Most interesting sea encounter

[Murongo]

I'm gonna have my players go on an expedition of sorts and I need interesting sea-encounters. Keep in mind these guys are level 2 and on a wooden sail-ship with a couple trebuchets for armaments and some level 1 commoners/experts as sailors.

I think I'll have a giant starfish attack it. Maybe throw them in a storm. But these ideas are dry, quickly, give me better ones! Winner gets a cookie and two atta-boys and a place in the campaign. Second gets a place as well as one atta-boy and an oatmeal cookie.

EDIT: Hehe, the boring sea encounters are "dry". Heh. Unintentional pun. Hah.

[ocato]

With all the fanboys, crazy people, and Johnny Depphiliacs running around, how has no one suggested Pirates yet?

[de-trick]

OK a small pirate battle, ship sink and get stranded on island

[Call Me Siggy]

A Neutral Good kraken. That has treats it wants to share. If any of them had the sense to take Aquan as a bonus language in an sea campaign, then it'll be over fast. If they don't it will be extremely fun.

[ArmorArmadillo]

One of the problems people have making sea encounters is that once the battle starts, the ship becomes terrain, just a new platform for fighting, and that takes the uniqueness out of the nautical encounter.

Really focus on the ship itself; when you draw up the tactical grid don't even put the players on it.
Try organizing each player into a specific role: a gunner, a helmsman, and possibly a ship's mage or priest, and the party "face" as captain or vice-captain.
Go on initiative order, and each player can take a specific action based on his role.
Helmsman can navigate the ship,
Captain can "control the crew" and give a boost to a certain aspect of it's function,
Gunner aims and fires weapons.

The challenge doesn't just become each player doing as much damage as he possibly can, but a real cooperative encounter where each player is reliant on each other player to get them into position/deliver the blow.


From there, a cool encounter would be to have the players veer too close to an uncharted island being used as a base by pirates. They come across a wreck, and take on a survivor who delivers a plot-hook detailing how his daughter/son/wife/dog was kidnapped and is being held ransom. It turns out said survivor is in-good with a powerful person at the PCs destination, and this could be a valuable ally to make, so they set out to fight the pirates.

This can then be done several ways, you could have the players take on the pirates in naval battle, or you could have them conduct a water to land siege on the pirate's fortress.

Either way, remember that the key to an effective naval encounter is that the sea has to be more than setting or window-dressing, it needs to be a major player that makes this encounter not only look, but play differently than others.

[Isomenes]

Harpies are also a treat. Excellent for testing ranged and melee, but not likely TPK. Could have one carrying some other not-quite dead prey for extra plot fun.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

It'd depend on the books you have, but if its just the MM 3.5 use the bat swarm and take away their wounding and blindsight. Call it a seagull swarm.

Say these gulls have a famished look and they begin to try to eat the crew. They also swarm down into the holds and demolish the food supply.

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This one just popped into my head and now I think I wanna use it. Have the ship populated by moon rats from the Fiend Folio. The moon begins to rise and the rats IQ sky rockets. They start trying to take over the ship, perhaps one of the head honchos bribes or threatens the captain into doing whatever it says.

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This would be pretty tough for their level, but have a mimic on board posing as, say, a barrel of whiskey or a sack of grain. It is slowly eating the crew whenever they go to restock provisions. It is also eating the provisions themselves. So when real barrels and sacks are searched they find the skeletons of their missing crew picked clean.

Maybe even have it arrive on a lifeboat with a skeleton with it. It'll have the form of a chest and even have treasure within perhaps. The players will thus think its some cursed item instead of the chest killing off the crew.

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Throw something big and nasty at the players during a horrible storm. Way beyond their level. They then awake the next morning to find themselves in the previous day. They most likely then die the next day, and the next, but each time the storm wipes that day clean. They must figure out how to survive this disaster or creature, learning from their past exploits, until they are finally able to become free and continue on with their journey.

[Glyphic]

*puts on thinking cap*

Well, we've got a couple of choices. Level 2, I'd actually prefer a non-hostile encounter, but definately one of excitement.. Unfortunately, alot of the mythical beasties of the sea would crush/swallow level 2 PCs

"Looks like storms are coming"- N/PCs notice the familar signs of storms coming.. Albatros gliding over the wind
"Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning".

It could be your a-typical storm. Maybe the winds die down completely, or there's a massive fog bank where they have to navigate blindly. (..assuming they didn't bring a compass or something). Maybe the fog bank could come when there's Sholls ahead, meaning structual damage to the ship.

This storm could either cause a noticable delay in their task at hand, obscure some sea temple/island they'll need to visit later, toss people overboad (my god, save the helm's man!).

Myth!
This is where we lump together all our lore of the ancient seafaring ways..

Lone shipwreck survivor.. This could either be a higher level "Sea-druid", an Oracle of the merfolk, A Sea-god, or anything that can directly affect their method of traveling at sea. They catch him/her floating on a few planks, with a few trinkets on him, a sullen face and massive hunger. It's a test! Depending on their treatment/interaction with them, they influce the winds, storms, hostile encounters.. think of how angry Posideon got when Odysseus Blinded his son, and cursed him for all those years with "sub quests".

Mermaid.. Entirely dependant on your campaign/players, have a mermaid come up and say hello every now and again. Maybe she'll charm the helm's man (or be his wife or something strange like that). A nice NPC to bring them news of fair places of the ocean, offer advice, flirt. Non-hostile, light, fun.
Or- Introduce her by having her sing at night.. maybe have the PCs think she's a harpy and try to kill her. Then, through her mobility/connection with the ocean critters, she can cause light, potential harm to the PCs. (Like.. putting crabs on the faces of sleeping PCs.)

Ghosts! Phantom ships in the night Saint Elmo's fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo's_fire), Drowned Damsels, dead men lost at sea- have them tell their story, give the land lubber's a true recount of the horrors of the sea. Possibly stuff they'll bump into in a few levels. Darker, more mysterous stuff.. maybe even have a few NPC's lose their sanity and jump over board at the sight of these ghastly horrors.

Fact!

Sure, this is where pirates fall in. But they're so cliche. Go with some Privateteers if there's alot of merchant ships in your campaign. Typically, they'd have either a commissioned fleet to sail with and protect them, or a few fleets to go destroy pirate menaces on established shipping routes. Maybe they've lost the merchant fleet they need to protect, or need extra men. Perhaps wanting to take the PCs into service in their navy. Or use the PC's ship to transport special cargo. (Avast! Pirate ships have all but destoryed the rest of our fleet. Take this Sparkly Dingus- It's imperitive those sea-dogs don't it it!)

This is more the one I'd prefer. -Ocean traveling "savages"! Take a look at some south pacific tribes, for instance. Not only did they have some impressive canoes that could handle ocean travel, but they could be negotiated/pillaged to provide food for starving PCs. Or, you've got some good cultural knowledge/new gods these people worship. Perhaps Pcs have to get in touch with their native sides, and perform a ritual for sea-god's approval!

Disease- this one isn't as much fun. Anyone in cramped, damp quarters with less than suitable food is bound to get sick. Weather its SCURVY, or some disease transfered from the rats living aboard the ship. the pcs have to deal with it, and rather quickly too- before the crew drops dead. (link this with the natives above.. they might have good cures.)

[thehothead]

Termites. Or whatever generally ate at the ship when it was sailing.

[Murongo]

Awesome ideas guys. I'm definitely going with the fog bank and shoals idea rather than my storm idea, because storms are boring. Pirates are overused, but I liked the idea of "nonviolent" privateers who need more crewmen. The natives on the island is an awesome idea. I really like the "we're not immediately hostile but if you handle this wrong we will be" thing, it's an angle I hadn't considered at first.

Mermaid is a little fantastic for this campaign (it's not low-magic but it's... less magic) but there's something about a harpy swarm that's cool enough to negate that. I'm torn between the harpies and the "gull swarm" idea, which are both awesome. I don't want to do both though, as they parallel each other a little close.

The mimic is a cool idea but maybe a little too tough for the party (a sorc, rogue, paladin and ranger). I'd like a mutation of it though. The moon rats would probably be more their size. I dunno, these are all awesome ideas but I can't have the journey be like 50 encounters so I might have to send them on one or two. Obviously they have to come back after the expedition, so I think I can fit all these in. Bravo and thanks everyone for your input.

[CASTLEMIKE]

CN Marids and Pahari (CG Sea Nymphs and Sea Mages vice Druids) in arabian style adventure encounters from the old Al-qadim setting.

Anchoring on the now angry and upset "Noble" Marid's summer home and he wants some task accomplished in return for tresspassing, law breaking and vandalism........

Sea going treasure hunt for a Grand Treasure for the local Ruler.

Corsairs of the Great Sea is a free down loadable pdf at Wizards in the Old Campaigns section of the downloads section.

Treasure maps is broken down into 4 downloads and is all the way at the bottom of the page.

Wreck ashore (1st level), Bad light (4th level)and The Sea Witch (Pretty high) are in the adventures section but they can all be tweaked up or down or partially used for an idea or two.