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My players have made a kind of interesting situation.... instead of electing an actual captain to become a Free Captain of the Shackles, they've elected to EACH go through the testing required and become Free Captains that act as a democracy on their ship. There was a ridiculously high Diplomacy check involved, and I'm going to allow it, but I'm not sure how to play it out. Pirates are generally pretty caste-based, with captains only really associating with other captains, etc. How do I handle a whole group of four PCs who are ALL free captains in their own right?From what I've read and understand, democracy was not uncommon among pirates. Often, pirate captains were actually elected by the crew. It was their way of differing themselves from the British monarchy. My group just lost their Captain (kidnapped by Harrigan during a side quest right before the Free Captain's Regatta), and their crew decided that they want to elect from among the "officers" (PCs) who will be the next Captain, since there was no obvious choice.
Now, your situation is a bit different because it sounds like your players want to rule their ship by committee. I would seriously doubt if there was any precedent for that during the real life Age of Sail. The captain's absolute authority and veto can be necessary during combat and dangerous situations; you can't spend time arguing and voting whether you want to try and board an enemy vessel, attempt to sink it, or ram it or what not while the enemy is shooting at you. Also, any undue delay between orders for the crew during bad weather could endanger the ship.
I'd say that its perfectly fine for each PC to have their own Free Captain letter of marque, but it would be advisable to still have just one Captain of the ship. The other PCs letters of marque would enable them to treat with other Free Captains, and, if they want, acquire and sail ships of their own.
In Book 4, if the party does well enough impressing the other Pirate Lords, they can...
Hmm, great points here! I like the idea that their unorthodox style of piracy could be the reason they're so good at what they do, and it could inspire other captains to try the same ideas as well. They've talked about having one ship each that is captained by that specific character, so that when the others are on their ship, that character has ultimate say in quick situations, but they vote on larger decisions.
Thanks for the great advice!
In terms of the Pirate Council, there are a maximum of thirty members (other than the Hurricane King and Besmara) and twenty-seven are already elected. This theoretically gives a maximum of three more Council members. I don't know if that would affect their plans. (They might need to create a vacancy...)
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A lot of people in this thread seem unsatisfied with the investigation section of Tempest Rising. Can anyone suggest another investigative adventure to substitute for the unsatisfying portions of this module?
Maybe something published for the Freeport or Razor Coast settings, or something written for a different game altogether, like Call of Cthulhu or the GUMSHOE system, or even something really old school, like Top Secret or Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes?
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I ran the investigation pretty much as written, and my party didn't have too much of a problem with it. I hand-waved the travel times and didn't bother having any random encounters or worrying about role playing the travelling. Going to all the cities helped to flesh out the Shackles by describing each port they go to, and what makes them unique.
Some people think the investigation is too railroad-y. Compared to Raiders of the Fever Sea, it is more railroad-y certainly. But compared to a typical adventure, dungeon crawl, or adventure path, is it far more open. First off, the party starts with TWO leads and each can lead to different areas and everything can be explored in whatever order the PCs wish (as they gain the information). At each step of the investigation, my PCs had 2 or 3 places they could go for more info, and they were even able to skip an entire encounter because the path of investigation they chose gave them all the information they needed without having to pursue one of the leads given to them later on.
Now, all that being said, it still might not be up to your PCs standards of an investigation storyline. I'm not sure if I can help there but I have had success adapting a few modules/scenarios to add some fluff and side adventures to the adventure path.
From Shore to Sea - Great adventure, and kind of a Lovecraftian inspired investigation. I had it take place a few days up the coast from Rickety's. His people fled there from a Chelish raid, leaving a note for the PCs to follow.
Mists of Mwangi PFS Scenario - Easy enough to have the museum be in Bloodcove. The PCs sold some haunted plunder to the museum, and they are "asked politely" to deal with the Mists from the items by the Aspis Consortium.
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My players just fought Zarskia. For RP and character backstory reasons, they decided to capture her and sell her into slavery. Any suggestions on her being a recurring villain? Couple of my very basic ideas are below.
1. Would Zarskia join Harrigan's crew? Would she somehow connect with him for her desire to get revenge on the PCs? Would they see her in the Regatta, or hold out until a later encounter with Harrigan?
2. Being a powerful alchemist, would she captain her own ship (probably not, she doesn't seem like a great leader), or build some awesome/crazy siege weapons and ammo for someone else's ship? This could also be included with #1.
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join Harrigan, level her up, include her in fort in book 5, that sounds fun to me:)
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My party captured Zarskia and was keeping her prisoner in the bilges of their ship. Their captain at the time (who has since been kidnapped by Harrigan - long story) was a Souleater and wanted to use her for "food" while they decided what exactly to do with her. During the kidnapping, the party was pretty distracted and Zarskia escaped with a conveniently placed Warp Wood spell from a high level Druid who proceeded to escape with her. The party identified this Druid from local legends as Gilbrok the Tongue (an enemy in part five, ally of Harrigan).
Now Zarskia will be an ally of Harrigans, with a serious grudge against the PCs, and I've set up the existence of Gilbrok who is one of the more flavorful high level NPCs in the AP.
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Very nice! Thank you for the suggestions.
My PCs have just started the Free Captain's Regatta. How did you determine timing during the race? For example, how long does it take to get from one obstacle to the next? How long did the race take, overall? Did your PCs decide to rest or sleep?
Overall, my PCs built characters that were pretty focused around sailing, so they already have over 10 race points and have just reached the Iris Splinters. The druid is about out of weather and water control spells though, so she is considering resting. Should be interesting to see what happens while she is asleep.
I let the group roll Knowledge(Geography) checks to estimate how long it would take to get to the next obstacle based on the map that the Master of Gales provided and their current speed. Of course, the map doesn't tell the complete story since some events (like Harrigan's attack) aren't marked on it. Results being:
Less than 20: off by 25% (if it will actually take 8 hours, it could actually take as little as 6 or as many as 10 hours)
20-25: Estimate is off by 10%
25+: They know exactly how long it will take to reach the next obstacle
I estimated the following based on the map and assuming a ship was going about 5 mph, the race would take about 31 hours. Of course, I didn't take into account time spent at each obstacle. If you assume one hour per obstacle, that's an additional 10 hours, for a total of 41 hours). I'll probably tweak it more as we get through the race
-D to E - 5 miles (1 hour)
-E to F - 20 miles (4 hours)
-F to G - 20 miles (4 hours)
-G to H - 10 miles (2 hours)
-H to I - 25 miles (5 hours)
-I to J - 25 miles (5 hours)
-J to K - 25 miles (5 hours)
-K to L - 20 miles (4 hours)
-L to M - 5 miles (1 hour)
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Very nice! Thank you for the suggestions.
My PCs have just started the Free Captain's Regatta. How did you determine timing during the race? For example, how long does it take to get from one obstacle to the next? How long did the race take, overall? Did your PCs decide to rest or sleep?
Mostly, I just hand-waved the timing of the race. I told the party the race would probably take 18-24 hours in total and just made each "landmark" a couple hours away from each other. I DM for a rather large party (max. 7 PCs if everyone shows up), so they decided to take the race in shifts. One person would pilot, with a couple other PCs on deck to help, and then they'd switch. Now, as obstacles came up, sometimes they needed to services of someone who was sleeping, which I was fine with, but anyone who was awake and working for too long I would make them fatigued (-2 str, -2 dex, cannot run or charge) for the remainder of the race.
Any hour/level spell would last two or three landmarks, and any spell of lower duration would only be effective for one landmark or challenge.
Overall, my PCs built characters that were pretty focused around sailing, so they already have over 10 race points and have just reached the Iris Splinters. The druid is about out of weather and water control spells though, so she is considering resting. Should be interesting to see what happens while she is asleep.
Yeah, my PCs have ridiculous Prof(Sailor) skill mods. Firstly, they're higher level than they're supposed to be for the campaign because I've added in extra stuff, and just before the race they crafted an item to grant the pilot of the ship a +10 competence bonus to Prof(Sailor). Now, I was going to say they couldn't do that, but they argued that since a Ring of Swimming, Greater gives the same amount that there's a precedence. Now thats true, but as GM of course I have final say on custom magic items. I considered denying them the item but then figured I'd allow it. I hate saying No, bursting their bubbles, raining on their parades etc. I figure the point of the game is to have fun, so let them have their way too powerful magic item. Of course, I inflated the skill DCs of most of the checks so the race wasn't a complete bore but I figure that was a better alternative than just straight up going GM Dictator on them.
In my campaign, Harrigan stole a powerful weather-influencing artifact from a PC's home town. So now matter how skilled and magical their sailing is, it makes sense for him to have an advantage, or at least not be left in the dust.
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Speaking of the end of the race, we just finished it this past weekend and it was pretty fun. The invisible stalkers caused a good amount of mayhem and seriously pissed off the new PC Captain, who then took it upon himself to enact some invisible chaos of his own upon the Wormwood, by mounting a Bronze Griffon figurine, casting Invisibility Sphere, flying over to Harrigan's ship and summoning a Wall of Force in the Wormwood's path. Ouch.
By this point, the party was pretty pumped, so I decided to go for broke and up the ante.
In Book 5,
My PCs were keeping a close eye on the Wormwood behind them in case Harrigan decided to try anymore trickery, so I figured it'd make sense for them to see some of Harrigan's rage and vengeance (in my campaign, Harrigan has levels in barbarian and some serious anger management issues).
I had the lookout PC with his spyglass witness Harrigan drag Peppery on deck and demand she fix her mistake with magic. When she obviously can't do any more, in his rage he impales her on his sword and carries her back into his cabin. I figured that'd probably be enough to plant the seeds of what the PCs are going to discover in his fortress in Book 5
But of course, my players had other plans (don't they always?). The summoner asked the inquisitor to turn him invisible and he Dimension Door'd over to the Wormwood's captain's cabin to rescue Peppery. His plan is to DDoor over, grab the sorceress and DDoor back. By the time he finished explaining his plan to me, I had come to terms with the possibility of the PCs rescuing Peppery, but I wasn't going to give it to him for free. Invisible or not, Harrigan is very high level, already has his weapon out, and DDoor has a verbal component.
So, the summoner DDoor's over to find that in the short time it took him to prep his journey, Harrigan has chained Peppery to a table and removed both her hands at the wrist. The PC grabs Peppery and starts casting. Harrigan swings with his sword and hits despite the odds. Fortunately the Summoner makes his concentration check by 1 point, well aware that failure probably means a bloody death at the end of Harrigan's sword.
So, the summoner DDoor's back to the ship having successfully rescued Peppery. The lookout then sees, aboard the Wormwood, Harrigan explode out of his cabin, decapitating one of his own crew members unfortunate enough to be in his reach, and then sail off in the other direction, not bothering to finish the race and no doubt plotting his revenge.
A suitably epic end to the book. My players are pretty pumped about exploring their new island, after of course, securing their holdings on Tidewater Rock against retaliation from Harrigan :)
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That is a pretty cool Peppery rescue. Nice touch letting them witness her demotion as setup to Part 5, equally nice that you let them act on it right away. We're easily a year from this point the rate we play, also with a little extra stuff. I hope it can be as lively a race.
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I had it that since Fishguts has been around, and was with the PCs when they took over their own ship, he gave some advise on what to do. He told them, that running around taking ships without Free Captain's status while they are at "low levels" is all well and good, but soon they are going to attract the attention of someone who will take exception to this.
Becoming Free Captains will give them some protection from this. And getting in good with a Pirate Lord will certainly help. But again, the need to be free Captains.
I had Pegsworthy working for Tessa Fairwind. After the first meeting he came to them with an offer to hunt down the Dominator for Tessa. Pegsworthy and the PCs caught the Dominator and Pegsworthy escorted the PCs through the shackles to Quent to claim their reward. It was kinda impressed upon them that with Quent being a pirate haven/tropical paradise that is was a place they would want to visit without needing Pegsworthy to protect them.
In port I have only given them a fraction of gp for selling loot, as they are not Free Captains, and merchants who regularly deal with Free Captains don't want to piss them off by showing the same treatment to ones who don't follow Shackles rules.
And also my PCs really want to stay in control of Tidewater Rock. They married the Lady of the Rock, and insisted (while she was alive, long story) that her "lord" must be a free captain.
So really, there are plenty of ways, you just need to tailor it to what you know will hook your PCs.
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Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... I'm really lost on the trial part and time is running out.
Regarding getting the hint to try at becoming a free captain, I used Merrill Pegsworthy. He met them at Tidewater Rock after the end of Mancatcher Cove and basically said that recovering the treasure was a big enough accomplishment that it was time for them to make an attempt at it if they were going to be real pirates. He met them later at Goatshead and sailed with them to Port Peril. The crew managed to fail two of Tsadok's tests and failed to impress the Hurricane King's audience, and although they burned through most of their plunder getting there, I had Pegsworthy be the one to vouch for them and allow them to get the letter of marque anyway. That made him a closer friend to them and it's worked well.
Regarding bastard's fool, read the posts up-thread where the game was explained to me. I used it as written in my game, and it was fine. Just make sure you understand the mechanics of it going in. The trick is to have Tsadok fold enough so the PC gets too drunk to take advantage of the checks he can make to improve his hand. Drinking doesn't affect Tsadok because he doesn't make the checks and relies on the dealer to help him win. Play until you get to that point, then go all in when Tsadok is ready. It shouldn't take more than 8 hands. My group didn't get bored. I think too many people assumed it wouldn't work because it was a little complicated in writing and never gave it a chance. It's a fine sub-game.
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I ran the investigation pretty much as written, and my party didn't have too much of a problem with it. I hand-waved the travel times and didn't bother having any random encounters or worrying about role playing the travelling. Going to all the cities helped to flesh out the Shackles by describing each port they go to, and what makes them unique.
That's what I was aiming for with Tessa's request. I gives the PCs an excuse/reason to sail around the Shackles Isles and 'explore the sandbox'.
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Can anyone help me out with what the PCs are supposed to discover about why the Brine Banshee was so fast? I've been poring over the text and just can't find it!
It's the wheel, Jalhazar's Wheel.
The Norgorberites tasked the PCs with finding out what happened to the Brine Banshee and the secret behind its speed and maneuverability.
Jalhazar's Wheel's magical abilities don't have much to do with a ship's speed, but Brine Banshee's speed was only part of the legend, it also had "unparalleled handling for a vessel of its size."
In my campaign, the knowledge alone of the ultimate fate of Brine Banshee and the existence of the wheel was enough for the Norgorberites to give up their information. There's almost no way for the PCs to know it was Hirgenzosk who sank the ship, barring high level divinations, and I wouldn't expect the PCs to give the Norgorberites Jalhazar's Wheel. The Temple of the Hidden Name deals in information alone, so just finding this stuff out and telling them about it should suffice.
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My players just fought Zarskia. For RP and character backstory reasons, they decided to capture her and sell her into slavery. Any suggestions on her being a recurring villain? Couple of my very basic ideas are below.
1. Would Zarskia join Harrigan's crew? Would she somehow connect with him for her desire to get revenge on the PCs? Would they see her in the Regatta, or hold out until a later encounter with Harrigan?
2. Being a powerful alchemist, would she captain her own ship (probably not, she doesn't seem like a great leader), or build some awesome/crazy siege weapons and ammo for someone else's ship? This could also be included with #1.
I've just realized something now that I'm prepping to Run Island of Empty Eyes...
It would introduce her as a recurring villain (especially if she manages to escape again after that), and it manages to "trim the fat" by replacing a one-off character appearance by someone the PCs have never met and using an already established character.
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1. Would Zarskia join Harrigan's crew? Would she somehow connect with him for her desire to get revenge on the PCs? Would they see her in the Regatta, or hold out until a later encounter with Harrigan?
I don't think so. She's not really loyal to Harrigan in any way and her spy ring has been compromised and dissolved. If she gets caught by the authorities of the Shackles, she is way dead. She's a traitor that has been discovered. She will have few if any allies in the Shackles. Her best chance for survival is to leave the area, not hang around to get "revenge" on people who basically just tipped her hand into doing something she was already planning to do anyway.
As far as Harrigan, he won't want to ally with her because he doesn't want people knowing he's become a traitor. There is no reason for these two to work together. The Eel makes way more sense.
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Her best chance for survival is to leave the area, not hang around to get "revenge" on people who basically just tipped her hand into doing something she was already planning to do anyway.
I agree that Zarskia is not likely to hang around in the Shackles. Aside from the negative consequences to her, it seems her 'handlers' have other things for her to do elsewhere.
However, it might be possible to introduce the Eel to the PCs a little early. After all, rumor is that the alchemist is selling out her stocks. If they spend any time observing Zarskia's house before moving in, they could possibly see a halfling matching the Eel's description entering and leaving. If the PCs arrive as supposed customers rather than attackers at first, they might get a glimpse of the Eel in another room, or as he is escorted back to the front door. That would give them a chance to recognize him later as someone with at least slight ties to another enemy, rather than being merely a random addition.
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I don't really understand why the Eel debuting as he does is an issue. The Shackles is a huge place. Why should the PCs have met everybody before? Why should they be forewarned about every favor Harrigan can call in? What's wrong with them having to say "Who is this guy? What does he want to do this for?"
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So does Fishpork the marsh giant get a gaff as well as the rocks? The AP specifically mentions that rocks have been provided, but only the Bestiary statblock mentions the gaff as his likely weapon of choice.
Yes, if we only put a short stat block into an adventure, then you use the base stat block as presented in the Bestiary, which in this case includes the gaff. Giant boulders probably just wouldn't be lying around on the docks of Port peril, so they were specifically called out in his tactics as being in the cage with him.
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My game is approaching the PCs encounter with Giles Halmis. I want to make sure I understand the rules of this encounter correctly. I intend to have Giles make every effort to escape. He is not going to fight the PCs unless he as no other choice.
The book says that since he's on a roof top and the PCs are on the street, he has cover from them but it doesn't say whether it's partial, improved or total. Does anyone have any input?
He's got a hefty stealth modifier at a +22. Also since he's at least 100 feet away, he's going to get an additional +10 against PC spot checks.
My plan is to have him shoot using stealth to snipe then move action to reload. in the next round he's going to shoot again, once again sniping, then move action to stow his crossbow. In the next round he's going to move to his rope on the other side of the building, which might require a double move. Then he's going to accelerated climb down the rope 30 feet as a double move action. Then he's going to stealth if he's still unseen and move at half speed out of the area, maintaining his stealth.
How does his cover on the roof top factor in?
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Note that Giles has Crossbow Mastery. So it is a free action for him to reload his crossbow. He could full attack if he wished to.
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When they are investigating the spy ring they go Bag Island and talk to Slip, the Brine Banshee is the information he is looking for in order to tell them what he knows about the spy ring.
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I would consider Making Giles a Bolt Ace.
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So does Fishpork the marsh giant get a gaff as well as the rocks? The AP specifically mentions that rocks have been provided, but only the Bestiary statblock mentions the gaff as his likely weapon of choice.Yes, if we only put a short stat block into an adventure, then you use the base stat block as presented in the Bestiary, which in this case includes the gaff. Giant boulders probably just wouldn't be lying around on the docks of Port peril, so they were specifically called out in his tactics as being in the cage with him.
According to the PRD, "a Large ... giant can hurl Small rocks" and "a 'rock' is any large, bulky, and relatively regularly shaped object made of any material with a hardness of at least 5." Cargo crates and barrels seem like good candidates for Small 'rocks', and there should be plenty of them available on the docks of Port Peril. There could still be some boulders in the cage, but crates and barrels would allow Fishpork to keep throwing, even if the PCs blocked his access to the boulders.
My players are very experienced, and challenging them definitely requires increasing the CR of their opponents. I've added two levels of Barbarian to Fishpork, with the Breaker archetype, Smasher as his rage power, and Shrapnel Strike as his feat.
Hey Fishpork, these people want to take you sailing!
I don't like sailing. I get seasick. They can't take me sailing if I make holes in their boat!
If the PCs let the raging giant get too close to their ship, they'll have a hefty repair bill to pay before they can set sail again.
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My PCs are currently infiltrating the Jasperleaf Apothecary. The party includes a cleric, fighter, gunslinger and witch. They have just defeated the pirate guards on the first floor. Four dead, two fled; one out the front door of the building the other upstairs hiding. We stopped the game with them at the stairs up on the first floor.
They didn't do anything particularly quietly with the gunslinger blazing away and the fighter taking three rounds to bash down a door after having sprung the trap in the kitchen, so I'm going to judge that Zarskia is fully aware and has had time to prepare with all of her extracts and mutagens.
Does anyone have any interesting tactics they used or advice on how she should make her appearance and how she should attack? I don't think she should have any reason to wait for them in her room.
Also, does anyone have any sense how high the ceilings are in the building? I can't find it spelled out anywhere in the book. I was going to assume 10 feet, and since flying will be a part of this, I assume it'll come into play.
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Pierce Jerell; I'm having trouble making this NPC stick. He met the PCs at the tavern as written and things went according to what was written. They seemed to like him but were more distracted by Caulkie Tarroon's appearance.
Since my PCs ended up being pretty abolitionist, I made sure to play this part of him up. I even changed his backstory a little bit; He lost his eye at Rapier Bay in combat with Barnabas Harrigan. He liberated a boatload of slaves from one of Bedu Hanji's ships. Harrigan then opportunistically attacked him in the aftermath of the battle. As a result, Jerell's previous ship, the Wyvern's Sting, was damaged so bad it had to be scuttled and Harrigan took the freed slaves prisoner and sold them back into slavery himself. I did this to give them a little more in common with him because he sees Harrigan as his enemy too. Unfortunately only two of the surviving PCs met Harrigan first hand. In addition to that the PCs were trying to keep a low profile and weren't wanting to advertise who their enemies were so this tactic impressed them privately but they didn't overtly take a shine to him.
Now we're finished the Jasperleaf Apothecary and I want to give the PCs about a month before the Regatta to get ready. The path they took to ferret out the spies didn't include looking for the Brine Banshee. I want to reintroduce Jerell and see if he can really take with the PCs this time. As an aside, I had great success with Merrill Pegsworthy in the last book. He was someone who helped guide them to being free captain and even vouched for them to the Hurricane King when they failed to entertain his guests. They still look at Pegsworthy as a mentor and friend and I want to make Jerell important to them too. I'm considering having him be a contestant in the Regatta with his own axe to grind.
Any advice on what worked in your game?
My PCs encountered Milksop Morton and through a combination of using the Shackles Ensign plus a good diplomacy roll, they were able to make him friendly. Instead of fighting they paid him 5 points of plunder to use the Ring of the Iron Skull to lead them to the wreck of the Brine Banshee!
I love when PCs do things like this but also kind of hate it since I spent so much time making notes and prepping for the combat encounter that never happened. Ha! So, for those who wonder if your PCs can wear white pirate hats: Yes they can.
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I'm getting ready to run the Free Captain's Regatta and had some questions. In the normal storm bound hazards section of the book, it says that every minute the PCs are in a hurricane, the GM should roll on the hazard table 1d100+1d20+15-PC sailing check.
In the Regatta section of the book, it says to roll on the hazard table each time the PCs enter a new way point. Am I correct in understanding that the Regatta doesn't use the standard rules for sailing in a hurricane and the check is only made once per way point? If this is true, does the standard hurricane roll formula above apply, or is it just a straight 1d100-PC sailing check to determine?
Also, I'm going to assume that wind conditions will be severe enough to require concentration checks from spell casters and render ranged weapons useless. Is this accurate?
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My party is having some issues with this book.
[snip]
...forged on to fight the aboleth. Well with a -4 to saves, 3 of them got dominated and kill the last one. End of party. Woo!
Our group had a huge problem with this aboleth. It dominated two out of four PCs, and we wasting a huge amount of game time getting out of this jam (we would have all died if the GM would have been a bastard).
We all had a big conversation about it: why on Earth would a CR 7 creature have access to dominate monster, a 9th level wizard spell???
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Also: unaddressed by the rules or AP is the fact that the aboleth mucus cloud doesn't grant resistance to water pressure damage... so would a dominated surface dweller not immediately attempt to break out of the spell to prevent "suicidal" commands, which is effectively any command that is not, "Go back to the surface, or your skull will be crushed!"
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In my game, the PCs had too much dealing with the sea anemone and since the Wheel of the Brine Banshee was on the top of the ship, they just took it at that point and ran without ever running into the aboleth.
However, my contingency plan had they encountered this thing and gotten dominated would've been that the aboleth decided to use them as sleeper agents. It wouldn't just have them follow it underwater because there was no point to that; it would have access to skum, which are probably better underwater servants. Instead it would send the PCs back to their ship and basically pretend nothing happened. In the future, I planned to have the aboleth return and press them into finding the Snare of the Island Eater for it and have them drop it into the ocean. I also considered having it send a high level gill-man to join the crew and keep tabs on them as well. Could've been a neat adventure had it come to pass.
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"In the future" would mean at some point between the successful domination and 16 days later, 'cause the aboleth's cast dominate monster at caster level 16. The sleeping agents would have to have something to do in the relative near future, but that's a great idea.
My choice would be, "Order the crew to go to coordinate X and Y, and drop magic items to the ocean floor."
:)
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I really liked the idea of having at least one aboleth encounter in this AP, but I didn't like the encounter as written. In my opinion, an aboleth should be pulling strings and arranging events behind the scenes, not just waiting for the PCs to stumble across it in a wrecked ship.
To give the aboleth more of an active role, I replaced the entire Brine Banshee storyline with Richard Pett's adventure The Styes, from Dungeon Magazine #121. I had "Slip" at the temple of Norgorber send the party to the Styes District of Bloodcove. He wanted to know why a trained assassin had suddenly become careless, started carrying a lantern on the job, and allowed himself to be captured by the authorities.
Master Refrum became the party's contact in the Styes, the Lantern Man became a dominated assassin of Norgorber, and the Spawn of Tharzidun became an infant Spawn of Rovagug.
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Ah it's good to see the Styes slithering from under the pier and the flotsam from time to time KarlBob:)
You might enjoy an adventure and city guide from Frog God Games coming soon called the Blight and Levee - both very uber-styes and, well, quite nasty really.
Rich
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Ah yes, my beloved Grasts. Glad you enjoyed it, keep watching, I know Vaughan is busy taking notes from it right now, we're hoping it'll crawl out this year:)
Rich
some crazy things to keep in mind, that i found out the hard way, still fun though.
In the first challenge at the start of the book, the pc's have to pick one of them to undo the sails. they picked the squirrel familiar of the shaman, i let it slide because it was funny. i ran contest, thinking of the speed of both, and even without rolls the squirrel won, having climb speed helped out a lot.
in the third challenge, where they defend the ship. while the giant was still in his cage and covered, the ship captain used the heavy ballistia on it, and from then on ran to the other two ballistas on that side of the ship. the giant got to act twice....
the result for the race can be a little strange, with result of 11+ being overwhelming victory, my group got a 55 race score. makes it hard to say how far ahead they were and if the last event of trying to summon from the scroll would happen if you cant see the target.
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In the first challenge at the start of the book, the pc's have to pick one of them to undo the sails. they picked the squirrel familiar of the shaman, i let it slide because it was funny. i ran contest, thinking of the speed of both, and even without rolls the squirrel won, having climb speed helped out a lot.
Ha. You let them get away with murder. What kind of prof: sailor bonus did the squirrel have? Even if it was a +7, using it's master's ranks (assuming he had maxed it out), it still doesn't have it as a class skill and I wouldn't have allowed a tiny animal to be able to untie rigging and lower all of those pounds of sails on its own like a man could. Some things can't beat opposible thumbs...
in the third challenge, where they defend the ship. while the giant was still in his cage and covered, the ship captain used the heavy ballistia on it, and from then on ran to the other two ballistas on that side of the ship. the giant got to act twice....
You should've had the marsh giant use Fog Cloud to make himself harder to hit with a 50% miss chance. Even if they were shooting a covered wagon cage it'd be a 50% miss chance and could be argued that they'd simply be damaging the cage, not the giant.
So with the game bastard's fool, had anyone found a way to make it more interactive for all the players? I know theres the "help the player cheat" rules, but my players have the subtlety of a semitruck. Suggestions?
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I just used role playing. Make it as much a spectacle as you can. Have Tsadok chew the scenery and the others shouldn't be bored.