[5e] Spell & Crossbones

[Shayuri]

Alright, I am going with Nia. She has a lot more personality in my head, and will fit better with the pirate theme. But! Because I really really like a lot of the druid/ranger synergy, I think I'm going to have Nia be MC druid/ranger. Most likely favoring druid quite a bit, of course.

Nia's village was wrecked by an unnatural storm caused by cultists of the Abyss, led by something masquerading as a man. They were sacrifices, essentially, and were all wiped out...including Nia. Except Nia came back. She's hunting that white whale now, the creature who orchestrated the destruction. It is, she believes, the reason she was returned. Should she succeed, she will win her life back as well.

The hunt is long-term; a chase of rumor and strange events. Along the way she makes a living casting charms and hexes, bringing in the occasional bounty, and working for her passage on ship after ship after ship. People who know her, know her as the sea-witch 'Nia Steeleyes,' or various epithets based therof. She doesn't share her real name or origins freely, hoping to obscure herself from the creature she pursues.

The ship that sank had a passenger whom she believes had information relating to her hunt. She hopes that he had written some of it down, or that he survived the wreck. Or, if need be, that she can wrest the knowledge from him even in death.

 

[Hannerdyn]

So the first time we have an open roll by the DM, it's a d100. The first time a d100 is rolled, it's a 1.

We're screwed.

 

[Shayuri]

A question! A couple of posts have implied that Doctor Hawken can help with healing. Reading his sheet, I'm not sure I'm seeing it. He has the Medicine skill and proficiency with herbalism kits, but those don't actually heal damage, yes? They can stabilize dying characters, but unless he has the Healer feat, that's it.

Or am I missing something?

I'm planning my 'default' spell load, and trying to work out how many heals to prep, basically.

Annnnd...trinket rolls! Some things she recovered from her ruined village and the surroundings, some she picked up on her travels since.

1d20 → [9] = (9) Ornate compass in a scrimshaw case

1d20 → [7] = (7) Pirate recipe book!

1d20 → [4] = (4) Necklace of sahuagin teeth and starfish

1d20 → [19] = (19) Piece of a broken ship's wheel carved with veve symbol of Agwé, the Master of the Sea and Loa of Tides.

1d20 → [20] = (20) Conch shell which echoes with haunting sounds of ocean when held to the ear, and is as loud as a trumpet when blown.

Aw yeah, the bling!

By the way, GM sir, I am taking the Magic Trinkets thing. Since I can cast Detect Magic, it feels a little wrong to take the 'unknown magic' option, so we'll do the Known one. Do I start knowing what the magic is, or just that it IS magic?

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm able to use the Triage healing thing, but I chose Doctor really more because I can hack off limbs with my pact blade. Not inspiring, sadly. Um... But it'll be clean! Well, tainted by the deep ones... I'll let myself out, fine...

This game is agony in terms of cool options to choose from, so struggle with this character until it works. Real agony, though, as the others can tell you. Start with Pirate, nautical themes, and see what the rules can do for you. I over-complicated earlier builds, and then decided to go for simple Warlock... with a homebrew race, and really odd feat choice. BS until it makes sense?

"BS until it makes sense" A pirate motto?

As I said, I'm fine with mechanical character tinkering for the first level of play (I'm inclined to say "yes" to most tweaking). Changes to character story, however, I want to minimize and will need to be run by me (and I might say "no").

Hot damn! You were right when you said we'd like him.

He's similar to a Human Sage Monk 1/Ranger 3 with Linguist feat.

A question! A couple of posts have implied that Doctor Hawken can help with healing. Reading his sheet, I'm not sure I'm seeing it. He has the Medicine skill and proficiency with herbalism kits, but those don't actually heal damage, yes? They can stabilize dying characters, but unless he has the Healer feat, that's it.

No he can't heal PCs. However, surgeon's tools proficiencies allow him to heal the crew, and ability not be neglected. Crew HP & healing follow special rules which can be found in the original post under "Of Ships and Sea" > "The Rotation" > "Surgeon." Basically, crew HP recover 1/day unless magical healing or surgeon's tools are used.

Annnnd...trinket rolls! Some things she recovered from her ruined village and the surroundings, some she picked up on her travels since.

1d20 → [9] = (9) Ornate compass in a scrimshaw case

1d20 → [7] = (7) Pirate recipe book!

1d20 → [4] = (4) Necklace of sahuagin teeth and starfish

1d20 → [19] = (19) Piece of a broken ship's wheel carved with veve symbol of Agwé, the Master of the Sea and Loa of Tides.

1d20 → [20] = (20) Conch shell which echoes with haunting sounds of ocean when held to the ear, and is as loud as a trumpet when blown.

Aw yeah, the bling!

I am happy you guys are getting use out of those trinkets tables I suspect the pirate recipe book will have value to [MENTION=6777934]Maldavos[/MENTION] who plays Hugo Van Haan, dwarven bard and ship's cook.

By the way, GM sir, I am taking the Magic Trinkets thing. Since I can cast Detect Magic, it feels a little wrong to take the 'unknown magic' option, so we'll do the Known one. Do I start knowing what the magic is, or just that it IS magic?

Ah, hmm, in that case your options are: (1) Pick one common or uncommon magic item (you can re-skin it as one of your trinkets if you like), and naturally you know it's magic. (2) Let me pick 2 magic items, which will probably be unusual, and actually you k ow they're magic.

For sources of magic items there's the free DM's Basic Rules PDF, the recent DMG previews, and also I have some notes on weird pirate magic items I've been converting.

Here's alist of the official common/uncommon magic items I know of...

DM's Basic Rules PDF
Amulet of health
Boots of springing and striding
Bag of holding
Gauntlets of ogre power
Gloves of swimming and climbing
Goggles of night
Headband of intellect
Ring of evasion
Ring of resistan
Wand of detection
Wand of magic missiles

DMG Preview: Wondrous Magic Items
Alchemy Jug
Amulet of Proof Against Detection

The DMG previews can be found at http://tribality.com/2014/10/19/dd-5th-edition-dungeon-master-guide-previews-collection/. The most recent Wondrous Magic Items can be found from the ENWorld home page right now, it's not yet up on tribality.com.

 

[Quickleaf]

Alright, I am going with Nia. She has a lot more personality in my head, and will fit better with the pirate theme. But! Because I really really like a lot of the druid/ranger synergy, I think I'm going to have Nia be MC druid/ranger. Most likely favoring druid quite a bit, of course.

Nia's village was wrecked by an unnatural storm caused by cultists of the Abyss, led by something masquerading as a man. They were sacrifices, essentially, and were all wiped out...including Nia. Except Nia came back. She's hunting that white whale now, the creature who orchestrated the destruction. It is, she believes, the reason she was returned. Should she succeed, she will win her life back as well.

lots of adventure hooks there! Sounds good! Might indicate the Quicksilver Eyes and/or Beastie Bait fortunes.

The hunt is long-term; a chase of rumor and strange events. Along the way she makes a living casting charms and hexes, bringing in the occasional bounty, and working for her passage on ship after ship after ship. People who know her, know her as the sea-witch 'Nia Steeleyes,' or various epithets based therof. She doesn't share her real name or origins freely, hoping to obscure herself from the creature she pursues.

The ship that sank had a passenger whom she believes had information relating to her hunt. She hopes that he had written some of it down, or that he survived the wreck. Or, if need be, that she can wrest the knowledge from him even in death.

Love the name, very pirate-y! Sounds like a good start on your character. Fleshing out just who she thinks was aboard La Gloriosa and why he/his spirit/his notes could help her might illuminate her motives and story better.

 

[Shayuri]

Quicksilver Eyes is on the list, yep. In fact, here's the Fortunes:

Mixed: Quicksilver eyes
Good: Voodoo rituals, Magic Trinkets
Ill: Haunted, Wastrel

As for the Gloriosa; there was a buccaneer who was seen at Cartagena in the sacking, a man named Saul Carter whom reliable (relatively) evidence places as the brother of a confirmed cultist that Nia was present at the interrogation of. His last breath before drowning right there in thin air in front of them was spent cursing his brother's name. She thinks it's because he betrayed them, or stole something from them. Either way, it's almost certain he knows more. Saul's body wasn't found in the cleanup, and some reports place him near the Gloriosa before it sailed. It's very likely he made it on board.

Edit - Actually, lets firm that up a bit more. Saul betrayed the cult BY stealing something. In fact, that's what Saul was doing in Cartagena perhaps! They didn't get much out of the late Paul Carter (Saul's twin? PERHAPS!) before the Old Gods closed his mouth, but he mentioned pages, which makes Nia think that Saul took a book of some kind. She's hoping it's a journal or a list of names...something that can put her back on the trail, which after Paul's death has turned a bit cold.

So if the trail at the La Gloriosa is dead, Nia can still try to go to Cartagena and see if she can find out what he took...but she'd rather actually see it for herself if she can. Primary sources and all.

Ah yes, and Queenie!

Katerina's mother was a native of some sort... All that was really stated was she was from an Island village and her father (Kat's grandfather) was Chief of the tribe and able to cast wicked curses. Perhaps Nia is from the same area / village or perhaps even related... If you like character connections.

If you don't already have a grim fate in mind for Katerina's parents and their village, then I think we could work something out with this. Nia was apprenticed to a skilled practitioner after all...

 

[Queenie]

Ah yes, and Queenie!

Katerina's mother was a native of some sort... All that was really stated was she was from an Island village and her father (Kat's grandfather) was Chief of the tribe and able to cast wicked curses. Perhaps Nia is from the same area / village or perhaps even related... If you like character connections.

If you don't already have a grim fate in mind for Katerina's parents and their village, then I think we could work something out with this. Nia was apprenticed to a skilled practitioner after all...

I don't have much of anything worked out for them, actually. Katerina's father was a famous pirate who ended up at the unnamed Island / Village for supplies. He fell in love with the Chief's daughter, Inka. She ran off with the pirate, Blackheart, but died in childbirth to Katerina. When Blackheart returned Inka to her tribe the Chief cursed him, a curse which now Katerina suffers from (her father the pirate died and passed it on to her). The Chief does not know he has a half Spanish granddaughter. It's written more elegantly in my backstory but that's really it. Feel free to have fun with that if you'd like.

 

[Shayuri]

Okay, some possibilities I see. I'm going with the idea that Nia is from the same village here, and that...consequently...that village is now gone, and the person(s) responsible for cursing Kat's dad and therefore her are now dead. But as we all know, curses linger.

1) Though the curse was at the behest of the Chief, it was actually laid down by someone else; a practitioner of the magic arts. Inka had been training to succeed this person, and once she left, a new apprentice was found. This was Nia. She would have been quite young still when Inka was returned, dead, and the curse was cast...but would still remember something like that.

2) Inka was the Chief's daughter, but not his ONLY offspring. He had a son, or another daughter, and Nia is their daughter...she's therefore the Chief's grand-daughter...much as Kat herself is. This tie between them isn't known by either of course, though it's possible they could put the pieces together if they open up to one another.

Either way, as Nia is the only surviving member of the tribe and/or family of the one that cursed Kat's line, there may be a way to end it through her somehow... BUT HOW?

(^_-)

Edit - Come to think of it, these two possibilities aren't mutually exclusive. Why agonize over a decision when we can use it ALL?

What do you think?

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=4936]Shayuri[/MENTION] [MENTION=8058]Queenie[/MENTION] Great character connections! So, this would mean Nia is human or half-elven? Or half-orc?

 

[Shayuri]

Nia's all human. Which would mean that th...oh. Was Inka elf? Thaaaaaat would alter how things could happen. Though it COULD still work, if the Chief had more than one wife, perhaps. But it might be overcomplicating things. We can just go with option 1 in that case and say there's no blood connection.

Edit - Readreadread...ok. Looks like Kat's pure human, so there's no problem with both 1 and 2 being used.

Quickleaf, you nut! You had me worried there!