4W/FF: Obligatory Pirate Campaign, Session 3

Cast

• Captain Melech (2nd-level human warlord)
• Obed (2nd-level "human" cleric)
• Ushi (2nd-level ship kobold wizard)

Synopsis

Due to their "exemplary" service, Davion provided the party with the location of an island within his territory that was theirs for the taking...they'd just have to deal with its current, varied, and dangerous inhabitants.

Like a big-ass bear.

"rawr"

It mauled Melech nearly to death, so they ended up dragging both him and the bear's carcass back to the ship. Based on feedback from the Age of Worms one-shot, currently a "long rest" (ie, the typical D&D 6-8 hour block of napping) gets you all your wounds.

I could also see using the recovery rules from Dungeons & Delvers, where you regain Wounds with each long rest based on your Might die (d4 is 1, d6 is 2, d8 is 3, etc); you'd just end up using your Constitution (with a minimum of 1 for characters that have a Constitution of -1 or 0). Of course, it could just be a houserule/option in the GM's section.

The next day they ventured back into the forest, heading north until they came across some mountains, which they then followed east because why not? Unfortunately they wandered into elephant-sized spider territory (not that we know if elephants exist in this world).

It snatched up one of the redshirts (most of us have very shitty Perception), but luckily the rest of the party was able to take it out with ranged attacks before it sunk its fangs in.

Marking this region on the map as a place to burn down later (it's the only way to be sure), the party made a U-turn and went west, until they found a valley that cut through the mountains. It lead to a beach, which was apparently inhabited by giant, talking crabs. Not crab people, but crab crabs.

There's a lamentable lack of crab minis.

To be fair we didn't know they could talk until there was only one left. We told it that we weren't there to fight, and we'd leave them alone in the future. Realizing that we could very easily kill him, he accepted the deal and scuttled away.

All things considered, he was a pretty "chuul" guy.

Melissa only gave them an armor of 1. Considering that they had thick shells, I woulda given them 3, maybe even 4. Also some sort of grab attack would have made sense.

Here's the map of the island, mostly based on what we've seen (we've barely explored a fifth of it):

Once we get it fully charted and kill the things we wanna kill, the next step will be building our pirate fortress.

In combat you can choose to move a short distance (usually 10-15 feet) and still take an action, or move a larger distance (usually 30-40 feet) without doing anything else. I'd given warriors a Charge talent that allows them to move their full speed and still make an attack, but we're going to make that a universal action, with the Charge talent either mitigating a penalty and/or adding a bonus.

Currently clerics can hold one Divine Favor per level (or, rather, cleric talent). I still haven't taken the Healing Domain talent, but being able to have an ally re-roll a missed attack (War Domain) and throw lightning bolts (Storm Domain) is really useful. I wouldn't mind giving the cleric some way to heal Wound damage, but it can't be based on spending Favor because then you could just full-heal everyone outside of combat.

Instead, I'm thinking of giving the cleric ways to sacrifice things in order to call upon certain Miracles. This way, you could heal people, just gotta make sure you have other things to give up. It would also take time, so you couldn't easily do it in combat (though I could see adding a Talent that lets you call upon a Miracle immediately, you just gotta make sure to pay up at the earliest opportunity).

Announcements

We're currently holding the third Trick-or-Treat sale: until the 23rd you can pick up The Witch at 31% off!

The Monk is now available. It's a very flexible class, crammed with nearly thirty advanced moves (plus all the other extra content that we're known for), so we made another tweak to our character sheet layout in order to make it easier to remember what stance is active, and what it does.

Grave Goods is the latest magic item compilation in our 10+ Treasures line. If you want nearly 30 undead-themed magic items, some monsters, and advice on how to make your own, pick it up!

Lichfield is available for public consumption. If you want a concise adventure with a Silent Hill feel, be sure to check it out! Primordial Machine is also out, so if you want to catch a glimpse of A Sundered World, now's your chance! Finally, we've updated If These Stones Could Scream.