Building Bhakashal – To Sea!

My Thursday group have become Bhakashal nobility, and the task they took on to achieve noble status was to unite the fractured thieves guilds, which they did at the end of last year’s game. This year they have been dealing with the challenges of being in charge of the guild.

They don’t direct day to day things, that’s the responsibility of the Red Arachne, the leader of the newly united guilds. They work at a higher level, and their first few tasks were putting out fires. There were competing factions within the newly united guild that weren’t happy about the change, those loyal to the old Red Arachne. The party rallied those loyal to the new Red Arachne and dealt with the dissenters.

In order to get the votes to give them control over the united guilds, they took on tasks for other nobles to ingratiate themselves. They had to slay two dragon turtles that had been harassing the shipping lanes to return a favor to Umani the Onyx (an 8th lv. Kutya Chimerist), leader of another faction at House Quannar who had helped them with the guild vote.

After that they took on direct guild business, a group of guild bandits had been frustrated by House Tairn marshland patrols. They were sent to put an end to that and failed. And a gyre (raw magic caster, like elemental benders) named Ghanglor Terrik summoned an air elemental and attacked the party with a warning to back off the guilds. While doing that, two NPCs have added themselves to the party through a “chance” encounter, they are spies posing as thankful adventurers the party rescued.

They were next formally challenged in the arena by Riyan The Raze, an 11th Level Emberi Jantu Magus Warlock at House Quannar. Emberi are humans, Jantu Warlocks create magical creatures (like owlbears), “Magus” means she is high level. Bhakashal nobility conflict within and between Noble Houses, and Riyan was unhappy as she used to control the city branch of the thieves guild when it was separate from the Raosk branch. She lost that control to the party. She sent Ghanglor to send a message, and she and Ghanglor fought two of the PCs in the arena. They lost that fight to Riyan’s Rod of Beguiling.

They gave up control of the unite guilds to Riyan to spare their lives in the arena.

There was much discussion as to what to do next. They decided that Riyan would start making demands of them as she had defeated them in the arena, which gave her status that the other nobles would likely reward. So, they decided that it was time to find another task to engage them. They went to Umani, as he was the only other factional leader at House Quannar who had been willing to work directly with the party and support them

They essentially asked Umani what they could do to help him, as they had earned the enmity of Riyan, who had clashed with Umani in the past. When this happens in Bhakashal there are tables to roll on to help to create tasks for the party. In this case it was pirates who were harassing merchant ships. I decided to use A3 and A4, modules in the classic Slavers series, for this. The pirates were slavers and they were raiding in territories where the guild did business. Rather than run the PCs through the whole series of modules, they would travel directly to Suderham and take out the Slave Lords, cut the head off the snake.

They are a high level party, they are more than capable. And that way I get to add some original old-school flavor to the game.

Bhakashal is located in the Pelissio Swamp of Greyhawk. But it is a Greyhawk that would be unrecognizable to most, as there are no dwarves, elves or halflings, no orcs or any of the standard Tolkien creatures. I essentially just use the map, everything else is modified.

The party was travelling to the Pomarj, that meant an ocean voyage.

The House owns several galleys, they were given the Fair Wind:

Fair Wind

Captain Asan Tillmok, Fighter, Saan (lizard folk) Level 6, AC 5 (chain), HP 32, Broadsword (+8/+6), Bardiche (+3/+2), Crossbow (+3/+3)

Magic Items

+1 broadsword, +3 vs large creatures, Wand of Magic Missiles (25)

 (25) Saan crew (AC6, Cutlass [+3/+1], crossbow {+2/+2]) 

 (2) Ballistae – 2 round weapon speed, damage 3d6/3d6, (S300,M750,L600)

 

Ship Warlock: Thila the Reed

AC:6,7th level Cavaral, HP:25,11 spells per day, 

Spells: 

1st level –  Hagellan's Thunderous Staff, Magic Missile, Mar Kassan’s Awesome Armadillo, Shield

2nd level - Control Gasses, Moonsal’s Ichorous Syphon, Stinking Cloud

3rd level - Ammon Marr’s Wall of Talons, Majnar's Metallic Sympathy, The Black Mist of Jax

Magic Items: Wand of Conjuration (6), + 1 Dagger, Broach of the Wolf (transform into Werewolf at night, SD: +1 or better weapon to hit)

Scroll: Feeblemind, Contact Other Plane

Thila is a Cavaral, they specialize in evocation magic and cast their spells with somatic components only, so motions of the body in some combination.

Day 1 they set out to sea I roll for weather, three d20, a blue one for precipitation/cloud cover, a yellow one for wind and a red one for temperature. Bhakashal offers more granular and more simplified travel systems, we decided on the simplified version, if the wind roll is high they move 5 hexes a day, if it is moderate they move 4, if it is low they move 3. They can use rowers or raiks (raiks are creatures that pull the ship), rowers add 1 hex to the day’s travel raiks add 2, but they cannot work two days in a row.

Day 1 the winds were good and they covered 5 hexes, no encounters were rolled.

Day 2 the winds were good again, and they covered 5 hexes, an encounter was rolled but it was with a merchant ship, so they passed without incident. On day 2 they strategized with the captain regarding what to do if they encountered slavers on the water, and where they were going to go when they got to the Pomarj (the slavers were rumored to have a concealed port city they operated out of, but they were uncertain as to exactly where it was, they knew a few possible locations).  The party mercenary (now a Bhakashal Lord) sparred with the sailors and instructed them in the finer points of melee swordfighting.

Day 3 – Low wind day and only 3 hexes covered. The party decided they wanted to take their mounts along on the trip, most ride giant lizards. They keep them in the holds below, but they must make land every 3-4 days and let them out to graze, hunt and stretch their legs or they will start to become agitated and difficult to control. They made land and let the mounts out for a few hours. One of them has a Kestram (a giant bird) as a mount, the Kestram flies ahead, sometimes lands and sits on the back of the ship, and at other times rests on nearby land.

No encounters.

Day 4 – In the Tilva Strait they rolled an encounter, in this case with a giant squid. The PCs were gambling with the crew when the ship suddenly rocked and heaved and tentacles appeared on the side. The squid wrapped it’s tentacles around the ship and began to attack sailors. Fortunately, the attack came during the evening when the party was all awake and no surprise was rolled, so they managed to hack and blast at the tentacles that came over the side and the creature fled.

Day 5 – A huge storm hit, propelling the ship 5 hexes but damaging their rigging and sails. The party warlock had a Fabricate spell that made the repairs fast. No encounters.

Day 6 – A low wind day so they landed to let the mounts roam. No encounters.

Day 7 – The party dined at the captain’s table then discussed tactics with Thila the Reed, they have had some problems coordinating spell casting and melee, and they didn’t want to get mixed up in combat, also, they wanted to know what she could do in a fight. Thila was a House warlock, so she was willing to share the majority of her spells with the party. No encounters.

Day 8 – High wind day, party rolled an encounter with a large whale, there was no surprise so it was spotted a good distance away, whales generally don’t harass a ship unless it pursues them, and they decided to steer clear.

Day 9 – A moderate wind day so the captain put the rowers to work to get them a full 5 hexes on, they made land for a stop in for the mounts. An encounter was rolled, they were on land and it was with a group of hunters. They saw the ship in the water and the large group on the shore with giant lizard mounts and decided to approach cautiously. The party invited them over to join them in a meal (they had taken the opportunity to hunt while their mounts were grazing). The party asked about slaver activities in the area and were told that slavers were quite active across the gulf, and were actively raiding on the coast. They had fought off a slaver party themselves a few weeks ago.

Day 10 – A moderate wind day but captain Tilmok decided to save the rowers in case they ended up encountering any slavers or pirates while crossing the gulf. They can’t cross the ocean directly as this would have them off land for too long, so they had to cross the gulf and get to the coast then move up the coast. This put them in slaver’s territory, so they were going to be cautious! No encounter.

Day 11 – It was windy and stormy; they travelled 5 hexes but rolled an encounter with sahuagin! Fortunately, there was no surprise, but they rolled 80 sahuagin approaching. If they made it to the ship that would be a bloodbath, Sahuagin are 2HD to the 0HD of the sailors, and in large numbers they are deadly. Captain Tilmok had the entire crew fire crossbows and the ballistae fired to try and discourage the sea-devils. He also has a Wand of Magic Missiles, and he targeted what appeared to be leaders from a great distance, hoping to dissuade them. Unfortunately, all of the party spell casters were sleeping at this time, a mistake they won’t repeat, so there was no spell casting at them when they were at a distance.

The sahuagin reached the ship quickly and began to climb up the sides. By this time everyone was on deck, and this gave the party one more shot at reacting to the creatures before they were on deck.

The party warlock angled a Lightning Bolt spell and took out 4. The party conjuror cast an Emyar the Ashen’s Ebony Coils spell and summoned 10 tentacles from another world, they wreaked havoc with the sea-devils, crushing many, damaging others and sending them back to the ocean. Thila the Reed cast Stinking Cloud and took out 5 more. The sailors were ready when the sea-devils came up over the sides, as were the party tanks, who managed multiple attacks on the beasts slaying many.

At this point I rolled for morale, as they had slain a number of the creatures, and they failed morale, fleeing back into the ocean.

Disaster averted.

Day 12 – Moderate wind and a storm, no encounters, no damage to ship. Several rounds of Onitawa (a chess variant) with the ship’s captain and the party warlock made for good RP fun.

Day 13 -  An encounter is rolled with a pirate ship, an additional roll determines this is a slaver ship. The party spots the ship and gains surprise, so the ship doesn’t spot them. They decide they are probably pirates but they aren’t sure if they are slavers, and they decide to follow at a discrete distance using the Kestram as a scout to keep track of the ship. They deliberately lay anchor and wait for the ship to gain distance so they don’t get spotted.

Day 14 – They set in to land to feed the mounts so they can sustain a pursuit of the slavers, no encounter.

We stopped there.

Ocean travel is one of my player’s favorite pastimes. While things cool off back home, they get to explore a bit and see the game world. They enjoy the role play interactions with the ship’s crew, and over time they become protective of the sailors and friends with the captain and the ship spell caster. They like to gamble, gain information and otherwise engage with the crew. The weather effects travel times and can even damage the ship.

If they follow this slaver ship at a distance they can go directly to Suderham to confront the Slave Lords, but they may decide to peel off at some point if they aren’t convinced these are slavers.

Adventure awaits!