First off Spoiler's for Ghost's of Saltmarsh. I'm not going to use the Spoiler system in this word processor because it will just complicate writing this post. So if you don't want anything in GOSM spoiled then stop reading now. Also Maybe a little spoilage for 'The Sunless Citadel.
Second off, I don't think my players will run across this posting but just incase; James, Markus, Melissa, and John of Colorado Springs and Denver, Stop here. Spoilers ahead, do not spoil the game for yourselves. OK, know that that's done.
I need advice and ideas, mostly ideas, on how to combine my campaign with the first adventure module(The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh) in Ghost's of Saltmarsh. My game takes place in Gary Gygax's world of Greyhawk. I'm hoping people will respond who are familiar with The Ghost's of Saltmarsh and maybe even Gygax's world of Greyhawk.
We've already started playing The first module and I haven't really planned out my campaign to well. I have various thread's and ideas that I haven't properly tied down to the first module of the 5th edition book. I"ll just go ahead and tell what happened in the game so far then tell my ideas for the campaign. I hope to take the campaign through the first 5 modules of GOSM, all the way through 'The Final Enemy'.
What's happened in the campaign so far
Originaly we had finished 'The Sunless Citadel' and got all our character's up to 3rd level. At the time I wasn't even really thinking about what world it took place in or even having my own campaign. I was just running TSC. Later on I decided to run GOSM and place it in it's original world of Greyhawk. I actually purchased a pdf of Gygax's original 'World of Greyhawk' from drivethroughrpg. So I decided to place the Sunless Citadel in the Duchy of Urnst. I decided to give the character's a way to save Sharwyn and Sir Braford. A local reclusive wizard by the name of Questrum has the ability to save them and will do so if the character's will agree to look into the death of Petra Solmor. Questrum has heard of Petra but never met her. Petra is a well known merchant, business women, adventurer and artifact finder. Think of a 50 year old, female Scrooge McDuck. He had a vision of the death of Petra Solmor leading to the death of one of the few friends he has. He will not tell anything about this friend because this friend has many enemies and survives by anonymity. The wizard also promises various magical items and also having a very powerful wizard 'owe them one'. The character's agreed and set off for Saltmarsh with a stopover in The City of Greyhawk to charter a ship. In the city they purchase a few magical items and almost get contract killed by the local thieves guild. They don't know who contracted the thieves guild to have them taken out but they manage to find a ship that would take them and escape from the city.
When they get to Saltmarsh they get rooms at the The Whicker Goat Tavern. that night a town guard comes back from patrol with a dead body. The body is Blyth Katar, the Quartermaster of the Intrepid Dawn, the Ship that Petra usually goes adventuring on. She and her crew have been gone for about 3 months know. So the body is brought to the Solmor house and the character's follow. The character's manage to get in well with the town guard's captain, Eliander Fireborn, Skerrin Wavechaser and Anders Solmor, Petra's Son. Ander's is a cripple. I made him into cripple because I needed a good reason for him not going along with the characters to find his mother. Far as he knows his mother is not dead but he hasn't heard from her for some time and is getting very worried. She and her crew had gone on a quest to find a mysterious artifact that looked like a severed hand. She heard about this artifact through a Sea Prince Noble named Caster Laszlo. Caster had joined her crew to help find this artifact. Ander's does not trust caster and if anything bad has happened to Petra, He would first suspect Caster. The only thing in the area where Blyth's body was found is the haunted house. Everyone in Saltmarsh including the town guard is afraid of that house and refuses to go and so Ander's hires the character's to investigate the house. That's how I got the players started on the first module of GOSM.
So the characters go to investigate the house and their not very quiet about it. They trip both the magic mouth spells. I actually got the scariest sound I could find on youtube for those spells. The smuggler's bellow the house hear them pretty quickly. the character's discover Ned Shakeshaft in the upper floor and untie him. He tries to convince them that there is something seriously evil and dangerous in this house and tries to convince them to leave. They do not head him and allow Ned to leave the house since he doesn't seem to be a threat. I decided to have Ned be one of the smugglers rather then sent by a merchant in Saltmarsh to try and scare the characters away. I didn't understand why Ned would not try and warn the smuggler's about the PCs before tying himself up to try and scare away the characters. He will try to attack the characters from behind when the fighting down bellow starts.
And that's where last session ended. The characters have finished exploring the mid and upper level and are about to head down to the basement.
What I'm trying to do with the campaign
So Skerrin and the Scarlet Brotherhood has been trying to manipulate the Solmar family, and now the PCs, to find the artifact called 'The hand of the forsaken'. The Solmor household and the crew of the Intrepid Dawn have been well infiltrated by Brotherhood agents. Petra discovered this infiltration and was taken care of. She might be dead or alive but currently she's not in the picture. The brotherhood is trying to manipulate the Solmors specifically because they really good at artifact finding and they have a magic divining crystal that only works for them. The Hand of the Forsaken is practically lost to history There is very little information available on it. The only reason that Petra has gotten as far as she had is because of the Divining Crystal of her family.
The hand of the Forsaken is an artifact in 3 parts that when fully assembled can completely conceal a group of people from Divination magic. I know the DM's guide has artifacts that can already do that but in my version of Greyhawk none of those exist. The Brotherhood plans to use the hand to assassinate a very powerful Divination wizard of the Keoland Empire. The Scarlet Brotherhood has managed to infiltrate most of the world's power structures in their plan to take over the world except for Keoland. This exceptional Wizard, who is a friend of Questrum, is the sole reason that most of the territory and power structure of Keoland has been effectively a no-go zone. Skerrin hopes to use the hand to remedy this problem.
So rather then the Sea Ghost being underneath the Haunted house it will be the Intrepid Dawn. The Brotherhood is trying to get Anders and the PCs to pick back up the search for the 3 pieces of the hand. They left Blyth Katar's body in the area of the Haunted house. I figure the Lizardfolk of the Hool Marshes where guardians of at least one of the pieces and that piece is back at their own home warrens currently occupied by the Sahuagin. I also figure another piece can be on the ship "emperor of the waves" of the forth module(Salvage Operation).
I'm having trouble making all the parts connect. Petra, The Brotherhood, the smugglers operation, the lizardfolk, What specifically happened to the Intrepid Dawn and what is the lie that the Brotherhood is trying to put forward. I'm having trouble making all this stuff coherently connect. So I figured I would post it up on this forum and see if anybody might have some ideas or perspectives that hasn't occurred to me.
I work a night shift and stayed up writing this. I'm about to go to sleep so it might be a couple of hours before I can respond
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First off Spoiler's for Ghost's of Saltmarsh. I'm not going to use the Spoiler system in this word processor because it will just complicate writing this post. So if you don't want anything in GOSM spoiled then stop reading now. Also Maybe a little spoilage for 'The Sunless Citadel.
Second off, I don't think my players will run across this posting but just incase; James, Markus, Melissa, and John of Colorado Springs and Denver, Stop here. Spoilers ahead, do not spoil the game for yourselves. OK, know that that's done.
I need advice and ideas, mostly ideas, on how to combine my campaign with the first adventure module(The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh) in Ghost's of Saltmarsh. My game takes place in Gary Gygax's world of Greyhawk. I'm hoping people will respond who are familiar with The Ghost's of Saltmarsh and maybe even Gygax's world of Greyhawk.
We've already started playing The first module and I haven't really planned out my campaign to well. I have various thread's and ideas that I haven't properly tied down to the first module of the 5th edition book. I"ll just go ahead and tell what happened in the game so far then tell my ideas for the campaign. I hope to take the campaign through the first 5 modules of GOSM, all the way through 'The Final Enemy'.
What's happened in the campaign so far
Originaly we had finished 'The Sunless Citadel' and got all our character's up to 3rd level. At the time I wasn't even really thinking about what world it took place in or even having my own campaign. I was just running TSC. Later on I decided to run GOSM and place it in it's original world of Greyhawk. I actually purchased a pdf of Gygax's original 'World of Greyhawk' from drivethroughrpg. So I decided to place the Sunless Citadel in the Duchy of Urnst. I decided to give the character's a way to save Sharwyn and Sir Braford. A local reclusive wizard by the name of Questrum has the ability to save them and will do so if the character's will agree to look into the death of Petra Solmor. Questrum has heard of Petra but never met her. Petra is a well known merchant, business women, adventurer and artifact finder. Think of a 50 year old, female Scrooge McDuck. He had a vision of the death of Petra Solmor leading to the death of one of the few friends he has. He will not tell anything about this friend because this friend has many enemies and survives by anonymity. The wizard also promises various magical items and also having a very powerful wizard 'owe them one'. The character's agreed and set off for Saltmarsh with a stopover in The City of Greyhawk to charter a ship. In the city they purchase a few magical items and almost get contract killed by the local thieves guild. They don't know who contracted the thieves guild to have them taken out but they manage to find a ship that would take them and escape from the city.
When they get to Saltmarsh they get rooms at the The Whicker Goat Tavern. that night a town guard comes back from patrol with a dead body. The body is Blyth Katar, the Quartermaster of the Intrepid Dawn, the Ship that Petra usually goes adventuring on. She and her crew have been gone for about 3 months know. So the body is brought to the Solmor house and the character's follow. The character's manage to get in well with the town guard's captain, Eliander Fireborn, Skerrin Wavechaser and Anders Solmor, Petra's Son. Ander's is a cripple. I made him into cripple because I needed a good reason for him not going along with the characters to find his mother. Far as he knows his mother is not dead but he hasn't heard from her for some time and is getting very worried. She and her crew had gone on a quest to find a mysterious artifact that looked like a severed hand. She heard about this artifact through a Sea Prince Noble named Caster Laszlo. Caster had joined her crew to help find this artifact. Ander's does not trust caster and if anything bad has happened to Petra, He would first suspect Caster. The only thing in the area where Blyth's body was found is the haunted house. Everyone in Saltmarsh including the town guard is afraid of that house and refuses to go and so Ander's hires the character's to investigate the house. That's how I got the players started on the first module of GOSM.
So the characters go to investigate the house and their not very quiet about it. They trip both the magic mouth spells. I actually got the scariest sound I could find on youtube for those spells. The smuggler's bellow the house hear them pretty quickly. the character's discover Ned Shakeshaft in the upper floor and untie him. He tries to convince them that there is something seriously evil and dangerous in this house and tries to convince them to leave. They do not head him and allow Ned to leave the house since he doesn't seem to be a threat. I decided to have Ned be one of the smugglers rather then sent by a merchant in Saltmarsh to try and scare the characters away. I didn't understand why Ned would not try and warn the smuggler's about the PCs before tying himself up to try and scare away the characters. He will try to attack the characters from behind when the fighting down bellow starts.
And that's where last session ended. The characters have finished exploring the mid and upper level and are about to head down to the basement.
What I'm trying to do with the campaign
So Skerrin and the Scarlet Brotherhood has been trying to manipulate the Solmar family, and now the PCs, to find the artifact called 'The hand of the forsaken'. The Solmor household and the crew of the Intrepid Dawn have been well infiltrated by Brotherhood agents. Petra discovered this infiltration and was taken care of. She might be dead or alive but currently she's not in the picture. The brotherhood is trying to manipulate the Solmors specifically because they really good at artifact finding and they have a magic divining crystal that only works for them. The Hand of the Forsaken is practically lost to history There is very little information available on it. The only reason that Petra has gotten as far as she had is because of the Divining Crystal of her family.
The hand of the Forsaken is an artifact in 3 parts that when fully assembled can completely conceal a group of people from Divination magic. I know the DM's guide has artifacts that can already do that but in my version of Greyhawk none of those exist. The Brotherhood plans to use the hand to assassinate a very powerful Divination wizard of the Keoland Empire. The Scarlet Brotherhood has managed to infiltrate most of the world's power structures in their plan to take over the world except for Keoland. This exceptional Wizard, who is a friend of Questrum, is the sole reason that most of the territory and power structure of Keoland has been effectively a no-go zone. Skerrin hopes to use the hand to remedy this problem.
So rather then the Sea Ghost being underneath the Haunted house it will be the Intrepid Dawn. The Brotherhood is trying to get Anders and the PCs to pick back up the search for the 3 pieces of the hand. They left Blyth Katar's body in the area of the Haunted house. I figure the Lizardfolk of the Hool Marshes where guardians of at least one of the pieces and that piece is back at their own home warrens currently occupied by the Sahuagin. I also figure another piece can be on the ship "emperor of the waves" of the forth module(Salvage Operation).
I'm having trouble making all the parts connect. Petra, The Brotherhood, the smugglers operation, the lizardfolk, What specifically happened to the Intrepid Dawn and what is the lie that the Brotherhood is trying to put forward. I'm having trouble making all this stuff coherently connect. So I figured I would post it up on this forum and see if anybody might have some ideas or perspectives that hasn't occurred to me.
I work a night shift and stayed up writing this. I'm about to go to sleep so it might be a couple of hours before I can respond