Ghosts of Saltmarsh – Session 3

To follow how the campaign is going, find more here:
Session 0 | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 4 | Session 5

When we last left our heroes they had gone to the cellar of the haunted mansion and fought some rot grubs swarms that came out of corpse.
As Valrax was still on the ground floor he decided to start heading down as everyone had decided that looting the corpse was the best option.
As soon as he took a step onto the staircase a horrific soul rending scream erupted from out of nowhere.
A Wisdom saving throw was required from everyone, which Maestro and Siege both failed.
They wanted out as they were terrified from the scream!
It was decided that Revan would get the full plate the corpse was wearing, although Valrax helped make it a little less gross with some Prestidigitation.
A quick sweep of the room led Valrax to a secret door in the cellar.
It takes 10 minutes to Don full plate armour, so while Revan was putting it on, Valrax ritual cast Detect Magic and Siege killed and resummoned his Unseen Servant, named Eugene the Unseen.
Valrax detected the illusion magic on the top step, something that everyone realised when someone else stepped on the top step and more people got scared when the same blood curdling scream happened.
He also detected a similar spell on the other side of the house, but more unsettling was the pings of Necromancy from somewhere past the secret door.

The group got into formation and pushed open the door.
They discovered a much bigger chamber beyond.
It was empty of any life, though signs of life were all around.
A kitchen was right next to them with a long table, full with chairs and plates of food.
A series of beds were against the opposite wall, each with a trunk.
A long set of stairs led up to a trap door on their right.
To their left was a small hallway to 2 doors.
The one straight ahead of them was barred and had the words “DANGER” written on it.
That was where Valrax had detected some Necromancy earlier.
Erdan ran off to check on the trap door, and it led to room 4.
But as he opened the trap door a booming ominous voice called out “Welcome fools – Welcome to your deaths!” and booming, fiendish laughter followed.
This scared Erdan, who had only recently just gotten over being terrified because of the scream earlier.
The others had thought up a rather smart plan.
Eugene the Unseen would open the door they were investigating while Valrax looked through his Owl familiar.
They would rush inside and close the door after them, letting Valrax get a view of the chamber while keeping everyone safe.
They went for the door that wasn’t barred.

Inside they found a rather nice room, a nicer bed than the others outside and a writing desk.
They investigated and found a few things.
A box containing a bullseye lantern with some oil and matches.
Three books, one of erotic poetry, fully illustrated, one that was a naval almanac, and one about a treatise concerning the demigod Iuz and its minions.
Revan snatched up the poetry, Maestro got the almanac, and Valrax got the treatise.
Inside of the treatise Valrax also found a note with Common to Goblin translations for a few basic words.
Valrax also found a secret compartment in the table with more documents.
One stood out though, as it had a weird code on it.
I – x x x
II x – x – 2
III – – –
Having no idea what it meant, he put it away, as they had necromancy to deal with.
They managed to open the trunk at the foot of the bed and found some clothes and a little bit of money.
Everyone decided now would be a good time to try that on the other 10 trunks.
All contained the same amount of money too.
This was handy as it gave everyone time to calm down about the screams earlier… except for Erdan.
Heading back to the “Danger” door, they used the same trick to see what was inside.

Inside would have been pitch black, except Eugene was holding a torch, and it illuminated 6 skeletons, all slowly reanimating and standing up.
The familiar was blinked out of existence and Eugene ran out the door once everyone got into position.
A rather smart formation was used so that only 1 skeleton could come out the door at a time.
It was then surrounded by the “tanks:” Revan, Jordan, and Siege.
Behind them were the ranged people: Valrax, Maestro, and Erdan.
It worked pretty well… except that the skeletons had bows and arrows too.
They also seemed to have a strange glowing substance on their joints.
The first skeleton got hit hard, but the first hit didn’t seem to do a whole lot.
But with that hit the glow faded from the joints and it took regular damage after that.
Jordan took some nasty hits by the archers and had to heal.
But out of the corner of his eye, he saw a glow from the back of the room.
Two skeletons down and suddenly a door at the back of the room opened.
From out of it another skeleton emerged, this time with a wispy blue spectral beard and a wizards hat.
It made an arcane symbol and spoke: “Secrets found and lost then found again. Your paltry minds cannot fathom…”
More skeletons slowly fell as the Skeletal Alchemist made it’s way forward.
It shot acid from another arcane symbol it drew.
But Revan, now standing in the doorway to shield Jordan, managed to use the door to block them.
Everyone rushed in to take down the last remaining skeleton and the alchemist.
And then it was over.

A race towards the alchemists redead corpse ended quickly with Maestro using Mage Hand to grab the first thing he could see… an empty Bag of Holding!
A smooth round stone was also found, which Valrax determined to be magical, and probably a Luck Stone.
Siege convinced everyone that he should have it and before they went to the secret door the Alchemist came through, they decided to have a short rest.
This gave Siege time to attune to the Luck stone… that turned out to be cursed!
Now, I’d read what it did, but missed an important detail, one that makes the curse fairly harmless.
I said that it couldn’t leave Sieges hand… so that hand was bound to hold the stone no matter what, making it so he lost either his shield of his weapon.
A pretty nasty curse… except that’s not how it’s meant to be.
Instead, it just takes up an attunement slot.
Except I still read it wrong, and it turns out that when you use it to gain advantage on an Ability check… the next 2 are at Disadvantage.
But after the hijinks of the stone, they eventually entered the secret room.
Inside they found an alchemists study.
They also saw that each of the skeletons had a single golden rib.
There were also several other golden items in the study.
They found an open book called “Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone” and the alchemists spellbook, which Valrax, the wizard, happily took.

They decided to examine the rest of the mansion now.
They went room by room, somehow managing to anger every creature in the room.
A swarm of spiders attacked them in the first room from the kitchen.
They were eventually squished to death by Erdan, who had stolen a bunch of the boots from the trunks in the basement and was wearing them on his hands as well.
They eventually found the old library and found some interesting books there.
The old study had a locked draw that they had to break their way into.
This eventually got them to a secret compartment within the draw that got them 2 Potions of Healing.
After having cleared the first floor, they headed up stairs.
As Maestro moved out of the way to let more people through, the floor gave out below him.
He rolled terribly on his dexterity save, but I only rolled a 1 on damage.
So he ended up doing a superhero landing… which actually hurts a lot.
So while everyone thought he was awesome, as soon as he moved he had to hobble away… it was very amusing.
In the first room they checked upstairs discovered a shiny stone in the fireplace… which of course led to 2 swarms of spiders descending on them.
After they were burned to a crisp they continued on.

One of the rooms on the ground floor looked like the roof was going to crumble, and the players realised it was probably the next room or the room after that were weak.
So when they didn’t find anything obvious in the next room, they continued on.
It was this last door that was different, as it was locked!
Siege burst the door down and saw a person, in their underwear, bound and gagged.
Valrax and Maestro used their Mage Hands to untie him from a distance.
The confused and scared man introduced himself as Ned Shakeshaft.
He’d come to explore the house and was knocked unconscious.
When he came too he wasn’t wearing much and was tied up.
He didn’t get a good look at who did it, but he knows where his clothes should be if they’ll take him there.
The party agreed and Valrax gave him a dagger to defend himself with.
They headed back downstairs and to the kitchen, which has stairs leading upwards.
Once on the second floor again they discovered a broken set of stairs leading to the attic.
Valrax once again sent his owl up to investigate.
Not seeing anything of too much import, it started to head back when it spotted movement in the rafters.
Six Stirges were perched there, and spotted the owl.
They dove at the familiar and the closest one stabbed it with its proboscis, it poofed out of existence… for good this time.

Valrax looked disheartened at the loss of his owl friend, but as he didn’t have an hour and 10 minutes to summon it back, it was gone for now.
When the stirges didn’t come down the hole in the roof, the part continued on.
They came to the first room, the one Ned was sure his clothes were in.
He was correct, as they were just next to the door.
He got dressed, and was then ordered to open the chest in the middle of the room.
He begrudgingly accepted to do so, and as he bent down to open the chest.
His hands reached towards it, and slowly lifted the lid… and…
That was where we ended the session!
Jordan and Evan had to leave as it was a quarter past nine.

I think this session went well, I feel like everyone had a good time.
The only issue is that Ned was meant to come into play a little earlier on, so he’s a little useless right now.
The party honestly doesn’t have much left to do here, but there’s still the most important parts.
I can’t wait to play again… which… didn’t happen today.
As you can tell, it’s late at night when this gets posted.
The Hall of Heroes was packed tonight, and when I got there I was told Matt and Paolo weren’t going to make it.
4 is fine to play with, but then Ben and Harry didn’t turn up.
So we decided to call it at 6:30pm.

I hope you enjoyed this campaign diary, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.