So the crew of the Forbidden Crack has met with the Deathknell. They defeated the captain and the 18 zombies after about 11 rounds. All is fine.
But during the battle they purposefully destroyed the bell's support and stole it! They though, they could have some sway on the zombies with it. But now that it's all said and done they kept the bell as a trophy and the proof of their encounter.
Whalebone is gonna come back, that is a given. But now that they have a cursed bell on-board with the souls of 670 victims trapped inside. I'm not exactly sure how to proceed.
I would like to have an entertaining way for the bell to have a more active role in the next encounter with the Deathknell or in between.
Any suggestions?
Didn't they break the bell? If the bell is broken, it's a regular broken bell. If they didn't, then Whalebone Pilk will be coming for them.
Probably I'd make the bell start sounding in your player's ship and brine zombies coming from the deep before the Deathknell emerges and then probably Whalebone manifesting next to the bell and trying to get his bell back to his ship while trying to drown everybody who oposes him.
I even might make the crew of your ship fall prey of some kind of mild curse or affliction while they keep the bell.
My players kept the broken bell and I just let them keep it as a trophy.
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Thanks! It's a good idea to have Whalebone appear next to the bell when he attacks.
The bell is in fact intact. They only broke what attached the bell to the ship.
In the mean time. The bell is the source of the curse. Maybe the bell could try to transform the Forbidden Crack into a new Deathknell. It could make everything in the ship damp and start to rot a lot faster. Food, weapons, wood, clothing, sails, rope, people. Diseases like Trench Foot, Jungle Rot and typhoid, could start.
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When I ran this part, my players recovered pieces of the bell after wrecking it. They defeated Pilk (for now) but the curse is a powerful one and he's still bound to it. The bell can find its way back to Pilk or Pilk can find his way back to the bell.
I would try to play it with subtlety, whatever you do. If you make the curse obvious, they'll ditch the bell right away if they're smart.
Ideas:
-Pilk starts talking to one of the PCs through the bell. Probably through their dreams.
-The bell becomes heavier and heavier with each passing night, until it starts damaging the ship.
-The bell tolls itself, summoning brine zombies that climb over the side and attack. This keeps happening at inconvenient times.
-One morning, they find that the bell has replaced their own ship's bell; no matter what they do, it appears back there at dawn each day.
-The PCs figure out some way to break the curse on the bell (should be very difficult); Pilk arrives and offers them fabulous treasures before he departs, freed of his curse.
-The PC captain starts slowly developing the greed/insanity that possessed Pilk in life and begins having urges to push the crew to travel farther and farther from shore in pursuit of fabulous riches.
-If they bring the bell to a major port, someone identifies it and freaks out, tells everyone. No one will deal with them and they're kicked out until/unless they do something truly impressive to undo the taint of the curse.
-If they throw the bell overboard, it reforms the Deathknell and it continues to pursue the PCs.
Thanks! It's a good idea to have Whalebone appear next to the bell when he attacks.
The bell is in fact intact. They only broke what attached the bell to the ship.In the mean time. The bell is the source of the curse. Maybe the bell could try to transform the Forbidden Crack into a new Deathknell. It could make everything in the ship damp and start to rot a lot faster. Food, weapons, wood, clothing, sails, rope, people. Diseases like Trench Foot, Jungle Rot and typhoid, could start.
I really like your options! I think if you do what you are saying it will give your players great roleplaying options and a terrorizing feeling.
Maybe you can even make as the completion of the curse Whalebone Pilk manifest while the PCs' ship starts to magically sink and brine zombies emerge from everywhere and they have to get rid of the bell before their ship sinks and reemerges as a new Deathknell with all the crew as the new zombie crew.
When I ran this part, my players recovered pieces of the bell after wrecking it. They defeated Pilk (for now) but the curse is a powerful one and he's still bound to it. The bell can find its way back to Pilk or Pilk can find his way back to the bell.
I would try to play it with subtlety, whatever you do. If you make the curse obvious, they'll ditch the bell right away if they're smart.
Ideas:
-Pilk starts talking to one of the PCs through the bell. Probably through their dreams.
-The bell becomes heavier and heavier with each passing night, until it starts damaging the ship.
-The bell tolls itself, summoning brine zombies that climb over the side and attack. This keeps happening at inconvenient times.
-One morning, they find that the bell has replaced their own ship's bell; no matter what they do, it appears back there at dawn each day.
-The PCs figure out some way to break the curse on the bell (should be very difficult); Pilk arrives and offers them fabulous treasures before he departs, freed of his curse.
-The PC captain starts slowly developing the greed/insanity that possessed Pilk in life and begins having urges to push the crew to travel farther and farther from shore in pursuit of fabulous riches.
-If they bring the bell to a major port, someone identifies it and freaks out, tells everyone. No one will deal with them and they're kicked out until/unless they do something truly impressive to undo the taint of the curse.
-If they throw the bell overboard, it reforms the Deathknell and it continues to pursue the PCs.
Yes they are smart and they will ditch it at the first sign of trouble. Unless...as you said the captain begins to be enthralled by the bell and insist on keeping it. This and diseases running rampant on-board could be a great stage for a mutiny. The leader being one of the NPC from the first module. Anyway, the PC's elected the captain democratically, which I find absurd on a pirate ship. He will have his authority challenged.
I'll have to be careful and do one or two missions in between.
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I seem to recall that the curse was bestowed on Pilk by Besmara herself, so magical or mundane means of curse removal are not necessarily an option, nor is simply throwing it overboard.
Personally, I'd have the curse make life exceedingly inconvenient for the PCs while Pilk regroups for the next fight. Eventually, Pilk will want his bell back, and he will be better prepared to wreck the PCs when he arrives. After all, he's seen how they fight and can be ready to counter their strongest abilities.
If the crew isn't favored by Besmara, or hasn't made substantial sacrifices of treasure to her lately, maybe she intercedes and tilts the odds in Pilk's favor somehow.
Note: Pirate captains were commonly elected democratically. The politics and innuendo were fierce, and being captain was not necessarily an enduring title. Endangering the safety of the crew, or worse, failing to successfully enrich them with the spoils of successful pirating could get a captain voted out, marooned, or thrown to the sharks.
If they elect a new captain, the bell can just switch its power/curse to the new one. The bell doesn't care who is in charge.
How about the crew start to zombify? They gain some of the benefits, but soon after find that there are downsides as well.
The party, however, starts getting converted into stronger undead, but also start getting glimpses of plunderable ships. Now they need to find a way to seem like the living to sell plunder, but find themselves being less able to interact with others directly.
Getting rid of the bell only causes a delay, as the bell reappears the next day. They need to break the bell to break the curse, then apply lots of magic to undo all the undeadification. [The crew will require this, or turn on the party.] At a suitable time, Pilk can show up as a "friend".
/cevah