Today Ill be reviewing the recently released campaign book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Even though her country is led by an evil half-demon demigod Keoland and Saltmarsh accept their business for the money it brings, potentially leading . GoS includes an introduction, 8 chapters, and 3 appendices, which are broken down as follows: The books introduction provides a brief summary the content of the book and how to use it. Three of the converted adventures were already a trilogy, and the additional adventures can be slotted in among them to flesh out the characters adventures in and around Saltmarsh. Just dont be surprised if your players manage to skip big chunks of the investigation with well-reasoned and well-phrased questions to higher powers. Blood, Salt, & Bones contains 25 different statblocks for. However, a sidebar does provide the necessary information to run a sahuagin attack on the way to the adventure site. It does not store any personal data. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The guards in 3 reinforce this room if summoned (see below). [8][9], In Publishers Weekly's "Best-selling Books Week Ending 5/25/19", Ghosts of Saltmarsh was #6 in "Hardcover Nonfiction". Although this quest isnt directly related he can negotiate using this information: he can talk about how the sahuagin are not the only menaces the people of Saltmarsh have to fear, and hint that the sahuagin may even make surface allies of their own. The rules here now include ship upgrades, which grant your ship special benefits/powers. In The Final Enemy the characters travel to the former lizardfolk island, assess the threat of the sahuagin, and perhaps end the threat the sahuagin . Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. As things stand, I would probably wouldnt useSalvage Operation. Slaves present in the fortress add an additional complication for moral characters, who may hate the idea of leaving the slaves even if they may be rescued in the subsequent attack. Sanbalet a named NPC smuggler. Since only one cultist survived, hes the only person capable of telling the next part of the story. The upgrade system has been made intentionally simple: rather than price everything separately, each upgrade costs 15,000 gp and requires 1d4 weeks of work. The adventure continues the trilogys preference for thoughtful solutions: the characters are infiltrators, so should avoid fights where possible and defeat any enemies they do encounter quickly and quietly. $19.99. The characters will have to explore the Firewatch Island Hermitage, while avoiding or overcoming a particularly nasty peryton that hunts in the area. The Cursed Luckstone lets you roll with advantage, but then inflicts disadvantage on your next two rolls. In The Sea Ghost, the adventurers have the opportunity to use coded signals learned during The Haunted House to trick the crew of a smuggling ship into believing things are still fine, then apprehend them. Hes concerned that the monks that live there havent been heard from in some time. (D&D 5e) XP to Level 3 433K views 2 years ago Planning for Ghosts of Saltmarsh D&D5e - GM Tips How to be a Great GM 55K views 3 years ago Tales. A two-parter, the first half of The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is set not in a boat, as one would have expected, but in a haunted house. The tables below provide encounter options for open sea, aerial, ships, underwater and sahuagin encounters. The Azure Sea Random Encounters table would make a good substitute for the Open Water tables, and it comes with ready-made pirate crews. Saltmarsh itself is not large enough to contain the Styes (and we see that it isnt included on the Saltmarsh map), meaning that this is another adventure that requires the characters to travel elsewhere. As with other official titles, two covers exist: the limited edition cover (available for pre-orders and limited quantities in local game stores) and . These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The Final Enemy is the last adventure of the trilogy focused on the sahuagin threat which began in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and continued on in Danger at Dunwater. While any effort to improve the DMs running experience is fantastic, the actual execution of trosters is nowhere near as helpful as it could and should be. There's a haunted house outside Saltmarsh. As mentioned, access to high level divination spells might bypass some of the adventure, but after reading it through Im fairly confident that it should still be a good play experience, with enough meat on the bones of the adventure even if the investigatory aspects are largely skipped. These arent given names, you could use other tables for that: theyre meant to be sailor nicknames. Session 13: Chapter 6 from the book (conclusion/assault). I like this section a lot for what it is. I like this adventure. That's a fine option too but you might have to do some story-yoga to figure out why a githzeri makes sense in Saltmarsh. However if you want to keep them in Tier 1 (level 1-4) Do Salvage Operation instead of Final Enemy. When the characters arrive, diplomats from several groups of aquatic races are present for negotiations to join an alliance against the sahuagin. [2][1], In February 2019, the adventure anthology was announced by Wizards of the Coast. This might be a good time to use a random encounter or one of the environmental hazards described in Appendix A: Of Ships and the Sea. It offers some history of the region; the notable details of Saltmarsh such as inns, taverns, and other landmarks; their potential backgrounds; and, most importantly, the central theme for their characters: Above all you are companions who, together, seek to bring safety and prosperity to the village of Saltmarsh. For most I have only a few quibbles, such as that I wish the adventure site rosters provided were more practical in their implementation. Well, first there's Saltmarsh. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The section also provides ways for characters of old and new backgrounds alike to be tied to Saltmarsh these are tools intended for characters who are local to the region. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dungeons & Dragons 5E Ghosts Of Saltmarsh D&D 5th Edition at the best online prices at eBay! Download the Ghosts of Saltmarsh Player's Guide. Its further broken down into the following sections: a brief introduction to the town, followed by Politics and Factions, Saltmarsh Overview, Downtime Activities, Saltmarsh Region, Adventures in Saltmarsh, and Saltmarsh Backgrounds. There is a very loose connection between all the adventures that might be worth exploring: every single one pertains in some way to an evil deity/power. A Pressure Capsule is a consumable that allows you to ignore effects of swimming at depths greater than 100 feet (if youre not aware, these effects are described in the Underwater section of Unusual Environments in the Dungeon Masters Guide. This is a slightly surprising omission, as this downtime action specifically resolved finding a crew which many DMs would no doubt find helpful. Alien islands are ruled over by strange, eldritch creatures (aberrations) and inhabited by humanoids or cultists indoctrinated into their worship. ), sapping snow, and magical storms. This sets off immediate alarm bells because of the expected level: 11th-level spellcasters have significant ways to steamroller through this sort of adventure. This avoids the oddball character who comes in with a clearly different motive and drive that never quite fits either the group or the adventure. Spanning levels one to 11, this module is a masterpiece. This table is a fun idea but only moderately useful in my opinion. Our group completed Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and I guess it's therapeutic for me to reflect on this, so I decided to make this post: a summary of how we ran the campaign. Youll either love or hate the maps in GoS. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh feels like two short adventures, rather than one: its divided into two parts, The Haunted House and The Sea Ghost. Ghosts of Saltmarsh guide book. Marshes provide homes for birds; they serve as. Finally,The Styesinvolves a cult worshiping Tharizdun. If the characters allow them to do so, many may not survive. This article is one of a series of articles covering the hardback D&D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Alternatively, these locations can be used as a starting point to inspire adventures: each location has a section of guidance for generating adventures that might take place there. These tables are paired with more complex adventure sites in an effort to make them more manageable. All food in a 5'-radius sphere is purified and Following this, it provides recommendations for where within the region of Saltmarsh you could drop in adventures from Tales of the Yawning Portal! Theres very little to complain about in this book as everything in it is both versatile and succinct when it comes to adventure building and storytelling. . Mr. Dory a named NPC, hes an unusual variant of skum (which also appear in this appendix). As part of the review, Ill break down the contents of the book, summarise the adventures and other content within, and highlight any issues I might perceive in the content. The alliance forces sweep through the stronghold, and they will win no matter what, but the degree of success is determined by the characters. TheSekolahian Worshiping Statuette does nothing practical from an adventurers point of view: its a foot-high, shark-shaped statue that can bite tiny fish that swim near its mouth for 1 damage up to once per hour. If they do alert the stronghold as a whole, this adventure has the potential to go very wrong for the characters very fast. Download Free PDF View PDF. The monks have become victims of a crew of undead pirates who serve the demon lord Orcus. After successfully traversing the dunes and arriving at the abbey runs, the adventurers will discover that the clerics werent wiped out after all. Likewise, the adventures include a decent collection of new monsters that will add value to your DM whatever their campaign. This is presented as optional but if you are intending to run the whole book through as a single campaign, my recommendation is to consider the attack extremely non-optional. Ghosts of Saltmarsh makes no sense, here's why. Related Papers. This is probably the books greatest strength. Though it starts out simple, the adventures slowly get more complex and. And buy the first module. Salvage Operation involves a cannibal cultist of Lolth. Included is a list of shipwrecks that characters might try to find for their lost treasures, and tables for random encounters. Naturally, GoS is also available on DnDBeyond, with the usual variety of purchase options: all content, compendium content only, and cherry-picking individual content. For this session zero I wrote a Ghosts of Saltmarsh Player's Guide. Rather than their exact attacks be specified, ships can now take a certain number of actions chosen from a list (this section of the statblock looks similar to a monsters legendary actions). Here they may defeat it, make a deal with it, or perhaps succumb to its psychic enslavement. Completing both parts is expected to take 4-6 characters from 1st to 3rd level. Heroes must arise to keep the waves safe! Tendrils of Saltmarsh is a trilogy of adventures design to help fill in the level gaps left in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book. It takes a lot of work to mesh singular modules into a cohesive adventure, but [Mike] Mearls and Kate Welch (who served as the lead designers on this one) did a fantastic job. Kysh (Triton) though Kysh is a named NPC this statblock is useful because Kysh is typical triton warrior, and to date we only have a triton player race and not any monster stats). Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions. The final adventure of the book describes events on a decaying port which can be established as a self-contained town or as a district of any large coastal town in your campaign world. Likewise, you should enjoy playing them! The Saltmarsh village and regional maps can be printed on 17x24 for about $3 each at your local Staples or Fedex print center and they look great on the table when you're running your session zero and describing the locations. Which grant your ship special benefits/powers find helpful doubt find helpful ( aberrations ) and inhabited by or. Hardback D & D adventure book, Ghosts of Saltmarsh book spanning levels to! The sahuagin stored in your browser only with your consent tendrils of Saltmarsh they do the... 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