It was a horrible night to end a horrible few weeks. Your characters have been chained for nearly a month in the hold of a slave ship. They were beaten, underfed, and psychologically abused. Their destination was unknown to them.
At sunset last night, as a black and ominous storm approached, land was sighted - a low wall of cliffs to the north. Then night fell, and the first squalls struck. Hail pelted the side of the ship.
Prudent sailors would have tried to weather the storm away from the coast, but the slavers, for whatever reason, anchored dangerously close to shore – close enough that your characters could hear the boom of breakers in the distance. Then the storm hit, violently shaking the vessel with each growing swell. Quivys the dwarf, shackled to the common chain near a porthole, won a brief glimpse of a distant house high on a cliff, and a light blinking slowly and irregularly from an upper floor.
The storm worsened. Perhaps it was a freak wave that finally rent the ship asunder, but there was something else – something massive – that passed under the ship and produced a monstrous and unworldly bellow. Then the ship was smashed, the slaves’ chain snapped, and everyone was plunged into a black and icy cold sea.
Only five of the thirty or more slaves, and none of the slavers, survived the desperate swim to the rocky shore through violent, crashing waves in the black of night. Only distant lights far to the west helped orient them. Mostly it was just luck.
It is now twilight, just before dawn. The season is late autumn. It is cold and damp and grey. Your characters begin the day with only 2 hit points each, and one level of exhaustion, freezing, on the stony shore. Each character has a pair of shackles hanging from their right hand, freed at last from their chain.
Debris and cargo from the wreck litter the beach, together with the bodies of the dead. Collecting gear from the rocky shore, your exhausted characters manage to find their equipment and gold - or at least their equivalent. Omen, the tall man with the white chops, is still looking for something. All of their food rations have been spoiled. Your characters suspect they are marooned on the southern shores of a kingdom known as Keelan, far across the Azure Sea from their homes.
There are low buildings visible near the shore, perhaps a half-mile to the west. To the east, the cliffs rise and the rocky shore narrows. The smell of smoke hangs in the air, together with the boom of cold, angry breakers against the stony shorefront.
Kasimir Bugiardo (played by Mithdraugaer) - Human, male. Of average height and build for a human; unremarkable features. His face is more pleasant than attractive. Thin and fit, with smooth, tan skin, brown eyes, and brown hair cut short. His clothing is fine and well-made, but not ostentatious.
Red (played by VaileeDisallowed) - Tiefling, female. Usually tidy and neat; wearing cheap, old clothes. Long dark wavy hair and gold eyes with grey skin. Horns that curve back at right angles. Slim swimmers build with average height. Always smiling with a slightly mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
Omen Peregrine (played by leapingmountain) - Human, male. A tall, thick man with long white hair and chops for facial hair. He is (or was) wearing a city watch uniform.
Qivys (played by SinarLightwood) - Dwarf, male. Squat.
Claire (played by Sacrosanctis) - Human, female. 5'5" with light skin, neck-length cherry blond hair, and amber eyes.
• Make any rolls for skills, attack / damage, etc. in their own line. Use the dice roller! Example: Attack: 19 Damage: 5 slashing. Example: Stealth: 10 Link to dice roller: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post/2985-rolling-dice (The dice roller is quite sophisticated, but all you really need is in the little die icon in your post toolbar. Number of dice, die type, bonus, advantage/disadvantage.)
• OOC (out of character) text is typically in the last line, in parentheses.
(Feel free to take this time to engage in some role play amongst yourselves. Now would be a great time to introduce yourselves! We won't move the adventure along significantly until tomorrow - Wednesday - at the earliest.)
(While you've been together for weeks in a cramped hold, you were chained in place, none of you were adjacent, and loud conversation led to beatings. So while you may have seen each other, you have not spoken yet.)
Omen continues to search the the area, rubbing his torso rotating his limbs a bit to get and keep circulation through out his body.
Where is it? he keeps thinking to himself. Omen tries to keep calm but his focus on finding his spell book does send a little panic through his mind.
"Has anyone seen a book?"Omen calls out to the others whom he knowssurvived the miracle/disaster. "Leather bound with 2 locking clasps on it." Omen describes it.
Omen does pause his search at moments to check on those who also survived. Aiding them to the location where one is trying to start something of a fire.
Still scanning about, looking for his precious book, Omen says to those survivors " The smell of smoke is in the air. I am betting there is a dwelling close by."
Waving an arm towards the man with white hair. "Hey you! You're going to die of chills if you keep wandering around. Someone is trying to start a fire. Come and warm yourself."
Quivys moves towards the soon to be fire."Hello kind sir. I hope you can get this started, it's freezing"
"Thank you Master Dwarf." Omen smiles at the dwarf.
"I will keep your advice in mind but, I am missing something that is very precious to me and I would hope that fates will let me find it." Omen scans the shore again.
To those of you who want to help Omen's search, make a perception check with disadvantage (from exhaustion) as you scan the beach for his book in the gray, early-morning light. (A nice opportunity for you to practice the basic Dice Roller if you've never used it before! Note: You can edit your post afterwards, but you're not allowed to edit your roll!)
Omen says to those survivors " The smell of smoke is in the air. I am betting there is a dwelling close by."
While there are some buildings in the distance, there's something unpleasant about the thin smoke smell that suggests it may not be a hearth.
Having piled up some driftwood and wreckage, Kasimir struggles with numb, trembling fingers to get a fire started.
Kasimir struggles starting the fire. Everything is wet. This will take some extra time to get started.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Red
Red hauls herself to her feet and frowns down at her clothes, futilely trying to brush the sand off her clothes. At the request of one of the other survivors she scans the shore for a book matching his description. She figures she'd probably have an easier time spotting it with her darkvision than the human.
After much fumbling and a few muttered curses at the damp wood, the fire eventually appears to catch. The fire hisses, pops, and smokes, but it is finally giving off some warmth. Kasimir pops off his boots and sets them near the fire to dry.
To the dwarf: "Welcome, sir. As I can see by your wrist you weren't one of the slaver jackals, I would be happy to share the fire." He gestures to a large piece of wreckage nearby, "Please, have a seat and get yourself dry. I've a feeling it's to be a long day."
Louder, to the searching man: "And you sir, come warm yourself as well. Once the sun is well up and we're no longer shivering I'll help find your book, if indeed it remains to be found."
Giving up on the book for now Red heads over to the newly lit fire. "I'm exhausted, I probably need to rest before I could spot a book out here. Though I have a bad feeling about that smoke and our chances of getting one soon."
Kasimir indeed gets a small fire going, eventually.
she scans the shore for a book matching his description.
Red sees no books - only stones, debris, and a few bodies.
(You should know that earlier I PMed Omen to tell him he was missing his book. I may do that occasionally - check your PMs regularly. You may learn or obtain something you'd rather not share with the others, or you may choose to separate from the party on a mission, for instance.)
"I'm Red." The tiefling says, despite clearly being neither red, not wearing anything red. She looks at Omen intently "You're clearly very fond of this book. What's in it?"
Sits miserably by the fire, arms wrapped around his knees, shivering and fidgeting to find the right position. Too far away and there's no warmth; too near and it's scorching; and however he sits the side away from the fire is freezing. He forces a smile and nods to the each of the three who have joined him. "Red, Omen, and -- did I catch that right -- Qivys? I'm Kasimir." He rotates again to warm his other side. "I don't know about you, but I'm not impressed with the dinner service on this cruise. I think a strongly-worded letter is in order."
Omen sees no book, but as the day brightens (if thickly overcast, chilly, and raw), he sees a couple of crates, barrels, and a jumble of timbers washed ashore to the west that they have not yet poked through.
After looking a bit more Omen will turn towards the shore line and then to the buildings in the distance, trying to make out anything from them. Perception: 10
They are low, small, one-story cabins by the look of them, although there may be larger buildings behind. The cliff, looming high over you to your right, also gradually diminishes in height as it approaches the settlement.
(Omen has a +1 on perception, so those rolls should actually by 11's. Don't forget to add in your bonuses! On the other hand, they should also have been rolled with disadvantage - you're still exhausted until you get some food and drink and a long rest. But both of these observations you would have made anyway in the growing light without rolling.)
It was a horrible night to end a horrible few weeks. Your characters have been chained for nearly a month in the hold of a slave ship. They were beaten, underfed, and psychologically abused. Their destination was unknown to them.
At sunset last night, as a black and ominous storm approached, land was sighted - a low wall of cliffs to the north. Then night fell, and the first squalls struck. Hail pelted the side of the ship.
Prudent sailors would have tried to weather the storm away from the coast, but the slavers, for whatever reason, anchored dangerously close to shore – close enough that your characters could hear the boom of breakers in the distance. Then the storm hit, violently shaking the vessel with each growing swell. Quivys the dwarf, shackled to the common chain near a porthole, won a brief glimpse of a distant house high on a cliff, and a light blinking slowly and irregularly from an upper floor.
The storm worsened. Perhaps it was a freak wave that finally rent the ship asunder, but there was something else – something massive – that passed under the ship and produced a monstrous and unworldly bellow. Then the ship was smashed, the slaves’ chain snapped, and everyone was plunged into a black and icy cold sea.
Only five of the thirty or more slaves, and none of the slavers, survived the desperate swim to the rocky shore through violent, crashing waves in the black of night. Only distant lights far to the west helped orient them. Mostly it was just luck.
It is now twilight, just before dawn. The season is late autumn. It is cold and damp and grey. Your characters begin the day with only 2 hit points each, and one level of exhaustion, freezing, on the stony shore. Each character has a pair of shackles hanging from their right hand, freed at last from their chain.
Debris and cargo from the wreck litter the beach, together with the bodies of the dead. Collecting gear from the rocky shore, your exhausted characters manage to find their equipment and gold - or at least their equivalent. Omen, the tall man with the white chops, is still looking for something. All of their food rations have been spoiled. Your characters suspect they are marooned on the southern shores of a kingdom known as Keelan, far across the Azure Sea from their homes.
There are low buildings visible near the shore, perhaps a half-mile to the west. To the east, the cliffs rise and the rocky shore narrows. The smell of smoke hangs in the air, together with the boom of cold, angry breakers against the stony shorefront.
Welcome to Saltmarsh.
Player Characters:
Kasimir Bugiardo (played by Mithdraugaer) - Human, male. Of average height and build for a human; unremarkable features. His face is more pleasant than attractive. Thin and fit, with smooth, tan skin, brown eyes, and brown hair cut short. His clothing is fine and well-made, but not ostentatious.
Red (played by VaileeDisallowed) - Tiefling, female. Usually tidy and neat; wearing cheap, old clothes. Long dark wavy hair and gold eyes with grey skin. Horns that curve back at right angles. Slim swimmers build with average height. Always smiling with a slightly mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
Omen Peregrine (played by leapingmountain) - Human, male. A tall, thick man with long white hair and chops for facial hair. He is (or was) wearing a city watch uniform.
Qivys (played by SinarLightwood) - Dwarf, male. Squat.
Claire (played by Sacrosanctis) - Human, female. 5'5" with light skin, neck-length cherry blond hair, and amber eyes.
Suggested layout for posting in this thread:
• Character name in the first line, bolded.
• Actions and speech in subsequent lines. Use bold and quotation marks " " for speech, italics for thoughts. Choose a unique color for your dialogue.
• Use tooltips when helpful, like darkvision or Magic Missile or Stealth or trident. (See https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/11983-how-to-add-tooltips ).
• Make any rolls for skills, attack / damage, etc. in their own line. Use the dice roller!
Example: Attack: 19 Damage: 5 slashing.
Example: Stealth: 10
Link to dice roller: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post/2985-rolling-dice
(The dice roller is quite sophisticated, but all you really need is in the little die icon in your post toolbar. Number of dice, die type, bonus, advantage/disadvantage.)
• OOC (out of character) text is typically in the last line, in parentheses.
(Feel free to take this time to engage in some role play amongst yourselves. Now would be a great time to introduce yourselves! We won't move the adventure along significantly until tomorrow - Wednesday - at the earliest.)
(While you've been together for weeks in a cramped hold, you were chained in place, none of you were adjacent, and loud conversation led to beatings. So while you may have seen each other, you have not spoken yet.)
Kasimir:
Having piled up some driftwood and wreckage, Kasimir struggles with numb, trembling fingers to get a fire started.
Omen
Omen continues to search the the area, rubbing his torso rotating his limbs a bit to get and keep circulation through out his body.
Where is it? he keeps thinking to himself. Omen tries to keep calm but his focus on finding his spell book does send a little panic through his mind.
"Has anyone seen a book?" Omen calls out to the others whom he knows survived the miracle/disaster. "Leather bound with 2 locking clasps on it." Omen describes it.
Omen does pause his search at moments to check on those who also survived. Aiding them to the location where one is trying to start something of a fire.
Still scanning about, looking for his precious book, Omen says to those survivors " The smell of smoke is in the air. I am betting there is a dwelling close by."
Quivys
Waving an arm towards the man with white hair. "Hey you! You're going to die of chills if you keep wandering around. Someone is trying to start a fire. Come and warm yourself."
Quivys moves towards the soon to be fire. "Hello kind sir. I hope you can get this started, it's freezing"
Omen
"Thank you Master Dwarf." Omen smiles at the dwarf.
"I will keep your advice in mind but, I am missing something that is very precious to me and I would hope that fates will let me find it." Omen scans the shore again.
Qivys
"So what is it we're looking for then?" he grumbles as he begins to scan the ground. "My name is Qivys by the way"
(Apologies for the misspelling of Qivys name in the first post. Seems I need to get to know my Dwarven friend a little better)
To those of you who want to help Omen's search, make a perception check with disadvantage (from exhaustion) as you scan the beach for his book in the gray, early-morning light. (A nice opportunity for you to practice the basic Dice Roller if you've never used it before! Note: You can edit your post afterwards, but you're not allowed to edit your roll!)
While there are some buildings in the distance, there's something unpleasant about the thin smoke smell that suggests it may not be a hearth.
Kasimir struggles starting the fire. Everything is wet. This will take some extra time to get started.
Red
Red hauls herself to her feet and frowns down at her clothes, futilely trying to brush the sand off her clothes. At the request of one of the other survivors she scans the shore for a book matching his description. She figures she'd probably have an easier time spotting it with her darkvision than the human.
Perception:6
Kasimir
After much fumbling and a few muttered curses at the damp wood, the fire eventually appears to catch. The fire hisses, pops, and smokes, but it is finally giving off some warmth. Kasimir pops off his boots and sets them near the fire to dry.
To the dwarf: "Welcome, sir. As I can see by your wrist you weren't one of the slaver jackals, I would be happy to share the fire." He gestures to a large piece of wreckage nearby, "Please, have a seat and get yourself dry. I've a feeling it's to be a long day."
Louder, to the searching man: "And you sir, come warm yourself as well. Once the sun is well up and we're no longer shivering I'll help find your book, if indeed it remains to be found."
Red
Giving up on the book for now Red heads over to the newly lit fire. "I'm exhausted, I probably need to rest before I could spot a book out here. Though I have a bad feeling about that smoke and our chances of getting one soon."
(I'm assuming a 6 wouldn't spot the book lol)
Omen
Looks once more for his book.
Perception Roll: 5
After looking a bit more Omen will turn towards the shore line and then to the buildings in the distance, trying to make out anything from them.
Perception: 9
He then squats down with the rest of the group. He looks to each of them then smiles at each one, holding their gaze for just a moment.
"Grand night for a boat trip eh?" he laugh slightly.
"I'm called Omen by the way." he states.
Kasimir indeed gets a small fire going, eventually.
Red sees no books - only stones, debris, and a few bodies.
(You should know that earlier I PMed Omen to tell him he was missing his book. I may do that occasionally - check your PMs regularly. You may learn or obtain something you'd rather not share with the others, or you may choose to separate from the party on a mission, for instance.)
Red
"I'm Red." The tiefling says, despite clearly being neither red, not wearing anything red. She looks at Omen intently "You're clearly very fond of this book. What's in it?"
Kasimir:
Sits miserably by the fire, arms wrapped around his knees, shivering and fidgeting to find the right position. Too far away and there's no warmth; too near and it's scorching; and however he sits the side away from the fire is freezing. He forces a smile and nods to the each of the three who have joined him. "Red, Omen, and -- did I catch that right -- Qivys? I'm Kasimir." He rotates again to warm his other side. "I don't know about you, but I'm not impressed with the dinner service on this cruise. I think a strongly-worded letter is in order."
Omen
Omen laughs out loud at Kasimir's jest.
"And the accommodations were no where near the level of good company."
He turns to Red. "It is my journal and holds a lot of my research."
He pauses. "So its precious to me though, not entirely irreplaceable."
Omen lets out a long sigh. "It seems that for whatever reason the storm has freed us from our predicament." "Now our survival is in our own hands."
Omen sees no book, but as the day brightens (if thickly overcast, chilly, and raw), he sees a couple of crates, barrels, and a jumble of timbers washed ashore to the west that they have not yet poked through.
They are low, small, one-story cabins by the look of them, although there may be larger buildings behind. The cliff, looming high over you to your right, also gradually diminishes in height as it approaches the settlement.
(Omen has a +1 on perception, so those rolls should actually by 11's. Don't forget to add in your bonuses! On the other hand, they should also have been rolled with disadvantage - you're still exhausted until you get some food and drink and a long rest. But both of these observations you would have made anyway in the growing light without rolling.)
Qivys
"Now there's a bit more light, let me take another look" as he wearily rises from beside the fire.
Perception 12
Edited to correct roll formatting