It takes a lot of work to mesh singular modules into a cohesive adventure, but [Mike] Mearls and Kate Welch (who served as the lead designers on this one) did a fantastic job. This is the first campaign book Ive read through properly, but I understand these rosters also appeared in previous campaign books. While the events of this adventure are very exciting, it has significant problems. This appendix includes statblocks for a number of creatures. In this adventure, the characters are asked by a struggling merchant to help salvage his wealth from a former ship of his fleet, long thought lost to the sea. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has a lot of new content-new adventures, dozens of new areas to explore, but today, we're taking a look at what it offers players. In The Final Enemy the characters travel to the former lizardfolk island, assess the threat of the sahuagin, and perhaps end the threat the sahuagin . Its worth remembering that there are also two random encounter tables in Chapter 1: Saltmarsh. The rules here now include ship upgrades, which grant your ship special benefits/powers. it appears that the actual print of the cover looks flatter and duller, Monstrous Monograph: Monstrosities Volume 1. The cannibal cultists of Lolth have left no written records which might shed further light on events. If you do the work to flesh them out the three adventure seeds provided, its feasible to significantly expand your GoS campaign with a second major arc. Purchasing this bundle unlocks the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book in digital format in the game compendium with all the artwork and maps, cross-linking, and tooltips. The background in question: the lost ship was not sunk in a storm as thought, but actually driven off course. However, its the perfect place to add such links. Slaves present in the fortress add an additional complication for moral characters, who may hate the idea of leaving the slaves even if they may be rescued in the subsequent attack. But the means of their death makes it unlikely we can provide any further context to our players: we might think about adding a letter on their persons, but how would such a document have survived water damage when the thieves drowned? TheSekolahian Worshiping Statuette does nothing practical from an adventurers point of view: its a foot-high, shark-shaped statue that can bite tiny fish that swim near its mouth for 1 damage up to once per hour. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh Adventure book releases May 21st and it is full of adventures and possible plots. Mr. Dorys connection a cult of Tharizdun and a being called The Whisperer, believed to be Tharizduns messenger, who gives the cult orders. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Fortunately, its completely disconnected from the main arc and is easily replaced. Haunted House Loot. This table is a fun idea but only moderately useful in my opinion. The characters are once again asked for help by Saltmarshs town council on behalf of the alliance against the sahuagin. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. [2], Christian Hoffer, for Comicbook, wrote that "the book contains a surprising amount of references and nods to its Greyhawk roots. In case this game goes longer than an adventure or two, I'd like to try and build out a coherent campaign. It was an oddity in its time and is still a bit of an oddity now: if played smart the adventure requires absolutely no combat. This sets off immediate alarm bells because of the expected level: 11th-level spellcasters have significant ways to steamroller through this sort of adventure. The first conflict of the adventure is a pretty creative encounter, or series of encounters as the case may be. These include crew conflicts, fires, fogs, infestations, and storms. Tactics is the key to defeating Thousand Teeth. The corpses go in, and drowned ones come out. What would be far, far more useful would be a summary of what creatures might arrive in a room from elsewhere. slot level above 1st used to cast it), and the next attack against the target before the end of the lizardfolk's next turn has advantage. These include blue holes, coral reefs, currents, depth, kelp forests, sandbars, shipwrecks, and whirlpools. Its designed for 4-6 characters of 7th level, so the characters may need to undertake another side quest after Chapter 5. If they have managed to talk to the druid, the characters will know that the octopus already attacked the ship once and can deduce that it is pursuing the vessel. Just arrived The Wasteland Wanderer Character Record! But even if you dont intend to use the books adventures,GoSstill comes highly recommended for all 5e DMs who might ever expect the player characters to venture out to sea. The entry for a room only tells me who is in the room and where else in the dungeon those creatures might go. . Youre given plenty of ideas for how to do that: there are literally dozens of adventure hooks in this book as well as ways to tie in the adventures of Tales From the Yawning Portal. The roster would be far more effective a tool. Otherwise, the attack comes out of nowhere and feels contrived. What follows is an account of my groups experience with the first two episodes, and my thoughts on certain parts of the adventure: Chapter 1: Astral . Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Part 1: Sigurd's Island. At some point afterward the ship was attacked by a giant octopus (which is still pursuing the vessel), and only one of the cultists that was crewing it remains alive, along with various monsters. While these entities are different enough that its not easy to tie them together into a single conspiracy, perhaps the connection is simply that the power of evil is waxing. This is a slightly surprising omission, as this downtime action specifically resolved finding a crew which many DMs would no doubt find helpful. And of course, the typical curse that you cant easily get rid of the item. I have the DnDBeyond version of the content, which means I cant comment on the physical quality of the book or its interior design, but if you already own official fifth edition products in hardback you should already know what kind of quality to expect. These guards are alerted by noise in 1. I want to take this opportunity to talk about them for a little bit, because I dont think they work. Each episode ends on a dramatic cliffhanger for the next episode to follow. A far more logical and helpful approach would be to summarise who might arrive in a room and why in the roster, so that you only need to glance at one entry on the table: the one for the room the characters are currently in. Historically set in the Greyhawk setting, here it's reimagined as setting-neutral, and is a self-contained area with a lot of intrigue. They then must defend it agaisnt a horde of drowned ones, before venturing underwater to face the drowned ones leader and seal the Pit of Hatred. Kunzelman highlighted that "the history of 'sea adventures' seems a little more mechanically complicated than your average adventure, and it seems like a DM would need to really encourage players in specific ways if they wanted to run these as anything other than dungeon delves with strange enemies not often seen on shore. AboutPressCopyrightContact. I like this section a lot for what it is. You can read all of these articles here: Like those articles, this article contains spoilers for Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Guildmaster Tabeth of the mariners guild is aware of the town councils alliance with the lizardfolk, and their fears of sahuagin attack (as a lead figure in the mariners guild, he certainly should be in the loop). Theyre fun, and mostly useful. Ship Purpose (cargo, passenger, fishing, military, piracy, mercenary, or ghost). There is a very loose connection between all the adventures that might be worth exploring: every single one pertains in some way to an evil deity/power. DMs looking for their next published campaign have a lot to look forward to if they choose GoS. Causing the kraken to flee avoids that horror, but taking the long view it may be a worse result: hidden in the ocean depths the kraken can grow to adulthood unopposed. After returning with their intelligence, the characters are rewarded, but of course there part in the plan isnt done: the alliance want them to join the attack on the fortress as a strike team so its back to the stronghold they go! Saltmarsh itself is not large enough to contain the Styes (and we see that it isnt included on the Saltmarsh map), meaning that this is another adventure that requires the characters to travel elsewhere. In addition, there are optional rumours about the site you can use to encourage the characters to take the job. Its also true that rooms nearby on the map are mostly also nearby on the table. Theyre certainly going out of their way with this product to cater for nostalgic fans hungry for settings which previously had no support. On balance, I think probably not, though that certainly depends on how well the product does and how much demand for more there seems to be. Action to cast, 10', instantaneous. [1][4][5] Ghosts of Saltmarsh was released on May 21, 2019. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. They can pick up some rumors at the docks. Personally Id not use the race tables very often (with perhaps a few exceptions Id rather crews be of mixed backgrounds) but your mileage, or nautical mileage in this case, may vary. Danger is 3. Its a bit of a generic concept, and ends up being less exciting than some of the other islands for it. Youll either love or hate the maps in GoS. We also learn that the official setting for Ghosts of Saltmarsh is within the region of Keoland in the Greyhawk campaign setting, not in the Forgotten Realms. These are the Charm of Plant Command, Cursed Luckstone, Helm of Underwater Action, Pipe of Remembrance, Pressure Capsule, and Sekolahian Worshiping Statuette. Theres even a section dealing with how to determine the mood of the town on any given visit, depending on whether the towns fishing industry is doing well! This may or may not be a sign of more official Greyhawk to come. The Saltmarsh village and regional maps can be printed on 17x24 for about $3 each at your local Staples or Fedex print center and they look great on the table when you're running your session zero and describing the locations. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh consists of 7 adventures that take players from level 1 - 11 The first adventure - The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - is 4-6 players of level 1 The second - Danger at Dunwater - is 4-6 players of level 3 The third - Salvage Operation - is 4-6 players of level 4 The fourth - Isle of the Abbey - is 4-6 players of level 5 Campaign Setting Credits Lead Designer & Author . The first, Avernus, fell apart. They do really well, managing to map out a lot of the levels and freeing Borgas and Kysh. All sample ships come with a map (with the exception of the rowboat, which obviously doesnt need one). Im mentioning that now so I dont keep repeating myself in my summaries of the following chapters, though I wont mention it again in my descriptions of the following chapters. Where did she come from? My party is 4th level, too. Encounters at Sea provides Open Water Encounters tables for ships travelling out on the deep blue. On the Sea Ghost, the adventurers also meet a party of lizardfolk, and find other clues that suggest busting the smuggling ring isnt the end of Saltmarshs problems. Likewise, you might roll a mysterious island, which can also be generated using rules in this chapter. An alternate art cover was available exclusively in local game stores. In a session zero, our players can build their characters together while also discussing the story of the campaign. If you are intending to play in any adventures from this book, or you think you might watch a video stream or listen to a podcasts of other people playing, dont read this review in full. Alternatively, these locations can be used as a starting point to inspire adventures: each location has a section of guidance for generating adventures that might take place there. The adventure is for 4-6 level 4 characters. Fortunately, an awareness of this seems to have factored in at the design stage: indeed, the adventure references divination and commune specifically as options for characters who have lost the trail. However, as you know by now it also should be far more helpful than it actually is. See Full PDF Download PDF. In some campaigns this doesn't matter too much but it's hard to figure out why a githyanki or yuan-ti might be involved in the issues surrounding a fishing village. Heres what Wizards of the Coast have to say about what this product offers: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (hereafter referred to as GoS) runs to 256 pages, which is the typical length of a Fifth Edition product by Wizards of the Coast. Chapter 2: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (level 1-3) A fun two-part adventure which probably seemed more ground-breaking and revelatory 39 years ago than it does now. They may or may not be willing to entertain visitors. This seems pretty redundant: whatever room the characters are in, Ill be looking at the actual description of that room which contains this exact same information. Hes a 3rd-level wizard, you could use his statblock as a template for other lower level mages. TheCharm of Plant Command andHelm of Underwater Action in particular need no explanation. Time to turn back if you dont want spoilers! It's a Sith legend. Are the slavers back? A Pressure Capsule is a consumable that allows you to ignore effects of swimming at depths greater than 100 feet (if youre not aware, these effects are described in the Underwater section of Unusual Environments in the Dungeon Masters Guide. DREAMS OF THE RED WIZARDS AN ADVENTURE FOR CHARACTERS OF 2 ND -4 TH LEVEL TITO LEATI MATT SERNETT CHRIS SIMS. The appendix starts with rules governing ships. Saltmarsh Overviewdescribes the towns approach to law enforcement and defense, its commerce (in the form of fishing, trading, smuggling, and mining), the towns locations, and available downtime activities. Attitude and Race. Likewise, you should enjoy playing them! This one-page guide, influenced heavily by Matt Coleville's video on the value of player guides, is intended to give the players everything they need to understand where the campaign is going and how their character might fit into it. The section describes 6 island themes: The second appendix is a short one, containing just six magic items. They can be run individually or together. Im equally surprised that it was found worthy of inclusion in its current form alongside so many better thought out adventures. Tendrils of Saltmarsh is a trilogy of adventures design to help fill in the level gaps left in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book. [1][2][3] The adventures included, in the order of presentation and including original publication year, are: Additionally, the book contains rules for ship-to-ship combat, character backgrounds and includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh which anchors each adventure. Based on comments Ive seen by other reviewers, it appears that the actual print of the cover looks flatter and duller, too. An adventure for levels 5-8, the adventure is told in a series of short episodes requiring about 2-3 hours to play each. Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 2: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 3, Danger at Dunwater, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 4: Salvage Operation, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 5: Isle of the Abbey, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 6: The Final Enemy, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 8: The Styes, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 7: Tammeraut's Fate, Matt Coleville's video on the value of player guides, D&D Beyond version of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Running Ghosts of Saltmarsh Chapter 5, Isle of the Abbey, Subscribe to the Sly Flourish weekly newsletter, Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot, Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions. If you like picking up new sources of monsters to help diversify your own adventures, theres good value in this appendix for you. 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