The stats in the 3.5 DMG are unreal though. Let me borrow from GURPS high-tech to get you this:
Small Matchlock Musket
500gp price
4d6-2 damage
x3 crit
Range inc 150ft
Half damage range 300ft
Weight 8 lbs.
5 rounds to reload
Ranged touch attack to fire
+1 to hit if braced on a rail or against a corner
+2 to hit if prone braced on the ground/shooting stand/tripod.
+2 to hit if take a round to aim.
Malfunctions on a natural 3 or less. (GURPS has a lovely table for this)
When fired, an opaque white cloud will obscure the square in front of you for a round or three (depending on wind conditions).
The powder is difficult to make (craft: alchemy), so rare in the world, but not unique. You can use your Craft: Gunsmith to invent things like rifle grenades, more reliable flintlocks, waterproof wheellocks, rifling, scopes, wood soaked with holy garlic musket balls, etc.
Daggers and shortswords are easy to adapt into a bayonet (magic intact), turning it into a shortspear (nonthrowable).
You may regret going with a musket at the higher levels, because you'll get no slack from me when you run into monsters with DR.
Questions or comments?
The half-elf cringes, carefully keeping Annie between him and Dgrim.
"No, no, I'm good. No need to bother the Watch. My time is yours."
Sneaky looks at the clouds boiling in from the north and cover himself a little more in his, too big for him, poncho he's wearing waiting giving time to his mates to take a decision. But there is already something new Sneaky smells in the air... He'll be on the sea again and he'll meet parrots this time...
** spoiler omitted **
"Ah got all mah stuff right here. If you need to get something, ah can stay with him while you go. "
Will Rapid Reload cut down the time?
>Yes; it will cut reload time by 1 round.
I assume I can have bullets enchanted as well?
>Yes; the gun too.
Annie looked at Spinnaker Jon. "I don't know much about sailing, but you do. I have this money Miss Lavinia just paid us that I can put toward renting a boat. As long as our other friends keep an eye on this fellow here, we can rent something to get to Parrot Island."
Annie scratched her head thoughtfully. "It'll probably ruin my little story to Panchi, but I could try to help you negotiate a price from him if you want to rent one of his vessels. Otherwise I'd like to dash back to my place and get into something a little more appropriate for trudging through the wilderness. I dressed for a visit to the vaults today, not adventuring in the forest. I can see that I'll have to change my habits to expect the unexpected!"
Spinnaker Jon doffs his hat and scratches his head, gazing upwards pensively.
"Arr; 'tis but half an hour to sunset now; An' it looks to be a mighty wet soaker rolling in soon."
He puts his hat back on.
"I say we sail back to Vanderboren Manor for the evening. That Island aint goin' nowhere; and I'd prefer to take it on in daylight meself. What say ye all?"
"But what we gonna do with him if we wait 'til tomorrow? He has the look of a rabbit I'm sure."
"Going to an unknown location at night would be be very dangerous for many of you, not having darkvision in a jungle environment. Better to plan our approach and take them unawares just after dawn."
One pound of powder is enough for roughly 50 shots, and if it explodes does 4d6x2 explosive crush/fire damage in 5 ft radius. 1/4 that damage in the next 5ft radius out from there.
Hm, I wonder what will happen when you get hit by a fireball...;)
I'll have to think on that.
"I'll be good! Just... keep him away from me." He said, glancing at Dgrim.
Annie looked at the half elf appraisingly, then at the rest of the group.
"Well, sir," she said, speaking to the half elf, "I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot, but I hope we can still make this relationship mutually beneficial. I have a proposal.
"I'm sure you don't wish to sail around with us to Parrot Island. A fellow like you must have...other things...to do with your time. So how about you help us draw a map of what you know of the island and these tunnels?" Annie reached into her pocket and flashed five silver coins in the half elf's face. "I'll pay you 5 silvers for your time. That's five day's pay working the dock! A nice profit. And...if your map doesn't steer us wrong, and we make it back, I will stop at the Plucked Parrot - you know it? - in the evening we get back around the end of second watch - right around dinner time. If you are there, there's going to a bigger payout - I'll pay you 5 gold." Annie uses her friends' bodies to shield her hand from view of interested passersby and shows the half elf 5 gold coins. "See? I have it right here. I'm good for it. That way you'll want to steer us clear, and we'll be able to let you go about your business tonight." Annie quickly pockets the gold again. "I'm Gull Street Annie. I've always been honest and good to my word. I worked at the Plucked Parrot for years, so you can ask about me and see for yourself what my reputation is.
"What do you say? Are you willing to help us on those terms?"
Dgrim sighs, turns around, and takes several steps away from the Annie and the half-elf.
Sneaky continues to wait for his mates dealing with the half-elf... "that girl is really cool" he thinks looking at Annie "I hope she'll convince everyone else before we'll have to soak us too much". And he cover himself even more in his big poncho.
You know Bryson will follow Annie's lead.
You can see the greed in the half-elfs eyes as he slowly nods in agreement. The rest of the party is decided as a sudden subtropical downpour sends everyone indoors. The party makes its way back to the Vanderboren manor where Cora busys herself cooking a fine meal and Annie puts the half-elf (whos name turns out to be Shefton Rosk) to work in a back room drawing a map out for them.
Lavinia is out at the moment (business in the Noble District), but you can see she's been busy. Many of the missing fixtures and furnishings have been returned and you can hear the echos of workmen earning overtime in other parts of the manor. There you spend a fine evening and can retire to rooms assigned to you for your use while you work for Lavinia.
The next morning...
"OK, here's the map to find the smugglers complex."
He draws you
THIS map.
He also draws you a quick sketch of the complex itself.
"You all be careful; he's got six guys with him too. Dockyard thugs, knife men; nothing you can't handle. But... be careful of him. There's something really wrong with him."
With that, he slinks out the back door.
Annie watched Rosk slink off, then looked back at the maps he provided. "If he was willing to sell the information once, he'll be willing to sell it twice. If he knows they mean us harm, they'll have to offer him more than five gold, or it's in his best interest to keep his mouth shut so we'll return and pay him. But it's in our best interest to set off as soon as this weather you mentioned blows over." Annie leaned back against the kitchen wall near the fire and crossed her arms. "It's getting late to rent a boat now. Do we run out in the rain and hope we catch a rental place still open in this downpour? Or we could set out in the wee hours of the morning when the fishermen go out - we might be able to hire a fisherman to take us out - or convince him to let us rent his boat for a fee and let him take a few days off. If we can find a fisherman and set sail while it's still dark, we'll get there early - and have a better chance of avoiding notice if they're watching the beach and surprising them if we come upon them still sleeping." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't know much about sailing or the weather. What do you all think? Should we try to set up a rental now? Or plan to leave in the morning?"
Spinnaker Jon muses, puffing on his pipe.
"Wall, if'n y' don't need to hide yer tracks, ye can always go down t' the docks and hold up a gold coin. That'll get y' a bunch of enterprising young scullers to come and take y' anywhere y' want on the water in town."
Puff. Puff.
"An' if y' do want na witnesses, we c'n go down to th' Nixie an' borra' one a their ships boats. She's still in port for a few more days I hear."
"As f'r the weather, it's gone down t' a drizzle an' a little foggy until it burns off at noon i'll wager."
Jon leans forward. "Ye want me opinion? I say we go grab one a' the Nixies boats and row ourselves over in the mornin'. Take advantage of the concealment, but still bright enough to see by."
"If we was going to go tonight, we should'a done it when we first thing we met that... fellow. No we should go in the morning."
"Going tonight would ensure that if he decided to inform them that we were coming, it would still be a suprise."
Yawn. Good morning.
"Let's get over to Parrot Island."
Annie shrugged on her leather overcoat and checked the rapier on her belt. "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
The next morning, Dgrim and polishes his axes and dons his chain shirt. "Fine. Let's get down to the docks."
You make your way down to the wharf in the predawn darkness. The light drizzle fading into a mist rising from the water, the visibility shrinks to 50ft. Making your way to where the Blue Nixie is moored, you use your authority as retainers to Lady Vanderboren to borrow one of the ships boats. Muffling the oars, you quietly row past the departing fishing vessels until you finally reach Parrot Island when dawn turns the black sky to gray. Searching around the east end of the island, you finally find the twin rocks noted on your map and make landfall on the gravelly beach.
We'll make sure the boat is secured and then follow the map up to the smuggler's hideout.
Annie picked up a small conch shell off the beach and muttered a prayer to Cayden Cailean, asking him to help light her way. The shell began to glow, and she quickly closed her hand over the shell to hide the light it gave. "Better to have it quickly available if we need to see better," she explained to everyone with a lopsided smile.
Annie then peered up through the mist at the cliff they're about to walk up. "Since we seek Lavinia's brother, I think we want to make sure he can't get out," she whispered. It seemed to echo in the fog and drizzle, and she couldn't help wincing. "Once we get in, we should try to make sure he can't escape by the ladder or boat ramp." She crept forward, being as quiet as she could.
The path up the cliff is cunningly concealed from the beach. Eventually Bryson manages to find it and you may begin to climb it.
Then we'll take time to tie off.
Climb
Ghirrak quietly begins climbing on his own.
By roping together and taking your time, you reach the top of the cliff with only a few minor slips and a little muddier than when you started.
Before you stretches the interior of the jungle. Warm and dank and pitch black in the dim twilight.
Faster than that it jumps to DC30.
Bindlplotz and Puposaur follow along in the mist. He keeps an eye out for danger. As he looks around the jungle.
Knowledge (nature) +7= 27
Tracking Perception: +7= 22
Stealth +7= 8
Bindlplotz locates a trail then steps on some shells making a loud cracking noise...
whispers"Lots o' birds, Parrots methinks, if we make too much noise, thems moight attack us. Get to cover as fast as ye kin."
Survival:
Knowledge: Nature
Stealth:
Bryson moves along as fast as is reasonable.
Dgrim attempts to be quiet, but the rattle of his chain mail and the shells underneath his boots won't cooperate. "Gah! This sneaking around is gonna slow us down."
Stealth:
"This should be quite easy for me" Sneaky thinks trying to climb and to be quiet
Climb
Stealth
Even Sneaky has serious problems remaining quiet as the party proceeds up the path some one hundred yards through the undergrowth. Nothing happens along the way, the only thing out of place is the occasional acrid scent of Bindlplotzs' burning match.
The party finally reaches the next landmark, the abandoned cabin. You almost missed it altogether, only the chimney is recognizable, the rest having collapsed and rotted away years ago.
Perception
Survival
Perception
K:nature
Bryson continues to march up the pathway to his goal.
After the difficult climb Annie's even less sure about venturing into wilderness, and heartily sick of mud, but she looks around with relief at the top of the cliff. As she looks, she notices it's early enough that the birds rumored to live on the island are quiet - it must not yet be time for them to awaken. At the gnome's whisper to the group she nods and picks her way as best she can through the debris on the ground, managing to avoid any particularly loud noises. Finally Bryson spots the old collapsed cabin.
Annie hesitated to pull out the map they'd received from the half elf in the rain, but they'd all pored over it quite a bit last night. "I think the rocks are to the right from here. I'd like to get into the base before the parrots get active and announce our presence to those below," Annie hissed, looking in the direction she expected the pile of rocks to be in.
Bindlplotzs' burning match....
Bindlplotz points out some indentations in the ground and some broken twigs in rain sodden branches that indicate humanoid traffic down this path sometime in the last 48 hours.
"This parrots must be staying in their nests due to the mist..." Bindlplotz whispers.
know:nature+7=24
survival +2=3