So I haven't posted in forever, been playing Pathfinder since it's release. The first and only AP I have run was Rise of the Runelords. My friends and I take turns DMing. So my turn came up again on Skull and Shackles. They decided to make an all goblin crew, which was such an awesome idea that I had to create and run an entire prologue to embelish the start of the adventure.
First, and old gobby came to the nearby goblin warren and asked for volunteers to join a pirate crew. He had found a derelict fishing boat and decided he needed a crew to patch it up and set sail. So he held tryouts.
He ran a large group a goblins through intense training to see who was a true sailor and who the land lubbers were. First, he made them patch up his boat. He'd need goblins that were good at patching up holes! Then he needed to see if they could swim, so he made them swim in some shark infested waters, to see if they could swim under pressure. Then he held boarding action training, some goblins didn't make it through that. He forgot to mention to use wooden dog slicers to the PC's. Then he had them go through the most important trial. He needed to see who was lucky. So he held a picnic in a pit at the scrapyard, and hurled venomous snakes into the pit. Anyone lucky enough to get out of the pit un-poisoned was a bonafide pirate!
They then hit up Port Peril to get supplies, and crossed paths with a human of ill repute. They caught wind of an important trader that would be setting sail the next day with a valuable load. So they stalked the boat with their fishing vessel as it made its way away from the coast then struck under the cover of darkness. They managed to sneak aboard, but at the same time another vessel attacked the merchant vessel. The Goblins were focused though, they wanted the important shiny. During the chaos, they managed to find the important cargo. A small container the merchant was holding very tightly. They managed to get it, but it opened spilling out a black oily substance. As this was going on the goblin captain and the merchant vessel captain where duking it out. Unfortunately the third ships boarding crew joined the melee, and the Goblin captain was about to be captured. But he gave one of his goblin crew an important lesson. "Goblin Pirates never go down easy." before exploding himself and effectively scuttling both the merchant vessel and the fishing boat.
They drifted for a day before the Wormwood showed up and fished them out of the water.
.........and that was just the prologue. :D
Now, I am a big horror fan. So I like to spice up my AP's with a bit of horror, thrills, chills, and creepiness. But, being a pirate campaign. I did not want to add something that was too out of place. So I have added a major story hook to the AP, it's just not important to the game itself and will have little actual impact. But it will be fun to reference throughout the game.
I actually got the idea from the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" Dead Space version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTGUiHh_--g
The story hook being the black oily substance. The box the merchant held was actually a box of binding, very old and had many warning signs on it. On the box was a warning to not open it, and also this damaged script: "And so it was that the first born was cast into starless dark where time is not and sunlight holds no sway where that which is dead lives anew and that which lives is naught but fodder for their rebirth"
The language it was written in was in Aklo, which I gave to them but used a Necromorph font to give them as a visual reference only. Since none of them actually read Aklo. They actually managed to decipher it themselves after I gave them a couple of letters. Clever bastards.
The goblin that opened the box is now effectively possessed, just doesn't know it yet. When he came too on the Wormwood, he awoke in a pool of blood that was not his own and had painted the following all over the cargo hold he was in, in blood. "I don’t want to kill but I don’t want to die" "What are you willing to give up your life for"
"Your body now our body later one body forever" which are from Dead Space as well, but they fit in well with what I am planning on doing.
They will eventually come to find out the true nature of what it is that has a hold on their buddy. The actual substance is an entity that was created by the Runelord Sorshen. She wanted to create an armor that could mold itself to its bearer, and that was drew upon the wearers own lust and desires. To do this she used some Runic/eldritc rituals and power to manifest desire itself. That is effectively what the black substance is. Kind of like the concept that if you believe in something, it will manifest itself. I came to that conclusion from a cross of H.P. Lovecraft stuff and Warhammer Fantasy lore (The birth of Slaanesh). However this armor has a will of its own, corrupted over the thousands of years it has been feeding off the desires and lusts of all of those who have worn it. Each bearer corrupted into feeding its ever escalating need for more 'desire/lust' from the souls of its wearer.
I even created a few different folklore tales about the black substance, giving it different names in each tale. All of them describing how it was given to someone, how it helped them accomplish what they wanted most, and how it amplified that need into excess zeal for more until it had enough, and lead them to their doom. Then it would move on to another. This I got from an old movie I remembered, Fallen.
They have no idea what their little goblin friend has opened up, and none of them will ever really understand. Not until it's far too late. As a mechanic in the game, it won't do much. Minor Armor/Str/Dex bonuses to checks and such. Maybe 1 or 2. It's just waking up right now. It's centuries old and will need a lot more than a goblin to feed off of. I am planning on having this thing appear in some other AP's that I run in the future. Until it's strong enough. The players sometimes won't even know it's there in some cases.
Haha, all that from Twinkle Twinkle little star. I pity my players some times.
