I've kind of railroaded you along there, but the combats that remained, for the most part, would have been pretty boring. You've already dealt with the most difficult battle this area has to offer.
If you'd rather I didn't hand-wave stuff like that in the future, speak up and if the majority would like to play them out, we'll do that.
There are a couple items of interest still to wrap up ...
The locathah matriarch is still in the cave with her eggs.
There is the iron-bound chest and the stone chest. The iron-bound chest can easily be moved to the Siren. The stone chest, not-so-much. Although between you and me (don't tell anyone); There's nothing in it.
The narrow crevice that drew Marisan to it.
Let me know which of those you'd like to deal with and how so. For reference, you've got a little less than an hour left on the water breathing enchantment.
Let’s bring the chest to the siren and escort the locathah out safely. Then we should rest and return with fresh water breathing to explore the crevice.
Good plan!
Regarding loot.
I assume no-one objects to us using the figurehead and the captain's locker? They're pretty valuable, but incredibly useful and I think the benefits are well worth 7.5k each in gold. Also the fan tokens, but that's pocket change.
I'm going to fill in the rest of the loot list now. As it stands we're looking at over 12K each so far. :)
There's also some very good items in there like a belt of STR and headband of CHA. I didn't read carefully enough to see if anyone has claimed them, so if you have please shout or just add it onto the spreadsheet.
Working a 12 hour day, tomorrow I will have my new spell list attached to my character page. If needed just state what what level spell is being converted into healing energy.
Ugh, good luck and stay sane as much as possible, Mutt.
Dony could take the belt of strength to offset the weight of the armor. Tessa doesn't have an amulet yet, so maybe the amulet of natural armor to her? Slippers of spider climbing are awesome. Polli can levitate so doesn't need it though so won't suggest someone else to claim it.
Polli would like the hand mirror, if possible.
Polli/Dom on first watch. (8pm-midnight or so)
Val and Marisan can watch together or have NPC's depending on how awkward it is. ;) (Midnight to 4am)
Tessa/Harmony on last. (4am too 8)
It's a long watch rotation but does allow everyone to get enough sleep, since we're not a military ship always in a hurry we can do that :D
I'll stand watch with Polli and Dom, and Marisan can have an NPC (if the captains approve). That's mostly not about avoiding awkwardness with Marisan- Polli and Dom both have terrible perception and they've had two incidents during their watches in the past (and iirc have said they don't want to be alone on watch together anymore).
Awkwardness? Whatever do you mean? :)
But yes, Val and I still need to talk at some point. Marisan has been waiting for Val to approach her. :P
Thee is a reason i put them on first watch. But yes Val with them is likely a good thing. :D
I'm not sure how much you read Val's thoughts but she was pretty hurt when Marisan left her on the deck to chase Tessa after that argument. She decided to accept that their relationship was purely physical and only about having fun together and kind of wrote off any emotional aspect (which is why she stopped using her pet name for Marisan). Now that the fun is over she's probably not ever going to approach Marisan unless something came up to prompt her to do so.
edit: curse my slow typing! And, yes, I wouldn't dream of trying to separate those two, but figured an extra pair of eyes might be particularly in order just now.
Well, then due to misunderstanding and lack of communication on both sides, it is likely the rift will remain. :(
I kind of suspected that, unless other crew members meddle, it might.
Polli doesn't meddle. She might snap at you both at one point or another if it gets bad, but not meddle.
Harmony knows but wont interfere unless it threatens the running of the ship. Splitting them up is easy enough and often useful anyway...
Donomsail won't be seeing it as meddling. She would see it as helping frienfs same as they helped her. ;)
This description reminds me of a movie I saw with my ex once. Verrrry interesting.
Gotta be said, if I had a better idea of our surroundings then there's no way either the Siren or the Sea Witch would still be here... anchoring under a tree canopy in a ship is a terrible idea.
I blame the GM for lack of description! :P
I thought the description was pretty complete. However, that's from a 'know-all' perspective of having read the source material many times.
If other folk feel that it should have been repeated or wasn't clear, let me know and we'll retcon this. :)
Polli is not a sailor, but more importantly I gave it no thought what so ever.
I remembered the canopy and the suspiciously deep water from the original post. I thought the whole point of using a potion to fix the rudder last night instead of doing it in the morning was to pull out of the cove, but Val’s also not the type to second-guess the captains’ orders (unless there’s a clear and present danger) so if they didn’t order us out I wouldn’t have made a fuss. Plus, it’s a little late to retcon now.
Sorry for absence! Too many games, not enough time and I've fallen behind this last week.
I'm participating in Paizocon all next week with multiple games a day, so next week won't be much better. Please ding me on discord if I'm holding things up and I'll get a post in soonest.
So, just verifying that the plan is to head back down into the tunnels and examine the crevice that was discovered?
Yes sir. Taking tools from the ship this time if we feel we need to break through the rock. Polli will cast 2 of the water breathing spells to start with when we are at the water, giving us 4 hours each.
Very well. I'll have a post up tomorrow morning. If there are any other preparations you'd like to make before then, let me know.
I will have spells prepped early in the a.m. It is my day off so I should be able to stay fairly on top of things.
So, I asked Donm to teach me about prayers and magic to set up taking some levels in inquisitor, but since we flew through 6th level so quickly I don't feel right doing that yet. Taking slayer 7 now, and hoping for inquisitor 1 next level.
+1 BAB, +8 hp
feat: improved 2wf
skills: +1 rank to everything I had except for climb and swim; first rank in both bluff and intimidate
other: can now use studied target as a swift action, and add the bonus to intimidate and stealth
Love me some inquisitor archer. :)
Time for a new discussion. :)
You're now all 7th level and one of the things that opens up is the Leadership feat. I stated in the recruitment that I would be allowing it and I still am. However, I'd like to make some of my expectations known regarding this - often abused - feat.
It's very common for the cohort (and followers) that the feat introduces to simply become a magic-item factory or something similar and I feel that I would like to see more than that from using the feat.
Harmony has put forth that she'd like to top out the crew of the Sea Hag with her cohort and followers. If no one has any IC or OOC objections, I'll allow that. With the provision that I'll be creating a table of possible events that I'll be rolling on for things to happen to the other ship and their crew that you'll find out about after-the-fact. This will include a small chance of losing both the ship and crew in a couple of different ways. I feel that that's a reasonable trade-off for it to be generating potential profits for you folks.
If Harm or anyone else is interested in taking Leadership and utilizing any of your crew as cohorts or followers, that can be discussed.
As I've said to Itzi, I'm keen on Leadership (even if my build is crying out for feats that are actually useful).
I feel that we need to address, out of character if not in, the issue of multiple ships. As I see it, it makes no sense for us to be repeatedly capturing ships, recruiting far more crew than we need, and then simply sending the crew away and selling the ships. We have a secure base, a reputation and basically everything we need to start building a pirate fleet of our own. Why wouldn't we?
OOC I know why - you can't write an AP for a fleet! So its all about the PC's in a single ship, and working with a fleet would be nightmare-ish. On top of that we have Polli and her almighty tantrum's every time the discussion comes up. ;) :P
So what's the goal here? If we genuinely want to be epic pirates (as both Harmony and Tessa want to be) then it makes sense to start taking on other ships. If the group consensus is that we just want to sail around, find treasure and have orgies, then I can leave leadership and we can collectively ignore the whole issue.
I'd like to be a Pirate Queen though. ;)
-----------------------------------------
If we do go for multiple ships, how do we handle it? Because Harmony would want to spend at least some, if not most of her time on the Sea Witch. She's not just going to send a new crew and ship off without training and indoctrination. We could split across two ships and assume that we always sail together, or just have Harmony spend the time getting back to the Shackles proper working on the Sea Witch?
[Ideally I'd like enchanted earrings like the ones Tessa and Smythe have, and maybe a cool enchanted map that shows all the ships we 'tag'. Maybe paired bottles that could transport messages between them. There's lots of magical ways we could make this work, if we're so inclined...]
Splurge over. :)
It would be a little unorthodox but, at least in the short term, we could have the two ships sail together? That would be half as effective at gathering loot but it would expand the class of vessel we could go after (and be dramatically more effective at keeping the party together). Maybe once the sea witch is running smoothly it could be left in the care of cohorts/followers?
Or, since we’re glossing over a lot of the minor plundering stuff, if we had a reliable means of communication we could split up for that stuff and any time there’s something significant meet back up?
Personally, I’d rather keep the whole party together but I get how having two captains (with greater aspirations) complicates that. Is Tessa content with being captain of the Siren if Harmony sets up a cohort as captain of the Sea Hag and takes the title commodore for herself?
I (as in John) do actually like the idea of multiple ships, dividing the officers up, and the division of officers mentioned is exactly what I'd have done...
It is Polli that does not like the idea, for the obvious reasons(Dony) and less obvious reasons(Dony's grandfather, cherry blossoms, and all of you(even Tessa)). She will get over it. Or not and she'll just be surly all the time, which is fine too. She's going to make the mirror she got from the evil fish king into an attentive mirror so she and Dony can talk a few times a day (as long as they are within 100 miles). Which will help.
And Polli is already a magic item factory. (which as always if it is annoying she can stop)
Creating an armada is a worthwhile goal and one I feel we should pursue. Dony has access to Track Ship which requires a piece of the ship and a nautical chart. From I what I have read it can be used on multiple ships (multiple castings) so we can at least keep track of the different ships that way. Polli and Dony will have to find ways to get together and I promise Dony's not going to be sleeping alone for long (I meant alone as in without Polli).
Hmm... then could Polli and Dony create effectively a permanent Track Ship item? Give me a minute on that one...
So Track Ship is measured in hrs/level, so a use activated/continuous version would be Spell Level x Caster Level x 2000. So mathematically: 2x3x2000 = 12,000gp. Worth it! Presumably ships could be added/removed simply by putting their slivers on the map etc.
Harmony will want to invest in this, assuming the crafters are willing to put the time in!
Polli loves a challenge and enjoys spending time with her project teammate so yes.
Here's to hoping Tessa will contribute some funds too then :D
Well, you do have loot to sell. Whether that'll give you enough ...
I'll move us along to the beginning of the next book later today.
When we figure out loot we’ll have to account for refitting the (soon to be) Sea Witch too.
Also... maybe this is crazy but if we are splitting up the officers between separate ships should we talk about the possibility of making secondary characters? Like, obviously, not other characters at our level, but what about potentially making (or having the option to make) maybe 3rd-4th level characters to serve on the ship we’re not on, just so we can all continue to RP with each other?
Brawler 7
HP +15*
BA +1
Feat: Toughness
Maneuver Training: Grapple
Skills
Here's my level up. HP: 60 new Domain Spell: Control Water 4th lvl spells: Blessing of Fervor/Ride the Waves Skills: +1 in Know Religion (+8)/+1 Craft Mapmaking (+5) Feat: Expert Cartographer
Also... maybe this is crazy but if we are splitting up the officers between separate ships should we talk about the possibility of making secondary characters? Like, obviously, not other characters at our level, but what about potentially making (or having the option to make) maybe 3rd-4th level characters to serve on the ship we’re not on, just so we can all continue to RP with each other?
If you're wanting to do that then it sounds like the Leadership feat is made just for you. :) I would encourage you to flesh out your Cohort and RP them as much as you'd like.
Hmmm... I already spent my 7th level feat, and had something I was hoping to do with 9th and 11th... I’ll look leadership over and decide today if I want to drop improved two weapon fighting for it.
I might switch Toughness for Leadership as well if we are going that route.
Polli can as well, she is definitely the leader type
Lol... so, now that everyone is looking at leadership... if we do take it, what would we do for our cohort’s point buy/wealth/traits/etc?
If you're taking Leadership, you can build your cohort and followers as a 15-point-buy character of the appropriate level. Wealth-by-level for their gear with the same recommendations as the initial recruitment.
I'm also going to require that their alignment be no more than one step away from your PCs.
So no Chaotic Evil Cohorts? There go my plans. ;)
Wizard 7th level
fcb additional spell
5 hit points
6 skills: intimidate, know(arcana), know(nature) +2, know(religion), spellcraft
background: craft(carpentry), linguistics(infernal)
spells: ball lightning, dimension door, absorbing barrier
feat: leadership
Swashbuckler 7
Improved initiative - Tessa wants to go first, always.
Deeds - Superior Feint, Swashbuckler's Grace, Targeted STrike, Nimble+2
Go first or come first? ;)