Ideas wanted for extra sea encounters


Savage Tide Adventure Path


Because of 2 players leaving about 6 months ago, I have run some extra characters through the Freeport trilogy to get them to the right level for the end of Tides of Dread, so that my other 4 players can form an optimal group. (They had no wizard and no rogue anymore, and one of the players was not satisfied at all with her character.) Since I located Freeport near Sasserine, these new characters now have to make roughly the same sea voyage the Sea Wyvern has made. Of course I do not want to replay the whole sea voyage, but I would like to play 2 to 3 short encounters/incidents, to add to the atmosphere and to give them some extra XP, so that they will be strong enough for the battle at the end of Tides of dread. Of course I can just throw some sea monsters and pirates at them, but there should be more original possibilities. I am looking for sea encounters, encounters on the ship itself, city encounters or jungle encounters. What would be original suggestions for this?
I had several adventures in mind, but they are mostly too long and too specific, and I have already used Tammeraut's fate and will use Strike on the rabid dawn and The porphyry house horror later on in the campaign. They will be about level 10 in this part of the campaign.


Luna eladrin wrote:
What would be original suggestions for this

I don't have any specific pre-made adventure suggestions off the top of my head, but here are a couple of things I used out of Stormwrack (if you have access to that book, it might give you some inspiration). You could have a few Coral Golems guarding a sunken temple for one additional encounter and a trio of Hammerclaws with a water naga ally in another

Spoiler:
I actually used these as guardians for the Glutton's lair, the golems outside and the 'claw/naga combo inside by his hoard.


Maybe some of THESE can help.

Rez


Thanks all.
I am also thinking of mermaids now. I have just seen Pirates of the Caribbean 4. So it would not be nice mermaids.


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Luna eladrin wrote:
thinking of mermaids now. I have just seen Pirates of the Caribbean 4

Didn't see the movie yet. However ...

... maybe the following can help:

Dungeon Issue # - Title - Description

040 - Draven Deeps' Menace, The - Koalinth raid local shipping, causing trouble for the city’s economy. The Prince’s arch-mage has prepared a magical explosive which will destroy the caves of the monsters if placed close enough. Unfortunately, no one knows about the sea-elves who also live “close enough”. Infiltrate and deliver the “nuke”.

048 - Oracle at Sumbar, The - Help “Aunt Marla” pay off a tremendous debt by visiting the Oracle and learning the location of a lost pirate treasure.

066 - Sunken Shadow, The - Help a Pirate-hunting paladin recover pirate treasure, only to discover that he has fallen under a curse from the slain Pirate-queen and his First Mate and best friend whom he murdered over her artifact.

070 - Maze of the Morkoth, The - A psionic dwarven archeologist is attempting to steal the powers of a morkoth. The monster is enraged, but also curious, and sends it minions to kidnap the leaders of local undersea communities to learn who is mentally assaulting it.

078 - Peer Amid the Waters - Travel through an underwater portal into a flooded (Egyptian) crypt and rescue the lost daughters of a nixie queen.

079 - Akriloth, The - Recover a powerful merfolk artifact from the temple of a ruined city. Evade undead and unknown enemies to bring back the “Akriloth”, with whose powers over undead the merfolk can reclaim their lost city from the forces of “The Ravager”.

092 - Razing of Redshore, The - Savage storms and elemental attacks are destroying Redshore. Find the cause of the destruction, learn how it is tied to a cult of assassins that supposedly doesn’t exist, a secret cult of druids, and an artifact for creating demi-gods hidden away by the gods millenia ago.

099 - Fish Story - Locathah have invaded the docks and mill of a small lakeside town, but have attacked no further. Good diplomacy might learn why they have abandoned their home in a long-flooded human village, leading onto the trail of an obsessed ghost, a dead wizard and a bound lonely elemental.

113 - Practical Magic - A magic-item crafter has gone missing in Marsember, and the clues point to her boyfriend, an aquatic elf. Lately, he’s the thrall of a merfolk vampire, but might point you to the real kidnapper, a mysterious necromancer who is animating a workforce of “expert zombies” to do mundane labor. He needs the help of the crafter, but this is not really a rescue, as she wants his secrets for herself.

125 - Seekers of the Silver Forge - Githyanki heretics escaped the lich-queen by shifting their entire city to the bottom of the ocean, but their civilization was ultimately corrupted and destroyed by necromantic forces. Now a silver forge is becoming tainted and affecting all sea life around it as the lone, surviving necromancer builds his power.

107 - Dead Man’s Quest - A friendly but obnoxious pirate ghost needs help recovering a gem he promised to deliver to the Pirate God. Steal it back from the sahuagin raiders who sank his ship, deliver it to Freeport, and then recover it once more from cultists.

Note that Akriloth contains merfolk, while the others can be readily adapted, as can anything with "aquatic elves" or some similar race, particularly if you're aiming for "not nice mermaids".

Dead Man's Quest is listed out-of-order because it is in Polyhedron. I'm uncertain if that's Polyhedron #107 or Polyhedron in Dungeon #107, but I strongly suspect the latter.

HTH,

R.


I agree that Stormwrack is a good source for aquatic encounters if you can get your hands on a copy. I also think, though, that it can be a nice thing to have non-combat encounters, and historically all sorts of things happened to sailors at sea. You could:

-- Throw a storm at them.
-- Have them becalmed for weeks, running out of clean water and food.
-- Have them sail under a tyrannical captain who abuses his crew, possibly to the point of mutiny.
-- Have them discover one or more stowaways, whom they then have to decide what to do with.
-- Have an outbreak of disease on board.
-- Give them a mission to infiltrate another ship without getting caught, perhaps to steal an item or get some important piece of information.
-- Have them meet a group of local tribesmen who row their outriggers out to the ship to engage in trade. Have one of the tribesmen challenge one or more of the party to some kind of contest.
-- Let the crew have a day of liberty at port, and have the party compete in a drinking contest onshore.
-- Have a party member or an appropriate NPC shanghaied (i.e. kidnapped and forced into service on a ship), and then have the party track down and rescue that individual.

Anyway, just a few ideas!


Thanks all. Now I have so much ideas, I do not know where to start. :-)
I like the non-combat ideas too. These are usually nice for storytelling. I want to avoid storms, though, since there are already storms in the journey of the Sea Wyvern.

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