Spelljammer |
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
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| Current Turn? | No |  | Subject: | Dunwater Inlet |
| Campaign: | Greyhawk | | Turn Start Date: | 9/15/596 |
| Adventure: | Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh | | Turn End Date: | 10/2/596 |
| Adventure Number: | AAB | | Characters: | Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Morgan Dunst, Rory Rockhound |
| Turn Number: | 1.5 | | 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 | 5 | 0 | 58/63 | /0 | 7 | 1 | 32 | 2 | 0/0 | 1/day | 0/1 | /0 | |
| Dyson Teague | 3 | 0 | 52/55 | 2/2 | 7 | 1 | 49 | 4 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/3 | 1/1 | |
| Kalin | 0 | 0 | 44/44 | /0 | 6 | 1 | 22 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Lorcan Smythe | 2 | 0 | 52/54 | /0 | 5 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Morgan Dunst | 8 | 0 | 44/52 | 4/4 | 6 | 0 | 27 | 4 | 0/0 | 1/day | 1/1 | /0 | |
| Rory Rockhound | 0 | 0 | 45/45 | /0 | 4 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 1/1 | /0 | |
| Wiley Finch | 0 | 0 | 55/55 | /0 | 8 | 1 | 37 | 6 | 0/0 | 1/day | 1/2 | 1/1 | |
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| Mage/Psioncist Name | Psionic Pts | Spell Pts | Spell Pool | Miscellaneous Information |
| Lorcan Smythe | / | 11/13 | 9/9 | |
| Rory Rockhound | / | 9/9 | 16/16 | |
| Wiley Finch | / | 6/7 | 8/8 | |
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| Oceanus: 33/57 |
9/27/2018
The group decides to take the overland route to Dunwater Inlet. Oceanus (the lizardman who the group found as a prisoner on the Sea Ghost) agrees to accompany the group and lead them on a mostly dry route through the marshes.
Late afternoon of the following day, as the group is moving southwest through the marshes, they are ambushed by a group bullywugs, approximately two dozen strong. The battle is long and difficult but eventually the group kills half of the evil amphibians and the rest flee. The group does first aid and healing and then Lorcan casts Water Walking on Darkthorn and Wiley and they, along with Oceanus, go off in search of the bullywug lair. It takes them a couple of hours before Darkthorn picks up their tracks and finds the lair. It consists of a dozen or so tiny shelters constructed of large leaves and sticks. One of the shelters is set slightly apart from the others and there they find a leather sack.
The three bring the sack back to the rest of the group and, while the rest of the group examines the contents, Darkthorn sets up a campsite including shelter. He does a very good job.
In the sack, the group finds dozens of coins adding up to a total of 550 sp. They also find 5 red gems, a silver necklace and a pair of glass vials filled with a deep blue liquid shot through with silver glitter. Lorcan recognizes them immediately as Potions of the Deep, which allow Water Breathing as well as total protection from the pressures of the deep. Rory checks for magic and finds that the bullywug leader's shield is magic, as are the potions and the silver necklace. Rory is only rank 2 with Power Perception but senses that the shield and potions radiate magic at level one (out of 2) while the necklace radiates at level 2 (out of 2).
Lorcan tries on the necklace with no ill effects but is unable to discern what properties it might have.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
10/4/2018
The group continues through the marshes, led by Oceanus. By now it is clear to the lizardman that the group is heading directly for the lizardman lair. He speaks to Wiley about it (Wiley is the only one who can speak the language of the lizardmen) and agrees to lead them there, but only to talk to the lizardman chief.
A couple of hours later however, the group comes across the badly decomposed body of a dead creature, possibly a lizardman. They see four more such bodies over the course of the next 40 to 50 yards as they approach a large hillock in the marsh. At the last two bodies, the group stops and Oceanus tells the group, through Wiley, that an entrance to the lair is through a cave in the hill ahead. Oceanus is concerned about the lizardman bodies and what it might mean. The group decides to have Oceanus, Darkthorn and Dyson sneak forward and investigate the cave.
Once inside the wide cave, the floor of which is muddy and covered with various marsh growths, Darkthorn spots something out of the ordinary out in the mud. He and Oceanus wade through the calf-deep mud and find the body of a large creature. Darkthorn spots a couple more such bodies nearby. All are badly decomposed. Oceanus tries to tell them something, gesticulating this way and that but neither Darkthorn nor Dyson understand and the three return to the rest of the group. Oceanus talks to Wiley and tells him that the three creatures were giant lizards who guarded the cave entrance to the lizardman lair. That they are dead does not bode well for the lizardmen.
The group moves forward and enters the cave. Oceanus, Darkthorn and Dyson are leading and moving quietly while the rest of the group follows a short distance behind. They pass through the cave and find the stone passages of the lair itself at the far end of the cave. There are two ways to go and Oceanus chooses south.
The first side passage the group comes to is guarded by three koa-toa and battle is joined. The group quickly and easily defeats the three and no more arrive. Oceanus and Morgan toss the bodies into deeper parts of the mud in the cave and the group quickly searches the room and then moves on. There was nothing of interest in the room.
Oceanus leads the group through a door and into a darkened chamber. He tells Wiley that this is where the females raised the young of the lizardmen. It is filled with lizardman furniture but empty of lizardmen. There are no signs that a struggle took place here.
The next room is also dark and is the hatchery. The group finds a couple hundred lizardman eggs here, all of which have been smashed. Oceanus is outraged at this.
The group exits the area and continues down the passage, with Oceanus, Darkthorn and Dyson well in the lead and moving quietly. Oceanus notices a secret door on a side wall that he had never seen before when he lived here. A short distance away, the passage ends at another door. The group decides to investigate the secret door first. Dyson finds no traps so Darkthorn opens it. A short passage leads to a room. He and Oceanus enter and the floor below them promptly gives way, dropping them into a spiked pit filled with poisonous snakes. Meanwhile, the other door opens and three koa-toa run out and attack Dyson.
The battle is relatively short. Oceanus gets bit a couple of times but avoids the poison. Darkthorn also gets bit but always in his armor so is also not poisoned. Rory casts an Earth Spire which causes the bottom of the pit to rise up. When it gets within four feet of the top, Rory stops it and Oceanus and Darkthorn are helped out. Meanwhile, the battle against the koa-toa goes well and they are quickly killed. The group tosses the bodies into the pit and then carefully crosses the pit. Dyson finds the trigger to lock the floor closed so once the last person enters and closes the door, the pit trap closes and Dyson locks it into place.
Dyson performs first aid on Oceanus while Darkthorn performs it on himself.
At the back of the room is a stone chest and a bunch of leather sacks. Lorcan checks but none are magical. Dyson checks for traps on the chest and finds none so he attempts to pick the lock. Unfortunately the lock was indeed trapped with a very deadly poison needle trap that pokes Dyson. Dyson collapses from the fast acting poison that immediately paralyzes his muscles.
Kalin and Lorcan scramble to find their Potions of Neutralize Poison as someone else points out that Dyson had one as well. Darkthorn gets Dyson's potion out first and quickly administers it.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
10/11/2018
After administering a healing potion to Dyson, bringing him around, Lorcan and Darkthorn suddenly hear a distant bell. Calling for quiet everyone else then hears it as well. It is clearly some sort of alarm bell ring stridently a long distance away through the caverns. The group decides to remain in the treasure room hoping that the koa-toa are unaware of it. Time passes and no one attempts the secret door leading into the treasure room.
Rory casts a Stone Shape spell and gets the stone chest opened by reshaping the lid of the chest and breaking it free of its hinges. Insides are a bunch of coins adding up to a couple thousand silver or so as well as a crown, sceptre and collar that Oceanus recognizes as belonging to the lizardman chieftain. The group takes the treasure after Lorcan determines that none of it is magical.
Rory uses his Potion of Extra Healing on Dyson to get him out of badly wounded territory.
The group spends the rest of the day and night in the treasure room, resting and recovering spells. In the morning, they cast spells to heal some more and then decide to press on. Dyson carefully opens the door of the treasure room and immediately notes that the hallway is well lit, indicating that the torches have been renewed. He peers out and looks south. The door to the guard room is open and the room is lit but he does not see any guards from where he is standing. He eases out of the room, followed by Darkthorn and they move to the door. Dyson looks in and sees two koa-toa guards, one of whom is looking at the door and sees Dyson.
Battle is joined and the two guards are quickly defeated. The group tosses their bodies into the pit in the treasure room.
The group progresses down the passage and carefully checks the other guard room. Two more guards wait there. Another battle and they too go down. As the group is picking up the bodies to take them back to the pit, three more koa-toa show up. The group defeats them as well though Darkthorn is badly wounded in the battle. The group grabs all of the bodies and carries them back to the treasure room. Or starts to. Just as the battle is ending, they again hear the distant sound of an alarm bell. The group moves quickly and retreats to the treasure room, dumping the bodies into the pit. The room is starting to smell from all of the dead koa-toa in the pit.
Lorcan brings up the idea that maybe the alarm bell has nothing to do with them but signals some other issue. Darkthorn volunteers to go scouting if Wiley will cast an Invisibility spell on him. Wiley succeeds with his spell on the third attempt (with the use of spell pool points). As the spell will last only five minutes, Darkthorn moves quickly.
He returns about five minutes later and reports that he went deep into the lair, passing a few passages and doors, following the sounds of distant fighting. He eventually reached an area of water filled caverns with a walking ledge along the side. Here, in the distant gloom of the caverns, he witnessed a bloody battle between what looked like two groups of koa-toa. He did not stick around long. He retraced his steps and returned to the group. Two things he saw along the way was a temple whose doors were standing open, and another room where he saw a koa-toa guard standing in the doorway and looking out. When Darkthorn describes the location of the guard, and Wiley translates to Oceanus, the lizardman says that those were the living quarters of an old and wise lizardman known as the minister. It seems likely that a ranking, non-combatant koa-toa took over the apartment and those are his or her guards.
The group heads out again with the thought of reaching the apartment. On their way, they run into a group of 5 humans who are desperately attempting to escape. Four are women and one is a man. They were slaves of the koa-toa who were forced to work in the kitchens, which they described as disgusting work. The group decides to have Morgan escort them through the mud cave and out into the marsh. He will find a place to set up camp and wait for the group.
The group continues on to the apartment. Upon reaching it, Dyson quietly checks for but finds no traps. Darkthorn throws open the door and rushes in. There are four koa-toa in the room and battle is quickly joined.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night. The battle is still going on.
10/18/2018
The battle against the four koa-toa soon ends in victory for the group. The group notices that they were armed with better quality weapons and, upon closer examination, it is apparent that they bear the same maker's mark as some of the weapons that the group discovered in the weapon's cache aboard the Sea Ghost - further proof that the Sea Ghost was smuggling weapons to the koa-toa.
The next room holds an ancient lizardman whom Oceanus immediately recognizes. His name translates loosely as Wisdom or Minister. The koa-toa kept him alive hoping that he might advise them on how to defeat a common enemy of both the koa-toa and the lizardmen, this despite the fact that the koa-toa attacked the lizardman lair and killed many lizardmen. The group learns that the koa-toa are beset by another enemy but Wiley is not able to translate the name of this enemy and no one else recognizes the description, which sounds somewhat similar to koa-toa. This does bring to mind that Darkthorn, on his scouting mission earlier, had witnessed what looked like two groups of koa-toa fighting each other but may have actually been koa-toa fighting this other enemy. It is not until much later that the group is able to put a name to this new enemy - sahuagin.
With the group's mission largely successful, they decide to exit and return to Saltmarsh to report their findings. They see no koa-toa as they depart. They rejoin with Morgan who had departed earlier to escort and guard the humans who had been forced to served in the kitchens of the koa-toa. The group returns to their campsite in the swamp and spends the night.
In the morning, Kalin sets up a Healing Sanctuary in the tent and heals the most badly wounded. Then Oceanus and Wisdom part ways with the group to go searching for the rest of their tribe but the group arranges a way to meet with Oceanus in the future should the need arise.
The trip back to Saltmarsh is uneventful. Upon arriving at the house set aside for them by the council, and asking the cook to prepare a meal, the military captain of Saltmarsh arrives to hear their tale. The group tells him all they know and he is naturally perturbed by the news that there seems to be some sort of war going on under sea in the vicinity of Saltmarsh. He adds news that the group had not year heard. The previous day, a group of sea elves approached Saltmarsh and wanted to speak to the council. They informed the council that a large force of sahuagin were amassing about 50 miles to the southwest of Saltmarsh in a natural set of caves in which the sea elves had lived for centuries. The elves had forewarning of the attack and departed before the invasion of the much larger force.
The elves were seeking to build an alliance against of the sahuagin consisting of themselves, mermen, locanthi, lizardmen and humans.
The council pays the promised reward of 5,000 silver, some which goes towards provisioning and crewing the Sea Ghost.
The following day the group meets with the full council and the sea elven representatives. The sea elves and the humans would like to gather more information about the sahuagin, particularly regarding numbers. They turn to the group and ask if they would be willing to undertake such a mission.
The group agrees and suggests that Oceanus, the lizardman, also accompany them. The sea elves also offer to assist in the scouting mission with one of their number.
Over the next couple of days, the group seeks out and meets with Oceanus again to tell him of the mission. He agrees to accompany them.
The town council also agrees to provide more assistance. They will provide some potions and scrolls to help the group and will also loan each member a magical item with the intent that the item will become theirs if the mission is successful.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
10/25/2018
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