On one of the threads Rob McCreary mentions that if the ship life is getting a little boring for your group add some mini quests or encounters.
Here's one that I'm going to use, does anyone have something creative that others can use.
On one of the days at a point when there land is far away. (Day 6 or 7 would probably be best). The PC rigger spots a rowboat off in the distance. Sitting on it is what appears to be 2 men sitting motionless staring at each other with a small chest between them. The spotting PC can notify the officers or ignore it. If the officers are notified the Captain orders a crew to investigate. Master Scourge decides he who spotted must go investigate and tells him to pick 5 mates and go investigate using the ships rowboat.
The 2 men don’t move or respond unless attacked or their row boat is boarded. At which point they stand up and attack. If they are attacked at a range they will throw their chest overboard and swim toward the party and attack. If the party tries to recover the chest that was thrown overboard they have 2 rounds to reach where it was thrown in or it sinks to deep to recover. A swim check DC12 will be needed to dive underwater and recover it. If the swimming PC is wounded and bleeding there will be a 20% chance per round he is attacked by a shark.
Any combat on a rowboat will require each PC who is standing and attacking to make a DC 10 Acrobatics roll or fall overboard. This also applies to the undead pirates. If a wounded PC falls overboard here is a 20% per round he attracts a shark.
The 2 men are undead pirates from Isles of the shackles pg. 62
The treasure chest is filled with fake jewelry worth a total of 5 GP. If the party makes a appraise check DC 16 they will notice 1 real necklace mixed in with the fake stuff worth 50 GP. A player may make an opposed Sleight of hand vs Master Plugg and Master Scourges perception to pocket it unnoticed. If this is done out at the row boat the party will receive a +10 to their roll due to distance between the rowboat and the ship.
If the party loses the treasure they will all be punished with 3 lashes from Master Scourge. Otherwise Mister Plugg will look at all the junk in the chest scowl that it is worthless crap and throw it overboard.
With a group of players closer to six or seven and not the recommended four, I've decided to add a second dungeon while they're shipwrecked.
This will give them a chance for extra XP, loot, and possibly a magic item for the ship they'll soon take over. Maybe a set of sails or figurehead that's magically enhanced. Probably it was "recovered" by the grindylows and hidden in an old crypt on the isle.
I'll use a small, five room dungeon will some more undead from the Infernus and some more grindylows with a few traps thrown in. Or maybe it'll be an ancient lighthouse populated with some other sea themed monsters and maybe a ghost. I haven't decided yet.
I was watching a show on the history channel about haunted ships. And they were talking about groups called Wreckers, who operated off the New England coast. And what they would do is at night or during heavy fog they would simulate ship lights on rocky shores trying to trick other ships to think it was another ship and in a shipping lane thus trying to trick the ship to follow the fake ship. The tricked ship would run aground on a rocky shore and these wreckers would run out kill the survivors and steal everything they could salvage. But these wreckers were also afraid of the ghosts of their victims coming back to haunt them.
I think this is a really cool idea and will try and incorporate this into this adventure. Probably by having the party discover the trick before the ship runs aground and having the officers send a couple a groups out to flank the wreckers, the party being one of the groups, and when they descend on the wreckers or possibly right after a group of undead crawl out of the ocean to seek revenge.
I was watching a show on the history channel about haunted ships. And they were talking about groups called Wreckers, who operated off the New England coast. And what they would do is at night or during heavy fog they would simulate ship lights on rocky shores trying to trick other ships to think it was another ship and in a shipping lane thus trying to trick the ship to follow the fake ship. The tricked ship would run aground on a rocky shore and these wreckers would run out kill the survivors and steal everything they could salvage. But these wreckers were also afraid of the ghosts of their victims coming back to haunt them.
I think this is a really cool idea and will try and incorporate this into this adventure. Probably by having the party discover the trick before the ship runs aground and having the officers send a couple a groups out to flank the wreckers, the party being one of the groups, and when they descend on the wreckers or possibly right after a group of undead crawl out of the ocean to seek revenge.
You should take a look at the Shackles Campaign Setting Book. ;)