Shipwrecks

[Angry Bob]

I'm finishing up a map of the Land that Time Forgot for my players, and am including some shipwrecks for them to loot, if they decide to take the time to scout for them. I'm drawing a blank on what to put on them. Basically, they should hold whatever remains of whatever the party on them brought.

The more implications the party gets from looting these that they're woefully underprepared, the better.

I'm also looking for ways of making the wrecks distinct, as opposed to "at this shipwreck, you find X treasure, and Y treasure with a DC 25 search check." For instance, one wreck was an elemental vessel. One of the "treasures" is a disjoined dragonshard. Lurking in the shallows is an irate advanced elder water elemental.

tl;dr: How would you equip a party to explore an island a)under an unbreakable dimensional lock spell, and b)where tarrasques and garngraths are random encounters? Of that equipment, what would remain for future parties to loot after 20-250 years?

[Andorax]

Depending on time period/advanced weaponry rules in your setting, one interesting way to incorporate shipwrecks is for there to have been a naval battle take place near the island. Ships of two opposing nations (or one established navy and one pirate fleet), complete with rusted-out cannons, chests filled with pirate loot or naval payroll. Or a cursed item...any pirate scenario just *has* to involve a curse somewhere along the line.

Various and assorted types of undead, including some (drowned) specific to aquatic settings.

Other sea life. One wreck is the lair of a giant octopus. Another is near the ground of several hungry piranna swarms (you DO have Stormwrack, right?). A third has been refurbished by a local sea hag.



Bonus answer: I'd equip said party with long-term survival gear (magical sources of food, water, rest) and superb scouting and hiding abilities. Sounds like most of the random uber-monsters on this island are willing to ignore things that aren't dumb enough to stab them with large pointy things. Bonus points for a viable way off the island such as a folding boat.

[Diarmuid]

Are all of the shipwrecks parties that specifically came to this island to explore? Is it assumed that none of the crew/passengers survived? If not, why would there be anything leftover as the remaning few would have likely scavenged anything worth carrying with them as they moved on.

Is the party the only such group to survive a voyage here? If not, why havent other groups similarly scavenged these shipwrecks for equipment/value?

The knowledge and intentions of the various wrecked ships should largely determine what kind of equipment might have been included, but it's got to make sense for this stuff to be lying around. You can only account for so much stuff to have "washed up" after a nasty storm so they why of it being there is almost as important.

[TwylyghT]

I'd be tempted to make one of the wrecks a spelljammer merchant ship with some Dohwar corpses... maybe cursed undead dohwar...

[Angry Bob]

The knowledge and intentions of the various wrecked ships should largely determine what kind of equipment might have been included, but it's got to make sense for this stuff to be lying around. You can only account for so much stuff to have "washed up" after a nasty storm so they why of it being there is almost as important.

Pretty much everyone after its initial discovery and the rush(before it was determined exactly how hardcore the island was) of adventurers have been explorers of some sort. After the initial rush, most expeditions don't include more than a skeleton crew, other than the adventurers themselves.


Depending on time period/advanced weaponry rules in your setting, one interesting way to incorporate shipwrecks is for there to have been a naval battle take place near the island. Ships of two opposing nations (or one established navy and one pirate fleet), complete with rusted-out cannons, chests filled with pirate loot or naval payroll. Or a cursed item...any pirate scenario just *has* to involve a curse somewhere along the line.

No sane navy or pirate fleet goes near the island intentionally, but having a stray ship that didn't escape in time sounds like fun.


Are all of the shipwrecks parties that specifically came to this island to explore? Is it assumed that none of the crew/passengers survived? If not, why would there be anything leftover as the remaining few would have likely scavenged anything worth carrying with them as they moved on.

Is the party the only such group to survive a voyage here? If not, why havent other groups similarly scavenged these shipwrecks for equipment/value?

They aren't the only explorers. They aren't even the only [mortal] explorers to survive, though groups in that category can be counted on one hand. On the other hand, you are correct about other groups looting the other wrecks. I could also include loot from annihilated parties deeper in the jungle. However, most expeditions here include very few people under level 17, for their own safety, so the ships would have been lightly-crewed. So if the adventurers in a given group die, the NPCs won't last much longer, even with the adventurers' phat lewt.


Bonus answer: I'd equip said party with long-term survival gear (magical sources of food, water, rest) and superb scouting and hiding abilities. Sounds like most of the random uber-monsters on this island are willing to ignore things that aren't dumb enough to stab them with large pointy things. Bonus points for a viable way off the island such as a folding boat.

Stealth gear is certainly appropriate. And yes, while some of the monsters ignore small fare like adventurers(the encounter with the devastation beetle is designed around that tendency, in fact), there are smaller, but only slightly less deadly predators, such as brachyurus packs that wouldn't be so quick to pass them up as a meal.