Ocean D&D 17
Session Date: 10/14/2026
Players:
Jimmy the Polyp - brwagr
Pincher - Nayba
Polpo Ultimo - Me
GM - Spuk
Recap:
Was supposed to be a routine scout...
The Reefers opted to chart the northeastern kelp forest, making sure to stay clear of the nearby whirlpool as they did so. They had an encounter with daggertooth fish who kept repeating something about "darkness". Jimmy pointed them to the Immortal's lair, which contained darkness and they went ahead. Spending the rest of the time charting the kelp, the reefers encountered 95 tuna in the forest which they were lucky to avoid.
Later they discovered a sand field which had the long dead remains of turtles arranged in a circle. There were 100 corpses total here. While resting nearby, two manta rays swam above them. They appeared to be discussing their lost child. None of the reefers mentioned that they know of a young manta back at the reef...
The next day, the reefers kept exploring and ran into a giant octopod who went by the name of Sensei. He was friendly, strong and filled with the spirit of adventure. He told the reefers of a large coral structure north of them, and another giant structure in the trench south. He was keen to join their exploration, and they were keen to explore the coral structure.
On the way there, they were accosted by two whale sharks, who wanted to make a meal out of them. The reefers couldn't escape and were pulled into a tense battle. Sensei valiantly battled one on his own while the reefers attacked the others. Jimmy was swallowed by one of them along with a few of his bros, but luckily the rest of the reefers managed to kill the shark before it could swallow him. Polpo landed the killing blow with his trident (fork).
Sadly, Sensei was slain by the whale shark, though he managed to weaken it enough for a tiny clownfish polyp to land the killing blow on it. The reefers mourned Sensei, and lamented they could not bring his remains to the reef and honor him, for he was too large.
Instead, they kept charting and happened upon some large sea turtles who guided them to the coral structure. The reefers could not know this, but the human typing this message could gather this was a sunken oil rig. An adventure for another time.
Jimmy asked the turtles about the graveyard they found earlier. The turtles did not say much other than it was an ancient site best to be avoided. They knew nothing of what its purpose could be.
Allegedly.
Thoughts:
Ocean D&D is not a cozy game, in fact.
We lost a real one with Sensei. Would have been nice to have the big fella around just for a little longer. The death was truly tragic, but it would have been worse if we lost Jimmy, so close to maturity (and a gender swap) to the belly of the beast.
Fate decided we needed loads of encounters today. It's part of OD&D's identity at this point to just run into the worst possible situation by pure chance. Such are the ways of the ocean I guess.
Smaller player groups usually do lead to more scouting in a session. I'm ok with this generally. I think there is a lot of fun to be had just exploring for the sake of gathering intel. Hopefully we can rally the crew to go dungeon delving (on a Wednesday preferably).
We could certainly use an axolotl or two for that much needed utility.