Hazardous High Seas

[Draig]

So in the coming campaign the party members are working as Privateers for one of the ruling houses of the area. The setting is basically a large grouping of islands ranging from very small to massive.

My question for the playground is what sort of monsters and other enemies would you, as a dm, throw at the party? Both on the sea and on various islands (climates ranging from temperate to tropical). And as a PC what sort of encounters would you look forward to fighting?

[Randrew]

Besides enemy vessels, there are loads of sea animals and monsters available from various sources. Ghost ships could also be quite interesting. Perhaps some sort of homebrewed Charybdis. Storms. Elementals. There's always Stormwracked, of course, though I've been running a seas game for a year now without ever needing to use it.

In terms of island encounters, I've done things like an ancient temple that was not as abandoned as it seemed, a dungeon crawl made up of boats that had all been dragged to one spot, natives mistaking a party member for the avatar of their god, natives mistaking the party for food, natives with a society more advanced than the one from which the party originates.

I had a lot of fun with a lich that was marooned on a sand bar.

[Wookie-ranger]

The stuff you fight on land will be very similar to the normal monsters. with some exceptions I would not expect it to be all too different. that being said make sure you can breath underwater, as flooded caves/temples/dungeons will probably pop up.

ON the sea you will most likely be fighting from some type of platform (a ship most often). and ships are usually very weak/hard to defend in D&D.
threats might be huge or bigger monsters that attack the platform as a whole, or numerous small ones that attack the individuals or the platform from below, make sure that you know when someone is drilling hole in your ship. or better yet, find a way to prevent it in the first place.
fire, a major concern for ships of most kinds. make sure there is some type of fire resistance cast on the ship (and the sails!)
warp wood, again major problem for ships.
Personally I would look for a way to avoid ships, especially the wood kind. other options might be airships, if you worlds has those; or if you can afford it teleportation.


one thing that is often overlooked are undead. not just the Lacedon (aquatic ghoul). nearly all undead don't need to breath, so walking on the bottom of the sea might be possible. As a DM i would judge that most undead are immune to ocean pressure, if they don't have working organs or circulation.
hiding in a lagoon; yup. waiting in a flooded part of a cave; yup. walking into port and taking care of the too-close-to-the-shore guards before anyone notices, yup. barricading a port by sinking ships that try to leave/enter by sinking them from below; yup.
the simple fact of not needing to breath can do a lot near the coast.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Draig
My question for the playground is what sort of monsters and other enemies would you, as a dm, throw at the party?

I'm about to start a seafaring campaign, and I have plans for the zaratan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaratan_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29). :smallbiggrin:



Originally Posted by Randrew
...a dungeon crawl made up of boats that had all been dragged to one spot....

That sounds really intriguing. How did you work this? Were they all floating in a huddle, like a waterborne town? Or were they gathered on land somewhere? Were these smallish fishing boats, great fighting galleons, or what? And how did you map it?
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[Randrew]

That sounds really intriguing. How did you work this? Were they all floating in a huddle, like a waterborne town? Or were they gathered on land somewhere? Were these smallish fishing boats, great fighting galleons, or what? And how did you map it?

I had a huge storm sweep up the ship that bore the party and jam it into the dungeon. They started exploring from curiosity and boredom (none of them were playing the shipwright and even if they were, I would've come up with a hook). The ships were from various different periods in the area's history. As they explored, they found older and older ships from various civilizations, some they'd encountered and others which were foreshadowing.

I used a great many warships since an entire battle was swept up by the storm. I also had a great luxury liner, some private ships, explorers, missionaries, pirates, and even refugees that had all met their end there. I sketched out a rough map of how the ships were connected to each other and some brief descriptions of them. This is about as much work as I ever do because I am horribly lazy and in well over a decade of role-playing, I've only been playing D&D for about a year and I'm still not used to the idea of a dungeon crawl. Nevertheless, there were plenty of monsters and traps and puzzles to keep them occupied.

Anyway, in the end, they found out that a demi-god had become trapped between a large stone and a ship carrying its own fanatical cultists. It summoned the storm to bring help to get itself out, but only compounded the problem. My players freed the demi-god and got a boon and went on their merry way with the bizarre loot they pilfered from the ships.

[Draig]

If you don't mind I'd like to use the jumble of ships dungeon idea in my campaign, I think it would be very memorable to the party.

And off topic from my OP but what are some good ship names? They can be comical, fear inspiring, or just plain heroic.

[Randrew]

If you don't mind I'd like to use the jumble of ships dungeon idea in my campaign, I think it would be very memorable to the party.

Please do! I'm happy to have helped!

For ship names, I still haven't named the one my players have been on for the last year, but Wikipedia has a whole listing of ship prefixes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix), if that helps at all!

[Palanan]

Yeah, I'm pillaging this idea for my campaign as well. :smalltongue:

I might take it in a different direction, but I love the notion of a jumble of different ships all jammed and bound together. Something like Diyun (http://www.noahbradley.com/blog/2011/painting-as-darkness-rises/), but with more flotsam.

As for ship names, here's a brief text list (http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Trafalgar/Ships.txt) of British ships that fought under Nelson's command at Trafalgar. There should be plenty of inspiration in there.