• Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Topic: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

(An adventure I've been unable to finish writing due to other commitments. May be of use to others here)

England, 1613

The PCs are contacted by a lawyer representing “men of prominence and discretion”. Recently one of their chief agents, the smuggler William Vogel, fell into disfavour. Always a strange man, Vogel had lately been possessed of a mania borne of desperation. More worryingly, his last delivery contained items other than arranged, from fraudulent to outright baffling. Pepper instead of gun powder. Ostrich eggs instead of rosaries. An unsolvable oriental puzzle box where nothing was asked.

Following the delivery Vogel disappeared for precisely one lunar month. Now his ship, the Plutonian, has been spotted off shore at Yarmouth, adrift. The lawyer’s masters have managed to delay an expedition of excise men for now; there will be consequences for them should certain discoveries be made. What they urgently need are agents without connection, rootless and deniable, to ransack the ship, destroying all papers and items of religious value.


The Plutonian is a ship of infinite shores. Across the spheres versions of itself slowly come into being, meld with each other and are destroyed. In dreams shipwrights and captains conceive her. Over decades all ships that bear the name slowly connect to the ur-vessel.

The Plutonian is bigger on the inside. Below decks is a labyrinth of cabins, corridors and galleys. Some areas are waterlogged, others rotten. Some rooms are pristine, evidence of inhabitants taking their absence only moments before.

The Plutonian has many exits, passageways and stairs leading above to other versions of itself, desolate ships under strange stars skirting unknown shores. 

The Plutonian abhors sapient replication. It is the nature of the refelected spheres that events transpire in a similar fashion. Thus multiple versions of thinking creatures find their way below decks simultaneously. The ship imprisons them within its twisting wooden bowels until but one worldly representative (or group of representatives) remains.


(The rest is up to you)

  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Mapping the Plutonian

Grab deck plans of a ship. This can be small or large, depending on taste For my own version I used this one:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/25834/0on … -Ship?it=1


Grab your favourite unused dungeon map. Again, small or large. I originally envisioned the adventure as my nod to the megadungeon so went for huge.

Connect the two. Above deck, or anywhere exposed to the sky, the ship's plans work just as intended. Below decks, pick a number of doors; at least two, but enough so the PCs have a high chance of encountering them. Once these doors open in a certain direction they lead to corridors and rooms on your dungeon map. Pay no attention to spatial relationships between the two maps, the Plutonian defies them.

Shipify Your Dungeon! Dress every corridor and room on the dungeon map as the interior of a ship. Decide the areas that are pristine, rotten or flooded.

Last edited by Andrew S (2012-11-25 17:00:33)

  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Populating the Ship

The Plutonian is a gateway to other versions of itself. As such there will be alternates of the PCs wandering around. If you use house rules include one version of the party that’s by the book LotFP. Mine the threads here for kinky rules that reflect these strangers from other spheres. Think of all those campaign worlds you’ve never followed through on and have alternates originate from them. Stat these NPCs as they would appear under LotFP. Some of them are not yet aware of what they need to do to escape and may be amenable to alliances, at least for now.

The Plutonian has visited a thousand shores, so go nuts with monster types. Remember that there will typically be only one version (individual or group), unless they are recent arrivals who are hunting each other. Include evidence of such hunts, let the PCs join the dots till they realise what needs to be done or are ambushed by themselves. Be sure to describe each monster as it is, a unique and terrible thing from another world. If your setting is 17th century Europe and you decide to include, say, orcs, think about how a 6’, green, pig-headed murderer might actually appear if it walked through your front door. Make it as real as life and the horror will follow.

  • From: Brighton, UK
  • Registered: 2010-08-22
  • Posts: 21

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

I think this is a great idea for an adventure, so if anyone runs it, let us know! I may give it a go myself, assuming I ever have any spare time ever again!

kelvingreen's Website

  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Thanks, mate.

I also envisage possibilities as a collaborative megadungeon, with people connecting their versions of the Plutonian together. Instant expansion and alternate world generation!

  • Registered: 2012-11-12
  • Posts: 75

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

This could get out of hand! It makes me want to dump a large tray of silverware on the table when the party finds the officers mess, or maybe just throw it at the players. I don't know why.

  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Well it's compulsory for referees running this to wear a bicorne.

Last edited by Andrew S (2012-11-26 09:17:15)

  • Registered: 2012-11-12
  • Posts: 75

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

I'm ashamed to say that IU had to Google "bicorne". TY for the new word, and my next ebay action item!

  • From: Finland
  • Registered: 2012-02-28
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Hey! I like this idea a lot. Plutonian also might connect the seas to the Isle of the Unknown!

"Man has come to dominate the planet thanks to two essential traits. One is intelligence. The other has been the absolute willingness to kill anyone and anything that gets in his way." (Stephen King)
My blog: cradleofrabies.blogspot.com

Thaumiel_Nerub's Website

  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Thaumiel_Nerub wrote:

Hey! I like this idea a lot. Plutonian also might connect the seas to the Isle of the Unknown!

Thanks; and yes, that's exactly the sort of crossover intended. I also envisaged one of the decks being of dull and corroded metal, it's port holes revealing alien vistas, squamous vermin skittering to a hunter's tattoo on Ulfire drums...

Last edited by Andrew S (2012-11-29 08:55:13)

  • Registered: 2012-08-01
  • Posts: 28

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

How did the vessel's master sail her effectively if her decks were so very confused?  The ship's strange condition can't have been that way for long...

A Few Options

The World Coins On a recent voyage, the Plutonian's crew ventured ashore on a desolate, uncharted island.  Golden discs lay strewn upon the isle's shores, strange treasure that the men spent hours to gather.  Wherever such coins are brought together, the walls between the worlds grow thin.  A few have already made their way into the city:  The winding alleys of London's crowded rookeries have already begun to contort and amaze, forging connections to other Londons...

Vogel's Fate Years ago, Captain Vogel discovered the Plutonian adrift at sea.  He found the vessel nearly empty, its lone living sailor an ancient, one-eyed slave who named himself "Cottle".  The elderly slave shared unsettling tales of his former shipmates' fates, but promised no ill would befall her captain as long as he remained aboard. 

Claiming the vessel as his own, Vogel hired a crew of smugglers and scaliwags to sail her.  Cottle became Vogel's manservant.  Crewmen who mistreated the eccentric servant suffered hideous accidents, so they soon learned to leave him be.

Last month, Cottle disappeared below decks.  Vogel searched for him, but soon found himself lost in a strangely changed vessel.  Even more unsettling was a bizarre accident that claimed one eye and withered Vogel's skin.  He began hearing Cottle's hoarse voice whispering in his head:  "When but one is left, you will be... me." 

Wind of 1000 Worlds On a recent voyage, the Plutonian was caught in a terrific storm.  Hellish blasts of lightning shattered her masts and spars.  Unseen debris stove holes in her sides.  Eerie lights drifted below decks, their touch blasting and withering any who dared touch them.  The crew labored furiously, pumping and patching holes in a desperate battle to keep her afloat. 

When the storm passed, the exhausted crew found their vessel drifting among the battered hulks of a dozen similar craft, surrounded by debris from scores of others, ships that had sunk in the storm.  Some of the ships proved to be abandoned, while the fearful crews of other vessels brandished pistols and shouted gibberish.  Vogel's crew quickly gathered what salvagable items they could from the drifting hulks, fishing up a new mainmast from a slowly-sinking hulk and repairing their vessel with parts taken from others. 

When the Plutonian set sail again, her hold was laden with strange goods from a score of unearthly ports, and she bore rigging from a dozen sunken wrecks.  Alien wood braced her bulkheads and patched storm-torn decks.  She hadn't sailed far before her crew reported seeing strange things belowdeck...

Last edited by Sir Wulf (2012-12-03 23:24:26)

  • Registered: 2011-07-25
  • Posts: 63

Re: Scenario Idea: 'Below Deck, Many Things'

Sir Wulf, that's amazing. Each idea is a worthy origin, indeed all of them can be used if one is exploiting the infinite shores idea. I particularly like the World of Coins, as a Londoner by birth and inclination the idea of the city bleeding into itself is something I can weirdly relate to. Cottle/Vogel is awesome, too. I'll have to use him if and when I run this myself. Fantastic stuff all round.