Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017-18, the ‘Tomb of Annihilation’ campaign I ran in 2018-19, the ‘Out of the Abyss’, a campaign I ran in 2020 and the ‘Phandelver’s Pact’ campaign I ran from 2020-2021. CoS was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that), which is why I could use them for this column.

Here’s another campaign (some might say my last 5e campaign, if you don’t count all the playtest campaigns I ran and continue to run lol) that started out with a slightly skewed version of ‘Ghosts of Saltmarsh’, then merged with a doctored ‘Descent into Avernus’ and was prematurely cut short when WoTC stunned the community by deciding to be dicks (remember that?), prompting me to run Pathfinder 2e campaigns instead.

‘Shadows Over Saltmarsh’ was set in Greyhawk, my childhood campaign world (created by the eminent Mr. Gygax, himself). Each session was approximately 4-5 hours (sometimes more) long. Most of the summaries appear here as they first appeared. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Steve 🙂

Session 10 – Devil House, a Slip in Time & the Smugglers’ Ship 

The party finished off the ghouls and ghast in the house in Crabbers’ Cove. A large, ruined library next to the kitchen contained a blood-stained pentagram on the floor, and the discovery of Alyona’s ancestor Marcus Lynden’s missing cookbook within revealed a huge section was missing, with lots of odd writing and pentagrams on the remaining pages – it seemed perhaps Mister Lynden was not your average cook…

The party attempted to burn the insides of the house, but the pile of rubbish in the pentagram room wouldn’t burn, no matter what they tried. Exiting the house, they discovered night had fallen, and a quick check of stars ascertained that around 13 days had passed in the 3 hours they had been inside. Realizing the smugglers’ ship was due to return soon, the party headed to the docks, paid the outstanding port fees on their longship and headed back to the haunted house. Unfortunately, their captive, Sanbalet, had starved to death during that time. Sir Kerastan and Korth buried him. Discovering the window the pirates used to send signals, the party took shifts waiting for the smugglers’ ship.

Sure enough, the next night the ship appeared. Exchanging signals, the party disguised themselves as smugglers (with Felix using disguise self to appear as Sanbalet), and Korth and Fa’aoa swimming under the ship to attempt to foul the rudder (this turned out to be harder than expected). As the rest of the party climbed aboard, Sir Kerastan’s constant chattering made the smugglers suspicious. Soon the fight was on, with Alyona going down early on and being brought back by Fa’aoa. Eventually, the captain and first mates were killed, and the remaining crew surrendered. The ship was theirs!

Session 11 – Clearing the Pirates’ Ship & the Haunted House – finally…

The party spent some time checking the rest of the ship for treasure, discovered some weapons and maps pointing to a location 10 miles west of Saltmarsh, found some Lizardfolk who revealed to Korth they were part of a tribe based 10 miles from Saltmarsh (well, that was convenient), realized the lizardfolk had paid the smugglers to supply them with weapons, discovered the lizardfolk were about to go to war with a tribe of sahuagin, and found lots of treasure. Phew! There were a few language issues, but Korth was happy to finally be able to talk with some of his own kind (even if they were a bit less formal than he was used to).

Ser Keraston tried to convince the party to let the surrendering pirates work as crew (“sorry, computer says no,” said the rest of the party). Alyona knocked herself unconscious when she was gassed by a trapped chest. Felix and Fa’aoa discovered a captive sea elf called Oceanus in a hidden room, who offered to help them. Locating the kitchen, Alyona made sandwiches for all!

Back to the house, where the party finally solved their giant spider problem with the sharp end of their swords, but not before both Ser Keraston and Fa’aoa were trussed up in webbing. Finally, a bunch of mushrooms around the fireplace proved the greatest challenge of the adventure. Korth soon felt inspired and realized they were just plain old mushrooms.

Session 12 – Stirges & Shopping

The party decided to check the last few rooms and the attic, to make sure the house was completely cleared. As they investigated the attic, they were attacked by a large swarm of stirges. Ser Keraston and Fa’aoa were swamped by the bloodsuckers, but Korth saved the day by using thunderwave to kill most of the beasts (as well as knocking the paladin and barbarian out).

The party rested as the Housing inspectors – Constables Seamus and Vegas of the town guard – arrived to give them their clearance notice for the council. As soon as the party presented the letter to the council, the house would officially be theirs! 

After a long rest, the party loaded up the longship (leaving Oceanus on the smuggler’s ship anchored offshore) and took the smugglers and lizardfolk to Saltmarsh. There, Alyona organized for a keelboat to take the lizardfolk and their goods the 10 miles up the coast to their home. She also checked in at the Mariner’s Guild to find out what would be needed to hire a crew for the Sea Ghost – the sailing ship the party had “acquired”. There were a number of positions that would need to be filled.

Fa’aoa and Korth took the prisoners to the barracks/jail and dropped them off, stopping in at The Wicker Goat to inform tavern keeper Lankus Kurrid they had recovered his missing brandy casks. He thanked them with one night’s free accommodation and food for the party, then sent some of his staff down to collect the casks from the longship.

Meanwhile Keraston and Felix went to the market to negotiate and trade several gems, electrum bars, magic items and spell books for gold. Keraston asked Fleur, the old, blind magic trader, whether she might be able to remove curse from Alyona (which she agreed to do for 150 GP). Felix brought Alyona over and the deed was done, with Fleur also buying the cursed stone from them for 15 GP.

That night, Karaston gave a splendid performance at the Wicker Goat, reinforcing his reputation as a performer. Felix fleeced several merchants in the crowd.

The next morning, the party decided to send a disguised Felix to Eliander’s House to learn information about Stone Tooth Island. Krag the librarian saw through Felix’s disguise, but accepted several books Felix provided as payment and sent him on his way with the following information about the island:

Two centuries ago, a great smith called Durgeddin the Black and his clan were driven from their home by a horde of fierce orcs and trolls. They plundered the dwarves’ ancestral halls and slew all they could catch. Fleeing his enemies, Durgeddin led the destitute remnants of his clan across the sea in search of a new home. Eventually, the dwarves discovered a great cavern system beneath Stone Tooth Island: an island surrounded by rocky cliffs with only one beach entry, crowned by a rugged, forested hill and a bare rocky crag. There Durgeddin and his followers founded the stronghold of Khundrukar.

About a century ago, a member of Durgeddin’s clan was captured by a powerful orc tribe during a sea raid, and the orcs learned of their enemy’s hidden stronghold. The orc chieftains raised a great army and sailed to Stone Tooth Island. In a hard-fought siege that lasted months, the orcs tunneled around the dwarven defenses. When they finally stormed Khundrakar, they put all within to the sword, then carried off shiploads of booty. Over time the Orcs returned to the island to use it as a base for their sea raids, occupying the fortress once again.

Today, legends of Durgeddin’s Vengeance (or the “Smith’s War”) and the extraordinary blades the dwarves forged still surface from time to time in the coastal towns of Keoland…

According to his text, Krag explained there was a dock on the lonely beach, but mentioned it was possible more may have been built by now. It was the only accessible point to access the island because of the high cliffs and crashing waves around the rest of the island…

Next Week: The Forge of Fury!

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