me. How is it that lizardfolk living in the middle of a swamp have managed to cut a deal with human smugglers to start selling them weapons, and what are they using to pay them with? In module I believe the lizardfolk are actually paying them with coins, but it isn't explained where they would have gotten the coins. In my version, the smugglers are associated with the Scarlet Brotherhood from the Hold of the Sea Princes. They are still dealing weapons, but they are selling them to a bandit lord called the Skull King. The brotherhood likes this because they hope it will help destabilize the region, as Keoland is one of their main enemies and one of the nations that best weathered the Greyhawk wars. They are also dealing female slaves, which are being sent to a cult of Dagon operating in Saltmarsh. The slaves are being offered to a tribe of deep ones lairing in the area. The deep ones use the slaves breed with (some Shadow over Innsmouth s!#@ going on here- also inspiration from one of the Carrion Crown AP adventures).
Finally, there is the mystery of the dead alchemist. In the original adventure the home was owned by an alchemist, now dead, but few details were given about him. I decided to expand on this part of the story, by making the alchemist directly tied to the PC alchemist (grandson), which of course gives a strong hook for the whole adventure and campaign. I also created something of a mystery around the alchemist's death.
Session #3 (Investigating Breslow Mansion, Battle against the smugglers)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 1)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 1)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 1)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 1)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 1)
The session begins with the PCs in the secret cellar room below Breslow manor. Here they have discovered what appears to be some kind of slaving/smuggling operation. They have discovered the 5 cages that John’s grandfather, Frandor the alchemist, had commissioned several years ago. These slavers are currently using them to contain captives. There are two captives in each cage- 7 olman tribeswomen and 3 girls of a more sueloise ethnicity (aka white girls). The adventurers decide that helping the slaves escape is a top priority, so Ephai begins trying to pick the locks on the cages. Meanwhile John and Seymaz move over to the partially open secret door that the surviving slaver fled through seconds before (end of last session). He steps through the door and sees a staircase landing. A set of stone stairs descends down into darkness. He can hear the sound of the fleeing slaver’s footsteps coming from somewhere down below and his muffled shouts calling for aid.
Freya and Gladriel start to talking to one of suel girls while Ephai tries to pick the lock on her cage. She says that they were brought to this place from Monmurg aboard a ship belonging to the Scarlet Brotherhood, and that they were then rowed by boat to a sea cave and moved through some tunnels to this room. There were several other slaves that remained on the ship that she believes weren’t offloaded at this location. She has no idea what the slavers are planning for them, but they haven’t been here long, for they were offloaded the night before. As Ephai finishes picking the locks on the first couple of cages, reinforcement slavers come up the stairs to the secret door that John and Seymaz have been guarding. One of the slavers initiates a parlay and offers them a deal. They must leave the manor and the region, never to return and never to speak of what they have seen, but they can take with them the gear of the dead knight, which is quite valuable. To sweeten the pot, he claims that the knight had a magical sword that is now in his possession, and he will give it to them as part of the deal. The heroes don’t trust the man, and they aren’t okay with leaving the slave girls behind. However, John keeps up the negotiations to help buy Ephai more time to pick the locks on the cages and free the slaves. It isn’t long before the slaver leader catches on that bargaining is going no where and orders an attack.
The slavers are at a disadvantage in that they can only come through the tight secret door one at a time, and they have Seymaz waiting on the other side for them with his heavy armour and great sword. John is there as well, and drinks an enlarge person extract to give himself an edge. Unfortunately, for the heroes the slave leader is a mage. Using invisibility magic, he moves up to the secret door and casts a sleep spell, but John and Seymaz resist the enchantment. The mage turns visible, and they see that he is protected by swirling mirror images. He calls upon his minions to help, and one of them brashly rushes through the door. Seymaz and John attack, but the rogue is quick and avoids their attacks. The mage pulls out a wand of magic missiles and blasts Seymaz. Fortunately, Seymaz has the ability to create an illusionary double of his own, and two the magic missile strike and destroy the double, with only one missile hitting him. This angers the mage, and as the fighting continues, with Freya and Galadriel contributing with ranged attacks (that all miss), he tries to end things quickly by blasting the melee with a colour spray spell. The lone slaver, Seymaz, John and Freya are all caught by the blast of colour. Freya and the slaver resist the magic, but John and Seymaz are brought down (colour spray is nasty to a 1st level character.) This provides the opportunity for a couple more slavers to move through the door and join the fight. Ephai abandons picking locks, draws his rapier and rushes over to aid his companions. With John and Seymaz unconscious, the heroes are at a disadvantage. Ephai and Gladriel do what they can in melee, while Freya continues to hang back and use her crossbow (her spells being expended). The slaver mage causes much trouble with his wand of magic missiles, and the slavers land several attacks. All the heroes are nearly dropped, but they hold back the slavers long enough for John and Seymaz to recover. The mage, whose name the characters learn is Sanbalet, struggles to battle the morale of his minions. After the heroes have killed three of them, the rest are far from eager to file into the room and face the heroes. To give them some encouragement, the mage blasts Seymaz with his wand a second time, and nearly kills him (negative hp with no healing magic left to get him back in the fight). With the tiefling war priest down, Sanbalet urges his remaining men forward, knowing that the heroes are barely holding on, and that he has the forces needed to finish them, but the craven rogues seem to have no real love for the mage, and they abandon the attack, withdrawing back down the stairs and into areas of the complex unknown to the adventurers. Sanbalet curses. With his active mirror image and mage armour spells, he has some protection, and perhaps he could take down the rest of the party on his own, but he doesn’t like the odds, so he too retreats. Thus, the fight comes to an end in something of a draw. The heroes are in no shape to go after the slavers. Their resources are expended, and Seymaz is unconscious.
They close the secret door that slavers attacked through and barricade it with cots. Then they free the remaining slave girls and pick the lock to the door of a final chamber that connects with the room they are in. Inside this room, they find a well furnished bed chamber. Here they find the knight’s sword, shield and lance as well as a few books, some parchment and flasks of oil. They take this loot, along with the knight’s armour, barding and saddle. Then they use the slave girls to help them carry it all back to Saltmarsh (along with Seymaz). When they arrive in town they explain to the gate guards what happened, and the guards allow them through with the girls. The heroes are paranoid, for the slavers mentioned that they have lots of connections, and they are concerned that they might have eyes and ears in town. They decide that the safest place to take the girls is to the temple of Saint Cuthbert. Brother Ivan takes them in, and they tell him what happened. He promises them sanctuary for the time being, and he kindly heals Seymaz of his wounds, despite having no love for tieflings. The session ends here, with the heroes in the temple of Saint Cuthbert along with ten freed slaves. They are in need of an extended rest, but after that John wants to head back to the mansion and finish cleansing it of trespassing slavers.
Session #3 GM Notes:
So this was a session that was a lot of nasty combat, broken up by a bit of rp with the slavers and freed slaves. I had to dial it back a little, as the party was nearly TPKed, and I didn't want another TPK after we had one only a couple of sessions ago. I didn't press the slavers attack on them as hard as I could of, but this made sense from a story perspective since the slavers/smugglers are rogues that don't much like to be caught in a stand up fight, and the dissent in their ranks made them more interesting and realistic. Sanbalet was nasty against a level 1 party. I love it when a villain gets away and the characters start to develop a legitimate grudge against said villain. I think they now look forward to a rematch, hopefully I'll be able to keep him alive a little longer, so that he can continue to torment them.
Session #4 (More Discoveries in Saltmarsh and off to Burle)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 2)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 2)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 2)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 2)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 2)
The heroes set themselves up for the night in the church of Saint Cuthbert where they feel they stand a better chance of protecting themselves and the slave girls they rescued against retaliation from the slavers. While they eat and rest during the evening, Shepherd Ivan introduces them to his wife and two strapping sons who bring food and clothing for the girls. The heroes tell Ivan of all that happened in the manor and show him the sword, shield and armour they recovered from the dead knight. Ivan is familiar with the knight, as he passed through Saltmarsh prior to visiting Breslow manor. The priest learned that the young man’s name was Sir Gideon Graymantle. He tells them that Graymantles are a noble family from near the town of Burle, which is some fifty miles north of Saltmarsh. Ivan suggests that the family would want to receive word of Gideon’s death and may offer a significant reward for the return of his sword, shield and armour. His sword in particular would be of value since it is enchanted.
The night passes without any trouble from their enemies. The next morning Freya casts an identify spell on the sword and attempts to discern its properties. She notices that the sword has a short chant to Heironeous etched in celestial along the blade. It causes the blade to radiate light, and a second command phrase can be used to activate a more potent daylight spell. The sword’s name is Lightbringer, and it’s purpose is to slay undead (+1 undead bane). The adventurers would very much like to start earning their fortune, so they decide they will travel to Burle and see if they can find the Graymantle family and negotiate a payment for the return of the sword. Seymaz decides he’d like to keep the plate armour. While they are breaking fast, Shepherd Ivan explains to them that he has concerns that there might be something more sinister going on in town than mere smugglers/slavers. He recalls that when his father first came to town with the Company of the Axe one of their first tasks was the eradication of a demon cult that had been operating in the town. His father had led the purge and had burned many foul cultists at the stake. According to Ivan, the cult had been involved in human sacrifice and several of the town’s oldest and most influential families contained cultists. Those days are mostly forgotten now, but Shepherd Ivan suspects that the cult may not have been as entirely destroyed as his father had hoped, especially given the presence of the young slave girls in Breslow manor. He encourages the heroes to investigate this further.
Their meal is interrupted when Sheriff Isiah Crowley and Mayor Obed Marsh arrive with a squad of guards. The mayor and the sheriff have heard about the return of the adventurers and liberated slave girls, and they have come to investigate. John fills them in on their exploits and how they freed the girls. The mayor isn’t entirely surprised, he claims that he has suspected that some of unscrupulous folk have been involved in an illicit smuggling operation to avoid some of the harbour tariffs. However, he is shocked to learn that the smuggling involves young slave girls. Isiah shows similar shock and outrage, but Gladriel suspects that his disbelief is feigned. The mayor is unsure what should be done with the girls. Obviously, they can’t stay at the church forever and seven out of the ten girls are olmans who speak no common. At this point, the spokeswoman for the girls, a woman from Monmurg named Vivian, joins the discussion and explains that she has a wealthy brother living in Gradsul. She thinks that if she could get the girls to Gradsul her brother would take them in as paid servants. No one can think of anything better to do with them, so it is agreed they will be shipped to Gradsul. Shepherd Ivan offers to help raise money to pay for their passage, and the heroes contribute some of their own gold to the cause. They are fortunate that there is a merchant ship in the harbour that is leaving for Gardsul the following day, so the adventurers decide to stay around Saltmarsh long enough to see them off on the ship that next morning.
With the problem of what to be do with the slave girls solved, the mayor and sheriff then leave. After they are gone, Gladriel shares her suspicions that the sheriff might know more than he was letting on about the smugglers/slavers. This reminds Shepherd Ivan of a conversation he recently had with one of his flock. He explains that a young lad who serves in the militia made a confession to him about a month ago that might be relevant to their investigation. He won’t divulge what the lad said since it was made in confidence, but Ivan does tell them that his name is Landon and that he is the son of a local baker. He suggests they seek him out, and gently encourage him to share with them what he knows. The heroes decide this is a good idea, so they go to the bakery. They find that Landon is sleeping, as he has just served a night shift patrolling the town wall and helped his father with the morning baking. However, Landon’s father is a worshipper of Saint Cuthbert, and he knows the heroes have been associating themselves with the church- he was even about to send fresh bread to the temple for the slave girls, so he wakes his son for them. They have a private chat with Landon, and although he is concerned that if he tells them anything it might bring harm to his family, they convince him to share what he knows. Landon explains that Sheriff Crowley has ordered him not to say anything about any goings on he notices at night at the Jessop farm. He tells them that the Jessop farm is located right outside the wall, and on more than one occasion he has noticed lots of activity happening at the farm late at night. Such “activity” consists of men unloading at least one wagon into Jessop’s barn. He doesn’t know anything beyond that, and he hasn’t seen any slave girls being moved into the barn, but he does think it is suspicious, especially given that farmers are sound asleep at night. He warns them to be careful if they investigate either Sheriff Crowley or farmer Jessop, as both of them are dangerous men. Jessop may be a farmer, but he has served in the militia for many years and has a reputation for being a brutish thug. Sheriff Crowley has a reputation for being a capable fighter, and Landon recalls a patrol he was on with Crowley. During the patrol they were ambushed by lizard men, and he remembers the sheriff saving his life and single handedly slaying at least a half dozen of the scaly humanoids. The heroes decide they will hold off on following up on the lead, but they thank Landon for sharing, and they promise that if they do follow up on his tip they will do everything they can to ensure that there is no blow back directed at his family.
The following morning they gather at the docks to see the girls off. This provides them the opportunity to witness one of the religious rites of the church of Procan. Here they see many of the faithful gathered on the piers with baskets chanting prayers to the sea god. The leader of the faith, Wavemaster Elias Crowley (brother of the sheriff), uses divine magic to walk on top of the water into the middle of the harbour with a few of his acolytes. He then chants another prayer to Procan that results in dozens of fish suddenly jumping out of the sea. The acolytes stand in on the surface of the sea and catch the fish in their baskets and bring them back to shore. Near the pier the Wavemaster chants his prayer again and more fish start jumping into the baskets of those who have gathered at the docks. John watches the ritual closely and suspects that he is casting create food and water spells. Shortly after the followers of Procan have finished their morning ritual, the merchant ship departs and the girls set out on their long voyage to Gradsul. The heroes return to the church of Saint Cuthbert and gather their own belongings. They thank Shepherd Ivan for his hospitality and aid, and they set on a two day overland trek to the town of Burle. They plan to seek out the Graymantle family and bring word of Sir Gideon’s death- and hopefully claim a reward for the return of Lightbringer.
The first day of their journey is uneventful, but the road they are travelling passes close to the Hool marshes, and on the second day they are assaulted by a small band hostile lizard folk and their giant frog pets. The skirmish is fierce, but it doesn’t last long, and the heroes sustain only minor injuries before they have killed several attackers and routed the remainder. After the fight they continue on their way, and the session ends with them nearing Burle.
XP for Session #4
seeing the slave girls off to Gradual 700
gathering more info about the slavers (convincing Landon to talk) 600
3 lizardmen 200 x 3 = 600
3 giant frogs 200 x 3 = 600
2500/5= 500 per PC
Session #5 (Burle and the Graymantle Estate)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 2)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 2)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 2)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 2)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 2)
As the day wears on, the weary heroes approach the town of Burle. Their intention is to learn the location of the Graymantle estate, and hopefully claim a reward for returning the enchanted sword of the late Gideon Graymantle to his kin. About a mile from Burle, they spot something very odd a couple of hundred yards to the east of the road. They see a modest hill covered in briars. The top of the hill is barren, and standing on the hilltop appears to be a large stone statue of a humanoid warrior. Even more strange than the lonely stone sentinel, is a four hundred foot long anchor chain that stretches from the hill top up into the sky and disappears into a cloud that hovers unnaturally low to the ground above the hill. It is as if the chain is somehow tethering the cloud to the ground. Ephai is particularly curious about this odd sight and wants to go investigate. Galdriel advises that they press on to town and inquire about it there. However, the impetuous Ephai is already striking out across the fields to get a closer look before she can talk him out of it. Ephai doesn’t get too close to the hill, but he gets close enough to confirm that it is definitely a big metal chain emerging from the hill top, and that the thing on the top of the hill is in fact a stone statue of a warrior that stands about 14’ tall. As he is looking, he sees a herder a little ways away minding a flock of sheep. The herder is motioning with his arms, as if trying to get the aasimar to go back to the road. Ephai saunters over to talk to the man, and he asks him about the statue and the island. The herder goes on to tell Ephai about a mage named Savras. Savras was a member of the Company of the Axe, the same adventuring band that John’s grandfather belonged to, Savras claimed the cloud island and anchored it to the hill. He put the guardian statue there to ward off intruders, and apparently it is some sort of magical construct that can animate to attack anyone who ventures to the top of the hill. Savras hasn’t been seen in a few years. He used to come into Burle fairly regularly, but the last time he was seen was when an elven adventurer climbed the chain to his cloud island. Savras later returned to town with the elf. However Savras had magically turned the elf to stone, and he ordered that the people of Burle display the petrified elf in the town square as a warning to others that might trespass against the mage. According to the herder, Savras hasn’t been seen since that day, and the petrified elf still remains in the town square. Ephai rejoins his companions and reports his findings. The name Savras rings a bell with Freya. She recalls having heard that he was a mage of middling power who made some sort of discovery that vastly increased his magical abilities in a fairly rapid span of time. As interesting as all this is, the heroes figure they aren’t quite up for climbing an anchor chain to a cloud island defended by a stone golem just yet. Besides, it is almost dark and they have been on the road for two days. A hot meal and a good night’s rest at an inn sounds much more appealing.
The heroes push on and reach the gates to the town just as they are about to be closed for the night. They are met a the gate by a friendly guard named Julian, and a massive, armoured troll named Rigs. It isn’t everyday that one encounters a troll guarding a town gate, and the heroes stay on their best behaviour. Luckily the troll is seemingly at least somewhat domesticated. They give their reasons for entering the town, and Julian informs them that the Graymantle estate is about four miles northeast of town near the edge of the Poacher’s Wood. He also recommends the Screaming Elf inn and tavern as a good place to stay. Thus, the heroes pass through the gates and into the the town of Burle. They follow the main street towards the centre of town, as they proceed, they notice a manor to their left. The chimney of the manor is belching out a thick, oily smoke with a nasty smell. Parked in front of the home is a wagon. Several gnomes are busy offloading the wagon. One of the gnomes seems to be in charge, and he orders them to be very careful not to break the fragile glassware they are carrying. This gnome has the look of an alchemist about him. He’s wearing a leather apron that has several pockets that hold vials full of colourful liquids and powders. John is curious, but he decides it’s something he might look into later.
In the town square, they find the Screaming Elf Inn, and the statue of the elf adventurer that was petrified by Savras. The petrified elf has a permanent scream, and presumably the inn now takes its name from the statue. They get settled in a room on the second floor and then take their supper down in the common room. Here they get to talking to the barmaid named Ginger. They learn that the Lord Mayor of the town is offering gold in exchange for information about the threat posed by the Skull King’s bandit army, which is said to be gathering in the Dreadwood. Also in the common room is a band of four folk who appear to be adventurer types. Galdriel decides to introduce herself to them, and she finds out that their leader is a good looking man named Samuel. The two bands spend some time chatting with the adventurers and learn that they are from the nearby village of Nine Oaks. During this exchange, Ephai notices that the band’s female halfling woman is showing interest in him, and he invites her up to the bar for a drink and a chance to talk in private. At this point she pretty well throws herself at him, and the pair hurry on upstairs for some some fun. The heroes enjoy their evening and retire for the night well fed and ready for a long rest.
The next day, Semyaz cuts a deal with Otto the innkeeper to keep his recently acquired plate armour safe while he’s away for the day. Semyaz doesn’t want the baron to see him in his dead son’s armour, and he wants to keep it for himself. They make the hike out to the Graymantle estate. The journey takes only a couple of hours and is uneventful. The estate itself consists of a stone manor house covered with white stucco and a clay shingled roof, which is typical of the architecture of the warm coastal region. The manor also consists of a farm and pasture land, a barn, stables, several serfs huts, and a square stone tower squatting on the top of small hill overlooking the manor house. They are greeted by the baron’s dogs and a few of his men at arms. Baron Graymantle is a little suspicious of the visitors, but when they explain they bring news of his son, he invites them into his home to break bread with him. They tell him of how they found him in the cellar of Breslow manor with his throat cut. Here they aren’t entirely truthful. They claim he was without his amour, and that they only managed to recover his sword and shield. They also explain how they fought the slavers and their cunning wizard leader, but were forced to retreat back to Saltmarsh with the slave girls they rescued, but consequently weren’t able to recover Gideon’s corpse. It is an elaborate story to be sure, and as such it seems unlikely to the baron that it would be fabricated, though he does suggest that perhaps they made it up, and that in truth they were the ones who killed his son, and now they have brought back his sword to sell. Freya says that they have no proof to support their story, and that he will have to take their word for it. He accepts this, and he then asks if they have brought back the sword as an honourable, altruistic gesture or if they are looking for something in return. He is a little disappointed, but not surprised, when they say that they were hoping to be compensated for the efforts they took to return the family heirloom. He leaves them to eat and heads upstairs to gather suitable funds to pay for the return of Lightbringer. When he returns he puts a large sack of coin on the table. In it is a strand of pearls that belonged to his dead wife and 2000 gp. Given the value of the sword, the offering approaches what they might have received if they had sold it elsewhere. The adventurers must have been feeling a little ashamed of their greed because they tell him to keep the necklace, and they take only the sack of gold lions. They then return to Burle, leaving the baron to grieve the loss of his son.
They spend the following day knocking about town. John leads the band to visit the manor of the gnome alchemist. They learn his name is Gimble, and he is quite happy to speak with John since he so rarely meets folk knowledgeable of alchemy. It turns out that Gimble knew Grandpa Frandor, and the pair had done business together regularly. Frandor had often purchased various chemicals and supplies from Gimble. John tells Gimble a little of his recent adventures in Breslow manor. Gimble asks if John recovered any of Frandor’s research, and when John tells him he didn’t, Gimble encourages him to search the place real thoroughly, as it was built by dwarves.
Gimble goes on to explain that he doesn’t believe the stories that Frandor had kidnapped a several girls from town. However, he does claim that Frandor had been conducting some research around creating an alchemical liquid that could force a creature submerged in it to enter a state of magical stasis. Gimble believes that he had been using goblins as test subjects for the experiments, which one might argue is only slightly less ethical than using kidnapped girls. Gimble invites John to come visit again, so that they can talk shop at length.
Next, they pay a visit to the town hall. Here they meet with Lord Mayor Jalisa. They tell her that they are adventurers who are in search of employment, and she tells them that her most pressing concern is the threat posed by the Skull King’s bandits, though she has also been receiving reports that lizard folk have been troubling travellers on the road between Burle and Saltmarsh (something they can attest to). The bandits have become more bold of late. There have been reports of groups of them visiting villages in the area and demanding that the local lords swear fealty to the Skull King and pay him tribute or be destroyed by his army. Initially, a couple of lords laughed off the threats of the Skull King’s emissaries, but he promptly made good on his threats and the villages were attacked and burned. Apparently, he has also been giving the serfs of the villages the chance to leave the service of their lords and join his army where he has promised them opportunity to advance beyond their station when his army conquers the viscounty. The bandits haven’t dared to approach Burle yet, but the Mayor thinks it is only a matter of time. The heroes are shocked to learn that just this past night his forces destroyed the estate of Baron Graymantle- the same baron they had visited the previous day. She tells them that she has learned that the bandits that attacked the Graymantle manor are believed to be camped in the nearby Poacher’s Wood. Her most pressing order of business is find out the strength of the force and to destroy them before they can harm any more settlements. In addition, she explains that the bandits are well equipped considering that much of their force is made up of serfs that have abandoned their oaths. She speculates that someone is supplying them with weapons and armour, and she believes that the weapons dealers may be unscrupulous criminals operating out of Saltmarsh. The heroes decide that they will return to the Graymantle estate and track down the bandits. At the very least, they figure they can do some scouting and go back to the mayor with some useful information. They then spend the remainder of the day spending some of their wealth on riding horses, saddles and the like.
When morning comes, they set out on horse back to the Graymantle estate. When they arrive they find several of the serfs’ huts have been burned, but the manor house and stone tower are still intact. A priest of Pelor from Burle named Father Julius is there helping to perform last rites on the various peasants and retainers that died in the raid. Among the dead is the baron and his men at arms. Baron Graymantle’s daughters survived the raid by fleeing into the fields while the baron fought with his men at arms to buy them time to escape. A few bandit corpses, a dead worg and two dead bugbears are also being buried. The serfs claim that there were about a score of bandits, and a handful of worgs and bugbears involved in the raid. The leader of the group is reported to have wore a skull mask. The heroes wonder if the leader may have been the Skull King himself, but Mayor Jalisa had mentioned that his officers also wore skull masks, so they suspect that is the situation here. The trail of the raiders is easy to follow, and Gladriel puts her tracking skills to use. She leads the heroes north, through the fields to the Poacher’s Wood. At the manor, they had learned from Father Julius that the Poacher’s Woods is actually called the Viscount’s Wood, and that it is the hunting preserve of the Viscount. However, since he lives in Seaton and doesn’t go to great lengths to patrol the wood for poachers, many locals poach small game in the forest. As long as they don’t kill any larger game the Viscount doesn’t seem to worry about punishing such poachers. Apparently, the Viscount even has a lavish hunting lodge in the forest that he spends much time at.
A couple of hours later, the adventurers find themselves in the Poachers wood on the trail of the brigands. There is a small hill just up ahead, and a couple of the party members notice the smell of campfire smoke wafting down the hill. Ephai and Freya tether their steeds and head up the hill to scout. At the top, they find four bandits seated around a cooking fire roasting a hare. With the bandits is nasty looking worg. Unfortunately, the worg either hears or smells the pair because it suddenly turns around to face Ephai and Freya, who are doing their best to hide among some nearby trees. The worg growls and rushes towards them. The bandits grab up their bows and hop to their feet. Ephai steps out from behind her tree and takes a shot at the worg as it closes in, winging it in the shoulder with an arrow. He then starts to withdraw back towards his companions. The worg leaps into the air at Freya, but she steps to the side and it crashes head first into a tree. She then casts a colour spray spell, but unfortunately the worg’s head is turned away and it isn’t affected. It shakes off the impact from the tree and starts snapping at her with its powerful jaws. Fortunately, Freya’s mage armour spell protects her. She then casts a second colour spray spell. This one blinds and stuns the worg, giving her the opportunity to flee after Ephai. Just as she turns to run, the bandits fire arrows. A couple of the shots streak past her, but two arrows tag her. She endures the pain and bolts down the hill. A moment later, Ephai and Freya rejoin their companions, and Freya uses some magic to herself. Meanwhile, the sound of horn echoes through the woods from up on the hill, and soon they hear the growls of the worg and the sounds of the bandits coming to hunt the pair down. The heroes have tethered their horses nearby, and they hastily find spots to hid and set up an ambush for the bandits and their nasty wolf.
The session ends with the heroes about to engage four bandits and their pet worg.
XP for session #5
• returning Lightbringer to Baron Graymantle 2000
Total XP: 2000/5 = 400 per PC
Session #6 (Return to Breslow Manor)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 2)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 2)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 2)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 2)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 2)
The adventurers take cover beyond fallen trees and large rocks in the Poacher’s wood, as a group of four bandits led by an angry worg comes searching for Ephai and Freya. The heroes get the drop on their enemies, letting loose arrows at the worg. Ephai tags it in the front shoulder, which wounds it, but doesn’t slow it down. The slathering beast bounds towards the rogue ready to tear his throat out, but before it can get to Ephai, Semyaz vaults over the log he was hiding behind and intercepts the creature. The worg crashes into the tiefling, sinks its fangs into Semyaz’s arm and tries to pull him to the ground. Semyaz holds his footing and shakes loose of the wolf then slashes at it with his blade, but it easily evades the clumsy attack. Meanwhile the bandits that had been following the worg start firing on the heroes with their bows. Fortunately, they have enough cover to protect them from the arrows. John sucks back a feral mutagen that gives him a vaguely bird-like form with a tearing beak and talons for weapons. He bounds over moss covered rocks and logs to Semyaz’s. Ephai draws his rapier and darts out from behind a log to move into a flanking position with his brother. Freya moves from tree to tree and closes in on two of the bandits that are hiding behind a tree and firing arrows. She casts a colour spray spell that stuns and blinds both bandits. They drop their bows and start rubbing their eyes, trying in vain to regain their vision. John, Semyaz and Ephai gang up on the worg and dispatch it quickly. Gladriel occupies the remaining two bandits, keeping them pinned behind cover with a steady barrage of bow fire. As soon as the worg drops, the remaining two bandits realize they are vastly outmatched, so they start to run. One of the pair is brought down by an arrow, and Ephai chases down the other one, catching him before he can escape. Freya slits the throat of one of the bandits she took down with colour spray, but Galadriel convinces her to leave the other blind bandit alive.
The characters come out of the fight with few injuries and two prisoners. They know that the bandits had previously blown warning horns and that more bandits might be on the way, but they decide to take time to interrogate their two prisoners anyhow. Gladriel is an inquisitor, trained in interrogation techniques. She orders her companions to keep the two prisoners separate from each other, and she speaks to each of the men one at a time. She can be quite intimidating when she chooses and her stern gaze is enough to get them talking. They learn that the bandits have taken over the Viscount’s hunting lodge. The Viscount lives in Seaton, but he enjoys spending time at his lodge where he does much hunting. The viscount wasn’t at the lodge, but the retainers that maintain and defend the lodge were overwhelmed by the bandits. According to their prisoners, there are still over a dozen bandits at the lodge, as well as a handful of worgs and bugbears. These numbers are enough to convince the adventurers to return to Burle with their prisoners and information rather than risk trying to beard the bandits in their lair.
The ride back to Burle is uneventful, and late that afternoon they lead reach town with their prisoners in tow behind their horses. The bandits are brought to the town hall, and the heroes gain an audience with the Lord Mayor Jalisa Burle. They report on the events of the day and turn the prisoners over to her. She makes mention of feeding them to her troll Rigs, but in the meantime she has guards take them to the river tower for interrogation. She rewards the heroes with some coin and asks them what they plan to do next. They consider spending more time dealing with the bandit menace, but they decide that they need to return to Saltmarsh and finish helping John reclaim Breslow manor. Thus, they spend the night in Burle and spend a day resting and gathering supplies. The following day they begin the journey back to Saltmarsh. Thanks to their recently acquired riding horses, the trip back is quicker and easier than their trip to Burle. They stay off the road, and they avoid the town of Saltmarsh. A day and a half later they arrive at Breslow manor.
The heroes do a quick search of the manor’s main floor and upper floor, but they find it to be deserted. Next they venture back into the cellar where they found the cages with the slave girls and battled the smuggler/slavers. Here they discover that the room is now infested with a half dozen animated skeletons that mindlessly patrol the room. The skeletons are hostile to all life, and as soon as the characters open the secret door that accesses the room, the skeletons turn to confront them. They rush at the adventures, who hold their ground and use the doorway as chokepoint. The skeletons have no sense of tactics or self-preservation, they stupidly rush up to the doorway one after the other. The adventurers wait for the skeletons to come and position themselves to gain a flanking advantage. This makes taking down the skeletons an easy task that resolves itself without any real danger to the heroes. Once the skeletons have been dispatched they continue their exploration. The chamber that held the skeletons and the cages has been cleared out of the silks and brandy that adventurers had noticed during their first foray. They recall the second secret door in this room that opened onto a staircase that Sanbalet and his thugs had retreated down during their first fight against the slavers, and they decide to investigate. The stairs lead them down to a small series of tunnels and sea caves that exists below the manor. They find the caves deserted, but one of them opens to the sea and provides a space big enough for a row boat to dock. Here they find the dead body of one of the slavers. Hovering over the body, inspecting it, they see a strange creature. It is a humanoid in size and shape, but looks much more like a fish than a man. It sees the heroes approach, glares at them and then hastily shambles to the water’s edge. It dives into the sea and vanishes, leaving the adventurers alone in the cave with he body of the dead slaver. John inspects the body and determines that the man has been dead for many days. His flesh has been picked at and has started to decay. It is clear that burn marks, much like those made by magic missiles were the cause of death, and the adventurers suspect that the man was killed by Sanbalet for turning coward and running away when the slavers were battling the heroes.
After inspecting the dead body, they return to the cellar and block the door to the sea caves with the metal cages. They spend more time search around the cellar. Galadriel peaks into the bed room she had found connecting to the cellar that held the sword, shield and lance of Sir Gideon. The bed has been moves aside and a slab of flag stone floor that would have been covered by the bed has been moved aside to reveal a cubby hole in the floor. They look in the cubby hole and see that it is empty. They also notice that another door linking to the cellar room, one that they noticed last time to be boarded shut, has been opened. The boards that once kept it shut are strew on the ground in front of open door. Beyond is another room. This one is completely empty, but the adventurers speculate that the skeletons may have been housed in this chamber and set free by the slavers. The adventurers do a very careful inspection of this room, keeping a close eye out for more secret doors. Their efforts pay off, and they find yet another secret dwarf door built into the room’s far wall. It is set on a central pivot, and, like the other secret doors in the manor, it rotates to open. This leads them to another room. This room is the one John has been looking for. It is Frandor’s former lab and study. Here John finds the alchemist’s research notes and alchemy equipment. The strangest feature of the room is the odd bronze sarcophagus sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. The lid is sealed by wax and the thing looks heavy and difficult to move. Freya casts a detect magic spell and starts searching about. She discovers five potions sitting in a stand on the shelf. The potions are divided up, and then Freya and John start examining Frandor’s notes. They deduce that the man has had some success with his alchemy. He’s created a mixture that will put someone into a magical stasis if they are fully immersed in it. It seems that he has made a large batch of the stuff and was using the sarcophagi as a receptacle for his mixture. Gladriel wonders if Frandor remains preserved and trapped inside.
They decide to rest the night at the manor, but the next morning John’s curiosity gets the better of him. He decides to break the wax seal and take the lid off the sarcophagus. As he suspected, it is filled with the orange, opaque liquid. He picks up a piece of wood and starts prodding into the liquid. He immediately realizes that someone is submerged within, so he puts on a pair of Frandor’s protective gloves and reaches in. He pulls, and Frandor comes out of the mess, naked and covered with the orange liquid. For a moment he appears to be dead, but suddenly his eyes open and he starts sputtering. They lay him down on the ground and cover him with a blanket. It takes him a few moments to recover, but soon enough he is able to talk. He sits up and asks who the in the hells the characters are. John introduces himself as his grandson and shows Frandor the letter his father had sent with him. Frandor looks him over carefully and decides that John is in fact his grandson. They learn that Frandor’s changeling apprentice Terik had sealed him in the stasis solution at Frandor’s request. Unfortunately Terik was murdered when he had gone to town disguised as Frandor to get supplies. Apparently, the changeling had frequently disguised himself as Frandor because the townsfolk feared Frandor and wouldn’t try to cheat him in the market. On the day of Terik’s murder this strategy backfired because, unbeknownst to the changeling, the townsfolk had come to believe that Frandor had abducted several local girls, and Giselle, a tavern wench, decided to try to avenge her missing sister by poisoning Frandor’s lunch time ale. Of course, it wasn’t Frandor that died, it was Terik, and as a result, the changeling apprentice never returned to the manor and couldn’t remove Frandor from his stasis at the end of the prearranged, two week, test period. When the mob of townsfolk came to the manor to try to discover the truth about the alchemist, they looted the place, but they never found Frandor’s lab. Thus, Frandor remained trapped in stasis for three years.
The heroes have a lengthy chat with the old alchemist. He is grateful to be rescued by John and fascinated to see that his grandson has followed in his footsteps by studying alchemy. They catch him up on what they know of the events of the past few years, and start discussing their plans for the future. These plans include dealing with the smugglers/slavers that had been squatting in his home. When they tell Frandor about the slave girls they had rescued from his cages, he explains that he was not responsible for the abducting any girls, but he had used the cages to hold goblin prisoners that he was using as test subjects in some of his experiments. He explains to them that fifty years ago, when he and The Company of the Axe had first come to Saltmarsh, they discovered an active demon cult among the townsfolk. The adventurers were already aware of this, but he reveals that the cult was devoted to Dagon, and that the cultists had been sacrificing many of their young women to abominable fishermen dwelling in the sea. They referred to the fishermen as the Deep Ones, and the deep ones would breed with the human women to produces unholy hybrids. The Company of the Axe purged the cult from the town, Frandor isn’t surprised to hear that the cult might once again be active. The heroes describe the fish creature they saw in the cave below his home, and Frandor confirms that it was likely one of the Deep Ones. He tells them that there is said to be colony of the creatures dwelling in submerged caves beneath Tern Island, caves that he and his companions never had a chance to locate or explore.
The sessions ends with the heroes ready to help get his manor straightened up and try to track down Sanbalet and the other slaver/smugglers that were using the manor for their criminal ends.
Session #7 (Investigating the Jessop Farm)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 2)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 2)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 2)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 2)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 2)
The adventurers spending a day resting and helping Frandor straighten up Breslow Manor. Frandor explains his plans to hire some new and trustworthy retainers, buy some good guard dogs and reclaim furniture and other valuables looted from his home by the people of Saltmarsh. However, he says that he will post pone making any trips to Saltmarsh for a couple of days so that they can have some time to further investigate the smugglers. He warns them that they should be quite careful, as the men involved in the smuggling operation will likely have some powerful connections in the town, especially if they have the sheriff in their pocket.
The following evening, the adventures set out after dark from Breslow manor. It is a hot, humid night, as they make their way towards Salmarsh. Under the cover of darkness, they approach the Jessop family farm. They had previously been tipped off about the Jessop farm by Shepherd Ivan, who had put them in touch with a guard named Landon that was a member of his flock. Landon had previously confessed to Shepherd Ivan, and then to the characters, that he had been ordered by the sheriff Crowley to ignore and keep silent about any strange activity he noticed going on at the farm at night while on duty on the wall. The stone wall built to protect Saltmarsh was never completed and only surrounds part of the town. The Jessop farm is outside the wall and sits right below it. Freya and Ephai are the most stealthy members of the party, so they volunteer to do a little scouting while Gladriel, John and Semyaz wait and hide in some nearby bushes. The farm is quiet. It consists of a farmhouse, a barn and a wagon shed. They first check out the simple, thatch roofed farmhouse. They don’t try to enter, but they listen closely and try to peep through a shuttered window. There is nothing to be heard or seen. Next they go into the barn. They enter through the side door that opens up to the currently empty pig pen. Inside they find themselves surrounded by sleeping pigs. They also notice a pair of dozing guard dogs. The pair start slowly scanning around the barn, being careful not to move too much and wake the dogs. Ephai is an aasimar, and Freya is a sylph, so they both have dark vision. They notice that there a are a few other pens/stalls in the barn. A couple have draft horses, another couple have milking cows and another contains sheep. It is during this scan that Ephai clues into something odd. The back wall of the barn doesn’t seem to be quite in the right location. Based on the placement of the door they entered, he thinks it should be further back. They move closer to the wall and discern that a large, concealed wooden panel can be lifted away. The pair carefully move the panel off to the side, revealing a narrow hidden room. The room is mostly empty, but it does contain a large trap door in the floor.
Since they haven’t yet woke the guard dogs, Ephai and Freya decide to open the trap door. It reveals a steep wooden stair case that drops down into a crude, narrow, smugglers tunnel. The tunnel is dark and cramped, but it seems to make its way towards town. They start following it, and they are fairly confident that it takes them under the wall. Soon enough it slopes back upward and comes to an end at a stout wooden door. The door is locked, so Ephai gets out his thieves tools and starts picking the lock. He hears a click, and then eases the door open a little ways. Next he takes out a small mirror and uses it to peer into the room without having to stick his head in. He sees that the door actually opens into a wider hallway with four doors off of it (two on each side), a stair case heading upward is at the end of the hall. The hall is lit by lanterns hanging on pegs. More importantly, not too far from the door, sits a small table. Two men are at the table playing a dice game by lantern light. A guard dog sits near them the floor. It raises its head when the door starts to open. Just as Ephai starts to ease the mirror back through the gap, the dog starts to bark. The heroes turn and start to hurry back through the tunnel toward the barn. Someone flings the door open behind them, and lantern light spills into their tunnel. They hear a voice calling out, “Who’s there?” They don’t answer and keep moving. Then the hear the dog. It races through the tunnel to catch them. The tunnel is too narrow for the pair to move side by side, but when Freya hears the dog, she moves in front of Ephai and readies a colour spray spell (her favourite spell these days). As the dog leaps at her, she launches the spell. It is blasted with dazzling coloured light and blinded, stunned and otherwise incapacitated. They leave the dog and keep going. On the way out of the barn, they accidentally wake the other two dogs, which start to bark loudly. They hurry across the road and meet up with their friends. As they are filling them in on what happened the front barn doors open up. They see a man with a lantern standing in the door. He scans around for the heroes but doesn’t see them. The three dogs are with him, and they seem to have the Ephai and Freya’s scent. The dogs charge towards the heroes hiding place, while the man with the lantern hurries to the farm house.
Ephai fires an arrow, tagging the lead dog in the shoulder. The arrow doesn’t kill it, but it stops it in its tracks and sends it whimpering towards the farmhouse. The other two dogs close in melee, but the heroes are ready and they gang up on the pooches. John split’s one’s skull with his mace, while Semyaz slashes another with is great sword. Ephai drops his bow, leaps out from the bushes and comes up behind the dog his tiefling half brother is fighting. He runs his rapier through the nape of the dog’s neck. Both dogs are soon dead. The adventurers withdraw at this point. They want to put some distance between themselves and the wall, for they can already see that the two guards that were patrolling the top of the wall have moved to try see and hear what is going on. Fortunately, the heroes are far enough from the wall that the guards’ lantern light can’t reach them. Gladriel leads the party up the hill behind them, away from town. The hill is cleared farm land with little cover or concealment, but at the top, some five hundred yards from the farmhouse, they find a big willow tree and a cluster of large boulders. Here they wait. Soon enough they hear barking. They notice about five men coming up the hill, through the darkness, with a pair of dogs. One of the men holds a lantern, and seems to be the same one that followed Ephai and Freya out of the barn.
The dogs are tracking them by scent and have little difficulty finding their hiding spot among the rocks. The hounds start barking and slathering. The heroes hear one of the men call out, “Go get em boys!” Then the dogs surge ahead. The men follow closely behind. Their leader is has found time to throw on a coat of studded leather armour and he carries a brutal looking great club. The lantern bearer is beside him with a shortsword, and another one bears a club. Two more hang back with hunting bows. Combat ensues. One of the dogs barrels into join and manages to pull him to the ground, forcing him to fight from prone. Semyaz moves out from the rocks, to the front of the fray and hacks at his foes with his great sword, cutting down a hound. Seeing his dog die, sends the leader into a rage, and he makes a brutal power attack against Semyaz. Fortunately, the tiefling has been blessed with the ability to create an illusionary double of himself, and the club swing connects with the double instead, causing it to vanish. The strapping lads with the man refer to him as “pa”, and the heroes deduce that he must be farmer Jessop. They gang up on Semyaz attempting to flank him and bring him down. Fortunately, the war priest is wearing the plate mail armour acquired from Gideon Graymantle’s corpse and it protects him well. John sucks back a feral mutagen and pulls himself to his feet. He then starts tearing into his enemies with claws and bite. Gladriel fires her bow at any large the offers her a clear shot, and Freya moves around and hits the two archers with a final colour spray. Meanwhile, Ephai, Semyaz and John focus on killing father Jessop. He proves to be a tough bastard, but soon John bites his throat out, which ends the man. His children try avenge him, and they manage to beat Ephai into unconsciousness. However, soon enough the final dog and Jessop’s sons are dead. The lantern bearer surrenders and they take captive Jessop’s manly looking daughter, who had been one of the archers and had been put down a Freya’s colour spray spell.
Next, they perform some healing magic on Ephai. Then Gladriel takes up interrogating the two prisoners. She learns that Jessop is a middle man, responsible for helping to move contraband by night from Breslow manor to his barn, and then through the tunnel to the secret storage cellar beneath a bar called the Flounder Pounder. The captives explain that the owner of the Flounder Pounder, a man named Ned Shakeshaft, is one of the leaders of the smugglers. He lives in an apartment above the bar, and another fellow, a foreign wizard named Sanbalet, is his main business partner. Sanbalet had been residing at Breslow manour, but, since the trouble the adventurers caused there, he has moved into Ned’s apartment.
The heroes are pleased enough with this information, and they decide to take the two captives back to Breslow manor. Here they lock them each in one of Frandor’s cages. By this time, it is after midnight. Freya has a desire to rest, so that she can recover her spells, but Gladriel is insistent that they return to the farm before the smugglers have a chance to figure out what is going on. Currently, as far as the heroes know, any of the smugglers that witnessed them are either dead or their captive. Gladriel hopes to take advantage of this.
The session ends with the heroes heading back towards town.
Session #7 XP
dogs 200 x 5 = 1000
Farmer Jessop = 600
Jessop’s kids 200 x 3 = 600
smuggler 200
finding the tunnel in Jessop’s barn 1100
2500/5 = 500 xp each
GM Notes: In the original Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh adventure there isn't much detail about the smuggler operation in town. In fact there isn't any real detail about the town itself. The only thing mentioned is that the smugglers have a contact with an unscrupulous merchant in town. Consequently, I've added a lot more detail about the town and how the smuggling operation functions.
Session #8 (Rematch with Sanbalet)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 2)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 2)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 2)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 2)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 2)
It is about an hour before dawn by the time the heroes make it back to Saltmarsh from Breslow manor. As they are approaching the Jessop farm they notice nearly a score of men making their way up the hill to the site of the recent battle between the heroes and farmer Jessop and his lads. They know that these men will soon find the bodies they left behind, along with the note attempting to frame the Skull King bandits for the attack. The adventurers keep moving, and soon they are across the road from the Jessop farm, hiding among some bushes. The farm sits just in front of Saltmarsh’s wall, and its barn contains the entrance to a secret tunnel that leads under the wall to a hidden cellar in the town. They notice that a pair of militia men are guarding the door to the farmhouse and several villagers are huddled in the darkness on the road nearby, talking in hushed whispers. Presumably they are discussing the deaths of farmer Jessop and his boys. There does not seem to be much going on around the barn, so the party creeps across the road and goes in through the side door. They venture down the secret trap door, through the tunnel and start heading for the cellar. They have to travel single file, as the tunnel is quite tight. Semyaz leads the way; he isn’t stealthy, but he does have heavy plate armour and is a good person to have leading an attack. The door at the end of the tunnel is closed, and when they push against it they realize that something seems to be blocking it from behind. Semyaz has to work hard to push it open enough that he can squeeze through, and the process takes him a few moments. Finally, he gets through and enters the cellar hall. This hallway is significantly wider than the smuggler tunnel, and at the far end is a wooden stair case that leads up. There are four doors off the hall, two on each side. The tiefling immediately spots the wizard Sanbalet standing on the stairs, mirror images swirl about him, and it is clear that he is ready and waiting for the heroes
Semyaz calls out a battle cry to Dalt (his god) and charges the wizard, but Sanbalet has a wand readied and bombards the tiefling with a trio of magic missiles. The magical force blasts crash into him, causing him pain, but they don’t slow his charge. Just as Semyaz nears the wizard, something slams into the chest plate of his armour. Fortunately, it protects him well. Out of no where, there is a big, rough looking man standing before him, blocking his path to Sanbalet. The man must have been invisible and waiting. He only wears leather armour, and he has no weapons, but he looks confident that this won’t be a disadvantage for him. Another man pops up from behind a nearby barrel and fires an arrow at Semyaz, but the arrow skips off his armour. Then, a third man bursts out from a door to the war priest’s right. He steps in behind Semyaz, so that he has flanking with the big brawler. He then stabs at him with a shortsword, but the tiefling spins about and parries the attack with his great sword. Ephai rushes into the cellar hall to help his half brother. He attacks the man that the just stabbed at Semyaz with his rapier, plunging it into the man’s back and nearly killing him. However, at that instant, yet another smuggler rushes out of the shadows from the near the tunnel door and sneak attacks Ephai, wounding the aasimar. John quaffs a shield extract, while Galadriel bursts in with her scimitar and ineffectual attacks the smuggler that wounded Ephai. Finally Freya forces her way into the cellar hall and fires a crossbow bolt at the enemy archer behind the barrel. Unfortunately, marksmanship is not her specialty and she fails to hit.
Sanbalet, next casts a shatter spell, attempting to destroy Semyaz’s great sword. The war priest’s strong will saves his blade, and he uses it to cut down the smuggler that Ephai had wounded. The brawler goes for a sweep kick and tries to trip the tiefling, but Semyaz keeps his footing. The archer drops his bow, draws a dagger and rushes Semyaz, stabbing him. Ephai rushes around Sanbalet’s two bodyguards and closes on the wizard, but the dagger wielding rogue lashes out as he passes and stabs Ephai good. The aasimar reaches Sanbalet, who curses and belittles his allies for letting Ephai get near him. It doesn’t much matter, the wizard is protected well with his mage armour and mirror image spells, and Ephai’s sword thrusts are in vain. John and Gladriel have now made it fully into the hall. They try to hack their way through the two remaining smugglers that have gotten between them and the half-brothers (Ephai and Semyaz). The rogues are lightly armoured but agile and good at dodging attacks. Gladriel and John find it difficult to strike true. Freya keeps firing her crossbow and missing, all the while cursing that she has no spells left.
The battle continues to rage for a brief time. Sanbalet lets loose a couple of more magic missile barrages. Luckily, for Semyaz he had created his own illusionary double that saves him from the bulk of one barrage. Ephai isn’t so fortunate, and he is blasted into unconsciousness. Semyaz then cuts down another smuggler, though the brawler and his dagger wielding brother continue to engage him and block his path to his now dying brother. Even though, Ephai is dying and Semyaz is badly injured, Sanbalet’s cowardly and cautious nature gets the better of him. He retreats up the stairs, ordering his henchmen Dargley and Ned to finish the heroes off. However, without the support of the wizard the enemies are over matched. John and Gladriel bring down a final smuggler, leaving only Ned and Dargley (the brawler). Semyaz then slashes Dargley across the throat killing him instantly (crit!). This invokes a scream of anguish from Ned who retaliates by stabbing Semyaz, which leaves the tiefling on the ground, bleeding out near his brother. John finally has a clear path, so he moves up to Ned (the dagger wielding rogue) and attacks with his mace. This gives Gladriel a chance to cast her last healing spell on Semyaz, which allows him to regain consciousness. Ned is now out numbered four to one, so he flees and disappears up the stairs. The heroes aren’t in much position to chase him down. Thus, Galadriel uses a stabilize spell and they then take time to feed their only healing potion to Ephai. The powerful healing magic cures the bulk of his wounds.
Next the heroes poke about the cellar a little. Ephai scouts up the stairs, but he doesn’t want to risk being ambushed by the wizard, so he doesn’t go far. Back in the cellar, from the other side of one of the hall’s closed doors, they hear voices calling for help. They unbar the door and open it up. In the foul smelling room beyond they find three more female prisoners. They quickly question the girls and learn that the women are from a village to the north called Black Hallow. The girls claim that their village was attacked by the Skull King’s bandit army and that they were taken prisoner. They were brought south by a group of bandits and were traded to the smugglers. The smugglers then took them to the Jessop family barn, moved them through the tunnel and locked them in the cellar. Originally there were six girls, but the previous night the smugglers took three of the young women away, and they have not been seen since. This is particularly upsetting to one of the rescued girls, as one of the women taken away was her sister. Unfortunately, the heroes don’t think there is much they can do to help find her missing sister at the moment. They decide to take the freed captives back to Breslow manor for safety.
Grandpa Frandor is willing to make the girls his retainers. The heroes fill him on the events of their second foray of the evening. He supposes, that now that they have been seen by Sanbalet raiding the smugglers’ secret cellar, there is a good chance that Sheriff Crowley and the militia will come to the manor looking for them regarding the deaths of famer Jessop and his boys. He hesitantly suggests that they move their horses into his secret lab for the next day, and that they hide there as well. They spend the next day and night crammed into Frandor’s lab with the three girls, and their horses. It isn’t pleasant, but eventually they emerge. When they do, they learn from Frandor that sheriff Crowley and his men did indeed come looking for them. They were quite surprised to find Frandor alive and well. Frandor allowed them to do a walk through his home to look for the adventurers, but since they were hidden in the lab Sheriff Crowley didn’t find them. Afterwards, Frandor made it clear that they were not welcome back. He asked that the sheriff inform the townsfolk that he is alive, and that anyone who stole furnishings from his home should return them immediately.
The heroes discuss their next course of action. They know it will now be difficult to operate in Saltmarsh since they are wanted by the sheriff and the militia. Frandor suggests that they accompany him on a trip to a nearby village called Kelton. Lord Kelton is a renowned breeder of hunting dogs, and Frandor is on good terms with him. He wishes to buy some dogs from Lord Kelton to help protect his manor. He also hopes to hire some new retainers and buy some other supplies. The adventurers decide that they have nothing better to do at the moment, so they agree to escort him. The session ends with the heroes preparing for the their trip to the village of Kelton.
Session #8 XP
smugglers 200 x 3 = 600
Dargley = 400
Rescuing more slave girls 1000
= 2000/5 = 200 xp each
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Session #9 (New Adventures in Kelton)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 2)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 2)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 2)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 2)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 2)
The heroes set out on their horses from Breslow Manor with Grandpa Frandor. The plan is to travel to Kelton, a village about twenty miles to the northeast. In Kelton Frandor wants to buy some supplies, hire a couple of new retainers, and most importantly purchase some guard dogs. Frandor sets a leisurely pace. They encounter no trouble, but they do run into a farmer and his lads bringing a wagon full of wool to market in Saltmarsh. The farmer wears a holy symbol of Saint Cuthbert, and Gladriel takes advantage of this. She introduces herself, and inquires as to whether or not he knows Shepherd Ivan in Saltmarsh. The farmer is familiar with the priest, and she asks him to do her the favour of delivering Ivan a sealed letter. She doesn’t give him details about its contents, but the letter details the progress they have made in their investigation of the smuggling operation in Saltmarsh. He agrees to do her this favour, and they part company. Late that afternoon they stop in the village of Swinehollow. They spend the following day there as well, and Frandor takes time to purchase a horse for himself. The morning after, they continue to Kelton and arrive that afternoon.
The Kelton family maintains a manor house on top of a hill overlooking the village and the Kingfisher River. The manor is surrounded by a simple stone wall that could not withstand a siege but might deter a small group of raiders or bandits. Within the walls is the manor house, a detached kitchen building, stables, and expansive kennels. They find Lord and Lady Kelton out in the courtyard attending to the training of several of their dogs. Lady Kelton is a big, grim looking woman, who is quite the opposite of Baron Kelton- a lanky fellow with a cheerful disposition. With the aid of her stern voice and crop, she seems to be doing most of the real training while Baron Kelton watches and hands out doggy treats. Baron Kelton is surprised but pleased to see Frandor. He had heard the old alchemist had been murdered. He’d also heard the nasty rumours about Frandor being responsible for missing young girls in the town. Frandor hastily denies those stories and explains that he had a long, magically induced nap that he couldn’t wake himself from. The baron invites them to stay at the manor house. He has the horses stabled, and they spend the remainder of the day helping Frandor choose a few dogs to purchase.
That evening at dinner, they discuss much with the baron. He is eager to get news of the wider world and they tell him of the adventures they have had over the past few weeks. They don’t leave anything out, as Frandor assures them that Baron Kelton is an old friend that can be trusted. For his part, the Baron offers some advice. He explains that Viscount Gruber in Seaton is most vexed by the Skull King’s bandit raids out of the Dreadwood, and he would likely be very interested to learn criminals in Saltmarsh have been secretly supplying the bandits with shipments of weapons. Such activities would surely be considered treasonous in the mind of the Viscount, and he might be a powerful ally to the adventurers if they are smart about how they deal with him. Gladriel in particular seems interested in this prospect and thanks the baron for his advice.
As the evening wears on, conversation turns to how Frandor and Baron Kelton met. The baron tells the heroes a story about how when he was a lad he was captured by a band of Grimlocks along with several other villagers and taken into the caves beneath Saint Luthics Abbey. He was rescued by Frandor and the Company of the Axe, and he has vivid memories of Frandor hurling alchemical frost bombs at an approaching mob of the grimlocks as they fled the caves.The baron fills them in on a few additional details. Saint Luthic’s abbey is about five miles northwest of Kelton. It was built about four hundred years ago by priests of Pelor. They built it over top of a series of caves- caves that provide the only known access to the underdark in the Viscounty. Eventually, a tragedy befell the priests of the abbey, and it was disbanded. Over time it fell into ruin. No priests remained to monitor the threats posed by the deep realms, which eventually led to a tribe of grimlocks making raids against the nearby surface settlements. Eventually, the Company of the Axe drove the tribe back into the underdark, Savras used his magic to conjure several walls of stone that he used to seal off the connection to the underdark. Every few years, Baron Kelton hires adventurers to enter the caves beneath the ruined abbey and check to see if the seal is still intact. It is time for another inspection. He asks if the heroes would be interested in undertaking this quest. He offers them compensation of sorts- he will sell them a magical cloak (cloak of resistance) and suite of magical studded leather armour at about half they price they might normally expect to be able to purchase such items for. They agree, but Ephai insists on buying the armour before they go into the caves. The baron agrees, and he purchases a suite of enchanted studded leather armour for 500 gp.
Frandor makes mention of another opportunity for them during their quest. He tells them that when the Company of the Axe was leaving the caves, a grimlock tagged their elven ranger, Artemisia, with a lucky javelin throw. It caused her to drop her magical oath bow into a dark pool of water. Other pressing matters prevented her from having the chance to recover it. She died soon after on tern island, and as far as Frandor knows it still sits in the bottom of the pool. He also tells them about how he remembers having seen a cave in the complex that was filled with fungi, including some particularly rare mushrooms that are very useful in brewing healing potions. If they get a chance, he suggests they try to gather some.
The next morning, Frandor brews the party a potion of water breathing to aid them in recovering the bow. They then set out for Saint Luthic’s abbey. They arrive that hot afternoon. The abbey itself is nothing more than crumbling ruins. Upon doing some exploration of site, Gladriel locates several sets of fresh tracks that look like human footprints. Ephai finds the remains of a couple of goblins and a dead deer. The inquisitor surmises that they may have a pack of ghouls in the area. They follow the trail and the tracks lead them to a set of stairs that descends into the darkness of the abbey’s crypt. Ephai and Gladriel enter first, moving quietly in hopes of doing some scouting. They rely on their darkvision and bring no light source. At the bottom of the stairs they find themselves in a large crypt chamber with a low, vaulted ceiling. A pair of halls connecting other rooms branch off of each side of this central chamber, and on the far side of the room is another set of stairs that leads down deeper into the complex. Gladriel’s guess about ghouls proves correct when she spots a ghoul crouched on a stone sarcophagus, gnawing on a bone in one of side chambers to their right. The ghoul doesn’t notice the pair. Then Ephai hears what sounds like more ghouls coming from the halls to the left, and he proceeds to investigate. He follows a short hall and finds it leads to another large crypt room. He peaks around the corner and spots about a half dozen more ghouls. Unfortunately, he trips on some rubble and the ghouls all turn their heads, seeing him immediately (rolled a 1 on his stealth check). They hungrily burst into action and rush for him. He curses loudly as he is swarmed by ghouls. His companions hear him and try and come to his aid, but hey can’t get to him before the ghouls tear into him. Luckily, he resists the paralyzing effects of their claws and manages to stagger back behind Freya and Gladriel. The rogue is horribly wounded, but Freya provides him healing, while Gladriel holds the ghouls at bay with disrupt undead cantrips and her scimitar. Some of the ghouls move away from the fight and cut through the second hall out of the crypt chamber. This provides them the chance to double back on the party and attack them on two fronts. As well, two more ghouls join the these ghouls from one of the other chambers. One of these is a ghast that wears a tattered chain shirt and a magical belt of strength.
Thus, the five heroes find themselves in a fight with seven ghouls and a ghast. As might be expected, this proves to be a nasty combat. It isn’t long before most of the ghouls have been cut down, but Freya and John are paralyzed, and Ephai is unconscious and bleeding out. Semyaz faces off against the ghast, and a badly wounded Gladriel holds the final ghoul at bay with her scimitar. Then the ghoul gets the better of Gladriel and bites her on the neck, causing her to drop to the stone floor. This leaves Semyaz as the only member of the party still standing. He knows that if he falls he and his companions are all dead. The ghoul is about to start eating Gladriel when the ghast calls it to help in its fight against Semyaz. The thing reluctantly obeys its master, and Semyaz finds himself facing a ghast and ghoul on his own. The ghast has been giving him quite a go, and the tiefling has had difficulty connecting with any attacks, so he targets the ghoul instead and cuts it down with his greatsword. Suddenly, it is only the tiefling versus the ghast. They exchange several blows, and soon they are both horribly wounded. Thankfully, Semyaz has resisted its paralysis. Still, the only thing saving Semyaz is his plate armour is his divine ability to create illusionary doubles of himself- all of which are now spent. The ghast doesn’t give up, as it senses victory is close. Fortunately, Dalt is with Semyaz, and the warpriest ducks a claw attack from the ghast. Then he ripostes with a mighty slash from his great sword that hews the undead fiend down.
He hurries to the aid of Gladriel and Ephai, offering what healing he can. Soon Freya and John regain control of their bodies, and more magical healing takes place. The fight has taxed the party to its limits, and they have little choice but to go back to Kelton to recover. The plan is to heal their wounds and return to the crypt. Hopefully, the ghouls have been fully cleared out and they can find the entrance to the caves and descend unopposed.
XP for Session #9
ghouls 7 x 400 = 2700
ghast 600
Total = 3300/5 = 660 each (Level UP!)
Session #10 (Death in the Caves)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 3)
Seymaz (tiefling, warpriest 3)
Ephai (aasimar, rogue 3)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 3)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 3)
The heroes rest a day and two nights in Kelton, attempting to recover from the fight with the ghouls. Unfortunately, John discovers he has contracted ghoul fever. He feels awful, but he musters the strength to return to the ruined monastary with his companions. They finish their search of the crypts and find no sign of anymore ghouls. What they do find is circular shaft about twenty feet in diameter surrounded by a waist high stone wall. Galdriel looks down the shaft with her improved darkvision (120’ range). She can see to the bottom; it is an 80’ drop. About 30’ down the shaft, it opens through the ceiling of a cave and then drops down to a cavern floor another 50’ down. They decide to tie a rope around Galdriel’s waist and lower her down the shaft. She drops down far enough that she hangs into the upper reaches of the cave. It proves to be fairly large. It is also quite beautiful, filled with strange and breath-taking mineral formations. Three tunnels exit the cave. On the floor she spots something that looks like a petrified, humanoid lizard creature. Her companions lower her down. She investigates the petrified creature more closely. It appears to be a troglodyte, and parts of it are missing. Soon the remainder of the party has descended into the caves. They recall Frandor telling them to take the steepest tunnel down deeper into the caverns, and they take the passage that best matches that description.
They follow a downward sloping tunnel for some distance. Soon they come to a cave that is dominated by a large pool of water. A natural stone causeway crosses the pool. It looks quite slippery and treacherous. Freya recalls Grandpa Frandor’s story about Artemisa the elven ranger losing her enchanted oath bow in a pool of water when she was hit by a grimlock’s javelin. They decide to spend some time searching this cavern for the lost bow. Semyaz consumes a potion of water breathing provided by Frandor, and he sinks into the pool on the left side of the causeway. He casts a detect magic spell and starts scanning the floor of the pool for the bow. At first he finds nothing, and his companions help him out of the water. It is then that they hear a noise coming from their right. It is the snorting noise that a bull might make. Looking in that direction, they see a tunnel partially filled with water leading away from the pool. Standing in the tunnel, knee deep in water, is a minotaur. The minotaur holds massive great club of bone and stone. Around the beast’s neck is a thick iron collar with a dangling chain attached to it. The chain must once have been much longer, but it is now broken and hangs only to his waist. The heroes are on the causeway and the minotaur would have to cross the pool of water to reach them. Fortunately the pool is much deeper than the depth of the tunnel he is standing in, which prevents him from wading over to them. Freya attempts to communicate with the beast in a variety of languages, but they get no response beyond hostile grunts. After a few minutes, it turns away and storms back down the tunnel, vanishing from sight.
Semyaz jumps into the pool on the right side of the causeway and continues his search. This time his detect magic spell indicates the presence of magic. He moves towards the source, but the bow is covered in some thirty years of mineral deposits that hide it from view. As he is searching, his companions hear a splash in the water beside the causeway. Galdriel catches a glimpse of a something fall from the ceiling of the cave into the pool. Then she sees it; floating on the surface, beside the causeway, is an ooze. It must have been clinging to the ceiling of the cave and dropped into the water. It senses prey and attacks, lashing out with a tendril that hits John with great force, nearly breaking his knee. The tendril wraps around John’s leg and tries to pull him into the water. It is coated with acid that eats through his pants and burns his leg. He pulls away and manages to free himself. The alchemist falls back behind is companions, quite wounded. His allies retaliate, Galadriel tries to burn it with a flame bolt, but fire seems to have no effect on the thing. They also hear something else approaching, and suddenly emerging into the cave is the minotaur. Luckily, they have wisely chosen to cross to the far side of the causeway, forcing the minotaur to navigate the long and slippery causeway to reach them. This gives them time to get Semyaz out of the water while holding off the ooze. As the minotaur crosses the causeway, the heroes cleave and hack at the ooze. It gets hold of Freya as she attempts to move away from it, halting her movement and scorching her with acid. She desperately slashes at the tendril that has wrapped around her waist with her dagger, but she doesn’t get free. John drinks a mutagen that causes him to assume his strange raven-like form. He’s not too sharp in bird form, and he makes the mistake of clawing the ooze with a talon. It seems to harm the ooze, but doing so burns John’s talon with acid. Ephai stabs at it with his rapier and Semyaz hauls himself out of the water and cleaves it with his great sword. This is enough to cause it release Freya and fall back into the water where it sinks beneath the surface.
Semyaz hears heavy breathing behind him and smells the stink of wet fur. He turns just in time to see the minotaur standing before him on the slippery rock causeway. It towers over him and raises its great club to smash his skull in. Just as it is about to swing, Freya uses the elemental powers of her race (sylph) to manipulate the air around the beast. A mighty gust of wind pulls at its legs and causes it to lose its footing and slip on the wet rock. The minotaur falls into the water with a big splash, dropping its club, which sinks into the waves. Galdriel burns it with an acid splash as it thrashes about in the pool, but it doesn’t seem to notice. The beast clearly isn’t a swimmer. Its eyes go wide with panic and fear. Desperately, it grabs hold of the rock of the causeway and uses its great strength to haul itself back onto solid ground. Semyaz takes advantage of this opportunity and brings his sword down, hewing deep into the thing’s upper back. Despite the nasty wound, it gets to its feet and gores Semyaz with its horns. Fortunately, it has no room to get a run at him and doesn’t have the momentum to do huge damage. Semyaz steps back towards his companions, shifting onto a wider section of the causeway. John moves up beside him to help, and he slashes the minotaur across the chest with a talon. His brutal attack again causes the monster to fall into the water, and again Semyaz once more cleaves it as it pulls itself back onto the causeway. This attack splits its skull in twain, leaving it dead. The heroes take a few minutes to use healing spells. Semyaz detects magic on the beast’s collar, so they remove it. It is quite big and heavy, but Semyaz decides he will carry it, but first he wants to find the bow. The water breathing magic is still active on him, so he dives back in the pool and finishes his search. Soon he emerges with Artemisa’s enchanted oath bow. The heroes are now ready to complete the second part of their quest.
Galdriel takes the oath bow for the time being, though she isn’t familiar yet with the full extent of its magical properties. A tunnel on the far side of the causeway continues to lead deeper into the cave complex. The adventurers follow the tunnel, and they soon come to deep chasm that they must cross to continue. Fortunately, it is only about twenty feet wide, and with some clever use of their climbing gear they are soon safely on the other side. Not long after the tunnel opens into by far the largest cave they have come across. It sprawls out before them, extending well beyond the range of even Galdriel’s darkvision. They can hear the echoing sounds of dripping mineral water falling like rain down from the ceiling. A strange musky stench mixes with the smells of sulfur, permeating the cave. Ephai, Galadriel and Freya cautiously move forward to scout. John and Semyaz come along behind but at a bit of a distance. The cave slopes down and the ground is uneven. As they move across the big cave, they start to hear the sound of chanting up ahead, and the musky stink grows more pungent. Soon Galdriel sees a strange rock formation up ahead; it is made of layer upon layer of hardened mineral accumulations and vaguely forms the shape of skull. It is roughly twenty feet wide and long and perhaps a similar height. Before the skull mound she sees a band of trogs clustered- the source of the stench. One of them seems to be a shaman of sorts, and it is leading some kind of foul sacrificial ritual. Two sacrifices are on the ground in front of the shaman, but Gladriel can’t make them out. Ephai moves out to the left and tries to creep close in on the trogs from the flank. Galdriel and Freya move to the right and make their own approach. As they get closer, Galdriel nearly trips over a trog sentry directly in front of her. The thing’s scaly flesh seems to have the ability to blend in with the rocks, and as a result she didn’t see it crouched down among some large rocks. However, Galdriel was moving stealthily, and it didn’t seem to notice her until she was nearly upon it. They are both a little surprised. It shouts out in its strange language, and suddenly the trogs clustered near the skull mound are turning and surging towards the heroes. Ephai also nearly trips over a sentry, and it is clear that there are few more trogs about than they realized.
John and Semyaz charge to catch up with their allies and join the battle before the trogs gain the upper hand. Semyaz arrives first cutting one down, and he moves in front of Galdriel and Freya, protecting the ladies from the oncoming trogs. Ephai hurries to his brother’s side, and John joins them seconds later. Galdriel falls back and draws the elf bow, while Freya uses her crossbow (being nearly out of spells). The fight starts well for the heroes, and it isn’t long before they have taken down several trogs. However, the trogs have gotten in some licks with their clubs, and the adventurers are starting to wear down. It is then that the shaman joins the fight. The shaman is bigger than the other trogs, with a lanky build that is nearly 7’ tall. It wields a two-handed pick axe that is clearly not of trog make. It moves in on John first and drives his pick deep into the alchemist’s chest, dropping him into unconsciousness. Galdriel turns her elf bow on it, but even with the aid of the weapon she finds it difficult to hit thing, as it seems that it has used magic to strengthen its scales. Then, as Ephai and Semyaz are being pressed by trogs, it casts a spell. Semyaz suddenly feels his body freeze up, and he’s left paralyze before his enemies. One of the vile trogs beside him takes advantage of this and pounds the tiefling’s skull to pulp with his club, granting the brave warpriest a rather ignoble death (coup de grace). All of a sudden, things are not looking good for the heroes. John is dying, Semyaz is dead, Ephai is wounded and being pressed by trogs. Freya and Galdriel are in reasonably good shape, for they have managed to stay out of the melee, but they will need a bold move if they are going to survive. This bold move come from Freya. She has wisely saved a final spell. She waits for her chance. The trog shaman moves to finish Ephai, and sinks its pick into the aasimar, but Ephai isn’t ready to join his brother yet, he wants to avenge Semyaz’s death first. He remains standing, barely (1 hp), and he does what he can to occupy the trog shaman with angry thrusts of his rapier. Freya rushes to John, and she coverts her final spell to healing magic that gets John back on his feet. John’s mutagen is still in effect. He steps up to the shaman, gaining flanking with Ephai. He then tears into the foul trog with talons and beak, shredding it to pieces (full attack with sneak attack damage, 50+ damage). The remaining trogs watch this sight in horror; it shatters their morale and they flee.
The heroes have little healing left and are in poor position to continue exploring, but they press on. They investigate the sacrifices and find a dead trog and a female grimlock bound. They don’t have time to waste, for all they know the trogs the fled are off gathering reinforcements, so they leave her be. They soon find the tunnel that supposably connects to the underdark. Here they confirm their suspicions, the seal is broken; shattered pieces of the red stone are scattered about on the ground. Galdriel picks a few up to take back to Baron Kelton as evidence. They then retreat back to the surface, taking Semyaz’s corpse with them.
Back in Kelton, they share the details of their ill-fated expedition with the baron. He feels sorry for their loss, and he decides to give the enchanted cloak that he was going to sell to them at a discount for free. He encourages them to head for Seaton to tell the Viscount about the broken seal and about their dealings with the smugglers in Saltmarsh. They decide that this is a wise idea, and they decide that Seaton will be their next destination.
XP for Session #10
Grey Ooze 1200
Minotaur 1200
Recovering Artemisa’s lost Oath Bow 2000
Trogs 200 x 7 = 1400
Trog Shaman 800
Discovering/reporting the seal to the Underdark is broken 2000
Total 8600/5 = 1720 each
GMs Notes: A tough couple of sessions. The fight with the ghouls was brutal and a hair's breadth from a TPK. I knew that one would be tough. The fight with the trogs proved more difficult than I thought it would be. Semyaz's player wasn't thrilled that I had one of the trogs coup de grace his character while under the effects of a hold person spell, but in my defense I had been asking the party members to make Sense Motive checks during the combat to see that the trogs were really vile opponents that would use such dirty tactics. Sadly, no one rolled well on any of the checks and they didn't pick up on this. So it came as something of a shock when suddenly the trog beside Semyaz slaughtered him with a coup de grace. He used a hero point to reroll his instant death Fort save, but it was a DC 19 and he failed the reroll. He only had one hero point at the time, so he could spend two to spare his life.
Session #11 (New allies in Seaton)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 3)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 3)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 3)
Bailey Irongut (halfling, brawler 3)
Hegan (dwarf, paladin/stonelord 3)
The heroes remain in Kelton to rest for a couple of days to recover from their expedition into the caves below Saint Luthic’s abbey and mourn the loss of Semyaz. John’s ghoul fever seems to have set in fully, and he shows no signs of recovering. They decide that divine magic will be needed to ensure he survives. Ephai is too distraught after his half-brother’s death to continue adventuring with the party. Thus, Freya, John and Galdriel part ways with Ephai. Ephai heads back east with the tiefling’s corpse, and they make haste to Seaton. It takes them a better part of a day’s ride to reach the town. Upon arriving they lodge their horses at the public stables and then take John to the temple of Saint Cuthbert, which is the second of two major temples in the town- the first being the Sea Temple. Here, they meet with Shepherd Theresa. They tell her their story about battling the ghouls in the ruined abbey, and she is willing to help since they were fighting for a good cause. They make a donation to the temple, and she casts a cure disease spell that purges John of ghoul fever.
They are weary from their journey, so they cross the marketplace, passing by the dragon turtle fountain, which is so named because of the massive dragon turtle shell that makes up the basin of the fountain. On the far side of the market is Kord’s alley. Kord’s alley is situated between two taverns and the Halfling’s Lute Inn. It is so named because all the brawls from the adjoining taverns are encouraged to happen in the alley and are overseen by a priest of Kord. As the three adventurers reach the alley, they witness a fight taking place. It seems a feisty halfling is mixing it up with a couple of sell swords and holding his own quite well. They watch the halfling make short work of his two larger opponents. After the fight, they see him chatting with a well-armoured dwarf, and it appears the pair are companions. Galdriel recognizes the dwarf as a fellow named Hegan. She travelled for a couple of days with Hegan when she was on her way to Gradsul several months ago. Hegan aided her when the pair was attacked by a goblins on the road. Once they arrived in Gradsul they went their separate ways, but she remembers him as a trustworthy and honourable dwarf. She doesn’t recognize his halfling companion, but she strongly suspects he is significantly less honourable and trustworthy. She decides to say hello to Hegan, and the dwarf greets her with reserved respect. She and her companions take supper in the common room of the Halfling’s Lute, dining on eel pie and getting reacquainted with Hegan.
Hegan tells them a tale about how he has been on the road for several years, and is in the process of completing an important quest for his clan and god. It seems that the aquifer that provided the main supply of fresh water to his clan’s stronghold in the Crystalmist mountains had been contaminated by foul sorcery. He was sent to seek out mighty dwarf priests of Moradin in a stronghold to the east to ask if they might aid his clan in purifying their aquifer. It was long and arduous journey. Eventually, he reached the Principality of Ulek and made contact with his kin in the Lortmil Mountains. The conclave of high priests listened to his plea for aid and agreed to help. They provided him with a special magical elixir that he was told to pour into the aquifer. The priests claimed that it was imbued with powerful blessings from Moradin, and that it wold purify the contaminated underground spring. Hegan thus began the long journey back west to the Crystalmist mountains. It was on this return journey that he had met Galdriel. After parting ways with her in the city of Gradsul, Hegan had the misfortune of running into Bailey Irongut. While in a tavern, the tactless halfling made some insults towards the dwarf that Hegan could not abide, and the pair ended up in a fight. There is some disagreement about who won the fight, but afterwards they made their peace over a several rounds of drinks. The two swapped tales and had more drinks than they should have. It can likely be attributed to alcohol consumption, but Hegan made the poor judgement call of telling Bailey about his quest and the magical elixir. He made the even poorer choice of showing Bailey the elixir, and he made the most poor choice of forgetting it on their table when he briefly left to take a piss. Bailey, who by this time was quite drunk, chugged the remainder of his drink and then promptly chugged the elixir. When Hegan returned, Bailey claimed that he was so drunk that he got confused and drank it by accident, whether this is the truth or the halfling intentionally drank it because he’s a s@~~ disturber is unclear. At any rate, Hegan was furious and nearly killed the halfling on the spot. However, the halfling’s brawling talents allowed him to knock Hegan out before he could draw his war axe. The next day, the dwarf awoke, still angry but far more sober. Bailey was also much more sober, and he felt a small pang of remorse regarding his actions. He decided, that since he had no real friends and nothing better to do, he would try to make it up to the dwarf and offer him his services as a pugilist. Hegan reluctantly accepted, and the unlikely pair of have been traveling together ever since. Now, one might wonder why, after bringing such shame on him, that the good dwarf would allow Bailey to live, let alone be his travelling companion. The minds of dwarves are strange things; perhaps it was his great shame that caused him to do accept Bailey’s offer. One might consider it a form of self-punishment. Everyday, Hegan must now look at the witless halfling and be reminded of his own carelessness, and as penance, he must now endure that little f@++wit’s near intolerable presence day after day. Hegan now makes his way home, with Bailey tagging along with him. However, the dwarf hasn’t given up; he is still searching for a new means of cleansing the aquifer, so that he doesn’t return from a five year long quest bearing the shame of failure. Such a thing would be intolerable, especially given the circumstances of the his failing.
The next day, the adventurers decide to go to the Viscount’s castle, which is located on a rocky islet out in the harbour, connected to the mainland by a stone bridge, to see if they can gain an audience with Viscount Gruber. John remains behind at the Halfling’s Lute to rest and recover from the ghoul fever (he has ability damage to heal). They speak with the Viscount’s steward and explain the basic nature of their business. He tells them he will pass it on to the Viscount and that they should return the next day to find out if the Viscount wishes to grant them an audience. Next, they go take care of some shopping. They find a buyer for the strange magic collar of sustenance they took off the corpse of the dead minotaur (see session #10). They also visit a shop called Quinn’s bows, hoping to sell the elven oath bow they found in the caves. Quinn is a half elf himself, and he understands the true value of the item. He also recognizes the weapon as the one that belonged to the elven ranger hero, Artemisia. He makes it clear that he can’t pay what it’s worth, but he does offer them 5000 gp for it, which is the most he thinks he can possibly get his hands on. The heroes turn him down, but he is kind enough to suggest that they try to return it Artemisa’s kin. He is certain they will pay handsomely for it (much like the Graymantle family awarded the heroes when they returned Gideon’s sword). He tells them that her clan live in the Dreadwood forest to the north. The adventurers decide that they may, at some point in the not too distant future, try to seek the elves out and sell the bow to them.
The following day, they return to the Viscount’s castle and find out that the Viscount is most interested in speaking with them. They are led into his hall where they find him in the middle of taking his lunch. The Viscount is a bald, stalky man, who has probably seen fifty years. Sitting beside him at the table is a man that looks like it might be his son, as well as a strange looking woman with a black, raven feather cloak, a shorn head and a stylized tattoo of an open eye on her forehead. He gets right to business and asks them to present their letter of introduction from Baron Kelton. He then asks them what news they bring. Galdriel does most of the talking. She describes their foray into the abbey’s crypts and the caves beneath, and she tells him of the broken seal to the underdark. She also gives him all the details she knows regarding the smugglers in Saltmarsh, including her knowledge that they were trading weapons to the Skull King bandits. The Viscount is clearly obsessed with the bandits and wants to see them destroyed. He seems to believe Galdriel, and he is most outraged to discover that folk from one of his own towns have been dealing arms to his arch enemy. Such a thing is nothing short of treason. The Viscount is a very direct man. He is not subtle, and he doesn’t f&%# around. He decides, on that spot, that he will personally ride with thirty of his men to Saltmarsh, and he will deal with the treasonous smugglers. He asks if the heroes are willing to accompany him. They agree, seeing an opportunity to have their name cleared in the town and at the same time dispose of their enemies.
It takes the Viscount a couple days to get himself and his men ready. The heroes take advantage of the time rest and recover from their previous adventure. Soon enough, they ride to Saltmarsh in the company of the Viscount, his son and his soldiers. That evening they arrive at Breslow Manor. Here they discover that Grandpa Frandor has safely returned from Kelton with his retainers and hounds. Furthermore, some of the villagers in Saltmarsh respected his request to have any items looted from his home returned, and he has much of his furniture back. The Viscount speaks with the girls that the adventurers had rescued from the cellar beneath the Flounder Pounder. He also does his own interrogation of the two smugglers they had captured and were keeping at the manor. They all help confirm Galdriel’s story and make the Viscount even more eager to see the smugglers brought to justice. With daylight waning, they ride the remaining few miles to Saltmarsh. John stays behind at Breslow manor to finish recovering from ghoul fever. The Viscount passes through the gates of the town with twenty of his men, and they head directly for the Flounder Pounder to try to apprehend Ned, the bar owner/smuggler, and Sanbalet the slippery wizard. The Viscount is concerned that Ned and Sanbalet might try to escape through the tunnel that leads from the cellar of the tavern to farmer Jessop’s barn, so he sends his remaining ten men, along with the adventurers to ensure that doesn’t happen. The guards wait at the Jessop farm, while the adventurers go into the smugglers’ tunnel.
They are soon in the cellar of the Flounder Pounder- the location where they rescued the girls and last confronted Sanbalet and Ned (session #8). This time the cellar is dark and seemingly empty. As they are investigating, they suddenly hear foot steps on the wooden stairs that lead up to the bar. Looking up, they see Ned hurrying down the stairs, probably running from the Viscount’s soldiers. Ned sees the heroes, curses and tries to rush past them, stabbing Bailey in the gut on his way by. His escape attempt fails. The heroes have him outnumbered four to one, and they have barricaded the door to the tunnel. He’s not a total moron, and he knows when he’s beat. Thus, he surrenders, and the heroes take him into custody. Several soldiers soon come down the stairs looking for him. They are also looking for Sanbalet, who fled with Ned but vanished from sight. Freya suspects he most likely used invisibility magic. Fortunately, the heroes were smart enough to barricade the entrance to the escape tunnel, ensuring that no one could easily get out. They are pretty certain that Sanbalet couldn’t have escaped that way, and Viscount was smart enough to post multiple guards at all the exits to the bar. That means he likely went upstairs to Ned’s apartment, which is built above the bar. The heroes go up to Ned’s apartment to search for the wizard. They find an open window and the remains of a spent spell scroll. There is no sign of the wizard, and it looks like he escaped yet again. However, they do find a strongbox hidden under a bed that holds what is likely Ned’s treasure. It includes a fair amount of coin and five potions.
Their next order of business is interrogating Ned. The Viscount joins Galdriel in this task, and he makes it perfectly clear to Ned that he will be executed for treason, but if he wishes to have clean death with minimal suffering than he had best start talking. They gain some useful information from him that their previous captives couldn’t tell them. They learn that he works for a wealthy and influential local merchant named Jonas Lassiter, and that Elias Crowley, the town’s priest of Procan, is the one who has been taking the girls. The information about Elias being responsible for the vanishing girls is most disconcerting to Galdriel, but the Viscount says they must tread carefully in how they deal with him. He is a well respected public figure with potent divine magic at his disposal. The Viscount decides that he wants to go find Lassiter and the sheriff before either has a chance to flee town. The session end here.
Session #11 XP
Gaining an alliance with the Viscount 2000
Apprehending Ned and learning important new information about the smugglers 2000
Total 4000/5 = 800 each
Session #12 (A final blow to the smugglers and into the Dreadwood.)
Characters
John Breslow (human, alchemist 3)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 3)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 3)
Bailey Irongut (halfling, brawler 3)
Hegan (dwarf, paladin/stonelord 3)
Having completed their interrogation of Ned Shakeshaft, the treasonous owner of the Flounder Pounder tavern, the heroes leave him locked in the tavern’s cellar under guard. They emerge onto the street before he tavern with the Viscount and find that a large crowd of townsfolk have gathered to see what is going on. They now have the name of a man that Ned claims is the mastermind behind the smuggling operation, a prominent local merchant named Jonas Lassiter. Viscount Gruber starts barking orders. He commands that the town gates be sealed, so that no one gets in or out. Sheriff Crowley and Mayor Marsh step forward to speak with the Viscount and find out what he is up to in their town. Upon seeing the sheriff, The Viscount orders him arrested for suspicion of treason (as the sheriff had been, at the very least, taking payments from the smugglers to look the other way regarding their activities in town). Crowley doesn’t resist, as he is surrounded by soldiers, vastly outnumbered and has nowhere to run.
Next the Viscount, takes a contingent of soldiers, as well as the heroes, and they march up the street to Lassiter Manor with the intent of arresting Jonas Lassiter. A large and growing crowd of gawkers follows behind. Lassiter’s wife answers the door and claims that her husband isn’t home. In response the Viscount declares that anyone who tries to aid Lassiter in evading the law will be charged with treason along with him, and any retainers who help them apprehend him will not face any charges. This prompts one of the servants standing behind Lady Lassiter to spout out that he is hiding in a secret room in the basement. The Viscount’s men arrest Lassiter’s wife, and his soldiers storm the manor. None of Lassiter’s retainers attempt to stop them, and they find that Jonas is indeed hiding out in a secret room in the cellar. He is arrested and all the prisoners are transferred to cells below the town hall for safe keeping. The Viscount is pleased- the only one that has managed to escape is the slippery wizard Sanbalet, and he says he will put a 1000 gp bounty out on the wizard.
The heroes are invited to join the Viscount for dinner that evening, and he thanks them for their efforts in routing out the smugglers. He promises to make it clear to Mayor Marsh that they will no longer face any charges regarding the deaths of Farmer Jessop and his family, which will allow them to freely operate in town once more. He asks them if they would be willing to further aid him in dealing with the Skull King and his rumoured bandit army. At present, he wants information. How big is their army? Where exactly are they camped? What sort of fortifications do they have? What are their plans? etc… The heroes agree. They had planned to head towards the Dreadwood anyhow because they wanted to sell the oath bow they had recovered back to the elves of the forest.
They spend the night at Hoof in Mouth Inn, and the next morning they make the short trip back to Breslow Manor. Here they spend a couple of days with Grandpa Frandor, helping him get his home back in order, resting and preparing for their journey north to the Dreadwood. He informs them that their is an elf family in the town of Burle that act as liaisons between the elves of the forest and humans of the Viscounty. He suggests that if they wish to meet with the elves they see him first. This seems like a wise idea since the Dreadwood is a huge forest, and they don’t know how to find the elf clans.
The journey north to Burle takes two days and is uneventful. They are weary from their journey when they arrive in town, and they head straight for the Screaming Elf Inn where they stable their horses. The common room is lively with locals and travellers. As Galdriel is scanning the room, she notices two men sitting at a table by themselves in the corner. One of the men is clearly a sell-sword type. He is a big fellow with a bald head and thick, dark beard. He wears well-worn banded mail armour and has a bastard sword at his side. His shield leans against the wall behind him. He is talking to a slender man wearing a hooded cloak. The hood is pulled up on the cloak, which strikes Galdriel as odd since they are indoors. The man glances their way when they step through the door, and she catches a quick glimpse of his face before he turns away and returns to his conversation. She is pretty certain that it is Sanbalet the fugitive wizard. Galdriel subtly informs her allies. They decide not to mess around, and Galdriel starts walking straight for his table. He’s ready for her, and he manages to cast a suggestion spell before she launches a fire bolt. She resists his attempt to compel her to go out to the town square and attack the Screaming Elf statue. Her fire bolt flies past Sanbalet’s head, scorching the wall behind him. He shouts out to the sell sword, ordering the mercenary to protect him. The fighter jumps up from his chair, grabs his sword and puts himself between the wizard and the heroes. At about the same time, Bailey rushes forward, darting past the mercenary. The halfing brawler leaps into the air and tackles Sanbalet, slamming him to the floor, and Sanbalet ends up with the halfling on top of him. The wizard is a little dazed from being tackled and Bailey head butts him, breaking his nose (critical hit on Bailey’s grapple check).
The crowd in the bar is a mixture of panic and fascination. Some rush out a nearby door, others move back to watch the action. The inn keeper calls out for someone to fetch the guard. By this time, John has chugged a mutagen and transforms into his bestial, raven hybrid form. He rushes the sell sword and bites at the man, fully occupying his attention. The warrior retaliates with a brutal sword attack, hoping to take the feral alchemist down quick. John ends up with a nasty gash across his chest that almost drops him. Luckily, Freya comes to his aid and provides him with magical healing. Hegan takes up position by the nearest of the two doors. Sanbalet manages to get off a second suggestion spell. This one targets Bailey, and this one succeeds. As the halfling is about to get off the wizard and run out to the market to beat on the Screaming Elf statue, Gladriel closes on the wizard and slashes him with her scimitar while he’s prone. Freya follows this attack up with a barrage of magic missiles that knock the wizard unconscious and nearly kills him. Meanwhile, John and the sellsword keep hacking at each other. The fighter is competent and might well be capable of beating John if the alchemist were not surrounded by his allies. The mercenary can see that he has failed to protect his patron, and he sees no reason to die for him at this point. He shouts out that he will stand down if the bird stands down. Galdriel casts a stabilize spell on Sanbalet, as she wants him alive. She also calls out for John to stand down. Freya aids her, as the alchemist has gone savage and is not easy to communicate with. Luckily, they manage to get through to him, and John finds the will to restrain himself.
Bailey is still under the effects of Sanbalet’s suggestion spell. He has some difficultly getting past Hegan to exit the door, and he has to resort to punching the dwarf in the nuts to pull it off. Stepping outside he finds himself at the edge of the market. He sees the statue standing on pedestal in the middle of the marketplace. It is evening by now, and the market isn’t overly busy, but there are still people about. The hafling charges the statue and tackles it. He manages to knock it off the pedestal and he starts slamming his fist into the petrified elf’s face. Luckily his little fists aren’t quite powerful enough to really damage the statue. It isn’t long before a squad of guards hurries across the market to the Inn. A few of them break off to deal with Bailey. The halfling is engrossed in his task, and doesn’t notice them at first, but when one of the men tries to haul him off the statue, he turns and punches the man in stomach, causing the guard to buckle in pain. By this time, the rest of the heroes are busy trying to calm the crowd down inside the Inn and explain the situation. However, Freya has decided to check on Bailey. She sees the trouble Bailey is in, and decides that the best way to help is to cast a sleep spell on the halfling. Her spell succeeds and Bailey takes a nap.
In the aftermath of the little scuffle the heroes loot Sanbalet, recovering significant coin, some gems, his spell book, some scrolls and his wand of magic missiles. They surrender themselves to the guard. They are relieved of their weapons and escorted to the town hall with Todrick and Sanbalet (who is still unconscious). Here they have a meeting with Lord Mayor Jalissa Burle. She recognizes them from their previous meeting with her when they were last in town. She isn’t pleased that they are “causing trouble,” and they have to do some explaining to avoid incurring her wrath. Galdriel is quite convincing, and the Lord Mayor believes the inquisitor’s story about Sanbalet and his ties to treasonous smugglers. It probably helps that she is telling the truth. Galdriel also explains that the Viscount had recently placed a bounty on the man, and that they are currently on a mission for the Viscount and planning to head into the Dreadwood to gather more information about the Skull King. The Lord Mayor allows them to go free, on the condition that they keep out of trouble for the remainder of their stay in town. They return to the Inn, give the Inn keeper some extra coin and settle in. They make peace with the sell-sword, who they learn is a man named Todrick. They eat and drink with him, and they discover that he was making his way to Seaton, as he heard that the Viscount was hiring mercenaries to help deal with the bandit problem. That evening he had met Sanbalet, and the wizard offered him a decent sum to escort him out of the Viscounty. Up until coming to the region, Todrick had been working in Sterich helping to combat the beleaguered nation’s “giant troubles.” However, he had decided that the work offered too much danger for not enough pay, so he had come southeast in search of greener pastures. The heroes confirm that Viscount is looking for sell-swords and they wish him well.
The following day, they visit the Aramil, the elven diplomat, at his home. Amaril has lived in town longer than any other citizen, and he has seen Burle grow from a farming village to a bustling town. He lives with his beautiful wife Ella and son Corwin (all elves). They show him the late Artemisa’s bow, and this gets his full attention. He confirms that her clan would very much like the weapon returned, and he promises to send word to them immediately. He asks that they return in a few days, for he will likely have received a reply by then. Thus, the heroes spend a few days of downtime in town. Bailey keeps out of trouble as best he can, which is to say not overly well. However, he confines his brawling to the town’s dive taverns where such things are expected. Galdriel mostly rests and tries to gather rumours. Freya confines herself to her room at the inn and studies Sanbalet’s spell book. John visits the gnome alchemist, Gimble, and discusses alchemy, and Hegan does whatever dwarf paladins do in human towns.
Eventually, they return to Aramil’s home and find out the elf has made contact with his kin. He says that they are eager to meet with the heroes and will offer sufficient compensation for the return of the oath bow. He tells them that he will send a trained owl to escort them to the place in the Dreadwood where the elves will meet them. They can expect the journey to take three days. They set out the following day. It takes a day to reach the woods, and another two days to reach the meeting site. The site is a clearing with an ancient oak tree in the middle of it. Here they have to wait another day, but eventually the elves do arrive. The leader of the band is an elf named Eravan. Eravan was Artemisa’s cousin, and he very much wants her bow. They explain how they learned of the weapon and how they came into its possession. He honours his word, and offers them several magic items of lesser value and significance to clan for the bow. They include: a belt of mighty constitution (+2), an enchanted chain shirt (not elven, but +2), a dwarven waraxe (+1, that the elves had “recovered”), a cloak of elvenkind, an enchanted longbow (human make, +1). The heroes decide that the items make a good trade, so they accept the elves’ offer. Galdriel also mentions the Skull King bandits, and the fact that the heroes are looking for them. Eravan has mixed feelings about the bandits. He likes that they are disrupting human logging operations, but he still sees them as an enemy and threat to his people. He agrees to help by having two of his scouts lead the heroes to the area where they believe the Skull King has his hidden camp.
The session ends with the heroes preparing to seek out the Skull King’s bandit camp and conduct recon for the Viscount.
Session #12 xp
capturing Sanbalet 2000 xp
returning Artemisa’s bow to her kin 2000 xp (and good loot)
4000 xp/5 = 800 xp each
Very entertaining journal here! Looking forward to seeing how the characters will further develop. Is this journal up to date or written in retrospective btw?
Thanks. We play once a week, so I update as we go. I'm up to date right now.
Here's some details on the inquisitor order that Galdriel belongs to.
Order of the Blazing Sun
Pelor is the sun god. His faith is one of kindness, compassion, mercy and redemption, but also one that holds a burning hatred for evil, particularly the irredeemable evil embodied by undead, fiends and evil dragons. His inquisitors are relatively few in number. They are all members of a branch of the faith called The Order of the Burning Sun. Inquisitors of the Order of the Burning Sun are charged with travelling the lands and destroying enemies of the faith, even if that requires working outside of the laws of the land. In particular, they are charged with the destruction of fiends, undead, evil monsters and chromatic dragons. Since the Greyhawk Wars and Undead Scourge (aka Age of Worms) the destruction of demons and undead have become a particular high priority.
The order maintains a simple hierarchy. The central head quarters of the order is a fortress abbey called the Basilica of the Burning Sun. It is located near the free city of Dyvers, and it is presided over by the Lord Inquisitor of the Burning Sun. It is a place where those who wish to become anointed in the order go to train and learn the skills needed to serve as inquisitors. The ranks in the Order of the Burning Sun are straight forward: Acolyte of the Burning Sun (levels 1-4), Inquisitor of the Burning Sun (levels 5-9), High Inquisitor of the Burning Sun (level 10-12), and Lord Inquisitor of the Burning Sun (level 13+, There can be only 1). The Flaness contains several houses of the Burning Sun, most of them are attached to prominent temples of Pelor. Each House of the Burning Sun is presided over by a High Inquisitor.
Pelor’s faith is not overly common in the Kingdom of Keoland. There are only two Houses of the Burning Sun in the kingdom. One is in the coastal city of Gradsul, and the other is in the inland capital of Niole Dra. When Galdriel reaches 5th level she should attempt to visit a House of the Burning Sun to give an account of her deeds in the service of the order and to be promoted to the rank of Inquisitor of the Burning Sun.
Inquisitors of the Order carry a badge to identify themselves. It can serve a dual purpose as holy symbol of Pelor. The badge is circular and looks like a blazing sun burst.
Order of the Blazing Sun Inquisitor Badges:
Acolyte: silver, duals as a holy symbol
Inquisitor: gold, functions as a holy symbol and an amulet of natural armour +1 that can be used to cast detect evil 3 times per day (CL 8)
High Inquisitor: gold with a ruby in the centre, functions as a holy symbol and an amulet of natural armour +2 that can be used to cast detect evil 3 times per day and heroism 1 per day (self only) (CL 10)
Lord Inquisitor: a unique item made of gold and platinum set with rubies. Functions as a holy symbol and an amulet of natural armour +4 that can be used to cast detect evil 3 times per day, heroism 1 per day (self only) and righteous might 1 per day (CL 13)
Session #13 (Scouting the Skull King’s Camp)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 3)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 3)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 3)
Bailey Irongut (halfling, brawler 3)
Hegan (dwarf, paladin/stonelord 3)
After returning the oathbow to the elves of the Dreadwood, Eravan, the leader of the elf delegation sent to meet with the adventurers, agrees to give them the aid of two of his scouts. The scouts will lead the heroes to the region of the expansive forest where the elves believe that the Skull King has made his camp. Thus, they set out. The adventurers have to lead their horses through much of the journey, as the forest is in many places too dense for riding. The elves move along with them, quietly darting among the trees, always alert, always ready with their bows, for the Dreadwood holds many dangers.
On the second day of travel, they encounter one such danger. Just up ahead they spot the distinctive form of an owl bear tearing at a fallen log. It spots the adventurers leading their mounts, and it stands up on its hind legs squawking viciously. Suddenly, a second owl bear comes crashing through the woods on all fours from behind them. Before they have any real time to react, it reaches Galdriel’s horse, which panics and tries to run, but with mighty claw sweep the owl bear tears a hunk of flesh out of the mount’s rear. The remainder of the horses enter a state of panic, and they break off in all directions, stampeding into the woods. Bailey rushes the owl bear that came on them from behind; one of its claws goes sweeping over him, and he punches it in the knee, hurting and enraging the beast. It directs its fury towards Bailey, ignoring the horse as the steed runs off into the woods, blood gushing from its wound.
Hegan’s stubby legs carry him up to the second owl bear. He starts hewing at the thing with his war axe as though he were trying to cut down a tree. This owl bear claws and bites at the dwarf. Hegan manages to parry a claw attack with his shield and another scrapes off his armour, but then its beak crashes down into his shoulder, finding a gap in his armour. It tears his flesh, and the dwarf howls in pain. John quaffs a mutagen and transforms into his monstrous, raven-hyrid form. He darts in behind the first owl bear to gain flanking with Bailey. Galdriel, looses an arrow that she had knocked, but she is not very good a precision shooting, and she finds that her allies are getting in the way of her aim, so she drops her bow, draws her scimitar and moves up to fight beside Bailey. She gives the beast at taste of steel, and it turns its attention on her. It brutally claws the aasimar inquisitor, grabbing her up in a bear hug as it does. Bailey slams his deadly little fists into it again, but it doesn’t release her. Then John does a full attack on the thing from behind, shredding it with his talons and ripping at it with his beak. The owl bear shrieks in agony, drops Galdriel and and collapses to the ground dead, leaving John standing behind it victorious, his beak covered in gore and feathers.
Meanwhile, Freya and the two elf scouts do what they can to help Hegan, who is single-handedly trying to take on the second of the creatures. She blasts it with barrages from her recently acquired wand of magic missiles, and the elves drive arrows into its feathered hide. Together they bring the beast down before it can rip the dwarf to shreds. Next, the heroes use their healing wand to tend their wounds and set about recovering their scattered horses. They take time to heal Galdriel’s steed of its injuries, and soon enough they are fit to keep travelling. After a couple of more days of travel, they reach a section of the forest where they see signs of logging. The elves claims the Skull King’s men are responsible for the logging, and they claim his camp is somewhere in the area. At this point, the elf guides say their farewells and leave the adventurers, vanishing into the forest.
Galdriel notices that some of the tree cutting looks recent, and she believes she can follow the trail that the loggers left from dragging the felled trees. She is a skilled tracker and the trail is easy enough to follow. They follow it for about half an hour. Then they hear the sound of voices from up ahead. Their line of sight is blocked by the trees, so they tether their horses and decide to do some recon. Galdriel and Freya, being the most stealthy of the party, scout it out, while the others remain with the horses. The pair comes to a clearing not far up ahead. In the clearing they see a band of six human hunters. They are in process of gutting a dead deer that they must have just killed. Three stand watch with bows, while three more deal with the deer. As Freya attempts to move into position to get a better look, she steps on a stick that cracks loudly. One of the bandit hunters turns and catches a glimpse of her as she darts behind a tree. He calls out to his companions, explaining that he saw someone. Suddenly, all six of the bandits are moving towards the trees Freya and Galdriel are hiding behind. The pair try to sneak away by crouching and scurrying to other trees that they can hide behind, but the bandits again see them. Suddenly, arrows are whizzing past the pair. Since stealth has failed them, they instead run. More arrows are fired. Several miss, but one tags each of them. The bandits don’t initially pursue them far, and soon they have made it back to their companions. Here they try to prepare an ambush, hoping to hit the bandits should they come after them. They wait over a half an hour, but nothing happens. It seems that bandits haven’t bothered coming after them. They then return to the clearing, this time all the adventurers go, but upon arriving they see that bandit hunters are gone. They decide to follower their trail, and it takes them to a pathway, which they follow east. Walking on the path doesn’t seem wise, so they stay in the trees, but they keep the trail in sight as they move eastward.
It isn’t long before they see that the path approaches a timber watch tower. The trees give them plenty of cover, and it doesn’t appear that they have been seen. Likewise, the trees obscure their view of the tower, so if they want to get a better look at it, they will need to get closer. There is some discussion about whether they should try to take the tower or just detour around it. Freya is favour of having John use a potion of invisibility they acquired to turn himself invisible, scale the tower and have him dispatch the guards that she assumes will be at the top. Then they can use the tower for recon. Galdriel advises against this course of action, thinking that killing bandits will make it clear to the Skull King that he has dangerous enemies in the area. The hunters have probably already reported that they encountered two people skulking around in the woods, but that is a little different than having a band of killers attacking his men. Freya is convinced by the wisdom of the Inquisitor, so they avoid the tower and press on.
Moments later, they come to the edge of a valley. They approach it from the west. The watch tower is a little north of them, and they can see that the trail winds from just beyond the tower down to the valley floor. The valley is quite large, and it is surrounded on all sides by steep slopes that are nearly cliffs in many spots. There are only three places where the slope would allow for a reasonably easy climb down, and at each of those spots there is a trail as well as a watch tower. At the north end of the valley there is a water fall that cascades down the escarpment to a pool. The pool feeds into a stream that bisects the valley, flowing south where it exits, creating a narrow gorge that continues southward. The valley itself is filled with trees, but among the foliage the adventurers can see signs of numerous tents, cabins and cooking fires. Down below, they also spot a large timber steading surrounded by a wooden palisade. Clearly, they have discovered the camp of the Skull King, and they estimate it large enough to house a couple of thousand bandits at least. Freya sets about sketching a map of the valley, and once it is complete they decide to leave the area. Although there is some temptation to go down into the valley and try to gather more detailed intel, they decide it isn’t worth the risk. They figure that what they have will still be plenty useful to the Viscount, and they’d rather make it back to him alive to report it. Thus they head south, back in the direction of the Viscounty.
They travel through the forest for a couple of more days. On the second night after leaving the Skull King’s valley, trouble finds them. John and Galdriel are on watch duty. The horses are tethered, and the remainder of the heroes are sleeping around the embers of their fire. Suddenly, John catches a waft of stench, goblinoid stench. He calls out to Galdriel to warn her and drinks his mutagen. Horrifying shrieks ring out through the darkness, and a swarm of hulking, fur covered bugbears comes rushing in at them. Bugbears are the largest and most savage of the goblinoid races. They are often thought of as solitary creatures that live to murder and instil terror in others. However, in the Dreadwood they tend to travel in bands, though they still live to sow murder and fear. The creatures are stealthy and have managed to get very close to the camp before John noticed them. Thus, it is but a quick dash for them to reach the camp. Four rush in with shields and wicked morningstars; several more hang back in the darkness to fire arrows.
Galdriel fires her bow and screams for her companions to wake up. They jump to their feet. Hegan has no time to don his armour and is forced to make do with only his shield and axe. Bailey is always ready for a fight, and in an instant he’s punching a rushing bugbear in the kidneys. Freya remains prone to make it more difficult for archers to hit her. She relies on Hegan to protect her from the ones moving into melee, and she aids him with her wand of magic missiles. Meanwhile John joins Bailey, as the halfling has two of them on him. The alchemist tears one apart, and the second appears terrified of John. The bugbear archers aren’t great marksmen, so they drop their bows, draw morningstars and axes, then rush in to help their kin. Suddenly Hegan has gone from fighting one to holding three of them at bay. They smack at him with their morningstars, and without his armour he takes several nasty blows. The dwarf is tough as stone, and they might as well be attacking a boulder. If the attacks are hurting, he doesn’t show it. Yet, Freya can see the proud dwarf is in pain, so she uses her healing magic to aid him. Galdriel fires her bow as they come in, wounding a couple of the mangy goblinoids, but not bringing them down.
Bailey punches the bugbear he’s facing in the balls. It buckles over, putting its head within the halfling’s reach. The little brawler then digs his thumbs into its eye sockets and applies all the pressure he can muster. Its enough to break the bugbear’s skull and force the brute’s brains to ooze out the cracks.
Having given Hegan enough healing to keep him going a while longer, Freya fires magic missile barrages from her wand. One of the bugbears sees the danger she poses and sees that she is prone. He closes in on her and starts beating on her while she’s on her back, grinning evilly as he causes her pain. She hasn’t cast any protective spells, and there is little she can do to defend herself. She suffers a painful wound. Fortunately, Bailey and John are close enough to come to her aid. They quickly bring down the beast before it can cave in the sylph’s skull. At the same time, Galdriel helps Hegan, and the pair cut down a couple more, though Hegan sustains more wounds in the process. In the span of a few seconds, the bugbears have lost seven of the nine in the band. The final two flee into the woods. The heroes don’t bother giving chase. They need to worry more about healing their wounded. The remainder of the night passes uneventfully, and the next morning they continue their trek. They push hard that day, and reach the southern edge of the Dreadwood. The Viscounty of Salinmoor lies before them, though they don’t know exactly where they are.
They keep going south, and soon they come to a farmstead. Here they get directions to the nearest village. That night they sleep on the floor in front of the hearth of the local tavern, as the settlement is too small and out of the way to warrant a true inn. They learn that Seaton is a couple of days ride to the south. The next morning they continue, and the remainder of their journey is uneventful. When they reach Seaton, Viscount Gruber is happy to receive them and listen to their report on the Skulls King’s camp.
The session ends with the heroes in Seaton speaking to the Viscount.
Session #13 xp
owlbears 1200 x 2 = 2400
bugbears 400 x 9 = 3600
recon on the Skull King’s camp 2000
8000 xp /5 = 1600 each
GMs Notes: The owlbear and bugbear encounters for this session were based entirely on a fairly dangerous random encounter table for the Dreadwood (at least dangerous to a 3rd level party).
Dreadwood Encounters
(roll 1d20 to check- 1 per day and 1 per night, encounter on 18-20, if an encounter occurs roll 2d6)
2 - 1d6 trolls
3- 1d6 dire wolves or 2d4 worgs
4- 1d2 dire boars
5 - 2d6 bugbears
6 - 3d6 skull king bandits, led by a bandit captain (75%) or skull lord (25%) + 1d3 worgs
7 - elf patrol (2d6 elves)
8 - 6d6 Dreadwood goblins + 1d4 worgs
9 - 2d8 Dreadwood hobgoblins + 1d4 worgs
10- 1d2 owl bears
11- 1d2 displacer beasts
12- 2d4 large giant spiders
Fortunately, they didn't roll too badly on it, so they weren't stuck trying to fight off 6 trolls or anything. Still two owlbears is in theory a CR 6 encounter, which should be pretty dangerous to a 3rd level group. But the CR system is mostly s*%%, and I've never found it very good for balancing encounters. For example, in my experience most encounters at a CR equal to the party are a joke and rarely a challenge.
Session #14 (The Brotherhood of the Bloody Banner)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 4)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 4)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 4)
Bailey Ironbelly (halfling, brawler 4)
Hegan [dwarf, paladin(stonelord) 4]
In the town of the Seaton, in the hall of Viscount Gruber, the heroes give the full account of their expedition to the Dreadwood and the details they learned regarding the Skull King’s camp. As a reward for their efforts, the Viscount generously gives them 1000 gp. They also report to him that they caught up with the fugitive wizard Sanbalet and captured him in Burle. He is pleased by this news, and it reminds him about a troubling event regarding his own prisoners (Ned Shakeshaft, Jonas Lassiter, Lassiter’s wife, and former sheriff Isaiah Crowley- see session #12). He explains that he held a trial, and they were all found guilty of treason, an offence punishable by death. The night before they were to hang there was an incident. None of the Viscount’s guards heard or saw anything, but the following morning it was discovered that Sheriff Crowley was missing from his cell. The remainder of the prisoners were still in their cells, but they claim that they didn’t see or hear anything. Wavemaster Anghspar was called in, and through divine magic he confirmed that they truly knew nothing about Crowley’s disappearance. The Viscount thinks that Crowley’s brother Elias (the Wavemaster of Saltmarsh) used divine magic to help Isaiah to escape, but for now that is only a theory.
After their meeting with the Viscount, the heroes spend a few days in Seaton resting from their travels and adventures. Freya spends most of her time studying Sanbalet’s spell book and learning his magic. John hunts around town for a couple of potions to buy. He ends up at the Sea Temple, a place with chapels to Procan, Osperm and Xerbo. There he meets the Wavemaster Belgar Anghspar. Belgar is a dwarf, which is a little unusual for a priest of Procan, but he is also a member of the Anghspar clan, a clan renowned as sea merchants. Even more impressively, he is the nephew of Breca Anghspar. Breca Anghspar was a legendary hero that is said to have worked with a group of now legendary adventurers to destroy the Prince of Demons about forty yeas ago and avert a catastrophic event known as the Savage Tide (reference to Edward’s Savage Tide player character). Breca was also a priest of Procan and became the most powerful priest of Procan in history. He established a mighty temple to the sea god in Gradsul and helped expand the popularity of the faith throughout the western Flaness. Belgar mentions that he’s heard rumours that Elias Crowley, the Wavemaster in Saltmarsh has been doing some terrible things (sacrificing young women) that would reflect badly on the church. He wants to know if there is truth to the rumours, and John confirms they are true to the best of his knowledge. He encourages John to get to the bottom of the heresy should he finds his way back to Saltmarsh, for in Belgar’s opinion Elias is fouling the reputation of the faith.
Two evenings later, the heroes are dining together in the common room of the Halfling’s Lute Inn. Several sellswords are dining there as well, and the heroes learn that these particular sellswords are members of a mercenary company called the Brotherhood of the Bloody Banner. Galdriel also notices that the adventuring party they ran into in Burle is at the Inn. They had seen the same group in Saltmarsh just before leaving for the Dreadwood a couple of weeks ago, but they had been busy dealing with the smugglers and hadn’t bothered to speak with them. Galdriel decides to go talk to them because they had told her they were going to explore the sea caves at Tern Island, and the heroes are now considering going back to Saltmarsh to make their own expedition to the caves- in hopes of finding hidden pirate treasure. Galdriel learns from them that they lost their leader, Samel the sorcerer, while exploring one of the cave complexes- apparently there are five or so sea cave complexes along the southside of the island. According to Syrah the elf, the band had been rowing through partially water-filled caves in a boat when they came to a tunnel filled with sorcerous fog. They thought it might lead to treasure, so they rowed into the fog. When they did, they were overcome with magically induced fear. Samel was so frightened that he jumped overboard into the fog and disappeared. They believe he drowned. After that they left the cave empty handed. They decided not to go back, and they have instead come to Seaton in hopes of gaining mercenary work.
Their conversation with the adventurers is interrupted when a couple of mercenaries wander over to their table. One of them introduces himself as Captain Tavish. He claims to be the commander of the Brotherhood of the Bloody Banner, and he has heard that the adventurers recently completed a recon mission for the Viscount that involved gathering intel regarding the Skull King’s forces and camp. He asks them if they can share some details about what he might be getting into if he leads his men north into the Dreadwood to fight the Skull King. Galdriel is a little suspicious of the mercenary captain, but she decides to share some of what they discovered with him. He is thankful and polite, unlike his assistant Uther. Uther seems jealous of the heroes, as he has heard that the Viscount paid them a good amount of gold for the intel they brought, and he figures it is a lot more than he and his brothers will earn. In the end, they each buy each other rounds of drinks and seemingly end their conversation on good terms. Of course, Bailey still manages to get in a scrap with one of the sellswords when he sees the drunken lout abusing one of the halfling bar maids. Fortunately, Captain Tavish agrees that his man was in the wrong, and does nothing to stop the fool from suffering the humiliation of having his ass whopped by a forty pound halfling.
The following day, the heroes are on their way back to Saltmarsh when they run into Uther and some of his brethren. They are few miles out of town, riding west along the coast road when they see armed men riding towards them from the direction of Seaton. The men hail the heroes, so they cautiously stop their horses and turn to face the approaching riders. It isn’t long before the riders are close enough to be recognized as Uther and several other members of the Bloody Banner. Once the riders get close, a greedy smile crosses Uther’s face, and he demands that they hand over the gold that the Viscount gave them. Galdriel tries to convince him to leave, suggesting that they will defend themselves if he initiates violence, and he will lose several men. Freya sees trouble brewing and casts mage armour. Uther has no interest in diplomacy and orders his men to attack. They draw swords and spur their mounts into combat, charging the heroes. As the mercenaries come riding in, the heroes hurry to dismount their horses, which are not trained for battle and easily spook. In seconds horse mounted riders are charging past, slashing with their swords and closing in around the adventurers. The party’s riding horse start to flee in all directions to escape the charging riders. Fortunately, most of the heroes manage to dismount their steeds first. Galdriel is nearly cut down, as one of the charging mercenaries slashes her across the chest with a sword. John consumes a shield spell extract, which provides the alchemist enough protection to save him from a brutal attack by Uther. He then downs one of his mutagens and assumes his bestial avian form. The mercenary is startled by the transformation, but not so much that he doesn’t keep slashing at the alchemist. Luckily for John, the shield spell absorbs the attacks. A mercenary rides by Bailey and cuts down at him. The halfling, who has yet to dismount, takes a nasty wound, that pisses him off enough that he decides to boldly leap from his frightened pony and grab hold of his enemy as he is riding past. He tries to pull the man off his horse, but he doesn’t have enough weight behind him to do it. The halfling lands dextrously on his feet on the ground, and the sellsword is dragged partially out of his saddle so that he is hanging down awkwardly. He stops his horse and manages to dismount. Bailey tries to pummel him as he is extricating himself from his saddle, but Bailey is distracted by the sudden appearance of another rider intent on killing the scrappy halfling and fails in his attempt.
Freya finds herself faced with an incoming mercenary. Fortunately, she was near the back of the group, and he was forced to ride around several of his brethren to reach her, negating the possibility of a charge attack. He still causes her a painful wound across the arm with his blade, but she retaliates with a colour spray spell that stuns and blinds both him and his steed. She then steps back to heal Galdriel. The inquisitor casts a spiritual weapon to support John, while fighting with her scimitar to fend off more horsemen. She finds it easier to slash at the horses than the riders since they are far less well armoured. She hopes to wound the mounts enough to make them either buck the riders off or flee the battle. Her tactic is sound, but the mercenaries are all well trained and aren’t easily shaken from their saddles. Hegan positions himself between her and the a few more of the sellswords, preventing the badly wounded Galdriel from being surrounded and cut down. On their mounts, the soldiers tower over the dwarf, and the steeds kick at him and try to hammer him into the ground with their hooves, while the warriors hack at him with their swords. The paladin weathers all the attacks. He plants his feet firmly in the ground and essentially bonds with the earth itself. They would have about as much luck trying to fight a boulder, and their swings are deflected harmlessly off his shield and plate armour. He cuts back at them with his war axe, gouging one of them through the leg.
The battle rages on and is more or less a stalemate. Then John turns the tide when tears Uther’s leg off with his talons. The mercenary captain falls from his steed to bleed out on the ground. A couple of his men who see this are so horrified that they spur their horses into a full retreat. This gives the party the edge they need to finish off the last of the sellswords without suffering any casualties. At the end of the fight, Bailey and Galdriel are both horribly wounded, but the rest of the group has only fairly minor wounds. The wand of cure light wounds is set to work, and soon they are ready to ride on to Breslow manor. They claim a couple of potions off Uther’s dead body and they take five light warhorses for themselves. By evening they have returned to Breslow Manor where they find Grandpa Frandor alive and well.
The next day, they speak with Frandor at length and fill him in on their recent adventures. He tells them that things have been fairly quiet around town, as far as he knows. However, he has been keeping a low profile and has been busy getting his home back in order and working on is research. They explain that they are considering an expedition to Tern Island to search for pirate treasure. He tells them the story of his own adventures there. He explains that the Company of the Axe entered one of the five sea caves. Here they found a tunnel with metal cages hanging from the ceiling. Each cage contained an animated human skeleton that they easily dispatched. The passage led them to a cave with a good stash of treasure. Unsurprisingly, the cave was guarded. They were forced to fight a large band of skeletal warriors, and to make matters worse, their was a magic glyph on the floor of the cave imbued with a potent necromantic enchantment. It prevented healing magic from functioning and ate at the life forces of any living creatures in the cave. Brother Ivan cast a couple of deathward spells to protect them, but he didn’t have enough for everyone. While he was busy with this task, Artemisa, the elven ranger, was cut down by the skeletal warriors. The death glyph killed her before he friends had a chance to get her out of the cave and heal her. Despite the tragic loss of one of their party, they managed to defeat the undead guardians and recover the treasure horde. After that they left the caves and never returned. The loss of Artemisa caused the band to split up. Brother Ivan used his share of the treasure to found the Basilica of Saint Cuthbert in Saltmarsh. Frandor had Breslow manor built outside of town, and focused on his research. Savras the wizard went his own way, and grew ever more powerful, eventually returning to the town of Burle with his own tower on a magic cloud island. Pippin the halfling bard continued his wandering, and is presumably somewhere in the Flaness still playing his lute and getting into trouble. Upon finishing his tale, Frandor digs up a roughly sketched map of Tern Island and the cave complex the Company of the Axe explored, which he gives to his grandson (John). The heroes thank Frandor for the information, and prepare for their own expedition.
The session end here.
Session #14 XP
Brotherhood of the Bloody Banner Cavalry 400 x 9 = 3600
Sergeant Uther 800
4400/5= 880 each
Session #15 (Return to Saltmarsh, Expedition to Tern Island)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 4)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 4)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 4)
Tendall (tiefling, medium 4)
Hegan [dwarf, paladin(stonelord) 4]
Tendall the tiefling medium arrives at Breslow manor late in the afternoon on the 5th of Wealsun, 606 CY. She has long been searching for her husband Semyaz, using her ability to commune with the spirit world to aid her. Her search has led her to the Viscounty of Salinmoor and, more specifically, to Breslow manor. She approaches the stout wooden door and knocks. A voice on the other side calls out, “Don’t worry mates, I got this.” The door swings open, and she looks down to see a sturdy, shirtless halfing gnawing on a haunch of meat, grease dripping down his chest. “Who the f$~& are you?” He says with a mouthful of food.
“My name is Tendall. I’m searching for my husband, and I have reason to believe he might be here.”
“John, it’s for you.” shouts the halfling.
“Actually, my husband’s name is Semyaz.”
“Oh… Nevermind John.”
And thus, Tendall is introduced to the riff-raff that is this particular band of adventurers- some being more riff-raff than others. John explains to Tendall that they knew Semyaz, and that they were travelling and adventuring with him up until a about a month ago when he was tragically killed in battle against foul Trogs dwelling in the depths. He explains how Semyaz’s half brother Ephai had taken Semyaz’s body and gone back east. Tendall is clearly distraught by the news, but John offers her hospitality, and she stays the night. She gets to know the heroes a little, and they tell her of their recent adventurers and the good work her husband was involved in. She asks for the opportunity to help finish some of what Semyaz started, as she is sure this what he would have wanted. John and his companions discuss her proposal and agree.
The next morning, she contacts the spirit world in the form of a ritual seance. She calls upon the spirit of the great warrior to give strength to her and her allies in battle. Hegan and John both agree to partake in her seance, though Galdriel isn’t yet fully trusting of the tiefling woman, and he spends his time praying to Pelor instead. After breakfast they set out. Sadly, Bailey had been drinking the night before and passed out in the stable hay loft with one of the servants. He fails to wake up in time to join his companions and is left behind.
They make the short trip to Saltmarsh without incident. As they pass through the gates, one of the guards informs them that they have come at dark hour, for the night before the town was raided by foul creatures from the sea. He refers to them as “deep ones”. Several townsfolk and members of the militia were killed in the fighting but so were many deep ones. They repelled the raiders and drove them back into the sea. He explains that the townsfolk are now mostly gathered up on the hill near the town hall and the temple of Procan where they are listening to mayor and council explain what will be done to protect the town should the deep ones return. Down by the docks guards are burning the corpses of the creatures.
The heroes decide to see what the mayor has to say. They find that a large crowd of townsfolk have gathered on the green in between the temple of Procan, armoury and townhall. The mayor, Elias Crowley (the Wavemaster of Procan), a few other prominent council members and the new sheriff stand on the steps of the temple to address the crowd. Mayor Marsh is in the midst of explaining how they are going to increase the defences of the town so that they will be ready for another raid. As he wraps up his speech, Elias Crowley starts to speak. The crowd falls silent, and it is clear that they both respect and fear the man. He begins by making a shocking confession. He explains to the town that the rumours they may have been hearing are true. He has, over the past several years, been purchasing slave girls through Jonas Lassister, and he has been giving the girls to the Deep Ones as offerings. These offerings have kept them appeased and have ensured the security of the town. He makes it clear that this was not something he wanted to do, but that he had no other choice. Now that the offerings have stopped the deep ones have become agitated. He claims that the only way to truly protect the town is to resume the sacrifices. If they don’t, the deep ones will come in force, and the town will not be able to defend itself. There are many murmurs among the crowd. It is clear that Crowley’s revelation is both shocking and disturbing to the people of the town.
The heroes cannot accept the idea that sacrifices to these creatures is the right course of action, and unlike the townsfolk they aren’t afraid to speak up. They make it clear that fighting the evil of the deep ones by committing acts of depravity and giving into their horrific demands is not the answer. Elias, asks what they would do instead, and they contend that the people of Saltmarsh must defend themselves and confront the deep ones. They volunteer to try to learn more of the threat the deep ones pose, but they will need help to do it. They ask that Elias use his divine powers to give them magic that will help them breath beneath the waves, so that they might scout the depths. Elias decides to appease them and hopefully earn back some good will from the town, thus he agrees to their request and casts a water breathing spell on the group. Mayor Marsh then adjourns the meeting and calls for an emergency town council session.
The heroes venture down towards the the docks. Several years ago Saltmarsh took precautions to help defend against attacks from the sea. They built a palisade and gates that now separate the town from the wharfs and the sea. On the landward side of this wall is the dock market, and it is here that the guards have built a pyre to burn the bodies of the dead deep ones. A foul smelling, oily black smokes spews from the fire, spreading its stench through the streets. Several guards tend the pyre, while others stand duty by the wooden gate to the docks. Freya immediately notices that the thick bar to the gate has been sundered, and she wonders what could have done that since the deep ones are human-sized and would unlikely be strong enough to batter it down. She asks the guards, and they inform her that the attack was led by a massive monstrosity, covered in chitin much like a crab. It had arms that ended in huge pincers, and it used its great bulk and strength to bash in the gate. This allowed the deep ones to swarm into the town. The militia, found it very difficulty to penetrate the thing’s exoskeleton, but eventually they inflicted enough damage on it that they drove it back into the sea.
Galdriel notices that the bodies of dead militia and townsfolk are lain out on the ground, covered with tarps. Several mourners stand about, crying for the loss of their loved ones. Shepherd Ivan is among them, and he busies himself with consoling the families and administering last rites. Galdriel goes to speak with him. She informs him about Wavemaster Crowley’s recent confession, as Ivan was not at the meeting. He curses, and spouts out that he believes that Elias is in league with the deep ones and probably responsible for summoning them from the seas. At this point, Galdriel isn’t sure if that is the case or if the Wavemaster truly was, in his mind, doing what he thought was necessary to keep the town safe. Galdriel also informs Ivan about sheriff Crowley’s disappearance from the viscount’s dungeon, and again Ivan accuses Wavemaster Crowley of being behind the event. Shepherd Ivan also warns Galdriel to be careful if she has further dealings with the viscount. It seems that many folk in the region don’t trust him. They suspect that his daughter, who is supposably a witch that serves the Sorority of the Arcane Eye, has great influence over him, and that it is the witches that wield the true power in the viscounty. Some folk even say that the witches use sorcery to control Viscount Gruber. Galdriel thanks him for the information and assures him that she’ll keep it in mind should she have more dealings with the viscount.
There are several fishermen in town that have no plans to go out on the water this day. Thus, it is easy for the adventurers to find a fishing boat they can rent. No one in the group knows how to sail, so they row the boat to Tern Island. The plan is to explore some of the sea caves, and hopefully learn more about the threat posed by the deep ones and find hidden pirate treasure. It takes them an hour and half to row out to the island. Fortunately the weather is fair and the sea is reasonably calm. They reach the island safely, seeing no sign of deep ones. On the south side of the island, they spot the entrances to five different sea caves. Referring to the map that Frandor had made and given to them, they pick out the cave that the Company of the Axe partially explored years ago. They decide that they will explore this cave complex first. The entry cave is home to a colony of seals and partially filled with water. Here they find a spot to dock and tether their boat. The seals bark at them, but mostly ignore the heroes, and they venture into the sea cave network. Using Grandpa Frandor’s map, they navigate the portions of the complex that the Company of the Axe explored. First they visit a large pool of salt water. Galdriel decides to take advantage of the water breathing spell and dives into the pool. She discovers a single feature of note, a deep, twenty foot diameter, water filled shaft at the bottom of the far side of the pool. The shaft descends into darkness, and she has no means of discerning where it leads without entering it. The thought that it could lead to a colony of deep ones crosses her mind, and she decides to return to the surface.
Next they come to the tunnel that Frandor had described in his tale of the caves (see session #14). The tunnel is fairly narrow, and seven rusty cages hang from the ceiling, each one fastened by a short, thick chain. A shattered human skeleton is trapped in each cage, but they show no sign of unlife. This tunnel leads to a cavern that once held a pirate treasure horde. It was here that Frandor and his companions battled a horde of skeletal warriors, and it was here that Artemisia lost her life fighting the same skeletal warriors. The remains of the destroyed skeletons still litter the ground. Scorch marks suggest that magic was used against them. On the floor of the far side of the cave sits an arcane rune, glowing with dark power. It radiates death, and even from the tunnel way the heroes can feel its chill. Freya decides she wants to examine it more closely, so she bravely steps into the cave and moves towards it. As soon as she moves in, she feels its power trying to drain her life force. She does her best to resist, but the rune is powerful and immediately starts to cause her pain. She knows she won’t survive long in the cave, so she aborts her plan and returns to the tunnel.
They continue exploring, and soon they have moved beyond the region that Frandor sketched out on his map. They find a tunnel that has been completely sealed off by a smooth wall of red hued stone. The stone is obviously much different than the stone of the cave complex. There is a round hole, about the same diameter as a coin, drilled in the middle the of wall. The hole pierces the wall, and reveals that the wall is some 10-15’ thick. However, unless one is the size of mouse or capable of assuming gaseous form, there seems to be no way past the wall. Hegan inspects it closely. He is certain that it was conjured by magic, but beyond that he can say little about its nature. Freya reminds the heroes that sometimes walls are meant to keep things in as well as keep things out. With no real means of getting past the wall, they decide to leave it alone and continue exploring. Another tunnel leads north to a second pool of water. This one is much larger than the one they first investigated, but the water is much more shallow, and they can wade through it. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere else for them to go, so they decide to start wading through the pool to see where it might take them.
Suddenly, as they are slogging through the water, creatures burst up out of the pool. There are nearly a dozen of them. Each one is bloated, water-logged corpse. In life they were probably pirates, but now they are ravenous undead horrors, ready to cut down the living with their rusted cutlasses. One of the creatures was clearly not a man in life. It is a hulking brute that stands over ten feet tall- probably once an ogre or giant. The brine zombies shamble over to them, showing no sign of wanting to do anything other than cut the heroes apart. Death has slowed them down, and they don’t fight with any great skill, but they are vicious, and they have the heroes outnumbered. They soon have landed several minor strikes with their rusted weapons. The heroes fight back with tenacity. Tendall channels warrior spirits to give her skill and strength to swing her bastard sword with devastating efficiency. Galdriel makes quick, deft strikes with her scimitar, while Freya expends the final charges in her wand of magic missile to blast the zombies that close on her. Hegan fends the undead off with his shield and hacks them with his axe, and John, of course, drinks his mutagen and transforms into his hybrid bird form, so that he can tear them apart with talons and beak. The heroes effectively cut the creatures down, and only Tendall and Galdriel take significant wounds. The zombie hulk proves the most challenging. It is easy to hit, but hard to destroy. It moves in, grabs John and throws him some twenty feet through the air to land in the water with a great splash. Fortunately, John is relying on natural weapons, so he doesn’t lose anything in the water. The brute’s move briefly removes him from the fight, but he recovers quickly and wades back over to the hulk. He tears into it, inflicting horrific damage. His companions finish off the remaining zombies and waste to help him. Hegan cleaves it in the leg, and then it smashing John with a fist. The blow nearly knocks him unconscious. Finally, Tendall gets behind the thing and slashes it across the back with her blade. It wavers and then falls into the water. As usual, healing magic is administered after the fight, and then the heroes press on.
They finish wading across the water-filled cavern and come to the narrow tunnel on its far side. As with the cave, this passage is also filled with water that they can wade through. It twists and winds for some distance, and is tight enough that they have to travel single file. Soon enough it comes to an end. The tunnel widens and slopes steeply upward, emerging from the water. They climb up onto dry rock. Galdriel sees a reddish glow radiating from somewhere at the top of the steep slope. She stealthily makes her way up the passage to investigate. It leads her up to another cave. Here she sees the source of the light. In the middle of the chamber is a circular stone plinth some twenty feet in diameter. It is only a few feet high, so it would be easy to get up on. In the centre of it is a circle of arcane symbols that glow with red light. She analyzes it carefully and suspects that it might be a teleportation circle. The rest of the party then comes up to join her. Freya has the most knowledge of such things and is highly intrigued by this discovery. The sylph arcanist confirms that it is a teleportation circle. She can’t tell where it goes, but she does discern that it is functional and that standing on it should trigger it. The heroes are hesitant to test it out, but curiosity gets the better of them. They all step onto the circle and vanish.
They appear on another teleportation circle that is a virtual duplicate of the one the used to leave the cave. It too is located in a cave, but it is obviously not the same one. This cave has an exit that leads to the outside world. They do a thorough investigation of the area, but find little of interest besides the teleportation circle. The one thing that is interesting is that the exit to the cave is cloaked by a one way illusion spell. The cave itself opens onto the side of a mountain on a tropical island. From the outside, one doesn’t see the cave entrance. The illusion magic makes it appear to be merely mountain side. However, from inside the cave this illusion is none existent, and the exit is fully visible. Looking outward, they notice that a little used path leads down the mountain slope to jungle. However, a few miles away, situated on the island’s coast, there appears to be a town of some sort. The characters are intrigued, and there is a debate about whether they should venture down to the town. Freya and Tendall are for it, but Galdriel and Hegan are against the idea. John breaks the tie by siding with Galdriel.
The teleportation circle takes about an hour to recharge itself, but once it is ready to go again, they use it to return to the sea caves. From what they can tell, they have completed exploring the areas of the cave complex that they can access, so they decide to return to the boat and venture into one of the other cave systems. The session ends with them rowing their boat into another series of sea caves, ready to face new dangers and hopefully find great wealth.
GMs Notes: I'm on vacation out in BC until the beginning of August, so we won't be gaming for a couple of weeks. At this time, this journal is caught up.
At the start of the campaign, I had some reservations about allowing another alchemist PC in my game. I saw how the class played during my AoW campaign, and I thought it was pretty broken. In that case, the player built a alchemist that specialized in bomb throwing. The player that wanted to run an alchemist for this campaign is probably my least power gamey player, so I decided to let him. He made up a vivescetionist alchemist (John), which forgoes the bomb ability entirely, but gains sneak attack instead.
However, even without sneak attack damage, I find him broken. When jacked up on his mutagen, he can make three natural attacks per round when doing a full attack. These attacks aren't penalized to hit the way iterative attacks are for other classes. He seems to do around 15 damage per hit (not including sneak attack), which means he is often doing 30-50 damage per round at 4th level (more when sneak attacking). The other characters in the party seem to do 8-20 damage per round, so his damage output is easily double (often more than that) what any other character can do. So far the other players haven't been too bothered by this (or at least haven't said anything if they are)- probably because the player is such a chill/nice guy. Still, I have concluded that a non-bomb throwing alchemist is still pretty f~$~ing broken, so I can't see ever allowing that class in one of my games again without serious modification. This is kind of unfortunate, since the class is interesting and flavourful, just too powerful.
Sneak attack is at its best with multiple weapon attacks/round. He's not going to improve as markedly as the other PCs will over time. Vivi-mutant alchemists tend towards being less effective at later levels given the plethora of foes that ignore sneak attack damage.
Coupled with lacking in BAB progression compared to the Paladin (who will only get much, much nastier) against higher and higher ACs, it'll be alright.
Alchemists definitely have their limitations. Bombs target touch AC, sneak attacks don't, and sneak attacks have range limitations that an alchemist cannot easily get around. Right now he's not doing the "invisible alchemirogue" bit, only performing tactical flanking, so it's nowhere nearly as bad as it can be.
Chin up, and enjoy your vacation!
Edit: only one of his natural weapon attacks (I think) is primary, the bite is a secondary natural weapon which is penalized on attack (-5) and only gains half of his Strength bonus to damage.
Sneak attack is at its best with multiple weapon attacks/round. He's not going to improve as markedly as the other PCs will over time. Vivi-mutant alchemists tend towards being less effective at later levels given the plethora of foes that ignore sneak attack damage.
Please educate a fellow washed up GM. Other than oozes, constructs and elementals, what other types of critters ignore sneak attacks?
Please educate a fellow washed up GM. Other than oozes, constructs and elementals, what other types of critters ignore sneak attacks?Sneak attack is at its best with multiple weapon attacks/round. He's not going to improve as markedly as the other PCs will over time. Vivi-mutant alchemists tend towards being less effective at later levels given the plethora of foes that ignore sneak attack damage.
Anything with sufficiently developed Uncanny Dodge, with Improved Uncanny Dodge making it even nastier. Fortification armor enchantments whether on Bracers or actual Armor.
Both become common enough without being unreasonably frequent (1 in 3 to 1 in 5 encounters) that the sneak attack gunya best invest into good Feinting in Combat capability to keep that trick up and running.
Heck, just having a high enough flat-footed AC will generally thwart most sneak attacks purely on the basis of miss chance.
None of this counts nasty stuff like assorted forms of concealment that the other party members will likely be required to ameliorate or eliminate. Thick smoke, banks of fog, ad nauseam.
We'll see how it goes. I know how broken paladins can be from my Age of Worms game. However, the stonelord paladin build swaps out a lot of the really broken paladin stuff (ie. smite) for other abilities. I'm currently not sure how broken the stonelord abilities may be. This character seems like a real tank- high hp, high AC, DR/adamantite etc... His damage output isn't nearly as a high as a say great weapon fighting paladin with smite. I think he'll be picking up the Stalwart defender prestige class at 7th level.
Anyhow, I'm not entirely sure how far this campaign will go. When I started it I was thinking it would be more of a mini campaign that would cap out around 7th or 8th level, but I have a feeling that my players will want to take it further- I'm not sure if I'll agree or not, but we'll see.
Well, if a giant bird-man is shredding foes, even derp-minded foes are going to gang up on the mattress-and-pillow-stuffing-waiting-to-happen to drop the big bugger asap.
Also, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. ;)
Back at it tomorrow evening as the characters prepare to explore another of the Tern Island cave complexes in hopes of finding some good pirate loot.
Do dwarves in plate male float or sink? A question that will probably be answered tomorrow evening.
Spoiler for anyone who might have followed my Savage Tide campaign.
One other spoiler- one of the Tern Island cave complexes has an old chapel to Demogorgon within. Hidden in a secret chamber beneath the altar is a room protected by an antimagic field that contains a functional shadow pearl. Although all the other shadow pearls were destroyed when the master pearl was destroyed at the end of my Savage Tide campaign, this shadow pearl was not effected by that because of its location within the antimagic field. Consequently, if it is removed from its resting place, the PCs will find it to be fully functional.
I'm not sure that the characters will end up investigating this area, but if they do I'm hoping they come across it.
nice!
Just finished catching up with this, and I like the write up here. The Saltmarsh series was the first set of modules I ever owned...way back in the early 80's and the setting brings back good memories.
Thank you for sharing your game.
Glad you are enjoying it. Thanks for the compliments. The campaign has completely deviated from anything in the modules at this point, but some of the early stuff was fairly linked to the original module. Now it's more of a sequel to my Age of Worms and Savage Tide campaigns- probably more so my Savage Tide campaign.
Session #16 (Death at Tern Island)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 4)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 4)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 4)
Tendall (tiefling, medium 4)
Hegan [dwarf, paladin(stonelord) 4]
The heroes row their boat along the coast of Tern Island to the entrance of another of the Sea Cave complexes. This one has a wide entrance, and it is possible to row the boat through the tunnels and caves. John and Tendal man the oars of the old fishing boat, while Galdriel sits in the prow and scans with her darkvision. Hegan is near her and Freya sits in the back. Soon they are well into the cave and the late afternoon sun filtering in through the entrance no longer offers much light. Suddenly, they feel something thump against the bottom of the boat, jostling it. They continue to row, but Galdriel prepares a rope with a weight tied on the end and a light spell cast on it. She lowers it into the water hoping to get a sense of the depth and to possibly see what made the impact. The weight sinks, pulling down the rope. An instant later, there is a hard tug on the line, and it nearly pulls Galdriel into the water. Hegan reacts quickly and grabs the rope in time to aid her, preventing her from being hauled over board. Then, from the right, a set of tentacles bursts out of the water. Instead of being covered with suckers, the underside of the tentacles feature sharp black barbs. They wrap around Tendal, and the barbs dig into her flesh. At the same time, several other creatures partially emerge from the water, surrounding the boat. There are half a dozen of the things. They appear to be scaly aquatic humanoids; their heads look like deformed fish- deep ones! Galdriel is the quickest to react; she slashes over the side of the boat at one of the deep ones with her scimitar, but it ducks into the water and she misses. They use their powerful legs to propel their upper bodies out of the water and claw at the heroes in the boat with their webbed talons.
The tentacles pull hard and haul Tendal overboard. She splashes into the water and is dragged under. Luckily the water breathing spell that had been cast on the heroes by Elias Crowley is still active, so she is not at risk of drowning. She gets at look at the creature with the tentacles. It looks vaguely like an oversized squid (devilfish). She struggles to cleave the tentacles with her sword, hoping to cut herself free, but because she is grappled and in the water the weapon is hard to swing. She can’t land a hit, and it drags her deeper under the water. The rest of the heroes, with the exception of Freya, busy themselves with fighting the deep ones. Hegan hacks over the side with his axe, while Galdriel slices at another one with her scimitar. John consumes a mutagen, and with his clawed hands reaches into the water and tears the throat out of one. Freya tries to help Tendal. The light shedding weight adds some illumination to the dark waters, and the arcanist sees Tendal struggling desperately against the tentacled horror. Freya pulls out her wand of magic missiles for the final time and starts blasting it. The bolts of magic energy fly through water as easily as air and hammer the thing. Freya’s efforts aren’t quite enough. It sinks its beak into Tendal’s neck, inflicting a terrible wound. She loses consciousness and is on the verge of death. John dives into the water in his hybrid bird form and tries to save her. A pair of deep ones intercept him, and he is forced to fight them beneath the water. As she finishes them off, Freya blasts the devil fish with a final barrage of magic missiles. She uses the last charge in the wand, but it is well spent. The devilfish is killed and starts to sink to the bottom with Tendal. John swims down and frees her from the tentacles. Then he drags her to the surface. Up above, the deep ones have inflicted several minor with their claws. Hegan cleaves a couple of deep ones with his axe- sinking two fish men into the water, while Galdriel finishes another with her scimitar. The deep ones are defeated, and the battle is won. The heroes pull Tendal into the boat and heal her before she dies. John swims, some twenty feet down, to the bottom of the cave and recovers the tiefling’s sunken sword. Once they are all healed and back in the boat, they warily continue their exploration.
Eventually, they come to a wide tunnel choked with a thick, unnatural fog. It appears that they can continue rowing through the tunnel and into the fog, but Galdriel suspects this is the same magical, fear inducing mist that they had learned of when talking to other adventurers in Seaton. Hegan claims that his god will help protect them from magical fear, and Galdriel is ready to press on into the mist. However, Tendal talks them out of it. She suggests that it would be wiser to explore other parts of the complex first and then possibly try their luck with the fog later. The party agrees to Tendal’s suggestion, and they turn the boat around.
Next they find another water filled passage, but this tunnel is far too narrow to row the boat into, so they decide to try exploring in a different direction. They row for another few minutes. Then up ahead they see another tunnel that cuts into the wall of the cave they are rowing through. This passage is some fifteen to twenty feet above the water level, and it is easily high enough and wide enough that they could walk in it. In fact, it is nearly fifteen feet wide at the entrance and probably ten feet high. They pull the boat up beneath its entrance. John, who is still in his hybrid form, climbs up the wall and into the tunnel. He then lowers a rope for the rest of the party to climb up out of the boat. They use the boat’s anchor and anchor rope to tether it to the rock of the passage, as Galdriel does not trust dropping anchor in the cave for fear of the deep ones discovering it and tampering with their only easy means of getting back to town.
They make their way through the passage, relying on their darkvision to see ahead. The tunnel slopes gradually upward, and after some distance, it opens into another cave. At this point the uneven, rock floor slopes down, but the cave remains dry. The far side of it can not be seen because about one hundred feet in a wall of ice stretches across the cave. The wall of ice goes from the floor to ceiling and completely blocks any view of what might be beyond it. Clearly, the ice wall is not natural and is the result of magi. They start to move into the cave to investigate the wall. Galdriel scans around and notices some alcoves in the walls higher up. There are three such alcoves and in each one crouches a stone gargoyle. She isn’t sure if they are real or just statues, but she points them out to her companions. Suddenly, the things take wing and fly down from the alcoves to land among the heroes. Thanks to Galdriel’s warning, no one is surprised, and she summons a spiritual weapon to attack one of them before they land. The gargoyles tear at them with claws, fangs, and horns. Tendal soon discovers that her sword (non-magical) has little effect against them. Likewise, John’s natural attacks in his “King Sundance” bird form are also not very effective. Fortunately, Hegan’s axe is enchanted. If it were merely the gargoyles to worry about, the heroes would likely be able to handle the threat. This is not the case; seconds after the gargoyles engage the party, a shambling zombie hill giant and a pair of skeletal minotaurs step out of the wall of ice, as if it were not even solid, and start moving towards the combat. Hegan sees that the gargoyles are already pressing his companions hard, and that the undead will slaughter them if they get among his new allies. Thus, he attempts to draw their attacks by moving away from the gargoyles and putting himself in the path of the approaching undead. He plants his feet firmly in the rocky ground, assuming his steadfast defensive stance and readies for their onslaught. The undead have very limited capacity for thought, and they stop to attack the first living thing they encounter, which is the dwarf. The minotaurs wield giant, two-handed axes; the zombie giant only has its rotted, but massive fists, which are plenty deadly. They bring strike after strike to bear against the dwarf with no success. He repels all their attacks with his armour and shield.
Hegan’s bold move leaves his companions free to focus on the gargolyes. Unfortunately, they have little in the way of attacks that are overly effective against the magical creatures. Tendal is forced to go completely defensive after she sustains several wounds from their claws and sees how ineffective her blade is against them. Freya blasts them with barrages of magic missiles, which cause enough pain to draw one of them to her. John does what he can to help Freya against the gargoyle she finds herself facing, but he fails to kill it before she succumbs to the wounds it inflicts on her, and she loses consciousness. Galdriel uses a stabilize spell to save her from bleeding out, while her spiritual weapon continues its attacks on the fiends. She next decides to help Hegan and starts blasting one of the minotaur skeletons with disrupt undead cantrips. This tactic damages the skeleton with radiant energy, but it also gets the skeleton’s attention, and it moves past Hegan to attack the inquisitor. Hegan has to briefly leave his stance to move over to the skeleton and aid Galdriel.
From the start, the heroes saw that they were in a tough fight. However, the uneven ground of the cave floor makes movement tricky, and they can’t easily disengage their foes to retreat. They decide to stay in the fight when it would probably be wiser to attempt a withdrawal. Tendal finds herself facing two gargoyles while Galdriel and and Hegan try to deal with the undead, and John is busy trying to slay the gargoyle that brought down Freya. The tiefling medium stays mainly on the defensive, attempting the odd offensive push with her blade. Despite her defensive stance, still takes several wounds and is soon badly injured. Hegan continues to weather the storm of attacks being rained down on him by the undead, though the zombie giant lands a couple of attacks with its fists. The blows are so strong that would crush most men, and they nearly drop the dwarf paladin.
Finally, John’s beak sinks deep into the throat of the gargoyle he is facing and it falls. He then drinks a healing extract and soon after feeds a potion to Freya, which allows her to regain consciousness. John then tosses Tendal a potent healing potion, which the medium promptly drinks. He moves to help her with her opponents, though she has done some injury to the gargoyles she faces despite her lack of a magic weapon. Together they bring down another gargoyle. Then everything goes to s$*#. Hegan’s ability to hold his defensive stance fails. He destroys one of the two skeletal minotaurs with a mighty axe swing, but the second of them lands a hit with its own axe that cuts deep. It is followed by a hammering blow from the zombie giant. The brave dwarf goes down (he is forced to spend hero points to remain alive at -21 hp). Then Galdriel is slashed by a gargoyle and loses consciousness. Healing is given to Galdriel, revving her. She staggers to her feet, and the creature takes advantage of this, catching her with a claw that almost drops her again. Her bow is in hand. Her injuries are throbbing, and she is covered in blood that is mostly hers. Still she finds the strength to draw back her bow and she puts a magical arrow point blank through the creature’s face, killing it instantly. The an axe wielded by the remaining skeletal minotaur crashes down on her, cutting deep through her shoulder and into her chest. She collapses to the ground, barely clinging to life (more heroes points are spent to save her). John and Tendal try to retreat, but the zombie hill giant pummels John into the ground before he can escape, and he too clings to life by a thread (hero points spent yet again to prevent a death).
Only Tendal and Freya manage to escape the fight, fleeing into the tunnel. The undead don’t pursue beyond the cave, so they get away safely. They use some final charges of their healing wand to regain some much needed health. Freya suspects that some of her companions could live. She drinks a potion of invisibility and goes back for them. The undead have moved back to stand guard before the wall of ice, leaving the bodies of the heroes lying on the cold stone soaking in pools of their own blood. Invisible, Freya sneaks up to Galdriel and checks her pulse. It is very faint, and Freya isn’t even certain she lives, but she tries to feed her a potion anyhow. The undead don’t see her due to her invisibility magic, and she succeeds in reviving Galdriel without attracting their attention. Galdriel gets up and staggers back to the tunnel before the undead can come after her. As she flees, Freya gives her a potion of spider climbing. Galdriel does some healing on herself, and drinks the spider climb potion. She then scuttles along the ceiling and starts blasting at the undead with disrupt undead cantrips. The ceiling is high enough that she can stay out of their reach. Freya continues to take advantage of being invisible and works on reviving John. She succeeds and he too escapes. Finally, she tries to heal Hegan. However, this time the undead are onto her game, and they have closed in on the dwarf. As he struggles to stand up, the skeletal minotaur cuts him down once more, killing him instantly. Freya sees that he is dead and runs before she becomes its next victim. Galdriel presses her luck and continues to blast at the undead from the ceiling. They are too stupid to do much other than take attacks until the minotaur decides to throw its massive ax at her. The weapon isn’t designed for throwing, but he gets lucky and hits her. The impact nearly dislodges her from the ceiling. Seeing its effect, he tries a second time, and once again lands a lucky shot. This second throw hits her in the head with its butt end. She loses consciousness and falls, hitting the stone floor hard. Once again she is on the verge of death. The heroes again hide in the tunnel and wait for the undead to fall back to their guard positions. Then John rushes in, scoops up Galadriel’s body and carries it out. They discover that she still lives, and he uses the remainder of their healing magic to revive her.
Hegan is dead, and the heroes are all wounded and completely spent of magic. They desperately want to rest, but they are afraid that more deep ones might destroy their boat and leave them stranded. Thus they risk rowing back to Saltmarsh. The gods show them favour, and they find themselves rowing into the harbour as the sun sets behind them.
Thus ends a harrowing and deadly session.
XP for Session #16
devilfish 1200
deep ones 6 x 400 = 2400
gargoyles 3 x 1200 = 3600
skeleton minotaurs 2 x 2400 = 4800
Total XP 12000/5 = 2400 each
So this was a brutal session. I think the players were glad they had some hero points banked or there would have been a couple of more deaths.
I probably over did the final encounter a little, but when I design a dungeon complex I don't necessarily design it for a specific level. I like to put in some areas that are really tough and should be dealt at a future date when the characters are higher level or with extreme caution/cleverness. It is up to the PCs to be smart in their exploration and try to suss out what they can handle and what they can't. Unfortunately, even though they knew they were in over their heads, they couldn't easily bail due to the difficult terrain of the cave. Otherwise they probably would have cut and run instead of sticking it out.
It made for an exciting combat though, and hopefully the player who lost Hegan isn't too bitter.
Session #17 (The True Colours of Elias Crowley)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 5)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 5)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 5)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 5)
Sir Toph [aasimar, cavalier 5]
The same day the heroes are out exploring Tern Island, two strangers arrive in Saltmarsh. One is an aasimar named Sir Toph, a knight of the Golden Lion. Travelling with him is his “squire”, a strange young woman named Izzy. The Order of the Golden Lion is an ancient and well respected knightly order in Keoland, charged with protecting the realm and its King. Of late, King Skotti has grown concerned with the increasing reports of demonic pirates waving the flag of the Crimson Fleet once again terrorizing the waters of the Azure Sea. Fearing for the safety of Keoland’s coastal settlements, he has charged Sir Toph with visiting them and inspecting their fortifications and giving advice on how the local lords can better prepare for such a threat. Upon completion of this task, he is to return to the capital and make his report to the King. Sir Toph began this task several months ago, starting at the eastern end of Keoland’s coastline and making his way westward. The town of Saltmarsh is one of Keoland’s most western coastal settlements and the final stop on his journey.
He and Izzy have already learned much about the events troubling the Viscounty of Salinmoor. In Seaton, they learned that Viscount Gruber has just finished raising an army to confront a bandit lord in the Dreadwood, and its seems that Saltmarsh recently suffered a raid from horrific fishmen from the sea. In fact, when they arrived in town the mayor was in an emergency council meeting to discuss the matter. It is getting late in the evening, and now Sir Tough and Izzy find themselves standing with Mayor Marsh, inspecting the damaged gates set in the palisade where the sea creatures broke through into the town. The knight is impressed that Saltmarsh has a wall that separates its docks from the town. Many of the coastal settlements he’s visited have been poorly defended from a sea based attack. That being said, the palisade and gates that protect the town from the sea have much to be desired and are of hasty construction. As the they discuss what can be done to better protect the town, a horn sounds from the guard platform above the gate. It seems that the adventurers have returned from Tern Island.
As the heroes reach the docks, they find several individuals eager to greet them. Wavemaster Crowley has seen three acolytes from the temple of Procan to escort the characters to the temple so that they can meet with the Wavemaster, debrief and be healed of their wounds. Shepherd Ivan has sent his son Marcus with a similar offer to the heroes, and it seems that both Crowley and Ivan are vying for their attention. Marcus claims that his father has important matters that he wishes to discuss with them in private. The acolytes of Procan make a similar claim about Wavemaster Crowley. Mayor Marsh interrupts them all, and he introduces the heroes them to Sir Toph. As they unload Hegan’s body from the fishing boat, the mayor offers his condolences. The heroes give the Mayor a very basic summary of their expedition and suggest that another council meeting be held in the morning so that they can provide the town with a more detailed report regarding their expedition. They then decide to head off with Marcus to the meet with Shepherd Ivan, leaving the acolytes of Procan rather annoyed and dejected. Sir Toph and Izzy accompany them, as Sir Toph is a follower of Saint Cuthbert and would like to meet the local priest.
Marcus escorts them to Ivan’s home, which is beside the church. Inside the modest but orderly house they find Shepherd Ivan and the rest of his family along with four sturdy young men from the congregation. These men are busy checking over weapons and armour and building a portable battering ram. The Shepherd makes introductions and offers bread, water and healing magic. Hegan’s body is laid out and covered with a sheet. The Shepherd promises that he will see it is cared for and interred. The adventurers give him a detailed account of their adventure while they eat. Afterwards, the Shepherd fills them in on the events of the council meeting. He explains that he confronted Wavemaster Crowley at the meeting and accused the man of being in collusion with the deep ones. He demanded that Mayor Marsh have him arrested for the offering human sacrifices to the creatures, which Crowley had confessed to that morning (see session 15). According to Ivan, the mayor and everyone else on council were cowards and refused to take action against the priest. Crowley continued to claim that he had given the girls to the deep ones to protect the town and that he was not colluding with them only appeasing them. Since the rest of the council is too cowardly to deal with the priest, Shepherd Ivan intends to take justice into his own hands. He plans to raid the temple and take the priest into custody, and he hopes that heroes will help him. He had originally thought to make the raid this very night, but seeing that the heroes are in no condition for such a task, he is willing to wait until the following evening. Izzy seems eager to see action, but Galdriel is more cautious. She doesn’t yet wish to take such rash action and wants to see what comes of the council meeting before she makes any commitments to aiding Ivan. Ivan is disappointed, but he agrees to delay his plan for the moment.
Just as they are finishing their conversation with Shepherd Ivan, there is a knock on the door. A messenger from the town of Burle stands at the doorway. The messenger explains that Burle has been taken by the Skull King and his bandit army. Apparently, they had the aid of a dragon that enabled them to take the gatehouse and then open the main gates so that the army could enter. Once inside, they were easily able to take out the town’s garrison. Sir Toph is most perturbed by the news of one of the realm’s towns falling to bandits, especially bandits aided by a dragon, but for now he still wishes to see if he can help resolve some of the troubles plaguing Saltmarsh. Viscount Gruber’s army was more or less ready to march north to confront the Skull King when the knight was in Seaton a couple of days earlier, so as soon as the news reaches Seaton, The Viscount will likely set out with his forces. At that point the heroes might be useful in helping to take back the town, but until then they aren’t in position to confront an army and a dragon.
After receiving this news, they decide to visit Wavemaster Crowley and what he has to say. They are little concerned that the priest might have some sort of treachery in mind, but Galdriel thinks that isn’t the case- yet. Freya suspects that he encouraged them to go to Tern Island in hopes that they would all die and would no longer pose a threat to him. Soon they find themselves standing in the temple of Procan. It is a much larger and ornate place of worship than the humble church of Saint Cuthbert. Clearly, all the pearl diving done by Wavemaster Crowley and his followers has brought significant wealth to the temple and the town. The Wavemaster awaits them surrounded by a dozen loyal member of his congregation. He is dressed in his elaborate formal robes, but this evening he and his followers also wear their armour, which puts the heroes even more on guard. He asks them for the details of their adventure, which they repeat for him. He then goes on to try to convince them to talk some reason into Shepherd Ivan. Crowley claims it is highly important, for the good of the town, that for now they stay united and not bicker; Shepherd Ivan’s unfounded claims regarding Crowley colluding with deep ones aren’t helping. He tells them that he regrets making the sacrifices to the deep ones, and he has no intention of resuming them. He is willing to stand his ground and fight the enemy if he must. The heroes are highly suspicious of this man’s words, but their is nothing about his mannerisms that suggests he isn’t sincere. Finally, he encourages them to return to the caves as soon as possible and try to learn more about the deep ones. He suggests that exploring the submerged tunnel they discovered would be a good place to start, and he even offers them additional divine magic that might help them function better underwater than a simple water breathing spell. The heroes promise they will consider his words, but for now they need to drink a toast to their dead companion and get some rest. They head for the Lizard’s Boat Inn where Sir Toph and Izzy are staying and rent rooms. They toast brave Hegan, for if it weren’t for his heroic stand against the undead, they would likely all be dead.
The next morning, after breakfast, Tendal announces to the party that she has decided that adventuring with this band is far too dangerous. She had come looking for her former lover Semyaz and discovered that he is dead. She thought she would give adventuring with these strangers as chance, but she doesn’t see a lot of sense in following around a group so seemingly committed to seeing their own deaths. They say their goodbyes, and Tendal leaves town. The rest of the group, including Sir Toph and Izzy, head for the town hall. Here they find the messenger from Burle, and he briefs the weary council on the news regarding Skull King and his dragon ally. After that the heroes have their turn to again tell the story of their expedition to Tern Island. They leave out the part about the teleportation circle (see session #15). In fact, they only shared that detail with Shepherd Ivan. A few questions are asked, but the heroes haven’t learned a lot regarding the deep on threat. Mayor Marsh asks that Sir Toph give his advice about what they can do to best defend the town from another raid. As the knight is doling out advice, Galdriel formulates her own plan. She has just gained the ability to divinely discern lies and she hopes to use the meeting as an opportunity to confirm whether Shepherd Ivan’s suspicions about the priest being in league with the deep ones are true. She begins by telling the council that the town can only be properly defended if they can be certain that all the factions of the town truly have its best interests at heart. She then asks Wavemaster Crowley if he broke his brother out of the Viscount’s dungeon in Seaton. This makes the Wavemaster angry, as he feels that he is suddenly being attacked. He denies having anything to do with the incident, and she doesn’t sense that he’s lying. Of course, he still could be, because those with strong wills can resist her powers, and priests are well known for having strong wills. She steps closer to him and continues to push. She demands to know if he truly does want to give up sacrificing the girls and if he was in league with the deep ones from the start. Again he denies the accusations, and now he is even more angry. He makes it clear that he came to the meeting to help devise a solution to the problem not to be put on trial. Once again her magic fails to detect any lies, but looking into his eyes, the Inquisitor sees an anger and madness that she had never noticed before (Sense Motive 26). She is suddenly completely certain that this man is evil, and that he has no interest in the safety of the town. Shepherd Ivan is now on his feet, again calling for the mayor to place Crowley under arrest. The priest has no interest listening to the accusations any longer, and he gets up and starts to storm down the central aisle of the hall towards the doors. Sir Toph and John block his path. He demands they move, but they refuse, and Sir Toph tells him that as a knight of the Golden Lions and servant of the King he is placing Crowley under arrest. The priest snarls with hatred and rage. He begins casting a spell. Izzy is ready, and before he can get the spell off, she blasts him with flames. Sir Toph draws his sword and slashes him across the arm, while John thumps him with his mace. His spell casting is disrupted, and Crowley looks to the council for help, accusing the heroes of assaulting him (kind of fair). Mayor Marsh finally grows a spine and supports the heroes’ bold move. Crowley sees that the odds are against him and agrees to surrender in exchange for healing magic. He is healed from most of his wounds and Galdriel shackles him with a pair of her manacles. Just as all this is happening, a horn sounds from outside. It is the type of horn used by the guards at the gates.
The heroes don’t want to leave their captive, so they wait. Soon a guard enters the hall and reports that the gates were just approached by an armoured troll. One of the guards shot the troll in the eye with a crossbow and the thing ran off into the fields. They are worried that it might attack one of the farms. Galdriel tells everyone to calm down. She suggests that the troll was most likely Riggs, the unusual troll that helps guard the gates of Burle. She figures it probably escaped the town when it was taken by the Skull King and followed the road south to Saltmarsh. She tells the council that as soon as they get Crowley secured in a cell, they will go after the troll and ensure that it doesn’t pose a threat.
They gag Crowley and escort him to the armoury, which stands across the plaza from the town hall. He is taken to the cells in the basement where he is stripped of his armour and items. Freya casts a detect magic spell and notices that his two rings, armour and mace all radiate magic auras. In addition, he has a magical aura of transmutation on himself, suggesting the presence of an active spell. However, of even greater interest is the hidden symbol they find hanging beneath his robes. Galdriel is well versed in religion and believes it to be an unholy symbol of Dagon, a powerful demon prince of the depths. They now have some evidence to help support their claim that he is a servant of evil powers. He is locked in a cell, where he remains manacled and gagged. His gear is moved to a secure store room. Crowley appears helpless and can do little more than glare at the heroes with hate filled eyes. Freya finds herself getting worried. For some reason bringing him in seemed a little too easy, and she can’t help but wonder if he has some sort of trick up his sleeve
Galdriel recalls Shepherd Ivan having mentioned in their conversation the night before that he has, on several occasions, used detect evil magic on the priest, but the divinations never revealed anything. This is why Ivan had never been that suspicious of the man in the past, but now, after all that has come to light, Ivan thinks that Crowley has been hiding his true nature with magic. Because his items have been removed, Galdriel decides to test out Ivan’s theory. She casts a detect evil spell and is a little taken aback to see that his aura now blazes with strong evil. It seems that one of the items he was wearing was concealing his true nature. They consider executing him on the spot, but decide, that given the current political climate of the town, it would be better to wait.
Guards loyal to Saint Cuthbert are placed outside his cell and outside the doors to the armoury. News of his arrest and of the troll sighting have spread quickly through town. When the adventurers emerge from the armoury they see a crowd is starting to form in the square outside. Many are faithful of Procan, demanding to know why their high priest has been arrested. The heroes ignore them for now, pushing past the townsfolk and heading for the gates.
The troll has left a trail that is easy to follow, and the heroes pursue the beast. They make their way into the fields and pastures. Soon they come across a herder standing over the body of a dead sheep dog. The man claims that a troll killed his dog and stole two of his sheep. Freya is a little concerned and wonders why a “civilized” troll would do such a thing. Her companions remind her that he may be “civilized” but he is still a troll, and probably a pretty hungry one if he just finished walking all the way from Burle. They proceed, calling out his name as they go, and soon they come to the southern shore of Saltlake. Here they find Riggs sitting on a rocking among a copse of trees, feasting on a haunch of mutton. He gets to his feat with his great club in hand. They can see he is wearing a chain shirt that was presumably made for him by a smith in Burle. He speaks common and demands to know who they are.
They tell him that they have met before when they were visiting Burle, but he doesn’t remember. They also tell him they mean him no harm, and they apologize for the incident at the gates. They notice that his eye has healed from the crossbow bolt, but he appears to have some acid burns that his uncanny regenerative powers haven’t healed. Riggs tells them that the acid burns were from the dragon that helped attack Burle. According to the troll, it was a green dragon that breathed clouds of toxic, acidic gas. It attacked Riggs when he was fighting against the bandits, and he jumped from the wall and fled the town to escape its wrath. Freya and Galdriel each use a healing spell on him, and his acid burns are healed. The troll is quite grateful, for he is not used to experiencing prolonged pain. They tell him that if he comes with them, he will be able to enter the town safely and made a member of the guard. This makes Riggs happy since he had been approaching the town to offer his services.
Soon enough, they are back in Saltmarsh speaking with sheriff Angus. Angus is most hesitant to make a troll a member of the town guard, but they explain that he served that role in Burle for many years. The messenger from Burle even comes to vouch for him, and he tells Angus that in all the years Riggs served as a guard he only ever ate one of the townsfolk, not counting the “criminals and traitors” that Mayor Jalissa fed to him, and that was only because the man had made an offensive comment about the troll’s feet. Angus doesn’t seem overly comforted by the man’s words, but since the heroes are vouching for him he decides that the town would be better off having the troll as an ally than an enemy, and, to be honest, Angus seems scared to say no to the hulking monstrosity. With that settled, the heroes recommend Riggs begin his service by guarding Crowley’s cell. Afterall, they are pretty sure he has no ties to the priest, unlike some of the other guards, who could well be in the man’s pocket.
They return to the armoury with Riggs in tow. Here they find that a large mob has formed in the plaza. Well over half the population of the town are followers of Procan, and they don’t seem happy that Crowley has been locked up. Mayor Marsh, Shepherd Ivan and a handful of guards stand between the mob and the doors to the armoury. However, followers of Saint Cuthbert are also joining the crowd and will defend Shepherd Ivan if necessary. Tension is growing between the two factions, and Mayor Marsh is struggling to keep everyone calm and stop a riot. Shepherd Ivan looks like he would be happy to beat some sense into the followers of Procan and isn’t making huge efforts to stop the brewing violence. The heroes push their way through the throngs to the Mayor and address the crowd. They present the symbol of Dagon they found on the Wavemaster as evidence against the priest, and Galdriel tells the mob how she used divine magic to confirm that he is a servant of evil. To help appease the followers of Procan, they offer the acolytes of the faith a chance to casts detect evil on Elias and see for themselves that he is their enemy. The acolytes agree to this offer, but since none of them have the spell prepared it will have to wait until the following day. These actions are enough to appease the crowd, and the mob disperses. Galdriel then uses detect evil on the two acolytes to confirm they are not evil, and it seems that they are not servants of darkness.
The heroes point out that of the three acolytes that greeted them on the docks, only two are present. Brother Alistar is missing. Brother Jeb and Sister Vera claim that he went back to the temple a little while ago. He didn’t say why. Galdriel proposes that the party investigates the temple thoroughly to see if they can find any more evidence to help prove that the priest is connected to the deep ones. Her companions agree this is a smart move. Brother Jeb tells them that he has been throughout the temple and has never seen anything to indicate this is the case, but he offers to help them search none-the-less. The session ends with Brother Jeb leading the adventurers to the Temple of Procan to see what new discoveries they might make.
Session #17 GM Notes: So despite being light on combat this session was pretty eventful. Lots of good diplomacy and rp.
Tendal's player decided to swap out Tendal for Izzy, as he's been in a bit of funk trying to find a character he likes since Semyaz died. He says he plans to stick with Izzy though.
Hegan's player obviously had to replace the dead dwarf and brought in Sir Toph.
I was mildly annoyed to see another aasimar join the party, as I'm getting tired of all these plane touched races (so far the party has seen 2 tieflings, 3 aasimars and 1 sylph). I get that mechanically, aasimars are pretty awesome, but they are supposed to be a rare race, so it feels weird when you have two in one party. Plus, the players play them just like they were humans. If you are going to play a none human race, I feel like you should at least make some effort to make the character come off as different from a human. Anyhow, it's not a huge deal. Hopefully Izzy and Sir Toph will prove interesting.
I was pleased with how the session turned out overall, but I think I didn't do the best job running Crowley in the town hall meeting. He had been attempting to cast a greater command spell to force the heroes to let him pass, and if I were to do it again I would have let him cast the spell before I called for initiative. Afterall, the spell only has a verbal component. Instead, I was stupid and told the players that he was starting to cast a spell and that they should roll for initiative. Several characters beat him and they made attacks on him that disrupted his spell casting. The alchemist in particular declared that he was delaying to hit him when he cast the spell and landed a crit with his mace, so it was pretty much impossible to make the concentration check to get the spell off.
If he had been able to cast the greater command before combat started, I think there is a very good chance he would have been able to get out of the town hall and flee to the temple. There, surrounded by loyal followers, he would have had a good chance to buff up and give the heroes a solid fight.
Oh well, the players seemed happy with how it all went down, so I guess I can't be too disappointed.
This storyline is coming to a head, and I expect next session to be very eventful.
Session #18 (Dark discoveries below the Temple of Procan)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 5)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 5)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 5)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 5)
Sir Toph [aasimar, cavalier 5]
Brother Jeb, an acolyte of Procan, leads the heroes into the Temple of Procan to search for further evidence to prove Wavemaster Crowley is a servant of the demon lord Dagon. As they enter the temple, the dark skies open up and rain starts to pour down. Inside the temple, six faithful of Procan stand guard. They tell Brother Jed that Brother Alistar has told them that he is praying in private in the lower chapel and that he is not to be disturbed. No one is to go down until he emerges. Brother Jed explains that he and the adventurers intend to do a thorough search of the temple, and they suspect brother Alistar may also be a servant of Dagon. With some help from Galdriel, Jeb convinces the men to stand down and allow the heroes to conduct their search.
The adventurers venture down a set of wide stairs from the main temple to the smaller private chapel in the basement below. This smaller chapel does legitimately appear to be dedicated to Procan. There is, however, no sign of Brother Alistar. Galdriel scans the room. Her inquisitor training, combined with her celestial blood, makes her very perceptive, and her keen ears hear muffled screams coming from behind the far wall of the chapel. Here, a large bas relief sculpture depicting Procan bringing forth a bounty of fish is carved into the wall; a stone altar stands before it. She moves up to relief carving and examines it more closely. She notices a hair line crack running vertically down from the ceiling to the floor, bisecting the carved mural. The inquisitor suspects it may be a secret door. Her companions ready their weapons and magic, and with Sir Toph’s help she pushes against the relief. Her guess proves correct, and the sculpture pushes open. Beyond this set of secret double doors is a wide, railed balcony with a short set of wide stone stairs leading down into another chapel. This one is much larger than the one the characters are currently standing in, and it features a green marble tiled floor and two rows of columns carved with spiralling tentacle motifs. The entire chamber flickers with an unsettling, ambient green light that has no obvious source. In the middle of the room is a large rectangular pool of still, dark water, and at the opposite end of the chapel is an altar. Here a naked young woman is bound to the altar, a deep one straddles her. She screams from a combination of pain and horror as it rapes her. Two priests oversee this horrific ritual, while a half dozen cultists with hooded robes watch.
The loud grating of the stone doors opening gets the attention of the cultists. They spin around, and Galdriel and Sir Toph see that the cultists are not entirely human. Their faces all bear a distinctly fishlike look about them with loose grey skin, large lips and bulging unblinking eyes. Galdriel moves onto the balcony and casts a spiritual weapon that manifests before the deep one priest and slashes him. He gurgles with rage and motions for the cultists to attack. They surge forward, wielding morning stars. John drinks his mutagen and transforms into his monstrous, avian King Sundance form. He then and leaps into the chapel to engage them. Sir Toph strides down the stairs, with sword and shield ready, to take a position near John in the front line of the adventurers. Sir Toph is still new to the party, and John’s monstrous form is unsettling to say the least. It certainly isn’t like fighting beside the brave knights of the Golden Lions. Galdriel stays on the balcony and draws her enchanted bow. She knocks an arrow and fires at the deep one priest, sinking an arrow into him. Izzy and Freya move up and start hurling magic. They focus their fire on the two priests and the deep one on the altar, leaving King Sundance and Sir Toph to take on the frenzied cultists. Several of the cultists gang up on King Sundance and try to bludgeon him to death with their morningstars. However, they wear no real armour to speak of, and he truly is a monster. He screeches with more rage than pain as he takes a couple of hits, then he starts shredding them with his beak and talons and soon the green floor tiles are slick with their blood.
The deep one priest is blasted by a flaming bolt from Izzy. It responds with a hold person spell that freezes Izzy in place. Then Freya blasts it with a magic missile spell that detonates against its chest and kills it. As Sir Toph cuts a cultist down, he looks up to see a horrific creature rising up out of the pool of water in front of him. The aberration is massive and looks like some sort of horrific lobster like thing with a cluster of thin tentacles dangling down from its chitinous face (chuul) and a pair of arms that end in gigantic, deadly pincers. It reaches out with a pincer and grabs up Sir Toph in its crushing grip. Sir Toph struggles to free himself, but can’t escape, and it transfers him from its pincer to its facial tentacles. The tentacles entangle him and its mandibles start chomping at him. The tentacles secrete a paralytic mucus, and it is only thanks to his great fortitude that he avoids being paralyzed. With the Sir Toph caught in its tendrils and its pincers free, it fully emerges from the pool and grabs hold of King Sundance. Sundance claws and bites at it but can’t break through its tough chitin.
With the two frontline fighters being handled by the chuul, the surviving couple of cultists move up the steps onto the balcony to attack the remainder of the party. One of the hybrid fishemen drives his morningstar into Freya’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She doesn’t like being in melee, so she uses her new ability to make short range teleport jumps to get away from them. She appears in the middle of the chapel behind the chuul. She takes advantage of the position and blasts it in the back with a scorching ray. Izzy sees that her companion, Sir Toph, is in grave danger, and she finds the will power to shrug off the hold person spell. She conjures a ball of flame that she hurls at the chuul. The fire scorches the aberration’s hide and it convulses and trills in agony. Sir Toph uses all his might to try to pull himself free of the tentacles, but it is no use. Brother Jeb, who is terrified by the horror he’s facing, finds the courage to approach it, whereupon he casts a much needed healing spell on Sir Toph. He then withdraws to help Galdriel, as the two remaining cultists gang up on her. Izzy scorches the chuul with another blast of fire, and this one is enough to get its full attention. It hurls John aside, and he clatters to the stone floor, alive but injured. The thing scuttles up the wide stairs to the balcony on its three sets of multi-jointed legs. A giant pincer snaps forward and grabs Izzy. She feels her bones being crushed in its vice like grip. She tries to burn it with flame, but her head is swirling from pain, and she fails to channel her powers. Sir Toph has suffered tremendous damage from the thing’s mandibles and tentacles, and all his attempts to free himself have failed. He is barely conscious. He knows that if he doesn’t kill it he’s dead. He frees one arm and takes a wild swing at its head with his sword. He gets lucky; his blade strikes true and cuts deep into its skull. The blow is a killing one, and the horror finally crumples to the ground. Sir Toph untangles itself from its limp tentacles and gets to his feet. He looks around and sees Izzy sprawled out on the ground nearby. She too gets to finds the strength to stand, and he thanks Saint Cuthbert that his ward still lives. Galdriel and John finish off the remaining two cultists. Freya sees Brother Alistar dash from his hiding place behind the altar and head for a nearby door. Just as he’s reaching the exit, she hurls another scorching ray. The ray immolates his robes, and he falls to the ground screaming and on fire. Seconds later his screams stop and his burning body stops thrashing. Freya confirms that he’s dead, bringing the battle to a decisive conclusion.
The heroes have slaughtered the cultists, and they have plenty of injuries to show for their victory. Extensive divine magic is required to heal them, especially Sir Toph. They free the girl from the altar and discover he name is Nella. She is a local girl who was captured by the cultists during the deep one raid and taken to the temple where she was locked in a cage in a nearby room. Brother Jeb does what little he can to comfort her, and he escorts her to safety.
The heroes then move through the door that Brother Alistar was running for, and they discover a hall with several doors opening off of it. There is also a spiral stairs that descends down into darkness. Doing a search of the rooms, they find a room where prisoners were held, as well as a room filled with large basins of salt water that presumably acted as resting areas for the deep one cultists. The spiral stairs leads down a long ways and takes them to a sea cave far below the temple. Water fills the back end of the cavern and Galdriel is fairly sure that below the water line there is some kind of opening to the nearby sea. The cave and stairs would provide an easy way for the deep ones to come and go from the chapel of Dagon without detection.
Further exploration uncovers a secret door in the wall of the hallway that connects to another hall, which contains doors accessing some additional rooms. Among their discoveries are a room full of supplies and a private bedchamber and study belonging to Wavemaster Crowley. In Crowley’s room they find a trunk protected by a glyph of warding, which John and Freya trigger whilst opening it. They are both blasted by lighting, but survive to receive healing from their companions. Inside the trunk they find gold and platinum coins as well as pearls and several potions. They also recover a raise dead scroll. However, their most interesting discovery in the room is Crowley’s personal journal. It gives a thorough description of his corruption by the deep ones and his descent into madness. As the entries progress, they go from being written in common to the dread Abyssal tongue. No one in the party can read that foul language, but Freya has a comprehend languages spell in her spell book that she can prepare for the next day to translate the text.
The final room they search is locked, but they had recovered several keys from the dead deep one priest, and can thus open the lock with ease. In this room they find Wavemaster Crowley’s brother Isaiah, Saltmarsh’s former sheriff. He is dressed in ragged clothes, and is most unkempt. They speak with him for a few moments, and he explains that his brother rescued him and brought him to this place on the back of a chuul. Isaiah had been unaware that his brother was a servant of Dagon and though he was aware of the slave girls being smuggled through the town, he didn’t know that his brother was the one buying them or that they were being sacrificed to a demon prince. Of course, he must have suspected something horrible was happening to them, but when he learned the truth of his brother’s depravity he couldn’t abide by it, and Elias decided to imprison him.
The adventurers divide up the loot, take the journal and bind Isaiah. They then leave the temple, taking their prisoner with them. A small crowd awaits them in the pouring rain, and they report their discoveries to the Mayor Marsh. He orders the guard to escort him in to see the place for himself. The heroes take Isaiah to the armoury and lock him up.With so much damning evidence against wave master Crowley, the people of Saltmarsh are eager to see this traitor and fiend executed. A execution block is brought out to the muddy square, brother Jeb feels particularly betrayed by Crowley and asks to conduct the execution. As the rain beats down, Jeb chops his head off before the watching crowd. Izzy then uses her fire magic to burn his body. It is decided that Crowley’s brother Isaiah will be left in his cell for the time being, until the Viscount arrives and can decide what to do with him.
The next day, the storm continues to batter the town. Freya uses her comprehend languages spell to finish reading Crowley’s journal. Near the end their are some disturbing entries mentioning a giant “black egg” that is in possession of a being called the Oracle of Dagon. According to the journal, this egg will soon hatch and release some awful horror. One of Crowley’s tasks has been to fatten his flock in Saltmarsh for the thing to feast upon. The journal explains that deep ones, the oracle and the black egg are all located in a series of mainly submerged caves deep beneath Tern Island. The heroes gather for another council meeting and share the journal with Mayor and the council. The heroes bravely volunteer to return to Tern island and try to find the egg and destroy it. Mayor Marsh promises that he will provide whatever aid he can, and orders are given to scour the town for any magic items that might be useful in aiding the adventurers with this dangerous task.
The session ends, with the heroes preparing for this dangerous quest.
XP for Session #18
deep one cultists 7 x 400 = 2800
chuul 3400
acolytes of Dagon 600 x 2 = 1200
recover the journal 1000
rescuing the sacrifice 1000
avoiding violence with the faithful of Procan 600
10,000 /5 = 2000 xp each
This is the journal of Elias Crowley that the characters discovered this past session.
“Today I made first contact with the deep ones. I have seen them a number of times swimming in the waters around devil’s reef. They could have come at me any time and torn me apart, but for some reason they never did. They kept their distance. Maybe they saw something in me. Today they approached. They offered me the chance to continue diving for pearls if I would start bringing them "offerings" from the surface. They said that if I didn’t they would soon come for them without my aid. What am I to do? Was this the same offer they made to my uncle? Much to think about…”
“The deep ones were pleased with offerings I brought them, and took me to meet the master. We swam beneath the waves to the caves below Tern Island. There are more caves than I had realized. I suspect the network of submerged tunnels and caverns is much larger than those that are above the water line. The deep ones dwell in the darkness in significant numbers, though I can’t be sure how many. Eventually we emerged into a cave where I could surface and step out onto rock. They shambled on ahead and took me to their “temple.” Here is the lair of a being they refer to as the oracle of Dagon. Their priest called forth the oracle. Never have I felt such fear. It emerged from its sacred pool to speak with me. I believe that the oracle communicated to me through a projected image, but I am not certain. It has offered me great knowledge and power in exchange for service. My body was shaking at the sight of the oracle, and I fell to my knees. I have no doubts this being is ancient beyond reckoning. Rejecting its offer was not an option, though part of me wanted to turn away, to flee, to get as far inland as possible and never look on the sea again. It is too late for that. I shall be its eyes and ears on the surface world, and in return I will learn the secrets of the multiverse.”
“Thanks to the deep ones, pearl diving has become more lucrative than I ever could have imagined. Work has started on the new temple. I have taken a page from Frandor Breslow and have hired outside dwarven labour. They can be counted on to keep quiet about the secret chapel I intend to have built, and will leave when the work is complete. Of course no iconography related to my true patron will be added until after the dwarves go. As far as they are concerned it shall be a secret, private chapel to Procan.”
“Work continues on the temple, as do my studies with the oracle. Offerings are becoming more difficult to obtain. I need to find a steady supply.
Here the journal starts including an increasing amount of Abyssal. The final entries are entirely in Abyssal. Reading in abyssal induces nausea.
“Dagon and its oracle have granted me access to great secrets. I have learned a new spell that lets me breath underwater, but also swim effectively. I can move so much faster beneath the waves now, easily as fast as the deep ones. I wonder if Procan would have eventually given me such power if I had not forsaken him. No point in pondering such things. It is too late. I am their thrall, and the blessings that come with serving them are many.”
“As I suspected, Frandor was blamed for the disappearance of the local girls. It was opportunistic of me, but people already distrust him, and I must seize any opportunity to discredit him. He and Shepherd Ivan are the only men in the village who pose any real threat to me. Fortunately, I don’t think either of them have any real suspicions about my activities yet, but best to keep it that way.”
“The deep ones demand more offerings. I need to find a way to bring in a more steady supply.”
“I was summoned to Marsh Manor today by the midwife. Lady Marsh has given birth, but the child bears the blessings of the deep ones. It happens sometimes. I guess because of all the interbreeding in the old days many founding families still carry traces of their blood, and the Marsh family is one of oldest. The midwife was horrified and wanted to me to dispose of it immediately. I told the midwife I would and sent her on her way. Lady Marsh wants to keep the child and I will help see it grow. It will have to remain a secret, confined to Marsh Manor. When it is of age it will undergo the full transformation and join its kin in the sea. Maybe when its older I will take to the temple with the others.”
“Frandor may be dead. I’m not sure. The body turned out to be a creature called a changeling. Still, the townsfolk found no sign of him when they searched his manor. They did find a secret room in the basement with the cages that were the source of so much gossip."
“There is more than just a secret chamber in Frandor’s basement. Ned found a door that accesses some sea caves. Tonight I will swim down the coast and see them for myself. I’m surprised I had never noticed them, but then again these days I mainly swim near Devil’s Reef.”
“I think I have found a way to create a reliable supply of offerings. I have made a deal with Jonas Lassiter to start bringing them in from much further abroad. He has contacts in the Sea Prince lands and with the Scarlet Brotherhood. Of course, he wants to move other goods into town as well. The plan is to use the sea caves below Breslow manor as the drop off point. A tunnel is being secretly dug beneath the wall to connect the Jessop farm house with the basement of the Flounder Pounder. Hiding all the excavated earth is a challenge, but the guards are easily bribed and my brother being the sheriff doesn’t hurt. Most of the work is done at night, and few people know what is going on. Only Lassiter knows I’m the one buying the offerings, and even he doesn’t know what I’m doing with them.”
“I continue to bring the offerings to the deep ones. I use my divine powers to allow them to breath beneath the waves, and the deep ones take them to their caves. I realize now that there are several caves deep in their lair that have air pockets and dry ground where the deep ones can keep surface dwellers. Their priest brings them food and fresh water. They are kept alive and the deep ones mate with them. I don’t understand the strange magic that allows a fish to mate with a mammal, but somehow it works. I am not allowed to visit the chambers where they keep them. I know I should feel pity for them or guilt regarding their fate, but such emotions no longer dwell within me. The multiverse has opened its doors to me and such primitive emotions are now beneath me.”
“It grows harder and harder to live among the humans. Their concerns seem so petty and insignificant. Their lives mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Their gods are young, foolish, arrogant and weak. I feel only contempt for them. The oracle tells me I must continue to blend in. The time is not yet right for me to abandon them altogether. “
“The oracle has taken me behind the temple to the chamber of the Egg of Dagon. The Egg is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is black and made of a substance I cannot identify. It is the size of a fishing boat. I don't know where it came from and I cannot fathom what might hatch from such an “Egg.”
“Meddlesome outsiders have cut off my supply of offerings to the deep ones. The Oracle is beyond emotions like disappointment, and I cannot discern if this bothers Him or not. The deep ones are eager to receive more offerings, and they seem to be agitated. The Oracle says that soon the stars will be in alignment and the night of the hatching and the great feast will come. However, the oracle is ancient, and his concept of time much different than my own. Soon could be in one hundred years or it might be tomorrow."
“My brother has been arrested and taken to Seaton. It’s strange that I actually still care for him. I think he may be the only person left that I have any such feelings for. I thought I was completely rid of such emotions, but the thought of him being executed makes me cringe. I won’t let it happen.”
“I’ve freed my brother from his cell. It is fortunate that the cells in Redstone keep look out over my domain.”
“I have told him everything. I had little choice. There was so much he didn’t know. He was more disturbed by these revelations than I had anticipated. I’ve had to confine him to his chambers for now. I'm not sure what to do with him. Maybe the oracle can work the sacred rite on him."
“The deep ones raided the town last night. I am not sure if they wanted offerings or not, but they failed to bring any back. The raid was a small one. A precursor for what's to come. I think it was a mistake. The humans now see at least a part of the threat from the depths and are on their guard, but who am I to argue with the wisdom of the oracle. I suppose it doesn’t matter, the town doesn't have the strength to defend against a full scale attack."
“I have sent the outsiders to Tern Island. If Dagon wills it they will be taken by the deep ones and the oracle can decide their fate.”
“Damn it. The outsiders have returned. One of their number was killed, but not by deep ones. The caves hold many secrets and not all of them are tied to Dagon. I have long considered exploring them myself, but the oracle has forbid it. I don’t know why."
"I tried to win the Inquisitor to my side, but she doesn’t trust me, and why should she after the confession I made? Perhaps it was stupid of me. I don't care anymore. I'm tired of hiding. Tired of pretending. Soon it won’t matter. After the meeting it will be time to take my leave of the surface world for good. I don’t think there is anything they can do to save the town, but I don’t want to underestimate them. They are more resourceful than I suspected they would be. I think I can convince them to make one more expedition to Tern Island and attempt to infiltrate the deep caves. If they do they will surely not return. The oracle speaks of a rite that will fully make me one of them. My final transformation is at hand."
Session #18 GM Notes: So this was supposed to be somewhat of a climatic conclusion to the Cult of Dagon storyline that has been unfolding since the beginning of the campaign. Unfortunately, it had a rocky start, as I had two players 30+ minutes late getting online and a third player with a fussy internet connection. However, once we finally got going it went pretty well. Sir Toph's player almost lost his new character in his first real combat.
Fortunately, they managed to capture Elias Crowley last session. If he had been down in the chapel, as originally intended, it would have been a significantly tougher fight. Still, a chuul is no slouch, with AC 22 and its nasty pincer grab and paralytic tentacles, it can put the hurt on 5th level characters.
Now they plan to go deal with the "egg of Dagon", which I guess will be the real conclusion to this storyline. It should be a tough go since they will have to swim through several submerged caves infested with deep ones and other nasties, and then find the egg and see if they can figure out a way to destroy it before it hatches the following nasty:
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Session #19 (Caves of the Deep Ones)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 5)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 5)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 5)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 5)
Sir Toph [aasimar, cavalier 5]
The session begins with the heroes making their final preparations for their quest to destroy the “Egg of Dagon”- a blasphemous object they believe is hidden in the caves of the deep ones somewhere beneath Tern Island. It will be a difficult task, as they don’t even know exactly how to access the deep one caves, let alone locate the object once they get inside. Nor do they know how to destroy it. They start their day by meeting with the town council. Here they are introduced to a brave fisherman named Bryan, who is willing to brave the storm with his boat to help try to get them out to the island. They are also given a variety of magical items to aid them. These include: 4 potions of Bull’s Strength, 6 potions of water breathing, 1 wand of cure light wounds, 1 scroll of dispel magic, 1 scroll of fireball, 1 scroll of disintegrate, 2 scrolls of freedom of movement, 1 haversack, 1 rope of climbing, 1 immoveable rod, and Wavemaster Crowley’s +2 scale mail armour and ring of swimming. In addition, Shepherd Ivan casts a water breathing spell on the heroes (including Bryan) and endure elements spells to help protect them against the cold waters.
With preparations complete, they make their way through pouring rain and lashing winds to the docks. The heroes load into Bryan’s fishing boat. Sir Toph helps at the oars, and they set out for Tern Island. Saltmarsh’s harbour is well sheltered, but as soon as they reach the open water they must contend with the vicious storm. The swells are huge and continually threaten to capsize the vessel. Progress is slow at best. Bryan is a skilled seaman, but even he has not braved such dangerous waters in such a small craft. Soon the inevitable happens- a massive wave picks up the boat and effortlessly flips it over, sending everyone plummeting into the abyss. For several moments the heroes are disoriented, unable to tell up from down, as they thrash about in the darkness. The weight of their armour and gear soon starts to pull them down to the bottom, but by this time, they are starting to adjust to the sensation of being able to breath water just as a fish does. Instead of fighting it, they let themselves sink, and soon the heroes are gathered on the floor of the sea, some 60’ below the raging storm above. Compared to the world above the waves, it is quiet and peaceful, but also very dark. Freya casts a light cantrip, so that Izzy and Bryan (who have no dark vision) can find their way to the heroes. Izzy takes hold of Sir Toph’s cloak, and Bryan grabs onto Freya. Galdriel, who is trained in wilderness survival and highly perceptive, does her best to orient the adventurers in the right direction, and they start trekking along the bottom of the sea in the direction of Tern Island. Here and there they see signs of marine life- schools of fish, crab, rays, and even the odd shark. Every so often, Sir Toph uses the ring of swimming to help him reach the surface. It’s magic is quite potent, and even with his plate armour, the knight is able to swim. When he breaks the surface, he takes a couple of moments to scan for the distant island; then he lets himself sink back down to join the heroes on the bottom and adjust their course as necessary.
After some two hours of hiking beneath the waves, they reach the base of Devil’s Reef- the infamous reef that surrounds the island. From the bottom of the sea, it is as if they are standing at the base of large cliff that they must climb. Fortunately there are abundant handholds and the water helps to lift them up, making their climb quite easy. There is a noticeable increase in marine life around the reef. Fortunately, none of it seems interested in the adventurers. Eventually they crest the top of the reef. Here the water is in only 10’-20’ deep, and they know that they are getting close to their destination. They hike and swim along the reef, and soon enough they reach the base of Tern Island. They follow it to its south side, where the entrances to the various sea caves are located. Their initial plan is to head into “Frandor’s” cave complex, for when they explored it a couple of days earlier they found a pool of water that had a large, deep passage in the bottom of it that Galdriel suspects might lead to the deep one caves. However, as they get within the vicinity of this cave, they spot another entrance that is completely submerged beneath the water that they were not previously aware of. They change their minds and decide to explore this cave system. The passage is about 30’ wide and slopes downward. It is entirely with water. The heroes decide to travel single file, staying close to the right wall. Galdriel leads the way, relying on her extended darkvision and excellent perception to keep a watch for danger.
They have ventured some distance into the passage when Galdriel sees a group of seven deep ones swimming towards them from deeper down the tunnel. She motions for her companions to hide among the rocks and crevasses of the cave wall, hoping that the deep ones won’t notice them. Unfortunately, Sir Toph doesn’t find the best hiding spot, and the deep ones see him. He attempts to bluff them by trying to make himself look like a drowned corpse, but they don’t buy it. They swim in at the knight and combat ensues. Sir Toph draws the trident he brought for aquatic combat and uses his celestial powers to make it glow with blazing daylight, allowing the humans in the group to see. The deep ones recoil from the bright light, shielding their unblinking fish eyes with clawed hands. The rest of the heroes emerge from hiding to aid him. Galdriel and Bryan make use of spears, which, like the trident, are more effective underneath the water than slashing swords. As usual, John consumes a mutagen and enters combat in his hybrid bird form. Freya and Izzy use their magic, though Izzy finds it difficult to channel her fire powers underwater. When she does manage to do so, her blasts of flame manifest as jets of scalding steam. The deep ones are a little surprised to see not one, but six surface dwellers lurking amongst the rocks, all having no difficulty breathing underwater. In seconds, the adventurers have overwhelmed their foes, and clouds of blood fill waters of the tunnel. The two surviving deep ones swim away down the passage. The heroes fear that they will alert their kin. Freya expends a couple of her precious spells and pounds them with magic missiles to help keep them from escaping. Galdriel aids her with a spiritual weapon spell, and Izzy manages to get off a jet of steam that finishes the last one off. Galdriel has suffered the most wounds from the fight, and uses the wand to heal herself. Sir Toph cancels the magical light, and they then continue deeper into the dark, submerged passage.
Many more minutes pass, but eventually the passage they are following opens into a vast cavern that also seems to be completely submerged. The tunnel enters the cavern close to its ceiling, and it is about an 80-100’ drop to the floor of this immense cave. Off in the distance, towards the edge of Galdriel’s darkvision, she spots scores of deep ones drifting peacefully in the water. She wonders if they are sleeping. If they are, they are sleeping with their bulging eyes wide open. One of the last things the heroes want is to engage an entire colony of deep ones, so they cling to rock wall of the cave and use it to pull themselves along. It also provides spots to hide from any of the deep ones that might be awake. As they swim/climb along the wall, Galdriel keeps a close eye on the “sleeping” deep ones. She notices that they aren’t all asleep, a few swim among their kin- to what purpose, she is not sure. The gods are with them, and the none of the deep ones appear to notice the heroes. Galdriel then sees that up above the ceiling is no longer in sight, it seems that it now is higher than the water level, suggesting that there is an air pocket above them. They climb up, some twenty or so feet, at which point they break the surface of water, confirming there is an air pocket. Furthermore, a little ways ahead of them is the entrance to another tunnel. However, this tunnel is entirely above the waterline. They decide to investigate, and they emerge from the water. There is still no light, so Izzy and Bryan remain completely blind. John would be blind as well, but his active mutagen grants him darkvision. Despite this, no one in the party wants to create light, for fear of attracting the attention of the deep ones. The wide, slippery rock passage slopes upward, and the heroes press on in. Soon they find themselves in a fairly extensive cave complex. They see no deep one as they explore, but there are plenty of fish bones and crab shells, suggesting that deep ones spend time in the caves.
Galdriel leads the way, as she looks to her left, she notice a wide passage that slopes steeply down to a pool of still water. At the edge of the water she sees what appears to be a human woman chewing on a raw fish. The “woman” has wet tattered clothing and her back is turned, so she Galdriel doesn’t get a look at her face. She is sixty or more feet away, but Galdriel can still make out something very wrong about her that makes the inquisitor wonder if she is in fact human. Her “skin” looks more like a clear, glistening membrane than actual flesh. Galdriel motions for her companions to stop and duck down, so they don’t alert the creature. Galdriel watches her from behind a large rock for a few more minutes, and eventually she sees her wade into the pool and disappear beneath the water. They continue on with no real sense of where they should be going to find the “Egg of Dagon.” Thus, Freya decides to cast a locate object spell. She concentrates, thinking about the description of the egg, given in Crowley’s journal. A couple of moments pass, but the spell works, and it directs the heroes to keep delving deeper into the cave complex. The tunnels and caves they pass through continue to slope upwards, and it isn’t long before they pass by another pool of water. Unfortunately, this pool is home to more deep ones. At least one of the creatures is watching from the water and detects the heroes walking by. Suddenly, the still water of the pool is frothing with rage, as some eight deep ones burst out of it and shamble towards the trespassing adventurers. The heroes are outnumbered, but this time they aren’t fighting underwater. Izzy has no difficulty channelling her flames, and soon she is tossing deadly motes of fiery death at the fish men. Sir Toph moves in with sword and shield. His plate male gives him ample protection against their claws, and he starts slitting their bloated bellies with his enchanted sword. John’s mutagen is still active, and he shreds the creatures with beak and talons. Galdriel engages them with her scimitar, and even Bryan bravely attacks them with his spear. Freya, not wanting to waste any precious spells, hangs back behind the warriors and takes pot shots with her crossbow. The band of deep ones is no match for the adventurers, and soon the few survivors fall back into their pool, vanishing beneath the water. The heroes don’t bother trying to catch them. Instead they heal what minor wounds they sustained and hurry on, as it is only a matter of time before the deep ones realize what is happening and come at them in numbers too great to fight off.
They find themselves making their way up a steeply sloping passage that is about 15’ wide. After about 100’ it comes to an abrupt end, as it opens up into a large cave that is filled with water. The tunnel emerges well up the wall of the cave, and it about a 30’ vertically drop down to the water. Out in the middle of this large, subterranean pool is a small island of rock. The island is dominated by the form of an enormous black “egg.” As Elias described in his journal, the egg is about the size of a fishing boat. It doesn’t look fragile like a bird’s egg might. Its surface is smooth and dark, but also uneven, and it looks more like obsidian than anything else. A couple of dozen deep ones are in the water, surrounding the island; just their heads protrude above the pool. They appear to be worshipping the egg, and the cavern echoes with their inhuman chanting. Only Galdriel and Freya stand at the mouth of the passage, looking down upon this alien scene. The rest of the heroes, hang back in the passage so there is no chance they will be spotted. The deep ones are a ways away and completely focused on their devotions. As such, they don’t notice Freya and Galdriel watching them.
Freya reaches into the haversack that she has been wearing like a satchel. She calls for the disintegrate scroll and pulls it out. She then chants the words to the spell from the scroll. The scroll turns to dust, and she points her finger in the direction of the egg. Arcane power courses through her. This is the most potent spell she has ever cast. A ray of black energy streaks out from her finger. It soars down over the pool and hits the egg. Time seems to slow down for an instant, and she can’t help but wonder what will happen. The spell may well turn the egg to dust, but she also fears that it may just disintegrate the outer shell and unleash whatever is growing inside. When the ray hits, about half of the massive, black shell turns to dust. The deep ones, are confused. They seem unsure of what just happened. Then some of them start looking back in the direction the ray came from. They see Freya and Galdriel standing high above them at the mouth of the passage. Then their is a loud squelching noise and they look back towards the open egg. Something starts to ooze out of its remains. It is black and amorphous, like a great pudding, though mouths and eyes start to form on its writhing surface. In seconds, it has enveloped the island and engulfed the fanatic deep ones that were kneeling before it. It continues to expand, flowing into the water, getting ever bigger. Already the thing seems to be far bigger than the capacity of the egg should have been able to contain, and still more of it continues to spew out. The deep ones chitter and burble in fear, excitement and awe. Galdriel watches, transfixed by the horror of the scene. It seems they have done the very thing they came here to prevent! She shakes her head and snaps back into action; knowing it is probably futile, she fires and arrow from her enchanted bow. It sinks into the creature’s oozing bulk and vanishes with no apparent effect. Freya pulls out her fireball scroll and casts it. The fireball detonates on top of the thing, and the flames fan out over the water searing the heads of several deep ones. The fire vanishes as instantaneously as it appeared. The deep ones are gone, probably having dove below the water to avoid the inferno. The horror from the egg is still there, and the fireball seems to have had no effect on it. In fact, it doesn’t look as though the heroes have anything in their arsenal that has a hope of stopping the alien horror. They have only one real option. They turn back down the passage and flee, praying that they can somehow escape and find their way back home.
They move as quickly as they can given the slippery wet rocks and uneven ground. Izzy and Bryan continue to stumble about in the darkness, holding onto Sir Toph and Freya. Down the passage, ahead of them, they hear the sounds of more deep ones approaching. To their left is a narrow side passage that is partially filled with water. They decide to follow it. The dark water is about waist deep, and they begin wading through it. The oppressive ceiling is just above their heads and walls encroach in on them. The side passage soon widens and opens into a larger cave with a higher ceiling. It too, is partially filled with water. Though, near the centre of the walls, to their left and right, they can see tunnels branching up and away from the waterline that they could walk through if they could get to them. Galdriel continues to lead and wades into the cave. As she steps forward, she discovers the hard way that there is a sudden drop off. She plunges into the water, her scale armour pulling her towards the bottom. She fights to swim back up, but before she can get to the surface, barbed tentacles grab hold of her, and she realizes that she’s not alone. A large squid-like monster is in the water with her. It looks very similar to the creature that pulled Tendal out their boat a few days earlier (a devilfish- see session #16). The thing pulls her towards its snapping beak. Her companions rush to her aid. Sir Toph leaps into the deep water, swimming to her and driving his trident into its head (critical hit), which causes it enough pain that it releases its grip on Galdriel. She frees herself from its tentacles, though the barbs tear painfully as she wiggles free. Izzy casts a light spell, and a ball of flame appears in the palm of her hand, allowing her to see what is going on. John dives into the deeper water and tears away a huge chunk of its rubbery flesh with his beak, leaving it badly wounded. Galdriel pushes off of it with her leg and propels her wounded body to the shallow water just as it releases a cloud of unholy ink. The ink makes the water completely black, and even darkvision can’t penetrate the blackness. Eventually, the ink clears, and the creature is no where to be seen.
Izzy’s light spell has attracted the attention of another fiend. Swimming towards them from the other side of the cave, they see one of the chitinous monstrosities that nearly killed Sir Toph in the chapel of Dagon (a chuul- see session #18). The heroes remain in the shallows, waist deep in the water and wait for it, weapons ready. As it gets closer, Galdriel summons a spiritual weapon, which cuts a deep gash through the back of its head area. At the same time, Izzy and Freya blast it with fire. It keeps coming, but by the time it has closed in on the heroes, the thing is already quite wounded. Sir Toph and John stand in the front line to face the aberration. It goes for John, and grabs him up in a crushing pincer. Unfortunately, it stays just out of Sir Toph’s reach and he has to dive into the deeper water to get close enough to attack it. John frees an extract and chugs it. He magically grows to nearly twice his size, and the chuul almost loses his grip on him and has to grab at him with its second pincer to maintain the grapple. Then the chuul decides its not worth trying to keep him pinned, so it drops him into the water and goes at him with both pincers. The brutal attacks leave John gushing blood and unconscious. Sir Toph keeps stabbing at it with his trident and eventually penetrates its armour. Finally, Izzy brings it down with a blast of fire to the face, and its lifeless carcass slowly sinks to the bottom of the pool. John is given a does of magical healing, restoring him to consciousness.
Unfortunately, the heroes aren’t out of danger just yet. Deep ones are wading towards them through the side passage. The adventurers are low on spells. John is in terrible condition, and Galdriel is also fairly wounded. The session ends here, with more tense combat to come. Will the heroes escape the deep one caves and make it back to civilization or will they find a watery grave down in these lightless caves? Even if they do make it back, what is to be done about the horror they have inadvertently unleashed on the world?
XP for Session #19
deep ones 16 x 400 = 6400
devilfish 1200
chuul 3400
11,000/5= 2200 each
Session #20 (Escape from the caves of the deep ones)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 5)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 5)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 5)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 5)
Sir Toph (aasimar, cavalier 5)
The session begins with the heroes trying to escape the partially flooded caves of the deep ones after having inadvertently unleashed a terrible horror upon the world (see session #19). They stand waist deep in water at the mouth of a narrow tunnel that opens into larger cave that is also partially filled with water. Seconds ago they defeated a chuul and a devilfish, and now deep ones are closing in on them, wading through the congested tunnel. John, in his King Sundance form (mutagen), is badly injured from the fight with the chuul and needs a chance to be heal. He quaffs a healing extract, and Galdriel gets out the healing wand. Sir Toph and Bryan wade through the water to intercept the incoming deep ones, hoping to hold them off until their companions are healed. Bryan is wearing leather armour and armed with only a spear, but he is inspired by the Knight of the Golden Lions, and he bravely stands beside the cavalier to face the incoming tide. The deep ones collide with the pair, clawing at them while they hold them back. Sir Toph’s plate armour and shield serve him well, and the deep ones only inflict a few minor scratches on him. Bryan suffers more extensive injuries; fortunately John is soon healed enough to join the battle. Having recently consumed an enlarge person extract, he towers above his companions, and he steps up behind Sir Toph and Bryan. He reaches over them and claws at the deep ones with his talons and bites them with his beak. Izzy blasts them with fire, and Galdriel works on healing her own wounds. In a matter of seconds, several of the deep ones are dead, and the rest are fleeing back down the tunnel. The heroes do a little more healing and keep moving, for although small bands of deep ones aren’t a huge threat to them, they know that they are at risk of being overrun by a much larger horde and need to find a way out of the caves.
They wade and swim their way through a spacious water filled cave and find their way to another tunnel. This one isn’t flooded, making movement much easier. It first slopes up and then back down again. As they start their descent, they encounter another band of deep ones. This band is bigger than the last one, and it consists of several deep ones that are larger than their kin and equipped with crude, plate armour made from the shells of giant crustaceans. The adventurers have little choice other than to fight their way through them. Sir Toph and John charge into the fish-men with Bryan bravely fighting beside the knight. Izzy, Freya and Galdriel hang back. As usual, Izzy hurls blasts of fire into them, blistering their scaly hides and causing them to blubber in agony. Freya, whose spells are almost entirely spent by this time, resorts to shooting with her crossbow, and Galdriel makes use of her enchanted longbow. Soon Bryan has sustained some serious wounds and is forced to fall back to get healing from her. After helping the fisherman, she draws her scimitar and replaces him in the front line. John is literally a monster, and he shreds through the deep ones like an enraged owl bear. He takes plenty of wounds in the process, but the deep one bodies pile up quickly wherever he turns his attention. Sir Toph doesn’t deal the kind of damage that John does, but he is much better at defending himself and suffers far fewer injuries. The band’s tactics are effective, and soon stinking deep one corpses are all around them. The remainder scatter into a nearby pool and down a wide side passage. The adventurers don’t pursue them or linger; they press forward, for in the distance they can hear the sound of more deep ones coming, and they know they won’t be able to keep fighting them off forever. This point is punctuated by John’s mutagen wearing off, depriving them of their most powerful weapon.
The slippery passage leads steadily downward, and soon it comes to an end. Here, they find another pool of water. From up the tunnel, behind them, they hear the deep ones coming. The water breathing magic cast on them by Shepherd Ivan is still active, and they are about to enter the pool, hoping that it might lead to an exit, when Galdriel notices a hole in the ceiling above the far side of the pool. She can’t tell exactly where it goes, but it looks wide enough that they might be able to climb into it one at a time. Freya reaches into the haversack and pulls out the rope of climbing they were given. She speaks the command word, and the rope animates. It forms knots in itself and then climbs up the wall and creeps along the ceiling, slithering like a snake to opening of the shaft. It then crawls up into the darkness. On Freya’s command, it detaches itself from the ceiling of the cave, so that it is hanging out of the shaft, dangling down to the water. All the heroes have to do is get out to the rope, and they can climb up into the shaft. They pray this will provide them an escape route.
Freya uses her skills as an arcanist to teleport to the rope. She climbs the knots and goes up into the shaft. She sees that the shaft travels upward some 50’ and then arcs to the right, where it narrows significantly. She uses the rope and the walls of the shaft to help her climb, getting as far up as she can to make room for her companions. She reaches the narrow section, but is confident that she can squeeze through it and continue on. The only one she is worried about is Sir Toph. With his bulky plate armour, she isn’t sure if he’ll fit. The rest of the heroes leap into the water and start swimming towards the hanging rope. Galdriel, Bryan and Izzy make it easily, and one by one they start climbing up. John doesn’t fare so well; his armour weighs him down, and he starts sinking to the bottom of the pool. Sir Toph would be sinking along with him if it weren’t for his ring of swimming. Fortunately, he sees John struggling and turns back for the alchemist. He grabs his arm and starts pulling him along. John kicks hard, and with Sir Toph’s help he reaches the rope. It is right about this time that they realize a school of deep ones has swam up from the depths of the deep pool. John grabs the rope, pulls himself out of the water and starts climbing, but Sir Toph is swarmed by the fish-men. He needs his hands free to climb, so he doesn’t draw his blade or trident. Instead, he reaches for the rope. The creatures are all around him. They rake him with their claws, and try to drag him down to the bottom far below. He savagely kicks at them, and, gripping the rope, he uses all his upper body strength to pull himself out of the water. The deep ones continue to tug and claw at him, but he keeps kicking at them, and fights free. He starts climbing, bringing the rope with him, leaving the deep ones behind. The knight makes it up into the shaft, his legs burning and bleeding from various wounds inflicted by the creatures during his escape. The heroes then climb their way up through the chimney like passage. Sir Toph does have a tough time getting through the narrow section, but he manages it, through he suffers some scrape and bruises in the process.
Finally, they find their way out of the shaft. They are standing in yet another cave. It is fairly small, and this one seems to be well above the caves of the deep ones. Other than the heavy breathing of the weary adventurers, things are quiet, and there is no sign that the deep ones are pursuing them. They take a much needed short rest, and Galdriel administers more healing from the wand. At the far end of the cave, the stoney ground slopes up. A flickering light filters down from that direction, the first sign of any light that wasn’t their own since they entered the caves. They want to take an long rest so that they can properly recover, but they also want to get back to Saltmarsh and make sure they aren’t in immediate danger. Thus, they decide to do a bit more exploring.
They make their way up the steep sloping passage, out of the cavern they just climbed into. They promptly come to a “T” intersection, and here they find several shattered human skeletons on the ground, which are illuminated by a glowing mace that lies on the floor. The mace is beside the long dead remains of a dwarf. Also near the dwarf’s corpse are two back packs. The heroes do some looting. They quickly surmise that the dwarf is a dead spelunker/adventurer. They find plenty of standard adventuring gear in the packs, as well as some coin. More importantly, they recover some magic items. The dwarf is wearing a suite of mithril chain that Izzy claims. Freya gains a ring of protection, and John takes the enchanted mace. They also find a potion of cat’s grace and an vial of acid, which Freya stows in the haversack.
They continue exploring, and first take the passage that leads to their left. Due to a partial collapse of the ceiling, it soon becomes filled with rock and debris. There is room enough for them to squeeze through, and they find that it opens up into another cavern. This cave is also illuminated; this time by several continual flame torches that are jammed into cracks in the walls. On the ground they see another long dead body. This body is that of human warrior. He is dressed in scale armour and has a round steel shield strapped to his arm. Several yards away from him, a fine looking scimitar sits on the ground. At the back end of the chamber the ground slopes up steeply, and, sitting on a flat area at the highest point, there is large sea chest. Standing guard before it is a hulking, vaguely humanoid being made of clay. Freya looks at it from the passageway. She is pretty confident that it is a clay golem- a very dangerous construct. She casts a detect magic cantrip, and she detects that the scimitar on the ground and shield strapped to the dead warrior are both magical. She decides to risk going after them. She casts one of her final spells, making herself invisible. Then she teleports to the scimitar, grabs it up and puts it in the haversack. The golem seems to notice the scimitar disappear, and it moves towards where it was. However, the golem doesn’t seem aware of the invisible Freya, and she sneaks past it. She makes it to the shield and takes that as well. Then she teleports back to her companions. They are very curious about the chest, and they suspect that it might one of the many hordes of pirate treasure supposably hidden throughout the cave complexes of Tern Island. However, they decide not to risk going after it just yet. They need a rest first. But before they take their rest, they go back to the “T” intersection and explore the tunnel to the right. It leads them to a final cave. This cave is empty, but there is a large shaft in its ceiling. This shaft is much wider than the one they recently crawled up, and it goes up to near the edge of their darkvision before curving out of their line of sight. They surmise that the two dead adventurers likely climbed down this way to access these caves. Other than the golem, which doesn’t seem to going anywhere, the complex seems safe, so they decide to return to the cave that they climbed in from and take a much need extended rest.
Their rest is undisturbed, and once they have recovered, they decide to go after the treasure that is guarded by the clay golem, but first Freya identifies the properties of the magic shield and scimitar (+2 shield, +2 keen scimitar). Sir Toph claims the magic shield and Galdriel takes the scimitar. They then cast various preparatory spells. Galdriel buffs herself with a shield of faith prayer, while John drinks a mutagen. Bryan sees no sense in putting his life at risk when a mundane spear would be useless against a golem, so he keeps watch in the tunnels. John and Sir Toph head in first. As soon as John is out of the narrow passage and into the cave, he drinks his enlarge person extract, making him the same size as the golem. The construct sees the pair and comes at them. At first, the bulky thing moves ponderously, plodding forward with deadly intent. Then it strikes, swinging its massive clay fists with surprising speed and prowess. Its first attack slams into Sir Toph. He gets up his shield, which bears the brunt of the impact, but it still sends him staggering backwards and leaves his arms burning in pain. The heroes retaliate, Sir Toph darts forward and slashes it across the torso with his enchanted sword. It leaves a furrow through the clay, but he is unsure if he actually hurt it. Izzy hits it square in the chest with a blast of fire, baking some of the moisture out of the clay, but she too can’t tell if it did any actual damage to the construct. Galdriel uses her divine powers to make her magical scimitar a golem bane weapon, and she deftly slashes it across the flank. It seems to cause it some harm, but not huge amounts. Likewise, John tears at it with his claws and beak, dealing some minor damage. Freya takes advantage of the distraction her companions are causing to cast an invisibility spell and teleport herself to the chest. The golem suddenly undergoes a burst of incredible speed. Its fists become a blur, and it dishes out attacks on all three of the heroes engaging it. They all take a beating. For Sir Toph, it is the second hit he has taken from the thing, and he doesn’t think he can sustain another one. They decide they have to withdraw. However, John is in his King Sundance form, so smart tactics aren’t easy for him. Furthermore, he’s enlarged, making too big to fit back into the passage. Sir Toph pulls out first (probably a violation of his knightly code), blocking a fist with his shield as he retreats. Next Galdriel takes another attack at it, and then pulls out. Only John is left, but he has to spend several valuable seconds dismissing his enlarge magic, so he can’t flee. The golem focuses all its attacks on John. Somehow, only a single one hits (I rolled back to back 1s on the first two attacks- boo!!!). Even still, it leaves him in rough shape. Meanwhile Freya reaches into her haversack and pulls out the vial of acid they found in the pack of the dead dwarf. She pours it on the rusty lock that is preventing her from opening the chest. The acid works quick and weakens the lock enough that she can easily smash it open with her dagger. The golem hears the sound and looks back, but it can’t see the invisible Freya. It focuses its attention back on John. He sucks back a potion and turns invisible just as its fists come in at him. None of them connect, and he escapes with his life to the exit tunnel. The golem hastily starts moving back to the chest. Freya opens it. It appears to be empty, except for a strange, black, circular hole in the bottom. She suspects it is a portable hole, so she tries to pick it up. It works, and she folds up the “hole.” She is about to stuff it into her haversack, when she recalls something about astral rifts forming if such a thing is put into a haversack or bag of holding. Thus, she aborts. Instead, she teleports back to her companions just as the golem arrives to take a swing at where she was standing.
Though, they did not defeat the golem, it appears to have no way to leave the room and come after them, so they are safe. They set about healing the wounded and searching the portable hole. Freya, who is fascinated by all things magical, jumps inside of it and starts tossing out all of its contents. They recover incredible wealth, sacks of coins, jewelry, pearls, and several magic items. The magic items include a magical +2 frost longsword (claimed by Sir Toph), a +1 amulet of natural amour (claimed by John), a set of bracers of armour +6 (claimed by Freya), a wand of lightning bolts (claimed by Freya), googles of night (claimed by Izzy), and several spell scrolls (claimed by Freya). Among the spell scrolls, is a scroll with a teleport spell. Although, Freya would love to hang onto it and eventually try to add it to her spell book, she decides that getting the party back to Saltmarsh is more important. Unfortunately, she doesn’t think the spell will be able to transport the entire party. Luckily, they have the portable hole, and John and Galdriel squeeze themselves inside it. Freya folds up the “hole,” which is essentially a big circle of black cloth when it is not placed on the ground, and she teleports the heroes back to town. The session ends with the adventurers appearing back in Saltmarsh.
XP for Session #20
deep ones 15 x 400 = 6000
armoured deep ones 3 x 600 = 1800
escaping the caves and returning to Saltmarsh 2200
Total 10,000/5 = 2000 xp each
GMs Notes:
I wasn't sure how this session was going to play out, but it wrapped itself up pretty nicely (for the PCs). The heroes scored a ton of good loot and escaped the caves with their lives and earned enough XP to level up- they can't ask for more than that. I feel like some bad die rolling cheated me out of at least one PC death at the hands of the golem. For instance, I attacked John with two full rounds of attacks (6 attacks total). I somehow rolled 4 ones, and his invisibility saved him from a hit, so he only took one hit out of all that.
Of course, now they need to fill the town council in on their adventurers, and a really big nasty is loose beneath Tern Island. It's probably only a matter of time before it makes its way to Saltmarsh, so there's that still... I think next session will be the true big finale for this adventure.
Session #21 (The Great Feast)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 6)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 6)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 6)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 6)
Sir Toph (aasimar, cavalier 6)
Thanks to a teleport scroll, the heroes have successfully escaped the deep one caverns and returned to Saltmarsh. Their first order of business is meeting with the town council and reporting the events of their mission. Unfortunately, the news isn’t particularly good, as they seem to have accidentally unleashed a terrible oozing horror from the Egg of Dagon- pretty much the opposite result of their objective. Mayor Marsh seeks advice about the level of threat the creature poses and how best to protect the town, but the heroes don’t have many suggestions in that regard- the creature seems far too powerful to directly confront in combat.
After the council meeting, they rest the night at the Lizard’s Boat Inn. The following day, they return to Breslow Manor (about 5 miles east of town) where they continue to recover from their harrowing adventure. John throws himself into his studies, and Freya spends time scribing new spells into her spell book from the scrolls she recovered. Izzy continues to develop her powers, while Sir Toph and Galdriel practise with their new blades. They also spend time recounting their adventure to Grandpa Frandor, but he has no idea what the horror that they unleashed could be. On the evening of their third day of rest, Galdriel is walking through the hall to her room when she is assaulted by a terrible feeling of impending doom. This feeling coalesces into a vivid vision. In it she sees the people of Saltmarsh walking through the night dark streets in a zombie-like trance. They are all staggering towards the waterfront and seem oblivious to their surroundings. She has the horrible sense that this vision is some sort of glimpse into the future, and that the people of Saltmarsh are in grave and imminent danger.
Galriel gathers the companions, and they ride for Saltmarsh as fast as they can. It is around dark when they arrive, and as far as they can tell everything is okay in town. They first go to the home of Shepherd Ivan and inform him of Galadriel’s vision. He too has been feeling a terrible sense of dread, though he has not received any prophetic visions. They decide that drastic measures are necessary, and that the town should be evacuated. Shepherd Ivan gathers his family and sends them out to order the town’s followers of Saint Cuthbert to flee the town and head inland. Galdriel and John go speak with Mayor Marsh to gain his help with the evacuation, while Sir Toph, Izzy and Freya make their way towards the docks. Their goal is help better barricade the gates of the dockwall- a palisade that separates the docks from the rest of the town. They hope to make it more difficult for deep ones to get into the town, but also more difficult for the people to get to the water (in response to Galadriel’s vision). Pretty soon things are in motion. The militia has been mobilized; some of the men are aiding Sir Toph barricade the gates at the docks, while others helping the townsfolk to evacuate.
Nearly an hour has passed, and over half the people of the town have made it out the gates. Several hundred remaining folk are near the gates, waiting to file through. Then, drifting up out of the harbour is a strange, mournful keening. It spreads through the town, entrancing nearly all who hear it. Fortunately, the heroes are strong-willed individuals, and they are mostly able to resist the terrible enchantment. Only Galdriel succumbs to the powerful magic of the keening. The townsfolk aren’t so fortunate, and nearly all of them effected by it. They immediately turn away from the exit gate and start shuffling their way towards the sea. John, who is with Galdriel near the gates, where they had been helping oversee an orderly evacuation of the town, grabs hold of the inquisitor, using brute force to keep her from joining the rest of the entranced townsfolk. He is confident that her will is strong enough to break the enchantment, so he smacks her a few times, hoping she will snap out of the trance. This takes some doing, but eventually Galdriel regains her senses, and she and John head towards the docks to meet up with their companions.
Down by the waterfront, the miltia, under the supervision of Sir Toph, have just finished the barricades when the keening song begins. Almost the entirety of the guard falls under the foul magic, but Sir Toph, Izzy and Freya all resist. The barricades are mostly in place, so even though the guards suddenly have an overwhelming urge to get to the water, they have no easy means of doing so. The trance they are in has made them nearly mindless, so even coming up with an idea as simple as trying to clear away the barricades is challenging. This gives the heroes some time to think about how they might try to help the men, but as they are pondering the problem, they hear a loud, violent noise erupt from the seaward side of the palisade. Sir Toph hastily climbs a ladder to the guard platform above the gate. From the platform he has a good view of the docks, though it is dark now, so the aasimar must rely mainly on his darkvision. At any rate, the source of the sound is obvious. A colossal, black ooze-like horror has emerged from the water and is moving toward the palisade and gate. Sir Toph sees mouths, eyes and other stranger organs rapidly form on the thing and just as rapidly vanish, only to appear again an instant later. Clearly, this is the same horror that they unleashed from the egg of Dagon when they tried to disintegrate it, and it is by far the most terrible creature the knight has ever seen. The ooze-thing is enormous, and it looks as though it will hit the wall like a massive wave; when it does it will batter it down with no difficulty at all. Sir Toph has no interest in being engulfed by the horror, so he leaps down to the ground and screams to Izzy and Freya that it is coming and that they must run.
So run they do (actually Freya teleports herself up the street a ways and then runs). As they head up the street, they see the entranced townsfolk stumbling towards them, the harbour and the waiting horror. Then there is a thunderous crash behind the retreating heroes. Sir Toph hazards a glance back over his shoulder, and he witnesses the creature crashing through and over the palisade as if it were made of twigs. It instantly oozes over the barricade behind the gate and engulfs several guards. Then tendrils shoot out from its amorphous body. They grab hold of more of the entranced guards and pull them into its mass. The heroes keep running. As they make their way further up the street, they rendezvous with John and Galdriel. At the same time, the horde of townsfolk shambling down the hill towards their dooms gets ever closer. The heroes want to save them, but they fear that there is little they can do to stop more than a handful from reaching the horror. Then Freya comes up with an idea. She casts a couple of web spells that span the street just in front of the oncoming civilians. The people don’t stop moving and walk directly into the sticking webbing. The strain at the pressure of the mass of bodies, but the webs do their job and create a coral of sorts that holds back the entranced mob. However, the webbing will only last so long, and the heroes aren’t sure what can be done to help the civilians once the spell ends.
They are forced to put this problem on hold when they see a large group of deep ones start making their way towards them through the dark streets. John and Sir Toph consume extracts of enlarge person that cause them and their gear to grow to a height of about 10’ tall. Sir Toph leads the attack, and the giant knight charges towards the incoming fish men. Izzy and Galdriel follow behind him, while John drinks a mutagen and turns into an enlarged version his “King Sundance” bird form. He then clumsily flies up onto a roof top. Freya uses teleportation magic to also reach the roof of a nearby building. They notice that one of the deep ones near the back of the group wears an elaborate necklace of gold and pearls, and he appears to be some sort of priest. Galdriel casts a spiritual weapon before him that hovers near his head and starts slashing at his face. He responds by conjuring a mass of rubbery black tentacles forth. They appear beneath Galdriel, Sir Toph and Izzy. Sir Toph’s great strength prevent him from becoming entangled, but Izzy and Galdriel aren’t so fortunate, and they both get grappled.
Sir Toph pushes forward towards the incoming deep ones, hoping to reach their priest and cut him down. The creatures attempt to protect their leader. They swarm around the knight, tearing at him with their claws. His armour does much to protect him, and he blocks several attacks with his shield, but there are about a half dozen of them ganging up on him, and their claws find the gaps in his armour. He cleaves down at them with his oversized blade, splitting several deep one skulls. John flies down to land in the wet, muddy street beside Sir Toph and give him aid He starts slashing with his own talons and the deep ones divide their focus between the two of them. Meanwhile Freya blasts the shaman with a barrage of magic missiles from the safety of a rooftop. This action gets his attention, and he detonates an unholy blight spell near her. Its foul, oily darkness hammers Galdriel, Izzy and Freya, causing harm to all of them.
Galdriel pulls out one of her two scrolls of freedom of movement, and she manages to cast the spell, allowing her to escape the black tentacles. The magic continues to protect her as she moves through them, and she easily escapes their area of effect. She draws her scimitar and also moves up to combat the deep ones. He new enchanted blade proves to be a deadly weapon, and it slices easily through the throats of several of the foul creatures. Izzy continues to struggle against the tentacles, but she frees herself before they crush her to death. John and Sir Toph push through the deep ones to reach the shaman, and they focus their attacks on him. Freya continues to pound him with magic missile spells from up on the roof. The shaman is blessed by Dagon and is much tougher than most of his kind, but he eventually succumbs to his wounds. Seeing their master fall, doesn’t diminish the morale of the remaining deep ones, instead it enrages them. More of the creatures emerge from the darkness to join the fight; accompanying them is another chuul. The chuul reaches King Sundance first and does horrible damage to the alchemist with its pincers. In seconds John is on the ground, unconscious from his wounds. Izzy blackens the chum’s chitin with a stream of magical fire, instantly drawing its attention to her. Sir Toph and Galdriel are still busy fighting off deep ones, and they can do little to stop the thing from reaching the young woman. Freya draws her wand of lightning and catches several of the fish men with at crackling blast. She then teleports down near John, hoping to heal him, but she is forced to first deal a few deep ones that come at her.
Izzy finds herself grabbed up in one of the chuul’s crushing pincers and is grave danger. Luckily, Sir Toph has, by this time, finished cutting down the remaining deep ones that were surrounding him, and he comes to her aid. With the enlarge person extract still active, he is about the same size as the chuul. He utters a sacred challenge against the aberration, and attacks it with everything he’s got. Galdriel aids Izzy by pulling her final freedom of movement scroll and casting the spell on her, so that she can get free of its pincers before being crushed to death. As she drops to the ground, Sir Toph brings his blade down deep into the back of its neck area, and it collapses dead to the ground. With the chuul dead, finishing the remaining few deep ones is fairly easy, and in short order the companions have slaughtered the remaining fishmen.
The web spell remains in effect, though a few folk have detoured around it and sacrificed themselves to the horror of Dagon. The creature itself appears content to wait for its prey to come to it, and it has made no effort to move further into the town. Perhaps it likes to remain close to the sea. The heroes, do what they can to save more townsfolk, smacking a few out of their trances, and carrying others out of the town. In the end, they rescue another couple score civilians before the web spell ends and the remaining few hundred stagger tragically to their deaths.
Some time later, the adventurers gather in the fields outside the town with the survivors. They are frustrated and distraught that they weren’t able to save more, but when they look around at the hundreds of folk who did escape with their lives, they take solace in knowing that if it weren’t for their decisive actions hundreds more would be dead. By sunrise the keening call has ended, and the heroes return to town to investigate. Saltmarsh is deserted, the horror of Dagon is gone, and not a soul remains. It looks as though it could be safe to return, but the people of Saltmarsh are terrified that the deep ones and the thing might return. It is decided that they will walk east towards Seaton and seek the aid of the Viscount. The adventurers accompany the refugees, and on their way they come upon the Viscount and the vanguard of his army. They had been heading towards Saltmarsh, with the intent of staging a camp near town, and eventually marching north to take back Burle from the Skull King and his bandit army.
Viscount Gruber is shocked and horrified to hear what happened to the people of Saltmarsh, and he vows to see them cared for in Seaton until they can safely return to their homes. Beyond that there is little he can do about the tragedy. The heroes accompany him and his men back to Saltmarsh, and they make their camp outside the town. The Viscount has heard about the green dragon that aided the Skull King in taking Burle, and he is most hesitant to march his army towards the town when the threat of a dragon exists. He wants more information about the creature and the state of things in Burle so that he can plan how best to take back the town. The adventurers agree to assist with this task, and they once again offer to provide recon for him.
The session ends with the heroes heading north for Burle to gather more intel about the situation there.
XP for Session #21
deep ones 8 x 400 = 3200
armoured deep ones 5 x 600 = 3000
chuul 3200
deep one priest 3200
helping evacuate Saltmarsh 4900
Total 17500/5 = 3500 xp each
Session #22 (Infiltrating Burle)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 6)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 6)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 6)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 6)
Sir Toph (aasimar, cavalier 6)
The town of Burle is two days march north of Saltmarsh, not too far from the southern edge of the Dreadwood and very close to the eastern edge of the Hool Marshes. About a week ago, it was conquered by a notorious bandit lord and his bandit army. The bandit lord is known as the Skull King, so named for a magical skull mask that he wears. They emerged from their secret camp in the Dreadwood (not so secret actually, since the PCs found it earlier in the campaign), and with the aid of a green dragon, they were easily able to take the gates and storm the town. Viscount Gruber, the lord of the Viscounty of Salinor, wants the town back, and he has an army ready to fight for it. However, he is hesitant to march his army north to Burle, as a dragon could single-handedly decimate his forces and shatter their morale. Thus, he has sent the heroes to Burle to scout things out and find out more about the situation, particularly the dragon. The viscount hopes that maybe the dragon will have left the town to return to its lair, for dragon’s don’t like to spend long periods of time away from their treasure hordes.
The adventurers approach the town under the cover of darkness. The town is quiet. There is a curfew in place, and town’s folk are not permitted on the streets after dark. Freya casts a fly spell and an invisibility spell on herself. Galdriel and John load into the portable hole, and she flies them over the wall and drops them off in a secluded courtyard. Then she repeats the process, delivering Sir Toph and Izzy into the town. The heroes set about exploring. They first decide to investigate Gimble’s manor (a gnome alchemist they met when visiting the town several weeks earlier). There is nothing left of the place. It appears that it was destroyed by an explosion, and several of the nearby buildings have been destroyed by the fire. As they are looking at the ruins, from the cover of an alley across the street, they notice a pack of worgs coming down the street towards them. They don’t think they have been seen, so they decide to try to avoid trouble, and they back deeper into the alley to hide. John drinks a mutagen and flies up onto a roof overlooking the alley, and Freya teleports herself onto the roof of the opposite building. This leaves, Galdriel and Izzy hidden in the alley and Sir Toph hiding in the portable hole.
The worgs reach the mouth of the alley, and they seem to pick up the scent of the heroes. They start down the alley towards where Galdriel and Izzy are hiding. Izzy starts climbing a nearby tree to try to get herself up on the roof by Freya. Galdriel lays out the portable hole on the ground, so that Sir Toph can get out and fight with her. She then casts a shield of faith spell. The worgs spot her, and they surge towards the inquisitor with their slashing jaws ready to tear her apart. She has her enchanted blade ready, and thanks to the protection from her faith, she fends the first three of without difficulty. Freya and Izzy attack with their magic from the roof, using magic missiles and blasts of flame (respectively). Sir Toph bursts out of the portable hole and engages the worgs, preventing them from completely ganging up on Galdriel. John flies down in his hybrid bird form. He tires to grab Galdriel and pull her out of the fray, but he fails and lands nearby. He then rushes into the melee, shredding worgs with his talons. The fighting doesn’t last long. Galdriel and Toph cut down worgs with their swords, Freya flies down and uses her wand of lightning to blast a few, while Izzy keeps hurling fire, and John continues to rip them up with his natural weapons. In short order, only a couple worgs remain, and they try to flee, but the adventurers kill them before they can get away. Galdriel and Sir Toph have sustained some minor injuries, but they are easily healed with magic. Freya then uses the portable hole to load the worg corpses into, a couple at a time. She then dumps them in the crater where Gimble’s manor was.
After disposing of the bodies, they investigate the Lord Mayor’s manor. They suspect that the Skull King will have taken up residence here. The stone home is surrounded by a stone wall that is about 10’ high. The wall has a wooden gate that allows access to the grounds. A lantern hangs from a peg outside the gate, and its light illuminates a pair of men that stand guard. The men are burly fellows, and they appear to be bandits. The heroes take up position in an alley across from the manor, not too far from the gate. Unfortunately, John startles a cat that yowls and runs out of the alley (nat 1 on a stealth check). This alerts one of the guards, and he comes to the alley to investigate. Freya again teleports to a roof. John also flies back up onto a roof. Galdriel and Izzy hide deeper in the alley, while Sir Toph again hides in the portable hole. The guard hears John land on the roof, and he holds the lantern up to try to spot him. John is over the peak of the roof and can’t be seen, but the guard calls for his partner, who joins him in the alley. Freya then tosses a shingle further down the alley, which lures the men further in. She casts a web spell, hoping to trap both the men in the alley. One of them gets caught in the webbing, but the second one escapes. He runs back towards the manor. John swoops down from the roof and tackles the man from behind; whereupon he tears the man apart. Galdriel then burns the webbing, and they take the final guard prisoner. Galdriel interrogates him in the alley, and she learns that the dragon has not been seen in several days. It flew off to investigate the magical cloud island that is anchored by a chain to a hill top a mile south of town, and he hasn’t been seen since. The cloud island in question, is said to be home to a powerful wizard, a man named Savras who was once an adventuring companion of John’s grandpa. They also confirm that the Skull King is holed up in the manor across the street. He is protected by his honour guard.
After the interrogation, the adventurers force the man in the portable hole (Sir Toph leaves) and leave him long enough to suffocate. They then dump both guard bodies in the crater with the dead worgs. They consider making a raid on the Skull King’s manor, but thinking about Savras and his cloud island makes them remember the elf statue in the centre of town. The “statue” is said to be an elven adventurer that trespassed on Savras’s island some five years earlier. He was petrified by the wizard’s magic and then delivered back to Burle by Savras. Savras told the people of Burle to leave him as a statue in the middle of the town square to serve as an example to anyone else considering trespassing on the wizard’s cloud island. Savras also threatened to destroy the town with his magic if anyone were to remove or otherwise tamper with the statue. It occurs to the heroes that they recently recovered a scroll of stone to flesh, and they might be able to restore the elf. This sounds like an interesting idea, so they decide to go for it.
They continue to stick to the alleys. They approach the town square and see the statue is still there, though it has been knocked over. Freya sneaks into the middle of the square with an invisibility spell, and she loads the statue in the portable hole. They then take it back to the alley near the Skull King’s manor. Here she uses the stone to flesh scroll, and she successfully restores the elf. He survives the ordeal, and once he’s recovered enough to speak, he introduces himself. His name is Eldric, and he tells the heroes how he climbed up the anchor chain to the cloud island. There he explored several caves carved into the “cloudstuff” of the island. Finally he found his way up to the top of the island where he discovered Savaras’s tower. While trying to infiltrate the tower, he had the misfortune of meeting the wizard, and Savras turned him to stone. He doesn’t remember anything beyond that. He still has much of his gear, but he’s lost his magical scimitar (arcane bond) and his spell book. The heroes convince Eldric to help them raid the Skull King’s manor in payment for saving him.
The session ends with the heroes about to raid the manor and hopefully take down the Skull King.
XP for Session #22
worgs 8 x 600 = 4800
restoring Eldric to flesh 5000
learning the status of the dragon 5200
Total 15000/5 = 3000 xp each
Session #23 (Attack on the Skull King)
Characters:
John Breslow (human, alchemist 6)
Freya Winters (sylph, arcanist 6)
Galdriel (aasimar, inquisitor 6)
Izzy (human, pyrokinesist 6)
Sir Toph (aasimar, cavalier 6)
The heroes have snuck into the occupied town of Burle under the cover of darkness. The place has been taken over by a bandit lord called the Skull King, and the heroes have learned that he has taken up residence in the manor of the town’s former mayor. They decide that while they are in town gathering intel about his forces, they may has well take the opportunity to take him out.
Izzy, Freya and Eldric (the elf they revived from petrification last session) hide in an alley across the street from the manor. Galdriel sneaks up the side of the building, carrying the portable hole with her. John and Sir Toph have hidden themselves in the portable hole. There are no windows on the first floor facing the street. However, on the second floor there are several, though they are covered by shutters. She commands the rope of climbing to snake its way up the wall. Then she climbs up to one of the windows. Here she sets up the immoveable rod in the air above the window and has the magical rope attack to it and dangle down to the street below. She uses a dagger to stick between the two shutters and flick open the latch. This makes some noise, but it allows her to open the shutters and see into the room beyond. She finds herself staring into the manor’s master bed chamber. On the opposite side of the room is a large bed, and on the bed are several figures- two naked women and a man. Sprawled out on the floor of the bedroom is large furry mound. A deep growl issues from it, and Galdriel sees movement. It turns out that the furry mound is actually a displacer beast. The man in the bed wakes and bolts up. He is a half elf, but his flesh has scales like a snake or dragon. On trunk at the foot of the bed sits the Skull Mask and leaning against the trunk is a great axe. It appears they have discovered the chambers of the Skull King.
Galdriel takes action. She throws the portable hole into the room like a disc, and it lands on the floor by the bed. Hanging from the immoveable rod by her arms, she swings herself forward and leaps through the window. She lands gracefully on the floor and draws her enchanted scimitar. Izzy, Freya and Eldric see her go in and run across the street towards the manor to back her up. The displacer beast pounces at Galdriel, but the inquisitor is ready for it. She fends it off with her blade, though one of the barbed tentacles protruding from its back smacks her painfully. John is the first out of the portable hole. He has already sucked back a mutagen, and he sees the Skull King’s axe leaning against the trunk in front of him. He grabs it and throws it into the magic extra-dimensional hole. The Skull King lunges for his mask, grabs onto it and puts it on. The girls beside him scream and curl up on the bed, trying to avoid the violence that is about to come. Freya uses her magic to teleport up into the window, and then she jumps into the room. At the same time, Sir Toph climbs out of the portable hole with his frost blade and shield ready. The Skull King is at a major disadvantage, his weapon has been taken, and he has no armour on. However, he does defend himself by exhaling a cloud of acidic gas (much like a green dragon breathes). The cloud catches Freya, Galdriel, Toph and John, burning them all, and causing Freya enough damage that she is knocked unconscious before she can cast a spell. Sir Toph, John and Galdriel gang up to attack the Skull King, slashing with their blades and inflicting terrible wounds on him. The displacer beast tries to defend its master, and it causes Galdriel and John more injuries. In fact, one of its tentacles hits John hard enough that he drops unconscious. Now only Galdriel and Sir Toph remain standing. However, by this time, Eldric has climbed the rope and has come in through the window to help. The Skull King calls for aid, and an instant later, one of the bandit king’s guards bursts into the room to defend his lord. The Skull King tries to flee, but he’s already bleeding profusely from several wounds, and Sir Toph drives his blade through his guts. He falls dead to the ground- mission accomplished! Galdriel heals John, while Sir Toph bravely holds off both the displacer beast and the guard. His plate armour and shield make him a tough target to injure, and the knight lands several blows against the displacer beast, despite the creature’s magical ability to appear in a slightly different location than where it actually is.
John, still badly wounded, gets to his feet and throws the Skull King’s corpse into the portable hole. Galdriel then grabs the magic hole up off the ground and rolls it up. She and Eldric leap out the window and use the rope to swing down to the ground. John scoops up Freya and puts her over his shoulder. He too exits out the window, using the raven wings granted to him by his mutagen to fly her to the roof of a building across the street where he heals her with an extract. Sir Toph remains behind, defending his companions so they can escape. Once they are all safely out, he jumps out the window, and the heroes make a run for it. They flee the town and retrieve their horses.
They ride hard towards Saltmarsh, and the gods smile on them, allowing them to safely reach their destination. Here they find the Viscount’s army camped outside the abandoned town. In his tent, they debrief and give him the Skull King’s corpse. The Viscount’s witch daughter takes the magical skull mask for study, but the heroes are given the 10,000 gp bounty the Viscount placed on the Skull King. The Viscount is most pleased with the success of their mission. He is confident his army will easily reclaim Burle thanks to their efforts.
In the days and weeks that follow, the adventurers leave the region and travel to the city of Gradsul where they plan to take some extended downtime to pursue various personal interests. The session and possibly the campaign ends here.
Oh, that's a shame. Why would the campaign end here? I mean they've just gotten started in fact, and the threat posed by the shoggoth hasn't been banned yet either. Already planning on a new campaign?
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When I started this campaign I hadn't intended to run a lengthy campaign to x level. I wanted to run more of a mini campaign. This seemed like an appropriate spot to end (at least for now). They have pretty much wrapped up the two story lines I established at the start of the campaign (aside from the shoggoth, which is still well beyond what they can handle, and has disappeared back into the sea).
We might come back to this at some point, but I don't have any plans for that at the moment.