My Skull and Shackles group is dead set on starting a smuggling business (they've just finished Rickety Squibs) and I've set them towards Port Peril to find potential contacts for smuggling runs. They had Rickety Hake install a 5-foot hidden compartment in their ship during the squibbing,
My idea is to first give them a few leads depending on how well they act it out and/or roll. As they're fresh in the Shackles I want to have the first few tasks to test how they fare, before they can get more profitable and risky ones.
Early runs could be to transport a smaller batch of liquor to a nearby island, with later ones dealing with slavery or valuable and potentially forbidden items and people to/from Sargava, Mwangi Expanse, Mediogalti Islands, Rahadoum or even nations further north.
Have you done something similar? What did you do and how did it go?
My Skull and Shackles group is dead set on starting a smuggling business (they've just finished Rickety Squibs) and I've set them towards Port Peril to find potential contacts for smuggling runs. They had Rickety Hake install a 5-foot hidden compartment in their ship during the squibbing,
My idea is to first give them a few leads depending on how well they act it out and/or roll. As they're fresh in the Shackles I want to have the first few tasks to test how they fare, before they can get more profitable and risky ones.
Early runs could be to transport a smaller batch of liquor to a nearby island, with later ones dealing with slavery or valuable and potentially forbidden items and people to/from Sargava, Mwangi Expanse, Mediogalti Islands, Rahadoum or even nations further north.
Have you done something similar? What did you do and how did it go?
I'm not 100% sure how smuggling works in waters ruled by pirates. There aren't any inspections or pirate patrol boats making sure you've paid your taxes... I mean, what's forbidden in the Shackles?
Now, at the beginnings and end of the voyage (from Sargava to Cheliax for example) I could see there being some peril, but there's not exactly any reason to 'smuggle' within the Shackles themselves that I can see, and if you start finding your adventures concentrating on regions outside the Shackles it could draw you out of the AP entirely.
That's not to say there aren't options - getting an individual safely and secretly through these danger-infested waters, whether in order to get them somewhere or to get them away from somewhere (or someone) could be one possibility. Dodging other pirates while carrying cargo that there is a bounty on could be another. Lots of uses for hidden compartments apart from traditional smuggling.
Hi and thanks for the response.
Yes, at the end of our last session we had a small discussion of whether there actually were any illegal items that they could smuggle.
I like your idea, and there are already some people in our campaign I could use. The group is also on its way to Port Peril to find an old friend (Grumblejack from Way of the Wicked by Fire Mountain Games). He is currently in hiding from the prison guards and could use some help to be taken away from the city. Being an ogre he's not the easiest to hide and with a fair bounty on his head other groups might intervene.
I'll try to create a few leads they can follow and see how it goes.
I'm not too worried about whether they'll stay in the Shackles or not, but it's more convenient for me of course if they are following the AP plot-line.
I would say any of the ship-to-ship encounters in part 2 of "Raiders of the Fever Sea" could happen outside of the Shackles. Any of the ship encounters in the event "Sea Wolves" or the event where the PCs can raid fishing villages could happen along the Mwgani coast and don't forget you've got two books full of ship encounters in the bestiaries that could happen anywhere. You could even lead them back to Tidewater Rock as it not necesisarily being an infamny booster but as a good hide out and storehouse. I don't think you'll want for things to do necessarily. But the previous poster is right; all actual smuggling will happen in the waters of Cheliax, Rahadoum or Sargava becuase I can't think of "contraband" being a concept to anyone in the Shackles.
I imagine the various cities in the Schackles run by their pirate lords pretty independently. In some, everything goes, and the lord is happy just to draw in business. In others, only pirates in direct service, or at least loosely allied, to the ruling lord are allowed to dock, others will have to pay a harbour fee based on either size of ship or value of cargo.
This means there are money to be made by transporting goods between the various cities, but also from smuggling. Wherever there is trade, there is taxes and toll (how else is a pirate lord supposed to pay for the upkeep of a harbour?), and where there's tolls, there's smuggling.
Even if the trade aspect is ignored, I imagine tolls are still relevant, only now it's incoming plunder for sale that is being taxed. In this case, undeclared cargo means tolls not paid, that is money saved.
Freed Slaves the whole region is awash with slave trade, Ramapore is a slave hub, Bloodcove, Red Mantis land to the north, Droon the barely mentioned Lizardfolk empire to the south. Two Chelaxian colonies south of Sargava.
Lastly as smugglers their business will likely be outside the Shackles and there is no problem there. Their fences however might be in the Shackles.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I thought my group had been rather brutal lately, so I wanted to see if they'd accept an offer to do something good.
They took an offer to transport 20 freed slaves to Eleder to their alleged freedom. They will likely encounter some Chelish ships on their way there for cargo inspection, though that will most likely end in violence.
Wherever there is trade, there is taxes and toll (how else is a pirate lord supposed to pay for the upkeep of a harbour?)
You did not honestly ask how a pirate lord pays for it's harbour (aka base of operations )? *grins*
Amusing thought : pirate tax collectors !
"In the name of Abaddar, pay up !"
Ok, I don't say it won't hapen, perhaps in Devil's Arches etc.
Basically : if one does smuggling, there should usually be smuggling done through the Shackles like Chelian agents going south, rare valuables hidden in a bunch of non-descipt foodstuff going north to avoid harbour taxes in Azir or Cheliax ?
Perhaps also smuggling divine casters into Rahadoum or smuggling escaping divine folks out ? Or similar stuff for more recognisable Illizmagorti natives ?
You get smuggling where tarrifs on some goods are excessive or the substance/item is illegal to trade with. In the "anything goes" Shackles, that seems to be a hard call (without going into stuff like diabolism or demon-worship).
But basically, given the situation, I'd think more along the lines of bloackade runners, instead of "smugglers" who try to appear legitimate....because the opposition is not trying to appear legitimate and measured in response, and tarrifs etc are probably non-existent, while robbing and plunderig is a way of life.
Han smuggled goods for Jabba he had to return with the goods or aftrer delivery to get paid. Jabba was based in the outer rim (lawless pirate region). But made money on the black market by having mules like Han.
I would think that they could smuggle stuff into the Inner Sea nations. I could see Shackles pirates doing a lot of their piracy in the Inner Sea, returning through the Eye of Abendego to a safe port, trading away their plunder, then another ship sailing back through the Eye of Abendego and smuggling illicit goods (or even just expensive goods that customs agents would tax heavily) into Westcrown/Almas/wherever.
Han smuggled goods for Jabba he had to return with the goods or aftrer delivery to get paid. Jabba was based in the outer rim (lawless pirate region). But made money on the black market by having mules like Han.
I am not sure whether I would take Star Wars as a realistic assessment of smuggling practises or methods^^ Or the SW Outer Rim as "pirate" territory, just because it was not an official part of the Empire
And should smugglers run traffic from the Shackles into the Inner Sea regions, there is basically too much coastline to land stuff "out of sight" and off the record... Nevermind smuggling usually involving small and mobile ships which are rarely a good choice for long distance travel etc.. Nevermind pasisng through the pretty well controlled Arch of Aroden.
But that would be realism vs. player desired playing style.
Smuggling is very much a trope (from a lot of romantic 19th century stories) and usually the best way to hide stuff is in plain sight.
Han smuggled goods for Jabba he had to return with the goods or aftrer delivery to get paid. Jabba was based in the outer rim (lawless pirate region). But made money on the black market by having mules like Han.I am not sure whether I would take Star Wars as a realistic assessment of smuggling practises or methods^^ Or the SW Outer Rim as "pirate" territory, just because it was not an official part of the Empire
And should smugglers run traffic from the Shackles into the Inner Sea regions, there is basically too much coastline to land stuff "out of sight" and off the record... Nevermind smuggling usually involving small and mobile ships which are rarely a good choice for long distance travel etc.. Nevermind pasisng through the pretty well controlled Arch of Aroden.
But that would be realism vs. player desired playing style.
Smuggling is very much a trope (from a lot of romantic 19th century stories) and usually the best way to hide stuff is in plain sight.
You very well may be right. The entire Outer Rim might not be pirate haven but Tatooine certainly was. Perhaps things grown in Sargava or the other colonies South are commodities in the North, sugar (the which was the British Empire's big claim to fame), coffee, insert lucrative magical macguffin commodity here.