The High Seas

This is a one shot between Gill, James, and maybe Evan. Will be two parts, diplomacy/espionage on the shoreline, and then a combat/deception game on the high seas. Will play like a mafia style game on the high seas part, where a member of the church joins the passengers at the last minute and is suspicious of the PCs, but a larger threat on the high seas suddenly makes the situation a powderkeg ready to explode. Merchant Docks District is where it all starts.

Notes:

A level 3 one shot using 5e

INSPIRATIONS:

• Alien
• Will be attempting to make this second section inspired by the Black Mirror Episode Bad Traveling, mixed with mafia style games and that social deception game craze Among Us was around for.
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Catch-22

Preliminary

• Gill is using the warforged smuggler who's secret is they have a small smuggling compartment hidden in their back.
• They are a Mannekin (Steinhardt's Warforged Race)
• They have the Warforged Smuggler Secret Character Traits
• They will be coming to New Mystra to pick up a mysterious package and drop another one off.
• They have been hired by some very inquisitive minds from The Azur
• This package will be something either related to James's or Evan's secret, but will also be something the church is taking a great interest in or was stolen.
• Actually will make it a stolen or "jail broken" professor orb that the church is looking for.
• The professor orb could eventually be used to give Gill a consciousness and reroll her charisma and wisdom if the story climax revolves around this character.
• At the last second an extra 3 passengers join the crew, A church representative and her two guards. Will be unclear to players if this is intentional or just a coincidence, but will be a coincidence in reality.
• Evan is a former assassin who was just pulled back into the game (John Wick character secret)
• Is a Gunslinger Changeling with mainly a male form and a female form
• Is on this boat to visit The Azur to contact an old friend for help, has had a rough few nights and needs to safely get passage out of the city
• And last but not least James, who is an anthropolgist diviner wizard who has The Superior School of Magic character secret, and has been trained since birth to be ready for a duel with a sorcerer that his mentor has drilled him to be ready for
• Is traveling to The Azur to research some new divination ruins that have been uncovered
• Before setting out will have a meeting with his Mentor, Rython Shalestone, who reprimands him for not being farther along in his studies, and then orders him to travel to The Azur to meet some fellow scholars and improve himself.
• Each PC apart from James will have a reason to think the church is on the boat looking for them
• They will take an interest in the characters, but initially will not be too overt or suspicious. They will have no reason to suspect their
• A monster or a crisis occurs on the ship one night, crippling it and killing many members of the crew.
• We will do a High Level CR monster that attacks the ship

Ship Manifest and Journey details: The Gilded Sparrow

• The 3 PCs
• Church gnome priestess Tyla (level 5 Clockwork Soul Sorc) and her two guards (Female Orc named Shorga and Male human Mark)
• Priestess has twinned spell and extended spell, HP 32, AC 16, and has haste and dispel magic as her once per day strong spells. Uses extended spell aid to buff her guards if needed
• Milo Minderbinder and many many crates of vegetables to bring to the Azur
• Milo secretly has brought on board a relic that aggravates the sea, but will be unable to have any blame put on him as he did not know what the relic did and just wanted to make money off it. Use this story beat if needed.
• Milo is basically a bard, but doesn't seem to use magic. Treat all strength and dex rolls as having a +1. Instead he has +10 to all persuasion checks, and is never really lying, he has nothing to hide but his business deals just seem very confusing. A DC 20 check of any kind against him reveals he might be a bit smarter than he lets on and he is actually somehow turning a profit. Trying to understand his business ramblings requires a PC to make a DC12 Int save to determine if he is losing money or they take 1d8 psychic damage on the day of making the check from trying to comprehend his business deals.
• 2 Newlyweds from New Mystra going to The Azur on a honeymoon Mr. and Mrs. Maza, they will not be able to contribute much but can instead act as NPCs to raise concerns or guide the story as a DM. They are devout members of the church.
• 20 Crew Members, two most important are the grizzled old human Captain Raymond and a nervous young water genasi Niagara who forecasts the weather, they are the last two crew members to die
• Cargo to bring to The Azur
• Food and supplies for the two week journey to refill at a tropical island halfway along the journey

• Will take about two weeks to reach their destination, but will encounter some difficulty along the way

Fateful Events

The journey will take 15 days, and each card represents an event that happens over the course of 3 days (can be adjusted to fit the plot).
Using the tarot deck, will make a pile of 9 cards the players can pick. Players can choose who they want to draw for fun, corresponding to a different event. These will be unfortunate events that can hamper the crew and cripple the ship. Fate seems to not be on the side of this Caravel for some reason...
For the purposes of checks, it is assumed the crew is doing their best and all sailors as part of the 20 crew members are passing checks to the best of their ability and the ship starts with 100 hit points. To assist the crew, Milo, the Priestess, and the 3 PCs are considered a group of 5 who can do their best to assist. If the ship is reduced to less than 0 hitpoints, it does not sink but instead is crippled. The ship cannot move and is adrift in the open ocean.

1. The Barbarian: Drawing this card will cause the ship to encounter a monstrous storm. All PCs must make an athletics or acrobatics check, a dexterity saving throw, and a constitution saving throw. All DC 15. Failing athletics check results in the ship taking 1d10 damage, failing the dex save gives a long term injury or lose 1d4 crew, and failing the con save gives levels of exhaustion equal to the amount failed by divided by 2 (if this would kill the PC find a way to raise the stakes but keep them alive) The crew makes a DC 20 check to safely navigate the storm (adv. if the players are creative, +5 overall). If this fails, the crew loses a d4 worth of crew members and the ship takes a d10 of damage for the amount the check failed by. The PCs can take a long term injury to take one die away. This card is then shuffled back into the pile
2. The Monstrosity: A Kraken attacks the ship during the middle of the day. The 5 main passengers must make a strength saving throw, one round of attack rolls using their main modifier (AC 13), and the Kraken makes a tentacle attack against each PC (will be +8 to hit but with dis. since it's attack from below and cannot see the PCs). Failing the strength save will cause the PCs to be throw overboard and risk drowning, they can chose to be flung overboard or have a crew member die trying to save them. Landing an attack can either reduce the damage to the ship or reduce the amount of crew members lost. The ship will take 10d10 damage and can be reduced by 1d10 for each hit or just the damage they've done to the Kraken with their abilities/distractions. Getting hit by the Kraken will cause a PC to choose between losing 1d4 crew members, 1d8 damage to the ship, or take a long term injury. This card is then shuffled back into the pile
3. II of Monstrosities: The ship is attacked by Merrow (corrupted Merfolk), the 5 main passengers must make a group DC15 dex save, a survival check, and a DC 15 medicine check. Failing the group strength save causes 1d8 crew members to be lost, failing the group survival check will cause the ship to take 1d20 damage. And failing the medicine check will cause 3d6 crew memebers to become bedridden from poisoned weapons. PCs can opt to take the festering wound injury instead and fall ill to reduce this amount by 1d6. This card is then shuffled back into the pile
4. The Celestial: The Priestess realizes something is off with either Evan or Gill's character, and begins investigating. Both Evan and Gill must make a deception or persuasion check (DC 15), if either fail, the priestess goes from friendly to indifferent or indifferent to hostile depending on interactions so far. If the priestess has any of her two guards remaining, she will attempt to make an intimidation check contested by a Wis save of whoever failed the deception check. If she has no guards remaining, she will attempt to convince remaining crew members to be suspicious of these PCs (roll a contested persuasion vs insight, crew members have a +2, priestess has a +6). If this sequence goes very poorly for the PCs or is at the end of the one shot, this event can create the emotional climax and lead to a standoff.
5. The Rogue: Milo will make some excellent headway convincing PCs to join his enterprising opportunities. Milo will convince half the remaining crew to join his "syndicate" with promises of profit when they all reach the halfway point. Each PC must make a DC14 wis saving throw. If they fail the wis they become friendly to Milo (this is not the charmed condition, just becoming friendly to him). If this goes very poorly, Milo jumps up to being a commanding officer of the ship
6. The Fighter: Evan will discover a 1 blackpowder keg in the cargo hold being shipped to Azur for research for purying it into a more potent form of gunpowder. This can refill his gun with ammo, and provides a creative solution to deal with any of the other problems on the ship. However if detonated on the ship, will cause 50 damage to the ship. Further, he must make a DC 13 stealth check to keep this info secret. Evan must also make a DC 10 history or insight check. If he succeeds he will know that the captain of the ship knows who he used to be many years ago. Can make this negative if the story needs pushing along
7. The Wild oracle: James will receive the ability to see the next event coming. The next tarot card drawn will give him a vision of it when he is practicing a divination rune. Can also receive a sending spell from his mentor if things are dire, reprimanding him and giving him an inspiration die.
8. The III of Contructs: Gill will receive a sending spell that indicates to her to be wary of the church member on the ship at all costs and to not let her know what is in the compartment. If the ship is crippled, her construct like nature will allow her to repair anything she needs to.
9. III of Adversaries: A conflict arises amongst the remaining NPCs and PCs. This will require some improve depending on the story. If drawn however, the result of this will result in the death of a PC, NPC, or any number of crew members, turn the story towards a mutiny, revelation, or attack on one of the PCs based off how the story has developed so far. If there are very few crew members remaining, the captain will be very desperate and prone to violence. Milo can also be leading remaining crew members if his card has been drawn. Make Evan's gun the focal point of tense negotiations. This is then shuffled into the deck again

While there is no need for a mafia style game and none of these 9 cards give the option for a shapeshifter style plot. Evan is playing a changeling and could cause this plot to advance naturally.
Lets see how this goes.

The Journey to The Azur

A collection of colorful and varied humanoids all boarded The Gilded Sparrow on a sunny afternoon in the Merchant Docks. A young and very exhausted Firbolg anthropologist researcher looking for a moments reprieve from his constant traveling. A black and golden Mannikin acting as some sort of courier. An eager young  human merchant looking to use this trip to grow his enterprising dreams. A newlywed couple. A church priestess and her two guards. And finally, a last second arrival of a rushed male human individual who got the last available space. Pleasantries exchanged, the journey set off. Fate was not on the side of this ship though, and a storm of disastrous proportions hit within 3 days of the journey.
"Where does the love of god go when the waves turn the minutes to hours" -Gordon Lightfoot
Despite being tied down to the deck, some of the 20 crew members were unable to hold their footing. And some climbing on the rigging found themselves flung off into the churning waves that kill in minutes of panic and terror. One of them, a young half orc named Cynthia, was flung off and whipped into the wooden hull of the ship, still hanging on her rope. The young man who purchased a last second ticket "Peacemaker", swiftly in the chaos of the storm, severed her lifeline. She was already dead, and no one will miss the dead last second passenger. The face of the young man morphed through the stinging rain and howling winds, before the visage of Cynthia stood in his place.
The young Firbolg researcher was flung off as well, but instead of being smashed into the wood, found himself being dragged along in the frothing mess, the ship going up waves taller than hills, and into deeper valleys of green walls of water. He came to on the deck, barely alive and the worst of the storm passing. He had drowned, but just barely revived. He spent the next few days in his bed recovering both his mind and body from such brush with death.