Yes Saltmarsh Loves Me

  The 2024 OBX sojourn was marked by an epic showdown against a legendary foe.  It was also marked by the mighty Wizlards battling the evil forces of COVID using an impressive arsenal of pluck and hand sanitizer. As it turns out, COVID is a CR23 BBEG who is resistant to both pluck and sanitizer.  At the time of this post, 3 out of 5 Wizlards now recommend COVID to their patients who chew gum. Still, we came and saw and surprisingly conquered.  While all of our sports teams were disappointments, this session will long be remembered as a fittingly heroic climax to an amazing adventure almost three years in the making.  We fought horny blue dragons and gargantuan kraken.  Some of us ate salad on only three of us died in the final battle.  These two are probably unrelated. Abejunio El Guapo, Faer'uns mightiest and hairest of bards, was sadly ineffective in the showdown with the evil forces of Jom Bovi.  He spent much of The fight on the deck of the Kr...

 The Wizlards have been immortalized with their trademark derring-do.   A condensed version is above.  I like how the artist does motion so asked that it not be a standing around or campfire picture and suggested fleeing a pirate ship or sea monster.  The magic fishing rod, Pieces of Eight, and some subtle character elements are in the picture though we didn't capture wild magic.   Huzzah for Wizlards!

 Since I thought I might be better about adding some pics (and now that I told the rest of the crew about this blogger site feel free to post your own), I'm dropping in just a few snaps from what can only be considered a wildly successful return to Roadside Attraction Saltmarsh adventuring.  I know a recap will come someday after Halstead happily ignores D&D for a while to recharge. Highlights for me the player included the home cooked meals so we could pretend to be grown ups, Ellie clearing out the lampreys and saving us from TPK near the cauldron of elementals, and (though Adamas wasn't thrilled) Lilly drawing her line in the proverbial sand with the gods (which was made more enjoyable for me by the fact that she also confessed to hating the beach).  Still, I don't know if anything will top the hamster ball of arcane doom (bead of force) and Lleyash's inspired humbling of another caster through sorcery and counterspell goodness.  Playing Abe, my favorite momen...

I should have been posting some of these along the way but here is SOME of the fun that has convinced me I'm never going to try to make models and battlemaps this fun.   Maybe I can outsource to Halstead Kelley Enterprises Whitecrag Hideout and Mike's Beverage Cart :) Misdirection is the sincerest form of flattery Back from COVID after Halstead has built the whole city Sunken treasure and a fishing pole Gnolls attacking the farm.  Ellie killing everyone. EDIT: Mike also just sent a few snaps of the Tavern.  Here's one that reinforces the point....  

Abe ponders : As we limp back towards Saltmarsh and Ellie she is trying not to kill the rest of us while making poisons, we might reflect on all of our [limited] adventures and consider a name.  We've made some enemies so perhaps we've made some friends now, too no? - it's clear we'll be having each others backs for some time. I'm sure others will have better ideas but here's my head dump.  Ship names are stronger than crew names. Ship Name candidates from Abe: The Morning Wood Goldblade's Revenge   (for the dead girl we found on the first day) Enterprise (mostly because Archmage Rob says we get to find crew.  I see Uhura and Bones and....) Several were in the "also ran" category.  Carribean Queen, Black Freighter (from Watchmen) (cuz once you go.... nevermind), Black Treasurer (from Ffafhrd), The Blue Nixie, Intruder   Crew Name candidates from Abe: Also rans were Trouble Brewing Company LLC and Three Men and a Little Lady.  The only nota...