Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

The shipping lanes of Golarion's seas and oceans are filled with fat merchant vessels laden with trade goods both mundane and exotic, as well as the pirates and freebooters who prey on them. Under the banner of their Hurricane King, these buccaneers sally forth from that archipelago of lawless pirate ports and anchorages known as the Shackles, plundering the shipping of countless countries and trade consortiums, then vanishing back into the maze of islands and reefs they call home. The nations of the Inner Sea would like nothing more than to end the pirate menace once and for all, but the eternal hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego has thus far shielded the Free Captains of the Shackles from the threat of retaliation.


In the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, the PCs take on the role of pirates, but they must make a name for themselves in piracy, plunder, and disrepute to truly become infamous Free Captains of the Shackles.

A Paizo Adventure Path

Run by the Pirate King Vardaen
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Hungry Xenomorph
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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Hungry Xenomorph » Sat May 23, 2020 3:19 pm

With the excitement over, Xie is more than happy to spend sometime at port exploring a new town that he has never been to.
sorry I've been so inactive, work has been overwhelming.

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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Grimbold » Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:00 pm

Yeah, overwhelming for me too. Getting better now
Rod tells all the officers who are around him. "We need to spread our story, about the treasure we found and when we, well, plundered a ship armed with thunderbolt and lightning. And then...." he pauses "we seek out the Hurricane King and tell him we want to prove ourselves."

If no one objects, he goes to some taverns, especially the "Maid" and tells exciting stories of their exploits.
Later, he gathers together his officers and tries to find the King.
Increase Infamy.

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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Zorbeltuss » Sat Jun 13, 2020 7:23 pm

Flavinia figures she might wait until after the audience before getting totally wasted, but Port Peril was good for mostly one thing: Party hard and stuff.

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Port Peril: Shore Leave and Wanderings

Post by Vardaen » Wed Jun 17, 2020 2:08 pm

Welcome back to me! Been crazy right? I hope everyone is well. I'm going to push us along to try and get over the hump so to speak.
The Wicked Wench sails into Crescent Harbor and docks at one of the open slips. You are boarded by the Harbor Master's men, and the ship is inspected, its crew, its cargo and its coffers. Captain Roderick pays the fees and bribes and you aren't overly taxed too badly. The crew is given shore leave for three days, with rotating guard duty on the ship, 1 officers and three sailors are expected to be on board at all times, in 12 hour shifts. Its free lodging at least, and you hope this way to avoid being robbed blind.

You head into Port Peril, and are at once enlightened into why its called Port "Peril". The dangers are great and small. Some of you stick together, for parts of the shore leave, others are not seen for days as they are lost in the vices of the city -- which are many and varied. Drink, drugs, sex, entertainment, shopping, sleeping, training, telling tales. You manage to not get fleeced of your hard earn wages too badly, which can't be said for your poor rigger Adina Longtooth*. She ends up getting robbed one night and loses all of her hard earned pay.

You also hear Shanke McGee, a halfling who recently joined the crew, got himself into a bar fight, and true to his name stabs a man killing him over a game of darts. Shanke is thrown in jail and sentenced to three years hard labor. He won't be returning to the Wench to work the lines.

Some of you spread the tale of your exploits, The Captain and the First Mate in fact. The pair are rather impressive in their ability to bullshit and spin yarns of your exploits while keeping things grounded in the truth. Stories of attacking ships and such are fine, but when the tales of Mancatcher Cove start that's when you really go up in the eyes of those who hear your tales. You are drawing much attention to yourselves now, in both a good and bad way.

Meri and Seroneth seek information on Meri's sister. Either the people have no knowledge of this particular mermaid captive, or they are hiding something. There are no tales or stories that seem to give you leads. The little information the pair gathers turns out to be a red herring and the few days are wasted on the wild goose chase.

Xie is interested in the Hurricane King and how the group can come to his attention. During his time on leave he manages to learn a great deal about the pirate traditions and customs here. He has that face that people feel sorry for, and so they tell him things out of pity. What he discovers he tells the officers once you are gathered back on the ship in a few days time. You must petition for an audience with Hurricane King Kerdak Bonefist to receive a letter of marque and thereby become “legitimate” pirates — at least in the eyes of other Free Captains. You need simply to send a messenger to Fort Hazard, the Hurricane King’s seat, along with a bribe (of at least 4 points of plunder). Bonefist won’t even deign to respond to so-called “pirates” who have not reached a certain level of infamy among the Shackles. From what he can tell, your little band should meet the requirements.
Rigger, Female Elf, Crew Member of the Wicked Wench
Adina stands a short 5'8, her small size for a elf allows her to be extremely nimble, making her job as a rigger easier, she is easy going and sometimes can even be described as motherly as long as you stay on her good side.
Winning Infamy and Disrepute: A few things are required to gain Infamy: an audience, a deed to tell about, and a flair for storytelling. Proof of the group's deed in the form of plunder doesn't hurt either.

To gain Infamy, the PCs must moor their ship at a port for 1 full day, and the PC determined by the group to be its main storyteller must spend this time on shore carousing and boasting of infamous deeds. This PC must make either a Bluff, Intimidate, or Perform check to gauge the effectiveness of her recounting or embellishing. The DC of this check is equal to 15 + twice the group's average party level (APL), and the check is referred to as an Infamy check. If the character succeeds at this check, the group's Infamy and Disrepute both increase by +1 (so long as neither score is already at its maximum amount). If the result exceeds the DC by +5, the group's Infamy and Disrepute increase by +2; if the result exceeds the DC by +10, both scores increase by +3. The most a party's Infamy and Disrepute scores can ever increase as a result of a single Infamy check is by 3 points.

If the PC fails the Infamy check, there is no change in her group's Infamy score and the day has been wasted. Occasionally, deeds of exceptional daring or depravity might win a party increases to its Disrepute. This sort of discretionary bonus to Disrepute is noted in the context of an adventure or determined by the GM.

Flavina Bluff 16, Rod Aid Another +2, Rolled 9 = 27 Total
DC 15 + 7 = 22 Success by +5 = +2 Infamy and Disrepute (sheet updated) @ 24 Now
Gathering Info about Meri's Sister

Know: Local Seroneth "1" Fail.
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"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Port Peril: Shore Leave and Wanderings

Post by Grimbold » Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:35 pm

"Ok, we should send a messenger to the fort with some bribes. Who wants to go?" Rod says.
How much plunder do we have? And can we buy stuff here?

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Port Peril: Shore Leave and Wanderings

Post by Vardaen » Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:28 pm

Yes you can buy stuff, use the Loot Thread (X Marks the Spot) to tell me what you want. Shouldn't be much of an issue.

You have exactly 4 points of plunder. Which typically you give 1 point to all your crew as payment! Yikes, you may need to dip into your personal funds to pay the crew.

In general, 1 point of plunder is worth approximately 1,000 gp, whether it be for a crate full of valuable ores or a whole cargo hold full of foodstuffs.

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"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Zorbeltuss » Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:19 pm

"What's the point of going legit?" Flavinia wonders. "Isn't our enterprise based upon not being so?"

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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Grimbold » Thu Jun 25, 2020 7:30 pm

"We'd be free captains and get more respect from the other captains. I guess it is a step we need to take if we want to achieve real greatness." Rod says. "I think we should do it. What do you others think? Do you have more information about this?" Rod is lost in thought for a moment.
Rod has lore/pirate captains so he should know about the positive aspects of being a free captain. He ponders about this.

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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Hungry Xenomorph » Mon Jun 29, 2020 11:26 am

Xie nods his agreement with Rod, "I think that we have an opportunity present, and we should not hesitate to take it."

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Re: Book 3 - Act 1: Perilous Waters

Post by Grimbold » Tue Jun 30, 2020 7:55 am

"It's what we came here for. So we'll take some of the plunder and some of the coins and go to see the king. I guess we should all go together." Rod says.
So we'll give 1 plunder to the crew, use 3 plunder for the king and add 1000gp from our coin loot to make it 4. Let's all go together and see what the king says. Everyone agreed?

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