Chapter 1: Saltmarsh

Saltmarsh is a nondescript fishing village tucked away on the southern coast of the Kingdom of Keoland. For several generations, Keoland was a formidable military power. Its superior cavalry and bold knights pushed the kingdom’s borders outward to the north, west, and east. Each successful campaign increased both the crown’s wealth and power, and each one in turn drew the kingdom’s attention even farther north. The southern coastal regions of Keoland remained a backwater.

The crown’s benign neglect allowed piracy and banditry to flourish. Saltmarsh and similar towns kept to fishing, content to maintain a low profile and avoid governmental entanglements. Decades ago, the pirates who prowled the waters off Saltmarsh grew strong enough to create their own realm, a loose confederacy known as the Hold of the Sea Princes. With the rise of that nation came increased raids on Saltmarsh and its neighbors. The Sea Princes' raiding ships pillaged the coast for more slaves to support their growing realm, and Saltmarsh suffered heavily. The memories of those times loom heavily over the area, and the locals' hatred of the Sea Princes runs deep.

In time, Keoland’s victories in the north gave way to a string of defeats in which its neighbors pushed the kingdom back to its original boundaries. With the world closing in, King Kimbertos Skotti looked to the south and saw unchecked banditry and a rising pirate nation. The crown struck peace treaties with its former foes to the north, raised a navy, and dealt a sharp check to the ambitions of the Sea Princes—but the conflict is by no means over.

King Skotti has decreed that the pirates must be put down, the sea lanes secured, and trade cultivated. If Keoland cannot prosper as a military force, it must grow mightier as a center of trade.

Saltmarsh, remote though it might be from the center of power in Keoland, is entering a new phase of its life as it reacts to the king’s plans. The crown’s agents want to expand the village’s port and make it a prime location for trade with the world beyond. In another recent development, a band of dwarves—bearing a decree from the king himself—have arrived and begun to excavate the hills and seaside cliffs near town, looking for precious metals. If their work bears fruit as expected, the mine stands to become a major factor in the village’s—and, indeed, the entire region’s—prosperity.

Naturally, not all of Saltmarsh’s residents feel the same way about the recent developments in and around their community, which is the key issue that affects their lives and livelihood. Although the recent changes stand to bring new prosperity to the area, many locals don’t want to see their home changed. At the same time, as an undercurrent through all the goings-on, agents of the secretive and mysterious Scarlet Brotherhood work to thwart Keoland’s ambitions while advancing their own.

Politics and Factions

Saltmarsh’s future rests in the hands of three factions that compete for supremacy. Two of the factions represent the opposing sentiments that have grown in town in recent years. The third is a secret group that seeks to undermine Saltmarsh and seize control of the region. These factions' struggles play out in the day-to-day lives of the townsfolk and the political maneuvering of Saltmarsh’s town council.

Traditionalists

The traditionalist faction is an alliance of the prominent fishing families and merchants in town, along with the workers who rely on those industries for a living. The traditionalists remember the terrible times during the Sea Princes' raids and have no desire to see the crown’s ambitions lead to open war. The smugglers who operate in the area tend to be traditionalists. Most pose as merchants and rely on their local contacts to move goods through the region without interference from the town guard or royal agents. Smuggling has long been an easy way to make money in Saltmarsh, and locals generally look the other way, seeing it as a victimless crime.

The traditionalists would like to see the dwarves' mining efforts fail and interest from the north wane, so that Saltmarsh’s dependable fishing trade can thrive and the smugglers in the area are left alone. They resent the intrusion of outsiders seeking to transform Saltmarsh and undoubtedly drain power from the fishing families to give to dwarves and merchants.

This faction relies on two council members for representation. Eda Oweland leads the faction and can count on Gellan Primewater to back her up. Anders Solmor is young and unpredictable, but he has supported the traditionalists' viewpoint on most issues.

At their best, traditionalists are community-minded folk who want Saltmarsh to return to its old way of doing things, arguing that the town has survived for a century by sticking to its original priorities. They suffered mightily due to the Sea Princes' depredations and remember the days when the crown turned a blind eye to their troubles. Their loyalty to the king runs second to their desire for peace and quiet.

Eda Oweland

Eda (CG female human noble) is the current senior member of the town council, as well as the owner of three large fishing boats. She has lived in Saltmarsh all her life and has been elected to the council three times. She is a gruff, pragmatic woman whose graying hair is cut short and whose face bears the marks of a life lived outdoors. Eda is keenly interested in expanding Saltmarsh’s fishing industry, her sights set on a wild section of the coast where she hopes to build a new dock. She is suspicious of the dwarves' mining enterprise and doubts it will amount to much.

Personality Traits

Eda swears like a sailor when she is frustrated or angry, and the folk in town who support her appreciate her willingness to stick up for them. Despite her temper, she respects those who keep their cool. Anyone who stands up to her wins her respect. Those who try to flatter her earn her contempt.

Ideal

If anyone in town needs help, Eda is the first to volunteer. She believes community binds people together and allows them to ride out the fiercest storm.

Bond

Saltmarsh is Eda’s home. She would protect it to her dying breath and wants its people to prosper.

Flaw

Eda is suspicious of outsiders, and she is too quick to trust those familiar to her.

Gellan Primewater

Gellan (NE male human noble) is a well-spoken, dapper older gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard and a fancy wardrobe. With his cunning instincts, he has positioned his family to become the most prominent merchants in town, but he now faces an intractable problem. Gellan made his fortune through smuggling, his textile and lumber exports serving as a cover for his illegal activities. When Saltmarsh was a sleepy backwater, he could operate with impunity. Now that Saltmarsh has attracted attention from the outside world, he sees business growing more difficult and less profitable.

Over the years, Gellan has cultivated relationships with a number of contacts among the Sea Princes. His ships move illicit goods, including slaves, between their realm and Keoland. Gellan takes care to keep this side of his business quiet, since any hint of involvement with slave traders would mean the end of his days in Saltmarsh, if not his life.

Gellan seeks to keep his smuggling cartel functioning with as little interference as possible. Having a seat on the council puts him in a perfect position to maintain his business while supporting all aspects of the traditionalists' agenda. His popularity in the faction is second only to that of Eda Oweland.

Because Gellan is the wealthiest man in town, he garners a great deal of popular support from the many feasts, entertainments, and other diversions he supports with expenditures and donations. He pretends to care little for the daily functions of the council, defaulting to throw his support behind Eda’s position. In truth, this deference is a ruse he uses to mask his efforts to shield his smuggling operation.

Personality Traits

Gellan loves to play the role of the foppish dandy. He enjoys fine wine, good food, and the latest fashions. He is a patron of the arts and spends lavishly to support festivals, plays, and concerts.

Ideal

For Gellan, beauty and elegance are everything. He derives great enjoyment from watching the town enjoy his events.

Bond

Gellan values his reputation above all else. He wants to be admired by the people of Saltmarsh.

Flaw

Greed colors every action Gellan takes. He can’t turn down a chance to turn a profit, even if it means breaking the law. Gellan secretly believes that even if he is caught, he can spend his way back into the town’s good graces by throwing the biggest, most extravagant festival Saltmarsh has ever seen.

The Traditionalists in Play

The traditionalists simply want things to remain the same. If they had their way, the dwarves would go home, the guard would stick to dealing with monsters rather than hassling honest traders, and the crown would go back to dreaming of conquests in the north. The more things change, the more this faction resorts to open protest and resistance.

Traditionalist Sample Events

Loyalists

The loyalists consist of newcomers who arrived from the northern reaches of Keoland, loyal to King Kimbertos Skotti. They feel that the town should focus on becoming a useful asset to the crown and value the good of the kingdom before the good of the region. The town guard, the dwarves, and the local farmers are generally loyalists.

The loyalists care about security. They want to keep Keoland’s enemies at bay while ensuring law and order. They see smuggling as a key problem, as it enriches the Sea Princes at the cost of the royal treasury and the efforts of honest merchants.

Above all else, the members of this faction put their faith in law. They exert influence through the town guard, though they remain within their legal authority.

At their best, the loyalists want to grow Saltmarsh into a trading hub with a higher standard of living and improved security. If the Sea Princes are held in check and the sea lanes cleared of threats, Saltmarsh can grow to become the envy of the world.

At their worst, the loyalists see the people of Saltmarsh as a barrier to growth. The locals are little more than allies of the Sea Princes, traitors who for too long have evaded the crown’s notice. If they were to do as the loyalists tell them, then perhaps this fish-reeking pile of a town could become something respectable.

Eliander Fireborn

Eliander (LN male human gladiator) fought in the royal army of Keoland, where he earned a name driving the wild things of the Dreadwood away from the settled lands. Eliander suffered a tremendous injury to his leg in a battle against an owlbear and now walks upon a finely carved wooden peg. Despite his injury and advancing age, the burly captain of the Saltmarsh town guard remains an imposing figure. Eliander is a local celebrity thanks to his facility with languages, and he is often called upon by the town’s various organizations to assist with translations. He is fully literate in Common, Dwarvish, Gnomish, Elvish, and Halfling; he can also speak and understand Orc and Draconic.

In a crisis, Eliander Fireborn might put the good of the crown above local rule. He possesses a royal writ that allows him to seize authority over the town guard in case of an emergency. He is loath to use it, as the locals might react to his seizure of power with an open revolt.

Personality Traits

Caution guides Eliander’s thoughts and his every action. He recognizes that Saltmarsh is on the verge of tremendous growth, but he sees the influence of the Sea Princes behind every stroke of misfortune. Slow and steady wins the day, as he likes to say.

Ideal

Eliander is a faithful servant of the crown. The law must be obeyed, as faithful service and iron discipline are the surest ways to maintain peace and order.

Bond

Once he gives his word, Eliander keeps it to the death. Honor is his life, and treachery earns his wrath.

Flaw

Eliander is stubborn to a fault. Once he sets his mind to a belief or a course of action, little can dissuade him.

Manistrad Copperlocks

The leader of the newly established mining operation in Saltmarsh is an iron-willed dwarven woman named Manistrad (LN female dwarf veteran). She runs the mining outfit from a small office near the edge of town. Manistrad is a competent leader, as well as a savvy miner with a knack for pulling off impossible jobs. She’s convinced that the veins of silver found in the cliffs near Saltmarsh are indicative of more valuable stones deeper in the rock. She was once a fearsome warrior, and she’s not above delivering a few well-placed blows to ensure her orders are followed.

Manistrad occupies an awkward place on the council. She was placed in her position by royal decree; the crown decided that if Saltmarsh is to support a mining operation, the miners would need a political voice. A more diplomatic figure might have smoothed over the tension, but Manistrad has little patience and sees the rest of the council, save for Eliander, as rustic dullards.

Personality Traits

Manistrad is a woman of few words. She is curt and quick, yet she gives every person who comes before the council a fair accounting. She’s nobody’s fool.

Ideal

Curiosity and hard work mark everything Manistrad does. Once she is interested in a topic, she is relentless in learning about it. Obstacles don’t slow her down.

Bond

Manistrad is intensely loyal to her kinfolk and the mining operation her clan seeks to establish here. Threats to the livelihood of the dwarves earn her wrath.

Flaw

Manistrad has little patience; she tends to push for quick results over a more measured approach.

The Loyalists in Play

The loyalists are focused on two things: ensuring that the dwarven mine is a success, and clamping down on smuggling to keep the Sea Princes in check. The mine is the most precious commodity in the region for this faction, and its members do everything they can to support it. If word of any Sea Prince activity reaches the loyalists, they are quick to meet the threat.

Loyalist Sample Events

Scarlet Brotherhood

The Scarlet Brotherhood claims that the bloodline of its followers traces back to an ancient empire, the Suel Imperium, and their goal is to restore the old Suloise noble houses to prominence in the world. As scions of a realm that once enjoyed unmatched arcane power and a vast dominion, its members see themselves as superior to all other folk and the only ones fit to rule.

For decades, this group has been concocting a conspiracy to spread fear, chaos, and uncertainty across the land. When the time is right, the Brotherhood will strike to seize the reins in kingdoms all across the world. Already its assassins have slain those who might oppose their sinister plans. In almost every court in the land, from the most remote backwater barony to the imperial courts of world powers, the Brotherhood’s agents have quietly assumed positions of influence.

In Saltmarsh, the Brotherhood supports councilman Anders Solmor and his family’s trade cartel. They hope to use Anders to destabilize the region, weaken the crown, and clear the way for the Scarlet Brotherhood to seize control. The Brotherhood arranges for the Solmor ships to meet with eager merchants in distant ports who pay well above market value for his goods, ensuring his popularity and dependence on Brotherhood contacts. The Brotherhood plans to surround him with their advisers and functionaries to ensure that Saltmarsh develops under their control. They intend to ignite open war between Keoland and the Sea Princes, leaving both realms battered and weakened while the Brotherhood moves in.

Unlike the other factions in Saltmarsh, there is no good side to the Scarlet Brotherhood. As unrepentant megalomaniacs, they are villains through and through.

Anders Solmor

Young Anders (LG male human noble) recently inherited his family’s fleet of fishing boats after the untimely death of his mother, Petra. He’s the youngest person ever to be elected to the council. Brash and inexperienced, Anders is a slight man with sharp features and a toothy smile. His recent forays into trade have made him a local celebrity. Since Anders owns both a fishing fleet and several trading vessels, he can sell his catch at a highly competitive price. And he can offer better prices for the other fishers in town to sell to him, since his catch brings in so much more profit.

Everyone involved in the town’s fishing industry supports Anders, and his energy and ambition have made him something of a folk hero on the docks. On the other hand, his open opposition to smuggling and his hatred of the Sea Princes' practice of slavery makes him a thorn in the smugglers' side.

Unbeknownst to Anders, his butler, Skerrin Wavechaser, is an agent for the Scarlet Brotherhood. He engineered the death of Anders' mother and has placed a number of Brotherhood agents in key positions in the Solmor fleet.

Personality Traits

Anders is sunny and optimistic. He sees the potential for profit and opportunity in every challenge. Unfortunately, he is too young to temper his views with a realistic assessment of the risks.

Ideal

Anders believes that freedom is the root of happiness. He pays his employees well and wants to help Saltmarsh grow into a prosperous town. Above all else, he hates the Sea Princes and wants to see their realm and its slave trade scoured from the earth.

Bond

Anders’s mother Petra was the center of his life, and his sense of responsibility stems from her example. Every important decision he makes is guided by his desire to live up to her standards. If Skerrin is implicated in her murder, his hold over Anders would be shattered. For now, Skerrin uses Petra’s memory to fan Anders’s antipathy toward the Sea Princes.

Flaw

Due to a combination of his youth and his somewhat sheltered upbringing, Anders is naïve. He relied on his mother’s expertise in most matters, which has allowed Skerrin to worm his way into Anders’s confidence.

Skerrin Wavechaser

Skerrin (LE male human assassin) is secretly the head Brotherhood agent in town. Tall, lean, tan, with short silver hair, he speaks in precise, measured statements of a man who has a keen eye for detail. He is dispassionate and takes a protective stance toward Anders. To observers, he is nothing more than a faithful and trusted butler.

Skerrin was renowned for his patience during his days as an assassin for the Brotherhood. Once, he hid himself in the attic above a noble’s bedroom, waiting in a trance-like state for three days and nights until his target was positioned just below a small crack in the room’s ceiling. Skerrin squeezed a single drop from a vial of poison he carried on to the noble’s bald scalp. He waited in his hiding place for another full day until the contact poison killed the man.

Personality Traits

Skerrin is literally a man of two personalities. He appears to be a concerned, fatherly figure, a loyal retainer who worries about his young master. With a few moments of focus, however, he can shift to become a cold-blooded, patient killer.

Ideal

When operating as Anders' servant, Skerrin believes that it is the duty of those with experience and wisdom to advise the young. As an assassin, he holds that those strong enough to survive flourish only by culling the weak.

Bond

Skerring’s bond alternates between Anders and the Scarlet Brotherhood. He sees both as the best bets to bring order and security to the world.

Flaw

Arrogance. Skerrin genuinely believes that if he had to, he could murder everyone of consequence in town in a single night and secure the place for the Scarlet Brotherhood. Sometimes he is tempted to do so, if only to prove himself right.

The Scarlet Brotherhood in Play

The Scarlet Brotherhood is an opportunistic faction. It seeks to cause the maximum amount of disruption with the least amount of risk.

The Brotherhood wants to tilt the town council in its favor and install Anders as the most prominent member. Their first goal is to find evidence of Gellan Primewater’s involvement with the Sea Princes and implicate his participation in the slave trade. Such evidence is not hard to find once Gellan’s dealings with the Sea Princes are revealed.

The Brotherhood plans to use such accusations to increase tension in town between the traditionalists and the loyalists, ignite a civil war, assassinate leaders on both sides, and then use Anders as a peacemaker. Then the Brotherhood plans to assassinate Anders, frame the Sea Princes, and install Skerrin as his replacement as the town’s foremost leader. Finally, Skerrin will agitate for war and continue to help Brotherhood agents infiltrate Keoland’s towns in the south.

If war does erupt, Brotherhood agents will work to ensure a long, drawn-out stalemate that grinds down both sides. Ideally, assassinations will pave the way for Brotherhood agents to assume high positions in both realms, but if necessary, the Brotherhood will engage armies of mercenaries, humanoid tribes, and fanatics it has gathered to finish the job. They hope that the Sea Princes can then be transformed into a puppet state, allowing the Brotherhood to turn their attention to the rest of Keoland.

Scarlet Brotherhood Sample Events

Saltmarsh Overview

Saltmarsh’s roughly five thousand residents are predominantly human, with the dwarven mining contingent of about two hundred workers the largest non-human faction in town. Elves and halflings draw no special notice, since the Silverstand hosts a wood elf enclave and a few halfling villages are tucked in the hills around town. The residents react to other visitors, especially tieflings and dragonborn, with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

Law and Order

Saltmarsh is a bastion of civilization in the midst of an untamed region. Without its stout defenders, it might have long ago fallen to the depredations of outsiders.

Militia and Defense

One hundred trained warriors serve in the town guard. Each of them wears studded leather armor marked with a town guard’s badge—the green reed of Saltmarsh—and is armed with a club while patrolling in town. The guards work in pairs, operating from two guardhouses built near the road into Saltmarsh. A smaller station at the docks quells the fights that break out there nightly. The captain of the town guard is Eliander Fireborn.

The guard also patrols the area around Saltmarsh on horseback. Groups assigned to this duty are more heavily armed and armored; they wear chain mail and wield longswords and heavy crossbows.

A militia of five hundred residents can be mustered to take up the defense of the town if it comes under attack. The militia members have undergone minimal training, since they are expected only to keep an enemy at bay until the king’s forces arrive.

A small force of marines watches over the docks and, if needed, can take to sea to meet the threat of a pirate ship or sahuagin incursion. The marines are hardened veterans of several battles against the Sea Princes. They are led by a married couple, Tom and Will Stoutly, veterans who have fought dozens of engagements against pirates, raiders, and monsters.

The guard is seen as something of a meddlesome force, since most of its members are drawn from the military veterans who migrated here with the crown’s blessing. Townsfolk tend to see them as brutish thugs, though they are quick to call them when trouble arises.

Local Law Enforcement

The town guard arrests lawbreakers and imprisons them in the town jail. In most cases, criminals pay a fine and are let go. Those who cannot pay are required to work off their debt, usually put to work sweeping streets or helping with construction projects. If a crime requires a trial, the town council hears evidence and renders a verdict. Crime breaks down into three basic categories in Saltmarsh.

Petty Crime

Public unarmed brawling, pickpocketing, and other crimes that cause up to 50 gp in property damages are classified as petty crimes. The accused pays a fine of 2d6 gp, or one day of hard labor per gold piece owed.

Minor Crime

Armed assault, defined as any nonfatal attack made with a weapon, along with any other assault or property crimes that cause more than 50 gp in damages, but less than 250 gp, are minor crimes. The perpetrator must pay a fine of 100 gp and serve 1d4 years in prison or at forced labor.

Major Crime

Crimes more severe than those outlined above, including murder, are major crimes. The criminal faces 2d10 years of imprisonment, though serious cases earn the death penalty. In most instances, these crimes are dealt with in Seaton, the provincial capital located east of Saltmarsh.

Commerce

Saltmarsh might be encrusted in sea salt and reek of rotting fish guts, but there is gold aplenty in the coffers of its citizens. For more than a century, the ships of Saltmarsh have worked the rich fishing grounds along the coast. Trade ships from near and far have been using the docks to unload their goods, and lately more ships have come to call as the dwarven mining operation grows. Smuggling has also long been a profitable business here.

The dwarven mining operation promises to bring about a rapid growth in Saltmarsh’s fortunes. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends on who you ask. The merchants look forward to more business, but the fishers don’t see how the mines will do anything to enrich their coffers. If anything, they fear that competition for fish will become more ferocious as the town grows.

Fishing

More folk in town work in the fishing industry than any other, and it has been the backbone of Saltmarsh for generations. The wealthier families own their own boats, while less well-to-do folk hire out to work as deckhands. The work is difficult and dangerous, but a smart deckhand can save money for several years and eventually buy their own boat. That promise of earned prosperity is important to the townsfolk, and they see newcomers as a threat to it.

Trading

The wealthiest families in town own large trading vessels that they use to ship goods across the Azure Sea. Saltmarsh exports other foodstuffs from the farms around town. Most manufactured goods, except for rope, nets, and other items created locally to support the fishing industry, are imported into town.

Smuggling

As a sleepy backwater town, Saltmarsh has long been an ideal market for illegal goods. Pirates, agents of the Sea Princes, and Keoish nobles looking to evade the king’s taxes have all helped fuel a bustling local black market. Some fishing boats meet ships at sea to load and unload illegal goods, while other cartels conduct business at isolated points along the shore near town. The locals see smuggling as a victimless crime and resent the crown’s growing insistence on cracking down on it.

Mining

The mine outside town is a new development. Despite the skepticism of the locals, the mine has started to yield silver in growing quantities, and the dwarves are convinced that the nearby cliffs are rich with gold. If the mine takes off, Saltmarsh could transform into a sprawling boomtown overnight.

Docks

The docks of Saltmarsh are the beating heart of the town. The fishing trade and related commerce that keep the town alive are based here.

The docks have recently undergone a series of expansions intended to lure larger merchant vessels into the port. Two primary piers are used to load and unload large ships, while a series of smaller ones accommodate humbler vessels.

This part of Saltmarsh is almost constantly busy; it’s rare to see the large piers unoccupied. Guarded warehouses are a common sight in this district, and it is considered suspicious behavior to walk near those places at night.

The docks are a hotbed of rumors and gossip. The sailors and laborers who frequent this area are bored, eager for news, and inclined to share what they have heard. A character who spends a few hours asking for news can learn the current scuttlebutt. The “Dock Rumors” table below can be an inspiration for the sort of whispers characters might hear.

Dock Rumors

Mood of the Town

Saltmarsh is a place of constant energy. Few of the common folk are so affluent that they can afford to sit idle. At sunrise, the docks bustle with fishers preparing to venture out for the day. When they return, they spend time unloading their catch, mending nets, and repairing their vessels. The merchants move their ships into the docks once the fishing fleet is out for the day, and dock workers rush to load and unload goods before the boats return.

The daily energy and bustle carries over into rowdy nights. The fishers chug ale and swap stories, each seeking to outdo the other with their tales of the sea. Fights erupt as rival crews cross paths, and the town guard keeps a high profile in hopes of maintaining the peace.

The quantity and quality of the catch in recent days goes a long way toward determining the town’s mood and general atmosphere. A bountiful catch for a few days in a row puts all the fishers in a celebratory mood, while a poor harvest that lasts more than a couple of days leads to frayed tempers and brawling.

Use the following table to determine the mood around the village, rolling once every few days or choosing as you see fit.

Saltmarsh Mood

Locations in Saltmarsh

Here is a summary of the notable places in Saltmarsh, as depicted on map 1.1.

1. City Gate

Saltmarsh was built on the ruins of a much older settlement, sometimes called Old Saltmarsh or the Old Harbor. One sign of this is that the town has a small stretch of wall and a single town gate secured by two or three guards. The wall is old, crumbling, and badly worn by centuries of rain and wind coming in from the Azure Sea.

The garrison at the gate consists of older guards, those nearing retirement and unwilling or unable to walk patrols. Their eyes are sharp, and they are prone to gossip. A pull from a flask of whiskey or a few silver pieces can persuade them to provide information on recent visitors.

2. Barracks and Jail

Built on a low hill, the Saltmarsh barracks are also its jail. It is one of the few structures in Saltmarsh with an underground level. The jailer, Kraddok Stonehorn (LG male human gladiator), is an old comrade of Eliander. He is a stickler for the rules, and Eliander trusts him with his life.

The jail in the cellar consists of two sections. A single large chamber holds drunks, brawling fishers, and other troublemakers who need to cool off for a few nights. The lock is high quality (requiring a successful DC 20 Dexterity check with thieves' tools to pick), and the door is built of stout wood with a small window to allow guards to check in on their charges.

A side passage holds six individual cells with higher-quality locks (each requiring a successful DC 25 Dexterity check with thieves' tools to pick) and solid doors that lack windows. One cell was long ago warded against both teleportation and divination magic. Spellcasters are kept here, blindfolded and manacled. Occasionally Eliander uses this cell to conduct meetings that require the utmost secrecy.

The jail is used to hold prisoners with sentences of up to a year, but those facing longer terms or sentenced to hard labor are transferred to the prison at Seaton, a larger, heavily fortified port to the east.

At any given time, 2d4 Guard, led by a veteran, keep watch here.

3. The Wicker Goat

Bearing the dubious honor of being the oldest tavern in town, the Wicker Goat is owned by Lankus Kurrid (NG male human guard), a retired officer of the Keoish army who caters to the dwarven miners and town guard. The two-story building has sleeping quarters for rent on the upper floor, usually sufficient to accommodate the slow stream of travelers making their way through Saltmarsh on the way to somewhere else.

Those who seek an audience with Manistrad can find her here when she’s not working at the mine. She sometimes has need for adventurers to help keep the mining operation secure. Roll a d6 and consult the table below to determine the nature of an available task.

4. Eliander’s House

Tucked at the edge of town and overlooking the sea, Eliander’s home provides him with a relaxing sanctuary away from the bustle of Saltmarsh. Eliander maintains the largest library in town; during his days of military service, he made a hobby of collecting rare books. If the characters need information on the history of Saltmarsh, they might find it in Eliander’s archives.

5. Mining Company Headquarters

Once a mansion owned by a local noble family, this building was purchased by the crown and serves as the dwarven mining company’s headquarters in Saltmarsh. Manistrad Copperlocks stays here when she must do business in town; otherwise, several dwarf clerks work here during the day, logging deliveries at the docks to be transported to the mine and arranging for the processed ore to be loaded on trade ships bound for distant ports.

Rumors abound of a vault hidden beneath the building. In the cellar, the dwarves have dug a chamber in the earth that is sealed with a heavy iron door and a fine lock (requiring a successful DC 25 Dexterity check with thieves' tools to pick). The dwarves keep their funds here—about 1,000 gp in coins and gems, guarded by four suits of animated armor and a rug of smothering left in the vault. The constructs do not attack dwarves and can be disabled for 10 minutes if the command word “Tatalot” is spoken to them. Manistrad and her close advisors know the command word.

6. Keledek Tower

This three-story tower is home to the town’s resident sage and wizard, Keledek the Unspoken (LE male human mage). Keledek’s dusky skin, bald head, and bright red silk turban—not to mention his height of nearly 7 feet—make him an unmistakable figure in town.

Keledek came to town years ago from Ket, a distant kingdom held in a mix of contempt, mistrust, and fear by the locals. Rumor around town claims that speaking his name aloud allows Keledek to eavesdrop on a conversation for a short time. In truth, Keledek relies on his familiar, an imp named Zivmal, to spy on the townsfolk.

Keledek is a close associate of Gellan Primewater. He uses his magic to help a gang of smugglers based out of the nearby Tower of Zenopus in exchange for rare spell components and magic items.

7. Faithful Quartermasters of Iuz

A trade delegation led by Captain Xendros (CE female tiefling priest) has come to Saltmarsh to acquire large quantities of fish (salted and preserved for transport) in the name of Iuz, a mighty cambion and demigod who rules much of the distant north. Iuz’s realm does not produce enough food to feed all its citizens, so it relies on imports for the rest, and Saltmarsh is one of its major suppliers.

The minions of Iuz have only rarely come into direct conflict with Keoland, and its ongoing war with Keoland’s rivals makes the nation an acceptable trade partner in the eyes of the king. The emissaries from Iuz pay on time and they buy shiploads of fish at once, so no one inquires too closely into the captain’s sepulchral voice or her penchant for wearing gold jewelry etched with grim designs.

Xendros sometimes has need for adventurers. She is particularly interested in tracking down an apparatus of Kwalish. If news of one reaches her, she offers magic items to those willing to recover it for her (short of an artifact, she can supply anything if given enough time to send word to Iuz). If her offer is rebuked, agents of Iuz conjure a team of demonic assassins to take the device and spirit it back to Iuz’s realm.

8. Empty Net

Partially supported by stilts driven into the harbor waters, this rickety tavern is purportedly a haven for smugglers, mercenaries, assassins and even pirates. The owner, Kreb Shenker (NE male human thug), takes coin from anyone and asks no questions. Troublemakers are thrown out the door, over the railing, and into the reeking harbor. Characters looking to carouse find this the best place for a rowdy night of drinking and brawling. The town guard comes here only if called.

Kreb works with Gellan Primewater to screen prospective buyers and sellers for smuggled wares. He also recruits local toughs and sailors for Gellan’s ventures, but he prefers those who are business-minded and less likely to cause trouble.

9. Green Market

A strip of open land that is the place for everything that isn’t fish, salt, or nautical wares, this market stretches among a dozen stalls down to the bridge. A few goats, eggs, cloth, marsh plants, and pots are available, as well as the occasional mule or ox for hauling carts.

10. Sharkfin Bridge

This single large bridge spans the river, with shops and homes along its length. The bridge predates the village and is large enough for laden carts to pass two abreast. Elves and fey folk feel vaguely nauseated when they cross the bridge, owing to an ancient curse placed on it long before Keoland rose to existence.

11. Kester’s Leather Goods

Kiorna Kester (LN female human commoner) runs this tannery, where she produces smooth, colorful leather for every purpose and sells both the cured hides and items she fashions from it. Kiorna is keenly interested in acquiring hides from exotic creatures to craft into expensive leather. She pays a fee in gold pieces equal to 100 times a creature’s challenge rating for the intact hide of any beast or monstrosity of challenge rating 3 or higher. Harvesting the hide from such a creature requires an intact carcass, an hour of work, and a successful DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) or Wisdom (Survival) check to preserve it in top condition for Kiorna’s purposes. On a failed check, the hide does not meet Kiorna’s standards but can still be sold for a lesser price.

12. Hoolwatch Tower

This 60-foot-tall tower was the first defensive building of Saltmarsh, and it still serves as an armory and lookout as well as the official base of the town guard. Eliander spends most of his time here in his duties as commander of the guard. He sometimes has need for adventurers, and at such times he posts jobs on a board hanging by the tower’s entrance. Roll a d6 and consult the table below to determine the nature of an available task.

13. The Snapping Line

This popular inn and tavern is built from the planks and hulls of half a dozen decommissioned fishing ships. Its decor is predictably nautical in theme, and its sleeping rooms are plain but comfortable renditions of a ship’s cabins. The smell of fish has never been scrubbed from its walls, and those who stay the night find their belongings steeped in the scent, which lasts for several days. Sailors and fishers gather here to trade stories and drink into the night.

The Snapping Line is run by a young woman named Hanna Rist (NG female human commoner), who comes from a family of well-known lobster catchers. The Rist family also makes a spirit from lobster meat and potatoes called claw wine; it is, to put it mildly, an acquired taste. Hanna employs several former dockhands to keep peace in her bar.

14. Council Hall

This large brick building contains the offices of the town council and the chamber where they meet to discuss the town business. The hall is built from sturdy stone from the nearby cliffs and a variety of hardwood from the nearby Hool Marshes. A wooden sign depicting a net filled with fish hangs above the double doors leading into the hall. A small tower rises from the building, housing a horn at the top, which is blown to announce the beginning of a council session or other significant events.

The town has a sturdy but weatherbeaten platform and gallows in front of the hall for use in the event of an execution. Such punishments are rare, but when they do occur, they draw a large crowd. In any given week, there is a 2 percent chance of an execution, usually of some bandit or other non-native ne’er-do-well.

15. Weekly Market

Built around the first well dug for the fishers in the town’s early days is a large market square where merchants of all descriptions gather on the first day of each week to sell their wares. Initially established to sell fish, the market has grown to include a wide variety of goods. The center area of the square contains a dozen long tables where shoppers can eat communally. Items from the Player’s Handbook costing up to 150 gp are available for purchase here.

16. Primewater Mansion

Gellan Primewater maintains a large mansion right on the docks, allowing him to oversee his ships from his upstairs window. He sometimes leans out to shout orders or answer questions for his captains and crews, his booming voice echoing over the docks. The location of his house also makes it convenient for his smugglers; the crews slip goods through a secret entrance that leads to his mansion’s cellar.

The mansion’s most notable feature is its grand entryway and feast hall. Gellan hosts at least one extravagant feast per week, headlined by food and drink bought in distant ports. His cook, a young gnome named Feliza, sometimes hires adventurers to find rare herbs, meats, and other ingredients for her dishes.

17. The Dwarven Anvil

The blacksmith’s forge has a single anvil with a clear sign of dwarven origins, and a backlog of orders ten miles long. The human smiths make hooks, nails, harpoons, knives, fishing weights, and much more all day. Their master smith is an elderly, dark-skinned woman named Mafera (LG female human commoner); her son, Jasker (LG male human commoner), is her best journeyman. A small shrine to Moradin can be found under the eaves as well, though it is somewhat neglected.

Some of the dwarves associated with the new mining operation would like to know how a human came into ownership of such fine dwarven tools. A few suspect treachery and might hire the characters to break into this place and make off with anything that “rightfully” belongs to the dwarves.

18. Fishmongers' Plants

The large fish-processing buildings in this area reek of prosperity (and fish). All are engaged in salting or brining the catch brought in by the fleet. Most of the time these places are busy, and the workers have little time for chatter.

19. Oweland House

The Oweland family has owned this sprawling mansion for generations. Despite the family’s wealth, the building is a sprawling collection of new construction, expansions, and additions. Each generation of the family has added to the building to accommodate the clan’s growth. The family takes in fishers who have fallen on hard times, sharing their wealth with others until they can recover.

The sprawling, mazelike interior of the Oweland house has spawned rumors of hidden passages and secret chambers within it. The family once engaged in smuggling, and several hidden tunnels run from the cellars beneath the mansion to points out of town. Skerrin Wavechaser has discovered a few that are unknown even to the family.

20. Solmor House

The Solmor family owns several buildings in this modest complex. The largest is the personal mansion of the Solmor family. Three smaller buildings house servants, employees of the family’s trading fleet, and secure storage for expensive goods.

The Solmor family maintains a cadre of a dozen Guard led by four Veteran (all LE humans). These mercenaries report to Skerrin, and though they outwardly serve the Solmors, their loyalty is to the Scarlet Brotherhood.

Despite the Brotherhood’s infiltration of this place, Skerrin takes pains to avoid leaving any incriminating evidence lying about. His eidetic memory allows him to burn any notices and reports he receives after reading them, though at times he can be careless and leave partially burned scraps of paper in his garbage.

21. Mariners' Guildhall

The mariners' guild serves all the towns along the coast, providing a bunk and a meal for sailors passing through. Sea captains in search of a crew stop here, as do others seeking news from afar. The guildhall is an excellent place to discuss seafaring, as well as the various threats to navigation along the coast.

22. Ingo the Drover’s House

General Illinar the Fifth is a disgraced human general of the Great Kingdom, currently living in Saltmarsh and trying to stay one step ahead of the Overking’s assassins after he supported an unsuccessful bid to usurp the throne. He goes by the name Ingo the Drover here and is slowly building a reputation as a good source for guards, marines, and muscle when sailing through difficult waters. His only link to his prior life is his campaign medals—souvenirs that remind him of his former glories even if their discovery would reveal his past. He keeps a shield guardian in his home, a last, hidden resort to foil any attempts on his life.

Ingo (LN male human gladiator) tries to keep a low profile. He avoids taking sides in any conflict, but if his cover comes under pressure, he can be compelled to throw in with one faction or the other. He has a good friendship with Eliander. The two sometimes meet for a drink and share stories of their experiences in the military. Although Ingo tries to keep his stories vague enough to maintain his cover, Eliander suspects his true origin.

23. Carpenters' Guildhall

Run by a snobby gnome named Jilar Kanklesten (N female gnome commoner), the carpenters' guild has plenty of work building houses, assembling fish barrels, repairing docks, and much more. The whole building is a marvel of workmanship, made without a single nail. Jilar is obsessed with rare woods; she pays handsomely for adventurers to make expeditions in search of specific trees in the Hool Marshes, the Drowned Forest, and the Dreadwood. Roll a d8 and consult the table below if the characters seek work from her.

24. Crabber’s Cove

Just east of the docks, built along the shores of a secluded bay, are a handful of buildings known collectively as Crabber’s Cove. The buildings are weathered, abandoned by the residents of Saltmarsh years ago. Since then, thousands of crabs have taken up residence in the crumbling remains. Crabbers from Saltmarsh are cautious about the cove, as more than one overeager fisher has disappeared into the clacking darkness, never to be seen again. Unknown to the folk of Saltmarsh, a vampire named Xolec is trapped in a hidden cellar beneath one of the old cabins. Xolec was buried in an ancient tomb, unleashed on Saltmarsh decades ago when his sealed coffin was brought to town by a trader and opened. A cleric of St. Cuthbert confronted him, but she wasn’t able to destroy him. Instead, she trapped him here by means of a powerful curse: Xolec can leave the cellar only if someone pure of heart carries him from it.

Xolec is best left trapped, except for one detail: by a stroke of fate, agents of the Scarlet Brotherhood use the cabin above him for clandestine meetings. He knows the full details of their operation and Skerrin’s role in it. He trades this information for his freedom if confronted by adventurers.

Procan, Sailor of Sea and Sky

Procan is a chaotic neutral deity of the sea and weather. He offers his clerics access to the Tempest domain. He is embodied in the sudden storm that overtakes a ship, battering it with monstrous waves and howling winds that give way to peaceful waters and calm weather in the space of a moment.

Procan’s domain is the sea, and whatever the oceans touch, he bears witness to. His mood shifts to darkness as he witnesses a brutal murder on the docks of a squalid port, then lifts in pride as he watches a brave mariner leap into the sea and save a drowning child. Every story of the oceans courses through his mind, and he in each moment curses and blesses mortals for their endless follies, heroism, and hatreds.

When the sea reaches its limit at the shore, so too does Procan’s power. His clerics and priests rarely venture inland, and he cares little for what happens beyond his waters. At sea, he expects sacrifices in the form of fine food, potent alcohol, or valuable treasures thrown overboard at the start of a voyage. Due to this ritual, Procan holds all treasures lost at sea as part of his domain. He curses those who plunder shipwrecks without the blessings of his clerics, dogging their steps with wretched weather until his attention is drawn elsewhere.

Procan’s clerics reflect their deity’s chaotic nature. They seek omens of his moods in the weather and sky, and mirror their own demeanor to match their deity’s.

25. The Leap

The Leap is an outcropping of rock nearly a hundred feet above the churning water below. Several stone benches stand near this precipitous edge, and a few stone markers sit in the tall grass nearby.

Traditionally, the people of Saltmarsh leap from the cliffs into the water below when a loved one drowns at sea. The jump is usually not fatal; the water below the Leap is free of rocks, and it is a short swim back to dry land.

26. Temple of Procan

Services at this long-standing sea god’s temple are well attended. The congregation is led by a one-legged former whaler: Wellgar Brinehanded (CG male human priest), an older human man with a sharp memory for every storm, lost ship, and enormous catch ever brought into Saltmarsh harbor. He knows many fanciful stories of shipwrecks, lucky escapes, and famous captains. Matters ashore rarely interest him, but the temple and its bell tower are also served by a half-dozen novitiates and laypeople who keep things running smoothly.

Wellgar uses the blessings of Procan to seek out shipwrecks in order to recover the remains of sailors for a proper burial. He is willing to trade cleric spells of up to 5th level, including raise dead, in return for recovery of the remains he seeks.

27. Saltmarsh Cemetery

The town’s cemetery is well-kept, but many of its graves are little more than memorial stones laid for those who died at sea. Krag (NG male half-orc commoner) is the town gravedigger, as well as something of a town historian and local loremaster. He has conducted extensive research into the folk buried here and events in the region. He can be an invaluable resource for adventurers seeking information and is especially helpful to those who can help him with his research.

In his spare time, Krag helps organize and translate Eliander’s library. He keeps a room in the guard commander’s home, and the two are close friends.

28. Winston’s Store

The owner of this establishment, a retired rogue, knows a great deal about the Hool Marshes. Winston (N male halfling bandit) spent years as an outlaw lurking in the marshes before a raid on an army payroll caravan netted him enough loot to open a business. The increased presence of law enforcement in Saltmarsh has him on edge, and he is concerned that his involvement in the heist will emerge. In the meantime, he does business with sailors, adventurers, and those who need “solid goods at honest prices,” as he often says. Winston has a few maps of the marshes, and those who intend to explore that area often consult with him for guidance.

29. Sea Grove of Obad-Hai

Open to the air and set in a grove outside town, the sea-grove is a gathering place for seagulls, sailors, and swamp folk, as well as an information market for traders and trappers. Ferrin Kastilar (NG male halfling druid), a somewhat melancholy individual of middle years, tends the shrine with his bullfrog companion, Lorys.

Ferrin always keeps an eye out for rumors of aberrations in the wild. He also has contacts with the elves of the Dreadwood, and they send word to him if a monster escapes that forest and heads in the direction of Saltmarsh. If news of an aberration reaches him, he hires adventurers to stalk and kill the creature.

30. Standing Stones

Two enormous runestones stand on this island. In ages past, a siren was chained to the stones here and sacrificed by an evil human tribe as an offering to the sea. Since then, the fishing in the region has flourished. The siren’s spirit was captured in the stones, and her captivating song continues to echo through the weave and draw fish to the area. The siren’s sisters and allies, among them a powerful djinn, have scoured the planes in search of her spirit for centuries.

Downtime Activities

Saltmarsh provides a haven for adventurers between expeditions, and the characters can spend that time engaged in various tasks around town. The following options build on the downtime activities discussed in chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook. Characters can pursue them to make some additional money or strengthen their ties to Saltmarsh.

The activities given here are based on the ones presented in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. If you have that supplement, consider using the guidelines for rivals and the complications attached to some of the activities given in that book. You can also offer other activities as you see fit. The ones detailed below are specific to Saltmarsh.

Buying and Selling Magic Items

Captain Xendros of the Faithful Quartermasters of Iuz has magic items for sale and can also broker the sale of magic items. Any such item comes with a mild curse, however. Anyone attuned to the item can be targeted by a detect thoughts spell cast by Xendros, with no limit on range; any saving throws triggered by the spell automatically fail; and the target has no knowledge of the casting. This curse can be detected by casting an identify spell on the item and succeeding on a DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana) check. The check can be attempted once per casting.

Buying Items

Xendros asks for a 50 gp retainer to engage her services as an item broker each week, and the process consumes a character’s effort for a week as it involves multiple meetings to haggle over prices, specific desired features, and so on. If the characters pay the retainer, roll twice on Magic Item Table F and once each on tables A, B, C, D, and E in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to determine which magic items Xendros has on offer in any given week. (Unsold items are shipped elsewhere and regularly replaced with new options.)

If the characters want a specific item, Xendros can fulfill a request for an item from Table F or Table G with 1d4 weeks of work. Her asking price is based on the item’s rarity, as given in the table below, but she might also be willing to part with an item in return for a favor. She especially wants to see Keoland’s ambitions for Saltmarsh foiled, and she might try to enlist the characters in a plot to ruin the mining efforts.

Selling Items

Xendros is always on the lookout for items she can buy for resale. Since she must make a profit on any item she buys, she offers half of her standard asking price for any items offered by a character. Completing the transaction takes a week of effort from the character; before the deal can be made final, Xendros uses her magic to ensure that the item is authentic and arranges for a ship in port to transport the item to the distant land of Iuz.

Carousing

Saltmarsh has several taverns that provide plenty of opportunities for adventurers to spend their money on fine food and strong drink. Carousing gives the characters a chance to make contacts in town.

A week of carousing costs 2d10 gp as you lavish money on food and drink for yourself and others. When carousing, pick a single tavern in town to frequent. At the end of the week, you earn a contact in town. You can have a maximum number of contacts in town equal to 1 + your Charisma bonus (minimum of 1). The nature of the contacts depends on the chosen tavern. The DM creates a specific contact, such as the bartender at the appropriate tavern or a specific person you have connected with. Optionally, the DM can instead allow you to declare an NPC as a contact when you meet them, provided that the individual fits the contact type. In this case, you recognize the NPC as a pal from your time spent carousing. In either case, that individual acts as a trusted friend and offers help as necessary, though they are unwilling to risk their life or possessions.

Carousing Contacts

Research

Krag is always open to recruiting someone to help organize Eliander’s library and take care of things in the graveyard. In return for help with his day job, Krag grants access to the library and can help conduct research. His expert command of local history makes him a useful contact. He has no shortage of semi-interesting tales about notorious fish and monstrous pirates.

Wages and Research

You can spend a week working with Krag, helping tend the graveyard during the day and organizing Eliander’s library in the evenings. You earn enough money to afford a modest lifestyle. You also learn one piece of lore regarding the region around Saltmarsh. That lore is the equivalent of one true statement about a person, place, or thing found within 25 miles of town. The DM is the final arbiter on the exact information learned, but it is likely something that helps you solve a problem or make progress with a task.

Employment

Characters who are interested in making a fair wage for little risk can find jobs around town. Having a job can also enable a character to come to the attention of one of Saltmarsh’s leaders. The employment opportunities below are tailored to each of those individuals, including:

• Hiring on with the Oweland family to work on a fishing boat
• Joining the guard and report to Eliander Fireborn
• Taking short-term work in Gellan Primewater’s smuggling operation
• Mining or other forms of manual labor with the dwarves led by Manistrad Copperlocks
• Laboring on the docks, loading and unloading ships for Anders Solmor’s trading company

For each week of employment, you earn the coin needed to sustain a modest lifestyle. There is also a chance that you attract the notice of the prominent person associated with your job. At the end of each week, make a DC 15 Charisma check. On a success, you earn the opportunity to request an audience with that person.

Mercenary Work

Ingo the Drover is always on the lookout for skilled mercenaries to fulfill the contracts offered to him. He has a particular need for those who can serve as caravan guards, personal protection for merchants, and sentries aboard docked ships.

For each week of mercenary work, you earn the coin needed to sustain a modest lifestyle and an extra 2d10 gp. Additionally, roll a d20 at the end of each week. On a 19 or higher, you earn a bonus of 3d20 gp due to the unexpectedly dangerous nature of your most recent assignment.

Saltmarsh Region

The land near Saltmarsh is safe for travelers, as are the roads that cut through the region. Small farms and manor houses dot the area, many maintained by army veterans who were granted land by royal decree. A number of small halfling villages are scattered around the area, located just off the main roads. Such locations consist of several farmhouses clustered around a pub that provides a warm welcome to visitors who come in peace. Once one journeys off the beaten path, however, a variety of threats emerge from the swampy wilderness.

Map 1.2 shows Saltmarsh and the surrounding area, where all of the following sites and features are located.

Roads and Pathways

The roads around Saltmarsh are heavily patrolled, part of the crown’s effort to make its influence felt in the region. Travel along these thoroughfares is usually safe, with most encounters involving merchant caravans, guard patrols, and fellow travelers. Small farms and manors cluster near the roads, relying on passing guard patrols for their safety. Where these settlements grow more widely spaced, bandit raids become more likely. Travelers on the road meet 1d4 caravans per day and have a 5 percent chance of being the target of an ambush by 2d4 Bandit led by a bandit captain. In addition, each day on the road a party passes 1d3 small villages or manors. There is a 25 percent chance that any such location is inhabited by halflings. Otherwise, the location is a human enclave.

Points of Interest

Beyond Saltmarsh are a number of locations that characters can visit. Providing in-depth detail in for all of them is beyond the scope of this book, but enough information is provided to create a foundation for further development.

Abbey Isle

This island south of Saltmarsh is the featured location in the adventure Isle of the Abbey.

The island is the site of a small abbey that was long ago abandoned by the order of monks that built it. Since then, various outlaw gangs and monsters have claimed it as a lair.

Burle

Burle is a fortified outpost that is always on guard for monsters emerging from the Dreadwood. It serves as a key stopover point for travelers venturing inland from the southern coastal region. The community is dominated by a small keep set atop a hill that overlooks the forest it borders. A few farms cluster around it, the locals relying on the royal garrison to keep them safe from marauders.

Burle’s most distinctive feature is the small copse of trees that grows in the middle of the keep. An ancient treant named Wander Root dwells in the keep and acts as an informal ambassador between the humans of Keoland and the wood elves and good-aligned fey of the Dreadwood. Years ago, the knights of Keoland helped the denizens of the forest defeat an incursion by cultists worshiping elemental evil fire. Since then, the elves, the treants, and the crown of Keoland have observed the Wild Flame Pact—a treaty that calls for mutual defense against the Dreadwood’s horrors.

The outpost is commanded by its castellan, Kiara Shadowbreaker (LG female half-elf knight), who has led many successful raids into the Dreadwood. Kiara is a grim figure, always cognizant of the threat posed by the forest’s denizens. She sees trouble behind every piece of news, and she keeps the warriors and rangers headquartered here ready to fight at a moment’s notice. She is especially keen to hear news about the Scarlet Brotherhood. Kiara is convinced that the organization poses a dire threat to the region but has failed to uncover concrete evidence of its meddling. She suspects that Duke Feldren of Seaton has been compromised by Scarlet Brotherhood agents, and she surreptitiously seeks to hire spies who could investigate him in search of proof.

Burle provides a safe resting place before and during expeditions into the Hool Marshes or the Dreadwood. Kiara offers a bounty equal to 5 gp per Hit Die for any aberration, elemental, or outlaw slain in the region. She keeps a bounty board just outside Burle’s gates, which occasionally offers larger rewards for the capture or killing of specific monsters or criminals.

Dwarven Mine

Dwarven prospectors have toiled in this new mine for the past three years. Soldiers from Keoland’s royal army are stationed here for security alongside dwarf fighters from the Copperlocks clan. Travelers in need of shelter can rest on cots in the guard towers that surround the place, but only those with business related to the mine are allowed inside the gates without supervision.

The mine is a broad shaft dug into a steep hillside near the shore. Stone walls encompass it, with two guard towers overlooking the main gate and three other towers spaced evenly around the perimeter. The inner area contains a small village with warehouses, workshops, and houses, all erected during the time when the excavation was beginning and enormous amounts of stone became available for building.

The laborers also took the time to build a tavern, the Miner’s Respite, and spend their off hours there drinking, swapping tales, and gambling. The game of darts has become an obsession among the bored miners and soldiers, and anyone with real skill at the game has a chance of talking their way past the guard at the door to engage in a match.

Haunted House

This abandoned house is the center of the action in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Use the description from that adventure for this place.

The haunted house can be a useful location for smugglers who operate in the Saltmarsh area. Gellen Primewater relies on this drop point to conduct much of his business.

Lizardfolk Lair

This location is featured in Danger at Dunwater. Use the description from that adventure for this place.

The lizardfolk here view the area around the swamp as their domain. They threaten intruders to warn them off, attacking only those who insist on remaining in the area. The lizardfolk are not only guarding their territory, they are protecting a young black dragon. It has ordered them to keep its existence secret while it seeks to build an army of followers and one day emerge to conquer the surrounding area.

Sahuagin Fortress

This rocky outcropping sits atop a submerged fortress occupied by the fearsome sahuagin. This place is fully detailed in The Final Enemy.

This lair is an underwater stronghold maintained by the sahuagin. From here, they prey on passing ships and plot to grow in strength to the point that they can lay waste to Saltmarsh. A total of thirty sahuagin, a sahuagin priestess, and a sahuagin baron lair here.

Seaton

The folk of Saltmarsh point to Seaton as an example of the fate they want to avoid. For years, Seaton was about twice as large as Saltmarsh and enjoyed prosperous fishing and shipping industries. When King Kimbertos Skotti turned his attention south to deal with the Sea Princes, his admirals chose Seaton as the location for an important military port. Today, Seaton has been transformed from a robust fishing town into a drab fortress. Seaton’s harbor is heavily fortified, and a large garrison of naval ships, infantry, and cavalry serves as the primary defense point for the region.

Duke Marik Feldren (CN male human knight) rules over the town in his capacity of governor of the southern province that includes Seaton. King Skotti actually granted Marik’s older brother, the war hero Obertus Feldren, governorship of the province. But the affable duke’s reign was short-lived, for he fell ill and died a year later. The title fell to Marik, a sheltered hothead eager to surpass his brother’s legend. He considers the natives of the region as cowards who hid away in their isolated villages while the north suffered its losses. He further believes that his brother, who had a genuine fondness for the local fishers and traders, was laid low by traitors in service to the Sea Princes.

Duke Feldren intends to raise taxes to fund an aggressive expansion of the royal navy and launch raids against the Sea Princes' domain. The Scarlet Brotherhood, for its part, is delighted by Duke Feldren’s plans to keep the pot stirred. If the opportunity arises, the Brotherhood might plant evidence of plots against him to feed the duke’s suspicion of the locals and, with luck, spark civil unrest that tempts the Sea Princes into making incursions into the area.

Tower of Zenopus

The wizard Zenopus once dwelled in this tower on the cliffs outside Saltmarsh. He built his lair next to the remains of an ancient graveyard rumored to be haunted.

One night, the tower was engulfed in a fiery green aura. A few brave folks from town investigated the tower and found it abandoned. The door at the base of the cellar stairs was covered with strange symbols and wrapped in silver chains. An explorer tried to open the door, but a jolt of lightning from the door’s runes nearly killed her. Shortly afterward, strange spirits and capering fey were seen atop the tower. After a few travelers went missing nearby, the town council asked a Keoish galleon to bombard the structure with catapult fire until it was battered into rubble.

Since then, the ruins have been largely forgotten. The exception is Keledek the Unspoken, the town wizard, who used magic to open the cellar door and found that the passages led to a hidden sea cave. He uses the cave as a meeting point for smugglers. He has recruited several Goblin to keep watch over the place, along with a trained giant constrictor snake he raised from a hatchling. The goblins barricaded several passages leading deeper into the dungeons after losing several of their number to Ghoul and Giant Rat that emerged from the depths.

Keledek is loath to tell anyone about his secret stronghold, but he can’t shake the idea of following the deeper passages for the chance of unearthing Zenopus’s lost secrets. If the characters earn his trust, he might take them into his confidence. The details of the deep dungeons are left to the DM’s invention.

Geographic Features

The lands around Saltmarsh are filled with peril, since much of the region is untamed wilderness. Even though the Kingdom of Keoland has grand ambitions, its focus in the south remains on the sea. The crown does its best to make sure the roads are safe, but otherwise it is generally content to leave the monsters and vicious tribes of the wilds alone as long as they remain in their habitats.

The Dreadwood

Long a home of horrid monsters and vicious raiders, the Dreadwood hides within its borders a multitude of terrors. Keoland maintains ranger patrols that sweep through the outer reaches of the forest periodically, while several wood elf clans dwell at its edge. The two forces are generally successful at keeping the monsters of the Dreadwood in check, but at times a threat that avoids them or overcomes them emerges to wreak havoc across the land.

The inner depths of the Dreadwood are a place where the planar bindings between Oerth and the Shadowfell are thin. Undead creatures and villainous monsters that seek to tap into the essence of the Shadowfell thrive deep in the forest. Its innermost reaches mingle with that dark realm, forming a warped mirror version of the Dreadwood that extends into that plane.

One of the Dreadwood’s most powerful denizens is a truly ancient night hag named Granny Nightshade, who dwells in the deepest depths of the forest. She commands magic as well as a mighty wizard does and has struck bargains with several dukes of the Nine Hells. Her twisted fortress, Castle Spiral, stands at the nexus point between the Shadowfell and Oerth, and from its gates emerge Skeleton, Zombie, Shadow, and other horrors to threaten the land.

Granny Nightshade counts Jackalwere as her foremost minions, and she has also acquired the services of Goblin, Orc, Hobgoblin, Ogre, and Troll over the years. Green Hag bound to her service act as baronesses who enforce her will over their section of the forest, and an elite guard of twenty-three oni acts as her personal messengers and enforcers. She keeps three consorts, powerful Vampire that struggle among themselves for her favor.

Outer Fringe

The outermost reaches of the Dreadwood are as lightly wooded as those of any other forest and extend five to ten miles into the woods. This part of the forest is as safe as any other woodland, thanks to frequent ranger and elf patrols that keep the denizens of the deeper forest at bay if they try to encroach here. Owlbear, Wolf, and a few bandit gangs that elude the notice of the patrols represent the most common threats to explorers or travelers.

Middle Reaches

Inside the outer fringe, the forest takes on an increasingly sinister character. Even on the brightest days, the thick canopy of greenery threatens to devour the sunlight. Throughout this middle area, bright light extends no more than 20 feet from any source of illumination, with the normal area of bright light beyond that range reduced to dim light and dim light turned to darkness. Those who travel without a source of light during the day find that the thick canopy casts everything in dim light, and in some areas the growth overhead is so thick that the area below is dark.

Dreaded Deeps

In the heart of the forest, natural light is unknown. Each step a traveler takes when moving through the middle reaches toward the center seems to dim the sun’s light a little more, until one enters the dreaded deeps, where the forest growth is so heavy that it blots out the sky. Sources of bright light shine out to only a 10-foot radius, with any normally bright illumination beyond that turned to dim light and dim light made dark. Even darkvision suffers, since it functions here at a maximum range of 30 feet.

Dark Dreams

Taking a long rest anywhere in the Dreadwood carries with it the risk of drawing Granny Nightshade’s attention. Each resting character must roll a d20. On a roll of 1, the character suffers horrible dreams that leave them marked by the forest. Creatures of the Dreadwood gain advantage on all attacks against them for the next day and know the character’s name and personal details, calling to them to journey deeper into the forest and serve beside their mistress.

Random Encounters

The Dreadwood Random Encounters table provides ideas for the sort of encounters that can take place here. Check for an encounter once per day by rolling a d20. On an 18 or higher, the characters have an encounter at some point during the day or night (equal chance of each). The nature of the encounter depends on which region of the forest the characters are located in.

Dreadwood Random Encounters

Drowned Forest

Perched at the edge of the Hool Marshes, the Drowned Forest was once a verdant region. A few decades ago, the marsh began to encroach on this area. As the water level rose, the forest was transformed into a more foreboding place. Shambling Mound and blights appeared in the forest in increasing numbers while the water rotted away the trees themselves. In time, strange mushrooms and fungus sprouted throughout the woods.

Today, the Drowned Forest is perhaps the most dangerous location in the region. The trees remain standing, but they long ago lost their foliage and are little more than dead, rotting timbers projecting out of the mud. Mushrooms and other fungi sprout everywhere. A thick cloud of spores fills the air and blots out the sun, allowing the unnatural growths to flourish.

Abyssal Incursion

The Drowned Forest is the site of an ongoing Abyssal assault. Years ago, a group of cultists dedicated to Zuggtmoy shambled into the forest. They had long ago succumbed to the fungal spores that made them into thralls, and Zuggtmoy had a plan in mind for them. The cultists possessed a twisted decanter of endless water that tapped into the seas of the Abyss. By shattering the vessel, they created an unstable portal to that awful realm. Luckily for the folk of the region, Zuggtmoy was imprisoned in the ruins of the Temple of Elemental Evil before her plan was complete. Without their mistress’s direction, the cultists fell to infighting. Today, Abyssal portals still sometimes draw demons to the world, and the fungal spores spread by the cult have transformed the forest into a deadly realm.

Fungal Spores

The air in the forest is thick with sickly-colored fungal spores that make breathing difficult at times. Characters who expend Hit Dice while in the forest regain only half their normal hit points, and after each long rest a character’s maximum hit points decrease by 1 per Hit Die. This reduction ends the next time a character completes a long rest outside the Drowned Forest.

Malevolent Fungi

A variety of strange, twisted fungi grow among the rotting trees of this region. If a fight breaks out, roll a d20. On a 15 or higher, 1d6 Violet Fungus erupt from where they are hidden around the area among debris and mundane plants and mushrooms. The perpetually soggy fungi tend to attack the loudest interlopers.

Shriekers' Call

It’s difficult to travel unnoticed in this place because of Shrieker that are found throughout the forest. Rather than check for random encounters as normal, once per day have each character make their choice of a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Nature) check. If any character’s check total is 20 or higher, the group’s journey passes safely. Otherwise, if more of the party’s check totals are less than 10 than greater than 10, the party accidentally stumbles across and awakens a stand of shriekers. Their keening wail draws monsters to the area.

Forest Oddities

The Abyssal influence on this region is responsible for a variety of strange effects and weird events. You can use the Drowned Forest Oddities table to inject a sense of the surreal as characters travel through the region. Roll a d20 or pick from the table once per day of travel, and add new elements of your own invention if you use up the table’s entries.

Drowned Forest Oddities

Random Encounters

The Drowned Forest Random Encounters table provides ideas for the sorts of encounters that can take place here. Check for an encounter once per day by rolling a d20 (if the characters do not already attract monsters by stumbling across shriekers). On an 18 or higher, the characters have an encounter at some point during the day or night (equal chance of each); roll a d20 again and consult the table.

Drowned Forest Random Encounters

Hool Marshes

The treacherous Hool Marshes are notorious for pools of water that seem easy to cross but hide deep wells and layers of mud. The area is full of tall, sickly trees and great swarms of biting insects. None but the desperate venture into this place, making it the ideal hiding place for outlaws or raiders.

Stinging Insects

The vast number of mosquitoes and other pests in the marshes makes camping difficult. If the party tries to take a short or long rest, one character must make a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. On a successful check, the group gains the benefit of the rest. On a failed check, the insects prove too bothersome and the group gains no benefit from the rest.

Random Encounters

The Hool Marshes Random Encounters table provides ideas for the sort of encounters that can take place here. Check for an encounter once per day by rolling a d20. On an 18 or higher, the characters have an encounter at some point during the day or night (equal chance of each); roll a d20 again and consult the table.

Hool Marshes Random Encounters

Dunwater River

The Dunwater River meanders its way into the Azure Sea. It is a broad, slow-moving body of water, choked with reeds and too shallow in many spots to allow boats other than rafts to traverse it.

The Dunwater’s nature makes it an ideal stalking ground for bandits. Outlaws and evil humanoids build temporary forts along the river, keeping a watch out for anyone trying to make their way along its length. Some gangs stretch chains across the water to impede the path of a boat or raft, leaving it vulnerable to an attack.

Somewhere along the river (accounts vary as to the exact location) stand the overgrown ruins of a tower that once housed an order of alchemists. The alchemists came to an explosive end when an experiment caused the tower’s upper level to explode and several vats of chemicals to burst and flood the tower’s basement. The resulting mixture attained a vague sentience, transforming into a great number of oozes that now plague the river. The oozes encountered in the river have swimming speeds equal to their normal speeds and can breathe both air and water.

Random Encounters

The Dunwater River Random Encounters table provides ideas for the sort of encounters that can take place here. Check for an encounter once per day by rolling a d20. On an 18 or higher, the characters have an encounter at some point during the day or night (equal chance of each); roll a d20 again and consult the table.

Dunwater River Random Encounters

Silverstand

This forest got its name from the silvery sheen that marks the leaves and bark of its trees. Long ago, elves from the Feywild crossed the planar boundaries to settle here. Today, several wood elf clans dwell in elegant, wooden structures built among the forest canopy. Not a single creature enters or leaves the forest’s boundaries without the knowledge of the elves.

The elves of the Silverstand periodically send war parties to patrol the outer reaches of the Dreadwood. The Wild Flame Pact—an alliance struck between the elves, the kingdom of Keoland, and the treants of the region—commits all three groups to repelling the monsters that emerge from the forest. At rare times, the elves organize patrols into the deepest, deadliest regions of the Dreadwood in hopes of defeating threats in their nascent state.

Azure Sea

The Azure Sea has long been a turbulent body of water in every sense. Its storms have sent countless ships to their doom, and warfare of one sort of another is conducted across its surface all the time. Pirates affiliated with the Sea Princes, along with independent marauders, prey on ships that attempt to cross the ocean. Strange monsters, including vicious dinosaurs from the Amedio Jungle in the far south, emerge from below from time to time.

Despite all these actual and potential dangers, several realms rely on the sea for waterborne trade. By tracing a route in and through the Azure Sea, merchant vessels can reach almost every important trading realm in the world of Greyhawk.

Shipwrecks

The waters of the Azure Sea have claimed many ships, whether through natural causes or as the result of naval combat. Some shipwrecks, such as the ones described below, are notable for the treasures they hold. Located in shallow, coastal waters, these wrecks are accessible to those who have the magic, cunning, and courage needed to loot them. (The sites are not marked on the map, giving you the flexibility to place them where you want and change any of their particulars.)

Sinker

Located in just 15 feet of water, this small fishing boat is named for the exquisite, silvered fishing pole its prior owner once possessed. The fishing pole, worth 200 gp, rests with the wreck. Unfortunately for treasure seekers, a giant crab makes its lair in the boat’s remains.

Escape

This sailing ship was a renowned blockade runner before it was run down and destroyed by ships of the Sea Princes. Its wreckage is scattered at a depth of 30 feet. A waterproofed treasure chest inside the broken hull bears the lion rampant emblem of Keoland and holds 500 gp. Two Swarm of Quippers prowl the area in search of a meal.

Curiosity

This galleon belonged to the mage Mordenkainen, who dispatched it to a distant shore in search of treasure. The ship sank in a mysterious and especially ferocious storm. A convincingly crab-like apparatus of Kwalish being transported in its hold remains at the sea bottom, but a marilith bound to guard it remains and attempts to slay anyone other than Mordenkainen who lays a hand on it. The ship sits approximately 100 feet below the waves.

Random Encounters

The Coast Random Encounters table and the Azure Sea Random Encounters table provide ideas for the sort of encounters that can take place along the seashore or on the surface of the water. Check for an encounter once per day by rolling a d20. On an 18 or higher, the characters have an encounter at some point during the day or night (equal chance of each); roll a d20 again and consult the appropriate table.

The Azure Sea table includes entries for several of the most notorious pirate vessels that are active in the region. These pirate ships are detailed following the table.

Coast Random Encounters

Azure Sea Random Encounters

Gnasher

Thereax Guldeer (LE half-red dragon veteran) took command of the warship, Warship, several years ago when her father was slain in a duel with an admiral in the Keoland Navy. The young half-dragon is merciless, and her greed is as strong as that of any red dragon. She alone can sound the dragon’s horn, a monstrous instrument mounted to the prow of her ship. When blown, it roars like a massive dragon.

Warship is crewed by uncouth humanoids who fear and admire Thereax, amounting to twenty-three Orc, forty Goblin, four Hobgoblin, twelve Kobold, and two Bugbear. An ogre named Yem serves as the ship’s first mate, and Yem’s method of discipline tends to be fatal. A red dragon’s wing emblazoned on a black background flies from the mast of Warship.

Pale Prow

An old ship whose faded hull and rat-gnawed sails belie its speed and the ferocity of its crew, Warship is a ramshackle warship with an ornate rudder made from bone and wood. The rudder is not attached to the ship’s wheel and is instead operated by a team of six vampire spawn, who turn it at the command of its dread captain. Warship doesn’t sail under the sun, and its appearance is always preceded by a heavy fog that appears without warning. It is said that Warship has never been touched by a shipwright, despite its many injuries. By what means the ship is repaired, none can say.

Warship is commanded by Captain Ineca Sufocan (LE male elf vampire), who sails from an island hidden by fog, where his harbor and mansion have fallen into disrepair. Ineca searches for a heart made of pearl, which contains drops of dried blood from his true love. This pearl heart has exchanged hands for decades, and the undead captain desires it above all things.

The remainder of the crew of Warship is composed of undead servants, both corporeal and ghostly. Necromancers are drawn to Warship whenever it nears land, and it is common for them to take up residence in the dark cabins below deck. A specter serves as lookout in the crow’s nest.

A silver skull embroidered on a white field and trimmed with silver fangs flies from the tall mast of Warship.

Salted Glade

The Salted Glade is a galleon made from the base of a massive, buoyant tree. A grove of smaller trees grows from its deck, their boughs catching the winds to propel the ship. From a distance, the two treant who serve as the ship’s main artillery are visible moving on deck.

The Salted Glade is captained by Mithina Greyheart (NE halfelf female druid), whose grove was destroyed by a massive tidal wave nearly twenty years ago. Mithina’s heart sank with her grove, and her mind turned to vengeance. She has since turned to piracy to fund her search for a legendary island known as Procan’s Bloom, where she hopes to chastise the god Ehlonna for the destruction of her home. Aiding her is the corrupted dryad Filios, who dwells in a shriveled oak growing from the ship’s center.

A black leafless branch stitched on a field of blue flaps from the highest boughs of the Salted Glade.

Dreadnaught

Warship is a heavy warship covered in scorched iron plates laid over coal-colored wood. No portholes or oar slits mar the perfect surface of its riveted hull; no mast can be seen to rise from its sooty deck. A cabin, reinforced with steel bars, sits toward the aft, a dull red glow pulsing from within.

Warship captain is a mad tinkerer and wizard named Vigr Thrass (CE male human mage). Vigr’s madness arose from his discovery of a dark tome that described rituals used to animate constructs. The wizard now sails the Azure Sea, stealing wealth and arms from merchant and navy vessels alike. Vigr wears a suit of magic plate armor, granting him supernatural strength and speed while allowing him to cast his spells unhindered. He is known to mingle in the seaside communities, where he pretends to be a kind-hearted merchant in need of a few crew members. In reality, the captain is looking for suitable slaves to clean and repair his magic automatons.

Warship crew includes twelve automatons (animated armor) brought to life by Vigr’s magic. Various tools, weapons, and implements (Flying Sword) flit about the ship performing tasks. A dozen humanoid slaves are kept aboard to accomplish the tasks Vigr’s automatons cannot perform.

Adventures in Saltmarsh

The factions in Saltmarsh see adventurers as a useful resource for achieving their goals. Their plans can be integrated with the plots of the adventures featured in Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Tales from the Yawning Portal.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh

The adventures in this book are meant to interact with Saltmarsh. They were designed as stand-alone adventures but can be adapted to reflect the ambitions of the town’s factions. If you want to make Saltmarsh and the machinations of the Scarlet Brotherhood the center of a campaign, use the following information to help you determine the direction of your story.

{@adventure Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh|GoS|1}

Tipped off by his Scarlet Brotherhood handlers, Anders Solmor seeks adventurers to explore the abandoned mansion outside town. He has information that slavers from the Sea Princes are using it as a base to kidnap local travelers and sell them into bondage.

In this version of the adventure, the characters find navigational charts and logs aboard the Sea Ghost that implicate its crew as slavers. Ned Shakeshaft is a Scarlet Brotherhood agent. He makes an attempt to foil the characters, but his true intent is to surrender and implicate Gellan Primewater as a key villain. The distraction afforded by the lizardfolk and the looming sahuagin threat gives the Scarlet Brotherhood the opportunity to bring more agents into town, posing as mercenaries brought in by Anders to protect the town. If Gellan can be removed from the council, Solmor might ask one of the characters to take his place.

{@adventure Danger at Dunwater|GoS|2}

Anders Solmor hires the characters to investigate the lizardfolk lair and possibly drive away or exterminate the lizardfolk, which he sees as a dire threat after being fed tales by his Brotherhood handlers of the lizardfolk’s preference for eating humans. If presented evidence of their peaceful intentions, he switches gears to pledge Saltmarsh’s assistance in destroying the sahuagin.

{@adventure Salvage Operation|GoS|3}

Emperor of the Waves is a lost ship belonging to the Scarlet Brotherhood. Solmor receives information about it and hires the characters to recover the treasure aboard the ship. He is led to believe that the ship was once owned by his family, but characters who research the town’s history can uncover its ties to the Sea Princes and the slave trade. If Anders is confronted with this information, he professes ignorance, and his Brotherhood handlers add the characters to their list of enemies.

{@adventure Isle of the Abbey|GoS|4}

With hostility toward the Sea Princes running high, Eliander sponsors an expedition to clear Abbey Isle and establish a base there. Its location makes it an ideal lookout point for any sea-based threats.

{@adventure The Final Enemy|GoS|5}

The three competing factions in Saltmarsh unite in an effort to defeat the sahuagin threat. Both the traditionalists and the loyalists want the town to remain safe, and the Scarlet Brotherhood deems the sea devils a threat to their plans. If the characters accomplish their mission and enable the alliance to destroy the sahuagin, they are hailed as heroes and gain tremendous political power. Any character who has not yet become associated with a faction is courted by all three.

{@adventure Tammeraut’s Fate|GoS|6}

Wellgar Brinehanded, a cleric of Procan, approaches the characters in hopes of recruiting them. He has long maintained ties to the inhabitants of the island hermitage in this adventure. When he loses contact with them, he asks the party to investigate.

{@adventure The Styes|GoS|7}

This adventure can be placed in an isolated harbor city located on an island in the Azure Sea. Once a bustling port town, it fell into ruin due to the depredations of the Sea Princes. When the characters visit the port to stock up on supplies, they become involved in the intrigue.

Tales from the Yawning Portal

The adventures in this book consist of classic dungeons, which you can use to expand the possibilities for adventuring in the Dreadwood and the Hool Marshes.

{@adventure The Sunless Citadel|TftYP|-1}

This ruined castle could easily be located in the Dreadwood. It makes a good side trek for low-level characters.

{@adventure The Forge of Fury|TftYP|-1}

This fallen dwarven citadel can be placed on an island in the Azure Sea. Reclaiming it would be a priority of the dwarves in Saltmarsh as a point of pride.

{@adventure The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan|TftYP|-1}

The dungeon described in this adventure could be located on a tropical continent in the Azure Sea. The magic items found here would be particularly interesting to the Scarlet Brotherhood, who might use Solmor to recruit the characters for a treasure hunt.

{@adventure White Plume Mountain|TftYP|-1}

The magic items claimed by Keraptis could have been stolen from the Saltmarsh area and spirited away to that mage’s hidden volcanic island far to the south.

{@adventure Dead in Thay|TftYP|-1}

Consider adapting this adventure to represent a hidden stronghold of Iuz tucked away in the Dreadwood. Perhaps Iuz is seeking to extend his reach into this region and orders the wizards in his service to establish a base here. All three factions in Saltmarsh would seek to end such an incursion before it grows into a serious threat.

{@adventure Against the Giants|TftYP|-1}

As the characters gain renown, King Kimbertos Skotti hears of their prowess and recruits them to lead an expedition to defeat giants that are despoiling realms in the western mountains. If the characters succeed, they become trusted allies of the crown.

{@adventure The Tomb of Horrors|TftYP|-1}

This deadly tomb might be hidden away in the Hool Marshes. The lure of valuable magic items can be enough to tempt many characters to enter the place, but perhaps one of the items hidden in the Tomb is essential to a local faction’s plans.

Saltmarsh Backgrounds

Part of the fun of a Saltmarsh campaign lies in playing characters who have ties to the town and the area around it. This section presents new backgrounds suitable for creating such characters, along with notes on adapting characters who have backgrounds drawn from the Player’s Handbook.

This material is meant to be a tool for DMs. Once players have decided on their characters' backgrounds, review the material here and decide which additional elements of their backgrounds you want to share with them. A connection to a Saltmarsh NPC or a clue to the Scarlet Brotherhood’s presence is provided for each of the backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook. For the new backgrounds described here, this information is presented in the Saltmarsh Ties section of each entry.

Acolyte

A character with this background might be a follower of Procan or a missionary of some other god sent to establish a new temple in town. Saltmarsh has never been an overly religious place, but its prospects for growth make it an ideal target for expansion.

Acolyte of Procan

If you are a follower of Procan, your Shelter of the Faithful feature applies to the temple of Procan in Saltmarsh. Wellgar Brinehanded is your friend and mentor. He expects you to represent the temple in all you do.

Missionary

If you revere a different deity, you own a small building in Saltmarsh and have been charged by the elders of your faith with establishing a shrine here. You live in the building and have a staff of 1d4 locals who have already been recruited to your faith. Your Shelter of the Faithful feature applies to a temple located in Seaton, the provincial capital east of Saltmarsh.

Charlatan

As Saltmarsh grows more prosperous, it becomes a more attractive place for grifters such as yourself. If you want to do business in town, you’re going to cross tracks with Winston, the eponymous owner of Winston’s Store. The halfling merchant is always looking for new wares to add to his offerings. He knows the people of Saltmarsh well and gives you advice on how to walk the line between making a profit and angering the locals.

Criminal

Saltmarsh might be a sleepy town, but many see it as the ideal place to enter Keoland without drawing notice. As a criminal in town, you are likely involved in smuggling and have done business with Kreb Shenker at the Empty Net. He hires crews to manage pickups on the coast for the smuggling kingpins in town.

Entertainer

Bards and performers are always in demand in Saltmarsh. You can use your By Popular Demand feature to find work at the Wicker Goat or the Snapping Line. The Wicker Goat is popular with the town guard and the dwarves who work the mine outside town, while The Snapping Line is frequented by fishers, sailors, and laborers who work the docks. Choose one of those taverns as your preferred venue. The staff, owner, and regulars there treat you as a friend.

Fisher

See the fisher entry for the full description of this background.

Saltmarsh Ties

Eda Oweland and her family are the informal leaders of the fishing industry in Saltmarsh. You can always count on the Owelands for minor aid and can gain access to Eda if the need is obvious and imminent.

Folk Hero

Saltmarsh has long relied on its local people to rise up and deal with threats to the village. Only recently has the king taken more than passing notice of the area. You are beloved by the local sailors and fishers for your heroics, though the newcomers to the region (primarily members of the town guard and the dwarves working the mine) know little about you.

Create an event that prompted your rise to heroic status or use the table below to tie your background to events in Saltmarsh. Use this table in place of the Defining Event table in the Player’s Handbook.

Saltmarsh Defining Event

Guild Artisan

Because of its size and its focus on fishing, Saltmarsh has never had many artisans. If you have this background, you can choose one of the following options.

Mariners' Guild

You work with the mariners' guild, providing sailors with rope, sails, tools, and other goods. You have a workshop attached to the guildhall and can draw support from similar guilds found in ports across the world. You have done a lot of business with Eda Oweland’s family and are on good terms with her.

Dwarven Artisans

You arrived in town as part of a mercantile concern associated with the Copperlocks dwarves. Currently the dwarves rely on your guild to provide supplies for their work at the mine outside town. You are friends with several of the miners, have access to their work site, and are on good terms with the clan’s leader, Manistrad.

Hermit

The wilds around Saltmarsh might seem like the ideal place to find peace and quiet, though the monsters that lurk in the region can make isolation a dangerous practice. If your character has this background, the table below gives you some options for the nature of the secret that prompted you to return to civilization.

Marine

See the marine entry for the full description of this background.

Saltmarsh Ties

As a former member of Saltmarsh’s elite marine contingent, you are friends of Tom and Will Stoutly and can turn to them for help and support. Eliander Fireborn, captain of the guard, also makes time to listen to your concerns.

Noble

The folk of Saltmarsh care little for nobles and their titles. Although the king technically rules the land, the south has long been left to its own devices. Are you a local noble turning to a life of adventure, or did you come here in search of fame and fortune? Regardless of your origin, your Position of Privilege feature allows you to request an audience with any official in town, including members of the town council. They typically take 1d6 + 1 days to fulfill such a request. The table below includes suggestions for how you came to arrive in Saltmarsh.

Outlander

Outlanders are a common sight in ports such as Saltmarsh. Even a small port attracts folk from across the world, though how they end up in a place like Saltmarsh varies greatly. The table below provides some ideas for how your character came to town.

Sage

Though Saltmarsh is by no means a center of learning, the lack of ongoing examination and investigation of its environs make it an ideal place to conduct research. The mystery of the Tower of Zenopus might also attract the attention of an academic. Consider the following options for your character.

Historical Researcher

The graveyard keeper, Krag, and the captain of the guard, Eliander, are both experts in local history. You might have arrived in town to conduct research and have made their acquaintance. Eliander grants you access to his personal library and uses his considerable knowledge of languages to translate documents you find, while Krag works with you to catalog the library’s contents.

Arcane Seeker

The wizard Keledek hired you to help him with a few of his projects. He was not a kind master, but he paid well enough. You helped him organize a set of ancient books, identify potions, and verify the authenticity of several alchemical recipes. He has since discharged you from his service. Keledek was always cool toward you, but he had some business dealings with the charismatic merchant Gellan Primewater. You have dined in Gellan’s mansion a few times, and he has mentioned that he sometimes needs help identifying some of the odds and ends his crews bring back to port.

Sailor

Countless sailors have walked the streets of Saltmarsh. If you select this background, decide whether you are a local who took to the seafaring life or a foreigner who arrived here from a distant port.

Local Sea Dog

As a sailor native to town, you know plenty of people down by the docks. You have friends in the Oweland family who can get you access to Eda, a prominent local leader, as needed. You also have friends among the sailing crews and know the best and worst of the businesses that cater to them.

Traveler from Afar

You are new in town and are unfamiliar to most locals. You know the ways of the sea, however, and you blend in at the docks with ease. You can mingle with foreign crews, learn news from them, and strike up easy friendships. Some of them have contacts with local smugglers, and you have heard that there are hidden sea caves outside town where the wizard Keledek trades in arcane goods.

Shipwright

See the shipwright entry for the full description of this background.

Saltmarsh Ties

Ships make Saltmarsh’s economy run. You have contacts with one of the following leaders in town. Choose or roll on the table.

Smuggler

See the smuggler entry for the full description of this background.

Saltmarsh Ties

It’s an open secret, at least among the old-timers in town, that Gellan Primewater runs the biggest smuggling operation in this section of the coast. You have contacts with him and his organization, enabling you to request an audience with him as necessary.

Soldier

Many retired soldiers of the Keoish army make their home in the southern reaches, and you are no different. You might have served some time as a member of the town guard. Regardless of whether you did so, you have several friends among their ranks. The captain of the guard, Eliander Fireborn, is friendly toward fellow veterans and is willing to make time to meet with you if the need is urgent. At your option, you can also own a small plot of land and a farm outside town.

Urchin

At a young age, you lost one or both of your parents to a tragedy at sea. Afterward, you grew up relying on the kindness of others. More important, the years you spent living on the streets have imparted to you the skill to sneak unobtrusively, overhearing gossip and witnessing scenes that others would prefer to keep secret. Pick one member of the Saltmarsh town council. The DM will share with you either a secret about that person or give you the option to create the details of a favor you did for them that leaves them in your debt. For instance, you might have overheard thieves making plans to steal from Gellan Primewater.