The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows

Over the past several months, the port town of Breakwater Bay has lost a number of small fishing boats.  The disappearances have put the local fishermen on edge, so when Captain Jaxon Carrows and his boat Salty Dog go missing, the Breakwater Bay town council approaches the party to find out what’s happening.  Over the course of their investigation, the party discovers a sahuagin cult moving into the local waters, opposed by a tribe of lizardfolk.  The lizardfolk make good would-be allies if the party can convince them of the value of an alliance.

The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows is designed for a party of four to five player-characters of 3rd or 4th level.  It’s meant as a one-shot, running from four to six hours depending on your pace of play.

Note.  This adventure is based loosely around the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure Danger at Dunwater.  The changes I’ve made change Dunwater’s overarching plot idea into a slow reveal mystery.

The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows (PDF via Google Drive)

I designed this adventure as a one-shot for an ad hoc gaming group -- my daughters Hannah and Emma, their friend Julia, and Julia’s dad David.  The girls are high school students and relatively inexperienced players, though they’ve all played before.  David is my age and has been playing since the 1980s.

The party ran as follows:

• * Hannah played Mara, her new mermaid bard (College of Glamour).
• * Emma played Elaina Emboo -- yes, the one from the books -- as a human bladesinger.
• * Julia played Granuelle, a human druid (Circle of the Land).
• * David played Cromdahl, dwarf fighter, at my request.
• * Hannah also ran Maleeka, a goliath barbarian, as companion character NPC -- again, from the books.  Maleeka is my wife’s character, but since Sally doesn’t usually play with us, poor Maleeka is assumed not to speak Common by long standing family tradition.

If you’re wondering, yes, I miss Sneakatara Boatman.  But Mara is also intriguing, and Hannah has definite ideas about her.  So who knows?

David and I are experienced players, but our kids haven’t played as much and aren’t good at the kinds of metagame resource management that become important as PCs gain levels.  I therefore designed this campaign for 3rd level characters.  If we get together again, we’ll level up and -- hopefully -- work our way towards playing through The Mystery of Mordecai’s Monster and The Fall of Chahokiantep as 5th and 7th level PCs, respectively.

After Action Review

1. I wanted to make the aquatic environment an important element of this story, and I feel like that worked.  Most notably, the sahuagin attacked just as the party was getting back into their boat after finding Salty Dog’s wreckage, catching my daughter’s mermaid while she was still in the water.  This was a lucky break because Mara didn’t drown despite being knocked unconscious a few rounds later.

2. Julia played a decidedly peacenik version of a druid.  In retrospect, I recommend Circle of the Moon for this campaign.  Her ¼ CR octopus form was pretty much useless in combat, and I felt bad for her.

"By Neptune's Beard!"

3. The kids really liked the roleplaying aspects of this campaign, so we leaned hard into that.  For example, I let Mara use her Trident of Fish Command to talk to the giant crabs, Intimidating them into leaving the wreck peacefully. I thought that was both clever and on-theme for her character.  Similarly, David built Cromdahl with the Shipwright background, and it ended up being rather important.  Likewise, it helped that Julia and my kids are all competent junior sailors, so they understood the challenges inherent in getting a single-masted longboat ready to sail.

I strongly recommend letting players tailor their characters to suit this campaign.  Honestly, I’m not sure they’ll survive otherwise.  The point was to make the environment part of the story.

4. The bullywug encounter in Danger of Dunwater is well-constructed and fun.  The kids sailed their longboat out away from the swamp, and rolled hermit for their wandering monster encounter.  I decided that the hermit was suffering from heat stroke, having run from the bullywugs after stealing the chief’s magic helmet.  That gave the bullywugs a reason to hunt him down out away from the swamp, and the rest was shenanigans.  We spent at least a third of our four hour gaming session dealing with this confluence of event, culminating in a pro-wrestling style stare-down between Cromdahl and the bullywug king.  That was fun.

5.  I enforced a houserule stating that only characters that speak Aquan can speak underwater.  This was a useful way of emphasizing the environment, particularly in out-of-combat situations.  I also ruled that non-piercing weapons attack with disadvantage underwater and that creatures are resistant to fire damage while submerged but vulnerable to lightning damage.  I explained none of this ahead of time, making the group learn by trial and error.

6.  We didn’t finish in four hours, alas.  We got through the sahuagin encounter, and then I had to start cooking dinner.  So I introduced the lizardfolk and ruled that they helped the party raise the boat, the end.  That kind of worked, and everybody left happy, but I’m still really hoping we get to play again before another six months have passed.  I really enjoyed myself.

Additional Adventure Articles

 -- The Mystery of Malven Manor (blog post & PDF)
 -- The Fall of Cahokiantep (blog post & PDF)
 -- Race to the Temple of Storms (adventure PDF & AAR blog post)
 -- The Disappearance of Jaxon Carrows (adventure PDF & AAR blog post)
 -- Journey through Crocodile Crossroads (blog post)
 -- Story Starter: The Demon’s True Name (blog post & PDF)
 -- The Mystery of Mordecai’s Monster (En5ider article, $2)
 -- Expanding Mordecai’s Monster (blog post)
 -- Zeke's Mine (blog post & PDF)
 -- Christmas with the Orcs: The Red Man Comes! (blog post & PDF)

Questions or comments?  Leave them below!