Underwater Shipwreck

[Gilladian]

I have a party of 9th-10th lvl characters who are about to explore an underwater shipwreck.

They know ABSOLUTELY nothing about what to expect on this trip through a magical gate into what "looks like" a peaceful ocean floor with a wrecked ship lying on it.

I've got nothing prepared, here; the adventure is a whim, a short little side-trek to give them a chance to explore an alternate environment.

Short of there simply being a big bad evil kraken in the ship's wreckage, what would be fun to introduce them to?

One PC is a druid (she's planning to shapeshift to an octopus), one is a wizard who will use alter self to create gills and webbed feet/fingers, and the rogue and fighter will be using potions of water breathing. The fighter has a least crystal of underwater action (I think that's what it is called).

Any ideas? I don't want to kill them off, just offer them a tough and somewhat different than typical fight/scenario.

 

[SteelDraco]

What do they want there? Is there something in the ship they need, or are they just looting it? Is the ship unusual in any way?

A couple of random ideas...

The ship was betrayed, and the spirits of the marines and sailors that died there live on, protecting the wreck. Nobody really expects to fight ghosts in an aquatic environment, and they wouldn't be at all hindered by the terrain. They could move through the ship itself in a way that would make it hard to engage them. You could even do some classic haunted house stuff with the ship before things really hit the fan, with the PCs having to piece together what happened on the ship before they can leave, or safely loot the place. Even if they just loot it, they still might be haunted until they return there and take care of the root cause.

There's already someone there looting the ship, or someone shows up to do the same thing while the PCs are there. Maybe there's a boat above, with ne'er-do-well looter types, practiced at getting down to ships and cleaning them out. Maybe sahuagin or tritons arrive while the PCs are inside, and they put the place under siege (how long will the water breathing effects last, after all?)

The ship sank because someone lied about their cargo. It wasn't safe - something dangerous, and now it's dangerous for everyone nearby. Maybe there's a rift to one of the lower planes, and now aquatic demons are spilling into the sea. Or something is corrupting all the aquatic life in the area, giving them the Corrupted template. The PCs have to figure out how to protect themselves from the effects while fighting off the monsters, or one of the PCs is going to go berserk next.

 

[phindar]

I think the biggest change in an underwater combat would be the 3d movement. Movement is probably reduced for the non-aquatics, but otherwise it's like everyone has perfect flight. (Imagine getting flanked by 6 sahaguin barons each with 4 attacks and some rogue levels. I guess that's pretty unlikely, but it could potentially happen.)

Representing that 3d movement on a battlemat is tough though. Players tend to think in flat, gridded planes.

 

[Nlogue]

If you're interested in some cool alternative takes on running underwater adventures you might want to scope out Wolfgang Baur's Indulgence"Death Beneath the Waves".

Wolfgang knows his stuffs! The article is really helpful for running aquatic adventures and includes a bunch of really cool ideas and options. Also it's only a buck fifty. You can get it on Paizo.com or at RPGNow too.

Shipwreck adventures for the win! I'm a huge fan of the beneath the sea motif, and nothing is as interesting to me as an old shipwreck moldering on the ocean floor, with only-the-gods-know-what horrible things lurking within.

 

[Gilladian]

I will definitely pick up Wolfgang's underwater book. I really enjoy his articles; thanks for the heads-up.

I'm thinking maybe something like this - PCs approach shipwreck - begin to explore - hear/see movement inside - enter ship. They end up fighting something - maybe a giant shark or similar.

Then as they loot the ship they find themselves surrounded by sahuagin and more sharks... it is a trap! They will have to fight their way out.

And if things get too bad, I can always have some friendly sea-race like merfolk or sea-elves come around and rescue them (for a price).

 

[Aeolius]

Haunted Galleon: The sunken ship is home to the unliving. You could populate it with suitable CR undead, such as the Drowned in MM3. Alternately, use the Haunting Presence rules in Heroes of Horror, to make the ship itself an undead of sorts. You might get a chance to use the spellstitched swarm-shifter emancipated spawn dread necromancer lacedon I’ve been working on.

Hag’s Haven: The ship is home to a covey of sea hags. However, as such creatures are only usually chaotic evil, these girls are actually neutral good and are simply trying to find a quiet place to practice natural magics. Will the PCs figure that out, before going on the offensive?

Whoops: The party enters the ship and finds a kraken’s beak etched with scrimshaw. Those who touch the artifact are permanently transformed into aquatic racial variants (Unearthed Arcana). The item is guarded by ten mermaids whose lower torsos resemble a single tentacle. Each was a merfolk slave to a kraken and were mortally wounded, before being “saved” by a sea hag fleshwarper (Lords of Madness) who grafted each of the kraken’s tentacles onto the unwilling mermaids, after the beast was slain. Now the mermaids have begun to exhibit the kraken’s powers and share its memories.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

They find an ordinary Human man floating about. When/If the PCs attempt to talk to him, he will simply put his fingers to his lips and float away to some other part of the wreackage.

 

[Aeolius]

They find an ordinary Human man floating about. When/If the PCs attempt to talk to him, he will simply put his fingers to his lips and float away to some other part of the wreackage.

"Get her!!!"

 

[Nlogue]

Just a thought: There is this great wreck off the coast of North Carolina where three ships from different eras wrecked on top of one another (I think its an old trading cog from the 1800s, a japanese sub, and a 1950's boiler run merchant marine freighter). Cool stuff. Might make for a cool adventure site, if you have more than one ship wrecked atop one another.

 

[Gilladian]

Just a thought: There is this great wreck off the coast of North Carolina where three ships from different eras wrecked on top of one another (I think its an old trading cog from the 1800s, a japanese sub, and a 1950's boiler run merchant marine freighter). Cool stuff. Might make for a cool adventure site, if you have more than one ship wrecked atop one another.

What a cool idea - when you write it up, I want to read it!

I've decided to go with something a bit more traditional - the shipwreck is home to a giant shark, but also it hides a backdoor into the sea-elf kingdom (located in sea-caves or a deeper rift nearby). The PCs attack the shark, and then sahuagin arrive and surround the ship. The sea-elf princess who often uses the back door to sneak outside, sees the PCs in danger, likes the look of one of the PCs, and impulsively rescues them.

While the PCs are in the ship, they have a chance to discover a key piece of info about the ship's history (it belonged to an NPC they are tracking). They discover from the elf princess (or perhaps her father) that the ship was sunk and the crew taken away by "the sea hags".

The PCs will want to talk to the sea hags, which is quite a dangerous undertaking. The sea hags will require them to do a "job" in return for the info and an item they still have in their possession. I think that making the hags borderline neutral rather than openly evil will work best here.

The "job" will be a simple one of fetching something from a nearby land village. It won't be hard, but is something the hags would be uncomfortable doing themselves. And of course, the PCs can get attacked by something in the water on the way to the shore, and can have a fun time in a tropical village for a night as well...

Then they can get the info from the hag, kiss the princess goodbye (if they so choose) and go home with what they came after. Or so the potential plot goes before PCs intersect with it.