How Monstrous Are You and Your Crew?


Skull & Shackles


Shackles is that one adventure in a sea of do-gooder stories where you have the chance to be a real bastard and still be the "hero" of the story, but to what extent?

Our party's done some really horrific things. I'm only warning you once before proceeding.

Spoiler:
I crucified the corpse of a village guard after our first successful coastal raid for theatrical shock and awe. I mutilated the arms, eyes, tail, teeth, and tongue of a sahuagin we captured who attacked Tidewater Rock for killing one of Lady Smythee's people, keeping him as a twisted, broken pet until he jumped to his death at Mancatcher Cove. I had Isabella skinned and taxidermized after she committed suicide and robbed me of the chance to recruit her into my crew. I hung the remains of an aboleth from the ship for display. Anytime someone crosses me, their heart and head are placed on spikes on the upheld hands of the ship's figurehead. I cheated Fitch of all but one plunder point and he would've been killed outright by my order after insulting me if one of the more morally inclined party members hadn't stepped in. All of this, though, pales in what I could have done if not held back by others of my crew.

Huh, come to think of it, 90% of the evil crap we do is because my character's the captain.

So, how about yours? Done anything so atrocious, you need a spoiler tag for more than just spoilers? Don't be shy. Anything that happens is the actions of your character, not yours, so I won't judge.


Captain Sakhbet "The Sandman" wrote:

Shackles is that one adventure in a sea of do-gooder stories where you have the chance to be a real bastard and still be the "hero" of the story, but to what extent?

Our party's done some really horrific things. I'm only warning you once before proceeding. ** spoiler omitted **

Huh, come to think of it, 90% of the evil crap we do is because my character's the captain.

So, how about yours? Done anything so atrocious, you need a spoiler tag for more than just spoilers? Don't be shy. Anything that happens is the actions of your character, not yours, so I won't judge.

Als, we were not quite so evil though we were anything but good. We did have some pretty intense stuff happen in our campaign though, and it set the tone for the entire AP.

Spoiler:
During the Wormwood Mutiny, Scourge - who was played as a lecher and misogonist - raped one of our characters, the Seasinger Bard who later went on to be our captain. It served as a bonding moment for she and the other female player as well as with the female NPC's (Rosie and Sandara). They conspired to murder Scourge and did so successfully without being caught. Throughout the rest of the AP our captain would not tolerate the capture or sale of slaves nor the mistreatment of women in her presence.

This actually led to a great scene between she, Avinar Sorenash and our Barbarian during the feast on Island of Empty Eyes when the werewolf got handsy with one of the serving girls and she ordered our Master at Arms to 'put the dog out'. A duel that would become the stuff of legend ensued.

Great idea for a thread though.


Oof, that's a subject that takes a lot of stomach and maturity to uphold, even for me. Kudos to your group for being able to follow through and make a great story out of it.

Oh. Forgot one.

Spoiler:
Sakhbet had the sahuagin young and elderly brutally slaughtered to ensure their tribe wouldn't seek retribution against him in the future. He would have had the eggs and tadpoles butchered, too, but he was pleaded for mercy, only relenting because he figured predators and hazards would kill them anyway.


The crew I am DMing for made it their thing to raid every fishing village they see, taking all their plunder and selling the inhabitants of the villages into slavery. Remember that rude dude of a hobgoblin? They captured him alive and sold his butt to the Aspice Consortium to die in the fighting pits.

They even managed to kill Plug before hitting level 2, before the man's promise event. It took some lucky rolls, but the man was unarmored, so even as a level 4 character, 4 men with cutlass and boarding gaffs, along with an animal companion could easily pick him apart. To fix up what was left of the plot, I had Harrigan maroon them on the cannibal islands to fight Kuru, babboons, and giant crabs until appropriately leveled, then had the Man's promise manned by some Wyrmwood crew (the crew murdered Scourge the second the Wyrmwood left the horizon)pick them up only to get blown into Riptide Cove with a strong storm.


My PCs are pretty good actually. I believe that everyone is some form of neutral, although they don't take slaves, actively rail against slavery and aren't overly cruel. They've even healed dying combatants on merchant ships once the captain has surrendered.

I know some people had asked and my game is evidence that you can be more or less good-natured and play the game as written.

One time I did tell them that summoning a lawful good lantern archon to assist in pirating a merchant might make the archons mad at them though. They ended up summoning an air elemental instead, haha!


My group are on the whole pretty ok although a few things stand out:

Having a BBQ in Senghor and serving a Pesch laced burger made from a dead half-orc to a Vegetarian Elf after charming him (turning him into a drugged addled Psycho that they had to deal with later).

Killing the crew of the Junk, leaving one, cutting his arms off, chucking him in solitary confinment until he goes completley Mad then dropping him off at the nearest port with a tattoo saying this is what you get if you mess with Captain Jack Bones.

Slautering a village to get plunder and killing all the males just leaving the very young and the females.

After being treated unfairly by a village mayor in a small port the party decided on revenge, lacing a barrel or ale or 2 with pesch they sneaked it in to his house and spread the rumour around the village that he was smuggling on the side. His local constable checked it out and now the mayor is locked up.


We are playing it very much on the heroic side of pirating--we treat our crew well, we are against slavery, and we don't inflict all that much damage on the locals.

Grand Lodge

We've committed murder for hire.
We've smuggled drugs.
We've drowned a baby to end a prophecy.
We've raped members of captured crews.

Yeah, no goods in the Whore's Promise crew!


Wow. Now I'm wondering if I could play a Cleric or Antipaladin of Dagon and get away with it. Maybe the former, because there's not many Good things to smite.

Liberty's Edge

In theory my character, Merrick d'Targas, bard and captain, is still Chaotic Good, and does generally try to get the opposition to surrender rather than kill them, thus far there were only two exceptions:

1) We tossed the sahuagin matriarch into the spawning room and barred the door shut, mind you this is only AFTER we'd discovered the locathah queen... We then killed EVERY sahuagin we came across for the rest of the dungeon.

2) Wholesale slaughter of a tribe of goblins who had killed the 'redshirts'(unnamed generic crew) in a filer adventure. The melon headed freaks had taken over the ship and slaughtered the crew. We then bluff, charmed and intimidated them off the ship so we could 'bless' it before undertaking there 'holy mission' and while they waited for the blessing to happen, blasted them with a full broadside of chainshot and cannister. You DO NOT mess with my crew.

So we're good-ish... And aren't just being poetic when we call the vessel "The Vengeance".


Azmyth wrote:

We've smuggled drugs.

We've drowned a baby to end a prophecy.

Your captain and my own alchemist captain would get along great.

More:

Spoiler:
SEVERAL accounts of cannibalism. This is practiced only by the captain, but it's something he's become infamous for.

Since he's developed plague bombs, he'll be using those, too. I'm not sure if they're considered evil, but since they copy the effects of contagion (which IS an evil spell), I'm inclined to say that the world is a slightly less wholesome place with every little bomb blast and every victim afflicted with bubonic plague and other nastiness.


My group seems to be well on their way to becoming evil (from a mostly CN crew) and they're not even out of book 1 yet.

I blame it on the Goblin Vivisectionist, who decided to make nice with Arron Ivy (the Ghast). A deal along the lines of "We'll feed you a steady supply of people and other edible creatures if you help us out".

I foresee great things in store.

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