Side Quests 2! | Episode 4 | U1 - The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

Side Quest, Chasing After a Spellbook

We were two players down again this week, so we recycled the theme from last week, and tried the simple treasure map theory again.

If you remember from episode 3 of the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Talia, a half-elf mage-thief, had taken up employ with Bartleby, the wealthy leader of the town council, himself a wizard of some repute. In his service as a scribe, Talia worked through the oldest texts of the considerable library of tomes, documents, maps & credit statements he had accrued, copying those that needed repair, and dedicating as much of it as she could manage to memory. One of these had been the captains' log from a wrecked ship, which led Nirick and River on their treasure hunt a few days prior, and this time, she discovered a report of a long-dead wizard-merchant who had been captured by kobolds on an old road, some 2 days north and west of Saltmarsh, along an old road which skirted the swamps.

Nirick agreed to accompany her, with the eventual goal of finding the old wizard's long-forgotten spellbook. The old road hadn't been in use in over a decade, and those townspeople who still roamed that part of the wilderness hadn't reported kobolds in the area in at least twenty years. They both judged it safe, but went prepared for trouble just in case.

Preparing for Adventure

Both of them are proficient herbalists, so they concocted together a few healing salves and other first aid supplies. They also teamed their concocting skills to create a few flash bombs, alchemical contraptions that would spark up quickly, with a flash of light and white-hot fire, then burn out. Knowing that kobolds don't fair well in bright lights, they thought it might make an easier path to escape if need be.

The History of Saltmarsh

Both Nirick and Talia took some of this time to review some of the other documents they've located as well. In particular, they reviewed some of the historical notes about the town. In those, they learned that at one time, decades ago, when the city was first beginning to flourish, Saltmarsh was beset upon by a breed of fish-men called Sea-Devils. In an effort to fight off the plague of fish-men, the citizens of Saltmarsh first sold off a stake in their town to their first foreign town council member, Paelomath, a northern wizard. He was a powerful transmuter, and with his spells at hand, Saltmarsh chased off the sea-devils. It wasn't a great bargain in the end, though, as rumor had it that Paelomath made deals with wicked, demonic figures in his old age, hoping to learn the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone, a fabled magical item that could turn almost anything to pure gold. Eventually the man died, or was killed by the powers he worked with, and ever since, his cursed property has loomed over the town, a dark reminder of a deal gone bad.

Entering the Kobold Lair

The pair had a good idea where the kobold lair was from the old documents the named the raiding party and their wizard captive. After a few failed attempts to sneak up on the cave entrance, the pair did note that there was foot traffic in and around the space. They entered, and found at the foot of some roughly carved stairs, there was an old Kobold warning to any else who entered. Of course, they paid it no heed, and went on in anyways.

Talia got her first dose of properly using her thief skills, as her find traps ability showed that there was a pit trap hidden in the floor as they took one of the two possible paths from the entrance. They skirted the trap, and Nirick exposed for them to see, and noted the small horde of rats in the bottom of the pit.

As the smell of the place overtook them, they entered the main body of the cavern. They found the decrepit remains of what must have been the long-dead wizard, his boned dangling from old, rusty shackles in the wall. They also found what must have been the kobold bunks carved into the wall, and worse, a bedroll, a matted mess of old furs and blankets, for something much larger than a kobold.

Enter the Ogre

It feel like I, as the DM, keep saying this with this adventure. But sometimes I plan for an encounter to go one way, and the players completely surprise me. At the first sound of a large creature approaching, Nirick hid himself among the vines and roots in a smaller chamber (which would be the other path to the main sleeping chamber from the entrance, had the pair decided to go that way). Talia, on the other hand, attempted to get up one of the walls to hide among the cracks and crevices of the rock ceiling, adn was spotted immediately. The ogre yelled out in goblin, which Talia understood, and quickly disarmed her, and then captured her, and tied her with some vines to the old shackles braces on the walls left behind by the kobolds.

This space was very cramped for an ogre, and he tried to sit down, stretch out his legs, and enjoy the lizard he had captured for himself, delighting in the fact that he would have fresh half elf to eat later on. Nirick, trying to distract him, used his ventriloquism proficiency to throw his voice down the corridor. The ogre delighted again, and re-set his pit trap, giggling to Talia that the silly humans always come in the cave, and always fall for his trap.

While he was stooped over re-setting his trap, Nirick first attempted to use some of the poisons he had created on a blowgun dart, but missed. He then sliced through one of Talia's bonds, just before the Ogre turned back around. As the beast charged at them, Talia used her grease spell, and Nirick used his spook spell. The Ogre turned in horror from the spook, and immediately slipped in the grease. Nirick lit one of his flash bombs, and threw it into the grease, setting off a flare of white-hot fire which immediately combusted on the greasy substance now covering the ogre.

Should we stay or should we go?

This is the surprising part. It was fairly obvious that the other path looped around to the current chamber the pair were in, and they could have just attempted to run from the area like a smart pair of first level wizard-mages, obviously outmatched by a 8-9' tall ogre. But no.....Talia jumped to retrieve her shortbow, and fired off a few shots at the ogre as it struggled to get its footing in these cramped, and greased, quarters. Nirick loaded some of his poison, a substance made to weaken kobolds, onto his dagger, and persistently attempted to stab the ogre repeatedly.

Long story short, Nirick eventually rolls a critical hit to re-combust some of the remaining grease, setting the beast aflame again. But it was too late. The ogre wound up, and even in the cramped quarters, pummeled the small gnome against a wall, knocking him well below 0 hit points. The ogre then attacked Talia, who tried to escape into the refuge of the smaller of the two tunnels by throwing large rocks and debris down the tunnel ahead of him. Talia rolled the final attack, a critical hit, and plunked the last of several arrows of hers into the monster, putting him down for good. She rushed to Nirick, and stabilized the hapless gnome. Throwing him over her shoulder and running from the place, back to town. Nirick would awaken from his wounds a few days later, and together the pair would dig through the spellbook that they did, eventually find in the lair. They were rewarded for their boldness with a few new spells, including (finally) one offensive spell, and a new illusion for Nirick.

Until next time, when the party will inevitably do something else ridiculous....

Be excellent to one another, and party on, dudes.