Help With A Pirates Campaign

Hello all!

I am preparing a pirate campaign to play with my regular group and as this is my first aquatic campaign, I could use some help creating challenges for the party.

A little background. The party will be a group of royal pirates sent out by the throne to recover an ancient relic prophesized as the key to stopping the apocalypse. On the way I aim to throw a few challenges their way...

This campaign is a map-based campaign, meaning I'll be drawing up a 'world' map with different cities and adventure locations for the party to explore at their choosing. I'm aiming for 6 or 7 cities and about 15 adventure areas. So far I have...

Cities:
A starting city
A small coastal town secretly controlled by bugbears
A large, diverse town consisting primarily of 'good' citizens
A Dwarven town
A Drow city
A formerly dwarven city, now infested with dragons and dragon worshipers
A City of thieves

Adventures Areas:
A set of frozen isles, infested with undead
An isle filled with different types of elementals
A tree of wonders to explore
A band of nomadic giants
A Kraken den
An ever-present sea storm
A Wizard's keep
The statue of an ancient hero

Why I am posting this is to ask for advice for more adventure areas or adventure hooks that would fit well in an aquatic campaign!

Please post your ideas or any criticism of what I've posted!

Thanks!

I'm thinking jungle islands. Possibly have a cohort/ship's crew get kidnapped by the natives. You could make it sort of into a mystery adventure at that part, with multiple tribes spread on the jungle islands, and they'd have to figure out who took the cohort. Leads to some interesting choices regarding talking/fighting, gives the option of making alliances with the natives (having a place to drop your booty is cool if you're a pirate, and even cooler if you don't have to sail halfway across the world for it)

Is the storm following them, moving independently of the PC's, or is it at the same spot always? If it's not following them, do they have any reason to go into it? Do you have a good reason for the storm to be there? Sounds like a cool idea if you do it right, but if it's just there for being cool, it probably will get kinda meh in the long run (or when they decide to figure out why there's an everpresent storm)

Did you plan on making the Kraken den an underwater event or is it a dry cave? If it's not underwater, you could have them find some shipwreck at the ocean floor (The king had a load of gold sailed over, but the ship sank or something) and they could discover that the wizard from the Wizard's Keep that sunk it, giving them a reason to go pay him a visit.

Do you have any idea of recurring villains? Is anyone else trying to get the sacred relic, and if they are, are they allies or enemies? Does the relic hold other powers than "stopping the apocalypse"?

All I could think of right now. Good luck with the campaign, sounds like a great idea!

Abandoned lighthouse (possbly wizard tower, pirates' trap, monster lair, etc)

Coastal town that's occasionally raided by beings from the under the sea (eg, sahuagin, locathah, skum). The raiders could be hunters, cultists, pirates, etc.

Stretch of shore with lots of wrecked/dead ships (see the "Skeleton Coast" of Namibia)

A ghost ship.

Thanks!

Kazgorr - I've got something planned for the kraken and storm already. I love the idea of the jungle islands because there's nothing better than separating the party. And I hadn't thought about reoccurring NPC's, I'll definitely be incorporating that!

Orc - I'm adding in the lighthouse, wrecked shoreline and the ghost ship!

If you look in my sig, there is an Aquatic Database full of all kinds of useful things that have popped up here on ENWorld and elsewhere.

Were I starting an aquatic campaign these days, I'd either want to get my hands on some of the old (1970's-80s) maps from the original Judges Guild "Wilderlands" modules, which are just full of islands...

(You might have luck here: Original D&D Discussion - Judges Guild and the Wilderlands (est. 1976))

OR

I'd track down detailed maps of the Phillipenes or especially Indonesia, two of the great archipelagoes in the world, just to save myself some work.

http://www.indo.com/geo/indonesia.html

I'll light the Aeolius signal . . .

Even if you don't use Freeport -- it sounds like you may have all the cities you need already -- I suggest picking up the PDF of the main book, just as an idea mine.

Likewise, pick up the awesome Tim Powers novel, On Stranger Tides, which is a great mash-up fantasy/horror/history/adventure novel (and the loose basis for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie).

If they work for a Royal, wouldn't they technically be Privateers rather than Pirates?

Anyhow, mermaids riding sharks attacking the ship could be cool

Did I hear a summons?

Piratey, eh? Let’s see... In no particular order...

Prison Hulks : Decommissioned ships rendered unseaworthy, these floating prisons might be encountered floating freely in the sea. Perhaps they were being towed to another locale or perhaps they were intentionally set adrift. Perhaps instead the “prisoners” are plague victims.

Champignons: Small mushroom-shaped islands, such as the one seen here: http://www.naturaltraveler.com/article.php?article=palau&issue=2009/11/52 . They could easily be the home of a castaway, prisoner, or perhaps simply a lich looking for a bit of solitude.

Bioluminescent Bays: Suppose the party seeks a quiet cove in which to anchor. At night the waters come alive with light (see Hishgraphics»Makan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 2 ).

Bloody Bays: These waters are stained a deep bloody red due to tannins leeching from nearby estuaries ( see BBC - Oceans - The Southern Ocean - Sunken Valley, South West Tasmania ).

Figurehead Island: (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figurehead_(object) ) Envision a small sandy isle upon which dozens of figureheads have been washed ashore. No sign is seen of the ships to which they were formerly attached. A scrag’s collection, perhaps? Or perhaps, under the light of the full moon, the wooden forms come to life and lament the loss of their ship and crew.

Floating Island: (see Floating island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) I am currently working on one of these for my current game, as the party is nearing the Jungle of Lost Ships.

Mucus Island: just to be gross, how about an island of hardened mucus made by the likes of the violet sea snail ( see The Sea Slug Forum - Violet Snails - Janthina spp. ).

I get ideas all the time from the likes of:
UnderwaterTimes.com | news of the underwater world
The Ocean -- National Geographic

Oddball Beasties:
Globsters: Globster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Feejee Mermaids: Fiji mermaid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jenny Hanivers: Jenny Haniver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cool Gizmos:
The Tempest Prognosticator: Tempest Prognosticator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stormglass: Storm glass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Though it will fit in the palm of your hand, envision one of these as a sea dragon: Glaucus atlanticus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I once thought of making a pirate that had lost a leg, hand, and eye. Instead of the traditional peg leg, hook, and eyepatch I thought of using demonic grafts.

I also had a pirate who was a Bone Creature, a sentient skeleton (BoVD). As he was covered in etchings, he called himself Scrimshaw.

Close your eyes and listen to the sounds of the Sea Organ of Zadar: Sea organ, Zadar, Croatia Sound Tourism

Aeolius, I don't think you posted any of those in the aquatic database...I'll add this thread to it.