2024-08-21 Session 4

DM: Brendan

• Donald - Boffo Hornblower, skilled in the 12 places to place leaches
• Brandon as Gorgesh, level 1 wizard
• Sarah as Muno, level 1 thief

Gibble, a well-dressed goblin looking for adventurers, gathered the players and brought them to his employer, Pike Parsonpile. This dwarf, a former adventurer who made it big and became a merchant, commissioned the players to retrieve some cargo from a missing caravan he was expecting from Gloambower to the south. He was quite angry that Lord Bartolomeu III didn’t do the bare minimum job of maintaining and protecting roads, despite his repeated entreaties. He offered the adventurers 100gp apiece for their services (minus a total of 30 gp advance) to find where the caravan was attacked, retrieve the package in question, and return it to him as quickly as possible. One guard from the caravan made it to town, but when the players went to interrogate him, he had died. There were also strange crystalline protrusions sticking out of his wounds. Gorgesh attempted to detect magic, only to find that they were extremely concentrated but otherwise very ordinary salt.

The players set out south, traveling three hexes worth of distance to camp overnight before entering the salt flats. Overnight, a band of 11 mounted warriors approached the players’ campfire and demanded that they lead them to Lord Bartholemu to make him pay! In their words, a leader of men who can’t keep his word doesn’t deserve to keep his head, either. The players pointed them toward Darkwater, then offered to let them spend the night at their fire, for the things that stalk in the shadows are terrifying. They were told in turn that “we hunt what stalks in the shadows” and rode off. I’m sure they’re fine, but we’re going to have to do something about this Bartholemu guy, huh.

The next day, the players find the wreckage of a wagon near the side of the road and follow some drag marks in the dirt back to a cave, where two salt trolls (stat block below) were digging into a dead horse. Like the guard, the horse’s wounds were crusted over with salt. The players defeated the trolls and bravely sallied forth into the cave behind them!

The players fought their way around the cave, finding the remains of the caravan and some other treasure from random travelers as they went. In the end, they lost their torches and Light spell and struggled to defeat the wandering monsters who piled on them once the hated light went out. Between three salt trolls, eight flying darkness octopodes, and a handful of kobolds gathering mushrooms, the players struggled to make progress. They bravely ran away to drink their profits and their sorrows away, unsuccessful in their ultimate goal, but alive to try again.