It’s the end of May, Ghosts of Saltmarsh was released this week, and we’ve started a new campaign that will play through the first five adventures (at least)! Hooray! This will be, as most of my book campaigns are, a D&D Adventurers League campaign.

As you may expect, spoilers abound in this recap of the session.

We began our adventures in Saltmarsh with the last parts of character creation. We’d arranged most of it earlier through Discord, but there were other matters to consider. The following characters were present:

• Cedric Threepenny, a human Wizard (Sage) – AC 11, hp 8, fire bolt, frostbite
• Einmera, a half-elf Cleric of Lathander (Sailor) – AC 18, hp 10, mace, sacred flame
• “Riptide”, a sea elf Rogue (Smuggler) – AC 14, hp 9, rapier, shortbow
• Wilson, a human Fighter (Soldier) – AC 18, hp 13, spear; Polearm Master
• Lily, a human Druid (Fisher) – the only character not to have a character sheet on D&D Beyond so far!

Two of the characters were from Saltmarsh, the others from various places around Turmish. Why Turmish? The D&D Adventurers League version places it there, as described in Dragon. We’ll be joined by one more character next session; unfortunately, one of the players couldn’t make the first session.

We started the session with the last stages of character creation, primarily discussing links between the characters. I also set out some of the background of the town and the country: Turmish is a republic, Saltmarsh has a mayor and a town council, and there’s a lot of trading and fishing going on.

In the future, there’ll be additional advice for adapting Ghost of Saltmarsh to the Adventurers League. However, with that not present, I needed to change two of the power groups in Saltmarsh to fit the new setting. The changes were:

• The delegation from the lands of Iuz became members of the Zhentarim – possibly Banite clerics
• The agents of the Scarlet Brotherhood became agents of the Red Wizards

You could reverse those two; we’ll see if I have to make any adjustments once the DDAL admins release additional advice.

Only some of the adventurers knew each other. Instead, they chose to meet when they answered a call by a local council member for help. This council member, Anders Solmor, was worried that an abandoned manor on the end of town had become haunted, as strange lights and sounds had been heard emanating from it. The party accepted his offer of rewards (virtual, I’m afraid, due to the S8 DDAL rules), and did something more adventurers should do: They went around the town, trying to learn more about the manor.

I used this opportunity to let them know a little more about the town – not a great deal, as I wanted to get into the actual investigation, but some. The group split up (!) and went to the following locations:

• Cedric and Wilson visited the Wicker Goat, a tavern that serves dwarven miners and the town guard
• Lily visited the local druidic grove, dedicated to Silvanus (rather than Obad-Hai).
• Riptide visited the Empty Net, a tavern that caters to smugglers and pirates
• Einmera visited the Snapping Line, an inn that is frequented by sailors and fishers

The majority of the tales told in these locations were about how terrifying the sounds and lights of the house were – everyone in the town seemed to know about it. The villagers told the characters that a creepy alchemist had once owned it, but little more besides. However, Riptide was able to find an old poacher who claimed he’d been inside the house. He told her of how he’d entered by the back door, found the kitchen and gone down the stairs to the cellar searching for wine. However, before he reached the bottom, a horde of ghosts led by a vampire had raced up towards him with an unearthly screech! The poacher had fled for his life and not returned. To say Riptide was sceptical about the story is understating it, but it was the one tale they could learn of anyone who had visited the house.

So, after regrouping and sharing this information, they headed off to the old house. Its garden was much overgrown and not entirely safe. An old well, once disturbed, yielded two poisonous snakes – giant, of course! – that attacked the party. Cedric used one of her precious spell slots to incinerate the snakes with a burning hands spell. Lily noticed the signs of further dangers, so the group avoided them on their way to the back door that had been described by the poacher.

(Cedric is a girl. My players seem to like confusing me! It’s a great backstory, though – her father really wanted a son, so called his daughter “Cedric” and dressed her as a man for most of her early life. I don’t think she gets along with him much!)

Following the poacher’s instructions, they soon discovered the kitchen and the stairs down to the cellar. Cedric, as had been her manner for the entire exploration, recast detect magic as a ritual and discovered the stairs had a working of illusion magic upon them. They discovered the nature of the magic as they descended – loud, horrible screams! I required each character to make a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened. As the heroes had previously determined that there was an illusion present, I gave the players advantage on their checks. Two still managed to fail and, though they continued downwards, weren’t happy about it, flinching at every shadow and noise.

The cellar below seemed deserted – but, wait! – there was a body lying on the floor. Investigations indicated that he had been an adventurer, but small grubs infested his corpse. Once disturbed, the grubs swarmed towards the heroes. Weapons were not as effective against the grubs as the heroes hoped, and some of the grubs burrowed into Cedric’s flesh. A torch was deployed to burn them out, but it was a matter of moments – any longer, and the grubs would have slain Cedric!

Further investigations discovered tracks – not of the adventurer! – that led to a wall. A secret door was found and opened, revealing a hidden barracks beyond. Three smugglers therein, alerted by the noise of the previous combat, attacked the heroes. None of the attackers were known to Riptide, but she quickly recognised what their profession was, as all the signs were there. The heroes were able to defeat the smugglers, not even killing them all, instead rendering them unconscious. I expected the heroes to question the smugglers immediately, but they continued exploring, finding first the bedroom of a magic-user (and his spellbook, much to Cedric’s delight!).

The spellbook proved very interesting – it contained the magic mouth spell, which explained the source of the shrieking on the stairs. Smugglers using the house as a hideout? It seemed so!

Next, the heroes investigated one of the other doors leading from the barracks. This one was interesting: The smugglers had barred one of the doors leading from their barracks and erected a warning sign on it.

While most sensible people would note the warning message on the door and avoid it, those people aren’t adventurers! It was with some delight that the party discovered the remnants of skeletons within, but that delight turned to horror after a couple of characters foolishly rushed into the middle of the chamber and were swarmed. Healing magic was expended to bring them back to consciousness, and the group quickly disengaged and moved back through the door, barring it again. Cedric prepared her burning hands spell once more, and they reopened the door and let the skeletons have it! It wasn’t quite enough to slay them all, but it weakened them significantly and eventually the party was victorious, though more healing magic was expended afterwards. Wilson was most effective against the skeletons when he attacked using the butt of his spear!

Examining the hall again, now the skeletons were gone, the group discovered yet another secret door, by the easy method; someone else used it! The heroes were confronted by the undead form of the alchemist who once owned the house! More combat ensued, and by the end of it, the alchemist was truly dead, and most of the magic of the party had been expended. The heroes needed a rest!

One last bit of exploration allowed the players to discover the alchemist’s spellbook, which much pleased Cedric. They also found a few golden baubles; alas, they were merely window-dressing with the S8 DDAL rules in play. (Change them! Please! It makes a lot of adventures less than satisfying if searching for treasure is pointless!)

At that point, we were out of time in the session, and the party needed a rest, badly. The party may, indeed, have a long rest before resuming. If so, I’ll need to decide what the other inhabitants of the dungeon do in the meantime. They’re intelligent, and some of their friends have been killed! How will they prepare for the potential of a second attack? That’s something I need to determine.

My feeling is that the party may have used their spell slots a little too freely for a first-level adventure. In several encounters, the party could be more effective by backing away and using ranged attacks, or by finding a choke point and holding it – such as against the skeletons. However, it’s also a mistake to not use spells when they’re needed, so there you go.

The party gained 2 ACP and 2 TCP for their adventures so far (half the amount needed for Level 1). I’m paying attention to the recommended levels of the adventures and awarding advancement to suit. (Note that in the DDAL, you award 1 ACP for each hour of play spent moving towards the goal. As long as I don’t exceed that amount, I can reduce it – though I suspect at the speed my groups normally attain, I won’t need to do that much. This was meant to be a four-hour session, but character creation ate into the time a bit – perhaps 2.5 hours in total?

We’ll be joined by the sixth character, a ranger, next week. Until then!

DM Notes: The initial stages of The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh often consist of the players exploring the upper levels of the house (there’s a ground floor and a first floor) and only later descending into the cellar and discovering the smugglers. As the players did some research first and discovered the poacher’s tale, this initial investigation was greatly shortened, and they discovered the first of the secrets easily. There are more to come! The pacing of this investigation section is something you should pay attention to as a DM; if the players seem to be getting bored, get them down to the cellar. Perhaps one of the smugglers makes a sound, thus drawing the characters down there?

I haven’t spent a lot of time on the town yet, but that is something I’ll be expanding on in later sessions. For the first five adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, it’s very important – the townsfolk hire the adventurers for each of the following adventures, and so having a good relationship with them is very important. The town is much better described in this product than in the original adventure (where it was pretty much up to you to detail). We’ll also expand the heroes’ backgrounds more in later sessions. Getting a sense of how they work together helps with that process.

Adventurers League Unofficial Conversion Notes: 

• Saltmarsh is set on the northern coast of Turmish rather than the southern coast of Keoland.
• The Scarlet Brotherhood = The Red Wizards
• The Emissaries of Iuz = Zhentarim
• Sea Grove of Obad-Hai becomes the Sea Grove of Silvanus. (Both are neutral nature deities).
• Sea Princes => Pirates of the Sea of Falling Stars
• Temple of Procan => not sure yet. Could be Umberlee or Waukeen. (I prefer Waukeen, the trader god, but that’s partly because I don’t like temples to evil gods.)