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 13 – The Storm and the Island

The party visited the council to ask for assistance with the ship they’d captured. They explained they had uncovered a smuggling ring at the haunted house and delivered several prisoners to the local jail. At first the council assumed they were offering the captured ship to Saltmarsh. Shipping magnate Gellan Primewater was all prepared to make it part of his fleet, until the party mentioned they just wanted a crew to bring the ship into port and a berth at the docks. After some negotiations, the party agreed to pay 60 GP for the temp crew and 2 weeks at the dock. Primewater mentioned if they took longer than 14 days to return, they would be charged 10 GP per day over the 14.

Elliander Fireborn awarded the party 40 GP for clearing the house (60 GP of the original 100 GP was used to pay for the temp crew and berth) and the deed to the haunted house. It was now officially theirs! Eda Oweland, the gruff and pragmatic council leader, wasn’t too happy the party hadn’t stopped the orc threat yet, but Elliander stood up for them. Anders Solmor, a young council member and fishing fleet owner, mentioned to the party he would buy any of Durgeddin’s famous weapons from Stone Tooth Island. “I bet he’s the BBEG,” whispered Felix (young human rogue). “Hoarding weapons and up to no good!” Or, more likely, a collector. One of those.

Back at the haunted house (we needed a better name for it), the party moved all the grog barrels and bolts of silk from the smuggler’s ship to the cellar’s secret room. They had purchased two chests and locks and placed one in the secret room, around which Korth (Lizardfolk druid) placed a few burnt skulls to pretend it was trapped. (Felix intended to research how to set up traps. Eventually.)

The party headed out to sea with Oceanus (Aquatic Elf) in tow, providing his sea-faring skills for a share of treasure. The first day at sea, they ran into a mighty storm. Keraston (Aasimar paladin) manacled himself to the mast so he wouldn’t be swept overboard, leaving the rest of the party to bail water out of the Orcish longship they’d commandeered earlier. The ship sustained damage in the storm, they lost 20% of their food and water supplies, 231 GP from a chest they had on board and half a day’s travel as they were blown way off course. Fog hit them a day later, but they managed to get through it without mishap.

Two and a half days later and Stone Tooth Island was in sight. After a dispute about whether to observe by day or night, the party agreed to go in at night (despite the visual difficulties many of the PCs would face). Alyona (half-Elf cleric) spotted two buildings, a bonfire and a dock with two longships in the beach inlet. The party took the longship in, sporting the crest of the island raiders, with Felix using disguise self to appear as an Orc at the prow and Fa’aoa using his knowledge of Orcish to pretend to be returning raiders. It worked until they got to shore, then all hell broke loose.

Korth used spike growth to kill an Orc and prevent many of the others from traversing that ground. Fa’aoa used his ring of jumping to bound from the ship to the dock in a mighty leap, swat the Orc there and then leap over the spike growth to take the battle to the Orcs on the other side.

Ser Keraston rushed in, knocking out several Orcs, with Felix stealthily sniping Orcs with fire bolts and crossbow quarrels. Alyona’s frying pan spiritual weapon and healing word came in handy to bring Fa’aoa back after he went down to an Orc Claw of Luthic.

Eventually the fight was done, with 3 Orcs taken hostage to question later…     

Next Week: Into the Mountain…

Session 14 – Against the Orcs

The party successfully interrogated the Orcs they’d captured, after Fa’aoa made an example of the Claw of Luthic. They learned the path led to the Orc-occupied Dwarven Fortress and that the Orcs at the beach would be relieved in the morning.

Korth scouted further up the mountain trail, finding a choke point where the party could set up a trap. Fa’aoa dug a three foot deep trench, while Felix and Keraston carried buckets of water from the beach to make the path muddy.

The party settled in as the sun peeked over the horizon and several Orcs approached. After a brief scuffle, half the Orcs were killed. The others were interrogated, resulting in little useful information.

Felix scouted to the end of the road, seeing some blurry shapes on a rocky shelf high above. He noted some smoke coming from a hilly area to the east but was unable to identify if it was volcanic or from a campfire. When he came back down the trail, he didn’t notice some light reflecting off his sword, notifying the Orc guards on the mountain…

The party made its way up the trail, then headed into the undergrowth of the forest to investigate the source of the smoke – a natural rock chimney. When the smoke stopped, Felix was lowered on a rope down into the darkness until his feet hit crumbling ground. He cast light on his shortsword – he was in a roughly circular cavern, used as a kitchen, and standing in the dead coals of the fire. He signaled the others to come down.

Unfortunately, Keraston stumbled as he reached the bottom, his armor making quite a racket as he slipped to the ground. Voices and footsteps emanated from the north east corridor and two orcs burst in, screaming an alarm as they did. The battle was on, with Fa’aoa going down twice and being healed by Alyona. Eight orcs and a Dire Wolf were dispatched in quick succession, with Felix using crevices in the walls to hide and snipe enemies, Korth tearing apart some foes with his jaws and Keraston blocking the entrance and dispatching the Wolf. Felix managed to set some oil alight on an Orog, who burned up in flames.

Keraston located and freed two captives who had been kept for ransom. The party gathered in the kitchen cave, blocking the entrance with crates. Alyona cooked a splendid wolf meat meal as the party celebrated their victory and leveled up to 4^th.

Next Week: Further into the Orc Lair…           

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