Dark Squad in the Secrets of Saltmarsh
Session #103: Well! Well!
Dark Squad (in alphabetical order, no egos here).
Daktari/Dak (played by Haggis) Male Human Uthgardt Sky Pony Barbarian Lvl 8
Fellowyn Silverstream (played by George) Male Eladrin Wizard Bladesinger Lvl 8
New Tricks/Newt (played by Bear) Male Tabaxi Warlock 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
DEAD PCs
Nicholai Barbaros Kostyiev/Nicky (played by George) Male Dhampir Cleric of Twilight Lvl 8 RIP
NPCs
Inverna Nightbreeze (played by George) Female Wood Elf Fighter Lvl 8 (Sidekick) RETIRED
Garumn Male Mountain Dwarf Paladin of Moradin Lvl 5 RIP*
Tarbin Tul (played by goonalan) Male Human Bard 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-
- 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.
This is session 103, and we are (of course) back to fighting.
Skeletons this time.
Only these skeletons are tough buggers, there are seven of them in this encounter- although only six have made themselves known so far. Three of the six skeletons so far revealed have the use of Legendary Actions (and a big bag of hit points), alas the Squad have already destroyed two of the three tough bad guys so far.
The Legendary Actions I attached to these three fellows were awesome, alas the two skeletons the Dark Squad have already taken down didn't get a chance to show off their skills; the skeleton with a pike had an awesome attack in which he impaled an enemy (a PC) with his pike and then swung around his planted weapon kicking everyone within ten feet in the chops. I failed to hit with this attack repeatedly.
Damn!
The sword and board skeleton with Legendary Actions (also alas deceased) had something similar going on, but in a moment of genius the new mumbling bumbling Bladesinger (Fellowyn) transformed into a giant scorpion and grabbed this guy up. The skeleton swordsman failed to escape the scorpion's claws, and was duly smashed apart.
So, I had vowed (your kindly DM) to put some effort into getting the last of my Legendary Action-enhanced skeletons, the archer, into some mischief- success! Read on.
But my poor skeletons are struggling to begin with, although it helps slightly that the Dark Squad are also missing quite a lot.
But then...
My seventh skeleton turns up.
An ordinary piece of wall suddenly outlines an opening, which swings inwards- and stepping out of the dark within comes another skeleton- this one is in robes, and with a wizard's hat, and a spectral wispy beard.
This guy's skeleton claws (worn down finger bones) exude acid- Daktari gets raked and scarred.
This guy also makes sounds, he/it has a speech, or at least a few pithy asides, like-
“Come on! Keep Ub!”
“Like the Crocodile said to the Man- make it snappy!”
“And it all turns to Ash in the end!”
“Go on! Amaze me!”
That kind of thing, and the PCs are noting this stuff down- I just copied and pasted the above from the Discord chat window.
This is all stuff from the Dark Squad's various quests.
But here's the thing- what happens when the big bad guy (the skeleton with the wizard's hat) turns up?
That's right, the PCs concentrate fire and start hitting.
Less than six seconds later and my acid flinging wizard hat skeleton is down to single digit hit points (from approx. 120). It didn't help that Ram and Daktari both landed Crits.
And then he's gone... shattered.
Last words-
“WELL! WELL!”
Last actions-
The wizard hat wearing skeleton sinks to his knees, spits out a... something the size of a coin, onto the table before him, and then delivers the above last line.
Let's type it again- it must be important.
“WELL! WELL!”
See the circle(-ish) indicator on the map, that's whatever the wizard hat wearing skeleton spat out.
But here's the thing, remember I said that three of the skeletons had Legendary Actions, well bow-guy just got his chance, one of his Legendary Actions involves a full move action, with no AoO's, combined with a chance to fire his bow at anyone he gets within ten feet of (with no disadvantage).
At last.
And all hits.
Fellowyn is on something like two hit points, and my bad guy is off and running, although he's the only member of the undead still standing.
And still standing, although only just- you'll note that Daktari is back down to only a handful of hit points (again), the skeleton archer managed to plug the barbarian at least four times since the last image (with one of them a Crit).
Even Ram has taken a few hits.
But... it doesn't last.
Ram's attacks leave the last undead creature on just one hit point, at which point Vincenzo (the Moonboar) grunts out-
“Ze mowst powerful zpell in Don-john's and Drag-oons! Produce Flame!”
And that's all she wrote for my guy.
Then rest, and healing- Vinnie is having to provide a few Cure Wounds (remember Nicky, I miss him).
Funny thing.
Nicky is still in the Combat Tracker, his body is still on the map, and so every turn in combat- as we play-through the tracker, last thing- every turn is George's bell ringing on his PC to remind him that it's Nicky's go.
At which point the rest of the Players helpfully remind George, every time they hear that bell ring-
“Nicky's dead!”
It's a wonderful chorus.
I'm not sure if it's an accepted method of grief counselling, but hey-ho.
The thing the wizard hat skeleton spat out turns out to be a Luckstone. Newt snaffles this, and soon after (oddly the warlock is now very keen to get in a short rest) he attunes it.
Then, after the aforementioned rest, the Dark Squad investigate the newly revealed chamber.
It's an office come laboratory. There's money here- gold pieces, and a few hundred of them (nice). There are also lots of objects- a skull, a rose, an apple, and other things that seemingly have been turned to solid gold.
Investigations continue apace.
Note, in reality the PCs examine all of the gold items repeatedly- seemingly passing them from PC to PC, attempting a variety of skills, and eventually- after maybe a dozen checks they come to the conclusion that these are everyday items that have been either magically transformed into solid gold (less likely) or else dipped in gold (gold-plated).
Then Newt eventually takes a look at the open book on the desk, the one that the DM has been pointedly reminding the PCs about (repeatedly) for the last fifteen minutes.
The book is entitled the “Ye Olde Philosopher's Stone”, and the text begins by explaining that the book contains the secret of turning base elements into gold...
That's fifteen minutes of my life I'm not getting back.
The finds lead to more head-scratching for the Squad. The skeleton with the wizard hat said lots of stuff, it's as if Antonio De La Crane (the guy they are here to find, and to acquire his Symbol of Ub/maze button) is taunting them.
But, “WELL! WELL!”
It's time to go into the well.
Remember the Bad Dead Ancestors and their prophecies-
Ancestor #2-
“
I am Larkoz, the warden.
Check the ancient alchemist’s well.”
Well, Antonio De La Crane was an alchemist, ancient or not, and he has a well.
So, here we go again-
Out into the overgrown garden, and it's the day after (the PCs arrived) and mid-morning now, the sun is out and yet the house seems to be perpetually in shadow and gloom. Daktari assumes spider-stance, and descends, trailing a rope as he goes (affixed to an immovable rod up top).
The chamber below (eighty feet below) is full of sickly glowing fungi, but otherwise empty.
The well opening however continues down into the depths.
The Dark Squad descend into the newly revealed chamber, avoiding the glowing fungal furze- except for Vinnie who dares it- and takes a little poison damage from the spore cloud.
There are coins scattered around the chamber here, Newt sends a Mage Hand to collect them all up- silver coins.
“A luuuuuuure.” The Moonboar explains, almost breaking the French language (in an Inspector Clouseau way) with his 'luuuuuuure'.
Note, to get into the chamber the PCs (without Spider Climbing) have to swing and leap/step a few feet from the bottom of the rope onto the floor of the cavern chamber proper- this to avoid falling further down the well-shaft.
I (your glorious DM) state, 'as long as you don't roll a '1' you leap clear.'
Ram rolls a '1', and then has to spend his last Inspiration Point to re-roll it (successfully).
Which only makes the rogue more unhappy when ten minutes later the Dark Squad's investigations reveal that the well-shaft has a solid (see through) barrier preventing access below.
In essence they could have all just stepped off the rope.
After lots more checks and the use of a few ritual cantrips and the Squad discern that the barrier preventing access to the shaft below has a pattern etched into it- the pattern depicts a simple maze.
The Moonboar grabs out his Symbol of Ub/maze button, remember the Dark Squad are looking for more of these- as it turns out they all need to have one.
So far they have found... one of them.
And this Symbol of Ub/maze button was gifted them by Timor (& Daktari) of the Sky Pony Uthgardt barbarians, all the way back in...
Session 24, I think.
But then the Moonboar tries to trace the maze that prevents entrance to below, but when he gets close with his maze button in hand- the forcefield or barrier disappears with a 'pop'.
The way below is open.
Daktari, still spider stance, descends into...
A dark and grim looking pillared chamber.
And after a brief search of the place he calls his comrades down to continue the investigation.
The twenty foot high pillared chamber is dwarven built, like a lot of things the Dark Squad have been finding buried around this region. Furthermore, it's ancient.
Note, the well-shaft continues on, but as with above this too is blocked, another invisible barrier prevents further descent.
Oh, and a little later it's discovered that Vinnie's button does not open this barrier.
Further note, the Squad are around 150 feet below the surface in this columned chamber.
The statues are ghoulish looking dwarves, skeletal beneath their robes, and frightening to look at, menacing even.
The Dark Squad are waiting for these things to come alive, and are thus a little on edge throughout all that follows, although that doesn't prevent them from investigating the walls, the statues, the floors and... well, everything.
There follows lots of rolls, and lots of ideas, and things to try and/or explore- with associated skill checks. I've just checked on Discord, the image above was taken at 10.21 PM, the next image times in at 10.59 PM.
So, between this and the next bit is almost forty minutes of real time activity, so- and again, the PCs try lots of stuff, lots of searching and investigating.
There are no secret doors to be found, in the floor, in the walls, in the ceiling, or even in the pillars.
Likewise there's nothing that moves, or presses, or turns, or... nada, nothing.
No signs, or text, or images, or symbols to translate or to make sense of.
The only thing that's not part of the chamber are the remains (shattered bones) of maybe one or two individuals, but they're old... very old.
Both long dead humanoids, best guess.
For forty minutes the DM asks- “What are you doing?” And the PCs have an answer, and some other activity is discussed and then undertaken, and... still, nothing is found.
The DM, getting a little bored with this, even gets the PCs to roll random d20's every now and then, just to see if a '20' or similar comes up, so that I can give them a clue.
The thing to do here is...
Nothing.
Just stop, stand still, and listen.
Eventually, it's Ram that hears it in the end, a very quiet scratching noise, and... it seems to be coming from Newt.
Most odd.
The Squad stand in silence for a minute, and then all concur- there is indeed a faint scratching noise coming from the tabaxi warlock's backpack.
Newt gingerly takes one item at a time out of his bag.
It's coming from his Book of Shadows.
Note, Newt's Book of Shadows contains all of his spells, powers, rituals, cantrips, and other dark thoughts, it also contains his various to-do lists etc. It's a filofax-cum-necronomicon.
Newt, with the Dark Squad peering over his shoulders, turns the pages to see.
Someone else is writing in Newt's Book of Shadows.
This fact doesn't do much for Newt's mood.
There's a lot of this, about five pages worth of screen shots.
Whoever's writing in the Book of Shadows starts with 'Who are you?', although the author refuses to tell the Squad who he (or she) is.
Note Newt is writing his answers in the book, and also writing his own questions for the mystery author to answer.
There's a little back and forth, although very quickly the unknown author gets around to asking- “Who have you killed already?”
And the Dark Squad instinctively know that the writer is talking about the members of the Eyes in the Night, because they have the Symbols of Ub/maze buttons that they need.
The conversation circles for a little while longer, with the unknown author repeatedly refusing to answer quite a few of the Squad's questions.
Although many of the mystery writer's answers just lead to more questions.
Particularly about the Man and the Crocodile, which comes up- the unknown author tells the Squad that they will need to go to the Man and the Crocodile, this however only causes Newt to get even more tetchy.
The warlock starts adding emoticons to his answers, and surly asides, and CAPSLOCK SHOUTING!
That's when the twelve foot tall armoured Skeleton Minotaur appears from nowhere and full tilt slams into Newt (although in truth I missed my charge attack, even with advantage) and then follows up with a maul attack which connects with the tabaxi's mush.
That's also where we leave it, we were thirty minutes over time again.
Although there was a lot of chatter after this one, consensus is- Antonio De La Crane is the author, and he's below, maybe, and he's keen for the PCs to see off the other members of his old adventuring party- the Eyes in the Night.
More of this kind of thing, probably, next time.
Although, we're not back at the VTT until Tuesday the 18th October.
Stay safe and well you lovely people.
Cheers the Dark Squad and goonalan.