I’m on a boat
After escaping the unnamed shipwreck island, the party sail
their captured ship Solarr southeast to the nearest port – Scag Harbor. Their
VIP passengers Don Rodrigo and Junko Harui promise that the influential Merchants’
Guild will reward the party for their safe return when they arrive in port.
During the two-day voyage, the PCs pursue their various
interests during the trip. Cake sets up a sickbay in one of the cabins
downstairs, where he has placed a crawling claw in a bird cage (because:
creepy) and successfully plotted the location of the uncharted island that they
just fled from. Capt. Teach concerns himself with the navigation of the ship
and making sure the ship is being run properly. The party work on their
Articles of Piracy, circuitously discuss who should act as captain, and recruit
4 crewmembers from among the rescued seamen:
Oni the mediocre Kara Turian helmsmen and the Korynthian sailors Diego,
Lorca, and Leon. But then, a cry from the main deck:
“Seeeeeeeeea monsters!”
Cognizant of the hours of roleplaying that is about to go down, the DM injects some combat into the evening by throwing two hungry plesiosaurs at the crew of Solaar.
These fearsome “longneck” dinosaurs munch on a few red
shirts before they are dispatched by the combined forces of the players and
Fuckin’ Manny, who is pretty capable with a ballista. Despite the death and
injury, fortune has shone once again on the PCs: they now have two Plunder
Points worth of valuable sea monster carcass that they can sell in Scag Harbor
on top of the three Plunder Points in the main hold. Score!
Welcome to Scag Harbor, USA
At sunset, Solarr drifts into the modest tropical port of
Scag Harbor.
It stinks of fish, piss, and smoke. A hardscrabble island
town full of fishermen, derelicts, and pirates, Scag Harbor consists of two
piers and a boardwalk, a pirate auction, a fish market, and a jumble of stores
and taverns connected by a series of boardwalks. Beach halflings and beggars
live in shanties on the edge of town, fighting with pickaroos for scraps. One
of the many NPCs they encounter describes Scag Harbor as “a low-level quest
hub” which is pretty meta.
The party is met at the docks by a polite hobgoblin officer
named Huskar and his hobgoblin constables. Nicknamed the harb’goblins
(harbor+hobgoblin; GET IT?), they collect fees and enforce the peace on behalf
of The Harbormaster, an unseen figure who watches all from his tower at the end
of the main pier.
While the PCs
retires to the waterfront tavern Harpy’s Roost, Fuckin’ Manny begrudgingly unloads
the ship’s cargo into a secure warehouse with the help of the new crew.
Don Rodrigo pulls
Capt. Teach aside; he wants to celebrate his freedom in town, but is a little
light on cash. Teach loans him 30gp at a 10% daily interest rate, and
the Korynthian dandy disappears into Scag Harbor for a night of debauchery.
In the Harpy’s Roost, shit gets freaky:
- Chaser engages the services of local sex industry workers such as Ol’ Meg to keep his friends company.
- Cake hears that the recently deceased Capt. Pox was looking for “Obari Orbs,” aka The Tears of the Gods. These magical spheres are said to be scattered throughout the Reach, and many
- Teach meets a gravel-voiced bard named Dan Moody and his trio, the Moody Blues. He sits in on a set and convinces Moody to lend him an ampliwand, a bardic device that makes a user’s voice 3x louder. Note: You have to be careful with ampliwands because they can really overwhelm the rhythm section.
- Titus chats with Stella, the halfling bartender and proprietor of Harpy’s Roost. She tells him that his old captain, Sam Avery, is “semi-retired."
- Fuckin’ Manny scores some “spice” from the dwarven bouncer Torgo, and he and Chaser close the night out tripping balls on the hallucinogenic sea snake venom drug.
Master Zuno
The PCs meet the
local Merchants’ Guild bigshot Master Zuno in his imposing white hilltop manor,
which overlooks the town and harbor. In a cool tiled courtyard, they meet the
smarmy aging human Master Zuno, who gives them a reward of 500gp each for the
return of Don Rodrigo and Junko Harui, who are also present. While Master Zuno is unnervingly kind to the
PCs, he mistreats Greta, his long-suffering beach halfling servant girl. It’s
clear that beach halflings are a discriminated minority in Scag Harbor.
Ethics aside, Master
Zuno has a proposition for the party:
Two days from now a
ship called Gorgon will depart from Port Sapphire, the largest town in
the Obari Reach, sailing on a four-week voyage to Korynthia. It will pass close
to Scag Harbor in four days, and Master Zuno is very interested in a particular
piece of cargo in the hold: a chest of red and gold.
Zuno offers the
party 1000gp to fetch the chest and deliver it to him unopened. The party
agrees to consider his proposal.
Capt. Teach catches
the eye of Don Rodrigo, who owes him 33gp at this point. Rodrigo snubs Teach;
he will stay in Master Zuno’s manor for the time being, where he is safe from
collection. Teach seethes with impotent rage, but can do nothing. He marks Don
Rodrigo for later.
Shopping montage
After visiting Zuno,
the PCs engage in a shopping montage: they get some important shopping done at
Ye Olde Provisionary, and Cake picks up some potions from the hippy cleric at
the non-denominational Temple of the Mariners. At the end of the montage, the party
visits Tattoo Todd’s Tattoo Emporium, a sketchy shop where a Willie
Nelson-looking motherfucker applies magic tattoos to their flesh for 100gp
apiece.
While the party are getting
tattoos, a pirate ship called The Wanderer arrives in port. It sports a spell
turret on its foc’s’le, which intrigues the PCs. Various pirates and scallywags
begins unloading cargo from the new arrival.
Apparently, the
Wanderer is carrying exotic fauna, because a Hook Horror busts free of its
crate and begins fucking shit up on the boardwalk! The party dispatches the
creature in 18 seconds, drawing a crowd
of onlookers in the process.
Quest NPCs
The characters have
made a big enough splash in town to activate the dormant quest NPCs waiting
around. They meet:
Nigel and Buckethead
These two peasant fishermen hail from a village on the other side of Scag Island. Their normally chill village is under attack by a bunch of mean boars, led by a Jumbo Boar. They need help from adventurers to restore peace, and although they can only offer 150gp, they promise to give the party magic shell necklaces that will allow them to breath underwater.
Sir Garvin and the Young Knights
As earnest as Mormon missionaries, Sir Garvin and his three peers are young Korynthian knights who are on a rite-of-passage quest to prove their worthiness. These young “Imperators” were headed to Skeleton Cay, and island that is rumored to have undead and treasure in equal measure (rhyme alert).
Garvin unwisely displays his family’s magic blade, the Sun Sword. The island is three days SW of Scag Harbor, and they will pay 400 gp for passage. Chaser, who is still learning how surface dwellers barter, talks them down to 390 gp.
Captain Vinnia Storm
Chilling in a corner booth with her crew at the Cock o’ the Walk, this sleek tiefling pirate seems interested in Teach – and visa versa. A ranking captain of the Brotherhood of the Sea, Vinnia commands Wanderer and is always accompanied by half-orc brutes. She explains Notoriety Points to the characters; it’s how pirates who aspire to join the Brotherhood earn street cred before they are sponsored by a captain to join the ranks. The PCs happen to know there is a vacancy in the Brotherhood org chart, now that Captain Pox is dead…
As the chapter
closes, the pirates of the Solarr contemplate their next move. Chase down the
Gorgon? Help Nigel and Buckethead? Escort Sir Garvin and the nights to doom or
glory? Or just go on a rampage and rack up Notoriety points?