Grave of the Pirate Queen Questions

[InexplicableVic]

I intend to run Grave of the Private Queen tomorrow for a small group of friends, some new to DFRPG, some quite experienced. As I review it for my preparations, I have a few questions about some of the encounters. I'll put this in "Spoilers" just in case.

Spoiler:  

1. Octopus-folk have Night Vision 5. Are the octopus-folk here carrying torches, lanterns, etc? Since I'm using Roll20, and using Dynamic Lighting, I need to figure out if that is the case (which will affect the players, who will obviously be able to see that there is light coming from that area of the caves).

2. Fish-folk have Night Vision 2. Same question--do they carry light sources?

3. Skeletons, I guess I never realized, do not have Infravision, Night Vision, or Dark Vision of any kind? I'm assuming there are no light sources in the Pirate Hall, so...are they going through their motions in the dark at that table?

4. How many fish-folk are in Area 4 with Lizret? Two? That's what I'm assuming based on this description in Area 11: "It is guarded by two fish-folk (as in Room 4, pp. 22-23, but with spears only, no nets) who serve Haz’Rool and will try to alert him." So, two fish-folk with the net?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't know if David L. Pulver checks these, or if anyone has his contact info, but if anyone can bring this to his attention, that would be great. Looks like it will be a fun delve.

[Dalin]

Good questions. It feels implausible that aquatic creatures would somehow have flaming torches. Possible solutions that come to mind:

1. Upgrade everything to have dark vision. Works, but boring and doesn't add anything interesting to the setting.
2. Come up with some sort of aquatic light source that is commonly used. Could be fantasy natural (anglerfish lanterns, lava lobsters, light-weed, etc.) or overtly magical (mystical glowing amulets, continual light pearls, magic weapons). This could differentiate the species (e.g., octopuses use light-weed lamps and fish people use religious glowing face paint.)
3. Add light to the environment. I might say that most of the caves have a dim phosphorescent glow, say -5 or worse. The fish people would be at a bit of a penalty, but not as bad as landlubber PCs. The octopuses would be ok. Then, just to mix things up, I'd make rooms 5 and 6 fully dark and give the skeletons Dark Vision (which I think they should have anyway, but that's not RAW). Maybe room 12 is also naturally dark, but the statue or pool has a glowing aura to create a moody ambiance.

As for the number of fish folk, I might base that on the number of PCs and their relative strength. Technically, "several" usually implies at least three, but I wouldn't get caught up on the words.

[InexplicableVic]

Totally agree—no torches. Probably no typical lanterns either.

1. Probably easiest. I’m confounded as to why that wasn’t already the case. I assume fish and octopuses have dark vision IRL.

2. ANGLERFISH LANTERNS are a great idea. Instead of oil, sea water where the float around. That’s cool. And the other ideas are very creative and cool as well.

3. Least optimal but still a decent solution.

Probably 4 players with one or two 125pt NPCs. I may add a few fish-folk.

Thanks for the advice. Still dying to know Pulver’s thoughts (how he envisioned it).

[Anthony]

I don't know the details of the map, but bioluminescence is extremely common among creatures native to extremely dark water. Assuming the creatures themselves don't glow, they'd probably use some life form that does; I'd consider jellyfish for the combination of creepiness and being relatively happy to not move very much.

[InexplicableVic]

I think I’m going to have the octopus-folk use bioluminescent seaweed garlands (like glowing leis, equivalent to candlelight) and have the fish-folk use anglerfish lanterns. The skeletons might just have darkvision, although it doesn’t matter much since the delvers will have light. But it satisfies my “why are they here without light if they can’t see in the dark?” question.

[Dalin]

Please post an after-action report! I'm excited to hear about it.

[zuljita]

Don't forget the glow vials are a thing and fairly cheap. Could be that the recipe comes from under the sea

[InexplicableVic]

Originally Posted by zuljita

Don't forget the glow vials are a thing and fairly cheap. Could be that the recipe comes from under the sea

I'll do that later today. It was a fun game, they cleared the caverns completely, no casualties, and they made a tremendous amount of money (something that I'll discuss later). Thanks to Dalin and Anthony to great ideas for the lighting...the players REALLY liked the anglerfish lanterns that I gave to the fish-folk, and bioluminescent seaweed garlands that I gave to the octopus-folk.

I'll start a separate after-action report thread that I'll link to here (I want to make it clear that the entire thread has spoilers).

[Wayne]

What is Grave of the Pirate Queen?

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by Wayne

What is Grave of the Pirate Queen?

It is a short adventure from the magazine Pyramid #3/98 (December 2016).

There was another frequently discussed mini-adventure from the same issue named "You All Meet at an Inn."