As written, nothing much really happens during the storms while on the Sea Wyvern. Other than a wash or roll, anybody have ideas for "encounters" to run during the storm?
* Have the crew and captain make Profession (Sailor) checks to see how much damage the Sea Wyvern takes. This might make the checks for wash/roll later in the adventure more difficult. Something like -1 to handling for every point they miss a DC 20 by. PCs can assist if they have the skill.
* Sailor gets washed overboard, could attempt a rescue.
* I imagine that all of the passengers immediately head below decks. Maybe a room in the hold is flooding? Or cargo shifts trapping another character (maybe underwater) - some STR checks to free them?
* Avner, fearing that he is about to die, forces himself on a female passenger?
* A flying monster of some sort is forced to land on the Wyvern's deck? PCs have to deal with it otherwise it imposes a penalty to the sailor checks making wash/roll more likely?
* Ship takes on water. The water will hinder the PC (Sailor) checks unless bailed.
* Avern's horse panics and breaks free?
from maritime experience, everything but Avner running amok (possible, if probably hard to stage in an intersting way ) and cargo ripping loose in the hold, smashing about would be infeasible/un-realistic ----> Deadly !.
Given the layout of the original Sea Wyvern, the only place "Thunderstrike" could be located would be up on deck unless you care to try to fit a horse through a 5'x5' hatch or down a steep stair..... which would in all likelihood make for a short crisis, as the poor equine goes swimming.....
"Crewmen swept overboard" in such conditions, where the ship itself would be hard pressed to stay afloat, and not at all maneuverable (unless you want it to immediately founder and sink - and a ship that size surviving out in the open sea in hurricane-force winds is daring/heroic assumption in the first place. ) are dead, drifting off downwind to drown, very much alone. BTW, everyone even considering working on deck will do so only tied down with (multiple) safety lines and harnesses to prevent just that from happening.
"Flying monsters landing on deck" ? Compare people being swept overboard..... anything landing on the ship, and not immediately fastened down will be swept or blown away into the sea almost immediately, e.g. on the next wave rolling over deck... Especially if it is a lightly build flying monster.
As for water in the hold.... if a sufficiently large amounts of water (enough to have cargo float around in the hold) enters the ship, it will simply destabilize, develop a list, run out of control and sink. At least, that is what happens in reality when a ship looses sufficient buoyancy and a stable center of gravity.
That said - this is a fantasy RPG., but your players might just react to the situation in a realistic way....
Some ideas :
Have some aquatic monster (Sea Hag ?) terrorize the crew and group sheltering belowdecks.... Perhaps it claims to have put a malignat curse on the ship and until they fulfill its demands ( some sentient sacrifice ? ), it will not lift the curse... Which may be real or not.... But the mental pressure might lead to brutal infighting among the people aboard
St. Elmo's fire : static energy plays havoc in the masttops, producing all sorts of weird auras (can't touch metal anymore or risk taking painful/lethal jolts of electricity... a bit overdone, but this is fantasy..), pronouncing doom and or evil portents ----> superstitious crew-members start doing all sort of harebrained stuff ... Or maybe some real elemental creatures ( elementites, elementals or mephits ?) play in the rigging and make the storm worse ? Driving them off could be harder than anticipated.
Ghosts from the Deep haunt the ship, calling her and the crew down to join them in their watery grave, far down below. Perhaps from a ship of the same name or some vessel the Sea Wyvern sank when she was still a pirate craft ? Fear plays havoc among everyone aboard the vessel, and panicky people open hatches and need to be stopped before flooding the ship or simply hurling themselves overboard ?. Maybe someone brought the malignant wrath of the sea-deity onto the vessel by some blasphemous or disrespectful remark or deed ? Say by killing an albatross or a porpoise ? And now the ship has to pay for it.... but does it have to be the entire ship that needs to go down to appease the deity ?
Or they see a ghostship sail by, supernaturally unaffected by the storrm. Stalking them ? Or a vision of their own fate....
For some non-fanatastic crisis, have some of the stern (rear) windows of the upperdeck cabins be smashed in and their contents (the PCs equipment ?) threatened to be swept overboard. Or have the mainsailsrip apart and the PCs heroically take to the tops to hoist another sail while being whipped around by gusts of 60 mph and more. Without a sail, and hence some propulsion, the ship will become unsteerable and founder... so, this really becomes a life and death situation
That is some great stuff uzagi.
Depending upon how much time you wish to invest in the stormy weather elements of your group's trip to the Isle of Dread as to how much you want to play up this element of the campaign.
Well, and of course how much steam you have left in your GM'ing boiler when you get to this part too ... :)
While for me the written material is chocked full of plentiful challenges for the players, it's your gig, so your call.
Uzagi's been reading the story of Jonah, it would seem. . .
Whatever the size of the hatch on the map of the Sea Wyvern--it ought to be able to fit a horse--fairly standard cargo for long sea voyages to newly colonized places. If you widen the hatch to 7x7, that gives you nearly a 10 foot diagonal to squeeze the horse (hoisted in a sling) down the hatch, without any appreciable change to the layout of the ship.
If I ever start a new STAP campaign, I'd probably run two or three of these incidents as the storm builds, to crescendo the excitement and tension. You don't want to make running aground and the combat with the mashers anti-climactic, though.
I think I'd also try to pace things so that you end one session with the demise of the Mother of All, then start the next session with ominous signs of the rising tempest. You could stretch the storm through an entire playing session, or you could try to have the battle against the mashers be a mid-point in the session, followed by a pizza break when the ship finally runs aground on the beach--at any event, picking up with the battle against the Tyrannosaurus on the beach should be a great way to infuse energy into the second half or the next session.
Here’s what I’ve come up with for running the storm:
There’s a chance for the Sea Wyvern to suffer a roll or wash (50/50 on each) on a DC15 Profession (Sailor). Let’s call this a “flounder” check. This is listed as a DC15 in the module and the check is made by the captain (Amelia is +11, can take a 10 = 21).
The Sea Wyvern takes a crew of 7 to function effectively. Apply -4 if less than a full crew. Apply another -4 is the crew is less than 4. PCs can fill out missing crew if they have the skill. If there is more than 7 crew (PCs are helping), let each member after 7 attempt a Sailor check to aid another for the captain.
For safety reasons as mentioned above, the crew may want to be tied in. This prevents a person from being washed overboard but makes their profession check more difficult. Apply a -4 to the profession check for anyone tied in (a single -4 to the captain if the crew is tied in, a -4 to aid another checks). A tied in character fails a balance/str check during a wash/roll if they roll a 1 (their line snaps).
Secondly, as the storm rages, the Sea Wyvern takes some damage - sails rip, lines break, the ship takes on water, etc. For each Flounder check, the Sea Wyvern takes 2d6 of damage to the ship. The amount of damage is lowered by the amount the captain exceeds the DC15 check. The first 6 points of this are minor damage that can be repaired during the storm - Mend can fix lines, Lower Water purges water, etc. Lower this damage by the level of the spell. Craft checks can lower this damage this damage as well - DC15 base and each point above the 15 lowers the damage by 1. Damage over 6 is “permanent” damage that can only be repaired after the storm. Any damage that doesn’t get repaired is applied to the next flounder check.
Example
Amelia is +11, takes a 10 for a 21. The crew is tied in so -4 = 17 but one PC is a sailor and makes the Aid Another DC14 (since the PC is tied in as well), which gives a 19 for the first Flounder check. There’s no roll or wash.
The ship though takes 10 points of damage on the 2d6 roll. Having beat the original DC by 4, this is reduced to a 6 = all temporary damage. The PCs make some craft checks and a couple of spells over the next hour reducing that temporary damage to 2. The next Flounder check is made at -2 for this damage.
The Storms
As written, the first storm has no Flounder checks. I’d add two checks for this storm. For the second storm, there is 4 checks before the reef, a check to get off the reach (with the same rules), and then 1d6 checks afterwards.
Spicing Things Up
For each Flounder check, I’m throwing in a “random event” to spice things up. Each of these hopefully gives the PCs something to do during the storm. Each event has a chance to give a penalty to the next Flounder check so they should be run before the Flounder checks.
1) Thunderstrike panics and breaks loose from his stall. He begins kicking the hold walls, letting in water. A DC20 Handle Animal calms him down else a -2 on next Sailor check.
2) A bolt of lightning strikes near the ship knocking a sailor from the rigging (and his line breaks if needed). He hits the yardarm on the way down and then gets stuck in the rigging. The PCs have two rounds to get to him (can’t be tied in) before he falls into the sea.
3) A Wyvern, too tied to fly, lands on the front of the ship to rest. It can be convinced to fly off if brought below half hit points. The wyvern will remain at the front of the ship, it won’t hunt down people making ranged attacks (at -4 due to the storm). If it takes more than three rounds to drive it off, the next Flounder check is at -2 since the crew can’t reach lines they need to.
4) A line comes loose so that a sail is not where it should be. A climb into the rigging at DC20 and Use Rope at DC15 will secure it otherwise a -2 on the next Flounder check.
Nice list of ideas , though I would not consider the storm a "non-stressful" situation and hence allow a character or NPC to take "10" for any checks during that.
The situation is pretty much as dangerous as they come - and having experienced firsthand how viscious a "normal" gale (Beaufort 9, much less than the Beaufort 11 suggested in SWW ) can onboard a 500' ferry in the North Sea - I even find myself missing situational modifiers for the skill checks hard to believe. Your assumptions certzainly seem on the mark, if not even rather "benevolent"
But with everyone aboard be clinging on for sheer life as not to be washed/tumbled/blown overboard..... take "10" in that ?
I guess not....