Islands, locals and ports- help to create!

[Kol Korran]

Once again i come for the playground to enrich my campaign with your creativity. The pirate PCs in my campaign are about to roam free in a certain ocean area, mostly strung with various islands of multiple races. As this is sort of a sandbox, I'd love to pepper the islands with all manner of isles, cultures and the like. Don't have to be a place for encounter, but something interesting to intrigue the players, give a place a character is a must.

A few notes about the setting that might help (You don't have to read this, but it might help- I can adjust most things that appeal to me:

The area of ocean spans between a major mutli racial and cultural city, Arkruz the capitol of the isles, and the directly southern island of Rafae, the northern most of the elven expansion, also home to the Oroms- aquatic elves who live under the waves.Here's a map, it's in the center, from middle to mid bottom (http://www.thirteen10.com/the6elements/setting/atlas/Starfall.pdf)
The expanse between is peppered with all manner of races, but mainly the followings: Shoalings (water and air breathing gypsy halflings), Raptorans, Dwarves (NOT recluse, but instead highly diplomatic and outgoing, master merchants), some orcs and elves (who have animosity towards each other) and so on. NO native humans!
humans are an oppressing force named The Empire, with better ship, equipment and so on. but they are mostly concerned of maintaining the trade with the islanders and the elves. they may have a few ports of their own, to maintain ships and support mainly.
magic for the islanders is mostly instinctual (spontaneous casters, all called witches and have their own rules. think Caribbean and voodoo kind of magic) while Empire's magic is learned and orderly (wizards, clerics)
there are many weird and strange effects left behind from bygone ages, so a strange local is quite ok.
necromancy is nearly unknown in the isles, as are undead. the very, very few places that have these are left well alone.


Thoughts? Ideas?



(Search word: piratewitch)

[ShadowEthos]

I know you said very little undead, but a wondering Ghost Ship is always a great addition to a sea adventure

[Hikarizu]

Pirate king. A legendary vessel inducing fear in the hearts of the common folk. It's captain, master of naval combat, excellent fencer, intelligent and charismatic leader.(Swashbuckler[CW]/Dread Pirate[CAdv]honorable or dishonorable, both can work)|
His second in command, cunning, sly spellcaster shaping the battlefield (wind, fog, current affecting spells from [Stormwrack])|
and blasting the enemy ships from afar, when engaged in melee combat he dual-wields his daggers with finesse mixing both pin-point stabs and offensive magic in a neverending flurry. (Wizard5/Rogue1(or whatever with sneak attack 1d6)/Daggerspell mage10)|
His lieutenant a pair of brothers, each revering different colored dragons,(copper and black/green) hardy, veteran fighters using their dragon-like abilities they support the crew(auras, healing, etc) and can unleash acidic nightmare upon their enemies,(breath weapon) even stage an underwater ambush for unsuspecting ships.(13 lvl they can share "Water Breathing" and "Spider Climb" with all allies within 30 feet)(Dragon Shaman[PHBII].|
Just some ideas. There is white colored text with notes because with spoilers it looked even more scattered. If there is space and then "|" select the text in between to view the notes.

Ghost Ship is always a great addition to a sea adventure Nothing to add here. Except: maybe the previous Pirate King fell to a curse or something(angered the goddess of the sea? :smallbiggrin:)

[Kol Korran]

I know you said very little undead, but a wondering Ghost Ship is always a great addition to a sea adventure
There is some sort of a version of the obligatory undead ship. (It get mentioned in nearly every thread I raise about the campaign). I guess the influence of Pirates of the Caribbean goes far...


<Dragon shaman themed ship> It's an interesting idea. I'll keep it in mind.

However, I'm really looking more for actual isles, ports and locals and less for naval encounters. Anyone else? :smalltongue:

[Hikarizu]

Moving island/giant turtle, Sinking island with an ancient civilization (alive or not) will be interesting above and below the sea level. There are great ports in the Realms, namely on the Sea of Swords: Calimport and Waterdeep are the biggest.

[avr]

Halflings in Eberron ride dinosaurs. Do shoalings ride plesiosaurs or whales?

If the human Empire dominates any elven cultures, half elves can have parallels in any number of RL colonial societies. Pick one.

The human Empire might well build an outpost on a cursed island because they don't believe in the curse. To be oblivious with wizards/clerics around the curse needs to be 1/not always present & 2/not exactly as described. Migratory monsters perhaps, or a curse of lycanthropy which island legends describe as an external force, that sort of thing.

[hymer]

Allright, throwing out some random ideas:

Groups of nomadic hobgoblins, with some minor overall coordination, travelling in canoes. They conduct an endless guerilla war against the Empire, but as it turns out, only for religious reasons: Humans make a terrific ritual feast, so they need to get enough of these to keep their rituals going (probably they believe that if they don't keep their feasts up, the islands, or some of them, will sink - they might even be right).

Two islands next to each other, each with their own kind of giant. The two nations often fight, and when the tide is low they can wade across in certain places and make raids. Some may even use captured medium-sized ships as rowboats.

The Empire's most capable and stubborn pirate hunter, the terror among pirates - the kind who takes on five pirate vessels and fights them all for six days until three are sunk and storms descend on the area and everyone drowns - except the pirate hunter who simply won't die. He can always get a new ship and crew. If you want, he can be Cpt. Ahab, and there be a certain pirate ship out there he particularly wants to get down. I'm not as partial to pirates as most people, so I'd have the hunter be the white whale, though, except not as peaceful when let alone.

One place has an old, abandoned mollusk farm, and a few stone golems still tending it and farming the mollusks for pearls (looking weird, since the water has eroded their forms so they barely look human/dwarfish/whatever any more). They've amassed a pretty amount of precious pearls, but naturally they defend them. But maybe if you research a code phrase in an ancient tongue, they'll let you take the pearls. Or, if you're sneaky or strong enough, you can get some pearls anyway.

The ruined town that the mollusk farm is on the edge of is now taken over by dire apes, who defend their territory ferociously. Maps with Xes often point to certain cellars in this town, but getting there can be harrowing - unless you ally yourself with the vast, never-aging, intelligent snake which is the god of the dire apes, and who feasts on them when he thinks they grow too insolent.

A volcano dominates an island. Inside the volcano lives an old dragon, and the orcs who live on the island sacrifice captives and treasure to the dragon to maintain its good will. The orcs strike out from their secure base at other islands or at passing ships, and nobody has yet come up with a way to attack the orcs' base without arousing the dragon.

[Ammutseba]

The Empire might have built an odd, barge-like vessel for policing their territory. This works even better if the Empire is trying to expand its territory. The vessel is very wide and even longer than most ships, and has a thick, reinforced secondary deck that shades its entire primary deck. It operates by means of a wizard on board, who stands at a helm station with a magic staff secured into it. The staff has 20 charges and can cast rapid raise from the deep and rapid submerge ship (making both spells cast as a full-round action).

Whenever the "barge" encounters a ship that isn't supposed to be in its patrol area, the helm wizard casts submerge ship, positions it beneath the offending ship so that the above's keel lines up with a groove in the below's secondary deck, and then casts raise from the deep. Due to how raise from the deep works, it will have all the buoyancy it needs to lift both vessels out of the water.

Then, a specialized task force will secure the trapped ship and take the situation from there, dealing with the offenders in whichever way is most appropriate. In some cases, this might be a simple Questioning and Send Them on Their Way, other times they might feel like searching a vessel, and still others they might feel it is their duty to detain the ship and imprison its crew. Or whatever is normally appropriate for your Oppressive Empire.

Edit: If your adventurers can overcome this situation, and for some reason obtain the staff responsible for this most underhanded of naval maneuvers, it's worth 23,062 gold and 5 silver with 20 charges, and loses 1,153 gold in value for every charge spent.

[nedz]

I did a Marie Celeste once, caused by a Scrag (marine troll) hiding in the Bilge.
He didn't come out to play until the parties guard was down.
Then they made the mistake of placing its head on the bowsprit, whilst throwing the body over-board.
Two encounters for the price of one, hilarious.:smallbiggrin:

[hoverfrog]

I have some suggestions:

A group of sahuagin mutants come seeking sanctuary from their puritan leadership.
A lone aquatic elf is found floating in the sea by the crew grasping onto the remains of a small boat. She is a malenti spy for a group of sahuagin.
A scrag troll-hunter (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/troll.htm#trollHunter) has selected the ship as his target and is picking off one crew member a night. He is armed with a harpoon.
A sea druid demands payment to summon a wind after the ship lies becalmed for a week.
A cloud giant asks the ship crew to help him defeat a fire giant that has been attacking ships in the area with flaming chunks of lava.
The ship becomes fouled with a thick seaweed that turns out to be an ooze of some kind.
The ship docks at the port of Bridge (a low lying system of islands connected by bridges) and the ships maps are stolen. Can the party find the thief and recover the maps?
The port authority seize the ship and cargo and accuse the captain of being the notorious pirate, Red Eye McLaughin. Can the party evade capture and track down the real Red Eye before their ship is sold at auction?
Slavers attack the port just as the ship is about to leave. Do they run for it or help in the defence of the port?

[Saintheart]

A big 'library ship' run by a former mage of The Empire, who's on a long, even twenty-year, voyage of the various islands in a given part of the world. Since generating direction, wind, food, and water is straightforward enough for a levelled enough mage, as is protection for the vessel, the ship is basically an ongoing anthropological expedition: the unending, magic voyage of the Beagle, as it were.

[Kol Korran]

Some intriguing ideas folks. However, I am looking for islands, ports and locals, not encounters (though i still thank those who posted them)


Moving island/giant turtle, Sinking island with an ancient civilization (alive or not) will be interesting above and below the sea level. There are great ports in the Realms, namely on the Sea of Swords: Calimport and Waterdeep are the biggest.
There is a sinking/ rising local with a sort of an ancient civilization in the campaign allready. I guess this idea gets recycled a lot.

I'll look into FR ports, though i'm looking something less fantastic, and usually on a much smaller scale (5000 people is BIG!)



The human Empire might well build an outpost on a cursed island
That idea I like! I'll need to figure out the curse exactly, and why the Empire isn't much disrupted by it. But an entire cursed port is cool.


Allright, throwing out some random ideas:

<nomadic guerilla hobgoblinas>
due to the nature of hobgoblins in my campaign it might be a bit difficult to implement this as suggested, but I think these can be a splinter group of the main Hobgoblin culture (who actually fight FOR the Empire)



Two islands next to each other, each with their own kind of giant.
cool concept. Not sure what i will use it for exactly, but i'll find some sort of motive here. Thanks!


The Empire's most capable and stubborn pirate hunterThere is already a sort of a character like this, a main antagonist for the PCs


Mollusks, golems, apes and the giant snakeInteresting idea! I'd find a way to put this in!


I have some suggestions:
<list of encounter ideas>Interesting ideas, and i'll keep them in mind, but i'm currently looking for ideas about islands, ports and locals. not encounters.


A big 'library ship' run by a former mage of The Empire, who's on a long, even twenty-year, voyage of the various islands in a given part of the world. Since generating direction, wind, food, and water is straightforward enough for a levelled enough mage, as is protection for the vessel, the ship is basically an ongoing anthropological expedition: the unending, magic voyage of the Beagle, as it were.roduce such a high powered individual and vessel into the campaign, as the players will most likely find a way to subvert/ abuse it. I'm looking for interesting concepts but with less likely chances of unbalancing the campaign. Perhaps I can use the idea with some modifications...

Thanks all!
AN interesting concept. I'm not quite so sure If i want to in

[hoverfrog]

OK then how about an island caught in a time loop by powerful magic. The same couple get married at noon, the same drunks start a fight by the dockside at midnight, the same little boy falls in the sea and drowns each morning. You can visit it during the day, trade with the people living there, even kill them, but the next dawn everything is reset to normal. They have no idea that it is happening, only regular visitors know about the strange island where nothing ever changes.

[Malkav]

Hadozee Catapult Ship. They launch themselves into battle.

Sahuagin Druid with some pet sharks, Awakened Sharks if EL needs to be higher.

Corrupted Temple of Eadro. Strange disease is infecting surrounding merfolk.

Steam Mephits gathering in numbers near a hydrothermal vent. They can bring down fiery rain on ships and wreck sails and sink ships and win. Advancing their HD is a must.