Eddy carefully rolls the maps up and heads back toward the rest of the group. "You find anything?"

Does anybody want to gather anything more before we go?

"Doesnt seem we will find out what happened to this ship, better get on with our mission than."

The party of locathah swim out and up back to the surface. {Teoovon, are you still with us? For now we’ll assume Tack is on the surface and resumes traveling with the party.}

It’s a little after noon when the coast of Saltmarsh comes into sight. Party, how do we want to make our grand entrance? By sea—as in swimming right into the harbor, or by land—exiting the sea a little to the east or west of Saltmarsh, about an hour’s walk, and walking into the town by land?

I think by land. By sea seems a bit too likely to be deemed invaders.

"Yes, I think arriving by land will be best to no have them be hostile to us"

"I agree. Why don't we come in from the east? As the sun sets, people's eyes are more likely to be drawn toward it and we should get the cover of darkness if we need it."

The party climbs out at a somewhat marshy spot a few nautical miles east of Saltmarsh. The air is humid. The ground unfortunately turned rocky shortly after you emerge from the water, and it is somewhat tough on your feet-flippers.

There is a dirt road. Every now and then you’ll see a wagon or cart on the road. A few armed horsemen periodically ride by.

An old decrepit house stands on the highest ground point in the area. It is surrounded by a crumbling stone wall.

"Well, I guess that's the house we should visit, what do you guys think?"

Vooaat shrugs. “Do you think the highest house is the leader’s?”

(Ah wait I misread the message, didnt see crumbling stone wall; that might be an indication it is not^^ Although might still be worth investigating, but will reply IC again when some more have made comments)

{Since nobody has made any new comments, well, should I assume we want to go straight to Saltmarsh? Also, I haven’t lost anyone have I? (Well, it seems like we lost teoovon/Tack.) We haven’t lost anyone else, have we?}

(Still here:)  )

"So should we check out that house, or just move on? I'm eager to check it, but it might not be in the interest of our assignment."

(Still here, just trying to get a grasp of the story and the feel for the campaign. It has been hard to find a footing and know where to take things.)

Eddy looks up at the decrepit house. This was hardly a place he would choose to visit - maybe in the event of a storm and there was no other shelter. Even in salvage, the target needed to show some promising signs to make the visit worth it. Still, this was the first sign of the human community they had come across. On his shoulder, Chura, his froglike familiar, sat watching its surroundings. The rhythmic creak and croak as its vocal sac expanded and contracted. 

"We should probably move on. We need to find someone we can talk to about these humans walking the seafloor. I don't think that we will find anybody here. The building doesn't really suggest that it has been occupied recently. Otherwise, I could send Chura up to check out the building first."

(How far away is the building?)

{Sorry—busy weekend again. Also, I love the frog familiar!}

The building is about 6 fathoms away (60 feet) away from the main path.

{Okay friends… I’ve got to ask, how are you feeling about this campaign? It’s hard for me too to get this story set into motion (and deal with play-by-post) and it’s sort of lost momentum. I don’t want to give up on it though—but if you don’t like this uneven style and want to drop, I understand. Or tell me what I could do better to keep the momentum going and the story rolling. Play-by-post isn’t my forte as I can see now. Thank you, all of you, for all the time you’ve put into this. I want to make sure it’s worthwhile for everyone and that we’re all getting something out of it.}

{So, I guess just tell me your feelings so far, just to check in on everyone.}

((I think the idea is interesting, having all one race. It allows you to build in some interesting lore and dynamics between races. I think the start was a little vague and could have been fleshed out a little, to give a clearer sense of purpose and specific direction or tasks.

The pace has been quite slow, not just from you, but from everybody involved - myself included. This makes it difficult to keep the momentum going. The one-line entries also make it hard to RP as there is little to react to. Those can be fine for conversation if people are responding quickly, but that is not happening here currently. Also, there have been times when it feels as though posts have been overlooked. This makes it difficult as the action has moved on, but you are not sure of the response to, or results, of your previous action.

I am happy to continue if you, and the others, want to carry on, but I would love to see the pace pick up a little, to a least a post every other day, if not every day.

That's my 2 cents.))

I think pbp benefits a lot from having clear direction early on. We’re looking for leadership in the town, but we don’t really have a leader ourselves in the party. We need one. It makes decision making easy.

(Yeah idea is still interesting but indeed the pace should be picked up; at least a post a day would help; maybe put more text into a post could also help.

And indeed a bit more direction would help. Im still up for it if everybody else is, and of course DM only if you are happy to continue)

Okay, it seems safe to say that Burl and Teeovon are gone, or at the very least, not interested in continuing. (I waited just in case they had any input.) Right now I'm on the fence about continuing. Trying to figure out how to go about implementing some of your suggestions (which are helpful). If I continue but still without a clear direction, then that won't improve much... Gah, I feel awful for just giving up, especially as a DM, since you can have a game with one less player but if the DM leaves, you're stuck. But I think if I'm not truly enthusiastic about DMing it would be subpar. So, friends, thank you for giving me your input and putting time into this game, but I think I'll end it here. (However, if one day I think I'm capable of running a successful play by post game and decide to run with this premise again, just with clearer direction and better communication, which I will hopefully gain after time and through participating in more live games, I'll let you three know first in case you'd want to join that.)