Feeling creative? Help me with some plot ideas...

[weem]

I'm on my way out the door for a while but I wanted to drop this in as quickly as possible for ideas so here goes...

>> I am currently running a 4e campaign on the Known World.

>> The campaign is breaking down into chapters as I go, and after 6 sessions, chapter 1 has come to an end

>> Chapter 1 entailed the finding of a strange box that periodically emits light creating a vision/scenes from the past of an ancient race and it (chapter 1) has traced the groups travels/adventures through various towns/locations trying to learn the history/importance of this artifact

>> Tomorrow when we play again, the group will in all likelyhood learn much more about the item and where it was discovered - a location they are going to want to visit, but it is far away - a trip they will make by boat that will have many stops/adventures/etc along the way -- this trip will make up Chapter 2

--- SO ---

This is a ship they will remain on for the entirety of the trip which will take many game sessions. What I am looking for is ideas about things they could encounter on the ship, brief encounters off the ship before returning and continuing, etc.

I have a few of my own such as manning various stations on the ship during a storm to help the crew (skill challenge), as well as an encounter with pirates of some kind possibly, encountering a burning seaside village and stopping to help which leads to some side encounters, etc. The constant is the boat though, they will always need to make sure they get back to it. The boat may stop somewhere for days or a week at a time, but it will continue and they need to get back to it.

Because this trip will take many sessions, I want to have ideas ready that are fun, relatively brief and as unique as possible. With that in mind I have decided to come here to pick your imaginations.

If you have any ideas, please feel free to share,

Thanks,

Oh, and incase you are curious about the campaign, the link (last lands) in my sig has game summarys of our sessions.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Well see monster's are always a easy one, pirates and such.

How about spoiled food. That make them have to land on a island to find some...ruins to explore and such, lost treasure and forgotten ruined cites await.

Or maybe they get hailed by sea elves, they need hero's to help in an underwater kind of way, sea caves air filled cites and such...fun, fun , fun

Or an evil spirit could be on the ship slowly causing stuff to happen, people falling over bored, food spoiling, maybe even the rudder sticking and running inot a reef

Also ya can throw in some fun stuff like storms, and the reef from above or steal the whole seargo scene from the sea wyaven wake ...ah classic there

 

[ppaladin123]

Ghost ships! They should be heralded by St. Elmo's Fire and some serious fog Imagine sailing into a graveyard of shipwrecks. Scary.

You might also want to do a disease outbreak or a period of time when the wind stops. Both can lead to mutiny.

 

[Rel]

A ship can also be a fun time to do a sort of "murder mystery" type thing where they are becalmed or otherwise far out to sea and somebody turns up dead. Everybody suspects everybody and you can keep killing off people and leaving clues until they determine who the culprit is or discover that it wasn't a member of the crew after all.

Maybe it was the Wereshark that's been following them in the ocean by day and sneaking aboard shaped as a man by night.

 

[weem]

Great ideas so far, thanks

or a period of time when the wind stops. Both can lead to mutiny.

I like this one especially - mysterious lack of wind, floating adrift for X amount of days and have something happen during this time.

Any more?

 

[Rechan]

What level are the PCs?

Taunting

Some sea-borne fey has slipped aboard, seeking to torment the ship and its inhabitants. Either by turning them against eachother, or making the superstitious sailors believe that the ship is haunted. It creates ill omens, and any other proper effects. (Weave into the murder mystery?)

Ambush

The ship comes across some wreckage. There's a lone survivor, a woman who looks in real bad shape. She acts very wounded, unable to swim or climb aboard. The PCs, being heroes, investigate.

As they are helping her, they are attacked by (reskinned kuthriks, sahuagin, vine horrors reskinned as seaweed horrors, wererats, whatever is suitable for their level). Then the woman attacks from behind (She is a Doppelganger Sneak, Howling Hag, Bog Hag).

Sirine's Call

The ship sails through a craggy, rocky outcropping. Not only is this a dangerous site, but it's infested with harpies and attack birds (guard drakes, rage drakes, or any other appropriate low level monster). Or you could reskin the harpies as straight-up sirines.

Land ho!

The ship spots land ahead. It's an island.

1) The ship is short on supplies, and thus this is a great refueling station for fresh water and possibly other provisions. There are trees on the island, which might make for good wood to repatch things from a previous fight.

Exploring the island, the PCs are attacked by some (woefully weak) humans who surrender and confess to be slaves. They have escaped their captor, stealing his boat, and are hiding there. However, within minutes, a boat with their previous owner and various marines from a neighboring nation have arrived. What do the PCs do?

2) Same setup as above, except that instead of slaves, you could have a dungeon. Perhaps it's flooded when the tide is in, thus giving them an unknown amount of time before the water resurges. The island could be ruled by some fey or other entity which demands tribute or some other roleplaying situation, in exchange for the provisions.

3) The island is not on any of the ships maps. It appears to have just appeared out of nowhere. Maybe it's a place where the Real World a plane are very thin, thus a chunk of the other plane has slipped in. Maybe it's the back of an enormous monster, or an elaborate trap for would-be sailors.

We're gunna need a bigger boat

The ship is attacked by a sea monster. A huge sea monster. We're talking wrapped around the boat trying to eat it/tear it apart sea monster. Set up stats for the various parts of the monster (the head, the tentacles, the eyes), and run each part as a separate monster, along with various hazards (ship deck bucking, giant wave crashing across ship, etc), and impose skill checks to properly fight the monster due to the horrendous conditions of the wobbling deck, etc.

Beast of Burden

The ship comes across the floating remains of a giant sea monster (maybe the one from the above suggestion!). The sailors recognize this monster, as tales of the beast having a great treasure in its gullet. So the PCs must crawl inside and seek the treasure. Along the way they are behest by scavengers, parasites that lived in the monster's intestines, and deadly decomposing gasses and disease. Treat it as a mini-dungeon.


Finally, The_Jester has converted various monsters, some of which could be very useful (sharks, bunyip, giant crabs, giant fish).

 

[Gilladian]

One thing I would definitely do is play up the crew. They're gonna be stuck with these people for months, so make sure there are plenty of possible interactions.

The captain might be a martinet who drives his crew mercilessly, prays to the sea god every day in long sermons, and has his men beaten at the least sign of laziness. Or he might be a drunken layabout who spends most of his time in his cabin with his mistress.

The first mate can be a petty tyrant, or a decent man battling against his relentless captain.

The cook might be horrible, giving everyone inedible meals and getting terribly insulted when his food is maligned; or perhaps he's a prima-donna who demands fresh supplies and raids everyone's private stash for their secreted goodies, but he's so good everyone submits to his actions.

Liven things up this way (maybe not to the extremes I'm suggesting!) and make each crewman unique in some minor way. That way when there's a murder on board, they already have preconceived notions of who did what (right or wrong...).

 

[Rel]

One thing I would definitely do is play up the crew.

I think this is a great idea. But mostly I wanted to post to say that I must need more coffee because at first I thought your username was "Gilligan", which seemed really appropriate.

 

[Rechan]

Gillig- Gilladian is right!

Also, I think some sort of cursed item brought aboard would be great. I don't know the nature of the cursed item, but it definitely would be appropriate.

 

[weem]

Excellent ideas everyone, thank you

What level are the PCs?

They are level 4.