Help me design a D20 Past diving bell!

[Zephrin the Lost]

Hey all-

So I am converting an old 1st edition Dungeon adventure ('Whitelake Mine,' Dungeon #18, July/August 1989) to D20 Modern, and setting it in South Dakota in 1876. The adventure is about a mine that's having trouble due to monsters, including a giant pike. I'm switching out the monsters with a crazed cult of fish-worshiping savages and statting the Pike with a huge shark from Menace Manual.

The adventure features a diving bell, which has no stats anyway and even if they did they would be first edition D&D. I want to make a craft my cowboys can survive in underwater and one that will stand up to some giant pike-sized punishment, but don't know where to begin -- hardness and HP, I suppose.

Here's the Shark (or, as I call it, Pike)

Shark: CR 5; Medium-size animal; HD 10d8+20; hp 65; Mas 15; Init +2; Spd swim 40 ft.; Defense 15, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural); BAB +7; Grap +20; Atk +10 mêlée (2d6+7, bite); Full Atk +10/5 mêlée (2d6+7, bite); FS 15 ft. by 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.; SQ aquatic, keen scent, low-light vision; AL none; SV Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +4; AP 0; Rep +0; Str 21, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2.
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7,
Feats: none


Any suggestions?

--Z

 

[Stormborn]

I would suggest taking your que from the original adventure and not worring about stats. Instead decide what you want to happen or, if you prefer, what is most likley to happen.

For example: You could say that if the pike attacks the bell succesfully 3 times it starts to take on water, filling the cabin at the rate of 1/2 foot per round. If attacked succefuly a 4th time the water fills the bell at the rate of 1 foor per round. A 5th succesful attack means the bell is hulled and completly open to the water, but if being lowered or raised ifrom the surface it continues to do so. It also would provide partial cover for anyone clinging to the inside. A 6th attack severs it from the lifting mechanism and it begins to plummit rapidly toward the bottom. If you wish the PCs to be able to stem the damage done allow for appropriate craft checks; DC 10 to negate/mitigate an attack before the third succesful one (treating the bell as if it had one less attack than total with a successful check) DC 15 at once water start comin in going to DC 20 after the 4th attack. The pike faces a Defense of 10 for attacking the bell (its big, slow moving, cannot dodge, etc) and on a critical hit treat the damage as if 2 succeful hits were scored.

I am unfamiliar with the original, but that should give you sufficient rules and time for the PCs to do what needs to be done.

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

Thanks, Stormborn- that's an elegant solution.

It's very interesting doing this kind of conversion-- I'm using the Sidewinder rules, which has a wider range of era-appropriate firearms than D20 past. The huge damage that say, a 2-barrel 10 gage shotgun could do to the Pike (3d10) coupled with the Massive Damage rules, make the encounter much different than it would be in any edition of D&D.

Of course, since I'm not using FX (well, apart from giant fish and some mutant hillbillies), the cowboys won't be able to breathe underwater and so on, either.

I'm most anxious for when they enter the air-filled submerged caves and have to use lanterns and torches: No darkvision! There will actually be a tactical difference between a dark room and a lit one! It may even be scary!

--Z

 

[Roger]

A diving bell is a big solid cast iron, well, bell, isn't it?

I don't care how big your fish are, they aren't going to be knocking holes in it.

Alright, I guess it could be rusting out, or something, but still...



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

Well, it might have a porthole that could be smashed or lose some key rivets or something of that nature. Also, there are hoses in the top that allow air to be pumped in to balance the air/water pressure. If either of those were knocked free, the bell would begin taking water.

It would be more sophisticated (and unlikely) than the examples shown in wikipedia, but in these games, absurdity and fun often go hand in hand.

--Z