Goodman Games

I just picked up DCC Horror #5 and I'm a bit confused about how the characters would get out of the initial room, L1. The map clearly shows a ladder leading up to the main deck. However, the text states the following:

Cargo hatches: there are heavy wooden hatches overhead and
on deck. The bottom hatch can be opened if at least 3 PCs work
together and each make a DC 12 Strength check. The overhead
hatch can only be opened from the main deck.

On the map, there are no cargo hatches, and no way down to C1 from L1. I'm not overly concerned, as I'll probably just allow them to go up to M1, I'm just looking for clarification or how others might run it.

Hey SublimeSabrosa!

Stephen Newton here (the author) - here's the gist of it:

L1 is in the middle of the ship. There's a ladder that goes to main deck (M1). The PCs can climb up out of that.

She ship is a cargo ship, so it's got those large hatches common on wooden cargo ships (something like 10'x10' squares... about the size of a garage door for a car in the US). These are used to load cargo into L1 (when the cargo is not humans...) These are large and heavy and require several people to open. The one on the main deck (e.g., the "ceiling' from L1) can only be opened from are M1. The one on the "floor" of area L1 leads to C1 - that can be opened by PCs from L1.

The other piece that might not seem obvious is that there's a 2nd latter that leads from M1 to C1 (bypassing the human livestock level L1) - this is for 2 reasons: 1) it allows the sailors to avoid all the "shroom poison" on level L1 and 2) makes for a more interesting map

Hope that helps clarify.
-Stephen

Stephen,

Thank you for the clarification!! I'm looking forward to running this in a couple of weeks!