Plunder as loot (possible spoilers)

[tachus]

This was just a question I had about the treasure during off ship dungeon crawls such as 'Mancatcher Cove'.

For example, the last encounter at Mancatcher Cove states there is 10 points of plunder as treasure. But Mancatcher Cove is all underwater and per the Player's Guide a point of plunder is approximately 10 tons in weight.

So the question is does anyone have any ideas of how the party is supposed to transport 100 tons of treasure up from underwater without taking about a month of traveling back and forth?

[Varthanna]

tachus wrote:

without taking about a month of traveling back and forth?

...Why not take a month? I dont think there is a time limit. Its a natural pausing point between books. Let the world advance, change, grow, have sidequests blossom. Great opportunity to get crafting and the like done, as well.

[Ice Titan]

You overlooked something very important.

Spoiler:

Everything is in an extradimensional space that weighs 150 pounds. So they can take that outside, open it and pour it out. Takes less than an hour if they've got anyone above 13 strength.

[tachus]

Ice Titan, that seems like an oversight to me cause if you look at the stats for the chest it says acts like a Bag of Holding IV, and only holds 2500 lbs.

I suppose the time could be drastically reduced by using the trunk to bring up about a ton at a time. Maybe about a week or so at that point.

[Ice Titan]

tachus wrote:

Ice Titan, that seems like an oversight to me cause if you look at the stats for the chest it says acts like a Bag of Holding IV, and only holds 2500 lbs.

I suppose the time could be drastically reduced by using the trunk to bring up about a ton at a time. Maybe about a week or so at that point.

Plunder is extremely poorly defined in-game anyways. Case in point - Book one: Mister Plugg has a small chest with 1 point of plunder in it that he carried from the Wormwood to the Man's Promise.

Just go with it.

EDIT: D18 is 160 ft. below the surface, so assuming passed swim checks by a 30ft movement character, that takes 16 rounds to swim down to. 55 rounds to swim from D18 to the plunder and back to D18, then 16 rounds to swim up. For the average 12 Con pirate, they have 24 rounds-- they can't make it from the surface to D18 and then back up without 8 rounds of Con checks to avoid drowning.

It takes even longer to swim D1 to the plunder.

Avg pirate can do 500 pounds per trip. It takes 87 rounds, or 9 minutes, to get 500 pounds of treasure to the surface. The pirate suffers a -6 check penalty when dragging the treasure, so we can make it a -4 if two pirates do it. It takes two pirates 36 minutes to get a point of plunder, so it takes them 360 minutes. Or-- if they use the captain's locker, filling it as much as they can on each trip-- 9~ trips, which is 1hr20 minutes. Their choice.

You cannot get the treasure if you don't have water breathing. It takes 1/4th of a water breathing potion's duration to single-handedly dredge the treasure. It's not really an issue. It won't take a month.

[ikki3520]

100 tons from underwater?
No problem.

You have a crew, 50+ cursing sailors well versed in stuff like blocks, rope and carpentry to construct lifting systems. (hell they lift 2 ton weighing sails everyday!) And then they use muscle power to haul it up.

You werent expecting the crew to sit on their asses while the captain and officers work their hands to the bone? ;)

And how to get down to 160' ?
Diving bell! And pumps for air.. Then let them take shifts while building the platform from lumber weighted and dropped down to the bottom. Then haul the treasure onto the platforms while other sailors lift it up.
...dont forget the pumps ;)

Shape stone should create a nicelooking bell. The rubber airsystem is a bit trickier. But i suppose some guts from slaughtered sheep might work. Further protected by leather.

[Fitzwalrus]

Check out the Exploring the Shackles thread elsewhere on this page. Chris Kenney has some interesting ideas there, including splitting "Plunder" out into more readily transporatable treasure-style loot as well as the current bulkier trade goods.

Spoiler:

Some modules do this already... the stern of the wrecked ship containing the aboleth has a great whacking pile of Plunder consisting of crates of gold and silver bars stored in a room far too small to hold it at the "one Plunder = one ton of cargo" rate.

Love the idea about the Diving Bell.... ;D