Ships storytime

>4 players, 2 rogues, 1 barb, and a mage
>We'd decided that we wanted to do a sea/ocean/naval campaign, and the DM agreed
>we were warned that ships were expensive, and we wouldn't be getting our own right off the bat
>the rogues, used their nearly limitless skill points to take every fucking ship related skill they could, I took siege weapon knowledge and a couple feats to support that
>We began play no where near the water of course, because our dm is twisted sometimes
>we make it to lv 3, by the time we reach the ocean
>We conspire together, and decide that our DM, isn't going to let us pull off stealing a ship, so we were going to have to come up with some other way to get one
>We break a golden rule, and decide to split the group
>The two rogues would hang around the city, gaining wealth, and establishing contacts with various sailors and gathering info, stealing charts, bribing dockmasters for shipping info, etc
>The barb and I would hire on to a ship, and work for someone, establishing contacts, and looking for an opening for something
>We discuss it with the DM, (who isn't a big fan of dividing the group), and he agrees, but warns us "don't use OOC info or metagame", we agree
>The next session was filled with some of our best RP'ing.
>the rogues gathering info and establishing contacts, and the barb and I interviewing with various captains to hire on as crew members

>>53137993
>We interview with a captain with a huge galley
>I offer my service as a cook/mage and siege equipment specialist
>An odd combo, so the captain decides to test me
>he makes me cook a meal. using my few ranks of cooking, and rolling a 5, i cook a fairly shitty meal
>he hires me anyway, because the other cook is even worse
>The barb was hired quickly because he was big, and looked mean as hell
>We knew this ship was going to have a 1 year round trip travel time, so it was going to be a long time before we met up with our rouge buddies
>We both had quarters in the barracks area, sleeping piled up like sardines
>But, I'd yet to cast a spell, so no big deal really
>after a couple weeks travel, we get attacked
>Another large ship came charging in fast, and they had two front catapults to our one
>I learned a lot about how our dm was going to handle ship to ship combat
>Officers are a high target of opportunity, the captain is a real prize, mages too of course
>However, me, in my cooks apron and hat, looked like I was just helping with the siege equipment
>True strike and siege equipment can be used to devastating effect...our first two shots ruined their catapults, and our next one tore their rudder off, fucking up their steering as they tried to turn to bring the ballista to bear on us
>3 shots, and their ship was fucked
>The captain was amazed, and pleased, and order us to rake their decks and kill their crew till they surrendered

>>53138328
>they soon surrendered, and we locked up their crew in the jails on both ships, hooked up a tow chain, put a few people on the new ship to steer a bit (after some rudder repair), and made sail for the nearest city the captain knew of
>The crew got some bonus gold, from pillaged goods/ships. And since the captured ship was mainly undamaged, we got a huge bonus
>I was given a tiny cabin of my own (the barb got nothing, lol)
>At the next stop, we had a 3 day lay over, so I took the time to summon a familiar. I tried for a raven, but since we were on a tropical island at the time, I got a parrot. The DM ruled that the parrot would use all stats for a raven, including speaking 1 language
>The next combat was at night, and took us by surprise
>there were some boarders by the time I made it to the top deck
>the barb earned his keep and went into his insane rage, chopping unarmored pirates to pieces
>I finally got a good shot with the catapult, and killed the enemy captain, and followed up by destroying their main mast, the third shot wiped out their steering again
>they surrendered, and we duplicated the same as last time, repair, tow, sale, get bonus
>The captain promoted the barb to sgt at arms, and promoted me to something like 5th officer (an officer in name only basically)
>The captain told me to get better clothing and dress like an officer, I asked to just remain a cook (because the enemy didn't really try to fucking kill cooks, but they did target well dressed officers)

>>53138475
>The captain agreed, and let me remain a cook if that's what I wanted
>Our next attack was some kind of flying dragon looking thing (i'm pretty sure the DM made something up)
>It raked our deck with steam, and was coming in for another pass
>True strike on the catapult threw a huge boulder in it's face, and it crashed into the sea
>I was really staring to like this siege equipment's knock down power
>while all this is happening, the rogues are back at the big city, getting blackmail info on some of the shipping masters, and some of the tax men who assess import fees. (i was sorta missing out on being involved in their shenanigans)
>the rogues also made an effective combat pair with their sneak attacks, and their flanking attacks.
>I give props to our DM for keeping our exp pretty even, even with such varied encounters and battles
> We load get ambushed in town at our next off loading point, and the captain gets wounded badly, but the barb manages to get him to safety
>I was trading gold for recipes and buying spices while that battle went on
>Another pirate attack a couple weeks later earned us two smaller ships, and a BUNCH of trade goods (textiles)
>The bonus from that sale, was over 1000 gold per sailor
>we had a VERY happy crew, which was good in a way, but was going to make mutiny difficult to pull off
>my parrot made a great spy, since it could sit around and act like a normal bird, and pick up all sorts of info
>like the captain had a somewhat shady deal passing information on to a neighboring kingdoms intelligence service for a fee
>he made the mistake of taking my parrot with him
>After our year had passed, and we returned to the City, the captain asked us to stay on board
>the men asked us to stay on board
>everyone seemed to like my cooking (i had put more ranks into it after all), and everyone loved having a mage controlling the big weapons with such crazy accuracy

Bump bc I love a good story

>>53138622
>we all met up, and discussed what we had learned
>We agreed that we would tell the captain that he should retire, and give us the ship, least his spying be told to the king
>we let the rogues approach the captain.....
>the captain said he'd consider their offer, then he came to me and the barb and tried to hire us to kill the rogues, not knowing we knew one another
>We decided to for once in our lives......to do the good thing
>we reported the captain to the authorities
>the captain was arrested, and we put a bid in on his ship
>we didn't get it, but the merchant who did, offered to lease it to us, or give us command of it, in return for 50% of the gains we earned
>We agreed, and thus gained our own ship (with strings of course)
>one rogue took captain, one took first mate, the barb remained sgt at arms, and I, remained as cook
>we started running trade goods, between cities, and soon earned a reputation that we weren't not one's that it was safe to attack
>we ended the game recently, and while nothing really epic happened, there was a certain charm to the theme of it all
>If we get another chance, I'd play another game like that in a heartbeat
>The DM hated it though, because the whole mage/truestrike/catapult thing, really made it difficult for him to throw a decent challenge at us, without wiping us out too easily
>ah well......in any case, ships rock, and it was better than dungeons.

>A few years back, i got a chance at actually playing as one of my players got into DMing after i worked with him for quite some time on it.
>decides to run a sea campaign in a rare (not to be confused with low) magic campaign where magic is just as powerful, but about 1% as common as in D&D.
>Human fighter, dwarven rogue, gnome sorcerrer, elven cleric, I play the dwarf
>start as simple guards on a trading vessel. not much happens except learning the ropes on ship combat and stuff
>eventually get into ship battles
>we lose badly the second battle, get press ganged into a slave arena in a pirate fortress way out at sea
>end up handily defeating all comers and manage to earn our keep as pirates
>a few months and a dozen or so sessions pass and we are up to level ten or thereabouts
>major battle coming up with the royal navy, crew is none to happy. we are officers by this point, on the Pirate King's own ship, a massive war galley.
>we decide to mutiny, easily get the crew on our side, cover story that we are privateers undercover for the country,
>as the fleets draw near, our sorcerer quickly starts sinking the remainder of our fleet, we battle the captain, emerge victorious, fly the white flag
>we explain our situation with colorful euphemisms, barely passing by bluffing our writ of privateering having been destroyed by necessity to keep our cover.
>eventually granted safe passage to capital city
>receive honors and new privateer commission.
>set out to sea with brand new galley
>fucking kraken wrecks our shit
cont

>>53139114
>fucking kraken wrecks our shit
I laughed.

>>53139114
>As we are sinking, we manage to deal the death blow we were just short of to the kraken.
>we are a week and a half out at sea, no land for miles, quickly sinking
>i have a negative 2 swim check because reasons
>invested in a helm of water breathing early on
>sorcerer casts water breathing on others while swimming on the surface
>as we are plumbing the depths with our asses, we see a glowing light a few hundred feet below us
>it quickly grows brighter and clearer
>turns out a gnomish submersible was in the area
>it breaches and rescues us, discover it had been attacked by the same kraken, but barely managed to escape. our ship just happened to be passing over the area.
>we join them and they start diving, turns out that there is a sea elf colony within a day's travel. given helms of water breathing
>we are greeted as heroes, try to secure help in reviving our ship (as it was only a hull breach that fucked us over not a full on smash)
>all of a sudden, massive earthquake occurs. sea elf court wizard sent to discover the source
>two days later it turns out the death of the kraken signified the return of its ancient enemy, a beast far more terrible, the leviathan.

>>53139240
>as our adventure continues, we discover that a champion of Moradin had entombed the beast below the sea floor and had set a binding on the kraken to defend against all comers to keep the beast from awakening
>the sea elves see me as the returned champion (helps that we are getting into the mid-upper teens in levels at this point) and beg our group to destroy the beast.
>CR 25 rating

I would like to say that our characters defeated the beast and went on to live our lives, but that didnt happen
>the details of the fight were crazy and pretty long-winded, but it ended up that we were only able to re-seal the best in slumber and had to sacrifice ourselves to do so.

>>53139240
Please tell me the gnomish submarine was captained by a gnome who looks suspiciously like Bill Murray.

>>53139432
I wish, but I dont think the DM has ever seen that movie.

>>53139432

>references a shitty movie
>not Hagbard Celine

You should be ashamed of yourself.