well my group completed the first little bit of the savage tide adventure, they managed to sneak into the boat and into the capt. cabin, and subdue vark, well until the orc took his head off. well they dispatched the pirates with some difficulty, and the changling managed to adopt vark's appereance and concinced his "lover" that he was pretty much drunk with power, killed off the crew and told her to go back and tell everyone what he'd done, and that "he's a force to be reckoned with". then the ragodessa was released and everybody freaked..i guess i described it well enuf to even panick the level 1 ogre magi. well long story short they bailed while the ship was still smoldering, leaving the ragodessa on the deck. my question is, should i let the nixie burn, or make it so the fire, just kinda petered out, i mean they do say the chick that lit the fire was a crappy fire starter and all, and if i do let it burn, what kinda repremand should the PC's get? after all that pouch of platinum peices is kinda a moot point now that the ship is sunk right?
I would save it at least partially as it will be needed later. You can have L be less rich (mimize the pay she offers) or bring on more investors (two avners? *ack*) This would represent the extra money fixing/replacing the ship cost. It may even take longer for them to get to the next part of the adventure while she rebuilds her ship. Gives PCs time to explore Sasserine and the Amedio jungle or even plant more rumors about an accidental savage tide going off in some other major city. ymmv
No advice, put the title made me laugh. Ah, players.
well i guess having the boat suffer damage is reason enough to explain WHY avner is there.
That is the best thread title I've seen in a while. Someone suggested having Avner finance the boat portion of the expedition, thus making him more of a pain in the rear. If I wouldn't have been past that point when the suggestion was made I may have used it.
LOL you can't blame them entirely--I think you must've done as good a job as I did of having the rhagodessa terrify the pcs. (I had it lurking in the shadows as a vaguely moving collection of legs and flashes of gleaming carapace--as they tried to take a closer look it JUMPED at them, crashing against the bars and chittering)
I'd suggest having it damaged but recoverable. Have Lavinia jump for joy all the more at getting her money--say that part of it will go towards repairing her ship.
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I scared my players with the rhagodessa by letting it punch up through the floorboards from the hold below - the PC down there got a glimpse of it thru the resulting hole and was impressed!
It'd be OK to let the fire die out - you wouldn't want the PCs thinking they could burn pirate ships down to the waterline just by spending a round or two knocking over a lantern - but I'd let it burn to teach the party a lesson. My group spent a bunch of time tracking down Larissa's missing ring, even before going after Verik's ring on the ship. I decided Vanthus had arranged for Brissa to steal the ring from his mother while she was at the theater, as part of his robbery of the family vault. The PCs then tried to find out where Larissa had gone to get the ring replaced: I said it was in Cauldron, and local jewelers wouldn't touch the job since the ring is essentially a Seeker secret decoder ring & no one wants to get in trouble with the Seekers by making unauthorized copies.
So here's what I'd do in your case:
1) The Blue Nixie burns and sinks. The PCs might dive down to get the ring, in which case I'd run an encounter with the ixixtachitls from the Lotus Dragon hideout. Or they might pursue other leads in town, which I'd have lead them to Parrot Island.
2) The Jade Ravens come back from Cauldron with Larissa's duplicate ring: also they find the hint for the vault combination. The Jade Ravens mock the PCs for letting the other ring go into Davy Jones' locker.
3) When the PCs get into the vault, they find Vanthus has taken all the gold. (Why would he leave any behind?) What is left is a ledger of various favors owed to the Vanderborens (or blackmail leverage if you want a darker take on the family legacy - they are Seekers after all). Vanthus left this behind as it's of no use to him, but Lavinia (as the legitimate heir) can cash in on it. One of these assets is a ship that the Vanderborens loaned to a trade expedition, which will return just in time for Lavinia to commandeer it as a replacement for the Blue Nixie.
well heres the kicker, they acctually got the ring, they busted in thru the capt. cabin, and managed to kill Vark before he even knew they were there, they dispatched the pirates (a few escaped) the ragodessa was released by lighting the hold on fire, it made it on deck, and the PC's bolted. So i'm thinking if i allow the nixie to survive, they still gotta deal with the critter.