Lost 2 / Campaign Diary: Archipelago Adventures - Pt. 16

Last week we failed our Navigation roll, this week let’s figure out how our new Lost rules are going to work!

Day 3

Weather: Favorable Winds (10th of the Month)
# of Encounters: 7, 5, 18
(18) Encounter Time: (3) / 9am - 12pm / Late Morning, sun is fully up, Bright Light
Encounter: 42 on the Encounter Chart (TBD)
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 6, total 11]

We have our first failed roll going from Munta to a second undiscovered island and its an appropriate number that we can talk about for our new Lost rules. See, I wasn’t happy with how on a failed roll you could completely turn around and have yourself sailing back to where you came from as it just didn’t feel right. Navigating a ship is done by looking at the sun’s position and star placement, and going completely the wrong way just felt weird to me… especially if you fail by only 1.

This means, I am going to have two brackets when it comes to navigating and you get lost. If you fail the roll by 6 or more, we will use our normal method of getting lost where you roll a d6 to determine your position and we’ll call that Very Lost. If you fail the roll by 5 or less, you roll a d3 that corresponds to the 3 hexes going in the same general direction as you and we’ll call that Lost. Those names are subject to change.

So, we know we are just Lost (not Very Lost) which means we are going to roll a d3 from where we were on Day 2, which is Hex 2 (we were wanting to navigate to Hex 3 on Day 3).

The black numbers are the Hex number(we want to travel on to Hex 3 from Hex 2) and the red numbers represent where we will travel to on our Lost d3. Because we were traveling South, the three hexes that are South(ish) from us are the only options that we could get lost on because we only failed the check by 5 or less. Had we failed the check by 6 or more, then there would have been a chance for us to travel to all six adjacent hexes, which would include the North(ish) hexes.

So on Day 3 we are Lost and the DM rolls a d3 to determine which hex we get to. And I got a 2! So we journey onto Hex 3, though our players are still lost because they haven’t made a successful Navigate check. So let’s go ahead and go on to Day 4. If we succeed on the check, the players know they are on Hex 3 and will proceed to Hex 4.

Day 4

Weather: Favorable Winds (11th of the Month)
# of Encounters: 18, 11, 10
(18) Encounter Time: (1) / 1am - 4am / Night, Moon is out, Darkness
Encounter: 75 on the Encounter Chart (TBD)
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 19, total 24]

By succeeding on our Navigation Check, the players have moved forward on to Hex 4 as they successfully ‘discovered’ where they were on the map and was able to course correct their ship. Not too shabby! Let’s go on to Day 5.

Day 5

Weather: Favorable Winds (12th of the Month)
# of Encounters: 8, 9, 3
Encounter: None
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 7, total 12]

And we are lost again! Not a problem, let’s go ahead and roll our d3! And I got a 1, so we sail off to to the left (Hex marked 1) and our adventurers are lost! On Day 6, they’ll make their next check to (hopefully) right themselves.

Day 6

Weather: Favorable Winds (13th of the Month)
# of Encounters: 6, 4, 13
Encounter: None
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 12, total 17]

We figured out where we were, just a Hex off which puts us a day behind schedule. But that’s fine, we will guide our ship on to Hex 5 and on Day 7 we will navigate over to Hex 6!

Day 7

Weather: Favorable Winds (14th of the Month)
# of Encounters: 3, 5, 10
Encounter: None
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 14, total 19]

Not a bad day at sea, no encounters and made our check!

Day 8

Weather: Calm Winds (15th of the Month) [Get to mechanics later]
# of Encounters: 14, 8, 16
(16) Encounter Time: (3) / 9am - 12pm / Late Morning, sun is fully up, Bright Light
Encounter: 59 on the Encounter Chart (TBD)
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 7, total 12]

And we are back at being lost, I can’t wait until our Navigator is higher level! Because we want to go SouthEast, our 3 hexes won’t be the 3 hexes going South(ish), it’ll be the Eastern Hex, SouthEastern Hex and Southern Hex. And I got a 1, which means we head South. Not too bad all things considered, still on track and we’ve only lost a day so far.

Day 9

Weather: Calm Winds (16th of the Month) [Get to mechanics later]
# of Encounters: 8, 10, 17
(17) Encounter Time: (4) / 1pm - 4pm / Afternoon, sun is fully up, Bright Light
Encounter: 95 on the Encounter Chart (TBD)
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 15, total 20]

And we figured out where we are and we move on to Hex 8! Sweet! Just got one more check to make and we are at our new island!

Day 10

Weather: Calm Winds (17th of the Month) [Get to mechanics later]
# of Encounters: 20, 5, 14
(20) Encounter Time: (2) / 5am - 8am / Early Morning, sun begins to rise, Dim Light
Encounter: 43 on the Encounter Chart (TBD)
Navigation DC: 15 (Undiscovered Hex) [Rolled a 5, total 10]

Welp. LOL. We get lost on our last day, and we are heading SouthEast. Luckily, I only failed the check by 5 so we are only Lost, not Very Lost and maybe we can get lucky enough on our check to head in the right direction! Rolling our d3 I get: 2… Awesome!

But what does this mean? We obviously went onto the right hex… but we are a bit lost. Personally, I feel like that is good enough for me and they can find the island. But for your own table, you could have them just be lost that day and on the next day they can make a Navigation check (DC 15) to figure out where the island is, which is more than fair. Islands are small and the ocean is a big place [Citation Needed]. But let’s go ahead and assume they find the island that day, but what time? Well, we already have an encounter scheduled for the Early Morning, so we pry can’t use that time… unless you are one of those DMs that preplans and prerolled what time the party would arrive at the island, in which case you could have the random encounter be finding the island. But let’s go ahead and roll and ignore any result of 1 or 2:

… Rolled a 2 again, let’s try again.

Got a:
6 / 9pm - 12am / Late Evening, Moon is out, Darkness

Well, seems about right. They finally find the island in the pitch blackness and they can start getting prepped to discover the island in the morning! Man, what a sight that would be to have the first views of a new island be as the sun comes up behind it.

And on that poignant note, we are going to take a few weeks off from the Island Discovery business and jump right into our story arcs! Next week, we are going to run back to our first island and figure out more of the story and how to tie all these elements into something that is more than just a big hex crawl for the players. Until then, let’s do our next encounter!

Kuo-Toa

Looking overboard, you can see a mass of bubbling water, and then a column of water explodes up, tossing water all over the ship. Below in the water is a group of Kuo-Toa and they seem to be yelling something at you.

1 - This is a small Kuo-Toa party and they are hunting for any Drow or Mindflayers. If there are none in your party matching that description, they may swim away or offer to trade, if the characters give them money than they will return in 1d4 days with supplies, see Player’s Handbook for equipment information. If the characters lie about Drow or Mindflayers on board, they must succeed on a Deception (Charisma) check contested by the Kuo-Toa’s Insight (Wisdom) check. If the Kuo-Toa aren’t deceived, they will send 2d4 Kuo-Toa & 1 Kuo-Toa Whip to kill the Drow or Mindflayer, if the Whip is killed the rest of the Kuo-Toa run away.
2 - A warband of Kuo-Toa are demanding the surrender of the ship. They will board and attempt to put everyone into chains and sell off the crew and party as slaves. There are 3d4 Kuo-Toa, 1d4 Kuo-Toa Whips and 1 Kuo-Toa Monitor. If half of them are killed, they will run away.
3 - A small party of Kuo-Toa is wanting to trade for the Figurehead on the ship as they recognize it as their god. They are willing to bring up their treasure in exchange for the figurehead, roll on the Treasure Hoard: Challenge 0-4 [pg. 137, DMG]. If the characters refuse the trade or our derisive to them or their new god, the Kuo-Toa will launch them selves at the crew and party in a fanatical zeal. There are 2d4 Kuo-Toa, 2 Kuo-Toa Whips and a Kuo-Toa Archpriest, if the Whips and Archpriest die the remaining Kuo-Toa will run away.
4 - Kuo-Toa under the service of an aboleth, Shibboth. They have been ordered to pass out religious iconography of Shibboth and to order all to begin worship of Shibboth. If they are allowed on board, they will set up a small shrine to Shibboth, whose symbol is that of three eyes interconnected with teeth radiating out around them. If a character takes up the worship of Shibboth, consider giving them a small blessing like those found under the Blessing section of the DMG on page 227. The Kuo-Toa will also inform the party where another island is, roll on the Island Coordinate Charts and assume a check of 19+. On this island is the lair of Shibboth where they may go to fully worship and give thanks to Shibboth. If the party refuses any of the Kuo-Toa or their shrine, the Kuo-Toa will leave in peace but will mark the bottom of the ship with the symbol of Shibboth, a message to all followers of Shibboth to kill the unbelievers, or they may come back in a few days with a Kuo-Toa warparty to bring these slaves to Shibboth!