DM Duke's Serpent's Skull Campaign

Game Master DukeRuckley

Serpent's Skull adventure path using Pathfinder rules.


NPC Current Morale and Attitude
Aerys - Indifferent, Shaken
Gelik - Unfriendly, Shaken
Ishirou - Unfriendly, Shaken
Jask - Indifferent, Shaken
Sasha - Indifferent, Shaken

Food and Water:
A medium creature requires a gallon of water and a pound of decent food each day to avoid starvation. It takes four hours of hunting and foraging to attempt a survival check to find food and water. With a DC 10 success, a character provides enough food and water for himself--every two points by which he exceeds this DC provides food and water for an additional character.

Environmental Hazards:
Disease: Each day at sundown, each PC has a 25% chance of being exposed to a disease. Sleeping in a shelter reduces this chance to 10%.

Heat: It is the height of summer and so it becomes unbearably hot between 12:00 and 3:00 PM. A character must make a Fortitude save every hour during this time (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) or take 1d4 nonlethal damage. Wearing heavy clothing or armor results in a -4 penalty to the save. If the nonlethal damage results in unconsciousness, any further damage is treated as lethal damage.

Establishing a Camp:
Locating a suitable site and building a shelter requires a DC 12 survival check and takes 8 hours. Lack of building tools imposes a -5 penalty on the check. The time required is reduced by 1 hour for every 2 points by which the Survival check exceeds the DC, down to a minimum of 1 hour.

NPC Attitude and Morale:
Attitude and Morale for each NPC will be noted at the top of this page.

Attitude: PCs may attempt a Diplomacy check once per day to adjust an NPCs attitude. The stress of being shipwrecked makes it more difficult than normal to change the NPCs attitude, so DCs in the core rulebook do not apply. Bringing an NPC to helpful will result in a permanent benefit for the PCs. However, it is very difficult to bring a PC to helpful.

Morale: NPCs have five stages of morale: hopeful, normal, shaken, frightened, and panicked. All five castaways start with a morale of shaken. Events during the campaign may cause the NPCs to become more hopeful or more frightened. Every morning, each NPC will make a Will save to determine how their morale changes. Once an NPC reaches a hopeful morale, they no longer have to make these checks.

NPC Roles:
Once a shelter is established, there are five roles that can be divvied up between the PCs and NPCs. An NPC is only willing to serve in a roll if their attitude is indifferent or greater. The five roles are as follows:

Defender: A defender works to set traps, shore up shelter's walls, and see to the safety of the campsite. The first time in a day that a wandering monster or hostile creature attacks the campsite, the defender's traps inflict 2d6 points of damage--divide the damage done as equally as possible among all attackers. Each additional defender assigned to a campsite increases this damage by 2d6. Only Ishirou and Sasha.

Entertainer: An entertainer help to raise hopes for rescue--each entertainer grants NPCs a +2 bonus on Will saves to increase morale. Only Aerys and Gelik may be entertainers.

Guard: Each guard reduces the chance of a wandering monster attacking the camp during the day or night by 5% (minimum chance of 5%). Only Aerys and Ishirou may serve as guards.

Hunter: Each hunter provides enough food and water for eight Medium creatures per day. Only Jask and Sasha may be hunters.

Medic: Each medic reduces the chance of being exposed to disease by 5% and increases the number of hit points healed naturally during a night's rest in the camp by 2. Only Gelik and Jask may be medics.