Help with a LONG sea voyage (TEWLIGAN - stay out)

[Dirt]

Two seagoing adventures I did....

1. Three dopplegangers (one polymorphed into a little dog) book passage on the same ship as the PCs. In their trunk they have a map leading to an island filled with whatever goodies you want to place on it. Their plan is to sneak into the captains cabin late one night, once they are near the island. They are going to throw the captain overboard and replace him with the doppleganger that was polymorphed into the dog. Then the new "captain" will direct the ship to the island the dopplegangers want to get to for whatever nefarious reasons they have. In my game it was because they were mind controlled into delivering a message for the main bad guys (Yuan-Ti) to the Kopru hiding in the middle of the volcano on the island.

2. A ghost on board the ship makes it a habit of stealing expensive or important items and stashing them in the gross water at the bottom of the bilge. While the PCs are aboard some of their stuff goes missing. Its easy to set up an "innocent" third party to look suspicious and provide a red herring as to the actual cause of the missing items. Not really a whole adventure, just a side trek.

Also, having gamed with Tewligan before, I had good success with demonic goats. Perhaps the hold is full of them.

DS

I rather like the doppleganger idea...although I've probably already overused the doppleganger concept...

So, who is this? Is this one of Tewligan's improv troup members?

 

[der_kluge]

No ideas on the sea voyage, but my story hour (see the link in my sig) is about the PCs who get stranded on a lost continent. My party started at 9th, so the level is right. So, while the trip on the sea was uneventful for them, the real fun started when a dragon sank their boat while it was anchored.

 

[AuraSeer]

Odd calming effects on the water and wind that leave the ship dead (think Bermuda Triangle). PCs must investigate the phenomenon, else their trip could take x3 the time (and wreak havoc on supplies).

Motivating the party through lack of supplies is a good idea, but unfortunately it's almost impossible if there's a cleric around. A single Clr9 can feed 27 people with just one casting of create food and water.

The same goes for many of the other mundane disasters that are useful for narrative tension at sea. The pesky clerics can easily deal with fouled water supplies, spoiled food, disease, malnutrition, and other stuff that would put a hard deadline on a real sea voyage.

 

[Desdichado]

There was a supplement a while back that looked interesting, although I never picked it up, for a city located at the bottom of a whirlpool.

Are you talking full-out open ocean sailing, or more coastal-hugging type of stuff?

 

[Dirt]

No ideas on the sea voyage, but my story hour (see the link in my sig) is about the PCs who get stranded on a lost continent. My party started at 9th, so the level is right. So, while the trip on the sea was uneventful for them, the real fun started when a dragon sank their boat while it was anchored.

Unfortunately, sinking their ship (although immensely fun) would only briefly effect them. There is a mage who has been abusing his teleport. There is also a cleric who can provide endless amounts of food and water.

So, while "Survivor:The Jungles of Gargargia" sounds like fun, it wouldn't last very long...

 

[Dirt]

There was a supplement a while back that looked interesting, although I never picked it up, for a city located at the bottom of a whirlpool.

Are you talking full-out open ocean sailing, or more coastal-hugging type of stuff?

A bit of both. The nice thing is that the group is easily distracted. The entire purpose of this little trek is to explore lands to which they've never been. They will be regularly stopping at ports along the way, and I'll provide some good opportunities for shore leave (gathering rare spell components, etc).

I can handle the land excursions, but making a few interesting ocean encounters along the way is something that I could use some suggestions on.

 

[ErichDragon]

More ideas:

A murder mystery on a ship could be great fun. Maybe the Captain/First Mate/Cook/Whoever is killed and the remaining crew look to the PCs to investigate. The longer they take to solve the case, the more surly and mutinous the crew become. Fights break out, discipline must be harsh etc., etc.

Lots of interesting characters could be found on a ship and should give great RP opportunity.

Someone mentioned a Ghost Ship encounter. I ran one of these once that was great fun. An immense Galleon appeared out of a fog bank every night and chased the PC's ship. If they ran it would chase them, firing seige weapons when in range. The ship itself was immune to magical attacks and was crewed by undead. Make it clear that eventualy the ghost ship will have the weather gage and catch up to the PCs. When it does have the deck crew be suitable undead for the PCs level.

Of course the trick is that the only way to stop the ship from reappearing every night with new crew members is for the party to descend into the bowels of the ship and defeat the ghost captain or set right something that keeps the ship and it's crew from their rightful resting places.

I had several decks with different rooms and different challenges. My favorite was the cockpit with a ghostly doctor and piles of severed limbs. The limbs would animate and crawl after the PCs. If destroyed they just regenerated in the grisly pile.

Anyway, you get the idea.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

this sounds like the perfect opportunity to use Mystic Eye Games "The Deep"

 

[kigmatzomat]

Do you have any suggestions for events that can happen while they are travelling aboard their ship? I want to stray away from the cliche "giant octopus attacks ship" adventure. Any ideas?

Let them buy a stolen boat. Loads of fun there. This assumes they don't use gather information. Instant fun.

When they leave the harbor have a sea cleric on a spiffy little skiff offer to bless their ship for a "minor" donation (big enough to make the greedy ones howl).
Have the crew mutter about bad luck if the PCs don't do it. Plague them a week out with doldrums and oddly becalmed regions mixed with overcast skies that lasts 10 days. Break a rudder chain on the first good day (fixable, but will take all day). Consider having the crew mutiny.

Mix in oceanic paladins. Watch the surprise when they see them riding Sea cat mounts while wearing cloaks of the manta ray. Even if the PCs dodged the stolen boat, have the paladins swing buy to see who is the new owner of the boat. For best affect use races the players tend to think of as evil for no good reason. (Anybody else always assume Locatha are evil?) Hilarity may ensue.

Intelligent pirates with a high-level druid on board. The decks are equipped with alternating tower shields that the archers use "shot on the run" to move from cover to cover while firing volleys. Greek fire is lobbed using slings high into the rigging to essentially take the entire crew out of action while they fight the fires. Depending on the druid's level, judicous use of wind wall, control water, Summon (x), and Dispel Magic can be entertaining. Sea druids also get wonderful usage out of call lightning due to the insane line of sight and the slow maneuvering times.

A lost flying creature decides to nest on the vessel. I recommend something like a Yrthak that can scuttle the vessel if they give it grief or a large flock of normally inoccuous good-aligned creatures that are making a nuisance of themselves by numbers. Infant coutl, maybe.

Storms. Tornados are CR10.

Oh, and tell Wainscott to be quiet or else monkeys might fly out of his butt. He should blink about six times and then get very thoughtful.

-James McP

 

[JiffyPopTart]

No, no improv goodness for me.

I was more of an old-school buddy than that. When the improv thing happened we stopped hanging out. Plus we used to work together at Pomeroy...or Suckeroy as some would call it.

Also you can never have too many sea zombies or giant squid.

Dan Stone