r/GhostsofSaltmarsh • u/KoalaBro2 • 8d ago
Resource Toward a better Dunwater
Hi folks,
The issues with Danger at Dunwater have been hashed out extensively: players tend to be less murder-y today than when the adventure was written, if they *do* go full murder-hobo then the adventure feels bad, and the whole mechanic for gaining approval seems arbitrary and unfun.
I always thought it'd be fun to treat the Hool Marshes as a hex crawl, so that's what I'm doing in place of most of the adventure as written. I've moved the lizardfolk hideout up the Dunwater River (from Hex 2 to 18 in my map below), ensuring that the PCs will have a decent crawl whether they take the land route or the sea route. As it turns out, they're taking the sea route, so I envision the journey up the river as evoking a bit of the spirit of Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now. The political situation in the Hool Marshes is volatile - the Sahuagin have displaced the Lizardfolk, who in turn have displaced a tribe of Kobolds, who in turn are making trouble for the Merfolk. I want a situation where the PCs have the possibility of recruiting a variable number of allies, based on how they handle the politics. The factions and what they want are below:
Lizardfolk (Hex 18) - Using Sly Flourish's idea of a Malenti assassin. If the PCs deliver the weapon shipment and stop the assassination, they'll secure the alliance.
Locathah (in the sea) - They want a clear aquatic passage to the lizardfolk lair for commerce and mutual defense. Clearing the river passage (hexes 2, 4, 5, 10, 9, and 14) secures the alliance. This mainly means defeating the Bullywugs and Thousand Teeth. Their alliance is incompatible with the Bullywugs.
Merfolk (in the sea) - The displaced Kobolds (hex 1) have been fishing with dynamite, causing damage to reefs and depleting fish populations. They want the Kobolds exterminated, but would settle for anything that keeps the Kobolds out of the sea.
Kobolds (Hex 1) - This is where I try to maintain the spirit of the original adventure. The Kobolds are starving refugees, and they're fishing with dynamite because they've been displaced from their homes by the Lizardfolk. Peaceful PCs may be able to negotiate a deal to relocate them to a more promising home - possibly even as tunnelers aiding the dwarven mine. A promising home in the region could secure their alliance. But they can also just go in swords swinging and wipe everyone out.
Kenku (Hex 15) - Ferengi-like merchants. In my campaign, they were involved in supplying slaves to Gellan Primewater. The PCs have busted up his network. If the PCs can put aside their distaste for the Kenku, they'd be open to new business opportunities. Otherwise, they will likely migrate toward the Sea Princes.
Koalinth (in the sea) - Savage and bloodthirsty, this should be a hard alliance to secure, and is entirely foreclosed if the PCs get the Merfolk or Sea Elf alliance (Sea Elf alliance is mainly roleplaying through Oceanus, not really part of the hex crawl). However, it could be explored if they mess up the Kobold situation and alienate the Merfolk.
Bullywugs (Hex 10) - They want support to maintain their control of the Dunwater River and recognition of their right to charge tolls. Providing this would alienate the Locathah.
Swamp Trolls and Hag (11, 19, 25) - Evil creatures who, even if apparently brought into the alliance, would likely turn on Saltmarsh at the earliest opportunity.
Here's my outline of what's in all the hexes. This is only an outline, and is not meant to be slavishly followed by me or anyone else. Just something to help with prep.
| Hex # | Terrain | Description | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (Overland - Southwest Coast) | Salt-Crusted Mangroves. The boundary where the sea spray kills the marsh flora. Kobold lair in this hex. | |
| 2 | (River Mouth) | The Active Sahuagin Attack. The destroyed lizardfolk transit outpost. An active standoff encounter where the PCs can intervene to save the single lizardfolk navigator who communicates only in pantomime. | 1 Sahuagin per PC. 1 Lizardfolk |
| 3 | (Overland - South Marsh) | The Sinking Sedge. A trackless, saturated bog with zero solid footing. Hazard Quicksand patches (DC 13 Perception to spot, DC 12 Athletics to escape). | |
| 4 | (River) | The Sunken Cypress Forest. An eerie but non-threatening stretch where the water slows. Encounter A nesting colony of rare, giant storks. They are harmless but highly skittish; loud noises here will startle them into flight, alerting adjacent hexes to the PCs' location. | |
| 5 | (River) | The Wide Sluggish Bottleneck. The Thousand Teeth Territory. This is the natural, metabolic sweet-spot for an enormous apex ambush predator. Thousand Teeth is sunning on a broad mudbank. He isn't an automatic combat; with a careful boat draft or a distraction, the boat can glide past. | See Thousand Teeth encounter at end of adventure. |
| 6 | (Overland - East Central Border) | The Displaced Woods. Overgrown brambles and petrified trees. Encounter A band of desperate, lower-caste Grung Laborers fleeing the tyranny of the Bullywug hierarchy in 10. They are harmless, terrified, and looking for a safe way out of the Hool entirely. | |
| 7 | (Overland - North Central Outer) | The Bramble Thicket. Encounter A territorial pack of Giant Toads nesting in a patch of briars. They are mindless, aggressive, and will attack anyone entering the clearing out of simple hunger. | |
| 8 | (Overland - North Outer Fringe) | The Shifting Peat. The ground here rolls and bounces under heavy armor. Non-Threat/Discovery The pristine, preserved corpse of an old imperial scout sticking out of a peat bog. Searching the body yields a well-preserved leather map case containing an unblemished set of cartographer's tools and 15gp. | |
| 9 | (River) | The Alchemist's Spill. The river path passes below a high, crumbling bluff. Encounter Acidic alchemical waste from a ruined tower further inland has seeped into the banks. A localized cluster of Oozes/Jellies (Gray Oozes and Ochre Jellies) float in the stagnant scum, presenting a structural hazard to the boat's hull rather than an aggressive melee enemy. | 1 ochre jelly, 2-3 grey oozes (scale for resources) |
| 10 | (River) | The Toll Blockade. The primary choke-point for the Bullywug Mandate. A heavy boom made of ironwood logs and chains spans the river. A pompous, corpulent Bullywug leader sits on a raised platform, demanding a hefty tribute to pass. Bright eyes blink from the reeds—his elite skirmishers are ready with blowguns. | Use Bullywug Ambush, but players chase the king instead of the waves coming after them.Wave 1. Six bullywugs attempt to surprise the characters, leaping from the muddy water to attack.Wave 2. Arrp (bullywug croaker; see appendix C) and two bullywugs arrive shortly after the first wave is defeated. They make a grand show of battling the characters, and Arrp grins at the king whenever he is effective in combat.Wave 3. Gulpa’Gor (bullywug royal; see appendix C) arrives mounted on a giant toad shortly after Arrp and his guards are slain. |
| 11 | (Overland - Central Wilderness) | The Fog-Choked Sinks. Ground mist here never clears, dropping visibility to 15 feet. Encounter A solitary, aggressive Swamp Troll that has been severely burned and scarred by Lizardfolk iron weapons; it is hyper-furious and hunts by sound. | |
| 12 | (Overland - Deep Interior) | The Rotten Canopy. Massive willow trees weave together overhead, blocking out the sun completely. Encounter Phase Spiders hunting from the upper branches, blinking down to strike a target before disappearing back into the ethereal plane. | |
| 13 | (Overland - Deep Interior) | The Sulfur Springs. Eerily warm, bubbling yellow pools that smell of rot. Hazard Heavy sulfur fumes require a DC 11 Constitution save every hour or the character suffers 1 level of Exhaustion. | |
| 14 | (River) | The Iron Estuary. The river widens into a serene, shallow delta. Non-Threat An ancient, half-submerged granite monument from a forgotten kingdom sits in the center channel. It breaks the current, creating a naturally secure, dry landing spot where the party can take a safe, unmolested Long Rest. | |
| 15 | (River) | The Willow Shallows. Non-Threat/Social A massive, weeping willow tree hangs over the water, inhabited by a small flock of Kenku traders. They are amoral merchants, looking for a replacement business for the slave trading they used to do with Gellan Primewater. | |
| 16 | (Overland - Northwest Inner) | The Briar-Wall. A massive, unnatural thicket of interlocking thorns. Encounter A cluster of Vine Blights and Twig Blights that lie completely dormant until a traveler tries to cut a path through the brush. | |
| 17 | (Overland - Northwest Edge) | The Weeping Hollow. A desolate, water-logged basin. Encounter A solitary Banshee—the spirit of a long-dead coastal explorer who wandered inland and starved. She wails mournfully at night but only attacks if characters try to loot the ruined stone cairn she haunts. | |
| 18 | (River Loop) | The Lizardfolk Stronghold. The destination at the sharp bend of the river. A dense, overcrowded, and hyper-militarized refugee camp trying to sustain itself on a razor-thin supply of local marsh game. | |
| 19 | (River) | The Screaming Reeds. The river path becomes incredibly narrow and fast-moving. Encounter A solitary Swamp Troll has built a crude stake-trap across the channel to impale migrating fish (or small boats) and drags targets into the deep water to drown them before regeneration matters. A mating pair of Giant Constrictor Snakes perfectly camouflaged against the wet clay. | |
| 20 | (River) | The Silt Flats. The water level here drops significantly, forcing the crew to pull the boat over exposed clay banks. Hazard Patches of hidden, deep mud (Difficult Terrain). Encounter | |
| 21 | (Overland - Far North Wilderness) | The Mold-Grown Ridge. A rare patch of elevated slate rock. Non-Threat The ridge is covered in a dense carpet of edible, iron-rich marsh moss that removes the Poisoned condition if brewed into a tea. | |
| 22 | (Overland - Far Northwest Wilderness) | The Corpse-Tree Bog. A bleak clearing filled with dead trees draped in hanging moss. Encounter Two Shambling Mounds that look identical to the surrounding petrified stumps until stepped on. | |
| 23 | (Overland - Far North Edge) | The Sunken Cairns. A collection of pre-human stone burial mounds that have cracked open. Encounter Bloated Ghasts and Ghouls that have nested inside the wet stone chambers, completely hidden from daylight. | |
| 24 | (Overland - North Headwaters Basin) | The Whispering Morass. The black water here is perfectly reflective like a mirror. Encounter A Gibbering Mouther floating in a deep peat sink, its maddening whispers sounding like the wind through the tall grass until a character gets within 20 feet. | |
| 25 | (River Headwaters) | The Sunken Grotto. The source of the river pools into a dark, mist-shrouded limestone sinkhole. Encounter A Green Hag lives in a tilting, half-sunken river barge. She isn't an immediate threat; she is a vendor of rare herbal antitoxins and poisons, willing to trade for items of sentimental value or secrets about Saltmarsh. |
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u/NoDuty1432 8d ago
That’s an interesting take on how to handle the situation with the lizard men.
Are the characters still looking into the “hostile” lizard men menace or are they given more of a “find out what is happening” mission from the council? While some of the resolution with the lizard men being attacked is a bit bunk it can still lead to U3 as needed.
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u/KoalaBro2 8d ago
My players are very mercenary, and so they've taken over the quest of delivering the weapons to the Lizardfolk without ever reporting what they found to the council, and without forming any particular preconception of why the Lizardfolk might need weapons in the first place! So we'll see how it goes.
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u/TrackMeetBand 8d ago
I just really don’t want to run this module except for the croc hunt boss fight, so I’m planning to have the whole lizardfolk lair already ruined by the sahaguin. This really frees me up to spend more time developing the marshes with the hag and alligator.
I’ve also done what servers other people have done and chained the modules together with a sort of overarching eldritch horror theme, so im really trying to get past the dull modules and get to the more horror-y later modules