Our party at the time:
Dalmar Sworin: Wizard of moderate repute, chronic liar, party leader by hook or by crook.
Cecelia Darkspruce: Half-elf fighter/cleric of Sif with sorority girl looks/attitude and a Lucksword
Mutumbo: Naive Nubian warrior from a distant land who has completed his tribe's quest and is now wandering the land with his new found "friends"
Thundar the Barbarian: Incredibly stupid and foolish half-ogre barbarian who job is to pick things up and kill them.
As the party sails to Saltmarsh, the crew tells them of tales of a haunted house, where a man once killed his entire family in cold blood, and then himself. After arriving in port, and some very light shopping in town, they turned in. The next morning, the group finds a sack of coins outside their door, and there is no sign of Mordeln or Brand anywhere. Deciding a haunted house was not their thing, the group decided to ask for directions. Unfortunately, Thundar is first to ask and literally grabbed a villager and began shaking him violently, asking, “Where are we???? Where we go????” Amid shakes, the villager screams for help and before the party can stop the half-ogre, members of the militia appear and Thundar takes them on. A quick Wall of Fog allows for an easy escape of most of the party, and somehow Thundar managed to catch up… a wanted ogre. That night, in Dalmar’s own words: “I tried to explain to Thundar why he shouldn’t kill people in town, but he just didn’t get it.”
The next day Cecelia was awoken by the loud singing of a Pixie Fairy, Lord Ralphus. This strange creature claimed to be the King of the World and boasted of his powers. Within seconds of waking up, Mutumbo had the “King” locked up in a little cage and offered his release only if Lord Ralphus blessed the Nubian Warrior. Ralphus conceded and not only blessed the dark-skinned man, but knighted him as well. Dalmar: “Unfortunately, this moron wants to come with us. He has a spell book so when he gets himself killed I will get it.”
GM Note: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was offered as possible adventure, but I knew it only had a 50/50 chance of luring the party in. The failure of the party to investigate will lead to a rebellion within Crosedes, as we shall soon find out….
Next: Against... something that keeps stealing our party members.
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is the third published adventure I ever played back in the day. (My first was Tomb of Horrors, which may not have been the best introduction to the hobby, the second was Isle of Dread.)
ReplyDeleteI haven't played very much D&D at all lately, (The last time I played D&D was when Pierson ran a memorial version of ToH on the weekend Gygax died) but I'm still enormously fond of all three of those classic modules.
Josh,
ReplyDeleteSaltmarsh will get a proper write-up, just not yet. If the PCs didn't clear the house, that means someone else could do it, and that is a story that needs its own dedicated post.