Page 100 - ghosts-of-saltmarsh

• "As for the abbey, who knows for sure? We never got 1 square z 500 feet
anywhere near the place. Smoke rose from the island
for days after the pirates attacked. Maybe that means
the island's been abandoned. or maybe the abbey
burned and the clerics are waiting to rebuild. [don't
know. That's what you've been hired to find our:·
WHAT HE MIGHT KNOW
Major Ursa serves as a conduit when you want to give
information to the players, particularly if they retreat
from the Skull Dunes and return to the lighthouse.
The major can offer suggestions and occasional helpful
hints. These hints should not be given on demand. and
the major might not have advice on every subject. The
major's suggestions concerning the tactical situation on
the island depend on how much information the party
gives him about the island, its inhabitants, and its traps
and monsters.
For example, questions such as "How do we gel
through the tunnels underneath the ruins?" are inap-
propriate because the major has no way of knowing
about the tunnels under the abbey. The party must first
describe the tunnels (see .. The Winding Way") and the
situation there before the major can help them.
THE ISLAND
Abbey Isle is a small island about a mile wide and two
miles long. An overview of the island, including its major
areas and features, can be found on map 5.1.

GENERAL FEATURES MnP 5 1· AasEv lsu
The island is little more than a slab of rock rising from
the ocean. The sea has battered its crumbling cliffs so holder to safely pass through the dunes, but this scepter
that almost the entire island is surrounded by danger- was destroyed in the fire that razed the abbey.
ous rocky shoals. The waves crashing and splashing The skeletons now form an uncontrolled minefield of
over thejagged rocks make it obvious. even to landlub- undead. When anyone passes near, the undead rush up
bers. that any attempt to navigate the shoals can only out of the sand and attack. The skeletons are impossible
end in disaster. to avoid by stealth because they can detect intruders by
ln fact, there is no reason to pass through the danger- noise. vibrations caused by movement. and pressure on
ous rocks, because the granite cliffs beyond them rise the sand. When the pirates landed here, the skeletons
directly out of the water, offering no place to land or made them pay dearly, but the pirates eventually cleared
come ashore. Only the sandy area at the southernmost a path through the undead and pushed on to the abbey.
tip of the island offers a safe place to land a boat (see When the characters enter the dunes, use the map
"The Skull Dunes''). lo keep track of their location. Assume that the party
The island has little wildlife but is covered in grass, lands at the southernmost tip of the dunes (in the square
small Bowering plants. and a few gnarled, stunted south of the number 12) unless the characters decide
trees and shrubs. What few animals there are on the otherwise. When the characters first come ashore,
island were imported by the clerics. either deliberately the hills of sand are smooth and trackless. and the
or accidentally, when they arrived and built the abbey. loose sand counts as difficult terrain. As the characters
Some other more dangerous creatures have also come soon discover, the dunes are filled with skeletons that
ashore recently. awaken and attack when anything treads on the sand
above them.
THE SKULL DUNES
ENCOUNTER PROCEDURE
The Skull Dunes (see map 5.2) lie beyond a beach of Use the following rules to play out the Skull Dunes en-
coarse brown sand at the southern end of the island. counter with the help of the map. using a single token
The dunes are desolate; only an occasional bit of scrag- or miniature to represent the characters in the square
gly grass grows here and there in the sandy hollows. they occupy. Each square is I 50 feet on a side. Moving
When the abbey was built. the evil clerics populated between squares can be done only across sides and not
the dunes with hundreds of skeletons brought from the on a diagonal path.
mainland for the defense of the island. The overlord Pirates' Path. Before they start moving. the charac-
of the abbey carried a special scepter that allowed its
ters can attempt to find the clear path. The party must

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