These posts are going to be my post-mortem of the session that was just held. They will look at how I felt things went, and recap what happened in the session story wise.

This first post will be slightly different. As we …

Meet the party

• Jonathan is Valdor Shadowstorm, a Human Rogue.

• Diego is Sinthoras, an Elf Druid

• Nathanial is Bart an Elf Ranger

• Chrissie is Trixie Furpurple a Forest Gnome Bard

• Richard is Varis Galanodell a Half-Elf Warlock

Our Adventure Starts…

“The coastal town of Saltmarsh like other coastal towns on the Sword Coast is very busy this time of year. Anything that floats and is sea worthy is being hired to take travellers to the Festival of the Earthmother on the island of Alaron. People have come from far and distance lands to witness this legendary festival at least once in their life time.

Having secured what is most likely the last spaces anywhere, the adventurers are all waiting on a small wooden jetty ready to board the Dirty Oar. A keelboat owned and sailed by the ships Captain, Chan.”

After boarding the Dirty Oar, they set sail heading out into open waters and towards Alaron.

While at sea within sight of an island the Dirty Oar runs into a storm. Sadly the adventurers and crews efforts to prepare the ship were in vain. The storm battered the Dirty Oar, throwing it on to a reef. Smashing the boat to pieces.

The adventurers ended up unconscious on the beach of the island that had been spotted. When they came round they found the corpses of Captain Chan and Chewy next to them.

The adventurers were blocked from getting off the beach by an impregnable cliff wall that was unscalable. Luckily they discovered a cave that upon investigation had mysterious steps going up at the back of it.

At the top of the stairs was a corridor that had a portcullis at the end of it. About half way along was an alcove and opposite a door way. From nowhere an arrow narrowly missed Valdor, and a warning shouted to leave or die.

Ignoring this threat the adventurers ended up fighting a group of pirates in the corridor. After what seemed a drawn out fight, it was definitely close combat, and anything goes, the pirates were dispatched.

Bart found a lever in the alcove that opened the portcullis. The opened door way led into a large cavern full of crates and barrels. Obviously the spoils of numerous raids. In a far corner was another stairs leading once again up.

After grabbing some supplies the party headed up the stairs.

This came out onto a corridor that had a door at the end of it, another door half way down it. And at the far end also another corridor.

Valdor checked the door half way down. It was unlocked. He snuck into the room behind it. He had found a sleeping quarters, and there were two pirates fast asleep.

After Valdor tried killing one of the sleeping pirates in their sleep, a fight broke out. But the two pirates put up little fight before they were no more.

After a short rest in the sleeping quarters, the party decided to examine the door at the far end of the corridor. It was locked. After failed attempts to unlock it by Valdor. Bart tried kicking the door down to no avail. Trixie decided to break the lock totally with her knife. Fed up with these poor displays of skill,and wanting to see what was behind the door Sinthoras cast Thunderwave. Smashing open the door, and alerting anything living within 300ft of the groups presence.

Behind the destroyed door was the contents of an armoury scattered over the floor, and a couple of smashed vials.

Half way up the new corridor was another alcove and a portcullis opposite it, and on the same side as the portcullis a bit further down another door. The portcullis lead to another locked door. That Valdor managed to open. It lead into an office, that also had another door in it. Valdor searched the desk and it’s papers finding a scrap of paper with an interesting symbol on it. The symbol was a white four point star over an anvil. The other door lead to a private sleeping quarters. Where nothing of interest was found. Although back in the office another lever was found that opened the portcullis opposite the alcove.

Back in the corridor Valdor decided to check out the open doorway at the end of the corridor.

Waiting for the party in the hall were more pirates. An arrow just missed Valdor when he poked his head round the corner to see what was in the cave. Two berserkers rushed through the door attacking.

A bloody and dirty fight followed. Through out words of encouragement could be heard being shouted at the pirates. As the adventurers fought their way into the hall the leader of the pirates made a dash for some stairs in the opposite far corner. Despite their best efforts to stop him, the pirate escaped.

Varis managed to charm the sole remaining pirate, allowing the party to interrogate their prisoner. Which enabled them to find out about Angrath and what was waiting for them ahead up the stairs. After the questioning had finished Bart sent the prisoner to the after life.

Armed with the new intel, the group went back and broke into the treasury. Where they filled their pockets with gold, found some magic cloaks, a couple of glass vials and a magical helm. And some other trinkets. There was too much treasure to carry.

And that was where we left the group…

Post-mortem

So how did things go from a DM point of view?

The start was rather shaky. But I grew into things. For me it didn’t flow, or seem right. Especially the descriptions dealing with leaving port, being at sea and leading into the storm.

I’m not entirely sure that the skill challenges worked. I didn’t announce them as such, nor explain what one was. Maybe having one so early into our first session was a mistake.

With the group failing the skill challenge for the storm itself the boat was wrecked, and the group unconscious on the beach I decided for dramatic purposes to kill off the boats crew. I also had to decide on the fly with the players what equipment they were likely to have survived with. I allowed weapons, but stuff like food, camping equipment, etc was lost because it would naturally have been stowed away. This situation had gone through my mind before hand. I think I should have thought it through more, and made some notes.

Once in the pirates lair, the first level took a lot longer than expected. The guard post and room seemed to really slow the players down. It almost seemed too hard a problem to solve.

I think the tiles worked. Although I think it made me lazy with my descriptions, and I need to work on that.

The pirate tactics in combat used were believable I think. Having them preferring to die, rather than run away and face Angrath was the right way to play them. It gave the players extra info that although they had no idea who Angrath was, they knew he was some-one to fear. Also having described the clothes in his locker in his quarters as being too big for them, it conveyed to the players the person was large. So the players were getting an image of Angrath dropped as hints.

I was also very tight with what the dead pirates had on them, and in their quarters. Basically if searched all that was found was their weapons. I kinda felt guilty about that. But then again I eased that feeling knowing that there was a very well stocked treasure room for them to get into.

Berserkers had too high an hp? I think what helped was the 2 berserkers were blocking the door way and stopping the other pirates from attacking. It kept the party from being overwhelmed and out numbered in actions. But after the first berserker died, I dropped the seconds hp a little.

When the party tried breaking into the armoury Chrissie rolls a natural 20 trying to break the lock with her knife. I had her completely destroy the lock, so the door remained locked. A knife isn’t the best way to pick a lock. It felt right. But thinking about it now seemed a bit too mean.

I decided to have the lair commander run off. Which meant I fudged the rolls so that he would escape. I felt a bit guilty doing this. But it was a spur of the moment decision to have him make a run for it so that he could escape and tell Angrath. A witness that could identify them later on when they eventually bump into the minotaur pirate.

Early on a player asked me I think during our first skill challenge what the DC was. I didn’t give it. That allows metagaming, It’s info the characters wouldn’t know. Also from a DM running things point of view, it means I can’t adjust things on the fly based on how events are going. I don’t tell players if their stealth check has succeeded or not. I describe them being stealthy. They find out how successful that was as events evolve. There is a whole Matt Colville video on this.

I thought this session would be about 3 hours. It ended up being 4. Ok there was a little chat at the start, and about 15 mins clear up. But otherwise the rest was game time. And we still had level 3 and the tomb to navigate.

Overall I think the players enjoyed the experience. Which is the main thing.