Spelljammer |
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
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| Current Turn? | No |  | Subject: | The Haunted House |
| Campaign: | Greyhawk | | Turn Start Date: | 9/11/596 |
| Adventure: | Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh | | Turn End Date: | 9/11/596 |
| Adventure Number: | AAB | | Characters: | Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Morgan Dunst, Rory Rockhound |
| Turn Number: | 1.1 | | 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 | 0 | 0 | 57/57 | /0 | 4 | 0 | 26 | 0 | / | 1/day | 1/1 | /0 | |
| Dyson Teague | 4 | 0 | 51/55 | /2 | 5 | 0 | 31 | 2 | / | 1/day | 3/3 | 1/1 | |
| Kalin | 3 | 0 | 41/44 | /0 | 5 | 0 | 16 | 0 | / | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Lorcan Smythe | 0 | 0 | 49/49 | /0 | 4 | 0 | 28 | 0 | / | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Morgan Dunst | 3 | 0 | 49/52 | 2/2 | 6 | 0 | 26 | 4 | / | 1/day | 1/1 | /0 | |
| Rory Rockhound | 0 | 0 | 45/45 | /0 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 0 | / | 1/day | 1/1 | /0 | |
| Wiley Finch | 0 | 0 | 50/50 | /0 | 7 | 1 | 33 | 4 | / | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
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| Mage/Psioncist Name | Psionic Pts | Spell Pts | Spell Pool | Miscellaneous Information |
| / | / | / | |
| Darkthorn | |
| Dyson Teague | |
| Kalin | |
| Lorcan Smythe | |
| Morgan Dunst | |
| Rory Rockhound | |
| Wiley Finch | Spell Pool 3/8 |
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After spending the night at the edge of the forest, the group returns to the house in the morning. It is not raining as hard but there is still a heavy overcast and light drizzle that obscures visibility beyond a couple hundred feet.
The group finishes checking out the west wing of the house. Dyson is still unable to get into the locked drawer of the desk so he uses Darkthorn's shovel to force the drawer open. Inside are a bunch of very old papers, mostly receipts for alchemical supplies and ingredients. Dyson spots a small bag hidden at the back of the slot for the drawer. Inside are two potions. Lorcan identifies them as Potions of Neutralizing Poison.
The group then moves to the east wing. They find nothing of interest there so move to the north wing.
As they are searching the kitchen, Morgan and Rory are attacked by some massive centipedes. Each is a good 9 to 12 inches long. As the group moves to assist, three more come out from under the collapsed table and attack. None of the centipedes ever manage to bite anyone and the only damage taken is when Lorcan attacks one with his sword and does some damage to Morgan. Three of the creatures are killed and the other two flee back under the collapsed table. Dyson and Wiley overturn the table and the two centipedes scramble towards a hole in the floor. One is killed. There is nothing of interest under the table or anywhere in the kitchen.
Beyond the kitchen is a scullery with stairs leading down. They can hear some distant and occasional moaning coming from down the stairs. They proceed down into the wine cellar. In the middle of the floor is the body of a human warrior clad in ring mail. A longsword lies nearby and a shield is overturned across his legs. He looks like he has been dead for several weeks.
Darkthorn lights a torch and begins looking around the wine cellar as the others investigate the dead body. Rory uses Power Perception and determines that the armor is magical but the sword and shield are not.
Morgan starts to remove the armor. As he is doing so, he is beset by flesh burrowing rot grubs.
GM: Morgan uses his only Luck point to avoid a hit and grievous that had one already burrowing into his hand.
Morgan scrambles back and quickly flicks the hideous creatures off of him. The group discusses it and decides to proceed carefully in removing the armor while taking precautions against the rot grubs. With Darkthorn and Kalin standing by with torches to burn out the rot grubs, Wiley and Dyson work to remove the armor. They eventually manage to remove it without being infested with the deadly bugs.
Wily removes his chain mail and dons the dirty armor to use a Clean cantrip. He notes that it seems to fit him well. He then removes it and hands it to Kalin who will wear it for now. It fits Kalin quite well and the group believes that it will probably adjust to fit anyone who dons it.
Darkthorn meanwhile, found a secret door but, as Dyson moves up to investigate it, the moaning sound becomes louder. Lorcan identifies it as the sounds that undead creatures known as Shadows make when they choose to make noises to scare people. Lorcan knows that magical weapons are required to hit shadows. With only a single magical weapon in the group, that being the +2 dagger the group found among the slavers who attacked Seaton, the group retreats and decides to investigate the second floor.
They pass up the first room as they had already been in there fighting the goblins. The second room is empty except for a badly decayed bed and a floor that looks unsafe to walk on. The third room contains a tied up prisoner.
The man is tied by his hands and legs. He says that his name is Ned and that he was on his way from Seaton to Saltmarsh. He says that his house in Seaton was destroyed when the slavers attacked and he was seeking is fortune in Saltmarsh where he hoped to become and adventurer.
The floor of this room also appears unsafe so Darkthorn is careful as he moves to the far corner. He pulls out his knife and cuts through the bonds holding Ned. The unkempt-looking young man rubs his wrists and ankles and stands up. He heads towards the door, followed by Darkthorn, who first stops to investigate the chimney at Lorcan's behest. The group talks to Ned for a bit and learns that he was on his way to Saltmarsh and stopped here to take shelter from the rain. While he was inside, someone conked him on the back of the head and tied him up. He asks to accompany the group and they agree.
Lorcan suggests they stop in the room where they encountered the goblins and investigate the chimney there.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
As Dyson is investigating the chimney, a large spider drops down and attacks him. It misses and the group quickly kills it. Dyson crawls back into the fireplace and sees a mass of webs and a glint of something that looks like it might be valuable in among the webs. He also sees another spider climbing down quickly. It attacks him as he quickly crawls back out. The spider does not follow. The group finds debris and lights a fire in the fireplace, letting it burn for awhile. Then they put it out and investigate again. The spider webs are gone as is the spider. Dyson tries to climb up to where he saw the glint but is not skilled in climbing. Lorcan changes places with him and climbs up and retrieves the large gem. When Dyson gets a look at it, he is disgusted as says, "that is just a piece of worthless quartz!"
The group keeps the gem anyway and continues to investigate the house. They go through a few rooms, searching and prodding. In one room, as they are searching, there is a POOF sound as a punch of spores shoot out from a moldy wall. They fully encompass Rory and partially encompass Lorcan. Both scramble away. Rory falls and ends up crawling out of the area. Both Lorcan and Rory feel a bit queasy and both use a Clean cantrip on themselves, which makes them feel mildly better.
GM: Both have a -2 activity penalty (-2 to all skill rolls and attack rolls).
The group continues to investigate. They find the remains of a staircase that once led into the attic, as well as the hole that still leads up there. They also find a relatively intact cabinet in one bedroom that has been boarded shut with nailed boards, had a big red X painted across the boarded doors and, as a final warning, the words "DO NOT OPEN" painted on the boards in Keoish. The group decides to heed the warning for now.
In another room, the find a sack containing Ned's equipment, including his coin purse which is still full.
After investigating the entire upper floor, they return to the attic entrance and Wiley successfully casts a Levitate spell on Darkthorn. It takes Darkthorn a few minutes to get the hang of the spell and how to will himself up and down but he finally manages it and levitates up through the hole. He sees a large space that appears to span the entire house. He can't see into the east and west wings from where he is. He ties off a rope and lowers it down for others to climb up. Wiley and Rory stay down to keep watch. Rory is feeling more queasy that he had been (-3 activity penalty).
As the group moves around the attic, they see a couple of bags in once corner. As they head over to investigate, there is a flutter of wings and a group of bats swirls over and attacks. Darkthorn and Kalin immediately note that they are actually not bats. Kalin recognizes them as stirges.
Darkthorn hits one and almost kills it as it approaches Lorcan. It turns and flies back to the nest. The other three attack. The group kills two of them before they can latch on and drain blood but it is the man the group rescued - Ned - who is most unlucky as one latches on and begins to such blood. The group tries to kill it but ends up hitting Ned more than the stirge. Morgan finally grabs the stirge and squeezes it to death. Dyson does first aid to remove the stirge and patch up the wound. Kalin then casts a CLW spell on him.
When they investigate the nest, they find a large, bird-like nest but made of tougher stuff. Darkthorn uses his shovel to start to pull it apart but Kalin mentions they might have treasure so Darkthorn hands the shovel to Dyson who more carefully starts to pull the nest apart. He cuts into a brittle coin purse and coins spill out onto the floor. Some of them drop through a hole in the floor to the room below. The group recovers 7 platinum and 18 gold coins!
They search the rest of the attic and find nothing of value so they return to the upper floor to recover the coins the fell through. They recover another platinum coin and five more gold coins!
With the main house searched, the group decides to head back to Saltmarsh with their newly discovered loot. They depart the house amid a light rain and head west.
As they are heading into town, Lorcan ponders the issue of Ned. He wonders who bonked Ned on the head and tied him up and why. Also, why would the person who hit Ned take all of his gear and put it in a nearby room and not even take the coins?
GM: Lorcan is feeling fine now but Rory now has a -5 to all actions. On the way back to Saltmarsh, he has to stop once and he throws up on the side of the road. By the time the group reaches Saltmarsh, Rory is feeling sicker (-10 to all actions). |
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