Spoilers follow for the adventure Salvage Operations from Ghosts of Saltmarsh…
Finally hoisting the heavy box up, Asterius and Fallon laboriously hauled it up the ladder from the hold as tentacles continued to batter the hull near them and water gushed in. Gringle and Davgin were already well up the stairs, and dodging tentacles. Gringle was knocked prone as the ship shuddered and began to list. He scrambled up, screaming towards the Spirit of Winter for the jollyboat to come pick them up. Davgin fired a firebolt into the air to act as a flare.
The boat began its slow approach, eventually reaching them as everyone had finally clambered to the top of the quarterdeck to avoid the rising waters. As they paddled away, the Emperor of the Waves cracked in two and sank into the depths.
After a long day the adventurers returned to Kalaman, and took the box to Aubreck Drallion. The shabby merchant could barely contain his excitement, and promised them that he would send their payment in a few days once he had time to liquidate the property and credit notes.
The merchant’s word, and his money, were good. Within a few days the characters found their coffers swollen with gold. Naturally they decided to go spend some of their hard earned cash.
First they went shopping at an Oddities shop. The. Went to an Apothecary owned by a mysterious dark mage of the Mages of High Sorcery. Her name was Wyham, and based upon her knowledge of his exploits, she extended Davgin an invitation to Red Robes of High Sorcery. She wrote to the tower on his behalf.
While there, Asterius purchased a long sword of dragon slaying, and Fallon bought a short sword of vengeance which they quickly discovered was cursed. Inquires suggested that magic to dispel such a curse might be found in a tomb of Solamnic knights to the South of the city.
Additionally, during their downtime, the party dispatched spies to examine the Red Dragon Army’s logistics and defenses. They also discovered that the Red Dragon Army attempted to raise a unit but failed. However, some of their spies paid dearly for this information, being captured and hanged as a warning.
GM Reflections
The short adventure Salvage Ops is pretty outstanding. It’s a compelling adventure with a hefty reward that acts as a really good payoff for the pain the characters have to go through. Like most ship exploration the map is cramped, which is a negative. But I loved the extended action sequence with the attacking tentacles and the terrain shifting. It was the first time I've used any such effects in a game, and I thought it worked really well.
This was also an interesting opportunity to employ domain actions and the intrigue system too from Kingdoms & Warfare. My notes on this are below:
Espionage to discover enemy domain defenses. Red dragon army attempts and fails to raise unit. Hangs spies in response to espionage, -1 comms for Avengers of the Crossing.
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