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 18 – The (Failed) Rescue

Korth (lizardfolk druid) couldn’t communicate with the Duergar and was thrown into a dark storeroom. He healed himself, then burst out of the room to attack the two guards. As other Duergar responded, growing to larger size, Korth realized he might be in over his head…

Meanwhile, back at the other cave, the party decided to follow Korth down river, tying two ropes together to provide a guideline. Fa’aoa (human barbarian) led the way, eventually reaching the next cavern. The barbarian moved down to the stone bridge, and spotted Korth fighting the Duergar. He leapt out of the river only to be confronted by a large gray dwarf with dual short swords. The Duergar made ‘short’ work of the barbarian, knocking him unconscious.

Felix (human rogue) climbed out of the river and appealed to the Duergar, but they did not appear to speak Common. One guard rushed down to attack him, but Felix managed to leap into the river and hide under the bridge. Alyona (half-elf cleric) made her way down the river, healing both Korth and Fa’aoa and getting them back on their feet.

The tide of battle turned against the injured heroes, so they decided to flee. Fa’aoa managed to grab Alyona’s unconscious form and used his ring of jumping to clear the second stone bridge and land in the river further downstream. Felix slipped downriver to join the barbarian, bringing Alyona back from near-death with a potion of healing. One of the Duergar dumped Korth’s unconscious form in the river and he was revived by Alyona. As the party drifted down into the rapids, they were knocked about by the rocks, but managed to pull themselves out before going over twin waterfalls and dropping into a seemingly bottomless chasm.

Hiding in a narrow cave, the party avoided a party of searching Duergar, short resting for a while. Most of the Duergar withdrew beyond a set of double doors to the north, but two guards remained. Alyona scouted the east of the cavern, noticing a chain ladder on the other side of the chasm. The party decided to flee through the cavern back upriver, to where they had left the guide rope. Of course, Korth had a different idea…

As the party escaped the cavern, Korth rushed the two Duergar guards. Unable to hold the door for long, and with more Duergar entering the room, Korth then rushed to the river and swam upstream to join the others.

In the cave they originally came from (where they killed the Roper), the party headed back to their safe room to long rest. Korth salvaged some of the Roper’s remains to make a shield and told Felix a stirring story of Semuanya, the Lizardfolk god, explaining how the lizardfolk came to be. 

Session 19 – Upstairs…

The party headed back upstairs into the Glitterhame caverns, following the path of the fast-flowing stream to the rise that Kariston (aasimar paladin) and Alyona encountered earlier. The four-foot waterfall proved somewhat troubling, so Kariston and Fa’aoa elected to throw Felix up (much to Felix’s chagrin). Unfortunately, the diminutive rogue slipped and fell into the rushing waters and was swept past the two warriors, but was captured downstream in a net Korth and Alyona had prepared for just such an occasion. Felix was thrown up again – he made it this time. Unfortunately, a giant subterranean lizard rushed out of a side cave, and Felix leapt into the water – again – to save himself. Over the falls and downstream again, but this time Felix got himself out of the water as Alyona rushed along the shore beside him to help.

Meanwhile, the subterranean lizard burst forth and captured Kariston in its jaws, dragging him up to its cave above the falls. Fa’aoa suddenly remembered he had the Ring of Jumping (!) and leapt up and over the falls to the dry ground above. The barbarian managed to free the paladin, but the great beast grabbed Fa’aoa instead, dragging him back into its cave and swallowing him.

Korth and Alyona eventually made their way up to the lizard’s cave and fought the creature with Kariston and Fa’aoa (stabbing from inside the beast). Korth was grabbed and slammed around the walls as the beast toyed with him, while Kariston leapt up onto the lizard’s back and skewered it – out poured a stomach acid-burned Fa’aoa. Meanwhile, Felix was unable to use the rope to climb up the waterfall, dropping into the fast-moving stream and finally extracting himself in a huff. He was still upset that the plan he hadn’t agreed to had involved him getting hurt, when the barbarian could have jumped up there anytime.  

Three Troglodytes on toboggans skirted the waters and attacked the party. They were quickly dealt with and Kariston discovered a bunch more around the tunnel corner. The troglodyte’s leader, Kaargaz, asked the party to leave the tribe alone. Kariston negotiated with Kaargaz, promising to kill the Orcs above and not take all of the tribe’s treasure that had been guarded by the now dead subterranean lizard. Kaargaz described the gray dwarves who had entered the caverns many years ago from the mountain entrance the party had used and mentioned a door to the southeast through the fungus forest.

The party took one of the Troglodyte chests (there were two), and short rested in the cavern south of the Trog lair. They decided to face the Gricks in the fungus forest, walking there and killing a normal Grick and two big Alphas. Felix discovered the iron door to Durgeddin’s forge where the Trog leader had advised them it would be, and the key Alyona found in the prison cell fit the lock. While Korth harvested the Grick bodies for useful components, the rest of the party scoured the Gricks’ lair and decided it would be a good place to long rest before deciding what to do about the Orcs above and Duergar below…    

Next Week: Finger of Death!

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