What would lurk in a wreck like this?

[potatocubed]

Just canvassing for ideas here:

In my campaign there is a wrecked ship, possibly decades old, still stuck on some rocks where it ran aground and accessible from the beach. The PCs may be walking past it soon and I'm not sure what to put inside.

What do you think would lair within?

• Not pirates, since there are already pirates elsewhere.
• Likewise, no ghosts and incorporeal undead.

I'm running 4e D&D and looking at the EL 2-4 range, but I can work with any sort of idea you want to throw out there. Anything at all.

[ghost_warlock]

Oozes.
Depending on climate, Chuul.
Nixies.

@V: =O Do it!

[Pharaoh's Fist]

A Fiendish Dire Octopus.

[Tiki Snakes]

Fishmen of your choice. (sahaugin, kua-tua, whatever. That kind of thing.) Possibly also Worshippers of Dagon? A Fishmen Cult, supported perhaps by a local village of slightly ugly looking humans...

[bosssmiley]

Sirens
Scrags
Merrows
Orcish wreckers
Sea-Lions (RAWR! *glub glub*)

Also, I salute your most excellent Lloooooooooyd Grooooooooossmaaaaaaaan impression.

[Comet]

A Fiendish Dire Octopus.

A Fiendish Dire Octopus, his massive pile of gold and his three beautiful seafolk-wives.
And a fishing village nearby that worships the Octopus as a god of the dark waters.

[quick_comment]

No monsters. Instead the boat is posssed by the malevolent spirits of the sailors who mutinied and died on it. The boat itself tries to kill them

[Fan]

I second Tiki Snakes, cant ever have enough Love craft in a ship wreck,

[Leon]

A mad prophet, who will speak the words of Truth for payment of a non salinated form of nourishment.
He shares his wreck with a assortment of crustaceans.


Possible ways for this: the Prophet is a crazy druid and the largest of the Crabs is his companion - he is indeed mad but his words do bring forth truth (how you take this is up to you, but I'd make it a small but obvious thing to occur at a later date as the party goes to a place or something happens.

If the party get violent (Hey they are Adventures, they do that kinda thing) you can let loose with Deranged Druid and his King crab)

or possibly have him instead as a Cleric of That Damm Crab and the shenanigans that it could entail, maybe a summoning forth a Avatar of the Crab or such)

[Another_Poet]

Well here is an idea ripped from my 4e GM.

A powerfl sea nymph has fallen in love with a human. She can't leqve the water for long but he can't return to her undersea kingdom - mostly out of fear of her father. So the two fo them use the wrecked ship as their secret meeting place.

If the PCs go aboard they will find debris and discarded trinkets on the deck, an opulently decorated bedroom in the captain's quarters, and a number of trained guard creatures (raptors are what my GM used) that roam about the ship.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Giant crabs.

Edit: Duh. A mimic posing as a treasure chest.

[Blackjackg]

It's just a regular boat, on a regular beach? Probably not too many fascinating things there. Possibly:

• Plants: Maybe a yellow musk creeper (MM2) or something like that refluffed as a sort of seaweed.

• Animals: Typical coastline creatures: Crabs (Stormwrack), barnacles (maybe use Piercer stats? Do piercers even exist anymore?), dire seagulls... whatever.

• Demihumans: Maybe someone washed up on the shore, or natives of the island wanted a little place of their own, so they converted the shipwreck into a sort of cottage. Nice little family of Polynesian-themed orcs, maybe?

[woodenbandman]

Medium sharks.

Anthropomorphic medium shark warriors.

With an Anthropomorphic huge shark as the leader.

Whose name is Bruce.

[J.Gellert]

If "The Witcher" taught me one thing, that is: Ghouls. Ghouls can lurk anywhere. But for a ruined ship I would actually stat out some Drowners...

Also:
Skeleton Pirates (hats and cutlasses - maybe even a skeleton with a peg leg)
Giant Mudcrabs
A band of thieves
Adventurers
A Fiendish Parrot

[Haven]

Kittens. They'll never see it coming.

Anyway: a ship that's been aground for decades is probably completely rotten and waterlogged. So only very lightweight creatures, if anything, could live in there. It might be better if there actually isn't anything living in there, and all the danger is environmental; as the PCs disturb the place, they fall through the softened wood, or shift warped beams so that it starts collapsing in on itself (more than it was), etc. But there should be something in there to justify the trek, of course. So the console RPG fan in me says:

As they walk through it they should hear a terrible howling coming from the bowels, and they have to move slowly and carefully through it less they collapse the ship in on itself. As they progress across the ship, they encounter crew manifests and little souvenirs, which show how happy the crew was before setting out.

Then journal entries (one or two sentences each, so as not to lose the players' attention spans), which gloss over what exactly the cargo was, because of superstition or thinking it's too horrible to talk about. And then some entries basically saying "O shi-". And, eventually, the monster, who turns out to be someone the PCs read about in the journals (a crew member or a passenger) but whose identity as a monster wasn't revealed (and it may not be immediately obvious that they were originally a monster; they may find out if they try to talk to it, or after the battle and searching the room they find its effects which fill in some of the gaps in the story they pieced together from the rest of the ship's contents).

It turns out the cargo was either actually this crew member all along, who is/was oblivious to the fact that he turns into a monster under some condition (a lycanthrope or something), or perhaps the cargo is an orb that transforms whoever touches it into a monster, something like that. And at some point, he rampaged and killed the crew (some of them might have managed to abandon ship; if the PCs for some reason decide NOT to explore, you can have one of them hanging out in a nearby village as old washed-up man drinking to forget, and pointing them towards the wreck incidentally; the PCs could retrieve one of the personal tokens for him maybe). And now the monster's in the brig, perhaps because the magic of the item binds him there, perhaps because he feels remorse for what he's done. But he's crazy now, what with having been alone for decades, or maybe he was evil all along, and after trying to trick the PCs into freeing him, he attacks.

Sorry if I'm being a little vague, hope some of this is inspiring. Maybe you can find a way to tie it into a PC's backstory; if any relatives are unaccounted for you can say they were on this boat, and left behind a family crest or something.

tl;dr--environmental hazards from exploring a rotten waterlogged boat + journal entries & personal mementos of the crew to build an atmosphere + a monster (with a tweeeest) at the end, which rampaged and is now confined

[Tsotha-lanti]

Making the ship itself the danger (in a completely mundane way) is a great idea; environmental dangers or challenges are both cool and underused. Maybe throw in a few gold coins glinting underwater to lure the PCs in.

[Kyouhen]

Giant crabs.

Edit: Duh. A mimic posing as a treasure chest.

Only one? Have the entire cargo hold filled with mimics posing as treasure chests and crates! Then have one of the treasure chests be real with some massively awesome items in it. Huge WBL breaker. Throw in some logs and whatnot elsewhere to let the players know the ship was being used by some wizard to transport something extremely valuable. The ship ran aground when the crew thought they'd start poking through some of the wizard's things.

For more fun, have one of the mimics in chest-form on the deck just to see what the players do when they kill it then walk into a room filled with chests.

[Another_Poet]

Wait, I've got it.

The ship contains some normal (though rotten) cargo, plus a chest with some nice treasure in it. No guardians, no traps, no hazards of any kind. Just free treasure.

Your PCs will go nuts trying to figure out what the "catch" is. The actual explanation is that a dragon turtle is known to hunt in the area, so even experienced salvagers wouldn't go out there after the treasure. The PCs just happened to get lucky and wander by on a day when the dragon turtle was elsewhere.

But they won't know that without a lot of asking around back at town - meanwhile it's just paranoia, paranoia, paranoia.

[chiasaur11]

Lobstermen!

The party will soon learn that mocking Lobstermen is not a good idea.

[Kyouhen]

Wait, I've got it.

The ship contains some normal (though rotten) cargo, plus a chest with some nice treasure in it. No guardians, no traps, no hazards of any kind. Just free treasure.

Your PCs will go nuts trying to figure out what the "catch" is. The actual explanation is that a dragon turtle is known to hunt in the area, so even experienced salvagers wouldn't go out there after the treasure. The PCs just happened to get lucky and wander by on a day when the dragon turtle was elsewhere.

But they won't know that without a lot of asking around back at town - meanwhile it's just paranoia, paranoia, paranoia.

I vote for this. So much more fun.

But you have to make sure it's a really fancy treasure chest. All sparkly and well-built surrounded by rotted crates and mouldy chests. Just so that they figure it has to be trapped.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Lobstermen!

The party will soon learn that mocking Lobstermen is not a good idea.

"Mock me, will they?"

[RTGoodman]

Not just crabs, but That Damn Crab. If you want to destroy your party utterly and completely, that is. And hey, it's "only" CR 3, so throw two of 'em at the party - that's only a ECL 5 encounter, right?

EDIT: Man, just realized it's 4E.

[lsfreak]

Whose name is Bruce.

And who are all pacifists, until someone gets stabbed. The rest of the group tries to keep the leader from from fighting, but fail miserably.

[Fiendish_Dire_Moose]

A Fiendish Dire Octopus.

Why not, a fiendish, stay with me here, dire, yeah you see where I'm going: MOOSE!

[HamsterOfTheGod]

Just canvassing for ideas here:

In my campaign there is a wrecked ship, possibly decades old, still stuck on some rocks where it ran aground and accessible from the beach. The PCs may be walking past it soon and I'm not sure what to put inside.

What do you think would lair within?

• Not pirates, since there are already pirates elsewhere.
• Likewise, no ghosts and incorporeal undead.

I'm running 4e D&D and looking at the EL 2-4 range, but I can work with any sort of idea you want to throw out there. Anything at all.

Take the plot hook from Aliens (and a whole bunch of other movies before). It's the cargo that's the killer...if disturbed.

Now you just need a 4e monster that's has the crrepy horror of a Xenomorph or vampire or ...

[Mando Knight]

1. Flying jellyfish
2. A dragon
3. A giant three-eyed monster that shoots arms out of its gut
4. A massive disembodied brain

[arguskos]

A Metroid. Why? Well, they seem to live pretty much everywhere, so I figure a shipwreck isn't too far off for them in the future.

In real advice, anything aquatic. Sea lions, anguilians, merfolk, sahaugin, aquatic elves, whatever really.

[sonofzeal]

I heartily recommend Kuo-Toa, especially if you have MM5. The whole "racial psychosis" thing leads to great RP, combined with their unusual combat styles (sticky shields, chain harpoons, pincer staffs) to make things tactically interesting. Excellent fluff and excellent crunch? Oh hells yeah!

[Mordar]

Kittens. They'll never see it coming.

Wait...are they Killkittens?!?

- M

[Ganurath]

From the top of page 119 in the 3.5 Monster Manual:

Lacedon: These cousins of the ghoul have the aquatic subtype. They lurk near reefs or other places where ships are likely to meet their end. They have a base land speed of 30 ft and a swim speed of 30 feet and are only found in aquatic environments.

Throw in a Lacedon Ghast with character levels, preferably Bard toward Dread Pirate, and you're there.