DrK Savage Tide Reboot OOC

[DrK]

The Savage Tide!

Welcome to the Savage Tide! A big Adventure path to go from level's 1-20!

The City of Sasserine lies perched on the edge of the known world, the last stop before the endless expanse of the Amedio Jungle. It is a hub for trade and home to more than fifteen thousand souls -- a bastion of civilization in a realm plagued by piracy, disease, violent weather, and monsters. This campaign begins in the exotic port city of Sasserine, and it is here that the foundations of your character will be laid.

Sasserine began not as a city, but as a woman. Over 700 years ago, a cleric of Wee Jas named Sasserine woke one night after a particularly vivid dream of a hidden cove, protected from the sea by vast cliffs and from the land by steaming swamps and jungles. In this vision, she beheld a thriving city and a glittering spire of scarlet stone, and knew Wee Jas had visited her with a prophecy. Sasserine called together her followers, including her lover Teraknian, a soldier and worshiper of Kord, and set out to find this hidden cove. Diseases, accidents, and monsters took their toll, and near the end, despair gnawed at Sasserine's pilgrims. Finally, their numbers reduced to less than a quarter of their initial strength, these pilgrims emerged into a bounteous stretch of land with fertile soil and fields of exotic plants sheltered by twin shoreline cliffs. Sasserine recognized the landscape at once, but Shelya had not warned her of the black dragon that had taken the cove as his territory. Mere hours after the pilgrims had thankfully fed on the abundant plants and had only just begun to hope they had found their new home, the dragon Zelkarune struck. Enraged at this final trial, Sasserine stood her ground against the dragon and defeated it -- but at a terrible cost. For in delivering the final strike, Sasserine had been forced to step between Zelkarune's claw and Teraknian; the blow meant for him instead laid her low, just as she called down a bolt of fire from the sky to slay the dragon.

In the days to follow, the survivors turned to Teraknian for leadership, who vowed to found a city in Sasserine's name. It was the year -124 cy, and over the seven centuries to follow, Sasserine would mature into one of the great hidden wonders of the south.

Of late the city has seen adventure and trouble in equal measure. House Vandeboren, once a noble and proud house has fallen upon hard times with the death of the House Lord and his lady in a mysterious fire. They left behind their diligent and hard working daughter Lavinia and their wastrel son Vanthus and seemingly debts and trouble. However all was not as it seemed! Lavinia, down on her luck hired some local adventurers including Lara and Grimgor and they managed to retrieve the Blue Nixie from some toughs trading illegale animal at the dock side.

Investigating Vanthus they were trapped upon a small island filled with zombies and soon thereafter discovered Vanthus had taken a lover, none other than Roywn Kellani who was head of the Lotus Dragons, and who Vanthus was funneling the Vanderboren wealth to. Lara, Grimgor and some others however detsroyed the guild, slaying them all and were feted as heroes by Lavinia who kept them on as retainers alongside the renowned Jade Ravens.

Having more evidence that Vanthus had killed her parents (as well as stealing her money and trying to kill Lara, Grimgor and friends) the party had journeyed to Kraken Cove on the far side of Jeklea Bay in search of Vanthus. Hear the discovered chaos instead. A wrecked ship with a mysterious black pearl that had shattered and spread a deadly Savage fever leaving the pirates infected and mutated into savage beasts. THe party had slain the pirates of the cove without loss meeting Hariss Javell, a captain of the Scarlet fleet and one beset by savage pirates. the meeting was short however as Javell informed the party that she now had a vendetta against Vanthus (as he had smashed the pearl and spread the savage fever), and in fact the entire Vanderboren family, and that she had already dispatched men to Sasserine to kill “his family, his friends, his pets, anyone who owes him money, people he went to school with, people he drinks with, and whatever slut he keeps at port”. As this included their employer, Lavinia, and as the die had already been cast, the party’s meeting with Javell was short as they raced back to Sasserine and their employer’s aid. However, before they left they managed to make a good impression on the captain by helpfully healing her wounds and loudly and convincingly decreeing their hatred for Vanthus and their desire to see him dead, and Harliss expressed regret at calling for Lavinia’s death, giving the party one of her earrings as a code to her first mate, whom she dispatched with the task, to listen to the party’s message. The party had managed to get back to Lavinia's manor and dispatch the bullywugs saving the jade ravens and Lavinia!

Now Lavinia has declared she will seek new fortune at Farshore, the colony her parents founded on the fabled Isle of Dread. Commissioning two ships, her own Blue Nixie and the one rune by her friend Lara Dantalion, the Sea Wyvren she has recruited brave colonists and travellers to journey with her.....

City Map

Spoiler

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It sits on the coast of the Savage Coast south from the crater city of Cauldron...




Please see the players guide available here as a free download

NPCs Aboard the SeaWyrven and Associated

Name	Picture	Description
Lavinia		Lavinia Vanderboren was the initial employer of the heroes that became the Snapdragons. She is a young noblewho had responsibility thrust upon her when her parents were killed in an explosion. The heroes were hired to free her boat from the thugs (employees of the Lotus Dragons). Afterwards, the heroes helped her to find her brother, Vanthus Vanderboren. Lavinia has a complicated relationship with her brother. As children, they were very close, and often played elaborate pranks. However, one prank involving Elixirs of Love in a watertower lead to extreme action on her parents' part. Lavinia and Vanthus were sent to separate boarding schools. Lavinia used her experience well, and learned everything she needed to in order to run the Vanderboren estate. Vanthus did not use his time at boarding school so well. So, Lavinia's parents left everything to her in their will. When Vanthus discovered that he was left nothing, he lashed out, and stole as much cash as he could, using it to fund the Lotus Dragons. When Lavinia discovered that Vanthus was responsible for the explosion that killed her parents, she lost all sympathy for her brother. She accepted that the Snapdragons might need to kill him, rather than bring him in to justice. After the assault on her manor, Lavinia took some time to read through the journal of her mother, which had been recovered from the family vault by the heroes early in their employment. While reading, she discovered that her mother had established a colony on The Isle of Dread, far to the south several years ago. The colony represented a potentially major source of exotic goods, a prospect that could greatly enrich both her estate and the Islaran estate, a prospect that greatly interested Gregor Sea. Lara and Grimgor took their recently-acquired ship, the Sea Wyvern, and Lavinia captained her parents' surviving vessel, the Blue Nixie, and the group set sail for the south.
Vanthus		Treacherous brother of Lavinia, Vanthus was a human male in his early twenties. He had long, well-kept strawberry blond hair, the same color as his sister’s, and also kept a well-trimmed anchor beard and goatee. In his life as a man, Vanthus dressed in finery wherever he went and loved to be flashy, both with his cash and with his personal expression. He was a classically-schooled fencer and favored the rapier and main gauche, and he possessed a set in the same style as his sisters. Vanthus’ first meetings with the party showed him murdering his parents, consorting with criminal gangs to disrupt sea trade in his home city, gutting his parents’ treasury, attempting to kill the men in his sister’s employ, and most horribly, detonating the first of a series of shadow pearls and unleashing the savage tide on a remote beach.
Urol		Urol is a bent old gnome, but he is an expert on nature and the Isle of Dread. “I actually went to the Isle of Dread once…fascinating place. Sadly, my stay on the island was unfortunately short—due to events beyond my control, I might add! We’ve certainly nothing to fear this time around!” Urol is a bent old gnome who constantly squints when he looks. He carries the odor of the land about with him, an odor that most find not too pleasant. He is talkative and chipper except when the subject of the natural world comes up, whereupon he flies into a frenzy of excited stuttering bliss, expounding upon obscure and often strangely fascinating (to him, at least) bits of lore.
Father Feres		Father Feres, preist of Hieroneous, sickly and and a bit strange he appears ill even as you leave and avoids talking to most people.
Avner Meravanchi,		Avner Meravanchi, spoiled noble whose family is paying for part of the voyage. Accompanied by two servants and a magnificent stallion called Thunderstrike. Seems aloof, arrogant and contemptuous of those around him. And was outraged when Lara was given the Captain's cabin. Lavinia has begged he be tolerated as his rich family are part of the funding for her expedition.

The Brave Few


The IC thread

[DrK]

Additional Post for DM information

[BelGareth]

Thanks!!

If we’re doing speech colors, I’ll take a green of the original players haven’t already taken it.

Aramus

Player	Character	Build
RCGothic	Lara Dantalion	human swashbuckler
Starbin	Grimgor	dwarf warder
Yas392	Tygar Foster	half-elf cleric
DaOldeWolf	Felix Clawson	catfolk arcanist
Casual Viking	Kona the Illuminator	tengu mystic (Knight Chandler)
BelGareth	Aramus	human druid

[RCgothic]

Subscribed! As usual I don't use coloured text for speech.

[Yas392]

Thank you for invite.

Tygar will be using bolded blue for color speech.

[CasualViking]

Kona the Illuminated 5' bright light, 10' normal, low-light vision, Perception +13 AC 22, touch 18, FF 14, CMD 21. HP 36/36 POST TEMPLATE

Spoiler: Resource tracking

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Stance: Elemental Flux (+4 dodge to AC included above)
Active Element: Air
Granted Maneuvers: Lance of Power, Rapid Strike
Readied Maneuvers: Elemental Strike, Flick of the Wrist, Minute Hand, Ego-wounding Strike
Animus: 0
Illumination: 1
Psionic PP: 3/3
Psionic Focus? Y

[Starbin]

Here ... and reserved for future character stuff. And again seems like a this color speaker

Grimgor Ghoulsbane, Dwarven Warder

[Yas392]

@Drk I knew I forgot something. Can I make a quick purchase before I jump into the IC thread?

[RCgothic]

I put this together towards the end of the last game:

NPC Crew of the Sea Wyvern.

I've also put together this WIP deck plan of the Sea Wyvern:

Spoiler: Deck Plan WIP

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From left to right:
The Crow's Nests
The Fighting Tops
The Forecastle/Quarterdeck
The Main Deck
The Crew Deck
The Hold

I still need to annotate all this. The party's quarters are in the stern of the ship on the main deck. The big room on the right is the great cabin, which is a conference room. The other aftmost room is the captain's cabin. The other 6 cabins are up for grabs, and the 6th will be the ship's office/purser's cabin.

At the fore of the main deck is the passengers' bunkroom/stable, though i'm going to make a slight adjustments there, and in front of that is the ship's head, literally the open-aired crew privy.

On the crew deck the two large rooms amidships are the galley and the armoury/strongroom. At the aft of the crew deck is the ward room and the NPC officer cabins. Our arrogant noble friend has been given one of the larger ones.

Still WIP. The crow's nest level in particular is unfinished.

The good thing about ships of this period are the partition walls. Things can be rearranged if necessary.

I also hope to give The Blue Nixie a floorplan as well. It's a larger ship so it will be more complex.

[BelGareth]

This is awesome RCgothic.

Also, great post, it read like you just knew everyones names (even if this is pbp), very well done.

[RCgothic]

It's her job to know.. But seriously, I was a little bit worried I was dropping too many names! But if we're going to have NPCs along, better establish them early so everyone remembers they're there.

I figure at this point Lara and Grimgor have had about a week to get to know their new crew. They won't know everyone aboard, but should know the heads of function and select crew members. Other party members can arrive or have been aboard already, whichever.

Current complement is 6 PCs, 8 NPC officers, 36NPC crew, 12 NPC passengers + 1 horse. It's a lot!

[BelGareth]

It's her job to know.. But seriously, I was a little bit worried I was dropping too many names! But if we're going to have NPCs along, better establish them early so everyone remembers they're there.

I figure at this point Lara and Grimgor have had about a week to get to know their new crew. They won't know everyone aboard, but should know the heads of function and select crew members. Other party members can arrive or have been aboard already, whichever.

Current complement is 6 PCs, 8 NPC officers, 36NPC crew, 12 NPC passengers + 1 horse. It's a lot!

Seriously, that's a LOT of people to keep track of!

[DaOldeWolf]

Wooh! Thanks for picking me! I really appreciate it. I´ll go with dark orange.

Here is Felix Clawson and Isaac his parrot

[RCgothic]

Updated deck plan:



Click to go to Google Photos if the resolution isn't great in-thread.

[Starbin]

I’ll post later today - on vacation right now

[Yas392]

Just waiting for Drk's answer before I post IC.

EDIT: My purchases are just vials.

[BelGareth]

Updated deck plan:



Click to go to Google Photos if the resolution isn't great in-thread.

Did you make these?

[DaOldeWolf]

Updated deck plan:



Click to go to Google Photos if the resolution isn't great in-thread.

Absolutely beautiful, I must say.

[DrK]

@Drk I knew I forgot something. Can I make a quick purchase before I jump into the IC thread?

Sorry missed the query
Yes feel free to tweak the purchases

[RCgothic]

Did you make these?

Yes, made in Gimp from scratch. I don't usually make maps, but monochrome ships are relatatively easy compared to landscapes.

Btw if anyone likes naval fiction I heartily recommend the Kydd series by Julian Stockwin. It's a complete Master and Commander rip off, but it's really well done.

[DrK]

Yes, made in Gimp from scratch. I don't usually make maps, but monochrome ships are relatatively easy compared to landscapes.

Btw if anyone likes naval fiction I heartily recommend the Kydd series by Julian Stockwin. It's a complete Master and Commander rip off, but it's really well done.

A step up from the likes of Hornblower then?

[Yas392]

Sorry missed the query
Yes feel free to tweak the purchases

Thanks. I will be posting shortly after I amended my sheet.

Player	Character	Build	Backstory
RCGothic	Lara Dantalion	human swashbuckler	✓
Starbin	Grimgor	dwarf warder	✓
Yas392	Tygar Foster	half-elf cleric	✓
DaOldeWolf	Felix Clawson	catfolk arcanist	✓
Casual Viking	Kona the Illuminator	tengu mystic (Knight Chandler)	✓
BelGareth	Aramus	human druid	✓

Copy-Pasting table here for quick reference.

[RCgothic]

Not going to be able to respond until much later today. Happy to give over the spotlight to whoever wants to have a go at resolving this so it doesn't just become the Lara show.

He already has a joint-largest cabin on the aft crew deck. It's a bigger space because the sailing master needs room for charts and plotting the course, which the master'll now need to do in the ward room or great cabin instead. He asked for The Master's Cabin, he got the Master's Cabin.

The Great Cabin is in use as our communal area/dining area/general ship's business. He can't have it.

The other cabin larger than his is mine, and if he wants to share that he'll need to get a good deal nicer.

The other solution I can think of is to move a partition walls to merge his cabin with the next one and making it the biggest. But then Vindalf, Bellin or Tasha and Sosha would need to double up, which they probably wouldn't be happy about.

The eating with the crew isn't a big deal - he can eat in the ward room with the NPCs or the great cabin with us, or in either of those rooms when they're not otherwise in use. The officer's steward can probably be spared to make him some meals

[Yas392]

Do our characters know the layout of each room?

[RCgothic]

That would depend on previous familiarity with ships and/or the length of time aboard. I'd reckon you've probably poked around all the public areas so far, but wouldn't have seen personal cabin interiors (other than your own) at this point unless you'd been onboard a while.

The Great Cabin and Ward Rooms would be dominated by tables and seating.

[Starbin]

I’m here! Just finishing up my vacation - travel day today and back to the grind tomorrow. I’ll try to post today, however. Interestingly enough, the new Grimgor has Diplomacy ... it may involve brutal honesty and turns of phrase rather than glowing personality, but it’s there none-the-less.

@DrK - does Full Plate already include masterwork costs? Language includes this bit: “Each suit of full plate must be individually fitted to its owner by a master armorsmith, although a captured suit can be resized to fit a new owner at a cost of 200 to 800 (2d4 100) gold pieces.”

If not, can I bust the max spend on an item by 150gp?

[RCgothic]

OOC I'd quite like to visit maybe a few of these sidequests. Quick, someone think up a reason we'd risk annoying our employer by delaying our voyage and parting company with the Nixie.

[DrK]

I’m here! Just finishing up my vacation - travel day today and back to the grind tomorrow. I’ll try to post today, however. Interestingly enough, the new Grimgor has Diplomacy ... it may involve brutal honesty and turns of phrase rather than glowing personality, but it’s there none-the-less.

@DrK - does Full Plate already include masterwork costs? Language includes this bit: “Each suit of full plate must be individually fitted to its owner by a master armorsmith, although a captured suit can be resized to fit a new owner at a cost of 200 to 800 (2d4 100) gold pieces.”

If not, can I bust the max spend on an item by 150gp?

Full plate doesn’t include the MW costs, but feel free to creep over slightly to start with the plate

OOC I'd quite like to visit maybe a few of these sidequests. Quick, someone think up a reason we'd risk annoying our employer by delaying our voyage and parting company with the Nixie.

Lavinia is a friend to Lara/Grimgor and on the schedule it’s +/- 2-3 days per segment so there is no real rush from Lavinia

[RCgothic]

Quick preview of the Blue Nixie map I'm working on:



Composite overlay of all decks. I'm very loosely basing size and layout on HMS Leopard 4th rate (1970).

[Yas392]

Updated deck plan:



Click to go to Google Photos if the resolution isn't great in-thread.

Quick preview of the Blue Nixie nap I'm working on:



Composite overlay of all decks. I'm very loosely basing size and layout on HMS Leopard 4th rate (1970).

Nice schematics. Helps visualize what the ship looks like.