TINH: What else is on the Blue Nixie?


Savage Tide Adventure Path


My party likes to ask me questions I'm not prepared for, so I want to make sure I know how to describe the various rooms on the Blue Nixie. (I hate to just answer with something like, "nothing you'd be interested in".)

I'm guessing the Sail Locker and the Chain Locker are just storage rooms. Is there anything else that would be kept there? Does the anchor drop from a window in the chain locker? Is the window big enough for a small or medium pc to crawl through, in case they insist on climbing up the anchor?

A brig is just like a prison cell, isn't it? (It just seems like an unusual place for it, right next to the crew quarters.)

What would be in a Bilge Access? I'm not even sure if I understand what a bilge is.

Thanks in advance,
jamie


The bilge is the bottom of the ship it usually will have ballast (rocks and stuff), and is often at least partly flooded, as its where any water that comes over the deck or leaks through tiny holes will drain down to. Most likely a crawl space at best. Smugglers might hide loot down there as it is likely to be overlooked except on the most extensive search of the ship. A bilge pump is used to empty water out of the bilge, and needs to be worked especially during storms.

I'm surprised the Blue Nixie has a brig, it would more likely be a strong room, where you could keep weapons and valuables safe. Weapons are often locked away on sailing vessels to lessen the chance of an armed mutiny.

Chain locker is where the anchor chain is stored, and you might find yourself locked in there as punishment, its dark, damp and oily and occasionally deadly as the heavy chain can easily move and crush someone inside it. Usually the anchor chain runs up to deck level and then drops down into the chain locker from a hole in the deck. So climbing up the anchor chain would put you on the top of the forecastle not in the chain locker. The hole would most likely be too small to drop down.


Thanks, that'll help.

-jamie


Sail Locker = Storage space for sails, often enough spare ones too, cordage, blocks and tackles, and corresponding tools (sewing equipment, grease, paint, tar, brushes etc.). Wonderful place to set on fire (accidentally or not )... That's a point I always felt awkward about with that adventure, since the Blue Nixie is supposed to still be around later in the STAP... if it gets put on fire here ( as the plot proposes ), there is little chance that it will still be around. Very little indeed.

chain locker = Storage area for the anchor chain(s), which in any case on a ship of the Blue Nixie's size (and crew) would be an anachronism, since ther wouldn't be enough manpower to handle it. Probably a very heavy hemp (tarred) heifer or rope, slimy and encrusted with clamshells/whatever. Very little place there, and as pointed out, usually not really accessible from outside, as the rope is passed through a narrow fitting, to minimize leakage. Also, ther would be very little reason for the Locker's door to have a latch/whatever on the inside.

Bilge = lowest part of the hull, used to collect leakage and spills, in order to make it more accessible for a pump. Usually also filled with encrusted ballast (stones, shingle for example or bars of a non-corroding metal ), which stabilizes and trims the vessel. On this, one _might_ store well packaged cargo, but usually there are some beams above to facilliate this.

If characters are looking for logical entry points other then by the deck, there might be some stowage hatches close to the waterline at the stern, usually employed to bring aboard smaller cargo and items without hauling them over the side. Similar to gunports (basically square doors swinging upwards ), and might be opened from outside or open anyway to facilliate ventilation.

Besides, the "Blue Nixie", as well as the "Sea Wyvern" are drawn up and build in such a way as to make anyone with some maritime experience laugh hard. They are, in the worst sense, pure fantasy ships =)


uzagi wrote:
That's a point I always felt awkward about with that adventure, since the Blue Nixie is supposed to still be around later in the STAP... if it gets put on fire here ( as the plot proposes ), there is little chance that it will still be around. Very little indeed.

Have you seen how difficult it is to actually burn wood in D&D? Assuming the PC's start to tackle any fire soon enough it's unlikely to more than superficial damage.


Kudos, DMaple! We played it last night. Of course they didn't go through it with a fine tooth comb, since I was prepared, but they split up to find the captian's quarters faster. One of the non-sailor PCs checked the bilge access, so I described that there was a pump and some water pooled in the room, and one of the other players recognized it as a bilge access. So your description was just what I needed!

Thanks,
Jamie


DMaple wrote:
uzagi wrote:
That's a point I always felt awkward about with that adventure, since the Blue Nixie is supposed to still be around later in the STAP... if it gets put on fire here ( as the plot proposes ), there is little chance that it will still be around. Very little indeed.
Have you seen how difficult it is to actually burn wood in D&D? Assuming the PC's start to tackle any fire soon enough it's unlikely to more than superficial damage.

The big problem is that there are hardly any adequate rules for burning stuff and proximity ignition - fire spread, along walls and ceilings, build-up of heat inside closed quarters...

And when we (our group ) went through the "Blue Nixie" the characters did not have time to fight the fire for some minutes, since that started underdeck, an the PCs were pretty busy above decks and in the rigging, and having boarded the ship from the harbour, after a diversion on the quayside.
A deliberately caused fire under deck, after two minutes of running free.... considering how terribly well man-o-wars burned.... no chance.
And checking on what rules there are (DMG p303 - 304 ), combustible items in touch with the fire make a reflex DC 15 check or ignite..... The Nixie is an unattended object and made of rather combustible wood, hence not even getting a refelx save so basically, the fire should spread to all adjacent squares every round (upwards as well, downwards perhaps at a slower speed..... after 2 minutes, an area up to 20 sqaures distance radiating from the initial point of ignition should be on fire..... Basically that would be the entire ship..... Now lets consider burning masts tumbling down under their own load, sails raining flaming fragments over the decks, the tar of the maindeck, cordage, the interior caulking etc. catching fire and fueling the blaze.... my, oh my
And if some "rules-junky" actually proposes that wood's hardness should be taken into account against the fire's damage, or that fire did only reduced damge against it along the "damage to items rules"..... *evil GM grin*

And we haven't even started to think about the resultant heavy smoke from the fire, and reignition of areas doused with a bucket of water....

With magic out of the question as a dousing/fire-fighting resource at level 1-3, I think it would take more than the usual 4-6 characters armed with the odd bucket to stop _that_ fire, ahem blaze..... YMMV.


uzagi wrote:
A deliberately caused fire under deck, after two minutes of running free....

It took them 20 rounds to subdue 7 CR0.5 thugs? What were they hitting them with handkerchiefs?

uzagi wrote:
With magic out of the question as a dousing/fire-fighting resource at level 1-3

Create Water - level 0 Cleric spell. 2 gallons/level

Quote:
I think it would take more than the usual 4-6 characters armed with the odd bucket to stop _that_ fire, ahem blaze..... YMMV.

Well sure if they sat about for 20 rounds with smoke rising from below then fair enough.


DMaple wrote:
uzagi wrote:
A deliberately caused fire under deck, after two minutes of running free....

It took them 20 rounds to subdue 7 CR0.5 thugs? What were they hitting them with handkerchiefs?

uzagi wrote:
With magic out of the question as a dousing/fire-fighting resource at level 1-3

Create Water - level 0 Cleric spell. 2 gallons/level

uzagi wrote:
I think it would take more than the usual 4-6 characters armed with the odd bucket to stop _that_ fire, ahem blaze..... YMMV.
Quote:


Well sure if they sat about for 20 rounds with smoke rising from below then fair enough.

Yeah, because there were a lot of shennanigans going on, with characters dropping into the water again, climbing through the rigging and the Rhagodessa breaking loose (which someone immediately likened to the "Starship-Troopers" bug".... causing some panic ).

As for "Create Water" sure, but for one it has to be created in a basin/vessel,and second, it doesn't appear like being squirted from a water hose. And at level 2, that would be 4 gallons (app. 15 litres) of water..... oh my, that would be one and a half buckets per casting. That might work on a bonfire, but on a burning ship, with the decks, sides, beams and everything in between on fire ?
Besides - just what cleric has that spell loaded ready for use in an urban setting ? Right..... Resistance, Detect Magic, Read Magic etc etc . are for more useful for the low level forays . Not to mention "Cure Minor Wounds" ...
In the situation mentioned the cleric had her hands full keeping her comrades alive and/or stabilized and fending of the thugs, especially the leader.

Community / Forums / Archive / Paizo / Books & Magazines / Dungeon Magazine / Savage Tide Adventure Path / TINH: What else is on the Blue Nixie? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Savage Tide Adventure Path