About GM --- Skull & ShacklesThe Wormwood Current XP: 300 XP each (2000 is required for level 2)
I will post the description of parts of the ship and what the party knows about them. I will also periodically update the areas as you discover new things about them, so keep an eye on this page if you think you've missed something.
The Main Deck:
The ship’s main deck runs between the foredeck and poop deck. The mainmast rises from the center of the deck, extending 60 feet into the air and topped by a crow’s nest. Rigging connects the
mainmast to the ship’s other masts and can be crossed with DC 10 Acrobatics or Climb checks. Several strands of thick rope are secured to the foot of the mainmast for use as a whipping post. The ship’s clock, a macabre brass-and-copper object depicting worms writhing through whale corpses, hangs from the mast above the whipping post. Not only does the clock keep time, but its bell strikes at dawn and dusk to signal the beginning and the end of the workday. Two 10-foot-square hatches sit in the deck fore and aft of the mainmast. These hatches are thick wooden grilles and open onto the middle hold 15 feet below. There are two doors at the fore of the shift, leads to the officers cabin, and two door aft, which is the captain's cabin. A large wooden box bound in iron sits just beneath the bridge. This is the sweatbox. A small jolly boat (same statistics as a rowboat) sits on the deck next to the port rail. It has two sets of oars but no mast. Middle Hold:
This is the ship’s main cargo hold. The hold is mostly empty, save for 14 pigs; normally kept caged, they periodically escape and run loose within the hold. In the forward section, a flight of wooden stairs climbs up to the officers’ quarters, while a second set of stairs descends into the lower hold. A large man, covered in patches of tar and feathers, is invariably chained to the foremast here and warns people away from entering the officers’ cabin. Another flight of stairs in the aft section next to the galley leads up to the captain’s quarters, but it is common knowledge among the crew that the door is trapped. Stored near the mainmast are two light ballistas, a disassembled light catapult, and 12 barrels containing 20 gallons of oil each. Galley:
The cramped and chaotic kitchen holds two wooden worktables, several wooden cupboards, and two small stoves against the port wall, as well as virtually every cooking utensil imaginable and a frightening array of meat cleavers. A score of chickens and three goats wander freely throughout the chamber; the goats are meant to be caged, but have a distressing tendency to escape their bonds. There is also a big, plump gray bird with ungainly legs and a prodigious beak that is languishing in a cage. The kitchen is a madness of dirt, food, and knives, and finding anything in here is a nightmare and requires a Perception check. The stoves are perpetually lit, and large cauldrons bubble away atop them all times. A huge array of spices mingle with barrels of rainwater, two tuns of rum, cupboards full of ship’s biscuit and salted beef, barrels of sauerkraut, and a small supply of fresh vegetables. To the aft of the galley is a door that leads to the quartermaster's store. Quartermaster's Store:
The ship’s quartermaster, Cut-Throat Grok, can usually be found in this cramped, crowded storeroom containing numerous barrels, boxes, and chests. The door is locked, and features a 3-foot-square serving hatch.
The quartermaster’s store acts as a kind of unofficial shop aboard the Wormwood. While any plunder stored there technically belongs to the captain, this is a pirate ship after all, and everything has its price. Any equipment stored within is for sale at the normal price listed in the Core Rulebook. You can find out what's available for sale by speaking to Cut-Throat Grok. Lower Hold and Crew Berths:
Sixteen pillars support the deck above this spacious hold. There are two hammocks strung between the foremast and the stairs leading up to the middle hold. A trap door just behind the mainmast opens onto the bilges below. The hold is currently empty of cargo, but several footlockers line the walls. Bilges:
The bilges are a foul, damp place with thick cobwebs above and 1-2 feet of dark, brackish water that stinks abominably below. A ladder leads up to a trap door that opens in the lower hold, and a single bilge pump rests near the stern. There are also six sets of manacles fixed to bulkheads in the forward portion of the deck, in one of them is locked a disheveled looking man who is falling in and out of consciousness. You can also hear skittering and see movement from the large spiders in the cobwebs above.
Discarded crates and boxes packed with straw lie within the room. The Wormwood’s Crew The Wormwood is a busy place, and the PCs are in constant close proximity to their shipmates. In such close quarters, friends and enemies become very important—enemies might attack at any moment, but friends can help watch your back. 18 pirates serve aboard the Wormwood (in addition to the ship’s officers and the PCs). Like the PCs, most of them were impressed onto the crew, but some have been aboard several weeks now. With the exception of most of the ship’s officers, you can interact with any of the crew NPCs during your time on the Wormwood and you can attempt to change an NPC’s attitude using Bluff (to pretend to be friendly), Diplomacy (to be genuine), or Intimidate (to frighten an NPC into submission). These checks are treated as Diplomacy checks to change a character’s starting attitude (regardless of the actual skill used), but they take time. Each check requires a ship action, and you can only attempt one such check each day against a given NPC. There is no right or wrong way to approach these characters, but some NPCs have characteristics that influence their thinking, which can be discovered with a DC 15 Diplomacy check to gather information or a DC 15 Sense Motive check. Changes in an NPC’s attitude remain in place unless the PCs change it again through some action. Friendly NPCs help out their shipmates during the day. A friendly NPC can provide a +2 bonus on any single job task skill check made by you, provided the NPC has ranks in the appropriate skill. Helpful NPCs provide aid not only during the day as above, but also at night, providing a +2 bonus on checks to influence other NPCs, or on checks for pirate games and entertainments. Helpful NPCs are also happy to lend money or equipment or perform other actions. If you abuse a helpful NPC in any way (such by attacking or cruelly duping the NPC), that character becomes hostile for the remainder of the adventure. Hostile or unfriendly NPCs tend to stick together with Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge. Remember that Master Scourge and his cronies are also interacting with others at the same time. By the end of the first day and between the four of you, everyone would at least know the names of all the sailors.
Swabs:
Riggers:
Pirate Entertainments With time on their hands and precious few places to go, Shackles pirates have come up with an astonishing array of pastimes. One way pirates amuse themselves is through songs and stories. Pirates love a good sea chantey, and characters with Perform skills quickly find themselves popular members of the crew (although pirates aren’t generally big on Chelish Opera). If a character succeeds at a DC 20 Perform check, he gains a +2 circumstance bonus on all Charisma-based skill checks made to interact with any listener among the crew for the next 24 hours. A Perform result of 9 or lower, however, indicates that the next time he attempts to use Perform to entertain the crew, everyone ignores him unless he makes a successful DC 15 Bluff or Intimidate check before doing so. Aside from telling stories, singing songs, and other recreations (all of which might be simulated with the Perform skill), these pastimes have two things in common: they are dangerous, and they are played for money. When betting on any of the following games, the minimum bet is 1 gp, and the maximum ready cash any NPC in the lesser crew is likely to have is 20 gp. Arm Wrestling:
Not merely typical arm wrestling bouts, such matches are usually conducted on a barrel top covered in broken glass, knives, or caltrops. Participants make opposed Strength checks, with the higher result determining the winner, and the loser taking an amount of
damage equal to 1d2 + the winner’s Strength modifier as his hand and arm are pushed onto whatever lies on the table. Hog Lob:
Participants lob a lead ingot covered in a greased piglet skin, the “hog,” as far across the deck as possible. This game is resolved by d20 checks between any number of players, who agree on a bet beforehand. The hog counts as an improvised weapon, imposing a –4 penalty on all rolls using it unless the thrower has the Throw Anything feat. Checks are resolved as attack rolls using the character’s CMB. Characters toss the hog a number of feet equal to their adjusted rolls; for example, a character who gets a result of 22 throws the hog 22 feet. Some pirates claim to have participated in games played against Asmodeus
using a live hog. Heave:
This potentially deadly drinking game is played with rum and takes place between any number of pirates, who bet to predict the winner beforehand. Each pirate drinks a half pint of rum in one swig. Doing so forces participants to make a successful DC 15 Fortitude save or have the damage dealt by the rum ration increase by +1 (this is in addition to the normal effects of the rum ration). This DC increases by +3 for each consecutive drink. Pirates then take turns drinking until only one is left standing. Some tales tell of entire crews drinking themselves to death through this game, leaving ships of drunk ghosts wandering the shipping routes. |
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