Welcome back to the weekly D&D and Tabletop Gaming thread! Here’s a place where we can talk about Dungeons & Dragons or any other tabletop games that you nerds might be into. Tell us about the games you’re playing, speculate about future expansions, recruit your fellow Avocados into new groups, whatever you want.
On Monday, Wizards of the Coast released a new Unearthed Arcana playtest material, featuring a list of new or enhanced Class Features for pretty much every class in the game.1 Most of the changes are there to increase versatility, with ways to switch out skill proficiencies and spells known. There are new options for Fighting Styles, including a Throwing Weapon style and an Unarmed Combat style. There are new Warlock Invocations, Sorcerer Metamagics, Battle Master Maneuvers, etc. All of the various class spell lists have been expanded. The biggest changes are in the Ranger, where they’re re-worked and improved upon most of the Ranger’s class abilities.
What do you think of all of these changes? Do any of them seem too powerful, or not powerful enough? Could this mean that a Revised 5th edition Player’s Handbook is in the works?
The Hayes Code is jumping back into the DM seat to guide us through the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign, with the setting adjusted to a fantasy version of 1930.
Saltmarsh! City on the go! Yes, this bustling burg on the West Coast was once a humble fishing town, but thanks to rare earths and elements discovered in the local hills, it’s growing faster than you can say “progress!” But with progress comes problems! Pirates! Hooch smugglers! Carnivorous sea monsters! But never fear, humble Saltmarshers – the town council has a plan. They’re putting out the call for people of action, far and near, to sign up and show those troublemakers what’s what! Do YOU have what it takes?2
A group of unlikely companions will answer the call, including:
- Sgt. Vivian Aequoreus, a Dragonborn Sorcerer, an admiral’s daughter and naval officer serving as representative of the Navy in Saltmarsh (The Wasp)
- Rainn Cloud, an Air Genasi Bard, of uncertain origin and purpose (Wafflicious)
- Festuca Glauca, a Human Cleric, raised on a floating brothel and now striking out on her own (Otto)
- Constable Renard Muldoon, a Half-Elf Paladin, a life-long resident of Saltmarsh assigned to this new task force as liaison to the local town guards (TheCleverGuy)
- Dr. Nickel Ferrous Testling, a Kobold Artificer, a scientist currently working for the WPA in their cultural archivist project, primarily focusing on folklore and legends, local religious cults, and regional variations in spellcasting technique (Josephus Brown)
[spoiler title=”The Old Alchemist’s House”]Sgt. Aequoreus, Rainn, Festuca, and Dr. Testling arrived in the West Coast town of Saltmarsh by bus on a rainy morning. They headed directly for the Council Hall to get out of the rain and report for first meeting of the Situation Solvers. 
There, they met Constable Muldoon, and the captain of the town guard, Eliander Fireborn. After making introductions, Captain Fireborn gave us our first assignment.
A week or so ago, a famous radio personality, Mr. Miraculo the Ghost Hunter from WOOO in Chicago, had come to town to investigate an old alchemists’s house on the outskirts of town, which was supposedly haunted, as part of his radio program. There had been rumors about that place for years in town, and most of the townsfolk avoided the place. They say you could strange noises from inside any time of day or night.
Our first stop was the Snapping Line tavern for some rumor gathering and Claw Wine. Old Sam, a local drunkard, told us he’d spent the night in the old alchemist’s house recently, and had seen a one-eyed ghost… or was it a vampire? Either way, Muldoon knew that Old Sam was full of crazy stories, most of which were complete fiction, so we paid him no mind. We also met Finch Foley, a kenku who worked with Mr Miraculo, providing sound effects for his show. Foley had arrived in town on the same bus as most of the group, coming to track down his boss, since he’d been missing for some time. He told us that Miraculo wasn’t just a showman, but actually knew a little necromancy.
After finishing our Claw Wine, we decided to get started right away and made our way to the old alchemist’s house. As we approached the house through an overgrown garden, Dr. Testling noticed a large burrow under a rosebush and walked over to inspect it. In the meantime, Sgt. Aequoreus found some small animal bones scattered around an old well. She reached inside the well only to be attacked by a pair of poisonous snakes. We managed to kill the snakes, but not before Aequoreus succumbed to a poisonous bite and fell unconscious. 
Dr. Testling was still standing by the burrow, and while Muldoon was tending to Aequoreus, a group of giant weasels appeared out of it (apparently attracted by noise of our scuffle) and tried to pull Testling into the hole. Luckily, the kobold was to slippery for them, and Testling was able to shock one of the weasels with his electrical gauntlet. The rest of us rushed over to help, and Festuca took a bite on the arm. Muldoon lost his grip on his hammer when we swung wildly at the weasel, and the hammer flew into the burrow. Luckily, Testling was able to see where the hammer landed, and he used Catapult to launch the hammer back out of the burrow and clock one of the weasels. We killed three of the four weasels, and the last one scurried back into the tunnel.
After the battle, we skinned the weasels, healed up thanks to Festuca, and collapsed the opening of the burrow. In the meantime, Testling took out a strange looking monocle and fiddled with it for a bit until it suddenly started glowing. Then we walked around the entire house looking for any magical essence. He didn’t find anything, and we decided to go in one of the back doors. We entered and walked down the hall, through a door into an old dilapidated kitchen. It looked like no one had been there for a time, but Testling noticed some tracks heading through another door to the east, and then down to the cellar.
We decided to check the rest of the first floor before heading down. In the study, Dr. Testling noticed a loose stone in the fireplace and went to check it out when a swarm of spiders exploded out of the fireplace and covered the kobold. 
He quickly shocked some of the spiders off him with his electrical gauntlet, and Aequoreus fired off a ray of frost freezing some more. Rainn played a soothing lullaby on his trumpet, putting the spiders and the kobold to sleep. We woke Testling up, and pulled out a small lockbox with 30cp and some small pouches filled with alchemical powders out of the secret compartment in the fireplace.
After that we decided to head down the stairs in the scullery, following the tracks Testling had noticed. Muldoon took the lead, and as he stepped on the top stair, a loud inhuman scream rang out, shaking Aequoreus and Testling pretty badly. Nothing else happened, and we continued down the stairs. At the bottom, we found an empty wine cellar, and a corpse on the floor, dressed in a purple suit and wearing a turban. We guessed that this was Mr. Miraculo, and Festuca’s quick search of his wallet confirmed it. We followed the footprints to a blank wall–Muldoon figured out how to open the obvious hidden door. Sgt. Aequoreus was slowly making her way back upstairs, and we all heard the same inhuman scream when she reached the top step again–it seemed to be an illusion spell of some kind.
We entered a cellar room with beds arranged along the walls and a cooking area, with a large ham hanging from the ceiling. A man was standing there, cooking something, and when he saw us coming he swore and booked it towards another door in the southern wall. Muldoon and Festuca gave chase and intimidated him into stopping. He said he was just the cook and he didn’t do anything, it was his boss, Sanbalet, who killed the wizard. Muldoon didn’t recognize the name, but continued interrogating the cook. He told us that Sanbalet was down in the caves to the south, counting ‘the stuff.’ In the meantime, Testling was poking around the room and found another door marked “Danger,” which the captured bandit said held a bunch of skeletons. Testling also found a small bedroom, likely where Sanbalet lived, and searched it, finding a few books, a parchment with some signal patterns written on it, and another list of some translated Goblin phrases. After securing the cook and leaving him tied to the hook where the ham was for safe-keeping, we made our way through the door he’d been running for.
We entered into a cave passageway that almost immediately branched off in two directions. One way was dark, so we followed the other path, a torch-lit passageway to the east, until we came to a large cave where we found Sanbalet, and a couple of human bandits, and a hobgoblin moving crates of stolen goods. Muldoon led the way in and immediately announced that these bandits were all under arrest. They refused to come quietly and a fight ensued. 
Sanbalet launched Scorching Rays at Muldoon, Festuca, and Rainn, but missed all three of us. While Festuca and Testling focused on the hobgoblin, and Muldoon held off the other two bandits, Sgt Aequoreus launched a Chaos Bolt at Sanbalet. Rainn ran into the center of the room and let loose a Thunderwave, killing the hobgoblin and damaging everyone else a little. Muldoon knocked one of the bandits unconscious, while Festuca beat the other into surrendering. Sanbalet was still standing though, and he shot off more Scorching Rays, knocking out Rainn and Muldoon. Aequoreus let loose her lightning breath at the boss, but he managed to duck out of the way in time to avoid most of the blast. Luckily, Testling’s thunder-powered crossbow bolt found home and killed the wizard.
Festuca found a magical pipe on the wizard. We’d taken three prisoners, but were pretty much tapped out and needed a rest. Muldoon and Aequoreus had to forcibly prevent Festuca from simply killing the captives. We decided it would be best to walk back to town, dropping our prisoners off at the jail on the way back to the inn. After reporting in with Captain Fireblood, we’ll go back and make sure the rest of the bandits have cleared out of the old house.[/spoiler]
You must be logged in to post a comment.