In my own campaign, I have located the town on Saltmarsh a small distance north of the town of Daggerford (colloquially called "Riverport" in my world). As the Class of '81 find themselves in that area frequently, and the Riverport Rebels live in...wait for it...Riverport, this works great for both my campaigns.
The first module in the series, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is basically a Scooby Doo type of investigation of a haunted house on the edge of town. It's pretty simple and a fun little crawl, but the problem I have experienced with it is that if your group wants or needs a more meaningful hook besides "this is the adventure the DM prepared for this session", you're going to have to get a little creative.
The hook for the Riverport Rebels was that Regus, the Duke's steward, says that the mayor of Saltmarsh is concerned about some weird going-ons in his town and has asked Duke Orsino, upon whose lands Saltmarsh resides, to send some resources to help him investigate, as some of these shenanigans were starting to affect business (namely, trade and shipping) in the town.
For the Class of '81, I sent them word that the annual Greengrass festival was losing its main music venue, much to the horror and chagrin of Sorrow, Tifinin, and Ivar, who play in a band and were looking to make a little coin as a paid attraction for the music stage. The venue in question was on the grounds of an abandoned mansion, and things had gotten too weird and unstable on the property to use as a venue. So the organizers canceled the music fest. (Tif, Mactereh, Ivar, and myself were all playing in a real-life folk band at the time. So if this seems like a weak hook, I assure you it wasn't for this particular group of players!) And because Ivar's family home is in Saltmarsh, he always went home for his birthday anyway. So of course the Class was heavily invested in solving this mystery.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The haunted house is perched near a rock cliff overlooking the sea, with overgrown rosebushes and a crumbling stone wall surrounding it. The players will have to fight their way through some angry Weasels of Unusual Size, giant centipedes, and possibly some giant snakes as they explore the grounds.
Upon entering the house itself, observant players will see that there are muddy footprints leading through the house, and in one case, mysteriously disappearing under a rug.
Yes, of course it's a trap door. This is D&D, after all. More on what's down there later.
The house is falling into ruin, with holes in the roof and ominous sagging and creaking in the stairwell. In fact, Sir Peter (Riverport Rebels) fell through the landing when he reached the second floor. There's not much other than rotting furniture and mildew up on the second floor, but the players will discover a lantern near a window and some notes in a notebook. They may or may not figure out that the lantern could be used to cast a signal seaward. There is also a dude named Ned, tied up as if he is a prisoner in the upstairs bedroom, who will be very thankful for being "freed" and then literally backstab the players first chance he gets.
Unfortunately for him, he chose Stephanie (Riverport Rebels) for his target. Stephanie is very fond of Fireball, and she assisted him in going out in a blaze of glory. "I knew that guy was gonna turn over on us."
There are small bits of minor treasure on the second floor, including some valuable books (which is handy for the Class of '81, as they are planning on traveling to Candlekeep at some point.) But the real point of all this is in the basement.
There are two ways down to the basement. One, through the aforementioned trapdoor. The other is through a secret door in the wine cellar. There, the players will discover a sort of barracks that, depending on how you want to set it up, may have a gang of smugglers there. Either way, it's clear that someone is using this house as a base of operations. They will also find Sanbalet's personal chambers. Sanbalet is the annoying, self-important mastermind of what turns out to be a smuggling operation. The Class found a few more books inside, which they took with them. Whether or not they accept porn in Candlekeep remains to be seen..
There is also a door down there that has been very intentionally and enthusiastically sealed shut, with "DANGER" scrawled across the crosspiece.
The Class, being the Class, opted to obey the sign and not mess with it.
The Rebels, being the Rebels, opted to crack that sucker open and wade into the hoard of animated skeletons and the skeletal alchemist inside, blades and fireballs blazing. The alchemist's lab contains some questionable but interesting treasure.
Through a hidden door in the basement, a winding sea-cavern meanders its way out to the cliff face overlooking the ocean. And to the hidden sea cave where the smugglers are sending and receiving boats filled with contraband.
The players may have figured out how to use the signaling lantern in the upstairs. None of mine did entirely. So the smuggler's cargo ship, The Sea Ghost, that was approaching was dealt with by both my groups by sneaking aboard, lying to the crew about who they were, and, when the jig was up, brute force.
What I like about ship combat in particular is that it's possible to use the multi-layer nature of a ship to really have a fun, chaotic battle. Players can jump down hatches, fight on stairs, climb rigging, shoot down from the forecastle, and in Taijitsu's (Rebels) case, grapple opponents and simply throw them over the side.
Since the cargo ship was involved in crime, and since the Rebels claimed it, the Saltmarsh council told them it was their by right of salvage. If I'm being honest, I don't exactly remember what the Class did about the ship. I know they defeated the smugglers in the cave and turned Sanbalet over to the authorities, but as for the ship, they did not really attack it so much as do some recon on its part in the smuggling operation. What I do remember is Ivar (Class of 81) who himself had been on and off the crew of pirate ships, was disinclined to give the Captain a lot of grief out of pure professional respect. So the Class didn't end up taking the ship.
So in a perfect Scooby ending, turns out the "ghost" was someone trying to scare away anyone trying
to intrude on their illicit operations. And these smugglers would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for these meddling adventurers. Jinkies!
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