Knowledge checks
Brood: Special defenses, special attacks, SR, saves, good hat
Cargas: DR, special attacks, SR
Gezza: Special defenses, special attacks, SR, saves, good hat
The Murderin' Murder B1. Main Deck: Two 10-foot-square hatches sit in the deck forward of the mainmast and open onto the middle hold. Between the hatches and mast, a steep set of wooden steps descends into the middle deck (area B8) 15 feet below.
B2. Foredeck: The foredeck rises 10 feet above the main deck.
B3. Aft Deck: The aft deck sits 10 feet above the main deck, and steps lead up to an even higher deck behind the mizzenmast. The ship’s wheel stands just before the rail overlooking the main deck.
B4. Sterncastle: This high deck sits behind the mizzenmast, 20 feet above the main deck. A pair of light ballistas sit upon this deck, next to a box containing a dozen ballista bolts.
B5. Ship’s Boats: A gig hangs from davits on the gunwales just forward of the aft deck. The boat is lashed to the ship and requires three DC 10 Profession (sailor) checks or Dexterity checks to launch; Each such check is a full-round action. It has four oars and a single mast and can carry up to 8 Medium passengers.
B6. Officers’ Quarters: This tidy cabin has two portholes to allow light and fresh air to enter. A hefty trap door sits in the floor, leading to the middle deck (area B8).
B6a. Officers’ Storage: These two storerooms are both unlocked and hold the lockers and personal effects of those pirates berthed in the officers’ quarters (area B6).
B7. Captain’s Cabin: The rear wall of this luxurious (by pirate ship standards) cabin holds four gilt-framed windows that rise the full height of the chamber. The cabin contains a luxurious hammock, a dining table and chairs, and a few chests and bookshelves. A trap door opens directly into the cook’s cabin below (area B11).
B7a. Captain’s Storage: ??
B8. Middle Deck and Armory: The middle hold of the Man’s Promise is currently empty, though the weapon racks along the walls only need to be restocked to turn this hold into a working armory. Steps behind the foremast descend into the main hold (area B12). A second set of stairs against the aft bulkhead lead up to the main deck (area B1).
B9. Crew Berths: Ten supporting pillars behind the mainmast fill this spacious compartment, with room for over a score of hammocks.
B10. Galley: This sizable galley contains a large stove against the aft bulkhead and a single porthole in the starboard wall. In one corner, a derrick stands next to a trap door that opens into the secure storage below (area B13). The door is locked with a huge, good padlock. It takes a full round to raise or lower the line on the derrick, which can lift up to 200 pounds of cargo. The galley has been stocked for the journey to Port Peril, but the food is scant at best. B11. Cook’s Cabin: This filthy cabin contains two dirty hammocks and a single porthole in the port wall. A rickety ladder ascends to a trap door in the ceiling, leading to the captain’s cabin (area B7).
B12. Main Hold: Essentially empty after being looted by the crew of the Wormwood, the main hold of the Man’s Promise contains a large water barrel secured to the starboard wall and Magilla and his cage. Stairs behind the foremast lead up to the middle deck (area B8), while a trap door near the mainmast leads to the bilges, which contains two bilge pumps, forward and aft.
B13. Secure Storage: ??
The Murderin' Murder
Colossal ship
Squares 3 (30 ft. by 90 ft.) Cost 10,000 gp
DEFENSE AC 2; Hardness 5
hp 1,620 (sails 360)
Base Save +6
OFFENSE Maximum Speed 90 ft. (wind); Acceleration 30 ft.
CMB +8; CMD 18
Ramming Damage 8d8
STATISTICS Propulsion wind or current
Sailing Check Profession (sailor)
Control Device steering wheel
Means of Propulsion 90 squares of sails (three masts)
Crew 20
Decks 2 or 3
Cargo/Passengers 150 tons/120 passengers
* Sandara Quinn
* "Fishguts" Ambrose Kroop, the cook
* Rosie Cusswell, Halfling fiddler
* “Ratline” Rattsberger, a rat-faced halfling with long arms and three missing fingers
* Conchobhar Turlach Shortstone, a gnomish man with a particularly foppish hat and an eyepatch
* Barefoot Samms Toppin, a shoeless blonde human woman
* Jack Scrimshaw, a young human lad talented at scrimshaw
^ Crimson “Cog” Cogward, A tall man missing an ear (half hidden under a bandana)
^ Bikem Mendaz, Rahadoumi sailor who came over from the Man's Promise
^ Khanesh, Rahadoumi sailor who came over from the Man's Promise
- Jaundiced Jape, half-orc with yellowish skin
- Fipps Chumley, Fat human with a shaved head
- Aretta Bansion, a human woman with big ears, who ratted out Sicarius for not drinking his rum rations
- Owlbear
- Tam “Narwhal” Tate, a dwarf with a large, ugly nose
- Maheem, a big Rahadoumi man
- Slippery Syl Lonegan, A whip-thin brunette with close-cropped hair and a scar down one cheek that begins just below her eye
* 5 redshirts
Gaining crew:
At some point, the PCs will no doubt be interested in acquiring more sailors for their crew. They may do so at any port or settlement, or upon the successful capture of another ship, by making a DC 20 Bluff (to trick sailors on board), Diplomacy (to convince people to join the crew), or Intimidate (to press-gang new crew) check. Each such check takes 1 full day, and a successful check results in 1d4+2 new crew members for the PCs’ ship.
Unlike many other NPC hirelings, pirate crews do not have a daily wage. Instead, they are paid shares of the ship’s plunder taken in acts of piracy, when that plunder is sold. Rather than try to recreate the complexity of share amounts for historical pirate crews, the PCs should simply deduct 1 point of plunder from their total each time they attempt to sell plunder. This represents the shares of the plunder paid out to the crew, regardless of the actual amount of gold received for its sale.
Plunder:
Plunder is one of the subsystems S&S uses. I'm leaving out some details for the moment, but here's the relevant parts for you:
Plunder is an approximation of valuable but non-useful cargo. One point of plunder is worth about 1,000 gp, and takes up 10 tons of cargo capacity, unless otherwise noted.
There’s a difference between plunder and the gold pieces in a pirate’s pocket. While gold doubloons and fabulous jewelry can be plunder, pirates are rarely lucky enough to encounter a ship with a hold full of such treasures. Typically, there are trade goods, foodstuffs, spices, and valuables of a more mundane sort. Such takes can fetch significant prices, but for scallywags more interested in looting than the specifics of what they loot, this system provides a way for parties to track their plunder without getting bogged down by lists of commonplace cargo and their values down to the copper piece.
Plunder means more than five wicker baskets, a barrel of pickled herring, three short swords, and a noble’s outfit; it’s a generalization of a much larger assortment of valuable but generally useless goods (and serves to help avoid bookkeeping on lists of random goods). Rather, a cargo ship carrying construction timber, dyed linens, crates of sugar, animal furs, and various other goods might equate to 4 points of plunder.
Characters can buy plunder if they wish, though those who do so risk becoming known as merchants rather than pirates.
Value of Plunder: Plunder is valuable for two reasons: In general, 1
point of plunder is worth approximately 1,000 gp, whether it be for a crate full of valuable ores or a whole cargo hold full of foodstuffs. Regardless of what the plunder represents, getting the best price for such goods is more the domain of merchants than pirates, and just because cargo might be worth a set amount doesn’t necessarily mean the PCs can get that much for it. Exchanging 1 point of plunder for gold requires a PC to spend 1 full day at port and make an applicable skill check. Regardless of how much plunder the PCs have, one PC must spend a full day trading to exchange 1 point of plunder for gold. The PC trading also must be the same PC to make the skill check to influence the trade. The larger the port and the higher the skill check, the better price the PCs can get for their plunder.
At smaller ports there’s little chance of getting more than half value for plunder, unless a PC can employ a skill to make a better deal. At larger ports, the chances of finding a buyer willing to pay a reasonable price for cargo increases, and PCs can still employ skill checks to make even more lucrative bargains. PCs seeking to win a higher price for their plunder can make one of the following skill checks: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, or any applicable Profession skill, like Profession (merchant). A poor result on a skill check can reduce the value of plunder. If the PCs are not satisfied with the price they are offered for their plunder, they need not take it, but a day’s worth of effort is still expended. They can try for a better result the next day.
Infamy and Disrepute:
Some pirates only do what they do for the promise of wealth, being little more than brigands of the waves. Others do it for the reputation, fearsomeness, and power that comes with numbering among the most notorious scallywags on the seas. That’s where Infamy comes in. Numerous times over the course of their careers, the PCs -— as members of a single pirate crew -- will have the opportunity to recount their victories, boast of the treasures they’ve won, and spread tales of their outrages. All of this has the potential to win the PCs Infamy, but that alone isn’t the goal.
At the most basic level, infamous pirates have the potential to pressgang unfortunates into their crews, get repairs to their ships in nearly any port, and win discounts from merchants they’d prefer not to rob. As a crew becomes more and more infamous, however, its legend stretches across the seas, allowing it to garner support from other pirate lords, win more favorable vessels, and even rally whole pirate armadas under its flag. This system allows characters to track how their legend is growing over the course of the campaign, along with providing them tangible rewards for building appropriately piratical reputations.
Infamy and Disrepute Scores: In a method similar to the tracking system for Fame and Prestige Points detailed in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Pathfinder Society Field Guide, a party has two related scores, Infamy and Disrepute. Infamy tracks how many points of Infamy the crew has gained over its career -- think of this as the sum of all the outlandish stories and rumors about the PCs being told throughout the Shackles. Infamy rarely, if ever, decreases, and reaching certain Infamy thresholds provides useful benefits and allows others to be purchased using points of Disrepute. Infamy is limited by actual skill, however, and a group’s Infamy score can never be more than 4 × the PCs’ average party level.
Disrepute is a spendable resource—a group’s actual ability to cash in on its reputation. This currency is used to purchase impositions, deeds others might not want to do for the group, but that they perform either to curry the group’s favor or to avoid its disfavor. This score will likely fluctuate over the course of a pirate crew’s career and can go as high as the group’s Infamy (but never higher), and at times might even drop to zero. This isn’t something to worry about, though, as a low Disrepute score has no bearing on a crew’s overall reputation—on the contrary, it merely means they’re making use of the benefits their status has won them. However, it does represent that even the PCs’ legend can only take them so far, and if a group’s Disrepute drops lower than the Disrepute price of a benefit, the crew must spend time building its Disrepute back up before it can purchase that benefit.
Winning Infamy and Disrepute: A few things are required to gain Infamy: an audience, a deed to tell about, and a flair for storytelling. Proof of the group’s deed in the form of plunder doesn’t hurt either.
To gain Infamy, the PCs must moor their ship at a port for 1 full day, and the PC determined by the group to be its main storyteller must spend this time on shore carousing and boasting of infamous deeds. This PC must make either a Bluff, Intimidate, or Perform check to gauge the effectiveness of her recounting or embellishing. The DC of this check is equal to 15 + twice the group’s average party level (APL), and the check is referred to as an Infamy check. If the character succeeds at this check, the group’s Infamy and Disrepute both increase by +1 (so long as neither score is already at its maximum amount). If the result exceeds the DC by +5, the group’s Infamy and Disrepute increase by +2; if the result exceeds the DC by +10, both scores increase by +3. The most a party’s Infamy and Disrepute scores can ever increase as a result of a single Infamy check is by 3 points. If the PC fails the Infamy check, there is no change in her group’s Infamy score and the day has been wasted.
Plunder and Infamy: Plunder can modify a PC’s attempt to gain Infamy in two ways. Before making an Infamy check for the day, the party can choose to spend plunder to influence the result -- any tale is more believable when it comes from someone throwing around her wealth and buying drinks for the listeners. Every point of plunder expended adds a +2 bonus to the character’s skill check to earn Infamy. The party can choose to spend as much plunder as it wants to influence this check—even the most leaden-tongued pirate might win fabulous renown by spending enough booty.
Additionally, if a PC fails an Infamy check, the party can choose to spend 3 points of plunder to immediately reroll the check. The party may only make one reroll attempt per day, and spend the plunder even if the second attempt fails -- some people just aren’t impressed no matter how much loot you throw at them.
Spending Disrepute: A group’s Disrepute can be spent to buy beneficial effects called impositions, though some impositions might only be available in certain places -— such as at port—or might have additional costs—like forcing a prisoner to walk the plank. Spending Disrepute to purchase an imposition requires 1 full day unless otherwise noted. When Disrepute is spent, the group’s Disrepute score decreases by the price of the imposition, but its Infamy (and, thus, the group’s Infamy threshold) remains the same.
Daytime Ship Actions
Each day you can take one "ship action" from the following list:
* Work Diligently: Gain a +4 bonus on any one check for a job’s daily task
* Influence: Make normal checks for a job’s daily task and attempt to influence a single fellow sailor, getting to know them and trying to get them on your side. You can do so using Bluff (to pretend to be friendly), Diplomacy (to be genuine), or Intimidate (to frighten them into submission). You can also try a DC 15 Diplomacy check to gather information or a DC 15 Sense Motive check to learn more about your shipmates to help you determine how you can win their friendship.
* Sneak: Make normal checks for a job’s daily task and briefly explore one area of the ship (the PC can make a single Perception check or other skill check with no chance of detection)
* Shop: Take a –2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and visit the quartermaster’s store
* Shirk: Take a –2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 10 on a single Perception check or other skill check, but must make a check to avoid being discovered.
Nighttime ship Actions
You can take 1 ship action each night. You can also attempt to take up to two additional ship actions during the middle watch in the dead of night (any nighttime ship action marked with an asterisk), but to do so you must make a successful Constitution check (DC 10, +4 per extra ship action taken) or be fatigued for the next day.
* Sleep: Go to bed early and sleep through the night (automatically recover from fatigue)
* Gamble: Play or gamble on a game of chance or pirate entertainment
* Entertain: Make one Perform check to entertain the crew
* Influence*: Attempt to influence a single NPC
* Sneak*: Take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 20 on a single Perception check or other skill check, but risks being discovered.
* Steal*: Attempt to open a locked door or locker but risk being discovered.
The Wormwood Crew
* Captain Barnabas Harrigan
* Cut-Throat Grok, the quartermaster: Friendly to Cargas and Nim
- “Caulky” Tarroon, a slender, attractive dark-haired woman
