Lavinia has been captured, the Jade Ravens are in pursuit, and Khala has now been dealt with. Eagerly ready to being Serpents of Scuttlecove the DM starts some flavor text:
DM: The crew works feverishly on the Sea Wyvern getting it ready to sail after the Blue Nixie. Lord Meravachni...
Player 1: Hold on, who said anything about the Wyver/
Player 2: Yeah, we'll just teleport via plant back to Saserine and then take a ship to Scuttlecove.
DM: Uh, OK, let's break for the night.
So my players are going to arrive in Scuttlecove BEFORE the Jade Ravens. Heck, they'll arrive before Vanthus. Now what's a DM to do? I suppose Vanthus makes use of the Bar-lguras. He and Lavinia can be at the wreck before the players at least.
I think the Jade Ravens are totally out of the picture. It will be 30 days at least (IMC) for their ship to arrive. The PCs will have wrapped up the adventure long before then.
At least Harliss can be brought into the picture in a way better than the Dream scroll.
Any other thoughts?
Lavinia has been captured, the Jade Ravens are in pursuit, and Khala has now been dealt with. Eagerly ready to being Serpents of Scuttlecove the DM starts some flavor text:
DM: The crew works feverishly on the Sea Wyvern getting it ready to sail after the Blue Nixie. Lord Meravachni...
Player 1: Hold on, who said anything about the Wyver/
Player 2: Yeah, we'll just teleport via plant back to Saserine and then take a ship to Scuttlecove.
DM: Uh, OK, let's break for the night.So my players are going to arrive in Scuttlecove BEFORE the Jade Ravens. Heck, they'll arrive before Vanthus. Now what's a DM to do? I suppose Vanthus makes use of the Bar-lguras. He and Lavinia can be at the wreck before the players at least.
I think the Jade Ravens are totally out of the picture. It will be 30 days at least (IMC) for their ship to arrive. The PCs will have wrapped up the adventure long before then.
At least Harliss can be brought into the picture in a way better than the Dream scroll.
Any other thoughts?
Ummm, who says there's a ship in Sasserine available and or willing to sail to such an unsavory place as Scuttlecove. Hiring and convincing a ship and her crew to make this journey might take some time...
Cheers!
Ummm, who says there's a ship in Sasserine available and or willing to sail to such an unsavory place as Scuttlecove. Hiring and convincing a ship and her crew to make this journey might take some time...Cheers!
Don't think this sort of thing is going to slow them up for more then then two minutes. At this level if the PCs want to get to somewhere fast there is not much one can do to stop them.
I'd just write the Jade Ravens out of the adventure but keep an eye on the clock - there might be a really dramatic moment to have the Jade Ravens appear on the scene.
I think they'll spend a day or two looking for a ship and if that fails (kinda seems 'DM screws the players' not to find a ship eventually) - they'll resort to magic or cash in that 20k black pearl and buy their own dang ship.
Ah well, I was looking forward to offing the Ravens but this will have to do.
I think they'll spend a day or two looking for a ship and if that fails (kinda seems 'DM screws the players' not to find a ship eventually) - they'll resort to magic or cash in that 20k black pearl and buy their own dang ship.
Ah well, I was looking forward to offing the Ravens but this will have to do.
Yeah right..... but ships are like houses,usually built for a customer and only sold if someone upgrades or goes out of business, loosing the use for the vessel. There is nothing like a" used-ship" emporium. and building ships does take some weeks, even with afully stocked dockyard and available, non-ocupied workforce
Now, looking at Sasserine, it is not much of a shipbuilding industry, and hence, less reason for surplus ships being readily available. And do you really expect a merchant captain to sell his means of livelihood spontaneously, in the midst of a trading voyage with creditors and loans for his cargo outstanding and linked to the profits from his return journey ?
Not even mentioning finding a crew (!) of trustworthy sailors willing to sail into one of the most nefarious, infamous and dangeroud ports in the known world. and if you find those, maybe its time to question their motivation ?
Last, but not least, stocking and provisioning even a ready vessel will take some days, with last minute preparations, paperwork etc. unnecessary in Farshore being a legal chore in Sasserine ("you have just transfered ownership of the vessel St. Marie, previously sailing under the Flag of the Cormorant Isles ? have you filled out the proper forms, letters of ownership and registered your purchase-tax with the harbourmaster's office ? No ? Well he will be available on monday... oh, and please bring a letter of imdemnification from the previous owner and possibly his crediotrs... thank you.... Oh I see i the register that there is a claim as to her ownership being contested by a gentleman from Cauldron... I will write to my colleagues to check on the veracity of this, which might take a few days. You aren't in a hurry, are you ?" )
As for the journey.... well, while it might be shorter geographically (since when are medieval maps correct on distacnes anyway ? reliable maps are an invention of the 17th and 18th century) , the waters in between might be far more dangerous, the weather and prevailing winds much less reasonable and/or not blowing in the right direction. curreents my beset the vessel and drive it off course. Not to mention monsters, pirate ships, reefs, strange fogs or magnetical-disruptions playing haywire with your navigation (if you employ magnetic compasses in your campaign )...
Just hint at those problems while they are still in Farshore. Just claim you skipped all that stuff the last time around with the Sea wyvern sicne it really seemed no fun playing out the entire 'bureaucratic mess' back then....
>> but ships are like houses,usually built for a customer and only sold if someone upgrades or goes out of business
I don't know where you live but here in Colorado, USA, there are plenty of houses for sale. If ships are like houses than there should be no problem buying one.
>> And do you really expect a merchant captain to sell his means of livelihood spontaneously
When offered more money than he'll make in his lifetime? Yeah, I'd expect him to sell.
>> in the midst of a trading voyage with creditors and loans for his cargo outstanding and linked to the profits from his return journey ?
All ship captains are apparently Lawful Good, unwilling to break a contract no matter how much money is offered?
>> Last, but not least, stocking and provisioning even a ready vessel will take some days, with last minute preparations, paperwork etc...
When my players start requesting more bureaucratic minutiae in the game, I'll consider this.
>> Just hint at those problems while they are still in Farshore. Just claim you skipped all that stuff the last time around with the Sea wyvern sicne it really seemed no fun playing out the entire 'bureaucratic mess' back then
Have one set of rules for the DM and another for the players? That's really bad advice.
>> but ships are like houses,usually built for a customer and only sold if someone upgrades or goes out of business
I don't know where you live but here in Colorado, USA, there are plenty of houses for sale. If ships are like houses than there should be no problem buying one.
>> And do you really expect a merchant captain to sell his means of livelihood spontaneously
When offered more money than he'll make in his lifetime? Yeah, I'd expect him to sell.
>> in the midst of a trading voyage with creditors and loans for his cargo outstanding and linked to the profits from his return journey ?
All ship captains are apparently Lawful Good, unwilling to break a contract no matter how much money is offered?
>> Last, but not least, stocking and provisioning even a ready vessel will take some days, with last minute preparations, paperwork etc...
When my players start requesting more bureaucratic minutiae in the game, I'll consider this.
>> Just hint at those problems while they are still in Farshore. Just claim you skipped all that stuff the last time around with the Sea wyvern sicne it really seemed no fun playing out the entire 'bureaucratic mess' back then
Have one set of rules for the DM and another for the players? That's really bad advice.
I live in a country with a much more stable real-estate market =). ...and where houses are usually built not as a developed "suburb" (a very US-American concept) but actually to order. Hence my take on it. It also happens to be a region where a lot of ship-building has taken place over the last six centuries and TTBOMK having ships "availabe" for purchase only happens accidentally (if a customers folds/disappears before delivery ) or after a bankruptcy.
Given the massive cost, and the usual customizing required by someone ordering a ship build virtually assures that most ships are only built when actually payed for in advance, not like cars or sub-urban housing. Even more so in a historical setting with ships costing more than houses , you just didn't leave them lying abouts waiting for customers.
Especially since wooden ships commonly have a shorter lifespan than contemporary vessels - a dozen years or more in tropical regions or rough-weather waters (like, say, the Bay of Biscany) will leave a vessel barely functional , unless extensive overhauls are done, regularly. Two dozen years.... don't ask, but you wouldn't want to sail something that age to Scuttlecove.
As for ship-captains being lawfull good. Yeah well, not really (lawful neutral will do just fine, even lawful evil^^), but dumping a cargo/commission to sail straight into the most ill-reputed harbour on this half of the world with some odd and heavily armed strangers is simply not good business sense.
Merchant captains are usually just that, merchant captains, and not heroic explorers or daredevil smugglers - or at least they don't advertise as such, it affects one's rescpectability.
And they especially like to do business afterwards, and not being sued/chased about the Seven Seas by their investors/ creditors/ contractees for defaulting on large sums of money. Or having been sold into slavery in Scuttlecove, or even simply being capured and boarded on the way there... Not to mention their reputation as upright businessmen , especially if their ship was seen lying about in that den of piracy ...
As for the "bureaucratic detail" - methinks you attempted to find a solution for delaying your players. Or were you just intending to lament your fate ?
And there is no "two rules" for GM and players - why would you actually think that ?
But at the start of SWW, time is a non-essential factor and abundant. In the situation described by you, it is of the essence, and suddenly, details you glossed over then for a more dynamic story take center stage as they hamper the heroes. Did your group actually play out loading the Sea Wyvern with provisions,haggling over rates and quality, checking every tiny detail of the ship, cleaning the bilge etc etc etc ad infintum ad nauseam ?
I guess you didn't - you glossed over those parts and declared them unimportant. Back then, they were, but now they aren't anymore...
It might also make for a nice counterpoint for the characters that in Farshore and on the battlefield, they may rule all and do as they wish, but in "civilized society" they find themselves hamstrung by well-meaning if hapless red-tape.
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well, a ship costs about 25k gp, yes? for a caravel.
if your characters are like ours, there's going to be a wizard kicking around w/ max ranks in a craft skill (or a bunch at least)
build your own darn boat....
lessee, the fastest we got a caravel up was 3 / week, iirc, although that was using almost all of the daily resources and attention of a high level conjurer with personally researched crafting spells.
as far as the "Lotus Dragon's Demise"....if you want to off them, do it later, after the crimson fleet encounters.
use them as "persuasion" to leave scuttlecove asap.
with regards to super fast travel, I have a conjurer/wayfarer guide, a Psion (Nomad)/Elocator/wayfarer guide and an Ardent/Elocator/wayfarer guide in my party. the 2 elocators have 5-power point teleport and plane shift, and well over 200 pp each. they get around. a lot.
BUT, just make the sea wyvern someplace they WANT to be. thats where the nice beds are, thats where they keep the cook and gourmet ingredients, that's where the crafting tables and wizard tools are.
this way, they can use it as their mobile base of operations, do the teleporty thing, then come back.
Our Sea Wyvern II has become more like the Enterprise on Star Trek (the original series) it's there to hang a few scenes on and let the captain really shine a bit, then will stay out of scene and allow ease of transfer from plot point to plot point.
-the hamster