
Mathius |
So my PCs managed to kill Plugg and subdue Scrooge on the on the first day.
I am using fire as she bears and the wyrmwood would need a crew of 57 so I filled in the rest with unseen crew cast by the sorc on board. Harrigan is depressed after his capture and his officers only brought the crew on board along with plugg and scrooge for entertainment.
Anyway, when dinner was served MS required groveling for the food. The PCs reacted with violence and within two rounds the magus had stunned both with color spray, the monk had pinned plugg, the witch had slumbered both and the cleric and couped MS. The druid had got a 30 intimidate to keep the crew out of it.
Harrigan used dazzling display to frighten then all and that is where we ended. I am considering a keelhauling and a promotion. Not sure where to go from here. My PCs are very very evil.

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Over the side with the lot of em, rewrite characters and reset in port peril, your players don't want to co operate with the storyline, it might just be the wrong adventure path for them.
oh and a word to the wise, for a longer lived adventure nobble or lose the druid, also remove all fire or weather control type spells from your casters

Dave Justus |
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Frankly, you screwed up the combat and fixing it now in way that allows the path to continue will be difficult.
The magus probably didn't have the material components for color spray, the intimidate check would only give one person the demoralized condition, it takes a minute to change an opponents attitude, which means, if nothing else, crew allies would wake up slumbered foes. If even then your PCs would have been powerful enough to defeat Plugg and Scourge you should have adjusted their challenge rating since you obviously have more powerful PCs than expected.
The path can deal pretty well with the PCs getting uppity and then beaten down, having them kill off officers, and expecting it to go as normal is pretty hard to recover from.
Most likely Harrigan would just kill the PCs at this point. You could however just maroon them somewhere, perhaps bonewrack isle, with some chances to do a few different encounters before returning to the main storyline and give them a chance to get some basic gear. After surviving bonewrack isle for a while, they could eventually find the Man's Promise and take it over, resuming the path as normal.
Alternatively, you could talk to your players, explain the situation and retcon things so that Plugg and Scourge were not killed, perhaps just incapacitated, and thus the PCs will get a less severe punishment and the path can go on.

Lamontius |

I would use a combination of Dave Justus' and MrVergee's posts.
Yeah, it sounds like you messed up some things, but what's done is done. Harrigan will most likely punish the PCs quite badly for what they have done and this display of outright insubordination and violence should have consequences for them.
That being said, why not promote Syl Lonnegan and Fipps Chumlett into the roles of Scourge and Plugg? They're pretty evil, and you could essentially use the same stat blocks with very little alteration.
So tl;dr
Have Harrigan punish the PCs, put two new NPCs into the statblocks/roles of Plugg/Scourge

Mathius |
Plugg is not dead, the captain stopped things before they could coup him.
I did mess things up but the weapon that did the coup was a held charge. Each PC gets to start with a small item and the magus kept his pouch.
The other change I made was the purpose of the crew. They are on board because Peppery Longfarthing wants to cheer up Harrigan with some old fashion cruelty. Harrigan and Longfarthing care nothing at all about the crew or plugg or scrooge. The spell unseen crew is doing most of the work to crew the vessel.
I think that forcing one the PCs to keelhaul a member of their own might be a way to start. After that, put a newly terrified Plugg back in charge who talks the captian into marooning them on bonewrack isle few days later. Maroon any friendly or helpful allies with them. After week there Plugg and crew wash up with the Man's Promise.

mbauers |

Well, I know you altered the number of crew and everything, but did you present the rest of Harrigan's rules as written in the AP? I mean, a dude gets keelhauled on Night 1 for, I believe, stealing from an officer. And Harrigan's two rules are don't talk to me, and don't kill anyone. So, personally, I would rule that the cleric who coup de graced Scourge would be triple-keelhauled (I believe it says the penalty for attempting to poison the officers is that, and this is outright murder of an officer). There really shouldn't be any way to survive that.
As for the others, beat the tar out of them and let them take turns living in the sweat box. There's one point where Plugg starts assigning the worst job to each PC. I'd start that now for your PCs. "You used to be the Cook's Mate (relatively decent job)? 'F' You, you do nothing but work in the bilges now. You have one eye? 'F' You, you're the permanent lookout, and if you fail you get 20 lashes..."
The Cleric has no right to complain about being killed--there was a lot of info presented on why NOT to have mutinous actions on the Wormwood. The others get to keep their lives but get a miserable time of it, which gives them more reason to hate Plugg while also showing them, IC, why you don't screw with Harrigan when you're level 1.
If they further try anything, have Harrigan TPK them easily. I made a thread on here for a modified Harrigan, and I'm actually stating him up again as a Slayer, just need to format and post it. A level 1 party should not mess with a highly respected/feared Free Captain.

Mathius |
I think the triple keelhauling is a good idea. I will allow it to be reduced by 1 if each two of his friends will also take a keelhauling. It will demonstrate that they will not be loyal to you if you side with them. He can even get down to 1 if all 5 PCs take a keelhauling.
The Magus and the monk will most likely die. The witch can breath water and has a swim speed so I will give a chance to reduce the damage. The druid has shark companion so that may save him. The cleric can channel several times to counteract the damage but drowning is a danger.
After that replace any PC with other crew, get them to second and maroon them on Bonewrack, after they explore the island we will have the Man's Promise wash up on shore.

deathbydice |

I'd also like to mention that the witches slumber only works for a single round at that level, which would mean you'd have to be right next (aka face to face) to the target for a CdG. Just to sound in on the "this don't really work" choir
Don't see a reason why a swim speed reduces the Keel Hauling (you are bound on ankles and wrists and slowly (!) pulled along under the ship...usually from side to side)... no freaking way to swim. And it also feels ridiculous to keelhaul someone who can actually breath water. Pirates cheat and bend the rules at every whim, so why not here ?
(Or maybe someone even forgets to turn the Capstan for a quick smoke while you are underneath or perhaps drops some blood into the water to lure some sharks for a quick lunch break ? Or keelhauls you lengthwise from bow to stern - and not sideways^^).
Channeling Energy. Please (!) remember that has to be done THROUGH a holy symbol (and the keelhauled's hands and feet are tied ). So the symbol has to be in hand A cleric must be able to present her holy symbol to use this ability. as per RAW.
Personally, I'd go with a quick amputation maiming which both fits with Harrigans brutality and visciousness, and can - if the players survive that long, be reversed with a regeneration. Finally a use for the archetypal pirate's hook or a pegleg ! And then send the maimed buggers up into the rigging ....where they should actually have both hands to hold on and work.

Mathius |
You know the permanent damage idea has merits.
I did warn the players to have new PCs ready just in case so that is not an issue.
Your right about the swim speed being and ineffective but they do not know that any of them can breath water. Good point on the channeling energy.
The coup worked because on the previous round the cleric had miss with his touch attack on inflict light wounds. I know that slumber is only1 round but the cleric was already there with a charged spell.

mbauers |

You know the permanent damage idea has merits.
I did warn the players to have new PCs ready just in case so that is not an issue.
Your right about the swim speed being and ineffective but they do not know that any of them can breath water. Good point on the channeling energy.
The coup worked because on the previous round the cleric had miss with his touch attack on inflict light wounds. I know that slumber is only1 round but the cleric was already there with a charged spell.
Even if you can breathe under water, a triple keelhauling would kill any first level character from the damage it inflicts.