S3: The Final Enemy

The 28th full game session. Dean (Thic Duc), Matt (Barron), Mariel (Leah), Jon (Elion), and (Coby) Gunnar are returning cast members.

As we left the party, they were in dire straits, trapped between a squad of fish-men coming from behind, another squad out front with at least three leaders, their lizard allies absent, and a number of the party dead or missing. Shaggy was shark food, Hargrimm had been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head in the general melee, Scooby was a shishkabob and Fred was somewhere outside the doors where Thic Duc was being dragged, semiconscious, away from his friends. Velma was out of tricks, Kevin the druid was fighting a last stand against an entire squad from the south, and everyone was running low on healing potions, and the party motto – Grab the body and run! – was looking like better advice by the minute.

As stated by Guildmistress Elena, the party’s goals were:

Determine the strength of the sahuagin force -- how many warriors, officers, nobles, etc are present.
Locate important areas within the fortress -- barracks, officers quarters, etc
Discover any significant defensive measures -- areas with traps, guards, regular patrols, purpose-build defenses
Discover how advanced any sahuagin preparations are, and when their next attack might take place

Step one was to close the doors, hopefully allowing the party to defend from a fortified position against the sahuagin just outside while cleaning up the remaining sahuagin inside the lair. They accomplished this rapidly, while the sahuagin were distracted fighting the spider that had suddenly appeared in their ranks. Leah stepped up and began firing through the arrow slits in the door. Two of the leaders faced off against the spider, neither being very effective against the other. The priestess began directing her troops to push themselves through the arrow slits – the bones of such fishy creatures being compressible, similar to octopi (but less so). Barron immediately slashed one with his saber, which appeared to kill the sahuagin warrior while he was still trapped.. but a moment later, and some chanting by the priestess, and the fishy warrior was active again and hungry for brains!

Daphne, in her squirrel-form, repeatedly scrambled up walls and along the ceiling, dropping from fish-men from above, but repeatedly miscalculated the distance she was able to travel while in the air. Daphne may be a squirrel, but she is not a flying squirrel.

Between the giant spider and the party’s sniping through arrow slits, the sahuagin outside the door were whittled down and killed. The party hurriedly exited the lair and chased after their cart and the squad of sahuagin who were taking their captives (including Thic Duc and Fred) away into the swamp. They were able to catch up to the sahuagin, who move rather slowly on land, and defeat the small squad. The arrival of a somewhat withdrawn comrade, Michael the cleric, and a confused warhorse helped distract the fish-men during the assault.

At the end of the session, the party returned to the sahuagin lair, quickly surprising a replacement squad of fish-men who did not expect the criminals to return to the scene of the crime. After taking the gatehouse, however, they saw still more sahuagin within, already cleaning up the bodies. Sensing that they had stirred the nest up enough already, they chose to abandon Scooby’s body inside the sahuagin lair, along with the halfing thief they met briefly, and Shaggy’s shark-bitten shreds. They would instead return (with Fred’s body) to Saltmarsh, sell the captured weaponry, possibly report to the lizardfolk, and consider their next plan of action.

To be continued…

Treasure

74 spears (60gp)
60 tridents (240gp)
30 daggers (60gp)
60 hooked nets (300gp)
194 javelins (87gp)
4 crossbows (80gp)
4 leader armbands (80gp)
2 electric prod daggers (not sold?)
5 unusual crossbows (not sold?)
33gp in loose coins
Total: 900gp

Experience

1 sahuagin priestess (at the entrance): 200xp
2 sahuagin leaders (at the entrance): 200xp
1 giant spider (at the entrance): 200xp
6 sahuagin guards (with priestess): 516xp
6 sahuagin guards (leaving with Thic Duc): 516xp
6 sahuagin guards (in the guardhouse after rescuing Thic Duc): 516xp
Bonus for discovering and reporting the entry area defenses: 250xp
Bonus for discovering and reporting the presence of officers: 250xp
Bonus for discovering and reporting the presence of priestesses: 500xp
Bonus for stealing stockpiled weaponry, thus delaying a large scale attack: 1000xp
Total Group Experience: 5048 xp (not including individual bonuses)

Roleplaying moments and quotables

Thic Duc gets stuck in the door
Daphne the killer squirrel screaming "Oh, shit, I'm not a flying squirrel" as she falls from the ceiling, missing a fishman... twice
Daphne the killer squirrel rides Pyro into battle
The fishman who grabbed Leah with both hands (two natural twenties) bit into her for ... 3 points of damage
Gunnar the master swordsman smacks his longsword into the wall, dropping it, while attacking a surprised and immobile fishman

Dangling Threads of Fate

Elmo's Wand of Polymorph has been used three times. How many charges remain?
Fred is dead... his body is in the Mystery Machine
Shaggy was torn to bits and eaten by sharks
Daphne is still a squirrel