Help with sidequest

[MichielHagen]

Hello,

without getting into much details.

My party wants to go to Island A (which is inhabited by giants), but has made a deal with a very dubious shipman.
The shipman instead will go to Island B, for which he does not have to travel to the dangerous waters. The party does not know Island A, so will most likely not know they arrive at island B, altough they have gotten hints that the shipman is not to be trusted.

Anyway, my plan so far is to have the shipman leave as soon as the party goes ashore. Not sure if the party will fall for that, but also not sure how much of a choice they have, unless they leave someone of the party behind, or take the crew with them. But that last one the crew will not agree upon, unless somehow forced, in that case i am not sure how the captain will try to trick the party.

On island B i plan to have Gnomes there. If the party is left behind, the Gnomes will have an invention similar to a hot air balloon with which they can travel (with the help of party fly-magic) to Island A.

I have two problems:
1. What if the actions of the party are not allowing the ship to leave. Not sure what to do with the story then, just let the captain go to island A after all? the party is much stronger than the ships crew so i guess they do not have much of a choice. What are other ways to potentially trick the party?

2. I need some action on Island B, maybe the Gnomes will want the monster that lives in the Volcano or so to be killed, before they help them.

[weckar]

Have you considered drawing some inspiration from Gulliver's Travels? Because it seems ideal.

[Breakman]

Well volcano monsters are easy. Depending on party level anything from a red dragon to a fire elemental to a demon of some kind could be appropriate. The tricky part would be if the party does not let the ship leave. Not sure how good-aligned your group is, but unless the party has hard evidence that they are not on the island they wanted, the captain could argue that his job is done and he is free to do as he wishes.

[MichielHagen]

The party paid for a "return trip". But there was no agreement that the crew would join them on the island, in fact, Island A is said to be quite dangerous so the crew has every reason not to join them on island A.
That said, the party is already distrusting the captain and will most likely want some way to know the captain will not leave, even if they believe this is island A. I guess i could let the captain play it this way:

"Hey, if you do not trust me, why don't you promise me a bonus of 100 gold once you return. I am here now anyways and that would be easy money for me, besides, i want you guys to be onboard for the return-trip, that's a lot safer."

While in fact the waters to Island A are much unsafer than the waters to Island B, the captain does not want to travel those seas at all.

[Breakman]

That might work. Unless they let one of their party members stay behind I don't really see a way of monitoring the captain anyways. And one PC might still get overwhelmed by the crew.
So do you have a plan for what kind of monster you intend to have terrorize the island?

[MichielHagen]

Currently i am going with red dragon, but any other suggestions are welcome.
I might look into something like a Magma Elemental or so, but it's too unnatural for the setting i think. I think it needs to be something more natural like a fire-breathing lizard ;)

[Nupo]

Just whip up some bad weather and have the ship crash on the rocks of Island B. The ship can be repaired, with the help of the gnomes, but it will take some time. The gnomes will want compensation in the form of said side quest. You can even have the original repaired ship take them to island A and skip the ballon thing altogether if you want.