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Pathfinder Shenanigans: Don't Mess with Adventurers
11 years ago
General
Just a short tale today about a ship's captain with horribly bad judgment. Nothing too big, but I certainly laughed at the time.
Our team needed to reach an island in the middle of a fairly large sea. We aren't high enough level to just teleport there (yet), and not everyone could reliably fly. Plus we had some heavy cargo to bring, so we had to do it the old-fashioned way - by ship. Now I know what you're thinking, "never get on the boat," but the GM had subtly told us that as long as we didn't make too much fuss about finding sailors, he wouldn't make us fight a sea monster. knowing a good deal when we saw one, we agreed.
Now, the island we wanted to reach was close to a trade route, but a little off course, so we couldn't just book passage on a ship and be set. We would need a vessel of our own. I thought about it for a while, and figured that the cheapest option would be to book passage aboard a merchant ship and travel with them along the route, then purchase one of their smaller cargo boats and use that to reach the island when we passed it by. It would be much cheaper than buying a full-sized ship, and would save us time, so we all agreed to the plan. After loading up our cargo, we set off.
True to his word, the DM didn't make us encounter any sea monsters, but he did have us encounter something else. We had loaded up our small cargo vessel and were about to lower it into the water when the ship's captain approaches us, saying "Now the way I see it, that vessel is part of a set, and it'll feel wrong to be missing a boat from the collection. So I think it's worth about 300 gold more than you've paid for it." We had paid a total of 880 gold for the trip, about 500 of which was for the vessel. Now, we were all level 7 adventurers, so we were pretty wealthy and could easily afford another 300 gold. But no, I wasn't going to have any of that.
I looked at the captain, and said "Sir, I'm not sure what's caused this sudden change of heart, but let me remind you of the situation. We're on a boat, a wooden boat. No guards or anyone else around. We are fairly accomplished adventurers, many of us with magical talents as well. We've slain many foes, and will surely slay many more in the coming weeks. And you are standing here before us, extorting payment for a vessel we have already lawfully purchased?" The captain wouldn't budge, and even demanded 150 more gold from us. When we again refused, he decided to bull rush our magus off the side of the boat.
I'm sure you can guess what happened next. Our team's slayer lunged forward and sliced off half the captain's HP, and then my eidolon stepped forward and tore what was left of him to shreds. The other sailors, who had all drawn weapons, now thought better of it and kept their distance. We didn't want to harm them, but I was prepared to burn down the ship if need be. Thankfully, they just let us take our vessel and leave. We didn't receive any XP for killing the captain, as he was really beneath our notice in terms of challenge. Oh, and my eidolon, a giant hawk, flew down and recovered our magus before he was too far behind.
So that's all for this story. Not too much, but just a little reminder for your NPC's to really think twice about their odds when approaching adventurers with hostile intent. Especially adventurers that are armed to the teeth and clearly magical.
Don't Mess with AdventurersOur team needed to reach an island in the middle of a fairly large sea. We aren't high enough level to just teleport there (yet), and not everyone could reliably fly. Plus we had some heavy cargo to bring, so we had to do it the old-fashioned way - by ship. Now I know what you're thinking, "never get on the boat," but the GM had subtly told us that as long as we didn't make too much fuss about finding sailors, he wouldn't make us fight a sea monster. knowing a good deal when we saw one, we agreed.
Now, the island we wanted to reach was close to a trade route, but a little off course, so we couldn't just book passage on a ship and be set. We would need a vessel of our own. I thought about it for a while, and figured that the cheapest option would be to book passage aboard a merchant ship and travel with them along the route, then purchase one of their smaller cargo boats and use that to reach the island when we passed it by. It would be much cheaper than buying a full-sized ship, and would save us time, so we all agreed to the plan. After loading up our cargo, we set off.
True to his word, the DM didn't make us encounter any sea monsters, but he did have us encounter something else. We had loaded up our small cargo vessel and were about to lower it into the water when the ship's captain approaches us, saying "Now the way I see it, that vessel is part of a set, and it'll feel wrong to be missing a boat from the collection. So I think it's worth about 300 gold more than you've paid for it." We had paid a total of 880 gold for the trip, about 500 of which was for the vessel. Now, we were all level 7 adventurers, so we were pretty wealthy and could easily afford another 300 gold. But no, I wasn't going to have any of that.
I looked at the captain, and said "Sir, I'm not sure what's caused this sudden change of heart, but let me remind you of the situation. We're on a boat, a wooden boat. No guards or anyone else around. We are fairly accomplished adventurers, many of us with magical talents as well. We've slain many foes, and will surely slay many more in the coming weeks. And you are standing here before us, extorting payment for a vessel we have already lawfully purchased?" The captain wouldn't budge, and even demanded 150 more gold from us. When we again refused, he decided to bull rush our magus off the side of the boat.
I'm sure you can guess what happened next. Our team's slayer lunged forward and sliced off half the captain's HP, and then my eidolon stepped forward and tore what was left of him to shreds. The other sailors, who had all drawn weapons, now thought better of it and kept their distance. We didn't want to harm them, but I was prepared to burn down the ship if need be. Thankfully, they just let us take our vessel and leave. We didn't receive any XP for killing the captain, as he was really beneath our notice in terms of challenge. Oh, and my eidolon, a giant hawk, flew down and recovered our magus before he was too far behind.
So that's all for this story. Not too much, but just a little reminder for your NPC's to really think twice about their odds when approaching adventurers with hostile intent. Especially adventurers that are armed to the teeth and clearly magical.
