Ship of Horror

[Isolde]

A 1991 adventure for 8th-10th level characters. This adventure has many problems, but a great cover art with a creature not included in the adventure. Interior art is great as well. A new story can be made with the cover and interior art as its foundation and inspiration.

This adventure has many problems and is very bad.
1. The final fight is against a 20th level necromancer that can kill the party easily (can cast 3 9th level spells) and even a 12th level necromancer can kill the party or most of it with proper spells like death spell. Also has a ring of shooting stars (and other items) and 50 hp which is plenty for a mage.
2. The title itself is misleading, its not a Ship of Horror its a ship journey with some encounters that takes you to an island where the bad adventure continues.
3. There is no atmospheric and aesthetic cohesion in the adventure.

4-? i will let you point out the rest if you are inclined to do so.

How did you improve on this adventure and make it playable?
Did you play it as it was? Did you die? Discuss the good and bad things about it.

Has some cool monsters, and a monster that is a lesser version (though not titled properly), of a snow golem. Which seem to be the prototypes.
https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/rv/9321/
Snow Golem, Lesser

https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/golevsnl/
Snow Golem, Greater (not in the adventure but is the improved version of the above, dangerous and deadly)
https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/golevsng/
also Lebendtod
https://www.completecompendium.com/cata ... /lebendto/
and giant starfish

https://www.completecompendium.com/cata ... /stafisgi/

[IanFordam]

I never thought Ship of Horror was as bad as, say, Thoughts of Darkness or "Death's Cold Laughter". Then again, I would never deny that it's a module in significant need of attention.

For me, that rework would start by recentering the adventure around the Graben family. I don't think I would carry events all the way to fighting Meredoth on Todstein. After all, I'm a firm believer that confronting a darklord in their center of power is a great way to lose a fight--badly. (Victor Hazan of the Fraternity might concur.) Instead I would reframe the adventure so that disrupting the corpse trade and reburying the bodies of the three ghosts resolves the storyline.

To recenter upon the Grabens, I would start with the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, for inspiration if nothing else. (In my opinion, the gazetteer did a much better job of giving creepy personality to the Graben family than Ship of Horror did.) I would sketch out and fill in the family tree, paying attention to opportunities to develop interesting new NPCs. (The idea here is to create cool but expendable henchvillains to throw at the party so that I can more plausibly allow Colin, Blaine, and Lucretia to survive to the modern day without denying my players a satisfying adventure.) Oh, and I would actually draw up the Graben estate, knowing that my players get bored after exploring five rooms of a dungeon but will happily spend a session and a half planning a siege.

Having planned out the likely resolution, I would then tackle reworking the events aboard the Endurance. Tighten up the backstory. (The creation of a timeline would probably be involved.) Better define the mechanics of the curse on Captain Garvyn and his crew. Introduce spookiness earlier. Determine what the ghosts know and what they don't know. Plant more clues, including red herrings that don't steer the party directly toward the Graben family.

That's what I'd do. Basically, the seeds of a good adventure are there, but they need to be replanted in more fertile soil.

[Isolde]

I really think the artwork, inside and out, and the title itself should play a framework and foundation path into remaking It these old adventures. It says, Ship of Horror, so it should be one.

[Isolde]

The necromancer himself i would change into some sort of frost mage, as we already have a grand host of necromancers in the domain and the man did create a snow golem. The theme in the island would be of frost and snow and not undead, not the classical type at least, and the ship would be carrying victims for his experiments.
The horror would take part in the ship, so elongating and deepening the events taking place there, and it would all culminate in the island.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Snow Golem, Lesser

For anyone interested I have printed these with a 3D printer. I resized them and they are the closest miniatures I have found for a snow golem (they need some material adding on the hands though). The file is free.
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/ru ... -of-armour

[Isolde]

that looks awesome

[IanFordam]

The necromancer himself i would change into some sort of frost mage, as we already have a grand host of necromancers in the domain and the man did create a snow golem. The theme in the island would be of frost and snow and not undead, not the classical type at least, and the ship would be carrying victims for his experiments.
The horror would take part in the ship, so elongating and deepening the events taking place there, and it would all culminate in the island.

Out of curiosity, if you were to create a frost mage to replace Meredoth, what would you do with the Graben Island section and all of the lebendtod? Or would you do away with that section altogether?

[alhoon]

"A 1991 adventure for 8th-10th level characters. This adventure has many problems, but a great cover art with a creature not included in the adventure"
OMG, yes. I have never thought such an accurate portrayal of this adventure.

[Isolde]

1. Frost mage, Meredoth
2. Graben Island, changed as briefly written below
3. Lebendtod, they are out and are replaced by the creatures below

Meredoth is an insane frost mage. The society in the island is made up of frozen humans (some frost, corporeal, undead and frost construct/golems). The whole place is haunted by the spirits of those he killed and they seek revenge, at the same time they are trapped in their anguish, pain and confusion.
Only 28 humans are alive and in hiding. All the rest, once 2800 (just a framing device of monsters, a horizon of them, and nobody is expected to fight them of course) people, are either dead (from his moronic weather control experiments) or made into undead or constructs. Many continue their lives mechanically, repeating their daily routines and then collapsing into despair and pain.
Meredoth desired immortality, true as he saw it, not as undead or some other monster but as a human that is maintained by altering his [enter pseudo-arcane pseudo-scientific theory that is bonkers]. Obsessed and ruthless he eventually lost his mind and whatever tiny particle of a heart he had and decided to do anything to attain his goal.
He needs, in his madness, new bodies to experiment with and imports them via ship.
The Graben Family will be prominent evil npc/monsters with a 1 or 2 being good and helpful as spirits.

Something like this

[Isolde]

Also the guy on the cover is Meredoth and that green creature either his familiar (its not a frost-themed one so this a no go) or even more likely the fiend (unique, not powerful but good at deceptive corruption etc) that corrupted him.
It can be from some pre-cataclysmic atlantis-like ruins beneath the sea.

He will not be 20th level, and not a necromancer of course, unless the adventure is modified into a 16th and over level adventure.

He can be a 10th to 12th level frost mage vs an party of 8th to 10th level. With or without minions.

[Isolde]

The ship would be carrying victims for his experiments, and has been for some time now, and this has created haunts in it and many other problems such as curses on the sailors, the captain and the rig itself...

[Isolde]

There was this 1993 anthology film called Necronomicon ( H. P. Lovecraft's). The third story is made from "cool air" with David Warner as Dr. Madden. He needs cold and fresh injections of pure spinal fluid in order to live and extend his life.

So this would be somehow in the adventure. Maybe not Meredoth, but an apprentice of his that is a failed experiment and he ends up betraying some secret of his mentor to the heroes.

[Isolde]

The island would be athas in reverse. Frozen to death.

[IanFordam]

Thanks for indulging my curiosity!

[Isolde]

It would give it an aesthetic, thematic and atmospheric cohesion and flow (when finished). Now its some ultra-necromancer with a snow golem fetish and some mix-grill stuff here and there. Its just like a bad film.