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Hey guys,
I'm running the Skull & Shackles AP for some friends, and I'm hoping you could help me figure out a few things I have questions about:
Question #1: Where is the base ship stats for "The Man's Promise" in the Adventure Path? I've been trying to find this everywhere, but it keeps eluding me.
Question #2: Should key crew members on the PC's ship gain levels as the campaign advances (such as Sandra Quinn, Ambrose Kroop, Rosie Cuswell, Crimson Cogward, and Conchobhar Turlach Shortstone)? Does the AP detail this at all anywhere?
Question #3: One of the PCs has basically made it clear to Sandra Quinn that he plans to kill her because of a perceived slight. What's your thoughts on how Sandra would handle this? Personally, I'm thinking of something in the short-term that either severely impedes/injures/mocks the character that made the threat. Currently, the party is 3rd level, so if the two would fight each other, I'm putting my money on Sandra.
Question #4: Any suggestions from GMs that have run "Raiders of the Fever Sea" before? Any TPK situations I should be aware of in advance, or problems that you have encountered when running it before?
Thanks for any input you might be able to provide.
Tarrintino
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1) I believe the Man's Promise is a sailing ship, which you can find the stats for on page 25 of the Player's Guide.
2) The campaign doesn't detail character advancement at all, but a solid way to make it work might be to have whoever your captain is have a 'free' leadership feat and allow him to level them up based on the guidelines for the feat. It would take some work on your part. They shouldn't outpace the PCs once the PCs surpass their level, though, for sure.
3) That's a damn shame, since Sandara is frankly a cool ally for them to have. As her domains are trickery and water, some sort of prank involving sending her adversary overboard might be fun. Maybe something even lethal that she knows they can handle. If they keep up with being hostile to her, though, she's could very well choose to depart the crew or even hire on with a different ship to teach them a lesson, like it says after her statblock in The Wormwood Mutiny
4)The Whalebone Pilk encounter is extremely fun, but has a lot of potential to be extremely dangerous for the party. The Chelish pirate hunting ship is something you should really encourage them to either sabotage as detailed in the book, or sneak by - a naval encounter with it is not going to end well. Plan ahead for the assault on Tidewater Rock because it's a really fun battle. Underwater combat in the Sahuagin caves can be dangerous and complicated, but you should have some experience in dealing with that after the Grindylows' lair from the previous adventure.
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To explain why the player came to odds with Sandra, the party's Shaman (who models himself as a sort of Voodoo Zombie Priest) wanted to bring back to the ship the body of The Whale from the end of Part 1. However, due to the sheer amount of weight The Whale weighed, and the fact that the body was in the water, there was no easy way to transport the body back to the ship.
However, when Sandra gave the party's Wizard her her magical tricorne hat and it was explained that a follower of Besmara could change it into a ship, he turned and demanded she take the hat back, make it into a ship, and pull the body out of the water caves. Besides the fact that the ship it would form wouldn't fit in the caves, she said that she had given it away, and that if he wanted to make it into a ship, she would assist whomever wanted the hat to become a follower of Besmara.
Although they eventually did get the body back to the ship, the PC Shaman has made it clear both in game and out of game that he plans to kill her. The rest of the PC's and the crew like Sandra and appreciate her contributions tot he crew, but apparently this is not one of those things that is going to go away easy.
To keep things even, I'm seriously considering keeping Sandra as a NPC on the ship, leveling her up so that she's always no more than one level behind the PCs. The question is, how is she going to respond to these threats from the PC Shaman.
Tarrintino
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She gave the hat to a PC.
A different PC demands she do something for him regarding the hat.
She declines, and points out that what he wants her to do isn't physically possible.
Second PC decides to kill her.
Crispy, deep fried whut?
I take it this character is evil. Is the entire party evil? If so, Quinn will probably leave the ship as soon as she gets a chance. She might even leave at Rickety's, or sign up with Pegsworthy.
If only the one character is evil, how does the rest of the party feel about this jackass threatening the person who helped them from the beginning without asking anything in return?
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The party I'm running is one of the most weirdly alignment diversed I've run in quite some time. The breakdown of the party comes down to:
Captain (The Dread Pirate) Roberts (the 10th)
- CG Human (Taldan) Swashbuckler 3
First Mate Hawkins
- LN Half-Orc Ranger (Falconer) 3
Ship's Arcanist, Brey
- NE Human (Taldan) Wizard (Universalist) 3
Ships Doctor, N'Longa
- NE Human (Mwangi) Shaman (Bone) 3
As a side note, the First Mate is Lawful Neutral on a Pirate Ship. Although you might say this alignment wouldn't work, it's been interesting how the player has pulled it off. He has embraced "The Pirate Code" as his "Law", and consults it whenever he is asked what he should do.
We resumed the game last Sunday, and the player playing N'Longa approached me and said he wanted to void out the threats from the game primarily because his character couldn't have raised The Whale from the dead as a zombie or skeleton because of his level anyways. To end the entire situation, I've agreed and the party will continue on as if the incident never occurred.
However, the incident in question has made me start to review how I will be running Sandra Quinn over the course of the campaign, and what role she will be running on the ship.
Does anybody have an interesting stories regarding how they ran Sandra Quinn during their time GMing "Skull & Shackles"?
Tarrintino
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I try to use Sandara in the background: she patches up regular pirates and marines after they get nearly killed by a catapult shot, for example.
For level 1-3 she occasionally gave a cure light or channel to the party, but the party is now level 6 almost and they use their own resources (potions of cure moderate, spells from the party's witch and oracle of battle, etc.) Sandara is no longer actively helping the party. She is still the ship's medical officer though, and will answer to the Captain if he asks her something, but so far the player playing the Captain has asked nothing of her, so her default AI is to keep the squishies standing. :)
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Sandara, Rosie and Ambrose (Fishguts) have been an integral part of my campaign. Sandara and Rosie became quick friends with 2 of the PCs Andromeda (now the ships captain) and Mercedeh. The four ladies have been for the most part inseparable. Andromeda was Fishguts assistant and eventually sobered him up. He is now her First Mate as well as cook. The food tastes better these days! I have used Sandara as a backup cleric when the group did not have one. All three were used this weekend when we resumed the game after a long hiatus and are now starting book 3. I have no evils in my game. The gnome walked the plank after getting into it with our PC halfling bard at the time as soon as they took the Mans Promise. Cogward while still a member of the crew has been pretty much a nobody and has yet to rise above able seaman. He didn't get along with the ladies very well, but was not an enemy. As for your Shaman, as Sandara and Rosie are friends I would not think he would last long against the two of them. Rosie would cut him off at the kneecaps if he hurt Sandara!
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Sandara and Fipps were captured and the party followed orders from Plugg and Scourge that they were lost at sea. After taking over the ship they came back several weeks later to find out what happens when you leave folks behind for weeks in inhospitable territory.
The ship invested in bringing Sandara back, but not Fipps.
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Wouldn't the Whale have eaten her already, once a few weeks had passed? Maybe he's started but hasn't finished. IMG I had someone missing a leg, and the PCs compensated her according to the Pirate Code. She saved up and eventually got a regenerate, which was kind of a cool moment.
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If things become untenable with her, she can easily leave. Later in the AP, it's even covered what happens if she does. In short she gets command of her own ship and could join the PCs' fleet later in the AP if they can convince her to work with them.
If the PC tries to get hostile with her again, it would be pretty interesting if the other PCs actually sided with her and he found himself rolling a new PC because his past disruptive character ended up marooned on a desert island. That's what I might do if I was a player in your game. If a PC acts like an ass, my PC won't give him special consideration because I can meta-game that he's a PC and not just another guy in the world. But that should come from other players, not the GM.
Also, if I remember correctly, part of the Whale's issue is that he got so big he was trapped in that cave. So this scheme was never going to work on several levels. Glad the player chilled out.
EDIT: I just had a sadistic GM thought. What happens if the party is struggling to row a skiff around Bonewrack, towing a ton or so of bloody chum? Here's a hint: "We're gonna need a bigger boat..."
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Question #4: Any suggestions from GMs that have run "Raiders of the Fever Sea" before? Any TPK situations I should be aware of in advance, or problems that you have encountered when running it before?
I found this book a lot of fun. Use the ships listed in the bestiary of the first two books. Blostin's Second Chance is a great low-stress intro to ship combat against a boat that will not really fight back.
I had the the Chelish ships like the Famished Mane and the Dowager Queen be escorts for the Dominator encountered separately as foreshadowing. Also, based on the Infernus, I also had many of these ships releasing ghoul packs against the pirates.
Add lots of goblin pressgangs to the Devil's Pallor to make it more challenging. When my PCs tried to board that ship, there were rowboats full of goblins in the ship gap firing arrows at them to make it harder to cross for instance.
To get the PCs to need to sail up a river to get water for the Dominator encounter, engineer a grindylow raid on their stores the night before. The grindylows squirm in through portholes and don't try to fight the PCs. Instead they smash water casks, grab food and escape.
As far as hard fights, the canopy creeper in Mancatcher Cover can be deadly depending on party make up. Darkness rules apply and it can be hard for some parties to even see. Only magic users who have cold spells will be able to damage it because it's immune to electricity and resists fire. Make sure the PCs remember they can use ship's weapons against it. Cast dancing lights or light on an arrow to serve as a tracer to illuminate it. Flying at the thing is also going to be very tough.
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Oh yes. she was not in any way alive and intact. Was not an inexpensive fix. I won't say she's not carrying around a little trauma from the experience, but she's a cleric of besmara. You go in brave and accept your fate or you get out.
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As far as hard fights, the canopy creeper in Mancatcher Cover can be deadly depending on party make up. Darkness rules apply and it can be hard for some parties to even see. Only magic users who have cold spells will be able to damage it because it's immune to electricity and resists fire. Make sure the PCs remember they can use ship's weapons against it. Cast dancing lights or light on an arrow to serve as a tracer to illuminate it. Flying at the thing is also going to be very tough.
I am GMing a very low magic party right now, and I'll really fearing for them with this one... mind you, the damn plant has an Int of 2, so you could throw summoned monster at it all day to keep it busy... or pigs... or chicken... at some point it will be stuffed or full. Other than that, how could they use ship weapons? the thing is straight above them!
Other than that, how could they use ship weapons? the thing is straight above them!
Why couldn't a ballista on deck be pitched to fire upwards? They're on carts to allow them to be moved, swivel and, I assume, pitched up and down in order to aim them. Why would you assume they can't be cranked to 90 degrees to fire upwards?
If you bring up "historical accuracy", I don't have an answer to that. I'm not really encumbered by that concept as a GM. I have no idea how a ballista actually works outside of the rules presented in Pathfinder and the needs of the scenario but it doesn't really worry me. I may have chosen historical inaccuracy over a TPK, haha!
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yes, if you look at deck layouts in Ships of the Inner Sea, the ballistas are not on the upper deck but lined up below deck (sticking out of individual weapon ports). They call that deck the "Firing Deck". There would be no room on the upper deck of a sailing ship for 20 ballistas (10 each side). The ship layout maps are misleading: it's not a bare deck with masts being the only thing in the way... the upper deck is literally *filled* with coiled ropes, folded sails, storage boxes, lots of sailors milling about / working, etc. You usually have a 5 foot wide path on each side that's relatively unobstructed for the purposes of quick sailor movements, but the "middle" or "center" of the ship (on the same axis of the masts) is usually piled with stuff sometimes all the way up to the height of the mast's first boom (i.e. they won't stack stuff up to a height that would encumber the booms and their rigging, because that could capsize the ship if you get a sudden wind gust and you can't put the sails at irons)
However, the catapults have to be on the forecastle and sterncastle (2 lights or 1 standard at each location). Catapults have a minimum range and I'm pretty sure they're not designed to sling a load straight up (also, everything going up must go down).
This cove is a serious challenge at level 5 or 6!
Just because some ballistas are below decks on some maps doesn't mean they all have to be. If you want to use maps as a reference, see the map here:
http://static2.paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZOSQW/PZOSQW30043_500.jpeg
Those are ballistas on the aft castle of the left hand ship. That same map has no ballistas at all below decks. It also happens to be the map we use to represent the PC's ship in my game and is where their ballistas sit unless they specifically reorganize their ship.
Not saying your reasoning is unsound, just saying don't limit your PC's ship configuration too much in the face of the canopy creeper.
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Galleys would work much better than sailing ships -- the rigging on a full sailing ship is impressive to behold. Ignore the Paizo maps on this one -- they have very little to do with real ships.
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Shaun that is the map we use as well, but note the absence of ballistas on the main deck. Yes the Man's Promise comes with two light ballistas on the sterncastle, but the squibbing of their ship included some carpentry work belowdecks (areas B8 and B9) in order to produce a proper firing deck.
Note the Man's Promise is a regular merchant vessel so if they want to use it properly as a pirate ship, they have to do some research and modifications... so in my group, there's now a firing deck below with 10 ballistas on each side, a standard catapult on the sterncastle, and two light catapults on the foc'sle.
I'm not going to allow ship weapons to fire up above (through the sails and rigging!) at a target that is 60 feet above water... they'll have to retreat that ship out of there and attack from the jungle above if they don't want a disaster.