[OOC] Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

[Lucius Cypher]

And done. Oh btw, this is also an opportunity to hire new crew members or otherwise "level up" current ones.

Leveling up your new cohorts basically means you pay out of your own pocket to give them better gear and switch their stat block. For example, turning Tayang from a regular bandit to say, a berserker or something. Some crew members are better at certain things than others of course.

[rush99999]

If I were to upgrade a bandit to a berserker, would that mean they'd expect an increase in monthly pay?

And while we're on the subject of leveling up, could members of the crew potentially gain actual class levels if they survive long enough?

[Lucius Cypher]

Yes, not only do you need to pay the difference but you'll also have to increase their monthly payment. Otherwise they'll look for someone else who can afford their services or worse, might mutiny.

I will provide NPC's who do actually have class levels, hirlings and cohorts are simply NPC's who you can straight up pay for. The NPC's with class levels are generally more unique in character design (Because I'll create them from scratch as oppose to just slapping a race onto an NPC class) and may have different requirements to obtain/keep them.

[rush99999]

Am I only allowed to upgrade crew members to something else within the original list or can I use npc blocks outside the initial set. For example, could I upgrade a bandit to a veteran or something like that?

[Lucius Cypher]

Might be a bit complicated, but I decided to make a proper table of sorts for this. Essentially, you can choose to hire directly, but promoting someone to a higher rank (aka NPC stat block) only cost half of the hiring cost, though you will still need to keep in mind to increase their wages. And naturally, you cannot demote someone to a less costly stat block in an attempt to curb pay (you can still try, but that'll likely result in some mutiny). Additionally I divided up these lists into groups based off who may be collectively available. For example finding guys who'll be bandits is easy in a pirate port, but finding a wizard there might not be.

Commoner (Slave) - 1 GP/0 GP

Bandit - 25 GP/1GP
Thug - 30 GP/5GP
Bandit Captain - 100 GP/25 GP

Tribal Warrior - 20 GP/1GP
Berserker - 50 GP/5GP

Scout - 50 GP/10GP
Spy - 75 GP/10GP
Archer - 100 GP/25 GP

Guard - 25 GP/2 GP
Soldier - 30 GP/3 GP
Veteran - 100 GP/25 GP
Knight - 500 GP/100 GP

Apprentice Wizard - 25 GP/2 GP
Deck Wizard - 100 GP/25 GP

Acolyte - 30 GP/5 GP
Priest - 100 GP/25 GP

Cultist - 10 GP/1 GP
Cult Fanatic - 50 GP/5 GP

[rush99999]

Out of curiosity does Talogan know Derrick well enough to know why he can speak infernal?

[Lucius Cypher]

With what you know via his trivia, apparently he learned Infernal during the same drunken bender which resulted in him being a pirate. His Infernal isn't flawless as any native speaker can tell he's somewhat amateurish, but he has a surprisingly strong enough grasp to understand it even if his own fluency isn't great. He chalks it up to being an accountant, as it was a common joke among his fellow workers that their bosses are actually devils.

[rush99999]

Would a persuasion check of 18 be able to haggle a better deal out of Theresa? If not, would a +5 bonus to the previously mentioned roll courtesy of Saving Face do the trick?

[Lucius Cypher]

With an 18 you could convince Theresa to round out the total pay to 600. You can point out that while Theresa would claim to have had these textiles in holding for a while, you both know that since these textiles are in quite new and in good condition without any damage from moths, insects, or other creatures, Theresa can afford to actually hold onto them and wait until she hears about a good deal to make even more money off of these.

[rush99999]

Would 30 gold a head be considered a fair share by the crew or would Talogan need more than that to keep mutinous thoughts at bay?

[Lucius Cypher]

You mean 30 GP as the total cut of the plunder for everyone? Depends on if you and/or Tayang share the actual profits. You’re effectively raking in 700 GP, and if you give everyone 30 GP that’s 240 from the plunder alone, not including minor loot such as the armor, weapons, and gold from the elves.

Naturally some will feel like they deserve a bigger cut. Tayang as your first mate or Derrick as the closest thing to a medic on the ship. Nyx also values her magic skills highly.

Of course they’ll be thankful for the cut of the loot. But you’ll also have to keep in mind and be careful that they don’t get too used to getting such a large potion of the haul. 240 out of 700 is effectively 1/3 of the profits. If you somehow managed to sell say, 7000 gp worth of loot, most of the crew may expect around the same percentage going back to them.

This is one of those things where you have to make the call as the captain, and we just see how things go from there.

[rush99999]

Happy Valentine's Day :)

[rush99999]

Out of curiosity, do any of the crew other than Hector and Talogan have bounties on their heads?

[Lucius Cypher]

None aside from what they would normally get for simply being pirates. Generally speaking piracy can get you up to 10 years of hard labor, or even execution if it suits the fancy of whoever captured you. Most bounties are privately contracted though, such as the one on Hector. Talogan is the only one with a government bounty on his head.

[rush99999]

I have a few questions that need answering before my next post.

What does Talogan know about the stretch of sea to the north other than that the people there are gearing up for war?

Would doing mercenary work or turning in pirate bounties get Talogan and his crew branded as raiders?

If Talogan wanted to find someone in Red Shard proficient in thieves' tools and willing to join a pirate crew, what would be the best way to go about it? Does Talogan know anyone specific who could point him in the right direction? Would he just have to ask around and hope for the best? Or is there something else he'd need to do?

[Lucius Cypher]

The northern seas have the Majadan and the Xiadan nations controlling it, and likely the main two nations about to go to war. Because of their constant warfare there isn’t much of a sea population there, but plenty of sea monsters and sunken ships awaiting plunder. It’s not unusual for scavenger crews to operate in those waters, and they’re well known for their abilities in amphibious combat.

Pirates turning in bounties in other pirates isn’t unusual, just impracticality difficult for those with any bounty to their names. A criminal taking another criminal to a fortified guard facility to collect on a bounty is just asking for two bounties being captured. Regular Bounty hunters aren’t really considered raiders either, since people putting a bounty on your head for your pirate activities is just part of the job, and thus dealing with bounty hunters is the same as dealing with a guard escort. Mind you, betraying your fellow pirates to collect their bounty is still a dick move. I’d say, Tayang KO’s you and turns you into the guard for your 2k bounty, Tayang will need to make sure he never goes into the sea again or else anyone who heard about how he betrayed you will do terrible, Terrible things to him.

Incidentally, the Ransom Brokers who buy slaves can also be used to turn in pirate bounties, at a price or course. They’re the middleman who’ll effective give you a cut of the advance pay on the bounty, and then they’ll later go and formally collect the bounty themselves. This is the “normal” way for pirates to turn in bounties in each other, what with their own criminal nature making conversing with honest guards difficult.

Theresa can act as your go-to thieves guild rep. She can help facilitate the hiring of an official thieves guild member, who depending on what you’re willing to pay could be anything from just a bandit with thieves tool prof or someone of greater skill like a spy. Alternatively if you’re looking for someone with actual class levels, that will require you to actually go out of your way to find the right person. Still, Theresa could point you in the right direction.

[rush99999]

Out of curiosity, how much do cannons and all the odds and ends needed to use them cost?

[Lucius Cypher]

A small cannon will cost you 2000, and a single ball and shot (aka the powder needed to propel it) is 10 GP together. A small cannon does 2d8+dex damage and does double damage to objects and structures, has a range of 200/600, and requires an action to load and an action to shoot (effectively a two-man crew). It weighs about 100lbs and it five feet long.

A regular cannon is 4000, same cost for ammo, but thanks to a more advance design and larger bore it does 4d8 damage and has a range of 500/1500. Those weigh 400 lbs and requires an action to load, shoot, and aim if the cannon isn't aligned to the target (This is usually irreverent for ship-to-ship combat, but important against sea monsters). They are usually ten feet long.

Monster Cannons are 10000 and have their own ammo which is 50GP a pop. These massive monsters are generally not even on ships, but part of a wall, and most ships that do have them are pretty much just the cannon and it's crew. They can do up to 10d8 points of damage with an effective range of 1000/2000, and are a little under a ton (specifically 1800 lbs). Action to load, action to shoot, action to aim.

Regular and Monster cannons can also use unique rounds such as grapeshot (does a weaker cone), Chain shot (effectively a line), or even other exotic types of ammo, though obviously these are more expensive than regular shot. Small cannons don't have the sheer bore to support these exotic types of ammo.

Not to mention, there are practically no pirate cannons smiths. Learning how to craft and maintain such weapons are often a government or at least guild secret, and the only times pirates even get cannons is if they plunder them off military vessels, which can happen from time-to-time. At the moment the only nations that employ and manufacture cannons is Doros, Xiadan, and the Empire of Ferric. Only Doros has cannons manufactured and sold by official guilds, allowing nonmilitary to buy them. Ferric has the best cannons in terms of damage and range, Xiadan's are the only nation thus far to be able to reliably use magic with their cannons, but Doros ships often have small cannons on any vessel worth protecting (Incidentally they are also the most common type of ships plundered for their cannons).

[rush99999]

How big are monster cannons exactly?

[Lucius Cypher]

About fifty feet long, twenty feet wide. A monster cannon will be heavy enough to start capsizing your ship.