Ocean D&D Session 8
09/16/2026
Players
Mikele Colucci - Mr Treez
Mobile Home (RIP), School Locker - Bubblegum
Xocolatl - Bue
Jimmy the Polyp - Brwagur
Grax the Abyss Claw - Theo
Polpo Rosso (RIP), Nero (RIP), Giallo (RIP), Verde (RIP), Ultimo - Me :'(
GM - Spuk
Recap:
The reefers decided to return once again to the accursed Labyrinth. Some of them driven by the geas from the Immortal to slay Silver Claw. Getting to the Labyrinth required charting some of the nearby hexes, in which the reefers encountered a group of marlin who were out hunting a school of tuna. The reefers did not engage the marlins and decided to keep a low profile.
The next day they ventured to the Labyrinth and entered from the southwest. Once inside they encountered a rival party of sea-creatures who were under the influence of Silver Claw. They turned hostile immediately but fell to the reefers' might. Once defeated, their leader and axolotl were dragged to the Immortal as trophies. The Immortal ate them. Xocolatl took the axolotl's many spells as his own, but was yet to memorize them.
The reefers then went back to investigate the statue in the Labyrinth. Polpo foolishly thought he could harness the energy of the statue once again, but was fried instantly.
Luckily, a new octopod named Polpo Nero joined just in time to open a few doors. Then was killed by an evil group of viperfish who attacked the party. The reefers bested the viperfish but lost Mobile Home to them as well.
Polpo Giallo also showed up to help open some more doors until the fiendish crab, Silver Claw, was reached. Giallo was killed in the battle, and his replacement octopod Verde also was slain. The reefers managed through sheer numbers (thank you clownfish) and mighty punches (courtesy of Grax) to slay Silver Claw and were given a boon from the Immortal, which allowed them to suffer less penalties from the depths.
The reefers, with their new octopod, Polpo Ultimo, made it back to the Reef safely.
Thoughts:
I lost 4 octopods today.
I definitely made some hasty decisions. Once you lose all the XP in a session, dying carries no risk, only rolls. I got very good at rolling OD&D characters in a pinch. Hardest part was naming them all. As you can see, even that wasn't very hard.
It feels like Ocean D&D is starting to find its groove. You take all the water away and this is still D&D. We aren't using gold-for-xp but we are getting XP for fighting and nature gets violent kinda often so...
Fights feel deadly in the same way OD&D (fml I don't even know which one I am referring to atp) feels deadly. This was a particularly difficult dungeon due to the debuff it imposed through the depth penalties (-2 to all attacks and saves). I kinda treated the dungeon like a funnel this time, knowing I can jump back into the action with a new level 1 octopod in about 5 minutes. It did cost me a lot of XP though and that's on me.
Spuk was cool enough to let Giallo and Verde jump right back into the Silver Claw combat. With Silver Claw's hatred of octopods, he did not focus his attacks on the other characters as much, so the spawn rate of octopods did skew the balance in the party's favor a bit too far. Ultimo had to sit outside, which probably is why he survived the last 5 minutes of the session. Giallo and Verde did not last a combined 15 minutes.
Polpo Ultimo is a statement that this will never happen again.
It definitely will happen again, but if this octopod dies, I'm playing an axolotl next. I'm all out of colors.