The Reckless Audacity of a Sky-Pirate King!

[Stormthroe]

Good morrow playgrounders!

I just want to have a nice general conversation of cool things to do with my pirate character in Storm king's Thunder. We have just hit level 9 in the book, and have managed to acquire an airship fueled by elementals to move around.

I've been using every cool thing I can think of, such as climbing larger creature from the DMG and such and has become very much a Captain Jack-esque personality. However, there are plenty more antics I feel he can be getting into moving forward as we will be ending SKT soon and moving on to something else but keeping the same characters.

So, what are your ideas folks? If you were a less-than-notorious sky pirate with an excess of wit and willpower, what would you do a bit more, or alternatively a bit less of? :smallbiggrin:

[Spiderguy24]

I think the real question you should be asking yourself is, what -won't- I do as a sky pirate? That way you can filter out your options easier. Though me... I would pick a fight with sea bearing pirates and laugh because their ships can't fly. :D

[Corran]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1070.html

[Ralanr]

I think the real question you should be asking yourself is, what -won't- I do as a sky pirate? That way you can filter out your options easier. Though me... I would pick a fight with sea bearing pirates and laugh because their ships can't fly. :D

Is it really a fight if they can't fight back? You can just drop cannonballs on top of them.

[Dragolord]

Is it really a fight if they can't fight back? You can just drop cannonballs on top of them.

No, you fire yourself out of a common at them, then challenge the captain to a game of Three-Dragon Ante, wagering your ship against his hat, just because you can.

[Stormthroe]

All great ideas guys!

I may not get the chance; last night's session, as I was sneaking about the Storm Giant citadel invisible and away from the party, I rolled an untimely 1 while attempting to stealth past a storm giant soldier deeper inside and got myself covered in luminescent moss. The session ended with the giant looking down a bit confused-like at the moving blob of a vaguely humanoid glowing green mush. We shall see!

[Sagetim]

Is it really a fight if they can't fight back? You can just drop cannonballs on top of them.

Cannonballs are expensive. Drop Firewood on them. Or chickens. Those are cheap. You might need to bundle the chickens into a large net to keep them from spreading as they fall though. Oh, or if your wizard has access to Wall of Iron and Fabricate, they could use it to mass produce nails. Drop the nails on them.....or cast Call of Iron in mid air and let it drop on their ship as is, I suppose that works too.

Don't forget that your ship is probably faster than anything else with regards from getting to point A to point B. How much cargo can you carry? Do you have elementals that can keep some chests chilled? Do a few legitimate business delicacy runs between cities to get them an appetite for fine, exotic things....then stop. Watch and see. They might just move on with their lives and not worry about such things, happy for the experience happening even once in their lifetimes....but most people aren't that wise. More likely you're going to get people demanding these goods, pressuring anyone they know to get more of them (especially if it turns out any of the delicacies are addictive), and then you can choose how to react from there. Make a killing continuing the legitimate trade run? Start targeting the competition that rises up to steal their goods after they have purchased them so that you can sell them at a full profit? Just sit back and watch the chaos? You have quite a few options after creating a need as long as the DM understands what you are doing.

Have any religious organizations spited your characters in the past? Dark cults, Good-but-sanctimonious churches, or what have you? Get revenge. It's a bad idea, and probably heresy, but are you playing a sky pirate to make good decisions? Get revenge. Drop chickens on their churches from high up. Chickens that you've gotten sick off something so that it makes it that much more troublesome to clean up. Or just keep a bunch of chickens in the bottom hold and collect the chicken poo into sacks to drop from on high. Set it on fire if you want to be evil about it. This also potentially works for cows, but they can be harder to feed. This is where ready access to the Goodberry spell can solve problems though, since you can feed the cows on goodberries and take the resulting patties, dry them in the sun, then set them on fire and drop them on your enemies. And nay sayers. And people you don't like.

Steal a princess. Not for ransom or anything, but just because you can. Train her to be an adventurer. Then, after she hits level 3 or something, offer to ransom her back to the king you stole her from. Dude will be in for a rude surprise when his potentially previously docile princess comes back fighting better than some of his knights or what have you.

[Shadowflick]

Crash it into a tarasque....and then have it explode....I cant think of a more epic way to end the adventure any way :P. Or go dragon hunting with harpoons!

[Beleriphon]

Crash it into a tarasque....and then have it explode....I cant think of a more epic way to end the adventure any way :P. Or go dragon hunting with harpoons!

You do realize that using harpoons to hunt whales works largely because a whale can't effectively fight back against the harpooner. I'm not entirely sure I'd want to pull dragons close to my ship, you know where they can use their claws, and teeth.

[CaptainSarathai]

I am currently playing a Fighter/Warlock airship sailor known as 'Jackie Ironsides.' He's the most fun I've ever had with a D&D character, by far. Some personality traits:

1. We have gunpowder in our campaign, and Jackie hates it. At some level, he genuinely believes and cultivates the notion that he is bulletproof (hence the Ironsides nickname).
--This comes from the idea that blowing apart an airship at range is damning the ship's crew to a horrible fate. Much better to board them and fight man to man with chance for quarter, than blast them out of the sky and let them fall several thousand feet to their doom.

2. Jackie is a privateer, not a pirate, and don't you forget it! This is a serious point of contention. Jackie takes accusations of piracy very seriously, and will beat senseless anyone who conflates the two.

3. Jackie is claustrophobic. To him, there is no greater fear than to be below ground, or out from under the sky. Being in a building is okay of course, but caves, tombs, and dungeons disquiet him. Any poor rolls in such places are blamed upon this unease. He has standing orders to the party that if he is killed, he is not to be buried, but rather burned and his ashes spread to the wind.

4. He's superstitious in the way that early sailors were. He wears a hawk-skulk pendant around his neck as proof against falling to his death. This superstition and "sailor religion" is what accounts for his Warlock levels. The pendant is his Focus, and he manifests his Warlock spells and abilities as essentially just "really good luck." He's more "force sensitive" than a Jedi, to use StarWars terminology.