Encounter - Bilge Water


A trio of grindylows by Michael Scotta
Available as Stock Art

Bilge Water
Environment: Ocean-going vessel
Encounter Level: 5 (XP 1,600)
 
Area: This encounter occurs while the PCs take passage on a large ocean-going vessel.
 
Situation: The captain and crew of the ship notice that supplies and stores in the lower deck start to go missing. At first it’s just a few open crates of hard tack, but eventually more valuable cargo disappears. A search for stowaways turns up nothing. However, one night two sailors stationed to guard the ship’s cargo disappear. Only a few spots of blood indicate violence claimed both men.
Unknown to anyone a tribe of 10 grindylows led by a grindylow shaman (druid 5) snuck on board the ship at its last port. The foul creatures now live in the ship’s bilge, explaining why the earlier searches turned up nothing. Ingenious PCs can set a trap to catch a few of the grindylows roaming the ship at night, but will have get into the bilge to eliminate the entire clan. If discovered, the grindylows will first attempt to hold out against the PCs, but if the party proves too strong the gridylow druid will use his magic to cut his way out through the ship’s underside. This will sink the ship.
The ship’s bilge is accessed through a single trap door in the bottom deck at the bow and stern. The water in the bilge is quite filthy and carries filth fever. Creatures injured while in the water or who drink it must save to avoid infection. PCs must also make a DC 16 Fort save when entering the bilge and every 10 minutes thereafter or become sickened while in the water.
 
Complications (Optional)
The grindylow tribe includes a ranger whose favored enemies are the most prevalent races in the PC party. He slips out at night and hunts the PCs while they hunt for his tribe-mates.
 
Rewards
The grindylow carry a minor amount of treasure, though the druid shaman (and ranger, if used) possesses magic items appropriate to a creature of its level. The captain allows the PCs to keep anything the grindylow owned. As well, if the PCs eliminate the infestation and save the ship, the captain will transport the PCs to a destination of their choice for free as long as the voyage does not place his ship or crew in an overly risky situation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Help Me Fly for iPhone and iPad

Image
Help Me Fly by Funtomic is a casual puzzle game whose difficulty level pleasantly surprised me. The primary goal of the game is to rearrange the position of the red pieces, forming a continuous path from the battery to the plane. The secondary goal is to also connect the path to the stars (the number of stars changes from puzzle to puzzle). When you solve a puzzle, you get a nice animation of the plane flying away in circles. Normally the pieces can only be dragged around; the pieces with an arrow on them can also be rotated. Finding a route to the plane is easy enough, but also connecting all the stars required me several attempts in many cases. The solutions are elusive, possibly also for psychological reasons. For example in the puzzle pictured above, laying down a path to either the star or the plane is trivial, but to connect both of them you always seem to be one cell short, until you figure out that you are approaching the puzzle from the wrong direction. The game currently con
Read more

SoulJar Meeting 9/20/13

Image
Just got off the phone with the SoulJar Team (Team SoulJar?!) for our weekly conference call. Previously, we'd only done these things bi-weekly, mostly because we don't really like talking to each other. But as things have begun to progress, we've had to move them to weekly. We discussed a lot of things. 1) We finalized our GenCon '14 plans. We already have rooms, and we're working to secure booth space. We decided on a plan of action and allocated a budget for a booth. I still have one last meeting before I can say categorically that we're going in an official capacity (as opposed to just wandering around). But we're one step closer to attending the con. I hope Indianapolis lays in a sufficient supply of gin. 2) We're working on a plan for the re-release of the Cairn Bicycle-brand Playing Card Kickstarter. It's going to be dialed up to 11, because that's why they put an 11 on the dial. Alyssa is working on that, and we have a meeting scheduled f
Read more

A Peek Behind the Curtain

I have two consecutive days off from the "day job," which is pretty rare. So, in honor of the event, I'm going to start the day with a blog. I lead an exciting life, no? Yesterday was also the 25th anniversary of the release of "A Little Respect," so I may be rocking out to Erasure today. It's hard not to be happy when you're listening to Erasure.... I can see by a quick scan of the blog that I've promised to write a bit about SoulJar Games as a group, an endeavor, and (shall I say it?) a movement . Okay. That was a little pretentious. SoulJar Games grew organically out of our work processes for the past year. I "met" Alyssa Faden while working as the line editor for Nystul's Infinite Dungeon (yes, that book is coming out via D3 Adventures). Alyssa drew the maps, so I ended up working closely with her on the design. Eventually, she asked me to line edit her miniature boardgame, Torn Armor. In the meantime, I'd reconnected with jim
Read more