Dungeons & Dragons session report 10/18/25 - episode 4

No game today, but I didn’t update about last week. I can’t believe anyone is interested at this stuff so I will post a few details.

Previously on the Misanthropes (the self-applied moniker this group is now going by), the group was staying in the fly-speck sized coastal town of Stickdock, camping on the O’Malley farm. Also, a barn full of Barkling refugees were also staying on the O’Malley farm. Once it became known that there was a haunted manor house in the vicinity, Pepper MacScruffles, shaman of the Barkling tribe called the Yaphank tribe contracted the party to accompany her through the manor, in spite of its local reputation, to see if it is suitable for the tribe to move into. The Misantropes and Pepper concluded the above ground levels, and discovered the secret basement barracks of a group of very alive people in the manor and even slew one. We concluded with the party discovering the secret entrance to the adjoining caverns where secret smuggling activities were taking place.

After game in our private chat, they figured once cleared, there would be “Barkling Manor” a bed and breakfast by the sea owned and run by the barklings, in which they knew they might be able to stay whenever traveling back into the area, lol!

Now caught up, THIS LAST WEEK ON THE MISANTHROPES:

The players for the bard Marieen and the monk Interrobang could not make it, as they had family issues to attend to. Thus, in the basement of the manor, Interrobang (a very low intelligence monk role played to the hilt) was experiencing a crisis of understanding over the true nature of life, death, and undeath as to cause him to wander away from the manor back to camp to meditate over the issue for greater understanding. Marieen, concerned over Interrobang’s welfare, as well as being inspired to engage in the bardic arts with a new composition of the party’s exploits, escorted him safely back to camp.

The rest of these players, as it turns out, are awkward, antisocial types when it comes to non-combat encounters, but sharp as sleuths and tactical as generals when it comes to investigations and combats. They WISELY entered into the lower caverns with all due caution for sight and sound and spent a little bit of time with the fighter/thief Eidolas skulking in one direction and the unarmored and thus quieter druid Shayle sneaking a out in another direction. Through sincere good effort and lucky dice rolls (that’s unusual), Eidolas discovered a ceiling full of green slime and thus warned the party not to go that way, while Shale was able to hear some people in the tunnels ahead laboring and discussing shipments, and a forthcoming dinner break (which they would never receive, as it seems the party had only just recently killed the chef in the barracks area).

They formed a plan, split the party to form a front line (the ranger Doran in front with Cleric Rosemarinus, and Magic user Jim Smorkle behind) and a flanking line in a side tunnel of F/Th Eidolas with Druid Shayle, and Pepper MacScruffles behind. Jim Smorkle cast his LAST SPELL: ventriloquism, to bait the two laborers into the trap, which worked well enough, except that they obviously had time to shout out that there were intruders. Combat quickly went sideways from there.

The two laborers (smugglers, fighters 1^st level) were put down. One slain, one knocked unconscious and dragged behind the flank line to be safely tied up by Shayle. The balance of the smugglers, including two gnolls and the now invisible illusionist leader began to come forth. I shan’t give the blow by blow, as it was a series of misses, sloppy hits, and THANKFULLY no one taking the sort of risks that would repeat last episode’s catch phrase of “It’s okay to miss, don’t miss ‘bad’!”, but here are a few highlights.

Between the ranger and the F/Th, most of the humans quickly became grease spots. Pepper had cast Faerie Fire along the way making them easier to hit. The invisible illusionist cast color spray, blinding a gnoll, blinding Eidolas, our group’s most effective combatant, and stunning Pepper, but thus revealed himself. In the following round, he cast wall of fog and fled with two remaining smugglers still alive.

The party slew the remaining gnoll, Eidolas’s sight cleared, and the barkling shaman recovered from being stunned, and party gave quick chase through the fog. They were able to catch the smugglers in the cave open to the sea before they fled in a transfer boat.

And Jim Smorkle – who had cast his last spell? – While the messy combat was gojng on, he went back into the barracks, found a preserved ham, a block of hard cheese, and the reasonably non-moldy bread in the smuggler’s larders, and made sandwiches for everyone. He reappeared as calm as you please, chewing a bit of his own, with a parcel of sandwiches for all prepared.

The party promised to release the remaining captive smuggler if he gave up the info. He had but a few details relating to signaling their ship and the party actually let him go! Score one for not being murder hoboes, deduct one for leaving loose ends! (As a DM, I LOVE exploiting loose ends!)

Here’s the rub. I never planned for them to go on this adventure, so quickly had to update the tiny town. Secret of Saltmarsh is two small adventures, one being the haunted manor, the second being an assault on the smuggler’s ship a few days later. The second party sort of requires parlaying with the townsfolk – council and all. I prepared who might have been on this council, who was involved with the smugglers, and who was not.

The party quickly caught on that Seamus O’Malley, and possibly his mother, were involved with the smuggling. POSSIBLY the trader/tavern owner Dooley McClusky was too (he’s not), but they never grew to trust anyone else in the town. So they went into ‘town’ to try to report (some) of the finds of the smuggled goods and the whole affair, but felt the vibe of the whole place was ‘off’. They kept a few of the portable treasures found in tye manor, and told the barklings to keep the whole of the smuggled goods for their own and for restoration of their new abode.

They decided the best way to get out of town was to accompany Seamus on a supply run several days easy into the hills with a wagon-load for a small and shrinking community of dwarves. Considering the hills are were where the barklings were fleeing from, they figured it to be a good source of looking for trouble. Although players absent, the characters Marieen and Interrobang went along.

Two days into the journey, they woke up to find that Seamus and his assistant fled with the horses, leaving them (and the wagon) high and dry in the middle of an open plain in sight of the still far off hills. The party, with no horses of their own, mused over this and figured Seamus had lured them into peril, and swore vengeance. But that will be delayed.

They’ve been scooped up by two rocs, and thus railroaded into Eye of the Serpent. Which we’ll start in earnest on the 8^th.

Posy Script: Rosemarinus, the dark cleric who worships the previously unknown god “Earl Black” the god of tea parties for the dead. She’s a gothy type with a fascination with the macabre, and a desire to raise the dead. If you recall, a few episodes back, she was instrumental in connecting the group with the barklings, as she had made tea for all and spent her time calming their frayed nerves and the night they believed they were under attack in the O’Malley’s barn. She had made special effort to calm the wee barkling pups. The night back from the manor, she discovered that one of the wee pups – Sparkles Barclay – was now sporting a wee black dress and had her own toy teapot, as she was so taken with Rosemarinus, that she cried and insisted to her parents to fashion a dress and teapot so she could be just like her new hero. That night, and this is for the first time, the newly minted deity of this realm Early Black himself came faintly into the dreams of Rosemarinus to thank her. He now properly exists in this realm (if still faintly), not because of HER belief, but because her actions of her belief has now gotten another to believe in him.