Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Dark Squad in the Secrets of Saltmarsh #136 Into the Mere of the Dead Men.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 8757421" data-attributes="member: 16069"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Dark Squad in the Secrets of Saltmarsh</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Session #099: Snakes Alive!</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Dark Squad (in alphabetical order, no egos here).</strong></p><p><strong>Daktari/Dak (played by Haggis) Male Human Uthgardt Sky Pony Barbarian Lvl 8</strong></p><p><strong>New Tricks/Newt (played by Bear) Male Tabaxi Warlock Lvl 8</strong></p><p><strong>Nicholai Barbaros Kostyiev/Nicky (played by George) Male Dhampir Cleric of Twilight Lvl 8</strong></p><p><strong>Ramshambo/Ram (played by Kev) Male Half-Elf Rogue/Fighter Lvl 7/1</strong></p><p><strong>Vincenzo/Vinnie (played by Haggis) Male Shifter (Wildhunt) Druid Lvl 8</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>NPCs</strong></p><p><strong><s>Inverna Nightbreeze (played by George) Female Wood Elf Fighter Lvl 8 (Sidekick) </s>RETIRED</strong></p><p><strong><s>Garumn Male Mountain Dwarf Paladin of Moradin Lvl 5 </s>RIP*</strong></p><p><strong><s>Tarbin Tul (played by goonalan) Male Human Bard </s>RETIRED</strong></p><p><strong>Ubmo (played by Goonalan) Supreme Being Lvl 1 (When we remember) </strong></p><p><strong>*Trapped in the Land of the Bad Dead Ancestors.</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Servants/Familiars</strong></p><p><strong>Gerald (Bat/Giant Bat) servant/mount of New Tricks</strong></p><p><strong>Owly (Owl) Vinnie’s familiar</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>The Dark Squad’s to-do list-</strong></p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The De La Crane Manse is on The Leap, and Anders Solmor would like the Squad to check it out, it's also the ancestral home of the De La Crane family, and the Squad are looking for Antonio De La Crane- see below.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Bonnie Bowspirit, grand-daughter of Rambles, will show the Squad to the missing halfling killer's tomb, on the 6th of Flamerule- see below.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Find the other four Symbols of Ub, one was left in Deepbridge (Duergar fortress in the Underdark). The others need to be found, they belonged to- Rambles 'Shambles' Bowspirit (halfling killer from Lowhill), Antonio De La Crane (posh kid druid alchemist) & Giggles (crazy wood elf). All of these folk lived in the Saltmarsh region, the Dark Squad have found the De La Crane Manse (in the Dreadwood) and the De La Crane Crypt (in Saltmarsh Cemetary).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Nightshade is in the Deep Dreadwood- except she's not there any more, but a big red dragon is?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Blackedge and the Goblin Stair?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">To join the Pact of the Wild Flame prepare the Witch's Tor for the coming of the starfall, the Witch's Tor is in the Drowned Forest, in the Mere of the Dead Men.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">To join the Pact of the Wild Flame track down the last member of the Pact, a wild elf adventurer called Giggles- and finally put her spirit to rest, and also recover her maze button. Location unknown. SEE 2. ABOVE.</li> </ol><p>This is session 99, and it was nearly the end of the Dark Squad, or at least a significant chunk of them. You'll have to read on, of course, to find out which members of the Squad (at the end) are barely hanging on to life.</p><p></p><p>But here's a teaser, at the end of this session- and the Dark Squad are still in a terrible fight when we leave them, one of the PCs has been unconscious and making death saves- twice, and is now on six hit points; another is wavering on eight hit points; yet another is bloodied; and all of them (Vinnie, Nicky & Newt) are towards the very end of their spells.</p><p></p><p>It sucks to be the Dark Squad.</p><p></p><p>Where did it all go wrong?</p><p></p><p>Let's find out together...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259933[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>We left the Dark Squad fighting stirges in the attic of the De La Crane manse...</strong></p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259934[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>But then a very large phase spider ports in and fails to do any significant damage to Ram, the bastard rogue gets away.</strong></p><p></p><p>And see that circle surrounding Nicky, that's his Spirit Guardians, which Nicky takes the time to describe/explain- he is surrounded by a selection of ghostly vampire guardians, all of them his relatives, watch out for his auntie she has a particularly vicious bite.</p><p></p><p>That's nice flavour, right there.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259935[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Soon after all of the stirges are either blasted to death by Newt, or else destroyed by the aforementioned vampire Spirit Guardians whilst trying to get to the Dark Squad.</strong></p><p></p><p>The large ugly sometimes ethereal spider is likewise tempted to dine, it doesn't last long (even after I doubled its max hit points) the Dark Squad, by the time it stalks them down, have been stacking readied actions.</p><p></p><p>Note, you can't stack readied actions, but you understand, right? The Dark Squad have been waiting for it to reappear again, so that they can unleash merry heck.</p><p></p><p>Which, of course, causes the demise of the phase spider.</p><p></p><p>The attic is searched, a little treasure found- but nothing else, and remember the Dark Squad only came up here because they could hear footsteps coming from this place.</p><p></p><p>Well, there's no-one here, and so there must be some other explanation of events. The Dark Squad however do not delve deeply into this (actually they don't delve at all), they instead quickly move on.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259936[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>A strange event- Nicky, having spent a little time telling his comrades about his family (and pointing a few of them out- his Spirit Guardians, see above) then takes a moment to ask the other members of the Squad about their families.</strong></p><p></p><p>The Squad hold station for twenty minutes here to discuss their various (mostly traumatic) childhoods. Daktari, raised by violent but loving barbarian (Sky Pony) parents even has a little cry at the end-</p><p></p><p>“You are all so badly damaged, it make me sad!” Do it in cod-Russian, remember.</p><p></p><p>Newt however rallies the troops.</p><p></p><p>“Never mind Nicky- forget all that rot, we're your family now!”</p><p></p><p>And now Nicky is crying.</p><p></p><p>Happy? Sad? Only time will tell.</p><p></p><p>Twenty minutes I'm never getting back.</p><p></p><p>Loved it.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259937[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>The Squad make a concerted effort to search through all of the rooms in the manse, and keep in mind- they're certain that- a) Antonio De La Crane lived here, and they need to find this guy- and his maze button; and b) there's somebody else here... very likely someone or something bad.</strong></p><p></p><p>Nicky, at the window (see image above) swears he saw a large light, as if from a lighthouse, emanating from somewhere down in the delta (known as The Choke) at the point the Dunwater River exits into the Sea of Swords.</p><p></p><p>The Dark Squad promise to investigate further, only not now.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259938[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Ah! This is another odd one- Vinnie has a Detect Magic spell up and running, and much of this room detects as magical, illusory magic is involved. The druid therefore dispels the magic present only... well, nothing changes.</strong></p><p></p><p>After a series of skill checks Vinnie (& Newt and Nicky) conclude that there was magic present here- possibly some sort of trap, but Vinnie dispelled it before it got going, or else before the trap had been triggered.</p><p></p><p>Keep the above in mind as you read on.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and Ram finds a little more treasure in the fireplace, and more evidence that this place was home to an alchemist.</p><p></p><p>Antonio De La Crane was an alchemist, and a druid- just like Vinnie is.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259939[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Eventually the search continues to the ground floor of the manse, and in this image we see that Newt is making friends with two spider swarms.</strong></p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259940[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Later some giant centipedes also get into action, but here's the thing- these are not Dark Squad worthy enemies, and then Nicky conjures his Spirit Guardians again, and everything dies.</strong></p><p></p><p>We go on...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259941[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Back to the kitchen, the first room that the Dark Squad failed to search- in truth on their first pass through the manse they were pretty much running full-pelt, lots of things got left undone.</strong></p><p></p><p>The Squad discover that Neddy Shakeshaft (throat cut) was killed here. It's a bloody mess.</p><p></p><p>But that doesn't answer the Dark Squad's questions, like who cut Neddy's throat, and where are they now? Also, where's Neddy's brother, Teddy? And so Ram is sent down the stairs and into the basement.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259942[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>And there's Teddy Shakeshaft, six feet eight and clad in platemail. Neddy is very dead, although Ram only takes a brief look- wary of ghosts.</strong></p><p></p><p>This basement is simply a long-abandoned wine cellar. There's nothing much to see.</p><p></p><p>Except for Teddy's body.</p><p></p><p>Vinnie and Newt investigate, their trying to figure out who or what killed the platemail clad Teddy, but before they can...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259943[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Swarms of writhing maggots burst from the armour, and flesh, of the now wriggle-some Teddy.</strong></p><p></p><p>A single maggot, actually a rot grub, burrows into the flesh of Vinnie's arm. The druid after an adjusted '25' monster knowledge check realises that only fire can kill the burrowing grub within him, and that left unattended the rot grub will kill him by eating its way to his heart (1d6 damage/grub per turn).</p><p></p><p>Actually the druid also realises that a Cure Disease will also free him of the noisome grub.</p><p></p><p>The druid chooses to Produce Flame and then slap the fiery ball against the limb into which the maggot burrowed. The plan works, and just to make sure Daktari, still on the stairs, grabs up the druid and hauls him up and out of the way of the maggot swarms that spew from the corpse.</p><p></p><p>Hurrah!</p><p></p><p>Which brings us to Newt.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259944[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>The rot grubs are +0 to hit, seconds later six of them have burrowed into the fur and flesh of Newt.</strong></p><p></p><p>From memory, I think there was a lot of swearing around the VTT just about now.</p><p></p><p>Although maybe thirty seconds later (real world) and Newt (and Bear, playing Newt) are both remarkably calm.</p><p></p><p>There's even time for a little speech-</p><p></p><p>“Fear not my comrades in arms, I will purge these burrowing fiends from my flesh. Lord Belphegor hear me, send FIRE!”</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259945[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Newt encircles himself in a Wall of Fire- the fiery side pointing in, he burns, but then again so do all of the grubs- and both swarms are destroyed.</strong></p><p></p><p>Genius!</p><p></p><p>Alas (or fortunately, depending on you POV) the fire damage causes Newt to fail his concentration check, and so the Wall of Fire lasts but a few seconds, however- job done.</p><p></p><p>Newt quickly swigs down a potion of greater healing (and he rolls 4d4+4 and gets 1+1+1+2+4, and recovers nine hit points).</p><p></p><p>Hurrah!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259946[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>“Hurrah!” Indeed. However, that's when the snakes start arriving- a sudden tide of slithering swarms of brightly coloured (clue: poisonous) serpents come spewing down the chimney and into the basement.</strong></p><p></p><p>Thousands of them, and it's an unending supply of snake swarms seemingly...</p><p></p><p>But the Dark Squad, they're still too tough.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259947[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Vinnie sets up his own Wall of Fire to corral the serpents.</strong></p><p></p><p>Lots of snakes swarms die, but clearly not enough, and here's the thing the snakes are seemingly not frightened of the flame, or else the volume is so great that they spew through the Wall of Fire regardless.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259948[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Newt gets swarmed, he's just about bloodied.</strong></p><p></p><p>But again-</p><p></p><p>“Fear not my friends, for I will- in a very similar fashion- put an end to these foul vipers!” Newt is confident still, and keep in mind everything that he says is whispered and sounds like a threat.</p><p></p><p>The tabaxi warlock shuffles and herds three of the four snake swarms on him into and through Vinnie's Wall of Fire, obviously incinerating himself a little more in the process.</p><p></p><p>More remarkably none of the snake swarms on him are destroyed either, and when he gets inside the fiery box he's no longer visible from without.</p><p></p><p>About three seconds later (game time) after a series of snake bites-</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259949[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>The tabaxi warlock is down and dying, and keep in mind Vinnie's Wall of Fire is still up- it's not visible in this image because we were having problems with token stacking.</strong></p><p></p><p>Uh-oh!</p><p></p><p>But we move on, swiftly.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259950[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Vinnie's Wall of Fire is back to being outlined on the screen, and obviously this is going to be a problem for the dying tabaxi within its compass.</strong></p><p></p><p>But that's not all- yet more snake swarms come slithering through the Wall of Fire.</p><p></p><p>Note, at this point I have activated exactly 15 giant poisonous snake swarms, and the Squad have accounted for six of them.</p><p></p><p>Here's the thing- the chatter from the Dark Squad is- we can do this, they figure that with so many snake swarms badly injured they just need a real good round to turn this fight around.</p><p></p><p>Suckers!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259951[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Nicky summons up his auntie-led vampire Spirit Guardians, snake swarms within its compass suffer.</strong></p><p></p><p>Although there are no new serpent casualties.</p><p></p><p>The Dark Squad are doing a lot of frantic.</p><p></p><p>Note Daktari and Nicky are now surrounded, being swarmed- they both have snake swarms occupying the same squares as they are, it's just tough to show this on the VTT, therefore I keep notes.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259952[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Vinnie, after ending his Wall of Fire, unleashes an Erupting Earth spell, and keep in mind the dying Newt is in the area of this spell, his body is actually beneath snake swarm 13, just north of his position in the image above.</strong></p><p></p><p>Note Nicky and Daktari are also caught within the earthy chaos.</p><p></p><p>The ground surges, erupts, fissures slew and stone and dirt fly- and a few snake swarms die, and Newt automatically fails a death saving throw- his first.</p><p></p><p>And yet more snakes swarms come spewing down the chimney, I think I mentioned I had 15 snake swarms in action last time, we are up to 20.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259953[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Why won't it stop?</strong></p><p></p><p>But take a look at Newt, the tabaxi has just rolled a '20' on his death save, the warlock is lying still with one eye open, still being slithered over by a sea of snakes, but he's alive!</p><p></p><p>More remarkably he manages to crawl his way slowly out of the snake swarms, and then huddled in the corner of the chamber he stands and delivers yet another speech/threat.</p><p></p><p>“If I'm going to hell then you are all coming with me!”</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259954[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>Newt lobs a Fireball into the mix.</strong></p><p></p><p>Before the Fireball I had 11 (out of 20) snake swarms still in action.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]259955[/ATTACH]</p><p><strong>After, I'm down to just eight swarms, and most of these are broken, but Daktari is below 10 hit points and Nicky is just about bloodied.</strong></p><p></p><p>Note, there are still more snake swarms spewing from the chimney, and the Dark Squad are still convinced they can do this.</p><p></p><p>That fighting is the answer.</p><p></p><p>Seconds later Newt is knocked unconscious again- he gets bitten by a swarm of snakes, wouldn't you know it.</p><p></p><p>Although, mere moments later Nicky revives the tabaxi with a healing word.</p><p></p><p>But that's where the session ends, and we were 20 minutes over time, and the snakes started spewing from the chimney exactly one hour and one minute ago (real time).</p><p></p><p>Could there be something else going on here?</p><p></p><p>Stay safe and well you lovely people.</p><p></p><p>Cheers the Dark Squad and goonalan.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Goonalan, post: 8757421, member: 16069"] [CENTER][B]Dark Squad in the Secrets of Saltmarsh[/B][/CENTER] [B]Session #099: Snakes Alive! Dark Squad (in alphabetical order, no egos here). Daktari/Dak (played by Haggis) Male Human Uthgardt Sky Pony Barbarian Lvl 8 New Tricks/Newt (played by Bear) Male Tabaxi Warlock Lvl 8 Nicholai Barbaros Kostyiev/Nicky (played by George) Male Dhampir Cleric of Twilight Lvl 8 Ramshambo/Ram (played by Kev) Male Half-Elf Rogue/Fighter Lvl 7/1 Vincenzo/Vinnie (played by Haggis) Male Shifter (Wildhunt) Druid Lvl 8 NPCs [S]Inverna Nightbreeze (played by George) Female Wood Elf Fighter Lvl 8 (Sidekick) [/S]RETIRED [S]Garumn Male Mountain Dwarf Paladin of Moradin Lvl 5 [/S]RIP* [S]Tarbin Tul (played by goonalan) Male Human Bard [/S]RETIRED Ubmo (played by Goonalan) Supreme Being Lvl 1 (When we remember) *Trapped in the Land of the Bad Dead Ancestors. Servants/Familiars Gerald (Bat/Giant Bat) servant/mount of New Tricks Owly (Owl) Vinnie’s familiar The Dark Squad’s to-do list-[/B] [LIST=1] [*]The De La Crane Manse is on The Leap, and Anders Solmor would like the Squad to check it out, it's also the ancestral home of the De La Crane family, and the Squad are looking for Antonio De La Crane- see below. [*]Bonnie Bowspirit, grand-daughter of Rambles, will show the Squad to the missing halfling killer's tomb, on the 6th of Flamerule- see below. [*]Find the other four Symbols of Ub, one was left in Deepbridge (Duergar fortress in the Underdark). The others need to be found, they belonged to- Rambles 'Shambles' Bowspirit (halfling killer from Lowhill), Antonio De La Crane (posh kid druid alchemist) & Giggles (crazy wood elf). All of these folk lived in the Saltmarsh region, the Dark Squad have found the De La Crane Manse (in the Dreadwood) and the De La Crane Crypt (in Saltmarsh Cemetary). [*]Nightshade is in the Deep Dreadwood- except she's not there any more, but a big red dragon is? [*]Blackedge and the Goblin Stair? [*]To join the Pact of the Wild Flame prepare the Witch's Tor for the coming of the starfall, the Witch's Tor is in the Drowned Forest, in the Mere of the Dead Men. [*]To join the Pact of the Wild Flame track down the last member of the Pact, a wild elf adventurer called Giggles- and finally put her spirit to rest, and also recover her maze button. Location unknown. SEE 2. ABOVE. [/LIST] This is session 99, and it was nearly the end of the Dark Squad, or at least a significant chunk of them. You'll have to read on, of course, to find out which members of the Squad (at the end) are barely hanging on to life. But here's a teaser, at the end of this session- and the Dark Squad are still in a terrible fight when we leave them, one of the PCs has been unconscious and making death saves- twice, and is now on six hit points; another is wavering on eight hit points; yet another is bloodied; and all of them (Vinnie, Nicky & Newt) are towards the very end of their spells. It sucks to be the Dark Squad. Where did it all go wrong? Let's find out together... [ATTACH type="full"]259933[/ATTACH] [B]We left the Dark Squad fighting stirges in the attic of the De La Crane manse...[/B] [ATTACH type="full"]259934[/ATTACH] [B]But then a very large phase spider ports in and fails to do any significant damage to Ram, the bastard rogue gets away.[/B] And see that circle surrounding Nicky, that's his Spirit Guardians, which Nicky takes the time to describe/explain- he is surrounded by a selection of ghostly vampire guardians, all of them his relatives, watch out for his auntie she has a particularly vicious bite. That's nice flavour, right there. [ATTACH type="full"]259935[/ATTACH] [B]Soon after all of the stirges are either blasted to death by Newt, or else destroyed by the aforementioned vampire Spirit Guardians whilst trying to get to the Dark Squad.[/B] The large ugly sometimes ethereal spider is likewise tempted to dine, it doesn't last long (even after I doubled its max hit points) the Dark Squad, by the time it stalks them down, have been stacking readied actions. Note, you can't stack readied actions, but you understand, right? The Dark Squad have been waiting for it to reappear again, so that they can unleash merry heck. Which, of course, causes the demise of the phase spider. The attic is searched, a little treasure found- but nothing else, and remember the Dark Squad only came up here because they could hear footsteps coming from this place. Well, there's no-one here, and so there must be some other explanation of events. The Dark Squad however do not delve deeply into this (actually they don't delve at all), they instead quickly move on. [ATTACH type="full"]259936[/ATTACH] [B]A strange event- Nicky, having spent a little time telling his comrades about his family (and pointing a few of them out- his Spirit Guardians, see above) then takes a moment to ask the other members of the Squad about their families.[/B] The Squad hold station for twenty minutes here to discuss their various (mostly traumatic) childhoods. Daktari, raised by violent but loving barbarian (Sky Pony) parents even has a little cry at the end- “You are all so badly damaged, it make me sad!” Do it in cod-Russian, remember. Newt however rallies the troops. “Never mind Nicky- forget all that rot, we're your family now!” And now Nicky is crying. Happy? Sad? Only time will tell. Twenty minutes I'm never getting back. Loved it. [ATTACH type="full"]259937[/ATTACH] [B]The Squad make a concerted effort to search through all of the rooms in the manse, and keep in mind- they're certain that- a) Antonio De La Crane lived here, and they need to find this guy- and his maze button; and b) there's somebody else here... very likely someone or something bad.[/B] Nicky, at the window (see image above) swears he saw a large light, as if from a lighthouse, emanating from somewhere down in the delta (known as The Choke) at the point the Dunwater River exits into the Sea of Swords. The Dark Squad promise to investigate further, only not now. [ATTACH type="full"]259938[/ATTACH] [B]Ah! This is another odd one- Vinnie has a Detect Magic spell up and running, and much of this room detects as magical, illusory magic is involved. The druid therefore dispels the magic present only... well, nothing changes.[/B] After a series of skill checks Vinnie (& Newt and Nicky) conclude that there was magic present here- possibly some sort of trap, but Vinnie dispelled it before it got going, or else before the trap had been triggered. Keep the above in mind as you read on. Oh, and Ram finds a little more treasure in the fireplace, and more evidence that this place was home to an alchemist. Antonio De La Crane was an alchemist, and a druid- just like Vinnie is. [ATTACH type="full"]259939[/ATTACH] [B]Eventually the search continues to the ground floor of the manse, and in this image we see that Newt is making friends with two spider swarms.[/B] [ATTACH type="full"]259940[/ATTACH] [B]Later some giant centipedes also get into action, but here's the thing- these are not Dark Squad worthy enemies, and then Nicky conjures his Spirit Guardians again, and everything dies.[/B] We go on... [ATTACH type="full"]259941[/ATTACH] [B]Back to the kitchen, the first room that the Dark Squad failed to search- in truth on their first pass through the manse they were pretty much running full-pelt, lots of things got left undone.[/B] The Squad discover that Neddy Shakeshaft (throat cut) was killed here. It's a bloody mess. But that doesn't answer the Dark Squad's questions, like who cut Neddy's throat, and where are they now? Also, where's Neddy's brother, Teddy? And so Ram is sent down the stairs and into the basement. [ATTACH type="full"]259942[/ATTACH] [B]And there's Teddy Shakeshaft, six feet eight and clad in platemail. Neddy is very dead, although Ram only takes a brief look- wary of ghosts.[/B] This basement is simply a long-abandoned wine cellar. There's nothing much to see. Except for Teddy's body. Vinnie and Newt investigate, their trying to figure out who or what killed the platemail clad Teddy, but before they can... [ATTACH type="full"]259943[/ATTACH] [B]Swarms of writhing maggots burst from the armour, and flesh, of the now wriggle-some Teddy.[/B] A single maggot, actually a rot grub, burrows into the flesh of Vinnie's arm. The druid after an adjusted '25' monster knowledge check realises that only fire can kill the burrowing grub within him, and that left unattended the rot grub will kill him by eating its way to his heart (1d6 damage/grub per turn). Actually the druid also realises that a Cure Disease will also free him of the noisome grub. The druid chooses to Produce Flame and then slap the fiery ball against the limb into which the maggot burrowed. The plan works, and just to make sure Daktari, still on the stairs, grabs up the druid and hauls him up and out of the way of the maggot swarms that spew from the corpse. Hurrah! Which brings us to Newt. [ATTACH type="full"]259944[/ATTACH] [B]The rot grubs are +0 to hit, seconds later six of them have burrowed into the fur and flesh of Newt.[/B] From memory, I think there was a lot of swearing around the VTT just about now. Although maybe thirty seconds later (real world) and Newt (and Bear, playing Newt) are both remarkably calm. There's even time for a little speech- “Fear not my comrades in arms, I will purge these burrowing fiends from my flesh. Lord Belphegor hear me, send FIRE!” [ATTACH type="full"]259945[/ATTACH] [B]Newt encircles himself in a Wall of Fire- the fiery side pointing in, he burns, but then again so do all of the grubs- and both swarms are destroyed.[/B] Genius! Alas (or fortunately, depending on you POV) the fire damage causes Newt to fail his concentration check, and so the Wall of Fire lasts but a few seconds, however- job done. Newt quickly swigs down a potion of greater healing (and he rolls 4d4+4 and gets 1+1+1+2+4, and recovers nine hit points). Hurrah! [ATTACH type="full"]259946[/ATTACH] [B]“Hurrah!” Indeed. However, that's when the snakes start arriving- a sudden tide of slithering swarms of brightly coloured (clue: poisonous) serpents come spewing down the chimney and into the basement.[/B] Thousands of them, and it's an unending supply of snake swarms seemingly... But the Dark Squad, they're still too tough. [ATTACH type="full"]259947[/ATTACH] [B]Vinnie sets up his own Wall of Fire to corral the serpents.[/B] Lots of snakes swarms die, but clearly not enough, and here's the thing the snakes are seemingly not frightened of the flame, or else the volume is so great that they spew through the Wall of Fire regardless. [ATTACH type="full"]259948[/ATTACH] [B]Newt gets swarmed, he's just about bloodied.[/B] But again- “Fear not my friends, for I will- in a very similar fashion- put an end to these foul vipers!” Newt is confident still, and keep in mind everything that he says is whispered and sounds like a threat. The tabaxi warlock shuffles and herds three of the four snake swarms on him into and through Vinnie's Wall of Fire, obviously incinerating himself a little more in the process. More remarkably none of the snake swarms on him are destroyed either, and when he gets inside the fiery box he's no longer visible from without. About three seconds later (game time) after a series of snake bites- [ATTACH type="full"]259949[/ATTACH] [B]The tabaxi warlock is down and dying, and keep in mind Vinnie's Wall of Fire is still up- it's not visible in this image because we were having problems with token stacking.[/B] Uh-oh! But we move on, swiftly. [ATTACH type="full"]259950[/ATTACH] [B]Vinnie's Wall of Fire is back to being outlined on the screen, and obviously this is going to be a problem for the dying tabaxi within its compass.[/B] But that's not all- yet more snake swarms come slithering through the Wall of Fire. Note, at this point I have activated exactly 15 giant poisonous snake swarms, and the Squad have accounted for six of them. Here's the thing- the chatter from the Dark Squad is- we can do this, they figure that with so many snake swarms badly injured they just need a real good round to turn this fight around. Suckers! [ATTACH type="full"]259951[/ATTACH] [B]Nicky summons up his auntie-led vampire Spirit Guardians, snake swarms within its compass suffer.[/B] Although there are no new serpent casualties. The Dark Squad are doing a lot of frantic. Note Daktari and Nicky are now surrounded, being swarmed- they both have snake swarms occupying the same squares as they are, it's just tough to show this on the VTT, therefore I keep notes. [ATTACH type="full"]259952[/ATTACH] [B]Vinnie, after ending his Wall of Fire, unleashes an Erupting Earth spell, and keep in mind the dying Newt is in the area of this spell, his body is actually beneath snake swarm 13, just north of his position in the image above.[/B] Note Nicky and Daktari are also caught within the earthy chaos. The ground surges, erupts, fissures slew and stone and dirt fly- and a few snake swarms die, and Newt automatically fails a death saving throw- his first. And yet more snakes swarms come spewing down the chimney, I think I mentioned I had 15 snake swarms in action last time, we are up to 20. [ATTACH type="full"]259953[/ATTACH] [B]Why won't it stop?[/B] But take a look at Newt, the tabaxi has just rolled a '20' on his death save, the warlock is lying still with one eye open, still being slithered over by a sea of snakes, but he's alive! More remarkably he manages to crawl his way slowly out of the snake swarms, and then huddled in the corner of the chamber he stands and delivers yet another speech/threat. “If I'm going to hell then you are all coming with me!” [ATTACH type="full"]259954[/ATTACH] [B]Newt lobs a Fireball into the mix.[/B] Before the Fireball I had 11 (out of 20) snake swarms still in action. [ATTACH type="full"]259955[/ATTACH] [B]After, I'm down to just eight swarms, and most of these are broken, but Daktari is below 10 hit points and Nicky is just about bloodied.[/B] Note, there are still more snake swarms spewing from the chimney, and the Dark Squad are still convinced they can do this. That fighting is the answer. Seconds later Newt is knocked unconscious again- he gets bitten by a swarm of snakes, wouldn't you know it. Although, mere moments later Nicky revives the tabaxi with a healing word. But that's where the session ends, and we were 20 minutes over time, and the snakes started spewing from the chimney exactly one hour and one minute ago (real time). Could there be something else going on here? Stay safe and well you lovely people. Cheers the Dark Squad and goonalan. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Dark Squad in the Secrets of Saltmarsh #136 Into the Mere of the Dead Men.
Top