Caulky Tarroon (spoiler)


Skull & Shackles


WOW! I was surprised by the image of Caulky in Tempest Rising. (Based on his comment even Rob McCreary was suprised!)
Before that image I did draw some inspiration from the image from the Pathfinder Paper Minis (now used for a generic cabin girl). What a transformation of Caulky!

Spoiler:
Inspired by the image I played Caulky as a frightened, insecure girl that is about 12 years old, that did not really want to be on the ship and esp. didn't like to be close the Harrigan. The cooks mate even sympathized with her after she was so afraid to try the food he was cooking for the captain, 'cause she feared to be poisoned.
Now in Tempest Rising Caulky looks like a mostly handsome young woman with an eye patch. Also she now tries to poison people in a tavern, probably to "recruit" them for Harrigan and tries to avoid the PCs.

Based on how Caulky interacted with my PCs by now, Caulkys actions in Tempest Rising wouldn't make sense.

Do you have a similar problem? How do you plan to solve it?

I guess the new Caulky and the old will be two different characters in my campaign.

Spoiler:
p.s. This Problem shows why it would have been better to have more then a single line about NPCs that will get a greater spotlight later in the adventure, like some already suggested after reading part 1. :-/


My group has only played two sessions so far

Spoiler:
(they just befriended Owlbear after defeating him in Plug's arranged fistfight)
so this hasn't been a major factor - yet.

I've also been basing Caulky's description on the paper mini, but have been largely keeping her away from the PCs precisely because of the hints she would figure into later modules and I had no idea what was coming. Having some clue of what was in store for her would have been useful, or at least a consistent description of her appearance. I don't have Tempset Rising as yet so can't tell just what backing and filling I'll have to do to fill in the continuity. How much time is supposed to have elapsed between Wormwood Mutiny and Tempest Rising? Maybe she's had time to grow up a bit and decide pirating's not so bad after all, or maybe GMs who've gone with the original description of the cowed and fearful cabin girl Caulky will have to stick with that and make the "new" Caulky a different NPC altogether.


Same as the OP, but here's what I'm thinking:

My players havent met the Man's Promise, yet. When they do, Caulky loses an eye (Scrimshaw already lost his arm due to filth fever infection from the rats).

I plan on giving my PCs lots of down time and sailying around in the second part of the AP might take 2 years. So, shy innocent Caulky has turned into the one-eyed punk teen of 14 in the 3rd part of the AP, and she knows exactly the moment when her life went down hill... when Harrigan took the PCs on as press ganged crew.

Sovereign Court

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To be clear, my surprise about Caulky's appearance mainly resulted from the eyepatch, and the fact that she looks a bit older than I had imagined. But you tell an artist to draw a pirate, and things like eyepatches tend to show up automatically. :)
Unfortunately, it's not always possible to get art redone with our production schedule, and as there was nothing actually "wrong" with the art, there was no real reason to send it back.

As for differences in art between the paper minis and the AP, the paper minis are done by third parties under license - they get access to the adventures when they are released. If a character appears in the AP and then gets art later (as was the case with Caulky), that's not the fault of Callous Jack or the other people working on paper minis.

As for hinting that she would appear later on, it's not always easy to do that, particularly with the huge list of characters aboard the Wormwood in the first adventure. That's the reason Caulky was included among the ship's officers, who were specifically mentioned as people who wouldn't have much to do with the PCs, because they might show up later in the AP.

I tried to address this in the little bit of Caulky's background in "Tempest Rising" - after the events of "The Wormwood Mutiny," her life changed, and not for the better - much like Varthanna described. Caulky doesn't have to be friendly with or even like Harrigan. In fact, it's more likely that she is motivated out of fear of Harrigan. And if the PCs befriended her in the first adventure, they would probably have a greater chance of convincing her not to report their presence in Port Peril to Harrigan, and might even join the PCs' crew instead, as suggested in the Development section of her encounter.


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It could be a fake eyepatch. Perhaps she even switches eyes. :)


Rob McCreary wrote:

To be clear, my surprise about Caulky's appearance mainly resulted from the eyepatch, and the fact that she looks a bit older than I had imagined. But you tell an artist to draw a pirate, and things like eyepatches tend to show up automatically. :)

....

So nice to know, that this stuff surprises the authors as well^^

"Caulky II" will have to be a different person I guess, we made her rather young, and she'd stick out in the taproom like crazy. Ayra Stark and all....


Rob McCreary wrote:

As for differences in art between the paper minis and the AP, the paper minis are done by third parties under license - they get access to the adventures when they are released. If a character appears in the AP and then gets art later (as was the case with Caulky), that's not the fault of Callous Jack or the other people working on paper minis.

As for hinting that she would appear later on, it's not always easy to do that, particularly with the huge list of characters aboard the Wormwood in the first adventure. That's the reason Caulky was included among the ship's officers, who were specifically mentioned as people who wouldn't have much to do with the PCs, because they might show up later in the AP.

Oh I didn't think it was Jack's fault. Actually I think he did a really great job with the art of the miniatures! And he also did a great job to fix any problems brought up and also his new Caulky miniature is just great!

I tried to keep the officers away from the PCs as good as I could and it worked out for most of them, but as it was Caulky's duty to collect the meals for the officers, she had many interactions with the cooks mate. As my cooks mate is actually an alchemist, it was important to show that she tasted the food for poison and actually playing out how she tasted the food (as written in the AP) started the connection between the cooks mate and Caulky. ;)


I haven't had to characterize her yet, but I was thinking of using one of Petar Meseldzija's renditions of Cara from the Unicorn Chronicles. As for the writing of her, I was thinking along the lines of Lyra Belaqua, from Pullman's HDM.


Maybe I am just sick, but when I first saw that scared little Caulky (CN human 3rd level girl about 13 years old) was basically sharing a cabin (area A5) with Captain Harrigan (NE human 16th level man about 40 years old), well does pedophilia seem a possibility to you?

Why wouldn't she run away?

They're at sea. And he's a 16th level evil pirate. And while I can certainly understand why Paizo would not want to spell out the details and I can definitely see why many (most?) people would not want to play such a scenario, it does strike me as a very realistic possibility. Remember, the GM and the players were all warned that this adventure presents "unique challenges." Indeed, it is specifically stated that GMs should manage players' expectations. "This doesn't mean they can't play good characters" strongly implying that they can play evil ones.

Has anyone here ever played a game where characters condoned or even willingly participated in such "unseemly" acts. Of course almost all RPGs involve rather brutal violence, murder, and even torture, but I have never dealt with topics such as pedophilia. Surely other people have, right?


Andrea1 wrote:
It could be a fake eyepatch. Perhaps she even switches eyes. :)

No smiley required. :)

Eyepatches don't mean you've lost an eye (not that you said that it did)... sailors would often wear one over one eye above deck and then switch it over in order to be able to see in the dark below deck. Caulky could've learned that trick and thought it nifty.

(I haven't seen the new Caulky pic as yet)


I know in my game the two will have to be separate characters as Caulky was 'befriended' and 'rescued' her. In that I mean the cooks mate who is a bit of an unbalanced alchemist Sylph decided that she and Caulky were best friends and knocked her over the head, stuffed her in a pickle barrel and dragged her over to the new boat. Still skittish, at least this new crew doesn't try and kill her or other things, so she has decided to stick it out, though a bit of Stockholm syndrome may be playing in there. I now mainly use her as bait to drag the Alchemist where I need here.


Yeah, Caulkies appearance was a surprise when I opened book 3 as well. Mostly I thought she looked too old.
But it hardly mattered as our game had already turned out differently.

See, in our 2nd session, one of our players daughters wanted to play. So I gave her the list of all the NPCs aboard (minus Harrigan, Peppery, Krine, Plugg, Scourge). She didn't look at the character sheets I'd made, just chose a mini she liked. She chose Caulky.
As Chrissy is 15 & blond, guess what she made Caulky.... She also wanted to cast spells. So Caulky was switched to a commoner/wizard & apprenticed to Peppery. She serves as both apprentice & cabin girl. She also helps out as both swab & rigger as well as assisting Habbly (the carpenter). Generally learning all aspects of the ship.
Harrigan, though evil, doesn't mess with Caulky (beyond intimidation) as he & Peppery begin S&S as friends/allies. And Peppery is a more valuable asset than any of the other NPCs/PCs.
The rest of the crew don't mess with Caulky because then they'll have both Harrigan & Peppery to deal with.... Something Caulkies player has used to her advantage.


As with a lot of the NPCs I've taken some liberties with Caulky myself, even though I'd already read through the entire AP by the time we started. I presented her as an 11 year old, one who does like the idea of a pirate's life, doesn't like the Captain that much but isn't really afraid of him either. She just kind of deals with it because she likes sailing the great blue. My plan for her in Tempest Rising is to have her be embracing piracy as only a child can. The eyepatch is, as Andrea and Shade pointed out individually, both a useful tool and to make her seem more piratey. She's diving right into Harrigan's pressganging, and trying to enjoy herself. However, given the... tendency that Captain Helgrove has (we call her the Diplomancer), I highly doubt she'll be remaining a member of Harrigan's crew for long after that.


One DM of the AP had his group give her the second smile after they met her again during book 3.

ANother one(gnome I believe) started beating her face in on the street and got thrashed by the crowd who objected to child abuse.

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