Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#27) - The Spire III

Day 61 - continued

After waiting a minute or so at the ready, the threat did not materialise. Confused, at the no-shows, we set about returning to the entrance room to see what had happened to those that set off the silent alarm. We advanced cautiously, but when we got there we found nothing but footprints in the blood from the previous fight.

We decided to carry on with our scouting mission as we didn't have nearly enough information yet, but headed south this time. We entered a large room with two sub-chambers to the north. The main room was an armoury of some sort as it contained a large array of weapons (at least 120 spears, tridents and war hammers) and benches upon which to prep for war. The two northerly rooms were full of other war accoutrements; belts, buckles, straps and so on, along with hides, leathers and studs for making armour.

As there was not much in the way of loot (except a bit more of that glowing blue seaweed and some more shells - which we pocketed just in case), we headed south again into a very large chamber with a few extra rooms in it. There were several pillars holding up the vaulted ceiling and all the walls, and floors, like the rest of the complex, were made with quality stone. The three smaller rooms contained what looked like accoutrements for leaders - there were fewer beds and benches in them, but all were in complete disarray. These side-rooms were also, strangely, not as good quality as the main rooms.

Again, finding nothing of interest, we decided to complete the circuit back to the room with the sledge hammer and caskets of seaweed. Whilst milling around trying to figure out what was going on, Drakkon, our fighter on look-out duty, thought that he heard a groaning sound coming from the southern corridor.

Navda investigated the sound and returned to us saying that there was a room to the south with several Sahuagin milling about; including a couple of types we had not encountered before, and the room had three arches leading out of it. From his vantage he couldn't see much more. We decided to go and investigate and also maybe try to find out what the groaning noise could be.

We were spotted as we got towards the end of the dark corridor, and arrows and magic began to flow in both directions. One of the Sahuagin priestesses cast a Spiritual Weapon at Gladreth, which annoyed her royally. Not messing around, she Fireballed the entire room. This had the desired effect and we were able to mop up the survivors in short shrift.

Map of the dungeon under the spire

A Prayer of Healing or two returned most of us back to full strength, so that we could explore our new surroundings. We scouted each archway to see where they might lead and followed the sound of the groaning into the northern chamber via another portcullis system.

This opened out into a long room supported by four large pillars, behind one of which was a chained up human. There was a bowl of some foul smelling brown gruel in front of him, and upon investigation we found a huge trough of the stuff in the south corner of the chamber. The man wore spectacles and had ripped trews. It turns out that he was a member of one of the previous adventuring bands sent to investigate the tower but he had been captured and tortured. We tried to Heal him so we could get him out of there, but none of our spells or potions seemed to work. However, it did take him out of his trance-like state enough to answer a few of our questions.

Apparently to the south-west there was an underwater city with hundreds of Sahuagin inhabitants led by a powerful priestess. It would need specialist underwater equipment to get there, but his comrades had managed to acquire some to which he gave us directions. Unfortunately, the rest of his party were captured or killed there.

As we felt bad for the man, we freed him from his chains and tried to move him to his feet, but a gush of black-red fluid erupted from his mouth all over Navda. The man fell to the floor - dead.

Gaming Weekend 2 - Alien and D&D 5e

This weekend just gone, I was invited for a second weekender gaming session with my fellow D&D Thursday Nighters. This time round we got to play a couple of different games away from the ongoing Saltmarsh campaign. First off, we immersed ourselves into the sci-fi genre with an Alien RPG/boardgame, before returning to the fantasy realms with the first section of another D&D 5e adventure; but this time with some pre-generated characters.

For both games we had a GM and six players, although towards the end of the D&D adventure we lost two of the players and had to continue on without them. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a list of the character names, so I will have to refer to them either by their class or player's initial in this summary write-up. Hopefully, the DM can supply me with a list of the characters in each game and I will be able to add them to the after action reports on these soon; right after the write-up of last Thursday's Saltmarsh outing.

The Alien RPG/boardgame was called something like Hope's Last Day, and it involved a bunch of terra-formers trying to make sense of what happened to their home base when they returned from an aborted mission to the out. They returned to Hadley's Hope a few days before the colonial marines arrived on the scene; they are the last survivors (other than those in the Aliens film), and this is their last few hours. We each played a character that had their own agenda for the final few hours of the colony's existence.

Hadley's Hope LV-426 is the scene for this RPG/boardgame

The Alien game's characters were all pre-generated handouts:

G : Science Officer

J : ?
K : Chief mechanic
M : Samuel Sung (Mechanic)
R : Base team leader
W : ?

The D&D adventure was the first part of the Waterdeep : Dragon Heist campaign. Our characters were all 2nd level for this game. If we take this forward, we will most likely rename, or at least amend, the names of our characters.

Waterdeep - a new D&D 5e campaign

The D&D game's characters were also pre-generated:

G : Wizard - (had to leave early)

J : Fighter - (had to leave early)
K : Ranger
M : Rexius Trannyth (Bard)
R : Zorrion Oakwood (Rogue)
W : Cleric

Next up should be the latest Saltmarsh campaign session, followed by write-ups of the Alien and Waterdeep adventures.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#26) - The Spire II

Day 61 - Continued 

Navda, our trusty rogue, was quick off the mark with a well-placed arrow-shot that brought down the first of our assailants, before the main melee was joined. Our fighters, Druss, Drakkon and Dharion, went toe-to-toe against the three remaining Sahuagin. It was a bloody affair that required the use of my Healing skills, but the fighters dominated the combat and won through quite quickly with the aid of Navda's archery skills and Gladreth's magic.

There were three exits from this chamber, and after taking a quick peek along each corridor, east, west and south, we decided to travel eastwards. Dharion set an Alarm to alert him of any being that passed through that room.

After a short while, we came across a side chamber that was different to the rest of the complex; rather than the usual very well-dressed white marble that was throughout the complex so far, this room was completely covered in dark green tiles. It contained four coffers, one of which glowed blue, and a well-worn sledgehammer. Not knowing what this all meant, we just opened the coffers and took a look at the contents. One contained a pile of white sea-shells, two contained plain green and red-brown seaweed and the blue-glowing casket contained a blue-glowing seaweed. All of the seaweed was damp to the touch but not sodden. We pocketed a small amount of each.

Inside the Spire

Whilst the rest of the party investigated the chamber, Dharion and I were supposed to be watching the corridors. Unfortunately, my attention must have been elsewhere as I completely missed seeing the true-thrown spear from the southern corridor that hit me. Three Sahuagin warriors followed straight after.

I retreated into the room to nurse my wound and the fighters stepped forward to block the entrance. Druss took the first Sahuagin warrior down very quickly and then Drakkon joined the fray. Unfortunately another Sahuagin warrior, very well armed and armoured, joined the melee from the south, and Dharion was sorely pressed in the northern part of the corridor as a few more Sahuagin warriors attacked him; for some unknown reason he missed the Alarm that he had set in the last chamber we left.

Navda, shot his trusty bow from the shadows and managed to take down another one of the warriors, and Dharion's retreat from the Sahuagin in the north part of the corridor brought him face-to-face with the armoured Sahuagin warrior. He didn't break stride as he slew the champion and joined us in the room.

The last part of the melee was a bit of a blur. I cast a Prayer of Healing on my compatriots whilst they dispatched the rest of the Sahuagin warriors: Gladreth with a series of Magic Missiles, Navda with his bow, and Druss and Drakkon with their trusty swords.

After the melee we paused to catch our collective breaths, but just as we thought that we should get out of there, the padding of feet and war cries filled the air from the south, and Dharion's Alarm screamed at him that more warriors were on their way from the north. So much for sneaking in and out unnoticed.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#25) - The Spire I

Last night we managed to get together to start on the next chapter of the Saltmarsh campaign. It was a two-part session as we levelled up (to 6th level) part-way through - we will most definitely need that HP and skills boost if any of our past dice rolls and luck are anything to go by.

Day 60

It was inevitable that our days of rest and recuperation would come to an end. We were summoned to a secret council meeting in the marsh where the underlying threat to the lands around us was discussed. It was a long moot session, with the local lizardman and merfolk populations also involved; hence the location. Although we were there primarily to be on guard, we did pick up on the gist of the meeting; none of the local populations were involved in this threat - it seemed, from the evidence gathered, that there was a threat from a band of Sahuagin raiders.

Day 61

Just as we thought that we would not be called upon to act in this latest kerfuffle, we were summoned by the mayor of Saltmarsh to a council meeting. The town hall was heaving with dignitaries, guards, adventurers and general members of the town, when we got there, and we were announced to loud cheers. The mayor took us off to a side room to discuss the latest plans. From the meeting held in the marshes yesterday it was ascertained that a large Sahuagin insurgency had taken up residence in the swamp to the south, and the threat needed to be observed and calculated so an appropriate reaction and defence could be formulated. We would be needed to go to the encampment, a tower in the swamplands about an hour's journey south of the marsh border, and observe enemy movements, numbers, armaments and so on and then report these details back to the council within a two day period.

After some negotiation we settled on a suitable level of recompense and requested a restock of supplies, ammunition and means of getting there. We were given all we needed as well as a crude map for directions and a keel boat with two guards to take us here.

The journey only took a few hours to get to the drop-off point, where our guides told us to return to the following day at dusk. They would not wait for us either at this point or when it came to the pick up - we would be on our own. This would give us a little over a day in which to find the tower, reconnoitre the base and return with our information.

Luckily, the map showed our path would be along a wooden walkway that headed due south through the marshlands. This made the going quite easy despite the thick mists laying around about. After about an hour, the temperature dropped quite dramatically and the fog thickened. We began to notice small lights moving through the fog in the distance that winked in and out of sight on occasion, and the muddy ground to the side of the path showed the occasional set of footprints, that could have been from Sahuagin or, perhaps, crocodiles.

It was at this point that Dharion and Navda decided to scout ahead just in case we were heard; especially me in my heavy armour. After about an hour the scouts returned. The sun was beginning to wane meaning we only had a few more hours of daylight left to get to the tower and investigate what we could. They reported that what appeared to be the tower was only a short distance away, and that the flickering lights were torches carried by pairs of well-armed Sahuagin sentries - they had worked out the sentries' patrol patterns.

The Spires of Saltmarsh

We made our plans to infiltrate the tower and, when the guards had moved away from the man entrance, we headed for the large ledge upon which the smooth stone doors were ensconced. It took our rogue, Navda, but a few moments to work out how to open the doors and we made our way safely inside. It was pitch black, so I cast Light on a number of objects to help those of us in the party without infravision to see. 

Unfortunately, the Sahuagin in the room were waiting for us and attacked without mercy. We were stunned to begin with but soon took the guards down before any of them could sound the alarm on the large gong in the room. After the melee, we moved the bodies into a corner, out of sight, and mopped up the blood. We also disabled the gong and closed the entrance doors.

The walls and floor of the inside of the tower were very well made and not as rough as the outside of the tower would have us believe. We readied ourselves again and headed to the south as that was the only way that we could see to go. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a heavy wicker portcullis. However, there was a mechanism on both sides of the portal that allowed us to raise it high enough for us all to pass under it. A counter-weight kept it in position so it did not fall back to the ground and block the corridor again.

Map of the Spire

Just as we began to pass under the wicker portcullis, we were made aware of several more Sahuagin in the room beyond. We would be in for another fight.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#24) - The Isle of the Abbey V

Thursday's gaming session was a relatively short one as we managed to complete this particular campaign section. If our rolls weren't so dire in all of the other encounters prior to this session we would have got here much sooner. I have never known so many sub-5 rolls (and more 1's than pretty much anything else) in a campaign. These dire rolls meant that not only did encounters take probably three to four times as long to play out than they should have done, but we went through all of our spell slots, and had several character KO's in each session meaning we had to take so many long rests to recover. I am dreading the next part of the campaign as, apparently, the danger level ramps up for us. TPK in the first session?

Day 52 - continued

The two figures within the heat-hazed room looked like they were made of iron; a smooth round ball of a head upon broad, squat shoulders. These beings were not tall but were powerfully built. The addition of a sword and hammer in place of arms and hands made for awe inspiring enemies.

Most of us still carried injuries from the previous encounters, and we were pretty much depleted magic-wise prior to this encounter, but Gladreth, Dharion and I still, thankfully, had one or two spells left each.

The fighters stormed straight into the room and attacked the metal beings but were sorely pressed and often knocked prone due to the strength of the metal constructs. The rest of us piled on missile pressure from our bows and slings, taking small chunks out of their iron hides. The fighters hacked away and also caused many great clefts in the statues' metal skins.

On one occasion, one broke through the ring of fighters and got to the second rank where it proceeded to spin its top half to great effect; the sword and hammer causing great damage to those unlucky enough to be caught by them. A Prayer of Healing restored most of us to full health but the battle raged on.

At one point I yelled out to Gladreth to use her Magic Missiles. She cast the spell within the next few moments and the first of the constructs, the one that had begun the spinning attack, finally fell with a loud clang.

A short while later, Gladreth spotted that the second iron golem had just run its top half into a spin whilst fighting Druss and Drakkon. Thinking that it too must be close to being destroyed, she cast her final Magic Missile spell and that one also fell to the floor with a clang.

Not knowing what dangers were still lurking, Dharion and I used our last spells to heal some of those most sorely injured, whilst Navda tested all of the chests and boxes for traps. After the healing was completed and all the chests were checked, we opened them to reveal a great hoard of treasures, that included gold coins, gems, jewellery, potions, fine armour, bolts of fine silk and a wondrous Bag of Holding.

The Abbey Dungeon in full

Not knowing how much more of this dungeon lay ahead of us, we traced our steps back towards the main entrance via the northern corridor. We discovered several more traps, but this time no-one succumbed to them. We had finally searched the entire maze and rid it of all dangers.

A few days later we returned to town and claimed our 2000 Gold Crown reward from the Mariners Guild. They were happy with the job we had done and set out straight away to begin building a new lighthouse and fortress on the island.

We hung around the town's taverns and inns telling our tales of daring and generally relaxing after all the troubles we had been through. We gathered though that it would not be long before we were called upon again to rid the town of some new danger.