Pathfinder 1E Crashed ship, need expert advice to make thi9s more enjoyable!

[Koothann]

Ok so i am starting a new campaign with about 3 level 6 characters and 2 level 2 characters, and my idea for the first time out together is for them to come on a recently wrecked ship of the coast sevearl miles away from town. But has been there long enough that there are rumors circling around town about the boat and that it might be hauntedor at least crawling with something evil. But i am having the hardest time trying to put something together. If you have any ideas with this, any ideas would be considered but i am trying to put something really fun for the group, and always thanks so much for your great ideas!

 

[Loonook]

My suggestion, and what helps me when I am completely lost on a topic?

I just free write. Take about five minutes and just visualize what is in your head about that scene. Do you smell something? Does anything catch your eye? What sounds are around the area? Do all the senses (or at least those that make sense) and go from there.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[radja]

so.. is the ship really haunted, is it infested with a natural threat, or has it been taken over by villains?

if it's haunted... how? zombies of the drowned crew? ghosts of the slaves it was carrying (which could lead to some nice non-combat encounters to find out what task was left unfinished.. could be the burial of the slave's wife's body, which is also on the ship), or maybe there's just a skeleton crew left?

natural threats... a chuul? giant moray eels? They'll eat whoever explores the ship, leading to rumours of it being haunted

villains... a band of brigands, pirates or evil sea elves could make it their base, and spread rumours about it being haunted.

lots of possibilities.

 

[Koothann]

natural threats... a chuul? giant moray eels? They'll eat whoever explores the ship, leading to rumours of it being haunted

I really like this idea, think i am going to have a chuul that lives inside and have the water around the ship infested with eels. But i all so really like having a wandering spirit with a task on board to give them a task to bury a dead wife(great idea by the way)

But i am gouing to have the wife has been captured by a group of dark sea elves, because that will fit in with the overall goal with the story, and they have to find her. (Alive or Dead)

Do u guys think this is difficult enough or should i make it more challenging?

 

[Triskaideka]

Weresharks, maybe? Therianthropy makes everything more exciting (and deadly).

 

[Stormonu]

A Back story for ya: A local sea cult - Seers of the Dark Sea - extracts a toll from the captains of ships that pass through the area. Those who do not pay a monthly tithe have all sorts of trouble ranging from dock accidents, loss of nets or fish and some have even been lost in sudden storms that seem to plague the bay. One well-known captain not only refused to pay tithes to the cult, but even went so far as to beat them off his boat when they came to collect. That night, when the ship slipped out of port, a great storm suddenly struck. Viewers from the shore saw the captain's ship visibly sucked up into a water spout and then hurled through the sky to be dashed on the rocks. No one even went to search for survivors or salvage, for the rocks sang with the cries of terrified sailors and in the half-light of a sky dancing with lightning, onlookers saw what seemed hundreds of strands of tentacles writhe and lurch about the ship until the screaming stopped late in the night. Some swear they saw the captain, lashed to the broken mizzenmast, have his flesh flayed by whatever the writhing shapes were. Since then, no one has dared to cross the cultist.

In truth, the Seers are a mix of pure-blood and half-blood malenti (evil sea elves forged by sahuagin). They are the eyes and ears of a mighty kraken - S'shoal'eth that lives in the area, and it is the cult and the kraken that are responsible for the bad things that have happened in the nearby sea. The kraken's goal is to gain control of all the nearby villages to bring it gold, treasure and sacrifices. It has sahaugin, malenti, various sea monstrosities and a few land-based servants to aid it, and a druidic high priest who has been turned into a were-octupus to speak for the Kraken.

The wrecked ship, ironically named The Defiance, is one of the cult's jumping-off points. It serves as a center to bring tribute and from the sea caves laced beneath the wreck, monsters are born and sent out to plague the ocean. While it'd be murderous to have characters face the kraken, you can have its half-glimpsed movements, a single tentacle attack, and/or a "sudden storm" brewing over the ship as the characters investigate foreshadow the kraken's involvement.

 

[Celebrim]

Ok so i am starting a new campaign with about 3 level 6 characters and 2 level 2 characters, and my idea for the first time out together is for them to come on a recently wrecked ship of the coast sevearl miles away from town. But has been there long enough that there are rumors circling around town about the boat and that it might be hauntedor at least crawling with something evil. But i am having the hardest time trying to put something together. If you have any ideas with this, any ideas would be considered but i am trying to put something really fun for the group, and always thanks so much for your great ideas!

What larger story are you wanting to tell? Do you have an adventure path in mind? Do you have some ideas of where you would like this to go?