I'm having a little trouble rationalizing why another ship would approach Smuggler's Shiv to investigate the newly lit lighthouse to rescue the PCs at the end of the adventure. Isn't the Shiv a notorious island inhabited by monsters, cannibals, and ghosts? What ship captain would dare approach such a place just to check out a lighthouse? My first thought as a sea captain would be : "Duh. Trap!".
Has anyone come up with a good rationale for getting a ship to come and rescue the PCs?
I'm having a little trouble rationalizing why another ship would approach Smuggler's Shiv to investigate the newly lit lighthouse to rescue the PCs at the end of the adventure. Isn't the Shiv a notorious island inhabited by monsters, cannibals, and ghosts? What ship captain would dare approach such a place just to check out a lighthouse? My first thought as a sea captain would be : "Duh. Trap!".
Has anyone come up with a good rationale for getting a ship to come and rescue the PCs?
Female PCs with good physical stats? Seems to work for my Tiefling rogue. At the table we joked about putting Pezock in front of the signal to make the bat-sign to any passing ship, because obviously the good captains of Golarian know of the Batman.
I honestly hadn't thought of it, but now that you bring it up, it does seem rather convenient. Like how we liberated a lighthouse but did not find even a broken spyglass. C'mon now, you would think the original inhabitants who were escaping from Cheliax might have wanted to bring one of those along to distinguish friend from foe that were approaching the island.
Perhaps you should suggest to your PCs that they make some manner of sign on the beach to indicate that they are friendly, and indeed, not savage cannibals that are looking for their next meal. unless of course they are not friendly, and are looking for a meal.
Or, you can have the captain act rather wary towards them, shifty like. High sense motive roll to tell that he's a smuggler himself, and maybe was stood up by someone and has lost business. Maybe he figures he can get the PCs precious loots, if nothing else. *shrug* after 50 days on the island our group didn't really question our miraculous saviors too much.
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I'm having a little trouble rationalizing why another ship would approach Smuggler's Shiv to investigate the newly lit lighthouse to rescue the PCs at the end of the adventure. Isn't the Shiv a notorious island inhabited by monsters, cannibals, and ghosts? What ship captain would dare approach such a place just to check out a lighthouse? My first thought as a sea captain would be : "Duh. Trap!".
Has anyone come up with a good rationale for getting a ship to come and rescue the PCs?
What also bothers me is why the captain would risk his ship around an island with treacherous currents that swallow ships. The only thing I could come up with is that the lighthouse actually marks a safe channel in and out of the Shiv. Of course that supposes that the captain of the rescue ship knows that. I mean the lighthouse was never in operation.
It doesn't really make a lot of sense..
What also bothers me is why the captain would risk his ship around an island with treacherous currents that swallow ships.
That's precisely my issue. If it were my ship, I wouldn't want to sail it anywhere near the Shiv. So, what I'm looking for is a good reason for a captain to do so.
Maybe the captain is a pirate searching for Capt. Quellig's treasure (re: The Treasure Pit)? Or looking to bury his own ill-gotten loot?
Does anyone have any suggestions?
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What also bothers me is why the captain would risk his ship around an island with treacherous currents that swallow ships.That's precisely my issue. If it were my ship, I wouldn't want to sail it anywhere near the Shiv. So, what I'm looking for is a good reason for a captain to do so.
Maybe the captain is a pirate searching for Capt. Quellig's treasure (re: The Treasure Pit)? Or looking to bury his own ill-gotten loot?
Does anyone have any suggestions?
What about the Sargava government? Once they find out this lighthouse is operational, they would definately send a ship to investigate it. In doing so they would find the castaways.
Also, the book states the default ship does not approach with in 200 yards of the coast. It sends in a long boat. Thus avoiding the rocks and reefs
-Pete
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In the AP it specifically mentions that Captians refuse to bring Ships near the Island, instead they send a "dingy". What is the issue?
Edit: Also I believe it was considered "common Law" Duty of lawful captian to rescue those who are shipewrecked. And by sending a Dingy you are not endangering your ship.
In the AP it specifically mentions that Captians refuse to bring Ships near the Island, instead they send a "dingy". What is the issue?
My issue was that most sane sea captains wouldn't go anywhere near the Shiv period. And unless they had a darn good reason for approaching the island, most captains wouldn't sail close enough to even think about launching a rowboat to investigate some lighthouse light. The risk to the ship and crew is too great.
So, I was asking for a logical reason for a ship to actually visit the Shiv. Popping in to check out a mysterious light in the hope that it belongs to some castaways that need rescuing just doesn't cut it for me. And my players definitely won't buy it.
Now, I really like remoh's idea. The Sargavan government might want to investigate the lighthouse light. Maybe after a few weeks, and after a few different ships report on it, a ship is dispatched from Eleder to check it out.
Anyone else have any cool ideas?
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The ending is open ended. You can end it however you want.
You could for instance have the BBEG at the end have a teleport scroll. Then watch the hilarity ensue as your players try to cast a spell that's higher then they can normally cast. Rolling a 1 would be priceless on that check.
Or a bottle with a scroll of teleport in it could wash up on shore with a note. "I believe you need this." That will make them really paranoid for the rest of the game.
You could pull some kind of "Castaway", minus the volleyball of course, and have them find an intact or serviceable rowboat off one of the shipwrecks. You could make it like a videogame and put a single boat component on several shipwrecks so they have a reason to visit each in turn. To assemble the escape craft of course.
For the easy amusing fix just have Pezock have a boat that he conveniently forgot about that he managed to assemble over the years. By the time he was done building it he didn't want to leave. He likes it there, remember?
Have dolphins show up. Have a druid or ranger type try and befriend them. They'll help drag a raft or something to the mainland.
See easy. Personally I'm an evil bastard so I'm going to do something different. I'll tell you guys after I run it this weekend. Don't want to spoil the fun for my players after all. }; )
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I'm pretty sure back in the age of sail, it was common practice for harbors to note the comings and goings of ships, and for the ships to take note at each harbor, too. Unless the crew was kept on the ship, the harbor probably knew where the ships were planning to go next.
Imagine the following simplified case with two ships:
- S1 intends to sail a round trip from port A to port C, with stops in intermediate port B. It leaves A at time 0, arrives in B at time 1 and is due in to C at time 3.
- S2, sails a more specialized cycle of port B to port C. It normally leaves B at times 0, 4, 8, ... and arrives at C at times 2, 6, 10, ...
If S1 shows up on schedule at time 3, and there's no entry for S2 at time 2, then S1 and port C should know that S2 is at least one time unit off.
In the particular case, there will eventually be a ship that left Corentyn after the Jennivere that arrives at Eleder before it, carrying news that Jask Derindi left on the J. At which point, the Sargavan navy puts out an APB to its ships and more importantly, its intelligence agents ashore, to find the last known sighting of the Jennivere.
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In the particular case, there will eventually be a ship that left Corentyn after the Jennivere that arrives at Eleder before it, carrying news that Jask Derindi left on the J. At which point, the Sargavan navy puts out an APB to its ships and more importantly, its intelligence agents ashore, to find the last known sighting of the Jennivere.
I like that idea. Tracking down a fugitive would be good motivation to investigate the lighthouse and could lead to some interesting RP. :)
Also, looking more in depth at the dispersion of shipwrecks, and reading the tale of one of the
The captain of the rescue ship has a dream or vision to investigate the reactivated lighthouse. Desna involvement if any of the pcs are worshippers.
They ran afoul of a seamonster and need to make repairs desperately, desperate enough to brave the Shiv.
Though I do like the idea of Pezock "just having one" and not mentioning it til an opportune time.
A solution is for the party to build a raft or find a rowboat (as suggested by others). They light the lighthouse to attract the attention of ships. They maintain a lookout for sails on the far horizon representing a ship about to pass a safe distance. The ship is paying attention towards the island because of the lighthouse light.
The party rows out past the breakwater and tries to signal the ship with a bullseye lantern or a pyrotechnics spell or however.
Ship sees the signal from the rowboat/raft and investigates. Party is rescued.
Of course, whether the ship is Sargavan Navy, Freetrader or Shackles Pirate is up to the DM, depending on his level of rat bastardness.