Raiders of the Fever Sea (GM Reference)


Skull & Shackles

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Liberty's Edge

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Didn't see one started so I figured I would give it a go!

A few of the encounters have some creatures that have templates, but there are no stat blocks. If I may be so bold, I stated them up using Hero Lab.

Selissa:
SELISSA CR 6
Female young water naga (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 199, 291)
N Medium Aberration (Aquatic)
Init +8; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +17

DEFENSE

AC 21, touch 18, flat-footed 13 (+8 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 60 (8d8+24)
Fort +5, Ref +12, Will +9

OFFENSE

Spd 30 ft., Swimming (50 feet)
Melee Bite +9 (1d10 plus poison), Tail Slap +4 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks Poison: Bite - injury (DC 17)
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 7th; concentration +11):
3 (5/day) Protection from Energy (DC 17), Suggestion (DC 17)
2 (7/day) Acid Arrow, Mirror Image (DC 16), Invisibility
1 (7/day) Magic Missile, Shield (DC 15), Expeditious Retreat (DC 15), True Strike (DC 15), Obscuring Mist
0 (at will) Acid Splash, Open/Close (DC 14), Read Magic (DC 14), Mage Hand, Daze (DC 14), Detect Magic, Light

STATISTICS

Str 16, Dex 27, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 18
Base Atk +6; CMB +9; CMD 27 (can't be Tripped)
Feats Combat Casting, Eschew Materials, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Bluff +8, Knowledge (Local) +4, Perception +17, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +22, Swim +11
Languages Aquan, Common
SQ Amphibious (Ex)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Poison: Bite - injury (DC 17) (Ex) Poison deals 1d2 CON damage, 1/round for 6 rds, cure 2 consecutive saves.
Spells: A water naga casts spells as a 7th-level sorcerer.

Locathah Matriarch:
LOCATHAH MATRIARCH CR 2
Female advanced locathah (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 179, 292)
N Medium Humanoid (Aquatic)
Init +3; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +5

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 13 (currently 2) (2d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +3

OFFENSE

Spd 5 ft., swim 10 ft.
Melee unarmed attack +3 (1d3+2)

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 17, Cha 15
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Weapon Focus: Longspear
Skills Craft (any one) +6, Perception +5, Survival +8, Swim +10
Languages Aquan
SQ Amphibious (Ex)

The Matron:
THE MATRON CR 4
Female advanced giant sahuagin (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 239, 294, 295)
LE Large Monstrous Humanoid (Aquatic)
Init +2; Senses Blindsense (30 feet), Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +8

DEFENSE

AC 21, touch 11, flat-footed 19. . (+2 Dex, -1 size, +10 natural)
hp 23 (2d10+12)
Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +6
Weakness Light Blindness

OFFENSE

Spd 30 ft., Swimming (60 feet)
Melee Bite +7 (1d6+6), 2 Claws +7 (1d6+6)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks blood frenzy

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 15, Con 22, Int 18, Wis 17, Cha 13
Base Atk +2; CMB +9; CMD 21
Feats Great Fortitude
Skills Handle Animal +3, Perception +8, Ride +7, Stealth +3, Survival +8, Swim +19
Languages Aquan, Common; Speak with Sharks

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Blood Frenzy (1/day) (Ex) Once per day, a sahuagin that takes damage in combat can fly into a frenzy in the following round. It gains +2 Constitution and +2 Strength, but takes a -2 penalty to its AC. The frenzy lasts as long as the battle or 1 minute, whichever is shorter.
Speak with Sharks (Su) A sahuagin can communicate telepathically with sharks to a distance of 150 feet. This communication is limited to simple concepts, such as 'come here,' 'defend me,' or 'attack this target.'

Kelloort's Concubines (2):
KELLOORT'S CONCUBINE CR 3
Advanced female sahuagin (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 239, 294)
LE Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Aquatic)
Init +3; Senses Blindsense (30 feet), Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +8

DEFENSE

AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 17. . (+3 Dex, +7 natural)
hp 19 (2d10+8)
Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6
Weakness Light Blindness

OFFENSE

Spd 30 ft., swim 60 ft.
Melee Bite +6 (1d4+4), 2 claws +6 (1d4+4)
Special Attacks blood frenzy

STATISTICS

Str 18, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 17, Cha 13
Base Atk +2; CMB +6; CMD 19
Feats Great Fortitude
Skills Handle Animal +3, Perception +8, Ride +8, Stealth +8, Survival +8, Swim +17
Languages Aquan, Common; Speak with Sharks

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Blood Frenzy (1/day) (Ex) Once per day, a sahuagin that takes damage in combat can fly into a frenzy in the following round. It gains +2 Constitution and +2 Strength, but takes a -2 penalty to its AC. The frenzy lasts as long as the battle or 1 minute, whichever is shorter.
Speak with Sharks (Su) A sahuagin can communicate telepathically with sharks to a distance of 150 feet. This communication is limited to simple concepts, such as 'come here,' 'defend me,' or 'attack this target.'


Most kind, and very useful - thanks!

Grand Lodge

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I've got a question, what will you do if the pcs decide to take for themsefl the ships they encounter?

Grand Lodge

I've just read the answer in the ap, I didn't see that,


Thanks for the stats, some work I won't have to do myself!

I have a question of my own: did I miss the Man's Promise stats or should I use default stats from the Player's Guide? If so, I suppose it's the Sailing Ship stats that apply, right?

Liberty's Edge

poilbrun wrote:

Thanks for the stats, some work I won't have to do myself!

I have a question of my own: did I miss the Man's Promise stats or should I use default stats from the Player's Guide? If so, I suppose it's the Sailing Ship stats that apply, right?

Page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" states it is a three-masted sailing ship, though it doesn't have an actual stat block.


HangarFlying wrote:
A few of the encounters have some creatures that have templates, but there are no stat blocks.

Really? That's... annoying.

Thanks for the stats!


Annoying sure, but I'd much prefer the pages to be filled with delicious content than stats on a monster I could do myself.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Cidwin wrote:
Annoying sure, but I'd much prefer the pages to be filled with delicious content than stats on a monster I could do myself.

or stats that someone ELSE can do for your... even better! 8)

Sczarni

You the man, HangarFlying. I still think those stats shoulda been included in the text.


I wonder if the name of that boat at Rickety's Squibs is a nod to a certain NHL goalie in Music City...

Scarab Sages

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
HangarFlying wrote:
poilbrun wrote:

Thanks for the stats, some work I won't have to do myself!

I have a question of my own: did I miss the Man's Promise stats or should I use default stats from the Player's Guide? If so, I suppose it's the Sailing Ship stats that apply, right?

Page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" states it is a three-masted sailing ship, though it doesn't have an actual stat block.

I have been wondering the same thing. It looks like Paizo forgot to include the stats for Man's Promise. I am just going to use the Sailing Ship stats from the Player's Guide, but it would be nice to get an "official" stat block.

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.
raumac wrote:
HangarFlying wrote:
poilbrun wrote:

Thanks for the stats, some work I won't have to do myself!

I have a question of my own: did I miss the Man's Promise stats or should I use default stats from the Player's Guide? If so, I suppose it's the Sailing Ship stats that apply, right?

Page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" states it is a three-masted sailing ship, though it doesn't have an actual stat block.
I have been wondering the same thing. It looks like Paizo forgot to include the stats for Man's Promise. I am just going to use the Sailing Ship stats from the Player's Guide, but it would be nice to get an "official" stat block.

The Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship, using the stat block on page 25 of the Skull & Shackles Player's Guide. (At least, it is when the PCs get ahold of it; its stats will certainly change if they decide to add modifications to it, whihc is why we included a ship "character sheet" in the Player's Guide.)

The statement on page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" was meant to lead you to that stat block. Unfortunately, when "Wormwood" went to print, the Player's Guide was not yet completed, so we couldn't direct people to the exact stat block on page 25 of that book.

But rest assured, at the beginning, the Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship.

Grand Lodge

Are we supposed to "exp" the (most important) NPC (as Sandara or Kropp) or they stay 3rd and 5th level all along the adventure? I think I will level up them (maybe they'll stay one level back from the pcs) what do you think? & what will you do?

Sczarni

Manuelexar wrote:
Are we supposed to "exp" the (most important) NPC (as Sandara or Kropp) or they stay 3rd and 5th level all along the adventure? I think I will level up them (maybe they'll stay one level back from the pcs) what do you think? & what will you do?

Well, it depends on if you're going to need their stats, which really means it depends on whether they're going to be in on the action much. If they're just sitting back being advisers or ship's healers or whatever, then I wouldn't worry about their stats. If they're going to be swinging into action, whether socially or in combat, they'll probably need to be advanced a bit for the later chapters of the adventure.

So it depends on what your players want, and on what you want as a GM.

Grand Lodge

Yeah, you're right, maybe I'll level up only Sandara, the magus of the group left (he is really busy with the university) and the pcs are a gunslinger, a witch (but he's a 16yo first-time-playing so he's not really good at it), a rogue (future duelist) and a warrior, I think they lack on e spellcasting side...


Does it seem weird to anyone else that the drought is a big aspect of Suibs, but there is a level 5 druid chilling there? That's WAY more water (10 gallons evey 6 seconds) than they need, as well as lots of other things to help out the place (Plant Growth, Endure Elements, etc).

I may replace the druid with a sorcerer because it seems like a jarring oversight.


Varthanna wrote:
I may replace the druid with a sorcerer because it seems like a jarring oversight.

"Jarring oversight" is more than a little extreme. "Endure Elements" and "Communal Endure Elements" won't be able to cover the entire population for the entire day, leaving many people with many hot hours to waste away. "Plant Growth" would do little for shade, since all it can create is overgrowth or a theoretical increase in productivity. "Create Water" is useful, and probably why the town is still functioning, but couldn't hope water a jungle or refill a river (and would do nothing about the heat).

The actual events related to the drought (other than people being hot and irritable in town) come not from the town, but from deeper in the jungle. Baring the ability to cast "Control Weather," a Druid in Rickety's Squibs is irrelevant to them. A few castings of "Endure Elements" and "Create Water" are not impacting them at all.

That said, having the druid pass by and be swamped by workers hoping for a hit of "Endure Elements" would be an interesting scene, and I'll probably include it when playing through this bit.


Hmm, I suppose.

this also leads to an issue with Into the Frying Pan. If there is a PC aboard the Man's Promise with Create Water (or even just Sandara), there's no reason for the ship to go up a river and get stuck. So, what might some other reasons be for their ship to need to travel up into the mouth of a river?

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Crew are a superstitious lot and "Don't truck with no magic water."

Otherwise they might hear tell about a village a day's sail upriver that they could raid for booty and plunder in a "Low Hanging Fruit" encounter, this village is particularly rich (worth an extra point of plunder) due to the protection of being further upriver. Thus when the PCs leave the village they can enter "Into the Frying Pan".

As to a druid being in the village, in the CRB a spellcaster's services for casting a level 0 spell costs 10 gp for a level 1 caster. A 5th level druid casting Create Water would cost 50gp. That's some very expensive water (coming out to 5 gp per gallon), all well and good for Rickety and perhaps pirates rich with plunder looking to restock their water barrels, but not so much for the regular denizen of the town earning a few sp a week.

Also there's nothing to indicate that the Druid is currently in town, perhaps she is following the drying up river to its source to see if something can be done from that end. Ultimately it doesn't take any stretch of imagination at all to see how a drought could affect a town even with the occasional spellcaster around.


Trinite wrote:
Manuelexar wrote:
Are we supposed to "exp" the (most important) NPC (as Sandara or Kropp) or they stay 3rd and 5th level all along the adventure? I think I will level up them (maybe they'll stay one level back from the pcs) what do you think? & what will you do?

Well, it depends on if you're going to need their stats, which really means it depends on whether they're going to be in on the action much. If they're just sitting back being advisers or ship's healers or whatever, then I wouldn't worry about their stats. If they're going to be swinging into action, whether socially or in combat, they'll probably need to be advanced a bit for the later chapters of the adventure.

So it depends on what your players want, and on what you want as a GM.

The effectiveness of a magical healer increase as s/he level-up (more spells per day, higher level spells, spells heal more, etc...)


As for conjure water... why would you go on a ship without a water supply, even with the ability to conjure water? What do you do if your conjurer you know... die or is kidnapped by say... grindylows?

Backups make sense to have.


So, it's assumed that the PCs stay on the outskirts of the Shackles, right, because they would be easy prey for the more reputable pirates.

My question is--as the PCs attack ships and gain plunder (and want to either sell it or increase their infamy), what ports can they go to besides Rickety's Squibs and the fishing villages described in event 8? Are they supposed to go to Bloodcove, or somewhere else? Are there any stats for these ports somewhere?

Thanks

Liberty's Edge

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I don't have it in front of me, but I think there is a description of various possible ports as well as how those communities would react to them depending on their cargo.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
mbauers wrote:
My question is--as the PCs attack ships and gain plunder (and want to either sell it or increase their infamy), what ports can they go to besides Rickety's Squibs and the fishing villages described in event 8? Are they supposed to go to Bloodcove, or somewhere else? Are there any stats for these ports somewhere?

A couple of other options for ports are mentioned in Event 9. Basic information on them can be found in the "Inner Sea World Guide," while extensive information is available in "Heart of the Jungle" and "Sargava - The Lost Colony." You could also break out a copy of Isles of the Shackles, and have the party sell their goods in one of he outlying communities.


Thanks guys! I have Heart of the Jungle, so I just read up on Bloodcove and Senghor. Good stuff.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Is anyone else considering leveling up some of the key NPCs along with the party? My group is interested in continuing relationships with people like Sandara, Roise, and Fishguts, and they want them to get key positions on the ship (Sandara especially, because we don't have a healbot in the party).

Right now, I've houseruled that they can level up as cohorts just like the leadership table describes using the Captain for the leader. However, I've ruled if they want to actually take them on adventures, someone will need to actually take leadership. Does this sound fair? What other options are there?


I'm definitely leveling up Sandara over the course of the adventure, a couple of other NPCs will also get that treatment, but I plan to see who the group ends up making the biggest relationships with first.

The biggest friends, and the biggest rivals will get level ups. Others, not so much.


Sandara makes sense even if you do have an "Healbot" (healing the healbot), and would end up having access to useful spells.


Question about Event 12:

Why does Captain Svard face the PCs alone? He has 85 pirates. I know that the crew fights the crew, but let's say the PCs have 40 crewmates at this point (I'm not sure how quickly my PCs will recruit people--we're still on Book 1).

Couldn't, say, 10 of the pirates help the captain fight the PCs? Give them the same (or similar) stats to the Wormwood pirates. Seems like a much better fight then a party of level 4 or 5 PCs fighting a level 6 fighter/rogue while his entire crew stands by and watches.

I get that some of them might be boarding the Sea Chanty, but what if the Devil's Pallor boards the PCs?


Quote:
Why does Captain Svard face the PCs alone? He has 85 pirates. I know that the crew fights the crew, but let's say the PCs have 40 crewmates at this point (I'm not sure how quickly my PCs will recruit people--we're still on Book 1).

Honestly? Because that is how the rules are set up. For whatever reason, crew size doesn't matter at all when boarding ships. I'd guess a subsystem for it would have been too complicated, too wordy, or too complex for the adventure, but it does feel like a significant omission.

Also, given that having a large crew doesn't cost any more than a small one, it would likely have been pretty easy to game. As it is written, it isn't terribly hard to recruit, and you don't lose any more plunder for having a crew of 100 instead of a crew of 20. If there was a big advantage to large crew, then they would need yet another subsystem for shares of plunder, and probably another for casualties, and maybe loyalty, and the whole thing just gets too complex for what it is.

Quote:
Couldn't, say, 10 of the pirates help the captain fight the PCs? Give them the same (or similar) stats to the Wormwood pirates. Seems like a much better fight then a party of level 4 or 5 PCs fighting a level 6 fighter/rogue while his entire crew stands by and watches.

That would make a lot of sense. Fighting a single CR 5 NPC at that level would be a sad joke. Making a few of his "sailors" into "marines" (with either the Wormwood Pirate or Event 7 Marine stats) would be a much more lively encounter.


Does anybody know what the spoke like wheel on a ships mast are? Looking at the maps for Event 7 and Event 11, one of the masts have a unique piece that is different from the other masts.


Xenomorph 27 wrote:
Does anybody know what the spoke like wheel on a ships mast are? Looking at the maps for Event 7 and Event 11, one of the masts have a unique piece that is different from the other masts.

A capstan, possibly? Used for raising or lowering yards on masts among other things, depending on where on the ship it's located.

No maps handy, so can't see the exact reference you're talking about.


Looked up the capstan on Google, that's it, thanks!


Besides using the map of Tidewater Rock, has anyone made a map of Windward Island? Maybe a sketch or rough outline of it like the Map of Bonewrack Isle. I'm trying to sketch something out for a possible incursion at the harbor/lagoon and further on land. I have the description of the area in terms of miles and points of interests but any feedback would be appreciated in outlining this scenario.


Rob McCreary wrote:

The Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship, using the stat block on page 25 of the Skull & Shackles Player's Guide. (At least, it is when the PCs get ahold of it; its stats will certainly change if they decide to add modifications to it, whihc is why we included a ship "character sheet" in the Player's Guide.)

The statement on page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" was meant to lead you to that stat block. Unfortunately, when "Wormwood" went to print, the Player's Guide was not yet completed, so we couldn't direct people to the exact stat block on page 25 of that book.

But rest assured, at the beginning, the Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship.

I can't tell, but does the Man's Promise come with any siege weaponry?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Mort the Cleverly Named wrote:
Varthanna wrote:
I may replace the druid with a sorcerer because it seems like a jarring oversight.

"Jarring oversight" is more than a little extreme. "Endure Elements" and "Communal Endure Elements" won't be able to cover the entire population for the entire day, leaving many people with many hot hours to waste away. "Plant Growth" would do little for shade, since all it can create is overgrowth or a theoretical increase in productivity. "Create Water" is useful, and probably why the town is still functioning, but couldn't hope water a jungle or refill a river (and would do nothing about the heat).

The actual events related to the drought (other than people being hot and irritable in town) come not from the town, but from deeper in the jungle. Baring the ability to cast "Control Weather," a Druid in Rickety's Squibs is irrelevant to them. A few castings of "Endure Elements" and "Create Water" are not impacting them at all.

That said, having the druid pass by and be swamped by workers hoping for a hit of "Endure Elements" would be an interesting scene, and I'll probably include it when playing through this bit.

I know I'm a month late on this, but I thought I'd point out that the water from Create Water
Create Water wrote:
This water disappears after 1 day if not consumed.

So while the druid can certainly walk into town and fill up a well every day to keep people hydrated, the main issue is that he can't really do anything for the imbalance in the jungle. The animals are having issues because their habitats are getting messed up, not because they're feeling thirsty.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Hileria wrote:
Rob McCreary wrote:

The Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship, using the stat block on page 25 of the Skull & Shackles Player's Guide. (At least, it is when the PCs get ahold of it; its stats will certainly change if they decide to add modifications to it, whihc is why we included a ship "character sheet" in the Player's Guide.)

The statement on page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" was meant to lead you to that stat block. Unfortunately, when "Wormwood" went to print, the Player's Guide was not yet completed, so we couldn't direct people to the exact stat block on page 25 of that book.

But rest assured, at the beginning, the Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship.

I can't tell, but does the Man's Promise come with any siege weaponry?

It doesn't seem to.


Manuelexar wrote:
I've got a question, what will you do if the pcs decide to take for themsefl the ships they encounter?

This is a good question.

I'm hoping that being on board the Man's Promise isn't crucial to the story later on but I'd just use the standard stat blocks for a ship of the appropriate size from the Skull and Shackles Player's Guide should they decide to use a ship other than the Man's Promise.

The problem I'm having right now is that, according to the regional gold piece limits (outlined on pg. 62 of Part 1 or pg. 207 of the Gamemastery Guide), it's entirely possible to tow or sail a stolen vessel back to Rickety's Squibs for squibbing and resold for a sizable take (10,000 gp or 10 points of plunder -in addition to any cargo in it's hold- and quite possibly a new infamy threshold) in any of the more populated ports. Nearest I can tell that's not what was intended with the plunder system they've outlined.

From there, assuming I haven't overlooked something, the problem becomes 'why bother getting the Free Captains' blessing if you WANT to pick a fight with every vessel that comes along due to how profitable it is?' Short of killing the PCs outright when they inevitably pick a fight they can't win, I don't see a feasible, in-game reason to prevent them from doing so... especially when the reason they have a ship in first place is because their former captain was trying to accomplish this very same thing.

Any advice here would be welcome. I haven't encountered this problem just yet but I anticipate it as my gaming group would pull the teeth from a dead man's head if it earned them an extra copper piece. XD


Hileria wrote:
Rob McCreary wrote:

The Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship, using the stat block on page 25 of the Skull & Shackles Player's Guide. (At least, it is when the PCs get ahold of it; its stats will certainly change if they decide to add modifications to it, whihc is why we included a ship "character sheet" in the Player's Guide.)

The statement on page 35 of "The Wormwood Mutiny" was meant to lead you to that stat block. Unfortunately, when "Wormwood" went to print, the Player's Guide was not yet completed, so we couldn't direct people to the exact stat block on page 25 of that book.

But rest assured, at the beginning, the Man's Promise is a standard sailing ship.

I can't tell, but does the Man's Promise come with any siege weaponry?

Spoiler:
The Man's Promise mounts two light ballistas on the sterncastle (area B5) which are ineffectually fired at the Wormwood as she "Closes for Boarding" (pg.31).

The ship's drawing of the Promise's Middle Deck and Armory (B8, pg.36) shows two more light ballistas stowed in the hold, although there is no mention of the latter two in the text.
The descriptive text after capture of the Promise says the Wormwood's crew strips out the captured ship pretty thoroughly, so wheter or not any of the ballistas stay on board is pretty much up to you. I plan to leave two of them in the hold (broken) when Harrigan sends Plugg, Scourge and the skeleton crew off to Port Peril to sell the ship.


Russell Gadoury wrote:
Manuelexar wrote:
I've got a question, what will you do if the pcs decide to take for themsefl the ships they encounter?

This is a good question.

I'm hoping that being on board the Man's Promise isn't crucial to the story later on but I'd just use the standard stat blocks for a ship of the appropriate size from the Skull and Shackles Player's Guide should they decide to use a ship other than the Man's Promise.

The problem I'm having right now is that, according to the regional gold piece limits (outlined on pg. 62 of Part 1 or pg. 207 of the Gamemastery Guide), it's entirely possible to tow or sail a stolen vessel back to Rickety's Squibs for squibbing and resold for a sizable take (10,000 gp or 10 points of plunder -in addition to any cargo in it's hold- and quite possibly a new infamy threshold) in any of the more populated ports. Nearest I can tell that's not what was intended with the plunder system they've outlined.

From there, assuming I haven't overlooked something, the problem becomes 'why bother getting the Free Captains' blessing if you WANT to pick a fight with every vessel that comes along due to how profitable it is?' Short of killing the PCs outright when they inevitably pick a fight they can't win, I don't see a feasible, in-game reason to prevent them from doing so... especially when the reason they have a ship in first place is because their former captain was trying to accomplish this very same thing.

Any advice here would be welcome. I haven't encountered this problem just yet but I anticipate it as my gaming group would pull the teeth from a dead man's head if it earned them an extra copper piece. XD

I'm not sure how my players are going to handle it I'll probably let them do it once and if they try over and over I'll make it a dangerous proposition. They have to split the crew, and one ship will just mutiny sail off, get attacked when the crew on the other one is out of reach, etc.


Biobeast wrote:


I'm not sure how my players are going to handle it I'll probably let them do it once and if they try over and over I'll make it a dangerous proposition. They have to split the crew, and one ship will just mutiny sail off, get attacked when the crew on the other one is out of reach, etc.

That's probably what I'm going to do too but I just know that reselling the ships they encounter is going to come up. Preventing them from reaching the port with their loot isn't really the problem(angry GM smash!), my problem is that while losing your treasure once or twice is just bad luck, the third or fourth time it becomes obvious that I'm trying to thwart their efforts. Having been on the other side of that, I know that's no fun. Especially if they don't know they're not doing something they're not supposed to or wasn't accounted for. Probably have to mix it up, sometimes they get away with it, sometimes a pack of aquatic tarrasques uses their stolen ship as a tooth pick, LOL.

I think I may just house-rule it that any captured ships be worth 3-5 points of plunder tops (which includes repair, crew and squibbing costs)and then just throw enough obstacles and random encounters on their way to sell it that it pretty much translates into the same as an act of piracy in terms of exp. and money.


Maybe just not pull any punches with the ship to ship combat so between looted ships and ships they've lost in encounters they break even.... I dunno.

Sovereign Court

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Russell Gadoury wrote:
Manuelexar wrote:
I've got a question, what will you do if the pcs decide to take for themsefl the ships they encounter?

This is a good question.

I'm hoping that being on board the Man's Promise isn't crucial to the story later on but I'd just use the standard stat blocks for a ship of the appropriate size from the Skull and Shackles Player's Guide should they decide to use a ship other than the Man's Promise.

The problem I'm having right now is that, according to the regional gold piece limits (outlined on pg. 62 of Part 1 or pg. 207 of the Gamemastery Guide), it's entirely possible to tow or sail a stolen vessel back to Rickety's Squibs for squibbing and resold for a sizable take (10,000 gp or 10 points of plunder -in addition to any cargo in it's hold- and quite possibly a new infamy threshold) in any of the more populated ports. Nearest I can tell that's not what was intended with the plunder system they've outlined.

From there, assuming I haven't overlooked something, the problem becomes 'why bother getting the Free Captains' blessing if you WANT to pick a fight with every vessel that comes along due to how profitable it is?' Short of killing the PCs outright when they inevitably pick a fight they can't win, I don't see a feasible, in-game reason to prevent them from doing so... especially when the reason they have a ship in first place is because their former captain was trying to accomplish this very same thing.

Any advice here would be welcome. I haven't encountered this problem just yet but I anticipate it as my gaming group would pull the teeth from a dead man's head if it earned them an extra copper piece. XD

Guidelines for selling captured ships are presented on page 9 of the adventure, in the Development section of Event 7. Basically, PCs can sell captured ships for half their value in plunder (usually about 5 points of plunder), provided they have enough people to form a prize crew and sail it to a friendly port.


In addition, if the PCs are attacking too many other pirates without getting the blessing of a Free Captain, the Free Captains may send a few ships after the PCs. Even if the PCs can manage to attack a ships on their own, they can't stand against any of the fleets of the Free Captains.

If you don't want to outright kill your PCs, you can have somebody at Rickety Squibs mention that they might be attracting notice, or Kroop or Sandara.

Just my 2 c.p.


Rob McCreary wrote:

Guidelines for selling captured ships are presented on page 9 of the adventure, in the Development section of Event 7. Basically, PCs can sell captured ships for half their value in plunder (usually about 5 points of plunder), provided they have enough people to form a prize crew and sail it to a friendly port.

Oh... There's a lot of info to take in so must've completely missed that. Cheers. :)

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Also, converting plunder to gp is pretty inefficient unless you can crank out diplomacy checks.


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John Spalding wrote:
Also, converting plunder to gp is pretty inefficient unless you can crank out diplomacy checks.

My group has a diplomacy focused bard, and they headed straight for Senghor (metropolis) to sell their booty, selling everything for 120%. They just cracked the Rock, and their individual wealth is around 15K a person, which is way over the wealth by level amount for 5th. They've sold 3 ships so far, despite my best efforts to persuade them to squib them or store them somewhere. They also sailed with 2 of the vessels, towing them to port, so I couldn't easily have a mutiny.

Is this how other people are feeling about their PCs? That they are way ahead on their wealth? Will this present more problems in the future?


MetalPaladin wrote:
Is this how other people are feeling about their PCs? That they are way ahead on their wealth? Will this present more problems in the future?

My group isn't nearly that far through the adventure yet, but I seem to remember that the PCs need to have at least 10 points of plunder to gain an audience with Bonefist in book 3, so they can't be converting all of it to gold.

Of course, they can buy plunder as well, but that puts them in the category of "merchant" and will do nothing for helping them get an audience in my game.

Finally, it sounds like you're finished almost all of the events leading up to Mancatcher Cove so your PCs should be almost 6th level at which point their WBL should be in the neighbourhood of 16000gp so they're probably right on track.

If you're overly concerned, you could make a point of mentioning that any pirate worth his salt has bigger aspirations than taking one ship here and there. With a fleet at their disposal, the gold will roll in a lot faster.

Since the plot seems to indicate they'll be forming their own fleet by book 5, they're actually losing money each time they sell a ship since they'll probably have to buy it back later. A 10K ship nets 5 plunder and even selling them at 120%, they can only convert it into 6K gold. Net loss of 4000gp when they need to buy it back.


In my camapign sailing to Senghor just seems to easy to me. So, I'm gonig to make Senghor a very anti-pirate city where pirates and stolen loot is outlawed. The players have a chance of being recognized and selling stolen loot has to be done stealtily or they might lose it. So I'll let them go but it's going to be much tougher then going to Bloodcove or eventually later in the AP Port Peril

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