Spelljammer |
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
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| Current Turn? | No |  | Subject: | Into the Cellars |
| Campaign: | Greyhawk | | Turn Start Date: | 9/15/596 |
| Adventure: | Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh | | Turn End Date: | 9/19/596 |
| Adventure Number: | AAB | | Characters: | Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Morgan Dunst, Rory Rockhound |
| Turn Number: | 1.3 | | Send To: | fivewands@championsoftheempire.com |
| Greyhawk Campaign? | Yes | | Combat Turn? | No |
| Name | Lethal | NL | Current | END | PROT | LOW | DEF | ROF | Flash | Heal | Luck Pts | Fate Pts | |
| Darkthorn | 7 | 0 | 55/62 | /0 | 5 | 1 | 32 | 2 | 0/0 | 1/day | 0/1 | /0 | |
| Dyson Teague | 14 | 0 | 41/55 | /2 | 5 | 0 | 31 | 2 | 0/0 | 1/day | 1/3 | 0/1 | |
| Kalin | 0 | 0 | 44/44 | /0 | 6 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 1/2 | 1/1 | |
| Lorcan Smythe | 8 | 0 | 46/54 | /0 | 4 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 0/2 | 1/1 | |
| Morgan Dunst | 0 | 2 | 50/52 | 2/2 | 6 | 0 | 27 | 4 | 0/0 | 1/day | 0/1 | /0 | |
| Rory Rockhound | 0 | 0 | 45/45 | /0 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 1/1 | /0 | |
| Wiley Finch | 0 | 0 | 50/50 | /0 | 7 | 1 | 36 | 4 | 0/0 | 1/day | 0/2 | 1/1 | |
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| Mage/Psioncist Name | Psionic Pts | Spell Pts | Spell Pool | Miscellaneous Information |
| Lorcan Smythe | / | 11/11 | 9/9 | |
| Rory Rockhound | / | 4/7 | 6/6 | |
| Wiley Finch | / | 7/7 | 8/8 | |
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| Darkthorn | |
| Dyson Teague | |
| Kalin | |
| Lorcan Smythe | |
| Morgan Dunst | |
| Rory Rockhound | |
| Wiley Finch | |
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Before heading inside, the group investigates the well in the back yard. Not far beyond the well is the cliff face that drops down into the sea about 90 feet below so they expect the well will be at least 90 feet deep. Lorcan volunteers to be let down into the well. Both Darkthorn and Wiley have 50 foot ropes so Darkthorn ties them together and he and Wiley lower Lorcan. They lower him to the extent of the rope and he can see water about 20 feet further down in the light of the lantern. He also sees a 3 foot long snake slithering on the top of the water. He asks to be lifted back up and then reports what he saw. Both he and Darkthorn agree that it was probably a poisonous snake but are not sure entirely what kind.
They head into the house and down into the cellar. Before approaching the secret door, they make plans for entry. Since they suspect an undead Shadow on the other side, Kalin will cast both Bless and Protection from Evil (on Dyson) just before entering. Rory will pull the catch to open the door and Dyson will silent push it open.
The group puts their plan into action. When Dyson pushes the door open a crack, light spills out and he can see a moderately well lit room of considerable size. More importantly, he notes the presence of a man sitting on a chair, tipped back on two legs with his feet on a long table. He is drinking from a wine bottle. He does not appear to have heard the door open. Dyson pushes it open further and, in the last inch, it squeaks. The man turns and sees Dyson, with others behind him. His eyes get big and he scrambles off the chair, stumbling a bit, and takes off running for a far corner of the room. The group gives chase, with Wiley catching up with him and plunging a dagger in the man's back. The falls onto a nearby bed, bleeding profusely. He immediately tries to surrender and the group does not press the attack. Knowing that he will likely die of blood loss if his wounds are not properly bound, Darkthorn tends to him, stripping off his leather armor to get to the wound. Lorcan pulls the man's broadsword out of its sheath. Then the group starts to talk to him asking what he is doing here. He says that he lives here and when he saw a group of ruffians enter, well of course he took off running, not expecting to be chased down and stabbed from behind. Lorcan tells him that is what he gets for running and that he does not belong in the house. The man says he does and has the owner's permission to live here. The conversation goes quickly down hill and the man eventually stops talking without the group learning much.
They bind up the man and take a look around. The room is large with a dozen or so bunks against the back wall and a very long table surrounded by scattered chairs. The barracks looks like a dozen or so men live here regularly. There is a set up stairs leading up and dead ending at a trap door in the ceiling. Another exit is in the far corner.
Dyson checks out the stair and determines that it leads up to the study on the main level, which the group already searched (but did not find the trap door at the time).
Darkthorn finds a secret door in the corner that the man was running towards. The group silently opens it and Dyson and Darkthorn investigate. There is a short passage that turns left down a flight of stairs. There is a torch in a sconce at the bottom and Darkthorn hears distant voices. The group retreats and closes the door, in favor of checking out the other exit first.
They leave Morgan to guard the injured man and investigate the other exit. It leads to a short corridor with two doors. One door is barred on this side and does not look to have been opened in a very long time. The other door leads to a room likely used by the leader of the men who live in the barracks. The furnishings are a step above those of the barracks. A cupboard in one corner contains an oilskin coat. A shelf over a table contains three books - one a book on erotic poetry, fully illustrated, another a naval almanac listing tide times for the area (100 miles or so of coastline with Saltmarsh in the middle) and the third a book about mesmerism. A parchment inside the book has simple phrase written on it with phonetic translations to another language that Lorcan believes might be Gnoll.
Under the table is a box with a bullseye lantern sitting on top. In the box are 3 flasks of oil, a tinderbox with flint and steel, 8 candles and a piece of parchment with strange symbols on it. The symbols look like:
I. - X X X
II. X - X - 2
III. - - -
Under the bed, Dyson finds a loose stone and a cavity under it containing a small chest. It is locked and he does not yet have thief's tools so the group simply brings it along for now.
The group briefly examines the other door but decides to leave it alone and investigate later since the men living here clearly did not use it. They return to the secret door and head through. At the bottom of the stairs, the passage enters a cave system and there is the distant smell of the sea. They also hear distant voices. The arrive at an intersection and, looking to the left, see movement in a distant cave. They see a man carry a couple of boxes to the edge of the room and set them down and then turn to an unseen person and ask a question.
Darkthorn sneaks forward to get a better look, followed by Dyson. They hear a barking language that they suspect is gnoll. The rest of the group moves up and takes cover in an alcove not visible from the room ahead. Unfortunately, a man walks past a side corridor a short distance from where Dyson and Darkthorn have taken cover and he sees the group. He actually doesn't see Dyson and Darkthorn though they are closer but he clearly sees the rest of the group as they are almost right under a torch in a wall sconce. Their hiding place provided good cover from the room ahead but not from where the man walked. He shouts a warning, draws his broadsword and charges forward. The battle is joined on two fronts. Darkthorn, Lorcan and Morgan head towards the original room as a two gnolls and a man charge out. The second battle has Dyson and Wiley fighting the man who shouted the warning. The lead gnoll and one man go down quickly and another retreats. Dyson and Wiley press forward.
Meanwhile, some sort of spell caster is now visible in the cavern behind the gnolls. He raises his arms to cast and Lorcan hits him with a Torrential Geyser from his wand. Unfortunately the man appears to be an illusion and the water shoots right through him. His image disappears a short time later, as does the geyser when it runs its course.
Then Lorcan see movement out of the corner of his eye. Two men are coming at them from behind! One is the man that the group had captured and left tied up in the barracks. The second is Ned Shakeshaft, the man that the group found tied up on the second floor a few days ago and rescued. He moves forward to attack Lorcan while the other man heads to attack Rory. Clearly he was in the employ of these men, whoever they are.
Ned only attacks once and then Lorcan steps back. Ned also steps back and then turns and flees and Morgan charges him. They run down the tunnel towards the stairs and turn the corner. They are out of sight of the rest of the group.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night. Ned and Morgan are fighting at the bottom of the stairs. Kalin has managed to move up and attack the wounded man they had previously captured. Darkthorn is fighting the remaining gnoll with two more men behind the gnoll and some sort of spell caster behind them. Dyson and Wiley are fighting more men in a separate corridor, with Rory and Kalin behind them.
The battle continues. Lorcan does not know where Morgan and Ned went as he last saw them running around the corner to the cellars. Dyson and Wiley see one of the badly wounded men flee down a tunnel and, a short time later, Dyson sees a ghost heading in the same direction, apparently unnoticed by the men the group is fighting. As the battle goes further against them, the remaining men finally surrender. The group herds them into the main cavern. Meanwhile, Kalin and Rory head towards where they last saw Morgan but, before they reach the stairs, Morgan runs around the corner towards them. He is limping badly from a leg wound. He says that Ned got the better of him and took his weapon. When Ned told him to head up the stairs, Morgan instead fled and came back this way. He does not know where Ned went.
The cavern contains 5 bolts of silk and 8 casks of brandy. Kalin begins questioning the prisoners and finds one that is willing to impart some information. They learn that the men are smugglers and the bolts and casks are the fruits of their labor. A ship arrived a few weeks ago and they are simply moving the goods and preparing them for sale somewhere. Their leader was a man by the name of Sanbalet who was an illusionist.
Darkthorn does first aid on everyone in the group and then the captured men, two of whom are very badly wounded and one of whom is badly wounded. The group takes the prisoners with them and explores the tunnel that the men were using. They find some more bolts of silk and casks of brandy. The final cave opens directly to the sea.
After some discussion, the group escorts the men to town to turn over to the magistrate. The magistrate, a Captain Santuro Aladez, is the military leader for Saltmarsh and a member of the town council. He asks the group to tell him the whole story. He takes the prisoners and locks them up. After hearing the story, he tells the group that they can keep the smuggled goods, subject to a 25% excise tax. He gathers six of his men and arranges a wagon to head back to the haunted house. The group shows him the entire operation that they discovered. The magistrate has his men help the group load the casks and bolts onto the wagon and they head back to town.
The following day the group is summoned to a council meeting. There are seven council members, two of whom they have met before - Captain Aladez, the magistrate and Andwan Playa, the proprietor of The Leather Master shoppe in town. Kalin notes the presence of a female high priestess on the council wearing the robes of Pelor.
The group tells the full story to the council, including Ned Shakeshaft's role, which is still a bit of a mystery. Kalin had questioned the smugglers about Ned but they did not know who he was. After hearing their story, the council grants them a reward of 1,000 silver for breaking up the smugglers operation.
The group spends the next three days selling the goods around town. They take a break on the second day to return to the haunted house to explore the sections they had previously missed. They find that the remaining caverns are empty and unused.
GM: We stopped for the night with the group ready to explore the sealed door in the celler but we had already played the third day.
The group examines the barred door and then opens it. It leads to a large, apparently empty room. As the group enters and is looking around, Lorcan, Dyson and Darkthorn are all attacked by invisible opponents. The opponents become visible as they attack, revealing themselves as skeletons. Kalin turns 3 of them and the group easily defeats the rest. After defeating his own opponent, Darkthorn moves over to the three turned ones and attacks them. The others join him and the skeletons are soon destroyed.
A quick search of the room reveals no secret doors so the group searches more carefully. Eventually Lorcan finds one. It leads to an alchemical laboratory still containing the dead body of the long dead alchemist. In the room, they find four gold objects leading them to believe the dead alchemist may have discovered the legendary philosopher's stone. Indeed, clutched in the skeletal fist of the body is a small ovoid stone, whitish-gold in color. The group takes the gold objects and the stone. They also find three books that look to be useful reading to improve lores. One deals with gems and jewelry, another with plants and herbs and the final with undead.
The group departs and returns to town. They find a buyer for the gold objects.
With the money made, Dyson sells his +1 mace to Morgan and buys the +2 mace available in the Shoppe of the Warriors.
On day three, after the group has sold the bolts and casks, they are again summoned to a council meeting. After their success in breaking up the shore-side smuggling operation they are asked if they would be willing to try to break up the ship side as well by waiting for the next smuggling ship to arrive and then boarding and capturing it. It is thought that the ship might arrive in the next week or so on the next dark of the moon. In return, the council will put a fishing boat, crewed by the two brothers who own it, at their disposal. The two men would patrol the coast each night for the next week or so looking for the smuggling ship. Additionally, the group would have a small house at their disposal as well as a servant to cook and clean for the duration of the adventure. To help with the adventure, the group would be given 10 sets of Healing Bandages from the herbalist. There would also be a reward for a successful mission. The group agrees to the adventure.
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