Crew of the Giger

[Chaotic Blues]

Hello,

I'm running a Halloween one shot this year, and I've decided the theme will be Aliens, Pathfinder edition.

The crew of the Giger, a 90' clipper ship, has had the bad luck to find their next port of call devastated by a recent hurricane. The spices they intended on picking up are ruined, and island inhabitants are missing or dead. Only the temple, and strange stone structure on top of a hill survived intact.

By the time the players arrived, some of the crew has already killed off the temple guards. They then hid the bodies nearby. They heard there are four large gems (large egg shaped gems, strangely enough) just sitting out.

The captain calls the crew to decide on either certain loss of the ship, and no pay or taking the gems from the 'abandoned' temple. I'll let the players decide, but even if they decide against the idea, I'll have a disgruntled crew person take the eggs just before they ship out. If that happens they will hide the Hive eggs on the ship.

So before the party starts I need a crew. I've already decided that one of the players will be the ships cook. Now I just need some ideas for the rest of the crew. Ideas would be welcome.

Captain Scott. A fair minded man, who if facing near certain loss of his ship and freedom should they return without a profit. He is in heavy debt, and his creditors are not an understanding bunch.

Thanks

[Chaotic Blues]

Ship's Carpenter
Lillian Crownoak - An angry Elven woman. In her mid second century. She only seems happy when she's at work.

Ship's Priest
Only answers to the name Grog. A bit of a Drunkard most of the time, relying on his own private stash of booze. Priest of Neptune. He constantly talks about how he's 'seen things', but never actually says what he's seen.

[SkiBird]

One of the themes that the Alien franchise carries as a throughline is corporate greed. Betrayal by those above who do not value human life.

An analog of the unscrupulous megacorporation, Weyland-Yutani, could be replaced by a mysterious shipping magnate behind the Nostromo ... I mean ... Giger.

And then of course, there are the representatives of the corporation ... the androids. Ash, Bishop, David, etc. Seemingly part of the crew ... right up until they aren't. Could be some sort of non-human crewmate (looked alive, but revealed to be a white-blooded construct or something).

Another cool nod to the tale would be to have limited communication with the overseer organization. Like when the crew sits at the Mother terminal and exchange brief, telegram-like messages: PROTECT SPECIMEN, ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY.

Above all though ... however this monster gets statted out ... it really should not be something that folks can expect to go toe-to-toe with and hit until it dies. It should be terrifyingly good at killing PCs, and any folks choosing to stand and fight should find out real quick that doing so is not a wise option.

And then you know ... the ship could have a self-destruct sequence.

[Joël of the FoS]

And Jonesy, of course.

[Chaotic Blues]

Alrighty.

The ship's owner is a powerful noble, who sent along a number of sealed envelops with instructions. They want the gems, as they learned they are very large. They sent instructions to kill the temple guards and retrieve the gems.

The Bosun, Nox, is an Andriod, who's only loyalty is to the Nobel in question. It has missives directing it to seize the gems, using whatever means necessary.

I think it's more interesting that no one knows the gems are actually eggs until it's too late. Once they do hatch Nox receives new orders, directing it to find a way to secure the Hive.

As for the Creature, I'm thinking of using the Hive. Like the Xenomorphs, Hive creatures have acid blood. Killing one on a wooden ship, presents the very real possibility of the ship sinking.
The four of them will work together to hunt to crew of the ship (and the PCs), none of them will be encountered alone.

As and added complication, the party starts disarmed. The captain is firmly against fighting on his ship, and so had the PC's weapons secured in the ship's weapon locker. After all they should see trouble from miles away.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Sails or engines?
Like, what is the ship powered by? Cause if it's a sailing ship, it means it relies on the wind, meaning they'd want...
The Ship's Weatherworker!
It's a concept I'd seen in Le Guin's Earthsea books. A magic user expert in manipulating the wind and water, hired by shipowners to ensure fast travel and protection from storms.

[Chaotic Blues]

This is a sailing ship. The Giger is a fully rigged three master.

Hmm, As I'm running a PF1 game A Air Kinetisist might work. Or a wizard of the Air Elemental School. I could also give the wizard a ginger cat familiar.

That fills a role, and gives me an excuse to have a cat named Jones.

Cool ideas thank you.

[Joël of the FoS]

You could also have normal passengers, that the players will interact with and learn to like. A caring grand mother, a familly with bright kids, a well knowed artist, ...

Then, they die. The players will hate the monsters more for that. Or will try hard to protect those remaining

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

This is a sailing ship. The Giger is a fully rigged three master.

Hmm, As I'm running a PF1 game A Air Kinetisist might work. Or a wizard of the Air Elemental School. I could also give the wizard a ginger cat familiar.

That fills a role, and gives me an excuse to have a cat named Jones.

Cool ideas thank you.

It's always a good idea to have a cat on board, to get rid of rats.

[Chaotic Blues]

It's always a good idea to have a cat on board, to get rid of rats.

Too True.

The Ship's map is complete, as is the Temple's. Now to put the adventure together.