Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Pirates of the Emerald Coast (3.5)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6702172" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p><strong>The duel is now most definitely coming</strong></p><p> </p><p> A lot of plot lines have been getting in the way of my players sorting out the duel, which their booze-loving crew mate <strong>"Rummy"</strong> got himself into with a local nobleman. So last time my players attempted to talk some sense into the parties involved. They talked to the <strong>father </strong>of the woman that this whole mess is about, a man by the name of <strong>Wiebe Ter Weel</strong>. The talk started out reasonable, but the players kind of pushed the father beyond what is reasonable. They tried to tell the father that it was not for him to decide who his daughter Laura marries, which is simply not true. This is a medieval society after all, and the daughter gets no say in the matter at all. So they quickly outstayed their welcome, and the father got very angry with the players. The players realized that they had made an error in judgement. They discussed the option of making the father pay dearly for all this, but one of their npc crew members disagreed. He pointed out that the man was clearly a widower, and that taking everything from him would not be just, nor would it make his daughter happy. The man was right to not want his daughter to marry some drunken pirate. The players felt a bit guilty.</p><p></p><p> </p><p> The party also met with <strong>The Great Ravelli</strong>. This sword master had been trying to teach Rummy how to fence in the short time that he had (the players had not met him yet in person up to this point). Ravelli expressed his dislike for these stupid pointless duels. He had trained dozens of stuck up noblemen, only to have them throw away their lives over something pointless. He was sure that Rummy would die at this duel, despite his best teachings. He explained how even people who had trained under him, often died in these sorts of duels. It was clear that despite his lack of nobility, a lot of people had respect for this master.</p><p> </p><p> The party decided to meet with<strong> the nobleman, Aldredo Poussin</strong>, as well. But the man was not an idiot. He provided enough security for himself, and made sure there was a long table between him and the players. He was still as arrogant as ever, and not willing to cut a deal. His only offer, was that Rummy would simply leave and take his defeat without a fight. The party also learned that he'd find a replacement wizard to act as referee, and thus the duel would take place tomorrow. The party had only recently taken out his original judge in an epic fight at a shipyard. So they were surprised that he'd managed to find a new referee so quickly. They tried to offer him to marry one of the widows of the marquis instead, but he considered them to be "spoiled goods". They also offered him some power over Vertesaux, which he declined, since it didn't end that well for the last ruler (the Marquis had been assassinated a few sessions ago). The players also noticed a diploma on the wall that confirmed that the nobleman had been trained by <strong>Ravelli </strong>too, which is very concerning.</p><p> </p><p> So now the players find themselves in a difficult situation. The duel is tomorrow, and it looks like they under estimated the situation. They have no power over either the father or the nobleman. And they do not want to break the law. Their last hope, is the fact that the new referee is family to a well known countess, who will be present at a meeting between many nobles tomorrow. Will they cheat their way to victory, or will they go for an honest fight? Rummy certainly won't win, but he is allowed to let someone else fight for him. This would mean that one of the players could put his life on the line for Rummy. Unless Rummy fights for himself, the nobleman could also appoint someone else, and who would this champion be?</p><p></p><p> </p><p> Four important events are about to take place: The <strong>burial </strong>of the Marquis, the <strong>meeting between the nobles</strong> (from which a new ruler will be appointed), <strong>the duel</strong>, and a <strong>ritual </strong>to destroy the contents of the black crate which the players recovered from the shipyard. And all on the same day. I'm especially excited to see how the meeting with the nobles turns out. I get to introduce the players to a lot of interesting new characters, and the players will get the choice to push a new ruler forward. Will they push Sophie Marceau (daughter of the Marquis) forward? They will also get to meet the enigmatic Countess Camille, who misses her left arm. There's a really interesting story behind how she lost her arm, which I'm eager to tell.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Finally, the duel to the death! But first, a new ruler for Vertesaux!</strong></p><p> </p><p> My players sure get distracted easily. But at long last they finally got to finish up something we had delayed for a long while. The players first had a meeting with all of the nobles, to try and pick a new ruler for Vertesaux. I ruled that each individual at the meeting had a diplomacy DC to convince them, along with a topic that they were interested in, and a topic they were not interested in. Most of the nobles had already picked a candidate, but it was up to the players to try and sway their opinion. A <strong>bishop </strong>was sent from the capital, to gather all of the votes, and make the final call. So the players all schemed and gathered gossip on various nobles, and tested the waters to see where each noble stood on the matter. In the end they chose to vote for a kind elderly noble,<strong> Lord Demphrey</strong>. They all realized that it would be hard to convince the bishop that a woman should be the new Marquis, since he had a clear disdain for women. But they were also careful not to get on the bad side of the bishop. They also played political games with an eastern baroness, who had a lot of influence on the opinion of her much younger husband. They also managed to poison <strong>Aldredo Poussin</strong>, who would fight <strong>Rummy </strong>this same day. This meant that he would be fatigued during the fight. They also asked the Bishop to remove a curse (caused by a fight with a mummy) from one of their party members. This was of course no problem for a Bishop.</p><p> </p><p> After all was said and done, they gathered at the harbor for the duel. They had convinced Rummy to pick one of their party members to fight for him, because he would otherwise surely die. At the sight of this, Alfredo decided to appoint a second as well. Much to the surprise of the players, he appointed the one and only sword master. The famous <strong>Ravelli</strong>. Both the player and Ravelli were searched for weapons and armor. They were then handed a regulation rapier and buckler. A wizard-referee for each side then proceeded to check for magical items or spells, which were not allowed. Both fighters then stepped onto a floating platform in the harbor, where they would fight to the death. Because it was raining slightly, any charge attack would require a balance check as well.</p><p> </p><p> At first there was a long stand of. The two both went into full defense, and slowly approached each other. Ravelli waited for the player to attack him, so that if he missed, he could counter attack with a trip. After the trip, the player was basically open to a full attack. Since getting up also provokes an attack of opportunity, Ravelli would get a free chance to disarm his opponent as well. Fortunately the player tumbled out of the way, and got to his feet without provoking an attack. And so the two duked it out, while drawing a lot of blood on both sides. When they were both badly wounded, the player put his sword away, and said that enough was enough. Ravelli agreed, and put his sword away too. An angry Alfredo start yelling at Ravelli: <em>"I order you to kill him!"</em> -But Ravelli ignored his commands.</p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile the rest of the party was eager to get rid of <strong>Alfredo</strong>, who was now standing on the peer. They created a distraction of a screaming woman with <strong>Ghost Sound</strong>, and then the <strong>captain </strong>used <strong>Ring of the Ram</strong> to knock Alfredo into the water. Here the shape-shifted <strong>Druid </strong>could easily attack him as a <strong>shark</strong>, without it looking like murder. The players did run the risk however, of one of the referees seeing the effect of the ring (a vague shape resembling a ram's head). Alfredo was pulled under by the shark in full sight of an astonished audience. The Bard-Captain worked his charm, and helped encourage the opinion that it must be a sign of the gods. When the <strong>Sheriff </strong>came to ask the referees if there was any foul play, one referee looked at the captain in silence. But before he could accuse the captain of any wrong doing, it was <strong>Laura's* father</strong> who told the Sheriff that he saw Alfredo slip and fall into the water. This came as a big surprise to the players, because Laura's father hated Rummy, and didn't want his daughter to marry a worthless drunk pirate. As it turns out, by putting his life on the line, Rummy had earned her father's respect. The father apologized for not seeing it sooner, and the Captain apologized for their rudeness towards him earlier (in a previous session). Rummy and Laura's father shook hands, and the Captain ended the evening by heading to the tavern to collect his winnings. After all, he was the only one who bet all his money on Rummy.</p><p></p><p> </p><p> <em>(* Laura is the woman that Rummy is in love with, which started this whole duel)</em></p><p> </p><p> So now the party has finally finished up all their business in Vertesaux (for now). Sophie will rejoin the crew, and not follow in her father's footsteps. Laura and Rummy are reunited, and Laura might even get offered a new job by the players, along with a beneficial trade deal for her father. <strong>Lord Demphrey</strong> will be the new Marquis of Vertesaux, while the other nobles will be part of a council. The party now looks to the west, where they will visit the island of <strong>Abyscus</strong>, and seek the Kooghans for their knowledge of naval weaponry. They will also revisit the island of <strong>Witchclaw</strong>, where the Speakers of the Dead live. Then they will travel south, and then east, to hopefully avoid running into the <strong>Undead Captain Black William</strong>. On the way there they will use their old ship to bring carpenters and soldiers to the site of their new base, to start building it. This is on the dreaded <strong>Isle of Bones</strong>, where a dangerous tribe of cannibals still needs to be dealt with.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>How did they pull that off?</strong></p><p> </p><p> Sometimes things will go completely off script, and this was one of those evenings. I had refrained from using my city encounter tables for a while now, to speed things a long a bit. The party had been lingering in Vertesaux for many sessions, and I felt it was time to push things forward, and get them back onto their ship. But of course, I decided to roll just one random encounter.... just one.... oh boy.</p><p> </p><p> The encounter that came up, was of course an exotic encounter: <em>"A ghost ship appears on the horizon"</em>. Since the party had recently allowed the bad guys to get their hands on the body of Black William, this could only mean one thing. Captain Black William would attack Vertesaux with his ghost ship. I described the haunting sight of a ship that the navy could not hit, which looked like it had been crushed by a mountain, and then stapled back together. Its mere sight frightened people (frightful presence), and its cannon balls trailed through the air as if being fired underwater, and exploding in ghostly green flames. And yes, this of course derailed all my plans for this session completely.</p><p></p><p> </p><p> I described to the party how at first they only noticed all the people in the street staring towards the bay. It was a hilarious sort off Independence Day moment, where the whole city seemed aware of an imminent disaster, while the main characters were oblivious to the threat looming right in front of them. But I started wondering... what would the dreaded pirate captain Black William really want? Revenge on Vertesaux would probably be one thing, but his daughter would be the other. And since Sophie is the love interest of one of the players, and they left her unattended, I felt a damsel in distress was fitting here. Black William had come to reclaim his daughter, and take her to gods know where.</p><p> </p><p> The captain of the party decided to commandeer a ship, and go head to head with a ship many size categories bigger than his own. He raised his flaming sword in defiance, and after a successful Intimidate, I ruled that he had drawn the attention of the undead pirate captain. However, the players were outgunned and outmatched in every way. And besides, how are you going to hit a ghost ship? I raised the stakes, by deciding that the Ghost Ship was on a ramming course, and that Sophie Marceau had been made into a figurehead, by chaining her to the bow of the ship. As a DM, I had not prepared the statistics of Black William or his ship (this was all improvised), so I went with what ever seemed reasonable (and I looked up some ghost ship details in one of the books).</p><p></p><p> </p><p> <strong>What I had not prepared for, was for what would happen next</strong></p><p> </p><p> The druid conjured up a <strong>large water elemental</strong>, who would try and body block any shots coming towards the player-ship. The two heavy cannons at the front did around 34 and 35 damage each, which instantly dropped the HP of the elemental to exactly 1 point. So once Sophie came into view, and the elemental was still alive, he commanded the elemental to rescue Sophie. I described how she was chained to the ship, and I looked up the break DC for iron chains. As it turns out, with the strength of the elemental, he could only succeed if he rolled a natural 20.</p><p></p><p> </p><p> Which of course he did! By the gods, what unbelievable luck! And it was totally legit, there was no cheating here. We all saw him roll it with his dice cup. This was one of those impossible rolls, yet he made it anyway. The elemental rips the chains apart, and dives underwater with Sophie in its watery hands, just as the ghost ship crashes into the player-ship, and passes straight through. The ghost ship then dove into the water, and vanished underneath the waves.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Important tip for other DM's: Just roll with it</strong></p><p> </p><p> It's not like I had set up this encounter to be unwinnable, but I did plan for Black William to vanish again, as Ghost Ships do. The players were unequipped to fight this ship yet, but it was cool to give them a glimpse of just what terrible odds they face. I did not know from the top of my head what the strength of the water elemental was, or what the break DC of the chains was. I only knew that I didn't want to make it easy on them, so I substituted rope for a chain. But then our Druid rolled that 20, and this is I think an important lesson for any DM. <strong>When ever that happens, just roll with it</strong>. Don't try to force your hand as a DM. Sometimes your players will succeed at amazing things, and that will be THE defining moment of the evening. So when that happens, just roll with it. Let it go, and allow your players to have their well earned victory. Sometimes the bad guy doesn't succeed in getting away with the damsel in distress. I'm sure he'll get plenty of chances to try and get his revenge.</p><p> </p><p> Besides, how awesome was that rescue? It was one of the most epic rescues ever.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Raid on Old Quarter</strong></p><p> </p><p> While two of the players are engaging a ghost ship at sea, and have barely rescued Sophie from the bow of Black William's ship, two other players stumble into Old Quarter to see what all the fuss is about. They hear screaming and sounds of gunshots, so they grab a coach and race towards the city gate. As they arrive on the scene they jump off, and the coach crashes into an old well. The horses are spooked by what they see. Ghost pirates everywhere! They are raiding the city!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]70304[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p></p><p>The ghost pirates are sacking Old Quarter, and have gathered around Rummy's favorite tavern, "The Staggering Bull." Since the party is split, I allowed one of the players to control Sophie (who had just been rescued), and I allowed the other player to choose a member of their crew who happened to be in the immediate area, and control him/her. He selected Amaziah, their Kooghan cleric. I allowed him to pick what ever spells he wanted for her, because I'm not that bothered with meta gaming. The player pointed out that he didn't want to meta-game, but I told him it was perfectly fine, he could just pick what ever he liked. We reasoned that from a story perspective, Amaziah had just visited the seer called Mamma Zima, and thus she may have been warned by what was about to happen. Amaziah approached from the north west.</p><p></p><p> </p><p> Sophie approached from the east, where she overheard the two ghost pirates that were kidnapping a young girl. Apparently they were still looking for Sophie! She quickly took shelter in the small jail to the north east, where she was able to liberate two towns people who had been imprisoned by the ghost pirates.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Shae and Bioran approached from the south, and were first to arrive on the scene.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]70305[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Shae and Bioran surveyed the scene. Up above them on the city wall, a city guard was duking it out with a ghost pirate (and losing). Around the corner, a ghost pirate-sorcerer was waiting on higher ground. He was standing on the stairs leading up to the city wall. Meanwhile a group of two ghost pirates was making off with a sack of loot and a poor prostitute. They dragged their spoils off, while the poor wench was kicking and screaming in protest. They also noticed a brute of a ghost pirate bursting into the tavern. One of the two pirates gave Bioran a quick glance, and his Horrific Appearance special ability immediately drained a lot of Bioran's ability points, due to a botched saving throw. The two players immediately realized they were outnumbered and outmatched. But just as they considered a retreat, they caught a glimpse of Amaziah and Sophie. Now they realized that retreat was not an option, they had to save their crew.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]70306[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p></p><p>Meanwhile Amaziah approached from the north west streets. Two ghost pirates were manning a ghostly cannon (represented by a ballista here, since we didn't have a cannon miniature). The two pirates seemed to be cackling loudly, as they were firing the cannon randomly into the city. And they were clearly still unaware of Amaziah's presence. Meanwhile two other pirates were heading for the rum cellar of the local tavern. Amaziah also noticed a staircase leading up to the second floor of the tavern. She decided to unleash her cleric powers upon the cursed creatures. We decided to go with alternate Turn Undead rules here, because the undead were of an equal level as the party, and we didn't want the ability to feel completely useless. So I allowed Turn Undead to deal damage instead.</p><p> </p><p>[ATTACH]70307[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p></p><p> We ended on a cliffhanger, as Bioran and Shae rejoined with Sophie. They were able to steal two ghostly swords from the ghost pirates, and now found themselves at a stand off with one of the ghost pirates. The ghost pirate helt a blade against the throat of the kidnapped little girl, and threatened to take her life if they made any wrong moves. Bioran unleashed his Disarm spell, and this is the cliffhanger we ended on. We'll see if the spell succeeds next time!</p><p></p><p> </p><p> Some of you may wonder what the Disarm Spell is. This is a homebrew level 1 wizard spell that I introduced, which is very handy in magical combat. It can pull any helt items from the hands of an enemy, with a strength 22 opposing strength check. If the spell is succesful, you use the scatter dice to determine where the weapon flies off to. It only works at close range, and has verbal and sometic components. It's basically our version of the typical Harry Potter disarm spell that you see in the movies. This makes magical combat a lot of fun, since it's very effective in blasting wands from the hands of wizards.</p><p> </p><p> Since this was going to be a pretty big and lengthy battle, we'll have to continue this battle on our next session. This is also the most dungeon tiles I've ever used, and I was barely able to dress the whole scene. But I think it has turned out pretty well. Having these huge illustrated terrains for large combat encounters adds so much, I can't even describe. You tend to pay way more attention to how you spend your movement, and where you can find cover. The party decided to use stealth, and be cautious, which was a clever thing to do. They knew that I was slowly beefing up the difficulty of the encounters, and this was clearly going to be one of those harder fights.</p><p> </p><p> By the way, our combat area is a lot bigger than what the previous pictures showed. I also illustrated the cellar, and the second floor of the tavern. Down below you can see how this lines up. As you can see there are three routes to access the second floor. The stairs inside the tavern (white arrow), and the two doors outside (orange and yellow). The cellar can also be accessed from the hatch outside (blue arrow). Two of the ghostly pirates that we saw earlier, have now taken the poor prostitute inside for some fun time... although I'm not quite sure how they intend to make that work, since they are ghosts. There's some more ghost pirates inside raiding the place. One is raiding the kitchen, another is upstairs, and the other two are stealing rum from the cellar.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]70308[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p></p><p>And this is why dungeon tiles are awesome!</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Some futher remarks regarding this encounter</strong></p><p> </p><p> I think more DM's should play around with the motives of their bad guys. In this instance, the players were not the primary focus of the ghost pirates. They were after four things: Sophie, rum, loot and wenches. They mistook the little girl for Sophie, since one of them had forgotten what her hair color and age was. Sophie is in her twenties and has black hair, while the little girl was 12 had blond hair. </p><p> </p><p> I also offered multiple goals to the players. They could try and rescue hostages, try and capture the cannon, heal the dying guard in the south west, try and get a hold of one of the ghostly swords, go after the rum cellar, or focus on securing the tavern. This is far more interesting than merely having them fight every enemy till everything is dead. Multiple objectives make combat encounters far more exciting. If they don't heal the dying guard, he will die. If Bioran's spell fails, the little girl will die as well. And in this instance, stealth was a viable option as well. There were so many ways that they could tackle this situation.</p><p> </p><p> It's also fun to give some character to all the individual enemies. I gave every ghost pirate a unique name, and had them converse with each other during the encounter.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Follow up to the events in Old Quarter</strong></p><p> </p><p> Today the players finished up the battle in Old Quarter.</p><p> </p><p> When we last left off, we were on an exciting cliff hanger. A ghost pirate had a blade to the throat of a young girl, and threatened to cut her throat if the players made any moves. Bioran, the Abjurent Champion, quickly used a disarm spell on the pirate. Would he succeed?</p><p> </p><p> Well today we found out that he did succeed. The spell succeeded with an opposing strength check, and the blade was knocked out of the hands of the ghost pirate. The girl was saved, and the players reunited her with her father (the owner of the tavern). They then duked it out with the pirates, and suffered the effects of their Frightful Moan special ability, which is very nasty. Fortunately one of them had a Protection from Evil memorized, to protect them. They killed all of the ghosts, except for the two in the cellar.</p><p></p><p> </p><p> They also discovered that their ghostly equipment vanishes if they kill the ghost that it belongs to. So after killing a few ghosts, they now have only one ghostly cutlass left. They also managed to secure the ghostly cannon, although it seems to spook the rest of the crew a bit (they think it is a bad omen to have such a thing on board).</p><p> </p><p> The two ghosts who went to steal rum from the tavern, decided to prioritize securing the rum over fighting the players, and thus fled the scene. So the players did not need to fight them. I gave the players full experience for all the ghosts that they fought, even if some of them fled. They also learned that the ghost pirates recognized Sophie's rapier, and thought it was the weapon of their captain. This makes sense given the context of what they just learned about ghostly equipment. A ghost can have a ghostly version of his original equipment, while the physical copy of that piece of equipment also exists.</p><p> </p><p> The players also checked out the basement, and almost fell prey to a pitfall trap. Clearly this trap did not affect the ghosts, although one of the kegs of rum had clearly fallen down the pit as well. They found a lever to disable the trap, so they could steal one of the remaining barrels of rum.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Securing a base for the consortium</strong></p><p> </p><p> Using the vast amount of wealth that the players have acquired with their piracy, they have bought an office and a tavern for their new consortium. The Sheriff also showed the captain that the old building has a secret smuggling tunnel, which has been bricked shut, but connects to the old sewers. They also returned to their ship, and readied it for its next voyage. They kept the ghostly cannon covered under a sheet, so the crew wouldn't freak out.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>The mystical closet</strong></p><p> </p><p> Many sessions ago the players had acquired a magical closet, with cold air emitting from it, and wrapped in chains. The chains seemed to be holding something inside, which was violently beating against the doors of the closet, and trying to escape. So in order to solve this conundrum, the Druid of the party brought Leopardo Pardini in to inspect it. Leopardo is the owner of the traveling circus, and thus knows many wild animals. He also knows a thing or two about magic. Leopardo was able to identify the closet as containing a small extradimensional space. He did however not recognize the sounds of the creature inside, and thus it is not any animal that he knows. Perhaps it is not a normal animal at all, but some monster. They decided to keep the closet closed, and thus it remains a mystery. I love throwing in some weird magical items every now and then, and this is one of those examples.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>The house that lives</strong></p><p> </p><p> On one of their treks through the city, the players had come upon a house that seemed to be alive. Today the Abjurent Champion tried to find the house again. And while he had made a note of it on the map, it turned out that the house had moved. It was now sitting on top of another house, as if the house beneath it had gained an extra floor. This living house is capable of talking, and refuses to let anyone inside without the permission of the mistress of the house. The players do not know who she is, but are eager to meet her. But she rarely seems to be at home. The house is also capable of facial expressions, and its windows follow the players as if they were eyes, and as if the door was its mouth. They decided to leave a note for the mistress, inviting her to meet with them some time.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Meeting with Ter Weel</strong></p><p> </p><p> The players decided that their favorite npc crew mate Rummy should talk with the father of his girlfriend Laura. Rummy's relationship with Laura's father hasn't exactly been great, because Ter Weel would rather not see his daughter with a drunken pirate. So they joined him to Ter Weel's mansion, and knocked on the door. Much to their surprise, Rummy was greeted with a big hug by Ter Weel. Not the reactions they were expecting. And that is where we ended the session for today.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 6702172, member: 6801286"] [B]The duel is now most definitely coming[/B] A lot of plot lines have been getting in the way of my players sorting out the duel, which their booze-loving crew mate [B]"Rummy"[/B] got himself into with a local nobleman. So last time my players attempted to talk some sense into the parties involved. They talked to the [B]father [/B]of the woman that this whole mess is about, a man by the name of [B]Wiebe Ter Weel[/B]. The talk started out reasonable, but the players kind of pushed the father beyond what is reasonable. They tried to tell the father that it was not for him to decide who his daughter Laura marries, which is simply not true. This is a medieval society after all, and the daughter gets no say in the matter at all. So they quickly outstayed their welcome, and the father got very angry with the players. The players realized that they had made an error in judgement. They discussed the option of making the father pay dearly for all this, but one of their npc crew members disagreed. He pointed out that the man was clearly a widower, and that taking everything from him would not be just, nor would it make his daughter happy. The man was right to not want his daughter to marry some drunken pirate. The players felt a bit guilty. The party also met with [B]The Great Ravelli[/B]. This sword master had been trying to teach Rummy how to fence in the short time that he had (the players had not met him yet in person up to this point). Ravelli expressed his dislike for these stupid pointless duels. He had trained dozens of stuck up noblemen, only to have them throw away their lives over something pointless. He was sure that Rummy would die at this duel, despite his best teachings. He explained how even people who had trained under him, often died in these sorts of duels. It was clear that despite his lack of nobility, a lot of people had respect for this master. The party decided to meet with[B] the nobleman, Aldredo Poussin[/B], as well. But the man was not an idiot. He provided enough security for himself, and made sure there was a long table between him and the players. He was still as arrogant as ever, and not willing to cut a deal. His only offer, was that Rummy would simply leave and take his defeat without a fight. The party also learned that he'd find a replacement wizard to act as referee, and thus the duel would take place tomorrow. The party had only recently taken out his original judge in an epic fight at a shipyard. So they were surprised that he'd managed to find a new referee so quickly. They tried to offer him to marry one of the widows of the marquis instead, but he considered them to be "spoiled goods". They also offered him some power over Vertesaux, which he declined, since it didn't end that well for the last ruler (the Marquis had been assassinated a few sessions ago). The players also noticed a diploma on the wall that confirmed that the nobleman had been trained by [B]Ravelli [/B]too, which is very concerning. So now the players find themselves in a difficult situation. The duel is tomorrow, and it looks like they under estimated the situation. They have no power over either the father or the nobleman. And they do not want to break the law. Their last hope, is the fact that the new referee is family to a well known countess, who will be present at a meeting between many nobles tomorrow. Will they cheat their way to victory, or will they go for an honest fight? Rummy certainly won't win, but he is allowed to let someone else fight for him. This would mean that one of the players could put his life on the line for Rummy. Unless Rummy fights for himself, the nobleman could also appoint someone else, and who would this champion be? Four important events are about to take place: The [B]burial [/B]of the Marquis, the [B]meeting between the nobles[/B] (from which a new ruler will be appointed), [B]the duel[/B], and a [B]ritual [/B]to destroy the contents of the black crate which the players recovered from the shipyard. And all on the same day. I'm especially excited to see how the meeting with the nobles turns out. I get to introduce the players to a lot of interesting new characters, and the players will get the choice to push a new ruler forward. Will they push Sophie Marceau (daughter of the Marquis) forward? They will also get to meet the enigmatic Countess Camille, who misses her left arm. There's a really interesting story behind how she lost her arm, which I'm eager to tell. [B]Finally, the duel to the death! But first, a new ruler for Vertesaux![/B] My players sure get distracted easily. But at long last they finally got to finish up something we had delayed for a long while. The players first had a meeting with all of the nobles, to try and pick a new ruler for Vertesaux. I ruled that each individual at the meeting had a diplomacy DC to convince them, along with a topic that they were interested in, and a topic they were not interested in. Most of the nobles had already picked a candidate, but it was up to the players to try and sway their opinion. A [B]bishop [/B]was sent from the capital, to gather all of the votes, and make the final call. So the players all schemed and gathered gossip on various nobles, and tested the waters to see where each noble stood on the matter. In the end they chose to vote for a kind elderly noble,[B] Lord Demphrey[/B]. They all realized that it would be hard to convince the bishop that a woman should be the new Marquis, since he had a clear disdain for women. But they were also careful not to get on the bad side of the bishop. They also played political games with an eastern baroness, who had a lot of influence on the opinion of her much younger husband. They also managed to poison [B]Aldredo Poussin[/B], who would fight [B]Rummy [/B]this same day. This meant that he would be fatigued during the fight. They also asked the Bishop to remove a curse (caused by a fight with a mummy) from one of their party members. This was of course no problem for a Bishop. After all was said and done, they gathered at the harbor for the duel. They had convinced Rummy to pick one of their party members to fight for him, because he would otherwise surely die. At the sight of this, Alfredo decided to appoint a second as well. Much to the surprise of the players, he appointed the one and only sword master. The famous [B]Ravelli[/B]. Both the player and Ravelli were searched for weapons and armor. They were then handed a regulation rapier and buckler. A wizard-referee for each side then proceeded to check for magical items or spells, which were not allowed. Both fighters then stepped onto a floating platform in the harbor, where they would fight to the death. Because it was raining slightly, any charge attack would require a balance check as well. At first there was a long stand of. The two both went into full defense, and slowly approached each other. Ravelli waited for the player to attack him, so that if he missed, he could counter attack with a trip. After the trip, the player was basically open to a full attack. Since getting up also provokes an attack of opportunity, Ravelli would get a free chance to disarm his opponent as well. Fortunately the player tumbled out of the way, and got to his feet without provoking an attack. And so the two duked it out, while drawing a lot of blood on both sides. When they were both badly wounded, the player put his sword away, and said that enough was enough. Ravelli agreed, and put his sword away too. An angry Alfredo start yelling at Ravelli: [I]"I order you to kill him!"[/I] -But Ravelli ignored his commands. Meanwhile the rest of the party was eager to get rid of [B]Alfredo[/B], who was now standing on the peer. They created a distraction of a screaming woman with [B]Ghost Sound[/B], and then the [B]captain [/B]used [B]Ring of the Ram[/B] to knock Alfredo into the water. Here the shape-shifted [B]Druid [/B]could easily attack him as a [B]shark[/B], without it looking like murder. The players did run the risk however, of one of the referees seeing the effect of the ring (a vague shape resembling a ram's head). Alfredo was pulled under by the shark in full sight of an astonished audience. The Bard-Captain worked his charm, and helped encourage the opinion that it must be a sign of the gods. When the [B]Sheriff [/B]came to ask the referees if there was any foul play, one referee looked at the captain in silence. But before he could accuse the captain of any wrong doing, it was [B]Laura's* father[/B] who told the Sheriff that he saw Alfredo slip and fall into the water. This came as a big surprise to the players, because Laura's father hated Rummy, and didn't want his daughter to marry a worthless drunk pirate. As it turns out, by putting his life on the line, Rummy had earned her father's respect. The father apologized for not seeing it sooner, and the Captain apologized for their rudeness towards him earlier (in a previous session). Rummy and Laura's father shook hands, and the Captain ended the evening by heading to the tavern to collect his winnings. After all, he was the only one who bet all his money on Rummy. [I](* Laura is the woman that Rummy is in love with, which started this whole duel)[/I] So now the party has finally finished up all their business in Vertesaux (for now). Sophie will rejoin the crew, and not follow in her father's footsteps. Laura and Rummy are reunited, and Laura might even get offered a new job by the players, along with a beneficial trade deal for her father. [B]Lord Demphrey[/B] will be the new Marquis of Vertesaux, while the other nobles will be part of a council. The party now looks to the west, where they will visit the island of [B]Abyscus[/B], and seek the Kooghans for their knowledge of naval weaponry. They will also revisit the island of [B]Witchclaw[/B], where the Speakers of the Dead live. Then they will travel south, and then east, to hopefully avoid running into the [B]Undead Captain Black William[/B]. On the way there they will use their old ship to bring carpenters and soldiers to the site of their new base, to start building it. This is on the dreaded [B]Isle of Bones[/B], where a dangerous tribe of cannibals still needs to be dealt with. [B]How did they pull that off?[/B] Sometimes things will go completely off script, and this was one of those evenings. I had refrained from using my city encounter tables for a while now, to speed things a long a bit. The party had been lingering in Vertesaux for many sessions, and I felt it was time to push things forward, and get them back onto their ship. But of course, I decided to roll just one random encounter.... just one.... oh boy. The encounter that came up, was of course an exotic encounter: [I]"A ghost ship appears on the horizon"[/I]. Since the party had recently allowed the bad guys to get their hands on the body of Black William, this could only mean one thing. Captain Black William would attack Vertesaux with his ghost ship. I described the haunting sight of a ship that the navy could not hit, which looked like it had been crushed by a mountain, and then stapled back together. Its mere sight frightened people (frightful presence), and its cannon balls trailed through the air as if being fired underwater, and exploding in ghostly green flames. And yes, this of course derailed all my plans for this session completely. I described to the party how at first they only noticed all the people in the street staring towards the bay. It was a hilarious sort off Independence Day moment, where the whole city seemed aware of an imminent disaster, while the main characters were oblivious to the threat looming right in front of them. But I started wondering... what would the dreaded pirate captain Black William really want? Revenge on Vertesaux would probably be one thing, but his daughter would be the other. And since Sophie is the love interest of one of the players, and they left her unattended, I felt a damsel in distress was fitting here. Black William had come to reclaim his daughter, and take her to gods know where. The captain of the party decided to commandeer a ship, and go head to head with a ship many size categories bigger than his own. He raised his flaming sword in defiance, and after a successful Intimidate, I ruled that he had drawn the attention of the undead pirate captain. However, the players were outgunned and outmatched in every way. And besides, how are you going to hit a ghost ship? I raised the stakes, by deciding that the Ghost Ship was on a ramming course, and that Sophie Marceau had been made into a figurehead, by chaining her to the bow of the ship. As a DM, I had not prepared the statistics of Black William or his ship (this was all improvised), so I went with what ever seemed reasonable (and I looked up some ghost ship details in one of the books). [B]What I had not prepared for, was for what would happen next[/B] The druid conjured up a [B]large water elemental[/B], who would try and body block any shots coming towards the player-ship. The two heavy cannons at the front did around 34 and 35 damage each, which instantly dropped the HP of the elemental to exactly 1 point. So once Sophie came into view, and the elemental was still alive, he commanded the elemental to rescue Sophie. I described how she was chained to the ship, and I looked up the break DC for iron chains. As it turns out, with the strength of the elemental, he could only succeed if he rolled a natural 20. Which of course he did! By the gods, what unbelievable luck! And it was totally legit, there was no cheating here. We all saw him roll it with his dice cup. This was one of those impossible rolls, yet he made it anyway. The elemental rips the chains apart, and dives underwater with Sophie in its watery hands, just as the ghost ship crashes into the player-ship, and passes straight through. The ghost ship then dove into the water, and vanished underneath the waves. [B]Important tip for other DM's: Just roll with it[/B] It's not like I had set up this encounter to be unwinnable, but I did plan for Black William to vanish again, as Ghost Ships do. The players were unequipped to fight this ship yet, but it was cool to give them a glimpse of just what terrible odds they face. I did not know from the top of my head what the strength of the water elemental was, or what the break DC of the chains was. I only knew that I didn't want to make it easy on them, so I substituted rope for a chain. But then our Druid rolled that 20, and this is I think an important lesson for any DM. [B]When ever that happens, just roll with it[/B]. Don't try to force your hand as a DM. Sometimes your players will succeed at amazing things, and that will be THE defining moment of the evening. So when that happens, just roll with it. Let it go, and allow your players to have their well earned victory. Sometimes the bad guy doesn't succeed in getting away with the damsel in distress. I'm sure he'll get plenty of chances to try and get his revenge. Besides, how awesome was that rescue? It was one of the most epic rescues ever. [B]Raid on Old Quarter[/B] While two of the players are engaging a ghost ship at sea, and have barely rescued Sophie from the bow of Black William's ship, two other players stumble into Old Quarter to see what all the fuss is about. They hear screaming and sounds of gunshots, so they grab a coach and race towards the city gate. As they arrive on the scene they jump off, and the coach crashes into an old well. The horses are spooked by what they see. Ghost pirates everywhere! They are raiding the city! [ATTACH=CONFIG]70304._xfImport[/ATTACH] The ghost pirates are sacking Old Quarter, and have gathered around Rummy's favorite tavern, "The Staggering Bull." Since the party is split, I allowed one of the players to control Sophie (who had just been rescued), and I allowed the other player to choose a member of their crew who happened to be in the immediate area, and control him/her. He selected Amaziah, their Kooghan cleric. I allowed him to pick what ever spells he wanted for her, because I'm not that bothered with meta gaming. The player pointed out that he didn't want to meta-game, but I told him it was perfectly fine, he could just pick what ever he liked. We reasoned that from a story perspective, Amaziah had just visited the seer called Mamma Zima, and thus she may have been warned by what was about to happen. Amaziah approached from the north west. Sophie approached from the east, where she overheard the two ghost pirates that were kidnapping a young girl. Apparently they were still looking for Sophie! She quickly took shelter in the small jail to the north east, where she was able to liberate two towns people who had been imprisoned by the ghost pirates. Shae and Bioran approached from the south, and were first to arrive on the scene. [ATTACH=CONFIG]70305._xfImport[/ATTACH] Shae and Bioran surveyed the scene. Up above them on the city wall, a city guard was duking it out with a ghost pirate (and losing). Around the corner, a ghost pirate-sorcerer was waiting on higher ground. He was standing on the stairs leading up to the city wall. Meanwhile a group of two ghost pirates was making off with a sack of loot and a poor prostitute. They dragged their spoils off, while the poor wench was kicking and screaming in protest. They also noticed a brute of a ghost pirate bursting into the tavern. One of the two pirates gave Bioran a quick glance, and his Horrific Appearance special ability immediately drained a lot of Bioran's ability points, due to a botched saving throw. The two players immediately realized they were outnumbered and outmatched. But just as they considered a retreat, they caught a glimpse of Amaziah and Sophie. Now they realized that retreat was not an option, they had to save their crew. [ATTACH=CONFIG]70306._xfImport[/ATTACH] Meanwhile Amaziah approached from the north west streets. Two ghost pirates were manning a ghostly cannon (represented by a ballista here, since we didn't have a cannon miniature). The two pirates seemed to be cackling loudly, as they were firing the cannon randomly into the city. And they were clearly still unaware of Amaziah's presence. Meanwhile two other pirates were heading for the rum cellar of the local tavern. Amaziah also noticed a staircase leading up to the second floor of the tavern. She decided to unleash her cleric powers upon the cursed creatures. We decided to go with alternate Turn Undead rules here, because the undead were of an equal level as the party, and we didn't want the ability to feel completely useless. So I allowed Turn Undead to deal damage instead. [ATTACH=CONFIG]70307._xfImport[/ATTACH] We ended on a cliffhanger, as Bioran and Shae rejoined with Sophie. They were able to steal two ghostly swords from the ghost pirates, and now found themselves at a stand off with one of the ghost pirates. The ghost pirate helt a blade against the throat of the kidnapped little girl, and threatened to take her life if they made any wrong moves. Bioran unleashed his Disarm spell, and this is the cliffhanger we ended on. We'll see if the spell succeeds next time! Some of you may wonder what the Disarm Spell is. This is a homebrew level 1 wizard spell that I introduced, which is very handy in magical combat. It can pull any helt items from the hands of an enemy, with a strength 22 opposing strength check. If the spell is succesful, you use the scatter dice to determine where the weapon flies off to. It only works at close range, and has verbal and sometic components. It's basically our version of the typical Harry Potter disarm spell that you see in the movies. This makes magical combat a lot of fun, since it's very effective in blasting wands from the hands of wizards. Since this was going to be a pretty big and lengthy battle, we'll have to continue this battle on our next session. This is also the most dungeon tiles I've ever used, and I was barely able to dress the whole scene. But I think it has turned out pretty well. Having these huge illustrated terrains for large combat encounters adds so much, I can't even describe. You tend to pay way more attention to how you spend your movement, and where you can find cover. The party decided to use stealth, and be cautious, which was a clever thing to do. They knew that I was slowly beefing up the difficulty of the encounters, and this was clearly going to be one of those harder fights. By the way, our combat area is a lot bigger than what the previous pictures showed. I also illustrated the cellar, and the second floor of the tavern. Down below you can see how this lines up. As you can see there are three routes to access the second floor. The stairs inside the tavern (white arrow), and the two doors outside (orange and yellow). The cellar can also be accessed from the hatch outside (blue arrow). Two of the ghostly pirates that we saw earlier, have now taken the poor prostitute inside for some fun time... although I'm not quite sure how they intend to make that work, since they are ghosts. There's some more ghost pirates inside raiding the place. One is raiding the kitchen, another is upstairs, and the other two are stealing rum from the cellar. [ATTACH=CONFIG]70308._xfImport[/ATTACH] And this is why dungeon tiles are awesome! [B]Some futher remarks regarding this encounter[/B] I think more DM's should play around with the motives of their bad guys. In this instance, the players were not the primary focus of the ghost pirates. They were after four things: Sophie, rum, loot and wenches. They mistook the little girl for Sophie, since one of them had forgotten what her hair color and age was. Sophie is in her twenties and has black hair, while the little girl was 12 had blond hair. I also offered multiple goals to the players. They could try and rescue hostages, try and capture the cannon, heal the dying guard in the south west, try and get a hold of one of the ghostly swords, go after the rum cellar, or focus on securing the tavern. This is far more interesting than merely having them fight every enemy till everything is dead. Multiple objectives make combat encounters far more exciting. If they don't heal the dying guard, he will die. If Bioran's spell fails, the little girl will die as well. And in this instance, stealth was a viable option as well. There were so many ways that they could tackle this situation. It's also fun to give some character to all the individual enemies. I gave every ghost pirate a unique name, and had them converse with each other during the encounter. [B]Follow up to the events in Old Quarter[/B] Today the players finished up the battle in Old Quarter. When we last left off, we were on an exciting cliff hanger. A ghost pirate had a blade to the throat of a young girl, and threatened to cut her throat if the players made any moves. Bioran, the Abjurent Champion, quickly used a disarm spell on the pirate. Would he succeed? Well today we found out that he did succeed. The spell succeeded with an opposing strength check, and the blade was knocked out of the hands of the ghost pirate. The girl was saved, and the players reunited her with her father (the owner of the tavern). They then duked it out with the pirates, and suffered the effects of their Frightful Moan special ability, which is very nasty. Fortunately one of them had a Protection from Evil memorized, to protect them. They killed all of the ghosts, except for the two in the cellar. They also discovered that their ghostly equipment vanishes if they kill the ghost that it belongs to. So after killing a few ghosts, they now have only one ghostly cutlass left. They also managed to secure the ghostly cannon, although it seems to spook the rest of the crew a bit (they think it is a bad omen to have such a thing on board). The two ghosts who went to steal rum from the tavern, decided to prioritize securing the rum over fighting the players, and thus fled the scene. So the players did not need to fight them. I gave the players full experience for all the ghosts that they fought, even if some of them fled. They also learned that the ghost pirates recognized Sophie's rapier, and thought it was the weapon of their captain. This makes sense given the context of what they just learned about ghostly equipment. A ghost can have a ghostly version of his original equipment, while the physical copy of that piece of equipment also exists. The players also checked out the basement, and almost fell prey to a pitfall trap. Clearly this trap did not affect the ghosts, although one of the kegs of rum had clearly fallen down the pit as well. They found a lever to disable the trap, so they could steal one of the remaining barrels of rum. [B]Securing a base for the consortium[/B] Using the vast amount of wealth that the players have acquired with their piracy, they have bought an office and a tavern for their new consortium. The Sheriff also showed the captain that the old building has a secret smuggling tunnel, which has been bricked shut, but connects to the old sewers. They also returned to their ship, and readied it for its next voyage. They kept the ghostly cannon covered under a sheet, so the crew wouldn't freak out. [B]The mystical closet[/B] Many sessions ago the players had acquired a magical closet, with cold air emitting from it, and wrapped in chains. The chains seemed to be holding something inside, which was violently beating against the doors of the closet, and trying to escape. So in order to solve this conundrum, the Druid of the party brought Leopardo Pardini in to inspect it. Leopardo is the owner of the traveling circus, and thus knows many wild animals. He also knows a thing or two about magic. Leopardo was able to identify the closet as containing a small extradimensional space. He did however not recognize the sounds of the creature inside, and thus it is not any animal that he knows. Perhaps it is not a normal animal at all, but some monster. They decided to keep the closet closed, and thus it remains a mystery. I love throwing in some weird magical items every now and then, and this is one of those examples. [B]The house that lives[/B] On one of their treks through the city, the players had come upon a house that seemed to be alive. Today the Abjurent Champion tried to find the house again. And while he had made a note of it on the map, it turned out that the house had moved. It was now sitting on top of another house, as if the house beneath it had gained an extra floor. This living house is capable of talking, and refuses to let anyone inside without the permission of the mistress of the house. The players do not know who she is, but are eager to meet her. But she rarely seems to be at home. The house is also capable of facial expressions, and its windows follow the players as if they were eyes, and as if the door was its mouth. They decided to leave a note for the mistress, inviting her to meet with them some time. [B]Meeting with Ter Weel[/B] The players decided that their favorite npc crew mate Rummy should talk with the father of his girlfriend Laura. Rummy's relationship with Laura's father hasn't exactly been great, because Ter Weel would rather not see his daughter with a drunken pirate. So they joined him to Ter Weel's mansion, and knocked on the door. Much to their surprise, Rummy was greeted with a big hug by Ter Weel. Not the reactions they were expecting. And that is where we ended the session for today. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Pirates of the Emerald Coast (3.5)
Top