[4E]Hunting "The Worg Pack": HALP!!

[chronoplasm]

OK, so in my setting, it has long been suspected that the Orcs have been capable of building ships that could sail under water.
Now, imperial ships of Kire are sinking left and right.

I want to figure out some kind adventure where the players have to seek out and destroy a convoy of underwater ships called "The Worg Pack". The players themselves do not get an underwater ship though since only Orcs have that technology at this point.

Any suggestions for how I can do an adventure like this? (preferably lasting only one session)

*edit*

A little more background on this, I'm doing a thing where the Orcs in my campaign are actually the most technologically advanced race at the moment.
Only Orcs know how to make gunpowder, and it is a closely held secret.
The Orcs of Yarg are one of the few societies in the world that knows how to work with steam power. The Orcs have tanks and dirigibles. They don't have airplanes yet, but they are working on it.

*edit2*

Yeah, it's 4E. I want this to be a level 5 adventure.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Apparatus of Kwalish!

[MeklorIlavator]

Perhaps something like a friendly NPC/PC casts mass waterbreathing/Mass swim? That should work for short adventures.

[chronoplasm]

Perhaps something like a friendly NPC/PC casts mass waterbreathing/Mass swim? That should work for short adventures.

That could be neat. It would be a good excuse to throw some Sahuagin and things at the players.

Hmmm... I wonder how the battle with the Orcish submarines would work though?

Okay, if you were a level 5 adventurer swimming underwater, how would you fight four or five submarines? (You are too small to show up on sonar.)

[Dode]

Deepdweller Armor
Price: +12,000 gp
Property: Armor
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) transmutation
Activation: —
Dull black, the substance of this armor is flecked with tiny particles and seems to swirl like the depths of the sea. While wearing deepdweller armor, you can breathe water and are immune to damage from cold water and from pressure in extreme depths. Armor that has this property does not apply an armor check penalty on your Swim checks, and wearing deepdweller armor allows you to converse with any water-breathing crea*ture that has a language. Additionally, you can see twice as far underwater as normal (see DMG 93 for details on underwater effects and dangers).
Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, darkvision, water breathing.
Cost to Create: 6,000 gp, 480 XP, 12 days.

What about this?

[MeklorIlavator]

That could be neat. It would be a good excuse to throw some Sahuagin and things at the players.

Hmmm... I wonder how the battle with the Orcish submarines would work though?

Okay, if you were a level 5 adventurer swimming underwater, how would you fight four or five submarines? (You are too small to show up on sonar.)

Two choices: either try and bash them open or try and disable them somehow(probably by messing up the propulsion method) and then signaling the fleet to come up with men for boarding parties. Also, use decoy ships to draw them into the area.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

That could be neat. It would be a good excuse to throw some Sahuagin and things at the players.

Hmmm... I wonder how the battle with the Orcish submarines would work though?

Okay, if you were a level 5 adventurer swimming underwater, how would you fight four or five submarines? (You are too small to show up on sonar.)

Visit the Gnomes first? Acid and/or explosives and/or sabotage. Or, at least one system I'm in rules that the only weapons that can get leverage underwater are piercing. Combine Spears with Spells, and you should have enough damage capacity to take out a sub, depending on what it's made of.

[BRC]

I would go with Depth Charges.

Use Blast Disks from Heroes of Battle which are set in their "Time Bomb" mode and dropped in the water, the time set corresponds with the depth they think the orcish ship is at.

However, Blast Disks are expensive, so instead I suggjest this. The PC's don't get a sub, but they aquire a way to breath underwater indefinetally, find the subs, swim up to them, and apply the blast disks directly to their hulls, set the timer, and swim away before they detonate.

[RandomLunatic]

I would start with a Cloak of the Manta Ray, find some way to allow to actually see underwater, and then vary tactics based on the sub's construction. If they are made of wood or metal, Warp Wood or Rusting Grasp could have some horrifying results.

[Lert, A.]

Alternatively, spells and attacks with the sonic descriptor (such as shatter) be automatically empowered or such if used on underwater targets. Electricity attacks have extended range due to conductivity of water.

As mentioned before, magical depth charges, or sapper mines.

[Townopolis]

Cast Knock on the submarine's hatch, problem solved.

[BobVosh]

Teleport in, etheral jaunt, etc to gain access. Shatter on important stuff.

Shatter the hatches, summon monsters like kraken, water elementals that can do the whirlpool.

What level is this at?

[chronoplasm]

Teleport in, etheral jaunt, etc to gain access. Shatter on important stuff.

Shatter the hatches, summon monsters like kraken, water elementals that can do the whirlpool.

What level is this at?

Level 5.

4E.

[BobVosh]

Level 5.

4E.

Probably should have mentioned that earlier :P

Everyone here has posted 3.x XD

I don't think anyone's abilities suit this, but I'm not a huge 4ed guy.

[Asbestos]

Um... make a deal with the devil? And by devil I mean aboleth. Surely they don't want these air breathers in their turf. Perhaps the PCs discover they have a 'mysterious benefactor' that indirectly gives them things like the Apparatus someone mentioned earlier, works well with the 'mastermind' tradition that aboleths have going for them. Or perhaps they make 'giant thunderstones' and use them as depth charges?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Um... make a deal with the devil? And by devil I mean aboleth. Surely they don't want these air breathers in their turf. Perhaps the PCs discover they have a 'mysterious benefactor' that indirectly gives them things like the Apparatus someone mentioned earlier, works well with the 'mastermind' tradition that aboleths have going for them. Or perhaps they make 'giant thunderstones' and use them as depth charges?

The apparatus was a joke. In fact, given the level of the PCs and the fact that it was made by Orcs, I'd recommend re-statting it for 4.x as the enemy sub. Look at the poor thing. And look at the price. In fact, you could have their benefactor give it to them, as what their scientists have been able to make since they found out the Orcs were going underwater, and use the name to hint to the more savvy group members that they need to go elsewhere for a way underwater.

[chronoplasm]

I think this adventure would be a good opportunity for a dungeon crawl, actually. The party might get pointed toward a water dungeon where all kinds of strange relics reside that might be helpful to the players.
The players might encounter some Aboleths that will help them out by giving them some sweet magical items to breath underwater and attack the subs.
Maybe give the players a few different treasures to choose from so that they have different ways to go about solving this problem.
Once the players have got the goods, they can set off and sink those U-boats!

[BobVosh]

The apparatus was a joke. In fact, given the level of the PCs and the fact that it was made by Orcs, I'd recommend re-statting it for 4.x as the enemy sub. Look at the poor thing. And look at the price. In fact, you could have their benefactor give it to them, as what their scientists have been able to make since they found out the Orcs were going underwater, and use the name to hint to the more savvy group members that they need to go elsewhere for a way underwater.

The apparatus has ALWAYS been a joke.

[Quellian-dyrae]

If you aren't too averse to changing the technological balance of your campaign, you can always have the heroes infiltrate an orc port and steal the designs for the subs; make it challenging enough, and it could offer a steady stream of adventures through the heroic tier. The characters might then have to acquire other forms of technology that make the subs work, which can lead to several paragon-level adventures, while fending off orc attempts to recover the plans and sabotage the building process (maybe using their technological gear to bring the orcs up to paragon-level challenges) and attempts by other paragon-level enemies to acquire the technology for themselves. By the end of things, your PCs could be the characters that brought technology to the rest of the world, which could probably offer several possible adventure paths for the epic tier if you want things to go that far.

[Zenos]

Find some way to knock open the hatches of the submarines so they flood or the PC's can get in and kill all the orcs. Or maybe try to find the orcs submarine base so they can sneak in and disable them, maybe even stealing one of them (with disabled weaponry of course) and have the orcs chase them.

By the way, are these submarines true submarines or submersibles which have to periodicaly resurface to get more air?

[chronoplasm]

By the way, are these submarines true submarines or submersibles which have to periodicaly resurface to get more air?

Hmmm... good point.

I'm going to go with the latter.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The apparatus was a joke. In fact, given the level of the PCs and the fact that it was made by Orcs, I'd recommend re-statting it for 4.x as the enemy sub. Look at the poor thing. And look at the price. In fact, you could have their benefactor give it to them, as what their scientists have been able to make since they found out the Orcs were going underwater, and use the name to hint to the more savvy group members that they need to go elsewhere for a way underwater.

The Apparatus actually is in 4e now, it's in the Adventurer's Vault.

As for killing a sub...why not let them take a superspy approach? When the subs resurface, they sneak aboard one of them, and then you get a practical dungeon out of one of them. And then they can use it to stealthily eliminate the other subs. Or some such thing.