Capt. Rand Savage's page

Cap'n Savage here, I did some interesting thnngs with Plugg & Scourge from the beginning. Scourge likes Sandara, but Sandara don't like him, and the PC's are in tight with her...I made him vulnerable and gave a knifemaster a pair of kunai knives in his coat pocket when Scourge comes down to the hold to wake them on the first day...Knifemaster lets fly with said kunai and wounds the lecherous bum...who now spends his time making the PC's life hell because he was knocked down a couple notches in front of the crew...

Plugg is having his way with Caulkey Taroon, the cabin girl...making him not only a rapist, but a pedophile to boot...fear of the CAT keeps Caulkey in line, and he has already told her she will die if she tells anyone...some imagery from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has put everyone aware of Mr Plugg's exploits as our knifemaster hears her muffled screams and goes looking through the gap in the wall to her cabin..."Ripper Jack" now has a cause...and katar, kerambit, kunai, and kukri at his disposal...Mutiny, ha in the words of Iced Earth...Vengeance is Mine!!!

My playe4rs have just hit the Man's Promise and are awaiting division into 2 crews onboard 2 different ships...

It is fully my intention to play Plugg & Scourge out to their fullest potential...If you read out the entire bio in the Wormwood Mutiny, Plugg has much more potential as a recurring villain, giving him The Severe and making Master Scourge his first mate, just makes me all tingly inside.

Now think a moment and let's see what The Severe has recruited...I see wererats, lots of wererats, given either man's reputation for being underhanded and slimy....seems a natural pairing...Werewolves would be too hard to control...and were-sharks too blood thirsty...so...I believe I have a new crew to stat out...

Amongst my small group of players are my two sons...

My oldest is loud, boisterous, and oft times a little bull-headed...he chose as his character, a Kuru based barbarian with a skin-changer/wereshark heritage. STR based Intimidation rolls will be hard to beat....looking at the idea he wants to become a full were-shark and take those advantages with him means...BINGO...we have a captain.

Not to be under-appreciated my younger son is not playing a skin-changer barbarian, but a rogue-knifemaster with serious homicidal tendencies...this gives him the more deliberate role of master at arms and the kind of guy who will slit your throat whilst you sleep and have an alibi ready for later...especially onboard the Wormwood, this makes for an early contest with Scourge and Plugg. My youngest has no ambitions to be captain of any vessel, but relishes his role as silent enforcer and Intimidation through sheer guile and fearlessness...this is going to be one awesome adventure...

Avast matey...
I have actually turned the descriptions in the Player's Guide into templates and then I am in the midst of turning each ship in the Raiders on the Fever Sea into a workable sheet of it's own. I have been slowly converting every ship into a document so that it can be printed out and used as a hand out as my son's game progresses.

I use the Impervious myself and I already have a sheet for it based off of it's S&S listing. In the description of the vessel it is listed as the second ship of that design...so I expanded my own "lore" to have 2 more ships (namely the Persecutor((#1)) and the Dauntless ((#3))) these craft may or may not be around by book 6. And yes...I have the Black Pearl under Captain Barbossa sailing in the Fever Sea...Still working on the actual ship stats and information...for now, like the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie, people only believe it is a myth, and roughly spot a ship on the horizon with black sails.

It was my intention once i was completely done with all the ships in the series to post their sheets here so that others might use them

Sincerely Capt Rand Savage...

I really like the AP Skull & Shackles, but as things go, there is a lot left to be desired in the way of organization and details...I have been reading these forums for almost a year. There is a lot of good Quality stuff here, stuff that would make a special edition a lot more special than Runelords was.

Call me biased, but the descriptions of the Isles of the Shackles themselves are vague enough to call for more.

Would also love to see some reference for the Pathfinder Society modules written with Piratey themed stuff when the AP was originally published

So...come one, come all...comment please!

Capt. Rand Savage.

I took a bit of a different turn with my relationships angle onboard the Wormwood.
First, I traded Mr. Plugg, for Master Scourge when the subject of Sandara Quinn comes up. A Captain (Plugg tries to become one later as the group takes over the Man's Promise)is a little more refined, genteel type character. His evil must be sinister and in the shadows, so I turned him into "that guy", the one who wants, but cannot have Sandara, and cannot understand the message. Sandara has become involved with a tiefling player character, which drives up the tension factor, and makes a valid reason why accidents start happening to the group.

Second, Master Scourge as a lecher is weak. I made Master Scourge more into a violent animal. The brute force of the Captain's intentions and/or commands. First for Harrigan, then for Plugg, Scourge is the rod that takes measure of the crew. He is paranoid and psychotic, imagining the entire crew is about to mutiny at any moment, he cracks down hard on any infringement of the rules. He lays out punishment regularly and shows obvious favoritism amongst the crew. I found my
group actually hates him even more.

Third, I did not go into graphic scenes of violence, but I left behind evidence that females onboard are expected to be willing to capitulate with multiple members of the crew(Rosie, and Grok) Harrigan & Scourge both took their turns with Caulkey, the cabin girl, before the first week was up on the Wormwood. Finding the cabin girl shred of clothing and covered in her own blood from the hips down, was evidence enough that Scourge & Harrigan went too far. The players were wont to mutiny without the support of the rest of the crew by the 3rd session. The real play will be the upcoming session. Plugg invited a gunslinger(new player - started late)onboard out of fascination with guns...the player will find out rapidly that Plugg's fascination extends to other things as well.

I a still early in the first book of my campaign. I had a catfolk, a kuru skin-changer wereshark-kin, a elf, trying to pretend she was a sea elf, a npc grippli alchemist,, a ogre "pet" and a tiefling sorcerer. How's that for a motley crew??

Sorry 2GC...I must have misunderstood you. I had no idea you were trying to clear a whole deck full of fighting pirates and marines.

Can someone explain to me why this is so difficult? On page 29, under the heading: "Day 14: Boarding School" it gives all the circumstances of throwing the grappling hook and line to the other ship. Then I would believe it becomes an Acrobatics roll to swing across. The only adjustments necessary would be a simple DC increase of roughly 5 (from DC 15 to DC 20) if they are not swinging between ships of roughly the same size. Like a sailing ship, down to a river barge for example. Or am I over-simplifying it?

Savage

I wrote an introduction for the game that takes place at the Formidably Maid Tavern. I used the "fluff" written in the first 20 or so pages of the "Wormwood Mutiny". I first figured on the idea that the players would want to come back to the Formidably Maid, either for vengeance, or possibly to confront Capt. Harrigan again later after they mutiny. One of my players has the full scale map of Port Peril, so I picked an "L-shaped" building in the western, crescent shaped island that is obviously the poorer section of the city (poorer = more wooden buildings). I also looked for something close to the docks, where the Wormwood could be waiting. I chose a position one dock north of the "h" shaped dock.

The "fluff" refers to an attempted attack/possible gang-rape on Sandara Quinn by Master Scourge, and the "tagget oil" poisoning. I opted to have this scene unfold in front of the players while they are taking in the evening meal and entertainment. I also changed the antagonist to Mr. Plugg, instead of Master Scourge. The characters arrive and the tavern is nearly full with only a few tables empty towards the middle of the room. With few open seats the players are forced to sit close together. Sandara Quinn comes in alone, on shore leave, attempting to get an evening meal. Mr. Plugg sees her come in, and follows her across the room and proceeds to sit down and "solicit" an evening together. Sandara immediately repulsed, says no. This reaction makes Mr. Plugg become agitated and violent, intending to force her out of the tavern. The players are inadvertently invited to intervene to save/rescue Sandara. This brings Captain Harrigan and Master Scourge to back up Mr. Plugg since he is outnumbered. This chivalrous act gives Sandara a reason to be helpful when the players end up onboard, as well as a reason for Harrigan, Plugg and Scourge to be adversaries. Sandara slips away before they can erupt into a fight, and the bar keeper offers a round to everyone in order to keep things from getting out of hand. Other crew members (the press-gang) emerge from the crowd and slip the tagget oil into the food and drink of the players. As things calm down, the players feel sleepy and start to slide into unconsciousness one by one, waking up the next day onboard the Wormwood.

It was not a long encounter and it gave the group an opportunity to introduce their characters, and unite them in a common goal early on. This also makes Harrigan, Plugg, and Scourge into instant enemies, and supplied me with a ready made reason for them to be mean and threatening to the players.

Just my take on it....Savage

Dear James Jacobs,

I am curious...How long does an adventure path take to develop? When did work on Wrath of the Righteous begin? How much input does the public/player community have in this kind of project?

I ask as I wrote my own homebrew on this very subject matter. My players started at level 7, and I hope to take them to 20 so they are sufficient to face Baphomet..We are actually in our 7th session here in Cincinnati...I was actually gonna send in a proposal and then 6 months into my game, you announctd this AP. I wrote everything to fit into Paizo's timelines, storylines etc. Except my stuff is far more world changing than the preliminary facts given thus far.

I am really interested in your answers..Thanks for your time and consideration...

Mike