Legends of Saltmarsh is a weekly campaign run at Adventure Cafe in Raytown, MO, on Wednesday nights. We are open to up to six players. Cost per player is $X per session, which pays for the room and towards food and drink for the evening.

The campaign is based around Saltmarsh, a nondescript fishing village 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 of 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.

It is into these turbulent waters that adventurers, whether locals seeking greatness or wanderers seeking opportunity, make their mark…

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• Party Loot: Being an inventory of the party's discoveries and their estimations of value, which may or may not be accurate, as well as who's carrying it until the loot can be properly divided.

Things that any Saltmarsh local worth their salt would know and have been willing to pass on to the party.

• Keoland: General knowledge about Keoland and its history and geography, as well as offering insight into the wider world beyond.

Rumors and lore about Saltmarsh that locals might be willing to talk about if properly induced.

Secrets of Saltmarsh that the party has discovered in their adventuring.