Chapter 1 presents the entire town of Saltmarsh and sets up the location for where all seven adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh begin. To foster the fear of the citizens, the kraken manufactured the Lantern Ghost, enslaving a local fisherman and forcing him to kill. Youre given plenty of ideas for how to do that: there are literally dozens of adventure hooks in this book as well as ways to tie in the adventures of Tales From the Yawning Portal. With that of a mysterious. 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. The rules here now include ship upgrades, which grant your ship special benefits/powers. The abbey has seemingly been left empty after the clerics quarreled violently with local pirates, but there are undead present. This review is intended for DMs, who are the products intended audience (there is only a very little amount of player content). [] On the downside, this is pages and pages of tables and text. Ive noticed a meager handful of editorial errors in the form of minor typos. It's a Sith legend. These guards are alerted by noise in 1. The Compendium Content bundle does not grant access to all the content's options in the rest of the toolset, such as the searchable listings, character builder, or digital sheet. What would be far, far more useful would be a summary of what creatures might arrive in a room from elsewhere. They can be run individually or together. The final section of this appendix describes and provides a map for three generic underwater locations that you might find useful for insertion into an underwater adventure: a reef, a shipwreck, and a ruin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Politics and Factions is where we learn about the Traditionalists and the Loyalists, as well as secret interference in the town by a third faction I wont name here. It's a great time to introduce notable NPCs such as the council members, Wellgar Brinehanded the cleric of Procan, and Ferrin Kastilar the druid with his pet bullfrog Lorys. "Dungeons & Dragons 'Ghosts of Saltmarsh' Revealed as Next Adventure Book", "Review - Dungeons & Dragons: Ghosts of Saltmarsh", "The Next D&D 5E Supplement Revealed: GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH", "5 Things We Know About D&D's Ghosts Of Saltmarsh (And 5 Things We Hope It Includes)", "D&D Announces New Adventure Book, GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH", "Beadle & Grimm's Sinister Silver Edition is Perfect Way to Experience Dungeons & Dragons' New Adventure", "Dungeons & Dragons Expands Its Line with Three New Releases", "New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Book Contains Lots of Greyhawk References", Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Dungeon Master Option: High-Level Campaigns, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ghosts_of_Saltmarsh&oldid=1131369976, Role-playing game supplements introduced in 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 January 2023, at 21:29. You need not utilize the entire trilogy for the adventure's premises to unfold. Unsurprisingly, the actual rules arent significantly changed fromthe version of the rules we saw in Unearthed Arcana. Heres what Wizards of the Coast have to say about what this product offers: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (hereafter referred to as GoS) runs to 256 pages, which is the typical length of a Fifth Edition product by Wizards of the Coast. 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. Like Tales from the Yawning Portal, it collects and updates a set of unrelated classic adventures and a DM can cherry pick from among them. Finally, Saltmarsh Backgrounds provides four new background options (Fisher, Marine, Shipwright, and Smuggler) which are useful additions for GoS specifically but also great new options for any character in any campaign. However, its the perfect place to add such links. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an adventure module anthology for the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. | Ghosts of Saltmarsh Arcane Arcade 101K subscribers Subscribe 3.2K 181K views 3 years ago We begin our adventure on the high seas! If the characters can find signs of the single clear path, they can follow it safely through the dunes. There are also several tables for generating jobs that various NPCs might want help with. As mentioned, the adventures are mostly superb: theyre highly competent conversions of the older material, expanded and improved and tied together into what amounts to a pretty satisfactory campaign. This provides the backdrop we need for the following parts of the adventure, which kicks off with a murder mystery. Here are some ideas: The Final Enemy concludes the trilogy which began with The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. 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. The lizardfolk have been purchasing weapons from the smugglers to arm themselves for their planned counterattack. Thanks for your support! Id love to run GoS! Summary [ edit] Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an anthology of updated modules and adventures from previous editions, including three adventures from the classic 'U' series. Wasteland Wheels roars onto the scene! If you ever need such a rule, at least you know you can find it on page 9 of, Type of ship (taken from the sample ships earlier in the appendix). Naturally, GoS is also available on DnDBeyond, with the usual variety of purchase options: all content, compendium content only, and cherry-picking individual content. Crossing the dunes is akin to crossing a minefield, except choosing the wrong path results in an explosion of undead from the sand. Its worth remembering that there are also two random encounter tables in Chapter 1: Saltmarsh. 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 . The region of Saltmarsh is a classic D&D setting. This is because the guidance for placing the adventures relies on suitable geography that exists in the world. This is the first campaign book Ive read through properly, but I understand these rosters also appeared in previous campaign books. The last thing you want is for the sahuagin to be a distant threat right up until the adventurers face them. Historically set in the Greyhawk setting, here it's reimagined as setting-neutral, and is a self-contained area with a lot of intrigue. The alliance forces sweep through the stronghold, and they will win no matter what, but the degree of success is determined by the characters. 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). This table is a fun idea but only moderately useful in my opinion. The number of actions that can be undertaken goes down as crew are slain or incapacitated. The End of a Trilogy. Download the Ghosts of Saltmarsh Player's Guide. A fortified lighthouse on Abbey Isle makes the shipping lanes safer and can also give Saltmarsh advanced warning of invasion by sea. This will KILL a newbie 3rd level party that is not optimized for combat. All food in a 5'-radius sphere is purified and And of course, the typical curse that you cant easily get rid of the item. The section describes 6 island themes: The second appendix is a short one, containing just six magic items. What good would a supplement about sea-based adventuring be if it didnt include new rules governing sea-based adventures? Since chapters 2, 3, and 6 are the trilogy that form the through line of the larger campaign, this is the first of what we might call side quests. It's a great time to reinforce the main themes of the campaign, integrate the characters together into a group, and discuss any sensative issues anyone might have with these themes. Im mentioning that now so I dont keep repeating myself in my summaries of the following chapters, though I wont mention it again in my descriptions of the following chapters. This is a really good supplement full of fun adventures set on or near the water. Get revved up! Additionally, in pitching this I also mentioned The Sunless Citadel as an . 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. However, this isnt always the case (for example, in Danger at Dunwater creatures might move between room 10 and room 29). The maps look as though they were taken straight out of a 2nd edition module and given that many of the adventures in the book are converted from older editions, this approach lends the product an additional feel of nostalgia. This is an interesting product, because it falls somewhere in the middle of previous adventure books in terms of its presentation and purpose. This is an adventuring environment not catered for by the tables in Xanathars Guide to Everything, though look there for coastal and underwater encounters! The total number of the . [] Its not hard to imagine how a series of unlucky rolls could put the PCs on the wrong end of a mutiny. If they have managed to talk to the druid, the characters will know that the octopus already attacked the ship once and can deduce that it is pursuing the vessel. Fearing an attack, the towns leaders send the adventurers to investigate. Flip through the pages of the new Ghosts of Saltmarsh book and you'll find adventure around every corner. [11], For Bleeding Cool, Gavin Sheehan wrote that "Ghosts of Saltmarsh is one of the best put-together books in the entire run of 5th Edition. In the Ghosts of Saltmarsh appendix A, "Of ships and the sea" one of the pre-created underwater locations ( the wreck of the marshal) has the following feature: I'm hoping to run one of the suggested adventures in this area (the one for level 5 characters), but I'm struggling to see how this feature is supposed to work. Likewise, you should enjoy playing them! Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. A woman, drowned, clearly looking as though she was recently bound and died trying to swim away. In some campaigns this doesn't matter too much but it's hard to figure out why a githyanki or yuan-ti might be involved in the issues surrounding a fishing village. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an anthology of updated modules and adventures from previous editions, including three adventures from the classic 'U' series. 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. The Adventures in Saltmarsh section is very useful. 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. The village description even has an Intrigue section which includes information about local smuggling operations, providing an adventure hook entirely unrelated to the main quest. A number of others are converted, new to 5e but not new to D&D. Chapter 2: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (level 1-3) A fun two-part adventure which probably seemed more ground-breaking and revelatory 39 years ago than it does now. Since only one cultist survived, hes the only person capable of telling the next part of the story. Props can help make the ethereal ghosts of our campaign begin to feel solid and real. Furthermore, neither the captains log nor the druid can explain the presence of four ghasts in the cargo hold (though the druid falsely believes them to be emissaries of Lolth). After returning with their intelligence, the characters are rewarded, but of course there part in the plan isnt done: the alliance want them to join the attack on the fortress as a strike team so its back to the stronghold they go! 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. Mr. Dory uses this ship as his lair. The sahuagin stronghold is a big place, and lots of sahuagin are present. However if you want to keep them in Tier 1 (level 1-4) Do Salvage Operation instead of Final Enemy. Likewise, you might roll a mysterious island, which can also be generated using rules in this chapter. Their own victories and achievements add points to a tally. 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. Hes a 3rd-level wizard, you could use his statblock as a template for other lower level mages. If they are challenged, one of the guards tries to escape to 3 for help. Yet while the ghost forests may evoke graveyards, the salt marsh plants that advance into dead and dying stands of trees are themselves valuable. In play, Id suggest using these numbers as a baseline but introducing a small amount of variance to the price and construction time for upgrades slightly based on current market conditions, availability of materials and skilled workers, rarity of the technology, etc. The PCs go investigate, turns out its smugglers using an illusionist to make it seem haunted to keep people away. Ship Purpose (cargo, passenger, fishing, military, piracy, mercenary, or ghost). Ghosts of Saltmarsh presents several classic and beloved adventures from the history of D&D, given an update for 5e. They need humanoid corpses to feed the Pit of Hatred, a rift to the Abyss. Chapter 17 of Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master describes the value of running a "session zero" for a new campaign. At some point afterward the ship was attacked by a giant octopus (which is still pursuing the vessel), and only one of the cultists that was crewing it remains alive, along with various monsters. Cursed islands are steeped in the residue of dark magic, and are typically inhabited by undead. The Cursed Luckstone lets you roll with advantage, but then inflicts disadvantage on your next two rolls. Theres even a section dealing with how to determine the mood of the town on any given visit, depending on whether the towns fishing industry is doing well! 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). On the Sea Ghost, the adventurers also meet a party of lizardfolk, and find other clues that suggest busting the smuggling ring isnt the end of Saltmarshs problems. The expected level for this adventure is 11th, and its once again designed for 4-6 characters. Where did she come from? The files were designed to be used with VTT apps such as Roll20, where you can assemble the ship in the way it best suits your campaign, being it placing . 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. The region around Saltmarsh is described, and is fully laden with adventure hooks which you can use to expand your GoS campaign beyond the adventures already fleshed out in subsequent chapters. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of all the cookies. As with the last chapter this adventure first describes a new location The Styes, and provides potential hooks to get the characters to the town. Session 13: Chapter 6 from the book (conclusion/assault). Half of the rooms don't have any valuables so I apologize for . The corpses go in, and drowned ones come out. Production Values. DMs looking for their next published campaign have a lot to look forward to if they choose GoS. This second side quest takes the characters to the island abbey of an evil group of clerics. (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. They do really well, managing to map out a lot of the levels and freeing Borgas and Kysh. OR could wait to next Tuesday when the new season drops. Haunted House Loot. Mr. Dory a named NPC, hes an unusual variant of skum (which also appear in this appendix). Saltmarsh is 1. If you like picking up new sources of monsters to help diversify your own adventures, theres good value in this appendix for you. Attitude and Race. 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. Mr. Dorys connection a cult of Tharizdun and a being called The Whisperer, believed to be Tharizduns messenger, who gives the cult orders. If played in order as a seafaring campaign, it takes characters from level 1 through level 12. There are four new backgrounds, but youd be better off talking to your DM about the new options available than purchasing the supplement yourself. It surprises me that what seem like glaringly obvious issues have never yet been improved upon. Their colourful crews are described immediately after the table. If you do the work to flesh them out the three adventure seeds provided, its feasible to significantly expand your GoS campaign with a second major arc. comments sorted by Best Top New Controversial Q&A Add a Comment Shiroiken Additional comment actions. The disappearance and reappearance of the ship relies on a detailed background story that there is a good chance the characters will never learn. 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