Heroes of Saltmarsh
The Crew of the Big Nauti
The Heroes of Saltmarsh, also known as the Crew of the Big Nauti, is the adventuring party that ended the Banesmark Crisis. Its members are beloved in Saltmarsh and the surrounding regions for their heroics, such as as their participation in the Battle of the Spire, the killing of Gideon Mistmoor and the vampire Xolec, negotiating the reopening of the Saltmarsh Mine, and more.
Outside of Saltmarsh, the adventurers are most known for their crucial participation in the Attack on the Neveren Trade Fleet, where the heroes slew both a kraken and a Sliver of Bane, though the latter is not public knowledge.
The Heroes of Saltmarsh, though only an adventuring group for a short time, are without a doubt one of the most prolific groups in the modern Sword Coast, with accomplishments that will be remembered for centuries.
Structure
The Heroes of Saltmarsh had five core members, but as they were not a formal adventuring party, there were many times where one or multiple members of the group would not participate in an excursion, such as Oceanus staying behind during the infiltration of the Twilight Monastery.
The five core members were those who infiltrated the Javan River Spire during the Battle of the Spire:
Additionally, the talking pseudodragon Biz is often listed as the "sixth" member, due to his close relationship with the Heroes, particularly Micah.
Two early members of the group, Reyna Moonflower and the firbolg Keyleth left Saltmarsh after seeing how dangerous things were getting, but were involved with some of the group's early outings.
Though not considered a member of the Heroes, Krisella Ferox, childhood friend of Necian, accompanied the Heroes on multiple missions, including their final battle defending the Neveren Trade Fleet, and was a close ally of the group.
History
The Hidden Threat
In Flamerule of 1496, smugglers Micah Pierce, Reyna Moonflower and Lyra, baker Necian Arrzen and fish cutter Keyleth were contacted by Crab, the owner of the Empty Net and point of contact for smuggling operations, for a unique assignment. A few children had recently visited the Haunted Mansion of Saltmarsh and reported hearing and seeing ghosts, and Crab's patron, Gellan Primewater, wanted the mansion cleared out for safety. The six people hired agreed, discovering that the mansion was in fact the hidden base for a rival group of smugglers, led by Sanbalet. The group killed Sanbalet and his second in command, Ned Shakeshaft and deciphered the signalling system to contact their hired smuggling ship, the Sea Ghost. The next day, the six adventurers boarded the ship, killed its captain, Sigurd "Snake Eyes", and learned that the smugglers were shipping weapons to the lizardfolk of the Mere of Dead Men from the nearby ruined city of the Styes. While on the ship, the group also rescued the captured triton Oceanus, who was exiled from his people by going against their wishes to investigate strange killings in the waters of the Sword Coast North. They also found the talking pseudodragon Sizzabiz, or Biz, who quickly ingratiated himself with the group, particularly with Micah. The group also kept the Sea Ghost for their own, renaming it to the Big Nauti. Fearful the lizardfolk were planning an attack on Saltmarsh, the Saltmarsh Town Council hired the adventurers to investigate the purpose of these smuggled weapons. The group first tried to investigate the origins of the weapons and smugglers in the Styes, but the crime-ridden city was hostile to outsiders, and so the group instead traveled to the lizardfolks' lair, the Dunwater Den. There, the adventurers learned that the lizardfolk of the Sunny Shore Tribe had no intentions of attacking Saltmarsh. In fact, they were planning an attack on a group of sahuagin that had taken over their home, the Javan River Spire. The group instead worked together to prove their worth to the lizardfolk by killing a nearby dangerous ogre, Shre-rek, and eliminating a nearby Bullywug chief, convincing the lizardfolk that Saltmarsh meant no harm and allowing the town to join the newly formed Dunwater Alliance, recognizing that sahuagin represented a threat to everyone. Back in town, the group joined in the birthday celebration of Gellan's adopted daughter, Alexia Nester while informing the town council about the sahuagin threat and the deal made with the lizardfolk. During this time, Reyna and Keyleth, seeing how dangerous things were getting, both left town. The party also met Sindy Tidepusher for the first time, an eccentrinc potion maker and designer of fish knacks. The group was then contacted by the town wizard Keledek, who hired them to investigate the Emperor of the Waves, Keledek's ship piloted by his apprentice Pearce that went missing while investigating strange happenings in the North. The investigation revealed that Pearce was killed for his knowledge of a strange symbol, a copy of which the group managed to recover before the ship was sunk by a tentacled monster. As a reward for their service, Keledek gave each of the adventurers gold and magic. Needing help deciphering the symbol. Micah, Lyra, Necian, Biz, and Oceanus took the Big Nauti to Neverwinter to get the aid of Brisk, the eladrin court wizard of Lord Dagult Neverember. The group was also joined by the dwarf artificer Mogran Oredelver, as council member Manistrad Copperlocks believed the group needed an Emberist in their team to ensure that the entire town would back their efforts to help them. In Neverwinter, the group learned about the origin of the Banesmark from Brisk and that the Hand of Mana has spent the the few centuries earasing the memories of anyone who found out about it. Brisk was going to do the same to the group, but was interrupted by an assassin, which began the Attack on the Neverwinter Gala. However, the adventurers managed to kill the assassin, retrieving the soul trap Brisk's soul was sucked into. The group also ran into Krisella Ferox, Necian's childhood friend that both has presumed the other dead. The gala attack appeared to be launched by terrorists of the Free Focos Movement, but during the attack, the group was also approached by the Mask, who noticed that the attackers were in fact monks from the Twilight Monastery, the same place they and Lyra trained. The Mask had a personal connection to Micah, having stolen his family's home and wealth in Waterdeep, causing Micah to chase them to Saltmarsh, where the trail went cold. The Mask continued to taunt Micah here, telling him that they'd return after scouting the monastery, and breaking Micah's trust in the group by revealing they were the only one that did not know Lyra's true identity as a changeling named Tig. Outraged and thrown off kilter by the Mask's return, Micah planned to leave Saltmarsh and continue their hunt once the group returned to town, to everyone's disapproval. Before returning to town, however, the group stopped to investigate the Isle of the Abbey for more history on the Banesmark, as a Cult of Bane was said to reside there, discovering the signs of an aboleth interested in the mark and seemingly devoted to Bane. Lyra, Micah, and Biz also took a side adventure and fought a group of kuo-toa on a nearby island, causing the group to begin worshipping Lyra has a two-faced god of death.Preparations for War
Back in Saltmarsh, Micah ultimately resolved to stay with the group, aware that the Mask said they'd return. The Dunwater Alliance also announced their plan to attack on the sahuagin in 30 days on the Autumn Equinox, during a sacred sahuagin holiday. However, the town was unprepared for the battle and needed the adventurers help. First, the group went to the Saltmarsh Mine, which had recently been infested by firenewts after a door the to Elemental Plane of Fire had accidentally been opened in its depths. The group fought their way down and confronted the efreeta Tajir Samiya Ikraam Samina Karim, who agreed to shut the portal and keep it shut in exchange for 15% of the mine's silver. The group agreed, as did Manistrad Copperlocks, the mine owner, but Mogran was fired from his position from the company to be a scapegoat for the sharp decline in revenue. The adventurers then traveled to the Leilon to secure the aid of the Leilon Lancers in defending Saltmarsh while most of the towns militia, the Mariners, and the Neverwinter Guard were gone. To do that, the adventurers drove off a tribe of hill giants from their nearby settlement, and came into conflict with Bo Latarn, a shadow monk from the Twilight Monastery manipulating the giants, driving him off. During this time, Micah also secretly murdered Ygreesa Argnasi, a member of the Sterling Vermin adventuring company, to statiate his Great Old One Patron, giving the patron Ygreesa's soul. Finally, with only days before the battle, the adventurers cleared out a coven of sea hags in an underwater trench in the water near Saltmarsh, allowing the Dunwater Alliance's locathah and merfolk members to join the battle. During the Battle of the Spire, Micah, Oceanus, Lyra, Mogran, and Necian infiltrated the sahuagin lair preceeding the main battle, killing and disrupting the sahuagin enough to give the Dunwater Alliance a near total victory. Following this battle, the group would be formally proclaimed as the Heroes of Saltmarsh. However, the battle did have its costs, and Lyra's mother, Pom, lost an eye. Lyra's parents were fighting in the battle because they were unaware that their daughter Tig was actually Lyra, and so thought that Tig was held captive as a sahuagin slave. Following the battle, Lyra revealed her identity to her parents, shattering their trust.Uncovering the aboleth's plan
Returning from the battle was a shock for the Heroes, as Anders Solmor, a member of the town council, had been arrested for conspiring with Bo Latarn to sow fear while the militia and soldiers were gone. The plot was uncovered by the B-Team, a group that had just arrived in town comprised of Raven Bloodash, Immortal Valentine, and Micah's sister Seraphina Pierce. The three of them, as well as Oceanus and Mogran's brother Ardek, who arrived in town shorlty after, became good drinking buddies while Sera was intent on uncovering what her brother was up to. The month following the Battle of the Spire gave the Heroes a brief reprieve, outside of the attack on the town by Keledek's former apprentice Gideon Mistmoor on Monster's Eve, which transformed most of the town into the form of their monsterous costume and resulted in the destruction of the town's haunted mansion. On the 30th of Marpenoth, Micah, the Heroes, and Sera celebrated his birthday, a genuinely happy time for the half-elf who had never had so many friends before. That happiness would come crashing down when the Mask returned the following day, bearing news that the Twilight Monastery had been coopted by some individual, and was sending its members across the Sword Coast North to cause acts of terror. The Mask proposed an alliance between themself and the Heroes to infiltrate the monastery and steal from it, allowing the Mask to retrieve an item they desired and giving the Heroes the chance to investigate the Banesmark further. Incensed, Micah, followed by Lyra, attacked the Mask, who did not fight back and found the situation amusing, before the attackers were stopped by Mogran. The Mask departed, asking for an answer by tomorrow, and Oceanus, unsure of what to do, brought Sera, resulting in a violent, angry altercation between the siblings when it was revealed that Micah both did not disclose that the Mask was alive nor that he had never lost his obsession for the Mask. Unable to deal with Micah, Sera and her new friends, along with Oceanus, stayed in Saltmarsh while the Heroes ultimatley chose to join the Mask, with the plan of killing them once their mission was complete. The Heroes and the Mask first raided the estate of Priscella Reinhold as a practice run before then infiltrating the Twilight Monastery during its initiation ritual, killing the Grand Shade and learning the name of their true adversary, the aboleth S'gothgah and his knowledge of the Feast of Corruption, and ritual that artificially increases the maturation rate of any creature placed inside by harnessing the energy of fear and desperation in a nearby area. However, Lyra was also killed by the Grand Shade. The Heroes escaped through the monastery's teleportation room, letting the Mask go. While Mogran took Lyra's body to Saltmarsh to be brought back to life, though as a human due to reincarnate, Necian, Biz, and Micah ended up in the Pierce's home in Waterdeep, where Micah awkwardly reconnected with his father, mother, and other siblings, before heading to Neverwinter to fetch the Heroes' ship and then returning to Saltmarsh. While on the way back from Neverwinter, the Heroes hired two travelers to join them, who were revealed to be the Blackstaff of Waterdeep Vajra Safahr and a member of the Blackstaves Amanda. The Blackstaff wanted to guage the Heroes' personalities before deciding what to do with them, and she and the newly revived Brisk met with Keledek in his tower, pledging support in the near feature and deciding not to bother at this point erasing anyone's memories. Additionally, shortly after returning, Micah's patron again grew demanding for sacrifices to be satiated, and so Micah discretely killed one of the town's homeless men, offering his soul to his patron while Lyra stood guard. Keledek was furious the Blackstaff was engaged in his business, and then tasked the Heroes with traveling to Firewatch Island in the Whalebones to find Krisella, who had gone missing while investigating the Banesmark for Keledek. There, the party fought of a group of zombies and uncovered a preserved kraken nest, figuring out the aboleth's plan to put a Sliver of Bane inside of a kraken, creating an Avatar of Bane. Horrified, the group destroyed the remaining eggs to prevent their future use. The group also briefly conversed with the aboleth, who ordered the Heroes to return to Saltmarsh, and if they tried acting against him in any way, S'gothgah would use his Banesmarked puppets to destroy the town.Endgame
After a brief stop in the Elemental Plane of Fire to meet Necian's father, the Heroes returned to Saltmarsh unsure of what to do. Investigating the town revealed that most of the members of the town council had Banesmarks, and Anders Solmor had been released from jail at the behest of an angry crowd, stoking the flames of conflict. However, by subtly conversing with Gaelin Dragonmoor, a woman rescued from the hill giants with an incomplete Banesmark, the Heroes were able to deduce the aboleth's base was in the Styes. Needing a way to trap the Sliver of Bane before it could be merged with the kraken, Micah, Lyra, Mogran and Valentine, a member of the B-Team trekked to the lair of the dragon Voaraghammanthar to steal the God Trap, an astronomically poweful soul trap stolen from Mogran's Mogran's clan. While gone, Necian would regularly use magic to make it appear as if Sera was Micah, Ardek was Mogran, and Raven was Lyra, to trick the aboleth and its servants into thinking the Heroes weren't doing anything. However, while the Heroes did kill the dragon and retrieve the God Trap, sacrificing the dragon's soul to Micah's patron, the adventurers left behind accidentally released the vampire Xolec, who had been sealed in the basement of a ruined house a century ago. Back in town, the Heroes and the B-team worked together to kill the Xolec, its soul too going to Micah's patron. The Heroes then neutralized the threat of the Banesmarked in town by convincing everyone it was a dangerous parasite from the Shadowfell which caused irrational behavior, effectively quarantining all those the aboleth could manipulate. The Heroes and Krisella then trekked back to the Styes, the headquarters of S'gothgah, finding the aboleth's base after interrogating its minion Mr. Dory. However, the aboleth had created a contingency plan by enslaving people close to the Heroes, including Micah's brother Pallu and Lyra's mentor Brenvark Coldscar. Unaware that the robed cultists were not true bleievers, Necian launched a fireball that killed scores of innocents, including Brenvark. The Heroes were also too late in stopping the aboleth and the kraken from escaping to the predetermined site of their ritual, finishing the kraken's maturation by attacking the Neveren Trade Fleet. The Heroes rushed to stop them, the majority of them fighting, and then killing the kraken before then trapping the Sliver of Bane in the God Trap, while Oceanus single-handidly held of S'gothgah, nearly dying in the process. Though S'gothgah escaped, the grand ritual was foiled, and the Banesmark Crisis officially ended. A few days later, Micah transferred the Sliver of Bane to his patron, nearly risking his own soul and body, and was greatly rewarded for doing so, ending his contract.Disbandment
Following the conclusion of the Banesmark Crisis, the Heroes of Saltmarsh went their separate ways.
Micah, Oceanus, and Biz settled in Saltmarsh. Biz took over captaining the Big Nauti, turning it into a fishing vessel and made a decent income that way. Oceanus joined the town mariners and after a few years eventually joined the town council. Micah jumped from job to job for a few years before ultimately working for Sindy Tidepusher in expanding her fish knack business. Oceanus and Micah married in the Fall of 1519.
Mogran Oredelver moved back to Neverwinter and joined the Hand of Mana, helping the organization track down the last remnants of S'gothgah's Cult of Bane, later adopting three children and marrying Manistrad Copperlocks.
Lyra moved to Waterdeep to join her parents, eventually founding Coldscar Monastery, named in honor of her master, as a rival school to the Twilight Monastery.
Necian, burdened by leadership, stress, and the accidentally killing of so many in the Styes, left Saltmarsh without a word to wander Northwest Faerun for a decade, before taking his father's offer of political training. Later, Necian moved back to Focosgost, his hometown, to join its Council of Guilds.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Hey, we're family right?
Flamerule of 1496 - Hammer of 1497
Type
Adventuring Party
Alternative Names
Crew of the Big Nauti
Location
Organization Vehicles
Notable Members
Comments