Vecna (#1) - The Outpost

The usual crowd got together again on Thursday for our latest D&D outing on Fantasy Grounds. I actually thought that the Saltmarsh campaign had finished completely, but I think this seems to be a continuation as we started in Saltmarsh and the theme seemed to carry on. I will try to find out by next week whether this was a continuation of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign or something that the DM has cobbled onto the end of it.

EDIT: It look like this is a new campaign - Vecna. I won't go looking anything up about it as I don't want to spoil anything. I will update the post headings a and when I find out more.

After a big battle at the Spire, the denizens of Saltmarsh narrowly overcame the sahuagin threat. 

A few months later...

Life began to return to normal in Saltmarsh, but we had become more well-known in town due to our exploits. As a result, we were invited by the local dwarf population to the one hundred year celebration of some copper mines that they were currently working.

The trip to somewhere called something like Duvagoia took several days by sea, and when we had landed, it took us and our three dwarven guides a further half-day on foot to reach an outpost, where we rested up for the night to get out of the heavy rain. We were generously plied with food and ale and left to our own devices - we did our best to escape the downpour.

The Dwarf Outpost

Gladreth was the only one of us that didn't get too drunk on the alcohol offered. Maybe because of this she was the most alert and therefore the first to be hit by an arrow that was shot from the undergrowth to our west.

It took us a while to come out of our drunken stupor, but by the time we had we were on the back foot against the attacking drow warriors. Gladreth, however, cast a Fireball that severely injured several of their warband thus buying us a little time to recover.

The fighters in our party rapidly gained injuries as the arrows sent our way were coated in some sort of green-gunk poison which added to the pain inflicted upon them. I managed to cast a Prayer of Healing to undo some of the damage, but the injuries kept piling on. As things looked like they were about to get worse for us, Gladreth spotted an opportunity to use a Lightning Bolt and some Magic Missiles to even the odds a little.

After the Drow encounter

It was a tough fight, but we eventually overcame the drow warband. We gathered their bodies for burial and stripped them of their belongings, amongst which were some small coins/medallions embossed with the likeness of a dwarf god. We drew lots for the watch rota and settled in for the night.

The night seemed to pass uneventfully, except for the constant rain, but when the dawn finally broke we noticed that somehow all of the drow bodies had been removed and our three dwarf companions had been taken. The place was covered in spider webs and a set of tracks headed off westwards towards the mines.

We followed the tracks for about two hours before we arrived at our destination. Many of the huts outside the mine had been burned and were still smouldering, and there were several dead dwarfs lying around the place in amongst pools of blood and silk cocoons. Many of the bodies had the same green gunk we saw on the drow weapons in their wounds. It was obvious that the celebrations had been interrupted by a savage attack which appeared to leave everyone dead or missing.

We scouted the area and managed to find a few maps of the mine and the surrounding area and a few ledgers of the mine's output and expenses (the mine seemed to be very profitable from the records).

Six hours later, the rain was still coming down, so we decided finish up our search and head towards the mine for some shelter. It was whilst we searched the last few huts that we managed to find a single dwarf survivor amongst the carnage - he had escaped by burying himself beneath a mound of his dead friends. He told Gladreth what had happened as she was the only one who could speak Dwarfish; the mine had been attacked out of nowhere by drow and spiders whilst the workers were celebrating the finding of a new, very rich, vein of copper - there were no survivors, and the rainstorm had washed away most of the blood by the time we got here. A short while later, the slain dwarfs rose from the dead and headed towards the mine.

We gave the dwarf directions back to our boat and finalised our investigation. In the final crate we searched we found three wands/rods that contained something that rattled when they were shaken. The box held a warning that they contained black powder.

Byrhtnoth and the Battle of Maldon

The second trip out over the school break also included my youngest daughter (who is actually at university) as well as my youngest son. This time we went for something a little closer to home both time-wise and geographically; we went to visit the town and local environs of the Battle of Maldon from late Anglo-Saxon times.

The Ealdorman of Essex, Byrhtnoth, died at the Battle of Maldon on 10/11th August 991 AD and a tragic poem about the event was written in Anglo-Saxon soon after - we still have over 300 lines of it surviving.

The plaque at the bottom of the statue at the end of Maldon promenade.

Our day started by visiting the small museum in Maldon that houses the Maldon Tapestry (really an embroidery). It costs nothing to enter but I left a few pounds in the collection jar to help keep it running. The first two panels were of most interest to me but the rest of the embroidery was worth a look at and a quick read of the guide book the staff lent me explained what everything meant.

The 1st Panel

The 2nd Panel

These first two panels tell the story of Maldon's foundation and the battle that occurred nearby just over one thousand years ago. I won't go into the details as all that history can be found elsewhere on the web.

After spending a little more time looking at a few more of the exhibits we wandered up the road to view a couple of churches. The first had a statue/carving of Byrhtnoth on the outside, whilst the second has the only triangular tower in the UK.

Byrhtnoth carving on a local church

The only triangular church tower in the UK apparently

I had heard internet rumours that there was a stained glass window in his honour in one of the churches, but I was unable to find that on our travels.

Next we headed down to the estuary, via a local bakery where we picked up some lovely cakes for a snack, to the modern statue of the ealdorman at the end of the promenade. This is a nice little walk as it takes in lots of local historical flavour; Thames barges, historical fishing huts and local crafts stalls, as well as lots of places to eat and a huge recreational park.

We got to the end of the promenade and took a few moments to look at the modern bronze statue of Byrhtnoth. The plaque from the first picture is located here (it can be seen just behind the statue, to the right, in the first picture below).

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth (front)

Ealdorman Byrhtnoth (rear)

The plinth tells the story of the Battle of Maldon

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the sun was very strong today so none of my pictures of the plinth turned out particularly well (the best of them is shown above).

No visit would have been complete without visiting the actual battle site. This was a lot harder to find than initially expected. We looked all over the place but could not find the National Trust sign that I found on the internet that denotes where it is thought the battle took place.

The National Trust sign for the battle site

We found the causeway (or a modernised version of it) and looked around there for several hundred meters in each direction but only found a modern National Trust sign that only mentioned the battle in passing - it was more about the wetlands recovery and bird species in the area (fascinating in its own way but not what I was looking for today). Maybe the above sign has been removed in favour of the newer signage? If anyone knows about this I would love to hear from you about it in the comments.

Northey Island causeway

My daughter was becoming a little tired from all the walking (at least 5 miles was covered today), so only my son and I walked over the causeway (we had to be careful as it was very slippery), but there was nothing within easy reach that was of interest. What looks like water in the above photo is in fact a huge expanse of mud flats as the tide was out at the time of our visit.

We headed back to the car park after the visit, almost exactly three hours after we left (just in time, as the ticket expired after three hours). We chatted about all that we had seen on the walk back but were a little upset by the fact we didn't see the actual battle site according to the missing signage. That said, we were heartened by a comment one of the ladies in the museum made whilst I was chatting to her about the tapestry - a local historian seems to think that the battle site might not have been where The National Trust sign was but further into town, due to the fact a Viking Age (10th century) sword was found at a construction site a few decades back. This may have been a coincidental find, but nothing has been found at the "official" site anyway to corroborate that theory. Something for future historians and archaeologists to ponder?

Like Tuesday's visit to the Ramses exhibition, we had a wonderful day out and caught some of the spring sun's early rays to boot!

Ramses and the Pharaoh's Gold Exhibition

As it was the school holidays last week, I decided to take my youngest son to see the new Ramses and the Pharoah's Gold exhibition at Battersea Power Station in London on Tuesday 7th April 2026. I had kept it a secret from him until the actual day and he only got to know exactly where we were headed when we stepped outside the tube station close by the venue and he saw the advertising signs.

Exhibition Flyer

I have a passing interest in Egyptology and warfare of the time (hence why I generally comment about these kinds of outings on the blog) but I have never actually studied the period. I have various qualifications in Palaeontology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeology and History (mostly Greek, Roman and Medieval), but the nearest I got to studying Egypt was probably just a few modules on the Levant and its environs.

So, this was going to be fairly new ground for me, and I think I was as exited as my son when he finally found out where we were headed this day. The exhibition itself runs through a potted history of Ramses' life and there is a selection of around 180 artifacts related to the 19th Dynasty and a few items from dynasties either side of his reign.

I won't go into too many details just in case anyone wants to see the splendour on offer, but I can say that I heartily recommend this exhibition for those with any interest in the period at all. It is a limited time-span exhibition, so will most likely nothing like it will be seen again in the UK for several years/decades.

That said, in keeping with this blog, there are a few exhibits/items that I would like to mention; there were a couple of weapons alongside the other dazzling golden jewellery on display, and one hall was devoted to the Battle of Kadesh - Ramses great victory over the Hittite Empire.

I was quite surprised to find out that quivers used in Egyptian warfare from this period were made of wood and painted to represent animal hide.

Bow and wooden quiver

There was also a very ornate bronze dagger on display.

Bronze Dagger

Some blurb about the dagger

The photos do not do the dagger justice - it really was a thing of beauty.

Anyway, we both thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition - we were in there for just over two hours. Despite it being a school break visit, it wasn't too busy, so we got the time to explore at our leisure and we were able to see and read about every item in that time. For what it was, it was not too expensive either. Unfortunately the exhibition hard-back guide book (that contains details of all the exhibits in glorious colour) was a little out of my reach at £45 - if I had the money, it would have been a must-have memento.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#31) - The Spire VII

In the previous encounter we had taken a battering, so most of the remaining Healing potions were used up trying to get us back to some semblance of good health.

We decided to head westwards first, and the coral pink walled room we next encountered only contained a table and a few benches. However, the mural on the wall was quite outstanding; a large tentacled beast, some whales and giant squid were in action against what we presumed must be some mythological sahuagin heroes. On the table was a silver medallion engraved with a shark and twelve tridents in a star shape. We pocketed the medallion.

The next room was tiled in a deep green. As well as a large bed of seaweed along the north wall there was a spear, a mirror and a coffer with a slot in it the same size as the silver medallion we found in the previous chamber. Navda attempted to open the coffer with the coin, but he somehow managed to miss the trap blade which cut him. Inside the coffer was a bag of rubies, a small stone box with six green potions (which we later found out to be made from Rapture Weed), a gold statue of a shark, a very nice scaled cloak (Cloak of Protection) and a very expensive looking canvas bag. Navda expected the bag to contain something, and his hunch proved correct as his searches revealed a green gem in the lining.

The south wall revealed a hairline crack that denoted a secret door that led to another secret door that opened out into the corridor with the stairs down that we had encountered a while earlier on our travels.

As we had now run out of areas to explore westwards, we decided to head back east and explore that area before we headed down the stairwell. As we moved back towards the main throne room, we heard a bit of a commotion coming from that direction. Navda managed to creep forward and reveal that four sahuagin warriors had entered the throne room and were investigating the bodies and gore floating within it. We decided to go south instead to avoid them as we were not in a fit state for much more fighting.

Unfortunately, as we traversed the corridors southwards we heard more noise from ahead of us; we were about to be trapped. Drakkon could take no more and charged around the corner, the rest of us followed leaving Dharion as rear-guard.

The four sahuagin around the corner were taken by surprise but soon regained their composure when they realised it was only one warrior against them. The sudden arrival of Druss halted them, but one of the sahuagin cast a dazzling light spell that dazed them both. Navda tried to shoot round the corner, but he too was dazed. Luckily, light is my domain and I was able to overcome the spell and used my Radiance of the Dawn special ability. This hurt the sahuagin enough for Drakkon to recover just as one of the warriors rushed past him. He was able to add more hurt to its magical injury as it passed, and between Gladreth's Firebolt and Navda's and Dharion's archery the sahuagin warrior met its demise.

Drakkon was isolated by now and the three sahuagin warriors took him down. To stop any further desecration of our comrade, Dharion managed to kill one of the remining sahuagin with his trusty bow and Gladreth used her magical abilities to stop another from advancing. My Warding Flare stopped me from being attacked whilst tying to administer to Drakkon. Unfortunately, the other sahuagin warrior cut me down.

Whilst I was unconscious, Druss recovered from being dazzled and helped Dharion to kill the third sahuagin warrior. The fourth fell to a combination of everyone else's attacks, with the final blow dealt again by Dharion's archery. Using his last few Healing spells, Dharion brought Drakkon and me round again. We decided that as things were now too dangerous to stay around much longer we should head for the exit.

A final look at where we explored in the Spire

We retraced our steps further southwards towards the stairs out, but in the corridor just before the exit chamber we encountered a school of sharks. Navda and Drakkon quickly dispatched two of the sharks before us and Gladreth and Dharion another that was approaching from our rear. With one remaining shark before us, we could feel a larger commotion approaching the area; it felt like the whole complex was awakening. The last remining shark in our way was killed by Drakkon and we were then, finally, able to climb the stairs out of there.

The upper level was still empty luckily, so we were able to get out of the dungeon and to our rendezvous point in the marsh without any further encounters.

At the rendezvous, we were met not only with the escape boat, but with a small army. We reported to the commander the situation in the spire and gave him all of the intelligence we were able to gather. He called forth his troops and advanced upon the sahuagin hideout.

The return to Saltmarsh was uneventful, and we were ushered straight away into the presence of the town council. We were debriefed and then fully Healed before being given our 1,700 gold crown reward. We were also gifted with a magical longbow which went to Dharion, a magical shield that would catch arrows, and an ioun stone which I somehow managed to acquire, but do not know what to do with just yet.

With that, I think we have completed the whole of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign. We levelled up - we are now all 7th level - and updated our character sheets accordingly. We divvied up the treasure and sold what we had found on our adventures. We then bought anything that we had the money for to enhance our character - I bought a stack of Potions of Healing.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing this campaign. Fantasy Grounds worked pretty well in allowing us to immerse ourselves into the adventure - along with Discord for the communications (voice) part, this felt as close to a face-to-face series of sessions as we could get. I recommend this setup to anyone that has a bunch of gaming buddies that cannot meet up often enough in real-life due to time constraints and distance circumstances.

The DM has another scenario lined up that we may use these characters again for. Or, maybe, we will roll up new ones if we feel like a change of pace. I guess we will find out what is happening next session.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#30) - The Spire VI

We decided to leave the room behind us, as we were only on this mission to gather information and not get into too many skirmishes - we were on a time limit and we had already used up half of our time. We decided to retrace our steps and investigate the other side of the entrance hall.

The first room we encountered from the last time that we had passed that way still had the sahuagin guards in it. We charged into the room in order to rid ourselves of any chance of being blocked on our way out if we needed to exit quicky. It was a short melee; Gladreth was badly hurt by the magic from one of the priestesses in the room, so retaliated angrily by Fireballing the room, which led to a third priestess emerging from the seaweed patch in the corner. Unfortunately for her, she did not get time to cause us any harm and was dealt with by my missile armed compatriots swiftly, as Gladreth Firebolted the last remaining sahuagin warrior. A quick search of the room revealed only a small treasure - a set of thieves' tools and a silver goblet.

We headed south from there and ended up in another chamber similar to so many of the others. This one had dark green walls, a light green ceiling and the usual table, coffer and beds. There was not a lot in here either, only a number of those harnesses we had previously found (but this time with silver buckles), a small bag of gold coins, and a locket on a chain with a picture of a small girl and a lock of hair inside.

We explored to the end of the corridor and eventually reached a door. Again, we could hear a lot of noise from beyond it. Navda stealthily opened the door a crack to take a look inside. It was a very large room with an indigo floor, dark blue ceiling and light blue walls, with three tables, several coffers and at least 30 sahuagin warriors inside. He just as stealthily reclosed it and reported back what he had found. We got away from there quickly.

As we had completed exploring the southern part of the dungeon, we headed back north to the entrance hall and went through the final exit in the north. We explored a few of the newly built corridors and decided upon finally heading westwards. At a north-south junction we cautiously went south and found ourselves outside a room where many sahuagin warriors, champions and sharks were cheering and shouting at a fight between a couple of very large lobsters. We slowly backed away and headed further north within the complex.

Lobster Fight

The corridor ended at a set of steps that headed downwards, but we retraced our steps and explored the corridor that headed east halfway along it. We passed a small chamber that was cut off from the main corridor by a portcullis. Beyond the barrier was a light green tiled room full of live starfish and shellfish, which we assumed was some kind of live feed larder.

The eastward leading corridor ended with a door which opened quite easily. Beyond the door was a huge ornate banquet hall. Several black pillars supported the coral white roof, and the walls were tiled with an array of black, white and coral pink tiles. A statue situated in an alcove above the floor level was of a lizardman head, only it was twice the normal size. Opposite the head was a gold-leaf door, which opened suddenly leaving Navda exposed.

The underwater dungeon so far

Beyond the door was a short corridor that opened out in to a large indigo walled, dark blue floored throne room occupied by a very large four-armed sahuagin lord seated upon a massive pale blue marble throne, a priestess on the dais beside him, a number of warriors and some sharks. 

The priestess performed a small ritual and Dharion vanished from the room. We were all shocked, Gladreth most of all, and she cast a Lightning Bolt the length of the corridor and into the room severely injuring four of the sahuagin. Dharion reappeared as suddenly as he had disappeared and we surmised that he had been Banished. The melee was hard and deadly, but without Gladreth's magic and lots of Healing we would have been defeated.

Upon reappearing Dharion killed a sahuagin warrior very quickly, and seemingly in the blinking of an eye he had killed the second champion. The rest of us helped keep the sahuagin lord at bay, but not before the priestess had cast a Guiding Bolt on Gladreth which felled her. I was on hand to bring our wizard round again and my skills were called upon very quickly thereafter to remove the Curse the priestess had put on Dharion.

Gladreth was really annoyed again by now, so cast a Fireball amongst the remaining sahuagin and sharks causing a huge amount of injury to them, but they all still fought or swam towards us.

The combat with the sahuagin and sharks began to take its toll on the fighters in the party, so I had to cast my third and final Prayer of Healing to make sure that no-one else fell to the spears and tridents of the sahuagin warriors.

Popping out from a shadow somewhere, Navda made a perfect shot with his bow and downed the sahuagin lord. This riled the priestess and she was able to Paralyse Dharion and take down Gladreth again with a Guiding Bolt. Luckily I was on hand to Heal Gladreth again and remove the paralysis from Dharion. In the meantime, the fighters had finally dispatched the last of the sahuagin warriors and sharks.

This just left the priestess to get a taste of her own medicine as I cast a Guiding Bolt back at her and Dharion finished her off straight after with an arrow to the heart.

We were in a mess after this fight but that did not stop us from searching the bodies and throne room for loot. We didn't find much except for the fine looking trident the sahuagin lord had used, a gold earring, some platinum armbands and a gold key; all of which we pocketed.

The Throne Room

The final battle should have been over a lot more quickly and with fewer injuries to the party than what actually happened - we managed to roll so many 1s and 2s in this, and all of the previous combats, we were lucky that we did not suffer a TPK. The use of the big hitting Fireballs and Lightning Bolts, along with plenty of Healing, allowed us to finally overcome our adversaries. The fighters absorbed so much damage it was unreal, and the dice gods (even though the rolls are randomly generated by software within Fantasy Grounds) were definitely not on our side tonight.