Perils of the Pirate Pact: The Venomous Woods help

[Cyxodus]

I'm running "Perils of the Pirate Pact" this Friday and I'm having trouble visualizing Act 3 (The Venomous Woods). How do I go about drawing this map?

Also, I've created papercraft model ships for this scenario. Check them out here.

[Sir_Wulf]

Spoiler:

I generally start Act Three without using a map: Just have the players show their marching order, drawing on that as needed when they encounter the pits. I then continue into the marionette trap without a map. This decreases metagaming, since some players habitually expect a scrap the moment that they see a battle mat come out. I'll draw the pit and place PCs on my battlemat AFTER the first one discovers the trap.

If you prefer to use a map, I'd recommend the Gamemastery Forest flip-mat. It's very well suited for that act's encounters.

[Cyxodus]

Thanks.

[Cyxodus]

After reading the scenario, I decided to do most of this act without a map. I tend to write up scripts when I GM and here's how I handled this encounter.

THE VENOMOUS WOODS:

THE VENOMOUS WOODS
Act 3 (no map needed)
Before Encounter

GM: Following the encounter on board the Hanspur’s Luck, the expedition resumes its course. The next morning, Lady Riverbane anchors her ship and leads you ashore. She gives you a very simple map that leads you to the place where the Black Marquis’s men are thought to be in the Venomous Woods.

LADY RIVERBANE: MY MEN AND I WILL STAY WITH THE SCRAG TO ENSURE THAT SHE DOESN’T FALL TO BRIGANDS OR ABOMINATIONS. WE DON’T WANT OUR ONLY WAY BACK TO BE GONE.

GM: You penetrate the eerie depths of the ancient forest alone. The journey from the shores of the Sellen River to the location marked on Riverbane’s map takes four hours at normal walking speed.

Dense masses of leafage impose an eerie twilight of dark green while forlorn trees speak of a bygone age where humans wrestled for survival in a land of darkness. Many thick sheets of giant webbing stretch like great shrouds around the gaunt trees and groveling bushes.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Act 3.1 (The Labyrinth)
Before Encounter

GM: The area is a maze of tree trunks, bushes, undergrowth, and webs.

Encounter 1 (Trap)

GM: You have walked a few minutes without incidence but I need everyone to give me perception checks.

Trap (page 9)

After Encounter

GM: Covered in gooey webbing at the bottom of the pit lies the broken corpse of one of the Black Marquis’s men. Give me a Perception check.

Mission Notes: A DC 10 Perception check notices that the corpse at the bottom of the maze’s first pit trap is missing its left hand. For members of the Cheliax faction, this feature identifies the body as that of Larkus Lockinvar. Obviously, the man is already dead, and all that’s needed now is to chop off his right hand. This requires first lowering oneself into the pit, and performing a DC 13 Strength check to free the corpse from the webbing.

GM: As you venture deeper into the maze, you spot a few more dead bodies hanging upside-down in giant spider webs—all members of the ill-fated expedition.
Encounter 2 (Trap)

GM: Navigating the labyrinth isn’t a simple task. Everyone give me two consecutive Survival checks.

Note: Two consecutive DC 15 Survival checks are required for the PCs to successfully cross the labyrinth. Failing two of these checks in a row means that the party comes across another trap. Because all of these traps are of similar design, their associated DC Search check gets reduced by 3 each time.

[Malag]

You don't really need the map for it as you concluded yourself. If you have a mat just draw the spider trap ( that's how I did it ) when the encounter gets to that part. Otherwise using no map is probably much quicker and even better experience.

Note: On Survival checks, I gave only 1 person to roll them, since 1 person is a guide. Others can aid him for additional +2s.

[Cyxodus]

I added a rope to the PC's papercraft ship so that they can get to the crow's nest and also swing to the other ship from the ship's wheel. I added 1 inch marks to the rope and it's 35 feet from the bottom to the top. Just within range of a double movement.

If a PC wants to swing from one ship to the next, how do I let them do that? How do I GM that and how do I determine failure?

[Malag]

Are you talking about Act 1? If so it's written on page 6:

Spoiler:

that pirates can jump on other ship with DC 10 Acrobatics with DC 15 Reflex to grab for the ship if they fall.

[Cyxodus]

That'll work for that players but I was wondering if a player wanted to swing to their ship.

[Malag]

You can try checking Acrobatics rules, they are simple to calculate. It's +5 on DC per 5 feet jumped. Jumping away with jumping start over 15 feet long hole would be 15 DC.
Acrobatics