So my party didn't take long to get themselves into trouble.
Upon being pressganged, they took some time "endearing" themselves to Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge. It didn't take them long to start trying to get their gear back. Well; they snuck past Owlbear in the night, used some hidden gunpowder to blow the lock after muffling it. They dropped darkness over Owlbear beforehand and managed to break open the locker with their gear.
Then things went sideways. The darkness spell ended, the group in the quartermasters store were holed up next to Owlbears post; no way out. And their reaction? Suit up and prepare for war. Led by their sorceress, they had decided that they were going to take the Wormwood.
They tried to talk to Owlbear, but his automatic reaction was to yell and scream for the rest of the crew. The alarm is raised, and here it comes...
They form a fatal funnel around the stairs, hell bent on trying to hold their own against the crew. 6 of the generic pirates barreled in, and over the course of the next minute, 6 crewmembers fell to their blades. They have been heavily wounded, they are banged up, low on spells. At the top of the stairs is the rest of the crew with the exception of the 6 fallen and Owlbear, who is terrified that Master Scourge will punish him severely.
I'm trying to decide how to advance from here. I'm thinking Harrigan will dispatch Plugg and Peppery to subdue the party (shouldn't be too hard, they are level 1). Then from there, I'm not sure. Harrigan will not take their actions lightly, nor will he kill them as he is now DIRELY short of crew.
So I could definitely use some ideas to keep them going in the campaign. Marooning them or Ambrose/Quinn freeing them and escaping to a nearby island to start anew (complete with a survival and escape arc) seems to be the best option.
While Harrigan is definitely low on crew now, I think it's necessary for him to choose one PC for a keelhauling to make an example of what happens to mutinous sailors. He'd probably pick the PC he perceives as the leader (so either the strongest or the most charismatic). He'd probably then pick the next-most guilty PC and throw them in the sweat box for a couple days. Everyone else receives all the lashes. Meanwhile, you could then have the Wormwood chance upon some fishing trawler or something - a vessel with enough sailors to replenish his ranks (and supply the new PC with an in), but not a ship impressive enough to warrant splitting the crew to sell it like he decides to do with the Man's Promise.
It may also do to sit down with your PC's when it's all over and have "the talk", explaining to them that this part of the adventure is written in a way that they're stuck with their captors, and aren't meant to escape or mutiny; their best course of action is to make as many friends as they can and wait for the opportune moment for a mutiny, which, you promise, will come.
I had already had the "talk" with my party; clearly it went in one ear and out the other. So I'm thinking it's time to roll with the punches so to speak.
I'm thinking playing it something like this.
Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge are dispatched to subdue the party by Captain Harrigan, who is waiting on the main-deck (unless the dice gods are especially spiteful, Plugg and Scourge should be able to handle a group of level 1's who are nearly out of spells and HP).
The players are tortured over an excruciatingly long series of days (montage'd for the sake of class at the table). Plugg, Scourge, Pluggs girlfriend on the ship (I forgot her name), and a few of the other officers are going to make a spectacle out of it. Then at the end, Harrigan offers them a deal. 1 of them will be keelhauled; if they survive, the group won't be killed and instead released (well, marooned, but that'll be the catch revealed later). If the keelhauling results in death, then the rest of the party will be strung up from the yard arm. Alternatively, Sandara or Ambrose will sneak them onto the rowboat in the night and shove them off to spare them further wrath of the Wormwood.
They will be marooned somewhere near the Northern isles (I can't remember their name), and wash ashore on their rowboat with virtually no health, minimal spells, and their basic gear. Their job is now to explore the island, and hidden in an alcove, they will find a small cave that is housing an old Junk (minimum full crew is 10, so a 5 person team could in theory crew it) left by a Tian merchant who never got to come back for it. Combine that with various critters and potentially violent isolationist locals, it should be a fun side quest. The Junk is in serviceable shape, although not the greatest.
Away from the party, Pluggs mutiny will go off smoothly and Plugg will become Captain Pluggg, and Harrigan will not take too kindly to the antics of his former first mate. Their attention will be on each other, creating plenty of sabotage and spying work for prospective buccaneers.
I applaud your willingness to go so far off-script. Book 2 begins assuming the PC's have their own ship and a need to avoid being found by Harrigan. Since they won't have that, and Captains Plugg and Harrigan will really have no need to go looking for the PC's they marooned, might I suggest replacing Book 2 with the Plunder and Peril module? It's 3 Shackles adventures strung together, designed for PC's the exact same level as Book 2. You can make it so the treasure gained at the end of the module is enough to meet the requirements at the beginning of Book 3 to become Free Captains (maybe get them to gain at least SOME Infamy, first), and you'd basically be free to continue with the rest of the AP as written (with some minor tweaks rippling from these events).
Thanks! I was contemplating further reaching effects of their decisions, and either Plunder and Peril or some of the adventures from Legendary Games Pirate stuff could work.
I wanted to run this as a true Sandbox and organic world, so I told them in the beginning that it is entirely their decision if they want to follow the plot or pursue their own adventures. I fully expected them to try something (in the words of the immortal Jack Sparrow) "incredibly stupid." I am testing my story-telling ability and system mastery to see how well I can roll with anything they come up with and keep it fun for everyone.
For instance- I've pretty well decided that one of the players is going to get Keelhauled (and by my calculations, 60% of the party is capable of surviving a fast keelhaul if I level them up after the current skirmish against the Wormwood). So the warpriest, the tiefling magus, or the antipaladin are likely getting keelhauled as statistically, if they are over 20hp, they'll survive the ordeal of 6d6 damage though not by much.
In preparation for this AP, I spent about 2-3 months gathering material so I could have something ready for just about anything up to and including editing a Kingmaker weather calculator I found so it's weather would more accurately reflect a climate akin to the Caribbean. It generates random weather according to the month and season based on Antigua's average climate per month according to the meteorological studies I think Plunder and Peril is among them. Combined with the adventures in the Legendary Games Pirate Campaign Compendium (which is awesome), quick homebrew modules I've found that I can quickly switch to Golarion specific details, plot hooks from Red Mantis turncoats, Aspis Consortium politicos, Chelish invasions, monstrous uprisings, supernatural weather events, etc. I've got parts of Serpent Skull lined up if they want to go to the Mwangi Expanse and explore, plenty of material in Cheliax if they go north, etc.
They want to chase treasure, fine. I have sets of treasure, legends and lore, etc all over the Shackles and surrounding areas. They want to loot, pillage, plunder and burn, fine.
Bravo! Since you didn't mention it, I'll also suggest Isles of the Shackles - a gazetteer of every settled island in the Shackles, plus some!
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Pirates of the Shackles, Isles of the Shackles, etc. Got them all. Even bought 20 or so "metal pirate coins" to use as tokens for hero points with a variant house rule (essentially they can keep spending hero points even after they are out, but after their initial pool is empty, each one they spend gives the GM a hero point to disrupt their day; I jokingly call them Sparrow points or Buccaneer points). My biggest problem is going to be deciding the ship to ship rules (keep it simple, use the rules as written, or poach a new system like Fire as She Bears or one of the variations on this forum).
One of the most valuable things as a GM is not being too proud to ask and poach ideas, modify them to fit the group. System mastery, encounter design, immersion, verisimilitude, and the intricate balance between planning and improvisation. I know I don't like improvising as much, so I will keep a dozen ideas on hand with just enough of a thread to understand how to throw the hook without over committing until I can double back and figure out what I need.