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Hello, I've posted from time to time in this subforum and was hoping to this time contribute a little with extra content that I've used in our Skull & Shackles campaign. I will be adding the quests and sub plots that our group has been going through and the things of the AP that got heavily modified.
I started GM'ing with this AP. I had the idea to make it more sandboxy than it is since the Shackles provide a fantastic setting and a great chassis. I also love the age of sail/pirates/anything nautical so that helps in getting into S&S, an AP I strongly recommend.
Rule modifications:
Any race, any class, no resurrection easily available (wish/miracle/gods/very high levels). No long range scrying nor teleporting. Gunpowder/Guns allowed..will be few at start and will become more prevalent as the campaign goes on. Crossbows target Touch AC when using a single Attack Action. Siege does double damage to ships. Cannon does tripple damage. Ships have their hp divided in sections.
I introduce self made content within the story. Generally I dont tell the players what is and what isn't but they know it's so.
I must also admit to have influences from some external sources. First to mention would be One Piece..the idea that each crew has a theme and the officers have quirks or are memorable really appeals to me and I believe makes the game a little more interesting. A combination of the gritty sailing and the exaggerated themed crews. Another is my personal experience, I spend a lot of time sailing traditional sailing ships so I'll throw some fun details here and there. Add pirate tropes, novels and games of course.
Tools used:
Fire As She Bears (only as guidelines)
Isle of the Shackles (fantastic)
Ships of the Inner Sea (another pearl)
Rival Guide
Razor Coast
Plunder and Peril
From Sea to Shore
Heart of the Jungle
Cerulean Seas (some items)
City of the Seven Spears (Serpent's Skull part 3)
Wayfinder #8 Mass Combat
Treasury of the Fleet
Tarin's Crown
Raid on the Emperor's Hand
Pirate Codex
Many of the posts in this forum, great ideas!
Music played on the background..mostly youtube stuff
Battles:
We dont use figures but we use a white board on which we draw with markers. The PCs/NPCs are represented by small 1cmx1cm magnets (each a colour/letter). When more detail is necessary we use a paper grid on which I've generally drawn a map on.
....so here it is, note that I have written a sort of "planned" event and how it turned out. Not all the details are written, especially the personalities of NPCs etc wont always be described.
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First part! We ran the first module of Skull & Shackles almost as written - no rum rations though. Plugg & Co got murdered before they got on the island - as they were hitting bad weather, a rather delicate moment but they got out of it. The island proved deadly as many on these boards mention, but none died.
At Rickety Squibs they renamed their ship as The Aberrant, decorating it with tentacles and kraken motifs. At this point I threw them the first side quest, considering that I would not run them through "breaking he Rock". Being the first self made content I had them do, I did give them little choice in whether they did it or not - however it was open after that. I also wanted to make them understand that there are still bigger fish in the Shackles and to beware. This has brewed a rather paranoical way of running crews and a "Bucket List" in which most NPC captains have found themselves in...
ZHILONG'S ENCLAVE aka How to make even more enemies
Summary:
Just after Rickety Squibs a seemingly powerful captain offers them a collaboration with a strong taste of black mail. They are to infiltrate a sea fortress at the Tian Xia domain of the Shackles
Function: Introduce a little plot into the very sandboxy Fever Sea and establish some Pirate Captains early.
Result: This spurred a hilarious battle at the fortress palace and the birth of a new nemesis, Zheng, who would be a middle step tie-in between them and Harrigan.
The Crew:
Captain Bismark, Gillman Bloodrager
First Mate Kaelmourn, Drow swashbuckler
Chaplain Cutty, Undine Shaman
Carpenter …. Undine Warpriest of Besmara
Quatermaster Zadiuq, Svirfneblin Investigator/Rogue
Cook Quidaz, Svirfneblin Monk/Rogue
The Story
Fresh out from Rickety Squibs. Ready to tackle the fever sea, in control of their destiny at last.
Well, that was to be short lived. Someone’s in the captain’s quarters of what used to be the Man’s Promise. A figure standing by the window, clad in a black cloak (perception: feathers) behind a bird’s mask (Nature: Black Kingfisher). Another is seating on the newly upholstered sofa, a languid man, with a characteristically long nose, dressed in expensive clothes and with his boots on the table drinking a liquor (which he invites the PCs to when they come in). They want to talk.
Introduce themselves as Long Nose and Scrimshaw (knw Local: Crimson Quills crew). They want the PCs to do a favour for them. The catch: They know exactly who this ship belongs to (note, scrying, monitoring, rickety sending message, whatever works) and could throw the information to whom it might concern, however they are actually not in good terms with Harrigan and therefore prefer to call this a mutually beneficial deal. (sense motive: pile of parrot droppings it’s a straight black mail). They mention the PCs can help themselves to whatever they find, plus Long Nose will throw in a couple thousand gold as reward, since he’s keen to have them as allies should they make it in the Shackles.
Long Nose himself is an Illusion being cast by Anna while insivibly flying outside. When leaving, he jumps off the window, disappearing. If attacked, the illusion becomes apparent. Scrimshaw shapeshifts to a large Kingfishers as he jumps out of the window, flying away. If at any point the PCs attempt to fight these NPCs they will avoid conflict and flee, becoming hostile to them for future events.
After explaining their proposition the PC’s have little chance but to accept
The target is Zhilong’s Enclave, a trading outpost smack in the middle of the Shackles under the influence of the Wise Council of 3 (the Tian Xia faction). In this case the enclave is overseen by a greedy war merchant known as Zheng. The fortress is a fortified palace with a few watch towers. The PCs are asked to get there, infiltrate it and steal an item stored at the warehouse. How is up to them, but they are provided a map.
Zhilong’s Enclave and the Map
Everything is depicted with an asian (mainly Chinese) theme, think the harbours of Macao in the age of sail. White walls, red tile rooftops, wooden structures cliches.
Zhilong’s Enclave asks them for one plunder to use their harbour and protection in the viccinity. (Note: The PCs do not yet have a Shackles Ensign so therefore it is dangerous when sailing in these waters.) At the harbour there are two huge Turtle Ships (inspired from the Korean turtle ships), formidable and rare war ships. At the harbour master’s office they have the chance to meet with Zheng, the overseer of the enclave. He is a shrewd man, good memory and keen perception. He asks them of their business here but buys none of it, he recognises new pirates when he sees them, having been a prolific one himself.
The PCs dont need to visit Zhilong’s Enclave, merely optional. It is also a good place for trading (selling plunder) and bragging (try out the notoriety rules).
The fortress castle stands atop a sharp rise overseeing the bay, sheer cliffs on the water side and steep slops towards the town. A path leads up to the main gates. There is also a back entrance, which leads down to a beach outside of the main bay, which passes by a shrine to Hei Feng.
The fortress is more of a walled palace, with carefully cared for gardens, with a stream cruising through, ending up in a waterfall into the cliffs. There are two watch towers, always manned and lit. The warehouse is in the centre of this complex, a long wooden building, in front of some barracks. The back gate to the complex goes through a large garden in which the stream crosses.
The Watch Tower makes perception checks to note ships and approaching threats. There is also a patrol through the complex and a set of 2 guards at both entrances. The warehouse is locked and with a low level alarm trap, but can also be accessed through the roof where a plank can be loosened. Inside there are amassed crates and bags (presumably rice). Two large bulks have cloth draped over them. They are Heavy Bombards, siege engines so valuable only a handful of pirates have a single one – this is the first advent of gun powder in this campaign which would later become more prevalent. There are many crates around which when inspected are revealed to be black powder and another substance (alchemy: Taldorian Fire – akin to the mysterious greek fire of our world, something that would even burn in water ferociously).
The implications of what this equipment means in the Shackles is not difficult to imagine, the amount of powder and the power of these siege engines would quickly make any captain a mayor threat and an influential person in the Shackles.
A perception check reveals a small, brass chest with a mark which Long Nose requested.
Guards: 2 weak guards of each gate. They can be assasinated since they have an abysmal perception (snoozing). The watch towers mostly looks for threats outside of the fortress.
Garrison: Soldiers will come out in force once the alarm is risen. However this is something Zheng will do himself or send someone to do (as the second warehouse alarm goes directly to him not the garrison).
Patrol: 2 soldiers patrolling, can be disposed of any way they want, being careful of the watch tower.
There is a trap alarm of high level inside the warehouse, after the locked door. This is alerts Zheng directly, who will summons his personal guard and try to locate the PCs in the complex – appearing at the back gates from a pass in the hills, where he was meditating at the temple of Hei Feng.
Upon trying to escape the PC’s meet with Zheng and his patrol. These are comprised of 3 long spear soldiers (level 2 each) and 3 Zen Archers (level 3 each) plus Zheng (level 6 Sohei Monk with 10 ring sword). This is a difficult battle.
Confrontation: While difficult, it is possible to beat the patrol. The fortress palace allows for clever use of corridors, rooftops and terrain to fight smart.
Diplomacy: While most encounters I’ve added do have a talk option, Zheng is not interested in actually giving them quarter or to strike a deal. He just wants information before he executes them for thinking they could fool him.
Escape: The most obvious and achievable in a myriad of ways. 2 gates, the town, the path leading to the beach, the cliffs and waterfall, etc.
Development
When they reach their ship Scrimshaw and Anna are waiting for them. Anna, a smaller figure wearing a carnival red owl mask and a fluffy colourful feather coat, hands them over the gold and an item in thanks (A permament Anchor Token: Feather Fan, in the shape of a long feathered red fan), and take the chest. Scrimshaw says little to nothing, then they both shapeshift and fly away. This is meant to introduce some characters that are a little annoying since they are obviously higher level than the PCs but that will be used later on in the plot.
If the PCs try to open the box, it proves difficult to do so without damaging it (mending?) and it is trapped. Inside, you may insert any of the treasures from the back of the AP module…I never had to, but you can make the item relevant later in the campaign. The PCs should not have much reason to not go along with the exchange, since the possibility of having their newly squibbed ship and whereabouts relayed to Harrigan is a big threat for them at this stage.
What the players did!
AKA How my players did everything I did not expect
The players decided to head to Zhilong’s Enclave and sell their plunder, since they did not have a chance yet (there are notoriously few places in the Fever Sea to do so that arent far far away, and Bloodcove, Senghor, Quent and Port Peril were too big for them at the moment) with the nasty surprise of the 1 plunder tax (in return, I let them sell all their plunder at once, something we later introduced anyway). That was the first strike for them!
Then they meet Zheng, a bit of a bully and an attitude of being superior – he smells they have other reasons to be in Zhilong’s, a mostly merchant port for TIan Xia trade. Plugg is dead, we need someone to be an arse in his stead. Strike two!
Then they set sail, letting their ship anchored a couple of miles north of the bay and climbed/levitated the cliffs and waterfall. They came in a small boat, and also had Sandara’s hat. They came up the back gate, the Svirfneblins murdered the guards without a sound and they all proceeded to sneak up to the warehouse without alarming the watch towers. There they opened it successfully and found the first trap, but not the second (this is mean, it’s pretty much impossible, but Zheng must be brought for the setting to advance). There they recognised the gunpower and Taldor Fire and took a bit..very carefully (good alchemy check) and decided that if they couldnt take those cannons for themselves, well, they’d blow them up! So after some damn good alchemy and engineering checks they set up a delayed explosion for 3 minutes or so, then proceeded to get the hell out of there the same way they came out.
They found that at the back garden there was Zheng and his guard waiting for them. There was an explosion with a warehouse full to the brim with gunpowder and even more dangerous alchemical substances about to be set off and these guys ready for a showdown. Suddenly the players decided that it was every man to himself. The fight devolved into a very strange combination of attacking and moving towards the exit – but everyone chose a different one! The Undine Warpriest, the Captain GIllman and the Svirfneblins made for the wall towards the cliffs, attempting to climb over the wall and jump – at 300 feet it was quite a fall. Zheng came in to block their path as they got peppered with arrows from the archers. The Warpriest jumped first..without levitate. Then the captain. The twin Svirfneblins turned around and attempted to escape through the gate instead with the First mate Drow duelist and the Chaplain Undine Shaman, who were having troubles at the stream bridge with the soldiers, and later Zheng. The Undine got dropped and carried by the rest as the Drow threw a Darkness, running out of the gates and jumping out of the cliff when they had prepared their levitate or lowered altitude. At that point, the warehouse lit and the explosion lit the fortress ablaze, a huge thundering sound to which even the ground shook, as they were jumping out into the dark sea.
Back to the Warpriest, who was by now done calculating fall damage at that height into water..found out that put him in negatives at only 4 hp from dying. The Captain eventually reached him with his levitate, finding the warpriest sinking (thanks to Besmara’s tricorne hat which floated above…just over the warpriest’s location, Besmara’s first help in all this mess) and managed to swim him up to the surface and administer healing potions.
They summoned their hat boat and rowed to their ship to make the first escape of many that would follow, when they’d be rowing away from a town in flames and with a desperate urge of get-the-hell-out-of-here.
As a result
Zhilong’s Enclave suffered a large fire as the lit debris fell from the frotress…the latter just a scorch mark on the hill. They would later learn that one of the Bombards had flewn so far as to land on one of the turtle ships, being one of the few people in history who had managed to actually sink one with siege. Zheng and his archers survived..but launched him into being condemned and exiled from Council of 3. Zheng, being the ambitious man he is flipped the coin, butchering 2 of the Council and claim a seat for himself, exiling the surviving council member Half Elf (renamed Chan in this story) and appointing himself controller of the region by forge. He would then begin an ardent search for the PCs in revenge (with very little information) which would lead him to ally with Barnabass Harrigan and help him put in march the Chelaxian invasion of the Shackles.
The battle map
So I love drawing battle maps for my players, colourful and visual. We play with small magnets (a capital letter of their PC name on it) on a white board laid horizontal, with the paper map on top. The fortress was laid out and luckily the showdown happened at the gardens, of which I had drawn a rather detailed map.
I just wanted to say that I totally stole your idea (though using the names in Shenchu Bay from the Isles of the Shackles setting) and my group had a fun time robbing the warehouse and fighting monks. They stole some gunpowder but didn't blow up the cannons. And the leader of the enclave survived, so they have a new enemy.
I'd love to hear more tales of your group's adventures, as this is a particularly good sandbox of a campaign and I'm looking for any good quests to fill up book 2 and raise their infamy and plunder. Tidewater Rock doesn't seem that exciting to me, especially as they'll eventually get a whole different isle, so I may skip it in favor of more sidequests. What did you end up doing with Scrimshaw and Anna?
Hey I'm glad you used it and that you enjoyed it! I'll be writing up the rest of the extra stuff we did with enough detail to run it. Though it'll be in a couple of weeks.
As for Scrimshaw and Anna they havent played a strong part since, I've had Long Nose be a possible campaign-continuation persona, akin to Endymion, Tessa and the Master of the Gales. Anna did make another appearance when the group..erm, spent a couple sessions in the Fey World going through some very weird moments, where she actually guided them a little.
We wrapped up Zheng's/Senchuu Bay story recently infact, it has been as rewarding to kill him as it was to kill Plugg. Or more.
Tidewater Rock is indeed tedious, or at least wouldve been for my group cause they'd have probably sacked and pillaged the place proper and move on. I actually ran an encounter with the Dominator which they ended up taking (there is a thread somewhere in these boards that helped me much in deciding how hard it'd be...).