Ghosts of Saltmarsh – Session 2

So it was late and I was brain dead from the game last night, so I didn’t do a post yesterday.
But not much happened today, so you’re not missing out on much!

To follow how the campaign is going, find more here:
Session 0 | Session 1 | Session 3 | Session 4 | Session 5

I got to The Hall of Heroes earlier, as I needed to set some things up before everyone arrived.
I also planned on playing in the main area as the group in the back room was way too loud!
Which, uh, didn’t really matter.
As both the D&D group that played in the main area, and the other group didn’t turn up.
But it wasn’t too bad out in the main area, so hopefully it’ll be fine to continue out there.
I also managed to get everything ready by the time everyone got in.
We were also joined by Paolo, the former Thursday night DM, and our 6th and final member.
He is playing Seige the Half-Drow Paladin/Hexblade Warlock of the Raven Queen.
Paolo came prepared with his own super impressive mini too!

So earlier in the day I went to Officeworks to print out the things I needed, and of course, had issues.
The maps of Saltmarsh and the environs decided to break the printer.
But I got everything else printed that I needed to.
I somehow managed to lose one of the pages I printed though… and considering how windy it was, by the time I realised I might have dropped it getting out of the car, it could have been in another state!
Which is just an example of how my day went.
I got up when I planned to, but ended up running late for my appointment, so I didn’t park where I wanted to.
Then one of the elevators was out at the place, and it decided to go to every floor on its way back up.
So I then had to move my car to get my medication.
Figuring out the printing stuff took longer as well as I realised the awesome A3 book I use to make my paper maps only has 2 sheets left… and the store I got it from isn’t there anymore…
So I looked to see if Officeworks had it… which of course they didn’t.

After finally getting home I started to try and get everything together.
I realised I needed a handy reference guide to the locations of Saltmarsh, and while the DMs Guild had just that, it was in a horribly un-printer friendly manner.
So I basically rewrote it with some adjusted information to make it easier for me to reference.
I also tried to read up on as much as possible, but only managed to get through all of the Saltmarsh section, but only the start of the adventure.
I managed to get a few rooms looked at… and of course that’s not where they went.
So, onto the game itself!
I refreshed everyone on what happened in the last session and went over some information they had already gathered.
I also handed out the player info printout from Sly Flourish.
I then let them loose around town.
They decided to sell all the loot they got from the bandits.
So they made their way over to Winston’s Store…. Winston with an I, and two eyes.
But before they got there, they had to walk through most of the town.
So, with the map of Saltmarsh in front of them, I started to describe the places they went past.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh Map

When they got to the Sharken bridge both Siege and Erdan, being of elvish decent, started to feel super sick, like they wanted to throw up.
They joked and then passed on.
In character most of the explanations of the place were coming from Revan, who took the Marine background and therefore knows Saltmarsh fairly well.
They eventually ended up at Winston’s Store, which is honestly one of the last locations on the map.
Winston is a halfing rogue who used to be a bandit before hitting it big and buying his store, so he’s the kind to deal with the items the characters have.
They ended up selling 8 sets of leather armour, 1 studded leather, 8 scimitars, and 2 daggers.
Which is actually a crazy haul, so I ended up giving them 120gp from that… which in retrospect was way too high!
I should have gone with 60gp and then possibly some more haggling could have happened.

After that they decided to go to the Snapping Line tavern and inn.
Which is made from the reused wood of old fishing boats, and is therefore very nautical themed.
They wouldn’t get there though, because as they walked past the waterfront, a scream echoes out from the nearby dock.
They rush over to find a dead body of a woman washed ashore.
She’s in rags and is obviously dead, drowned.
She has rope burns on her wrists and ankles, and signs of bruising.
“Are the slavers back?!” one of the bystanders screams!
Eventually some of the council members and the town guards come to see what the commotion is all about.
Eliander Fireborn, the captain of the guard and member of the city council asks the group to meet with the council to discuss some possible work.
Inside they formally meet the rest of the council members.
Manistrad Copperlocks is a female dwarf and leader of the dwarven miners.
Andors Solmor, a young human male, owns a large fishing fleet.
Gellan Primewater, an older human male, who also owns a large fishing fleet, and is currently throwing a feast at the Empty Net to support some fishermen (smugglers) who were “wrongfully” thrown in jail.
And Eda Oweland, an older human female, and head of the council.

Here they’re told that the dead lady was an adventurer that had been sent, with her brother, to investigate the haunted mansion 4 miles east of the town.
When asked why the siblings were sent there they are told that the land around it could be great farming, but no one wants to go near there because of the house.
They then enquired if that was the case, how had the girl been taken by slavers?
The council then said with its location, it’s possible that slavers could be using it as a hideout.
For all they knew it could have a tunnel that lead into the mansion from the sea.
They were then offered 20gp each, which is how much they made from killing 9 bandits, and so scoffed.
This is where I wish I’d offered lower at Winstons.
But Jordan, being the good Paladin he is, shouted over everyone else that they accept that offer.
Everyone else went with it when they were told that depending on what they found, there was a high probability that they could keep what they found there.

By the time this was decided it was getting into the late afternoon, so they decided to head to the cheapest tavern they could find.
But when they got to the Snapping Line, 4 of them decided that the free feast was too hard to pass up.
A night of drinking and investigation ensued.
They discovered very little, and eventually all ended up at the Snapping Line… except for 2.
Siege made a friend and spent the night at his place… platonically.
Jordan didn’t want to sleep in the fish smelling place and so headed to the Wicker Goat.
In the morning they all met, without hangovers, and headed towards the mansion.
They were swarmed by townsfolk excited to see the adventurers going to the mansion.
The closer they got the less people seemed to want to continue on, until it was eventually only them.

I read the description of the outside of the building from the book… and realised it didn’t make sense, after speaking in.
The mansion is shaped like an inverted upper case T, well, closer to the T block in Tetris.
So the main entrance is at the middle of the cross.
But the description says you can see the Well in the tall grass… except the well is located at the back of the building…
So that means the only way you could see the well is if you were at the back of the house… where there is an entrance, leading straight into rooms set later into the exploration.
So I knew exactly where that was heading, but they decided to investigate the well instead.
Erdan decided that he would be willing to be lowered into the well after learning there was silver coins in the bottom of it.
Too bad there were also 2 giant poisonous snakes in the well too.
They attacked, with 1 missing and 1 hitting…
And it did 8 piercing damage… max damage.
And then Erdan failed his Con save for the poison and took 3d10 damage, which thankfully ended up only being 6… leaving him with 1 hit point left.
And that is why I levelled them to 2!
The others yanked him up and combat was on!
One snake decided to attack Siege and missed, the other attacked Valrax and hit… only to be Shielded at the last second.
Technically he shouldn’t have been able to do that when I’d already declared the hit and rolled the damage dice, but I’ll allow it.
The players got a turn to act, with Jordan running up and Siege running away.
Valrax disengaged and Revan charged.
One snake got killed but the other was still moving.
It only had Jordan near it on its turn, and so attacked… and got shield blocked again!
And was easily dispatched.

The party they took some time to heal Erdan, and headed in the back door.
This led them to the kitchen area, and when Siege used his invisible servant to open the pantry, 4 giant centipedes attacked!
Valrax and Siege were the only ones in the room at the time, so they were the only ones in the first round of combat.
The centipedes attacked, missing Valrax, but one managed to bite Siege, who shrugged off the poison.
Siege smushed a centipede with his axe, and 2 were taken down by a magic missile from Valrax.
The last centipede, half dead, tried to flee, only for Valrax to whip out a dagger and stick it to the floor.
They then went into the Scullery next to the kitchen, and headed downstairs.
And this is where I technically screwed up.

Valrax sent his owl familiar down to investigate the Cellar, which was fine.
But after seeing the wine racks, the bins, and the corpse there, everyone else went down.
There was a spell cast on the first step that was meant to say something, giving away that they were there… but as I hadn’t read that far, I missed it.
So my plan is to try and bring them back up top and have it happen then.
With everyone else down there, they investigated the body, and when Maestros mage hand squished it, 2 swarms of rot grubs swarmed out of it!
Another combat!
With the rot grubs +0 to attack, they were useless, but tough to kill as only the magic users were doing full damage.
Siege did a blooming blade on the swarm, which moved and took the damage, so even though the magic mouth didn’t go off and let the smugglers that are based in the mansion know, that sure as heck did!
With the rot grubs smushed, and it being quarter to nine, I decided to call the session there.
I wanted to make sure I could pack up everything before the store closed at 9…
Which it turns out it doesn’t… it closes at 10…
But it’s a school night, and I want to blog after the sessions…
So I don’t think that’ll change.

All in all I don’t think it was a bad session.
There are things I would have done differently, and I wish I had used my time more effectively to know the adventure better.
I generally like to do my own write ups of the adventures, it helps me to memorise what’s in there better.
Plus if things don’t quite make sense or the wording is a little off then I can fix that too.
I think the players had a good time, and the ones that complained about a lack of combat in their old campaigns sure aren’t lacking in this one!
I think I’ll be way more prepared for everything else this can throw at me next session.
But I’m also worried there’s only 1 more session out of the mansion before I have to possibly make my 3rd ship map of my DMing carrier.

Only time will tell, but for now, I need to get my head out of Greyhawk and into Navillus, my Swashbuckling Rogue, as I have D&D with my friends tomorrow!