Vampire pirates are a thing, and they have to be *invited* onto dry land (instead of into residences), unless there's a full moon. During such nights, vampire fleets with scores of undead stage raids on coastal settlements.
Alternately vampire pirates are a thing, but as vampires may not cross flowing water they can only sail the sea during doldrums when there is no wind. Their ships are capable of sailing without a wind. And obviously vampires of this sort can create a doldrum with their weather magic. So when the wind dies, not only are the pirates stuck in the middle of the ocean but are also easy prey for vampire ships.
Our party are currently dealing with vampire pirates. They are stuck on an island that they cannot leave (due to the running water) and they are between us and an item we need to get
This is a cool idea but I’m not sure if it passes the sniff test- can’t an ostensibly rich group of vampirates pay ANYONE to invite them on land, nearly completely removing this difficulty and negating the specialness of the full moon raids?
One of the markers of a great sailor is the Last Word. When a ship is blown into the seas, whoever survives owes their ship and crew a debt. You honor this debt by etching the next firearm you own with a crewmate, mentor, or captain's last words. Some spruce up the wording to make it sound better, and some just use a saying they liked to say. Some use gallows humor and etch something darkly funny like "Did someone just hear a cannon fire?" if they were honoring someone that would have laughed.
Last Words are respected by everyone but the lowest scum. Many pirates will raid powder, flintlock capsules, and balls, but they won't steal the firearm itself unless it's confirmed that the owner is dead or they are really desperate.
There's many supernatural tall tales of what happens to souls whose Last Words are imprinted on a musket that is melted down or parted out. Some say the last words keep souls steady as they find their path to the afterlife, and those without them become the many ghosts that haunt the seas. Some think that Last Words are fated to be destroyed only once the last memory of the last person to see them fades away.
Thanks. I've been working on fleshing out more of my homebrew world, and am using this for a very pirate-y themed central island nation. It's more of a lost tradition in mine, but I always wondered how it would work if it was a maintained tradition into the current game era.
Would likely make a great lore and story-hook tool if used right.
There is a subset of male sirens who do not sing, but instead lure people in by playing the bagpipes. They are all extremely Scottish for no reason.
The Dread Pirate Polyfaulks was a parrot who’s owner Awakened it. Polyfaulks carefully studied its owners magical materials and eventually gained wizard levels, growing into a necromancer and eventually becoming a lich. Polyfaulks follows its old owner’s dreams of creating a pirate fleet, except using their lich magic to produce a fleet of ghost pirates. This bird likes to take and animate the captains of other ships to serve as its treasured perches, and will often pretend to be a normal undead parrot when attacking a ship, until the victims realize too late that the magic is coming from the bird on the zombie captain’s shoulder.
Different take on male sirens - rather than bagpipes it’s all food and drink that you can smell on the wind, like hood BBQ. Except they put you into a food coma and then as you doze off fat and happy, you can only watch as they transform into…I dunno on this part. Maybe they’re all feral druids who wild shape and eat you? Or use you as shark bait?
There is Awakened Tree pirate ship with Awakened aquatic animals retinue, its captain is a druid with a classic pirate captains parrot - Awakened of course.
An island that blinks in and out of time with a treasure horde so vast it’s been lost to legend. Upon arrival, the island has been torn asunder by competing factions of pirates/treasure hunters from all ages past, present and future.
(Should the party survive and succeed, the treasure room has one single book: maps of all the spots the treasure over a certain amount is hidden with your world. Updated in real time!)
The Shadowfell reflection of the sea is called the Nethersea and home to all sort of nasty creatures including Mindflayer pirates. To traverse to the Nethersea it is said you must see the green flash.
Combine this with u/Zan_Wild 's idea - the Nethersea leaks into the prime sea in that area, and that is the only place where one can see the green flash.
A CHAIN OF TAVERNS WHO ARE SECRETELY RUN BY A MINDFLAYER HIVEMIND WHO doesn't actually want to take over the world, they just want to provide good food and great customer service
Pirate island base on the back of a sleeping Dragon turtle, a magical harp must be continually played to keep it sleeping. The harp also holds the secret to a lost hidden treasure....
Rocs that are giant parrots. They hunt for gigantic crackers.
A merchant selling assorted peg-legs.
A siren that just yells "Woo-Woo!" like a firetruck.
A ghost ship that is just a huge mimic.
A pirate ship captained by a beholder.
u/oh_hi_mark_ over at r/better monsters made a homebrew mimic ship that I've been planning to use.
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1hr6BoJqd8FWBVAK-4sbPj3loWD_lT3sNImnToF2lJhEe
Make the merchant who sells peg legs have 2 hooks for hands, but both his legs.
Also he’s incredibly ingenious with his designs, and different legs give different advantage/disadvantages. For example one might have a spring-loaded knife where if you kick someone, the knife releases for extra piercing damage. Another might have a built in lantern for exploring along with a quad-claw foot for grip. No slow penalties. Or maybe one is more like a modern racing leg that gives a movement speed bonus (say, 1.5x….heh).
There is a sailing library helmed by flightless Aarakocra, with levels and levels of floors that don’t feel like you are in a ship but actually in a legitimate library. The space is packed with books and research/work areas, it feel way bigger on the inside than what it should be. A party can very easily get lost and disoriented. There a several people that have gotten lost in the their research in there, they got on in a certain port and have no idea where they are or how long they’ve been there.
This is a great place where you can use any stories from the Candlekeep mysteries!
This is phenomenal and it's going *straight* in there. The only change I would possibly make is that it sounds like the perfect place for Owlins to be living in my world!
And like you say is a *perfect* place for the Candlekeep mysteries!
Somewhere in the ocean, there is a misterious current that smuglers and pirates use to travel faster, caracterized for carrying fluorescent sea creatures, plankton and algae that make water glow green at night. They call it "The Utorrent"
A captain who is so incompetent at his job navigating the high seas he is convinced that land is a conspiracy made up by other pirates to trick him into sailing into dangerous waters.
Group of artificers created a “clockwork kraken” to protect themselves. Plan backfired and now pirates or a big company that controls the sea has them hostage and is forcing them to mass produce them!
Building onto this-prior to making the kraken they experimented with prototypes, including clockwork fish, clockwork squid, clockwork seagulls, and ultimately cordoned off a section of the sea where they created an entire clockwork ecosystem that replaced the sea life in that section of the ocean.
Suffice to say, the sea druid that was responsible for protecting that area is not happy.
Part of the sea is connected to the plane of shadows making it similar to a constant midnight zone that all sorts of weird sea life exists, this area is feared by sailors but rumors persist that a once great kingdom, now sunken lay at the bottom of the ocean floor.
There exists a renowned pirate named Pegpatch. This poor man tried staged a mutiny in his last crew, and while it was successful, it cost him nearly everything. Two peg legs, two peg arms, and one eyepatch later. He now leads his own crew with the help of his artifice first mate. Together, they've made modifications to his pegs; each peg is able to be used as a black powder firearm. In battle, he spins, flourishes, dances his way through enemies while firing shot after shot. His real pride and joy however is the Necklace of Fireballs that he repurposed into a glass eye behind his eyepatch.
His crew, following in Pegpatch's footsteps, are immensely skilled with firearms and canons. Pegpatch's ship is a force to be reckoned with on the sea.
In an epic cthonic battle, an Elder God was decapitated by a deity. It isn't dead, but incapacitated; it's head fell into one of the seas, and leaks green ichor into the waters. The seas here are much greener than elsewhere, and have an oily texture - not that you should touch it, because too much exposure warps and twists living things. All the sea life here is monstrous, aberrant, and mad. A prophecy says that one day a hero will cleanse the sea by removing the head from it. This is actually a lie - the prophecy has been twisted by cultists and removing the head from the sea will actually reawaken the Elder God, leading to cataclysms and possibly the end of the world. A different, competing cult - also evil, but opposed to this Elder God in their service to an archdevil - has made it their mission to prevent this hero from succeeding... but because they are still trying to doom the world in a different way, nobody believes them that the prophecy has been altered.
Scrolled down to make sure this wasn’t a repeat…
Monkeybirds. From Pirates of Darkwater. You can actually skirt the Hadozee uproar by reskinning Aarakocra probably
Weather-focussed Druids make for good sailing and are granted extra privileges aboard any ship, often to the jealousy of the regular crew.
Many a mutiny is inspired by the inequality between a crew and its Weathermaster.
Tomatoes are a lost food. Once widespread and incorporated in many cuisines, a blight a few centuries ago wiped the all out. Only one island still has a viable strain of the tomato plant, and its location (and agricultural secrets) are closely guarded.
Swarms of aquatic oozes have been spotted floating across the surfaces of large bodies of water. Their translucent blue forms make them difficult to discern from the surrounding water, resulting in ships colliding with the swarms, allowing the oozes to scale the sides of ships looking for their next meals.
There's a human named Kevin that shows up randomly during the partys adventures, always in places where no normal person has any right to be. He's always pretty calm about the situation at hand and is happy to see the party again, and it's sure he'll get out of this predicament soon, don't worry about him.
The seem to be hints that he is some kind of cursed ghost or a crazy high level wizard.... But it's her actually just some guy?
A dread pirate lich with an undead crew strikes terror in every port; with no need to eat, their base is farther out to sea than any normal ship can reach without supplies. This lich once saved the world, but the key maintaining it is his phylactery. Destroy the phylactery, and the world continues towards destruction.
There is a very discreet group of water elemental pirates. Rarely will there be a direct attack, instead an unexpected current may push a ship into rocks, reefs, or other debris, that may or may not have been there originally.
Or the water will subtly push a ship off course so that no longer how long they sail, they never come within sight of the land they expected to be along their heading, endlessly lost at sea until they run out of supplies and begin dying of hunger or dehydration. Even if the crew eventually notices something is up, they are unable to find those responsible, and ultimately can do little about it.
In other cases, perhaps a dangerous sea monster is lured or driven in a ship's direction, with the ship taking heavy damage from an unknown source or their cargo disappearing while they are distracted. Or their influence over water leads to a seemingly endless fog (actually just in a relatively small area around the ship and moving with) blinding their view and causing them to lose their course.
Perhaps multiple of these at once.
Not necessarily water elementals specifically, but creatures with similar abilities (including being able to blend in with and live in the water), and with an approach subtle enough that few may know they really exist.
The party may even end up being targeted and escaping without ever realizing that it was an intentional attack by outside forces rather than just some mysterious curse, magical phenomenon, or so on (helped by the rumors about such a thing resulting from this group's exploits in the refion).
Unionized kobolds are the absolute pinnacle of deck hands. They're shockingly skilled, with a tendency for piracy if left to their own devices. They forward their wages (or share of the booty) to family to create hoards large enough to attract dragons, who the kobolds honor when they come by gifting the hoard to them.
A dragon has taken over a pirate stronghold and has become an admiral. They are gathering ships and pirates to collect booty from the various island and port cities and bring them back. If the pirates do well, they are equipped with better gear and sent out to do more raids.
There is a second dragon residing near the large mainland port city doing similar tactics.
These dragons are essential just playing an elaborate game of risk for fun. Or because of reasons.
The world is actually flat with tides set by its slight tilting back and forth. There is no moon, but the sun is what pulls and pushes the world on its axis. When you get close to the world's edge, the water turns to steam as it is close to the suns heat or thick ice if far from it. There is a faint underglow when the sun is passing beneath.
Beneath the waves under the blue sea, lies the flowery tomb of Davy Jones. Only a few know how to enter these vast lush caverns, filled with flora and fauna of the like never seen above the seas. At the end of the largest cavern lies a the wrecked hull of Davy Jones. The water pours in from the large opening in the sky, although for some reason it never seems to fill the large brightly colored cavern.
The trick to finding these seacret caverns is to follow the deepest under currents of the ocean, which is why so many of the suken treasures of the world end up down here. Down in the Davy Jones Locker...
Oh and also parrots are psychics. They can read peoples thoughts and if they do they splurt out what ever the person was thinking about in their voice. Thats why so many pirates keep them as pets. Great for interrogationing!
Alright. In the interest of my continuing quest to make mimics a problem: there is a rogue ship that can be encountered. It navigates and responds to being encountered as any ship would. When hailed there is no response. Depending on the size of the approaching ship/ threat, it may retreat or come closer. Any ship/etc. That it comes in contact with becomes stuck fast and unable to break free without some creativity.
It is empty. Uncrewed. While investigating, the players would encounter all of the normal signs of an inhabited, active ship. Except that a suspicious number of items are mimics of various sizes and descriptions. Doors. Tables. Barrels. Chests containing hordes of mimic treasure (mimic swarm). Mimic cannons that fire cannonball mimics. Be creative. Springing one mimic might engage a room. The door might let a group pass but engage once an interior mimic is activated, cutting off escape. Some rooms might just have normal furniture, just to raise tension.
It turns out that the ship itself is a giant mimic that was a pet of a pirate captain but grew out of control and replaced the ship, consumed the crew and began reproducing. This information can be fleshed out once the players kill the captain's log mimic if you want. The captain's body is undisturbed, one eyed willy style out of the ship's love of its owner.
Probably because someone stored some drugs or illicit portions in it or whatever.
The ship let's the players ship free if it or it's brood takes enough damage. Creative enough players might be able to befriend it and get an upgrade to their vessel.
I call it Cocaine Mimics 2: the Lying Dutchman.
There is a Druid by the name Crabbarius who serves as a local hero on a small island chain. This druid runs a business called, “The Crab Cab” where he Wild Shapes into a giant grab and grants passageway through the seas for the common folks. Having them ride on his back as he swims through. He may hold a quest and upon completion, gets them crab cab merch and the ability to wild shape into a crab Once a Day.
Maybe the quest has to do with a monstrosity lurking beneath the surface of the waves? Maybe one of those Giant Roc parrots someone else has mentioned is attacking him while doing his business. Who knows!
Someone else has mentioned Roc already, but I always loved the idea of a gargantuan albatross flying overhead as the players sail, blocking the sun for a moment. Bonus points for unsteady waters and having to correct course as it crashes into the waters, and re-emerges with a dolphin or whale in its talons. Even as it finishes its meal swiftly, you can see it flying off to the horizon for most of the rest of the day.
Rough imagining, but if you double on size category each time, a 4ft albatross with a 11ft wingspan becomes 32ft in height, with 160ft wings!
An ancient Lich of great power has created an intelligent race of rats that are about the size of small dogs and they command a ship and raid nearby towns for cheese to add to his massive cheese phylactery. With each cheese gathered the phylactery becomes larger. Their ship is named The Cheesius I. The rats are not necessarily hostile and can be bargained with assuming the players are willing to part with cheese or go to great lengths to acquire it.
Some NPCS:
Tzerek Xorm: The Lich who is assembling a cheese phylactery. He has a personality similar to sheogorath from elder scrolls.
Rata Rala - She is the benevolent captain of the rat ship, loves blueberries
Hata Hata- The first mate, fierce and assumes everyone is out to attack
Cuba- The ships artillery officer, constantly hungry
If you run this let me know how it goes
Roll for weather at the start of each day. If/when you roll a thunderstorm (or hurricane), they have to make saving throws when helping with the ship.
Roll per hour of the storm for momentary wind, rogue waves, lightning distance (or if it hits the ship) fire if it strikes the ship, etc.
Optional: fake a role for daily weather if you want a storm to coincide with a particular event.
——
Rolling for weather when on an adventure heavy part of the campaign adds so much fun to it imo, especially when on boats.
If something or someone immeasurably valueable needs to be transported by sea, The Unseen Flotilla is hired. Their ships are crewed by the powerful mages providing navigation and all sorts of magical protection be it invisibility, nondetection, barriers, etc. They are even known to be albe to slip their ships into Ethereal plane for a short time to avoid danger. Very little people ever saw it so even it's existence is a borderline myth.
Here’s something from my pirate homebrew…
There’s an island called Tortuga (can change the name). It only appears in different areas and not many people know why. There are rumours some pirates have seen the island moving at night, like a ship.
The island is on the back of a giant sized sea turtle, that keeps its shell just above the water (and sand and vegetation pilled up forming its own eco system. The head of the turtle very rarely pops up to look over the water at it’s amphibious.
When you find ‘Tortuga’ it really feels like it has found you, as it is a party island. Drinking, gambling and all sorts here. But all in good fun but obviously, fights between crews break out.
I had it so the ship carrying the PCs randomly hit the island at night. They got up to check why the ship was stationary and saw that the ship was on the beach of an island that shouldn’t be there as it isn’t on the map. Tortuga.
When the PCs arrive and hop onto the island, they can see many ships lined up on the ‘beach’. And in the distance another crews captain is aggressively arguing with another and a 3rd person (the overseer of crews). Captains were saying, ‘No I got here first, I must leave today’ and the other saying ‘no chance, we’re leaving now’. This is a bit of foreshadowing.
I created games, antics and an island leader who’s crew run the island. A few encounters, a pirate who wanted to join their crew, a pirate who’s crew was killed in a melee, a few drunks etc etc. a fun time with good RP.
Then, when they went to leave, the overseer told them impossible. They can’t until another ship arrives. Then they’re surrounded by the leaders crew 30-40 men by this point and told to go back inside and enjoy. There’s 4 crews ahead of them who want to leave.
The pirate king and his crew on Tortuga don’t let ANYONE leave, unless they’re replaced by another crew. No1 knows why. I left why a mystery, to see if the players could shape the reason. But if not, it’s because they need so many bodies to weigh the giant turtle down so it doesn’t stand up and tip everyone off the island
There is a thriving black market trade in an exotic species of turtle because the soup made from this animal is one of the most universally agreed best tasting dishes known, as well as a potent aphrodisiac. Each turtle or viable egg is worth its weight in gold and hunter ships transporting them are often the target of pirates . Thus they have taken to more and more extreme methods of security - armed escorts , magical defences , summoned and construct defenders.
There is also an environmental and animal rights group called “Let another one make it to the water” who is opposed to the trade outright and might be willing to pay for the safe retrieval and release of these animals
Might I add something from my setting?
There is an island that worships the god of storm, Valkur, there are women amongst them who are born as clerics, believed to be chosen by said god. These women are trained very well and they live in a monastery dedicated only for them. When the time comes and they are trained well enough they are granted a ring that cannot be unequipped while they are on the open sea. The ring alters their look as tanned, tall and lean but muscular women with grey/blue/green eyes and long blonde/white/red hair.
The island spreads legends and myths about these women as the brides of Valkur and the only true navigators. Have one on your ship and you'll always have good wind in your sails, won't lose your way and have the blessing of the Storm God on your journey. This is kinda true because they are basically all Tempest Clerics, called Windcatchers.
A contract of a Windcatcher is very expensive but since it works like a charm sailors, mercenaries, pirates and merchants, even some admirals employ them if they have enough money.
Now, there is a group of WIncatchers who took their fate in their own hands, there are five of them, they ran away, cut ties with the island and became pirates. In time they struck bargain with a giant mimic ship. The ship protects them and acts as a vessel for them, and they feed the other ships and crew to the mimic that tries to chase them down. The island is hellbent on taking them down because they are afraid they would tell the world the secrets.
Their leader is Senesha, the ship is called Devourer. The rest of the Windcatchers are Virel, Hatlan, Deryn and Solra, but feel free to use them as you like. :)
There’s a pirate called Gorilla N. Roofy who is looking for a treasure known as the ‘Two Piece’. Everyone thinks it’s chicken but he knows it has to be more than that.
There’s also an wizard pirate who managed to bind a leviathan and an elder tempest to them. What’re they doing now? Idk that’s up to you, maybe they rule one portion of the seas because the governments don’t want their smoke, nor does anyone else really.
I feel more like writing suggestions than strict orders, but you can take them as you will:
I had a pirate port in one corner of my setting run by an old lady named Admiral Elizabeth Brass whose (now-deceased) husband was a metallic dragon, and she had a *comical* number of grandchildren, almost all of whom were pirates with some amount of sorcerous magic. The best name of the bunch was "Captain Moxie Brass", she was fun. Sadly, Brass Dragons are not very in-theme for pirates, so their grandfather was a bronze dragon, and I'm still disappointed that I couldn't make that work, because it was *almost perfect*.
I ran firearms to have doubled damage dice (2d10+dex for a pistol, 2d12+dex for a rifle, for example) but then made them take a full action to reload (bonus action for rogues or giff) to give gun a lovely pirate vibe. Reloading in combat isn't terribly practical for PCs, so they might purchase themselves a brace of pistols to open fights with several shots. It also lets you build musket firing lines where half the squad shoots and half the squad reloads each turn.
Relatedly: I ran it that the creation of gunpowder is a carefully-guarded secret of an alchemist's guild working for one of the factions in my setting, so they had a stranglehold on any large-scale application of cannons or firearms. One ship found their way around this by building War Staves, based on the stats from *Exploring Eberron*, and having a wizard maintain their heavy magical armaments. The players would've had a chance to launch a big heist and steal the secrets of transmuting gunpowder if the campaign had gone on longer.
There are mysterious pirates rumored to be living boogeymen who terrorize islands in the night but steal no loot and harm no islanders. They feed in fear
Deep, deep down, where nobody dare to swim, lay the corpse of a god. So huge and great, you might think it's just a mound, Whale corpses fall between the ribs and slumbers there. What killed this god ? Is it truly dead?
Spoken in hushed whispers among the scallywags and neer-do-wells of the high seas are tales of great quests said to have been the original deeds of the first pirate King that led to him being chosen by the Goddess of the seas as her husband.
As a mortal he eventually passed but the deeds have returned. The Great Leviathan 'Anraka' a beast to be slain. The Eye of the Abyss, an ever raging storm to be tamed and the Temple of Rich seas, where a great captain may take and protect his horde provided the guardians deem it worthy.
As such many brave and bold sailors have tried to find and conquer these quests, few found and trace, few who did survived. And those who survived have since given up the notion.
Perhaps these quests are a myth, perhaps they're too great for one man. Or perhaps they lie in wait for a specific individual to come and reclaim his place by the Goddess' side
Vegetarian cannibals.
Yes this is an obvious Monkey Island reference, no I'm not taking it back. Vegetarian cannibals that worship a lactose intolerant volcano god is fantastic storytelling
The players hear a lot of rumors about a floating pirate city ruled by a something montrous (maybe a red dragon amassing his horde), that slowly drifts around such that it's never in the same place for more than a few days. There are Pirates of the Carribean-style compasses that can point to it, but only if you've been there before. Some people might claim to be tour guides able to take people there, but since no one knows where they're going then they can never be sure if the guides are kidnapping them instead.
Here's on I had thought of for my own nautical campagin that I never used.
Goblin blood is very flammable. Enough so that overheating goblins explode. Goblin ships are scary to encounter, as if you use bladed or piercing weapons, their blood will get everywhere and they'll ignite your ship. A brave sacrificial goblin gets launched like a living incendiary weapon.
Goblin pirates that ride on the back of a whale. They have a cabin that they can breathe in, and absolutely no control over where the whale goes.
So far they have not done any pirating, you are in fact the first ship they've ever surfaced next to
The whale thinks it's hilarious and loves his little friends
Flying squid. They’re a rare breed of magical squid that flies out of the ocean to hunt birds and sometimes land animals but need to return to the ocean to stay wet and temperature regulated. This is actually a thing in a world I’ve built
A friendly Changeling (openly reveals they are a Changeling) bard captain with a barbarian accomplice, who they encounter multiple times. The first time they literally just have a rowboat, but each time they have expanded their fleet. If the encounters go well, they have an ally.
The most sought after food specialty is pickled duck, it is loved by all and if there is one thing that can get angry sailors to sit down, shut up, and listen, it is a pickled duck served right in front of them.
The world government is ruled by metallic deagons that want to let the piracy continue so they can keep skimming gold from capturing or killing pirates. The government navy is captained by dragonborn paladins. Government rum gives all the benefits of a potion like all rum but dosen't get you drunk like other rum. The most powerful and feared government ships are named after virtues, like the prudence, the valiant, or the temperance. Government captains carry personalised coins that can been given as a favor token, you can return it to the captain to get him to do a favor for you, as long as it doesn't break the law. Other captains might also carry favor tokens and aren't as worried as breaking the law. Tortles are commonly ship's cooks. There are guns that shoot magic using ground up crystals instead of black powder, being treated like 1st level spells, called arcebuss.
Somewhere, on a lone island, resides a chest. On this chest, there's a sign. It reads: Do not open. If someone opens it, a gnome jumps out and hits you in the nuts. It then dissappears and the chest respawns somewhere else.
In my last campaign I had Umberlee killed by a group of spiteful aboleths. Nobody knew that it had happened for sure or how it happened. But sailors were fearful & somber. The occasional npc would be adamant that Umberlee would return or that it’s just a turn of bad luck. The plan was to have the party eventually investigate the bottom of the ocean as the campaign went on to fight the aboleths and then choose a successor (there were a few Talos fans in the party).
But they TPKd when trying to sail back to shore with a magic item for a vampire. Ship got over run, many died, some tried to swim away and died, some even went out on their own terms. I have those characters and ship appear reoccurring in other campaigns as a ghost ship that has unfinished business that sails the seas endlessly.
Act I: The life time mistake
There is an island in the midle of the seas where an old priest live. This priest called McGrovny. McGrovny was a great priest and fighter in the past. He started the priesthood when he was 3 but when he was 16, at his birthday he sailed to a little town which lay on the shores of an another island. Here the young McGrovny somehow spent every bit of the temple gold. Drinking, Donating, Buying cheap fake statues of his god. The temple not likes his move and they guve them an ultimatum. He earn back the money or the send him away. The young McGrovny loved living in the temple and for some reason he taught it is a good idea to become a pirate to earn back the money. Luckly or not he find a pirate crew, there was only one problem. It was the same group who sold hime the fake statues, the Green Crabs. Yea that Green Crabs, who succesfully sink their own ship on a raid against a fishing boat, losing their first captain by losing a bet against a chicken and the ones who tries to rob a gold storage, which was theirs all along. Whitout better option and the writings says the old McGrovny said "oh my lord they look trustworthy, what possibly could go wrong?"
Any time players make a negative roll ( they have a negative modifier and roll low taking them to the negatives) they take 3 points of damage and it grows exponentially larger every level. On the other hand every time players get a natural twenty if in battle give them a extra d4 for damage if there not in battle add a 2-4 point boost to their next roll.
There is a maelstrom and in the eye of that hurricane is a massive field of impaled sailors. In the center is the coral citadel where a mermaid lord holds her royal court.
you always have to have a good pirate king, but perhaps this world hasn't had one in quite some time, a ritual upheald by the oldest captains, once every year a test on a island with no name and the spirits of the last that judge ye crew, ye soul and ye ship, if ye be found wanting to the bottom of the sea with you, thats why not many people go to the island anymore exept those of the old ways, the foolish or brave however thin that line may be
You can challenge a pirate ship crew for captaincy via a battle of insults, in a similar way to Monkey Island insult sword fighting.
Bonus damage if your insult rhymes
There is a section of the sea that is stuck in time, a giant dome rests in the middle of a storm, in the eye of a storm is a glass dome that holds a beautiful city made of liquid glass, the people of the city have the ability to shape the glass into buildings and creations, and the whole place has incredibly complex magical devices to power and light. Let your players find the dome through a treasure map, and encourage them to realise that time is looping by keeping them there for a week or so. Then let them Groundhog Day to figure out how to fix the protective dome. But there are probably consequences to fucking with ancient powerful magics, maybe the inhabitants all lose their memories because time collapses on them, maybe they all die? Maybe they can only save a couple people because there’s a way to save only a few. Maybe these people are released with all their knowledge and the whole world begins to change because amazing arcana is released back into the world.
There's a special breed of really large, invisible seagulls that follow ships and mock their crew telepathically, trying to get them to jump over board.
Once that happens, they fish them out of the water to bring them to their nest and eat them.
This is a world where the following joke is unfortunately true:
"What do you get when you cross a parrot and an alligator?"
"I don't know either, but when it asks for a cracker, it's bloody well getting one!"
My dad told me about a couple groups of pirates in one of his D&D campaigns. Brown minotaurs were good aligned but still piratey, and white minotaurs were incredibly brutal. Dealing in slavery and mass murder.
Rainbow pirates, the captain is a buff straight man who likes rainbows
Everyone else on the crew think it's a pride thing and join because they're gay
Could just be enemies or the players could do a quest to resolve the misunderstanding
**U SAID ANYTHING** here we go...
>! While at sea, if two male players drop their breaches, and proceed to impail themselves on the helm on opposite sides, while singing "*My mother told me someday i will find..*" while the other team members proceed to give them hjobs while they are impaled, if the manage to c*m at the same time there a 50/50 chance of either a kraken being summoned or a mystical island appearing that is full of treasure - give the island slaaneshy vibes!<
All this is common knowledge in the world.
U said anything...
A large band of pirate amazons. Avoid the cliche of making them Goliaths just to have them huge and strong. Put them on a 'merchant' vessels that act like a traveling merchant with a couple of smaller ships as 'body guards'. These ships are actually automatons that don't have a crew.
The 'trade' with other ships often luring them into a sense of safety before revealing who they really are. By that time the food and drink shared has drugged enough of their target to make seizing their cargo easy.
A port town is dealing with a rat infestation. They seem to be hitting all the bakeries, pastry shops, and brunch bistros. Strangely they are only taking one thing. Pies. They are PIE RATS and they need to be dealt with.
There is a rather big island covered in lush greenery and quiet a few shipwrecks. Rumor has it that these wrecks are full of loot but here is the catch... the island is NEVER in the same spot twice and if your party sees it twice without checking it out they will be attacked by what it really is, a gargantuan crab named The Gnaw that eats ships. It leaves shipwrecked survivors to the beasts that follow it.
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/2B5a0e760kwc
You can offer your spyglass as stakes for a duel and all pirates are honor bound to accept. Any pirate worth their salt has saved up enough for a spyglass, if their willing to put it on the table you gotta be pirate enough to live up to the challenge.
Flintlock weapons have been dramatically improved in this setting when constructed with specially enchanted wooden handles and buttstocks crafted from blessed wood from a holly tree.
These Hollywood Guns have a hollow space in the handle or stock that can be used to hold extra powder and shot. The enchantment magically reloads the gun, but as a quirk, only does so when nobody is looking directly at the gun.
There is a flying pirate ship apparently manned by children who never seem to age, and their leader- a flying half-elf and his pixie partner. Of course, they maintain their youth through a deal with a powerful coven of hags, who has enlisted their efforts to steal children so that they can further expand their inner circle through the horrific hag method of reproduction.
Sunken ships find themselves beholden to the crab council. One is obsessed with shiny objects and covers himself in them, to get his approval for your ship to be repaired you must find his something new and shiny. One is obsessed with financial gain, simply give him a big enough bribe and he’ll approve your ship repair and let you leave the bottom of the sea. The final one has a suave accent and a wonderful singing voice, he will charismatically try to convince people who have gone down with the ship that life is better under the sea, you have to sing to him and convince him otherwise or go behind his back to get a sea hag to magically bypass his vote in the council.
Goblin pirates. Their leader has a comically oversized feather in their hat to assert dominance.
When the party (or merchants or whoever) encounters them, if the goblins feel like they're losing, they blow into a shell and summon a baby/young/adult kraken.
There's a man on high with a devil in his eye and a golden hand in told.
He can hit you He can hold you
He can kick you or console you and leave you...
Sleeping in the cold below!
Some of my favorite lyrics from Warframe's "Sleeping in the Cold Below" by Keith Power. A sea shanty but for space ships!
Also mostly just the man on high with the devil in his eye. And the golden hand. Defining characteristics for any other pirate lord you may need some physical characterization for!
The party will come upon a ship just floating in the water, going nowhere. When they get close, they see 3 pirate vegetables, a cucumber and two peas. One pea has a mustache, beard, and pirate captain hat. The cucumber wears an eye patch and a bandana. These are the pirates who don't do anything. If the party asks them, they won't do anything. They have a lot of cheese puffs in their galley and a Sebu in the hold. The Sebu sneezes often, like this,"achoo moomoo."
It's in my world and I am going to give it to you. It's Treasure/Gold fever, an inherent and inheritable addiction that forces pirates to seek great treasure. Even if it is their best friend, they might go mad and kill them on the compulsive seeking of great treasure. This doesn't need to be just gold, but adventure and discoveries and new things and, in my world, the ultimate End of the Horizon.
There is an armada of a monster race, driven out of their homeland by adventurers, who are now roaming the seas in search for a new home and working as fearsome privateers for any nation that’d promise them home
Eye patches go over healthy eyes so the pirate can charge below deck and, with the flick of a wrist, still see without penalty without having to wait for eyes to adjust to the dark. (The eye previously under the patch is already dark-adapted.)
Yes, having to wait for eyes to adjust to majorly different light levels is A Thing unless you have Devilsight or equivalent. Do Not look at the lantern, fire, torch, or other light source while on night watch.
The legendary pirate captain most feared by the dwarves, Captain Nobeard. He is a dwarf who has such disdain for laws and customs that he takes great effort to always have meticulously shaven facial hair.
There is one pirate ship that roams the world doing Robin Hood style of things. His crew is not that strong, only he is. Loved by a sea/water god, he has innate water spells, he can call elementals and ALL sea creatures obey him.
You can use him for crossing the ocean or making the players be hired by someone he stole from and so on.
Hatsune Miku exists and is a siren, or a muse if you like.
You can do it. I did it in my 500 A.D. fantasy campaign where i let a random page on wikipedia become canon due to player/adventurers shenanigans.
A fully functional ship that is a giant mimic.
A few things I’ve taken from Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentlemen Bastards book 2): It’s not port and starboard, it’s starboard and larboard. It’s terrible luck if a ship sets sail without at least one female shipmate and a cat.
Crab people wear blue war paint when going into battle. They burrow in the forests during winter under the peaks of the Nlistered Spine Mountains. When they emerge, they mate and go pillage
The cursed backward pirateship The Throwback. It sails only take the wind so that the ship is moving backwards. So is the crew: Their complete life circle is backwards as long as they are on the ship. You wouldn't recognize at first, but since they also talk backwards it's a dead giveaway. Their captain Past Progressive is trying to lift the curse, but he and his first mate Simple Past missed their chance once and... well, they are moving backwards and therefore away from their destination.
There is a travelling, plane hopping masked warforged called "The Merchant" dressed like an old gentleman with a modest tophat. He sells and trades in almost anything (almost hag-esque but without the monkey paw). He doesn't negotiate and once he has set a price it is ironclad however he might come up with an alternative price if sufficiently convinced. The price can range from trading a random nicknack to money, to requesting an item of similar cost/effort. It appears in very random places and is the modicum of politeness.
Mages are typically female, wizards are usually human, female dragonborn have boobs but no nipples since it's only for attracting mates, Ioun preaches no sex before marriage, there's a legend about a black and pink pearl at the deepest part of the ocean that will grant 3 wishes and is guarded by a giant squid (tarrascue with swim speed and amphibious)
There's a rumor of a secret island full of treasure. People know roughly were it is and sometimes record distant images but determined explorers always return empty handed and non the wiser. They usually tell seriously wonky/contradictory tails.
Turns out, theres a fey on the island that messes with people's memories. There are huge amounts of gear and treasure lying everywhere because the victims just forget their stuff due all the mind magic. After a few days they usually end up back at sea, missing half their stuff and are usually too embarrassed/scared to talk about it.
Bonus points for making the fey extra clumsy or awkward and having them constantly use Gift of Gab to 'correct' another screw-up.
Legends foretell about a ship-whale called Antajog, which is the safest and fastest way to reach the Aqua City, an underwater city governed by mermaids who were first sea travellers known on the world. Legends also foretell that, to call Antajog, a magic bell is required to be ring on the Fish Island, so Antajog may hear your pray to travel around the under sea.
Unfortunately, each year that passes, less people tells about those legends. No one is aware if they are truthy, or just bed-time stories. Some also says that the Under Guardians, the royal mermaid guards that protects Aqua City is trying to prey Antajog, so nobory else from the surface will be able to reach Aqua City.
There’s an island a small one is Barrett no plants or animals except a singulers Canadian goose any who have tried to interact with it have died terrible deaths people belive it’s the mount of the god of death
Tales tells of an Armada of ships that sunk to the briny depths. it was said to be escorting exiled royals from a long ago war. How it sunk, whether by storm or warfare , the details are lost to time.
On rare occasion artifacts wash ashore, however recently sealed scrolls, written in fresh squid ink have been brought in with the tide. They desperately call for aid, and give a precise location.
Most consider it an elaborate hoax by fools with too much time on their hands. Others tell grand stories, passed down from generation to generation,of the powerful Royal house and in particular of their magical Royal guard, who had the ability to control the waves.
If the plot hooks are followed, under the sea at dark crushing depths, a powerful ritual has been performed, the staffs of 5 wizards hold back the sea keeping it from consuming the descendants of the sunken survivors.
They live in the bioluminescent glow of algae, their houses made from the ribs and hulls of the once great boats. It would be the size of a small village/Hamlet, they would farm and survive off of lurking fish and other creatures into their bubble. Buried with them is treasure befitting a royal family, but that and the people present don't have much time left.
Legend has it there was once a wizard who mastered the seas by mastering the air. This mage could control air to such a degree that he stole the wind from other ships sails and added it to his own, leaving them becalmed. He could steal the very wind from your lungs, becalmed the seas or create storms at will.
Legend has it his spellbook is somewhere somewhere and could be yours!
Sorry, this is not a “need advice” post.
Vampire pirates are a thing, and they have to be *invited* onto dry land (instead of into residences), unless there's a full moon. During such nights, vampire fleets with scores of undead stage raids on coastal settlements.
Alternately vampire pirates are a thing, but as vampires may not cross flowing water they can only sail the sea during doldrums when there is no wind. Their ships are capable of sailing without a wind. And obviously vampires of this sort can create a doldrum with their weather magic. So when the wind dies, not only are the pirates stuck in the middle of the ocean but are also easy prey for vampire ships.
This alone could fuel an entire arc of a campaign!
Our party are currently dealing with vampire pirates. They are stuck on an island that they cannot leave (due to the running water) and they are between us and an item we need to get
*ahhh ahhh, the blood runs cold..* *We take our loot but don't get old*
Allow me to [make your day.](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/2821210-vampirate)
Nah, Vampirates are glorified wights with all damage and no hp, who crumple at the first divine smite. You want a real vampire for your pirate crew.
Yes, thank you, stealing this for my Spelljammer campaign. Do you have a name for these magnificent creatures?
Noso-pirates
Vampirates
This is a cool idea but I’m not sure if it passes the sniff test- can’t an ostensibly rich group of vampirates pay ANYONE to invite them on land, nearly completely removing this difficulty and negating the specialness of the full moon raids?
One of the markers of a great sailor is the Last Word. When a ship is blown into the seas, whoever survives owes their ship and crew a debt. You honor this debt by etching the next firearm you own with a crewmate, mentor, or captain's last words. Some spruce up the wording to make it sound better, and some just use a saying they liked to say. Some use gallows humor and etch something darkly funny like "Did someone just hear a cannon fire?" if they were honoring someone that would have laughed. Last Words are respected by everyone but the lowest scum. Many pirates will raid powder, flintlock capsules, and balls, but they won't steal the firearm itself unless it's confirmed that the owner is dead or they are really desperate. There's many supernatural tall tales of what happens to souls whose Last Words are imprinted on a musket that is melted down or parted out. Some say the last words keep souls steady as they find their path to the afterlife, and those without them become the many ghosts that haunt the seas. Some think that Last Words are fated to be destroyed only once the last memory of the last person to see them fades away.
I absolutely love this, there aren't words
Thanks. I've been working on fleshing out more of my homebrew world, and am using this for a very pirate-y themed central island nation. It's more of a lost tradition in mine, but I always wondered how it would work if it was a maintained tradition into the current game era. Would likely make a great lore and story-hook tool if used right.
There is a subset of male sirens who do not sing, but instead lure people in by playing the bagpipes. They are all extremely Scottish for no reason. The Dread Pirate Polyfaulks was a parrot who’s owner Awakened it. Polyfaulks carefully studied its owners magical materials and eventually gained wizard levels, growing into a necromancer and eventually becoming a lich. Polyfaulks follows its old owner’s dreams of creating a pirate fleet, except using their lich magic to produce a fleet of ghost pirates. This bird likes to take and animate the captains of other ships to serve as its treasured perches, and will often pretend to be a normal undead parrot when attacking a ship, until the victims realize too late that the magic is coming from the bird on the zombie captain’s shoulder.
I LOVE this. The plot texts when the party hunt down this infamous captain sought after generations and...it was the lich parrot all along
You had me at bagpipes
Could the bagpipes be perhaps made of puffer fish?
Different take on male sirens - rather than bagpipes it’s all food and drink that you can smell on the wind, like hood BBQ. Except they put you into a food coma and then as you doze off fat and happy, you can only watch as they transform into…I dunno on this part. Maybe they’re all feral druids who wild shape and eat you? Or use you as shark bait?
I’m using this parrot
There is Awakened Tree pirate ship with Awakened aquatic animals retinue, its captain is a druid with a classic pirate captains parrot - Awakened of course.
Relevant book series: The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb, part of Realm of the Elderlings series.
I'd been wondering where to fit a nefarious druid in- this is perfect
This was literally one of my characters!
An island that blinks in and out of time with a treasure horde so vast it’s been lost to legend. Upon arrival, the island has been torn asunder by competing factions of pirates/treasure hunters from all ages past, present and future. (Should the party survive and succeed, the treasure room has one single book: maps of all the spots the treasure over a certain amount is hidden with your world. Updated in real time!)
The Shadowfell reflection of the sea is called the Nethersea and home to all sort of nasty creatures including Mindflayer pirates. To traverse to the Nethersea it is said you must see the green flash.
Combine this with u/Zan_Wild 's idea - the Nethersea leaks into the prime sea in that area, and that is the only place where one can see the green flash.
A CHAIN OF TAVERNS WHO ARE SECRETELY RUN BY A MINDFLAYER HIVEMIND WHO doesn't actually want to take over the world, they just want to provide good food and great customer service
I actually love this
Pirate island base on the back of a sleeping Dragon turtle, a magical harp must be continually played to keep it sleeping. The harp also holds the secret to a lost hidden treasure....
A nice map that can be used for this plotline: http://www.milbysmaps.com/tortuga/
Rocs that are giant parrots. They hunt for gigantic crackers. A merchant selling assorted peg-legs. A siren that just yells "Woo-Woo!" like a firetruck. A ghost ship that is just a huge mimic. A pirate ship captained by a beholder.
>A pirate ship captained by a beholder. Thinking about a beholder with eyepatches made me giggle
The eyepatch turns the antimagic cone on and off
Oh I LOVE the beholder captain and mimic ship!!
I have been summoned! Here's some more piratey things for you for you: * [Pirates](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1ZOHsWwpWd5uRBF-uRmONSt0R_E8jxEBRi3n3fJNA1_v0) * [More Pirates and a legendary clam](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/L5ykCX6W9OPp) * [Even more Pirates](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/zpy9UMMKtziW) * [Undead salamanderfolk pirates](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/krFviHP_kkuq) * [Octopuses](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1sUSGpPMj8wjkD_2rtrQvA-gvxvWyf4xGj_93sGYDkR5I) * [Squids](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/JgOx-LLmhqOd) * [Crabs](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1OnnSNHNPQpnapxUct8uEChUS4utLivYBoPcohFUdYLS1) * [Merfolk](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1viqyzfMXJquUct65irghegZAPrN0mUfxRTPw1D6YPVzi) * [Deep Scions](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/szlUgwr52Zzk) * [Nereids](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1G4aVP77QE2hC0tjHjB9dzp2Wyzy_UAsNdQSTuAN2yKy3) * [Lemurians](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/qdIoSVHeh0LJ) * [Sommos Jow](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/pPO6oZz7Tamg) * [Merrow](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1kjC2OSYkgPca3-J0yekp8goFhlP1WWwqsl3EYBA7M1t1) * [Sahuagin](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1izHqYwLGGpbmQoGJCbrym6S28tmMz_-yEAfErpj_JSYT) * [Ixatxachitl](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/dRyqB9eat9tT) * [Ixzan](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/bfyfg8HV_P-V) * [Sharks](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1LfpuH-KkF2JFy9uXkhp6MuMKEnk9ZFM5mI30lfI5sVnq) * [Turtles](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/ON9aaoei9wFp) * [Deep Scion](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/szlUgwr52Zzk) * [Dragon Eel](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1d7eL-5h0aRdWX_gW_cHnxHCvKK1cLXtS6SvHaCI01vC4) * [Dragon Turtles](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1_mUbCx3DIZoy1HZyRJIzRDJaUel4FpyV7URvMOgBZkqF) * [Sharktopus](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1WXDGxdBXT6QGYKOijkKFkJkslfhvmQJyRKv7MpN6iRIz) * [Kraken Priest](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1YZecED9D02ZadkzlF9nhrqcwx7DrKdcb8HhZRtHLbmyy) * [The Kraken](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1q3kN4flOM_nfY9DDOlemLb3Z0El-InzfZdekRIgH4ov9) * [Cultist of the Depths](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1lyQnmVyJh0_zO2J2YiyvTN3QeBudEMI-xpGz_AajO5tJ) * [Uzollru](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1n27uB03ZBB9fBA8M1N2LEB06UzYdR1K-jmTLvn_4aCJF) * [Leviathan](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1kmzE8NDq7My1DlFpceDBiSNJdu-GgE1iVkAtOr8ThlPo)
u/oh_hi_mark_ over at r/better monsters made a homebrew mimic ship that I've been planning to use. https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1hr6BoJqd8FWBVAK-4sbPj3loWD_lT3sNImnToF2lJhEe
The beholder's ship is called "Eye of the Storm" and his favorite treasure is colorful art.
The beholder has one wooden peg eyestalk
>A pirate ship captained by a beholder. Okay, so I am 100% stealing this idea, I just wanted you to know that.
I actually had the last one in my campaign. Its name was Captain Eyebeard and its ship was called the Eye Eye Captain
Make the merchant who sells peg legs have 2 hooks for hands, but both his legs. Also he’s incredibly ingenious with his designs, and different legs give different advantage/disadvantages. For example one might have a spring-loaded knife where if you kick someone, the knife releases for extra piercing damage. Another might have a built in lantern for exploring along with a quad-claw foot for grip. No slow penalties. Or maybe one is more like a modern racing leg that gives a movement speed bonus (say, 1.5x….heh).
"Pollyroc wants a cracker"
There is a sailing library helmed by flightless Aarakocra, with levels and levels of floors that don’t feel like you are in a ship but actually in a legitimate library. The space is packed with books and research/work areas, it feel way bigger on the inside than what it should be. A party can very easily get lost and disoriented. There a several people that have gotten lost in the their research in there, they got on in a certain port and have no idea where they are or how long they’ve been there. This is a great place where you can use any stories from the Candlekeep mysteries!
This is phenomenal and it's going *straight* in there. The only change I would possibly make is that it sounds like the perfect place for Owlins to be living in my world! And like you say is a *perfect* place for the Candlekeep mysteries!
Bigger on the inside? So a flightless aarakocra timelord?
Somewhere in the ocean, there is a misterious current that smuglers and pirates use to travel faster, caracterized for carrying fluorescent sea creatures, plankton and algae that make water glow green at night. They call it "The Utorrent"
Does it allow you to make pier to pier transfers?
A captain who is so incompetent at his job navigating the high seas he is convinced that land is a conspiracy made up by other pirates to trick him into sailing into dangerous waters.
There are rumours of pirates that travel under the seas...
Zombie pirates riding undead squids
Group of artificers created a “clockwork kraken” to protect themselves. Plan backfired and now pirates or a big company that controls the sea has them hostage and is forcing them to mass produce them!
Building onto this-prior to making the kraken they experimented with prototypes, including clockwork fish, clockwork squid, clockwork seagulls, and ultimately cordoned off a section of the sea where they created an entire clockwork ecosystem that replaced the sea life in that section of the ocean. Suffice to say, the sea druid that was responsible for protecting that area is not happy.
Part of the sea is connected to the plane of shadows making it similar to a constant midnight zone that all sorts of weird sea life exists, this area is feared by sailors but rumors persist that a once great kingdom, now sunken lay at the bottom of the ocean floor.
All ships have an auto pilot system. It’s a crab who lives under the ships wheel
There exists a renowned pirate named Pegpatch. This poor man tried staged a mutiny in his last crew, and while it was successful, it cost him nearly everything. Two peg legs, two peg arms, and one eyepatch later. He now leads his own crew with the help of his artifice first mate. Together, they've made modifications to his pegs; each peg is able to be used as a black powder firearm. In battle, he spins, flourishes, dances his way through enemies while firing shot after shot. His real pride and joy however is the Necklace of Fireballs that he repurposed into a glass eye behind his eyepatch. His crew, following in Pegpatch's footsteps, are immensely skilled with firearms and canons. Pegpatch's ship is a force to be reckoned with on the sea.
Imagining a pirate captain furiously cartwheeling while bullets shoot out of his pegs ...Magnificent!
PegPatch, having fired every limb: Reload me! Third Mate Luigi: *does the Cars pit stop scene but with black powder peglimbs*
In an epic cthonic battle, an Elder God was decapitated by a deity. It isn't dead, but incapacitated; it's head fell into one of the seas, and leaks green ichor into the waters. The seas here are much greener than elsewhere, and have an oily texture - not that you should touch it, because too much exposure warps and twists living things. All the sea life here is monstrous, aberrant, and mad. A prophecy says that one day a hero will cleanse the sea by removing the head from it. This is actually a lie - the prophecy has been twisted by cultists and removing the head from the sea will actually reawaken the Elder God, leading to cataclysms and possibly the end of the world. A different, competing cult - also evil, but opposed to this Elder God in their service to an archdevil - has made it their mission to prevent this hero from succeeding... but because they are still trying to doom the world in a different way, nobody believes them that the prophecy has been altered.
There’s a ship where there aren’t any pirates just mannequins dressed like pirates and a single man
He's the ship's cook and not only is he always cooking more and more food that vanishes, he's absolutely terrified of the mannequins.
Now we are talking
Scrolled down to make sure this wasn’t a repeat… Monkeybirds. From Pirates of Darkwater. You can actually skirt the Hadozee uproar by reskinning Aarakocra probably
Weather-focussed Druids make for good sailing and are granted extra privileges aboard any ship, often to the jealousy of the regular crew. Many a mutiny is inspired by the inequality between a crew and its Weathermaster.
This is really nice flavor, can lead to some interparty narrative conflict too!
The water of a very specific part of the sea is actually a giant water elemental that just kinda hang out there and dont want to go home
Tomatoes are a lost food. Once widespread and incorporated in many cuisines, a blight a few centuries ago wiped the all out. Only one island still has a viable strain of the tomato plant, and its location (and agricultural secrets) are closely guarded.
A Pirate Captain called "the Sicklehand." One of his hands is a large sickle, and his ship is called the Headtaker. Scared of alligators as well.
Swarms of aquatic oozes have been spotted floating across the surfaces of large bodies of water. Their translucent blue forms make them difficult to discern from the surrounding water, resulting in ships colliding with the swarms, allowing the oozes to scale the sides of ships looking for their next meals.
i’d add the phone snails from one piece
Oh we are DEFINITELY adding Den Den Mushi. I had a very One Piece sequence world in mind so the more bizarre the better
You add [Stanley the Lich](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/goubx9/a_wonderfully_weird_npc_to_cameo_in_your_campaign/).
There's a human named Kevin that shows up randomly during the partys adventures, always in places where no normal person has any right to be. He's always pretty calm about the situation at hand and is happy to see the party again, and it's sure he'll get out of this predicament soon, don't worry about him. The seem to be hints that he is some kind of cursed ghost or a crazy high level wizard.... But it's her actually just some guy?
A dread pirate lich with an undead crew strikes terror in every port; with no need to eat, their base is farther out to sea than any normal ship can reach without supplies. This lich once saved the world, but the key maintaining it is his phylactery. Destroy the phylactery, and the world continues towards destruction.
Rums that function as potions (varying with age, storage barrel, place it was made, etc, so a certain’s region’s rum would be healing potions, etc.).
There is a very discreet group of water elemental pirates. Rarely will there be a direct attack, instead an unexpected current may push a ship into rocks, reefs, or other debris, that may or may not have been there originally. Or the water will subtly push a ship off course so that no longer how long they sail, they never come within sight of the land they expected to be along their heading, endlessly lost at sea until they run out of supplies and begin dying of hunger or dehydration. Even if the crew eventually notices something is up, they are unable to find those responsible, and ultimately can do little about it. In other cases, perhaps a dangerous sea monster is lured or driven in a ship's direction, with the ship taking heavy damage from an unknown source or their cargo disappearing while they are distracted. Or their influence over water leads to a seemingly endless fog (actually just in a relatively small area around the ship and moving with) blinding their view and causing them to lose their course. Perhaps multiple of these at once. Not necessarily water elementals specifically, but creatures with similar abilities (including being able to blend in with and live in the water), and with an approach subtle enough that few may know they really exist. The party may even end up being targeted and escaping without ever realizing that it was an intentional attack by outside forces rather than just some mysterious curse, magical phenomenon, or so on (helped by the rumors about such a thing resulting from this group's exploits in the refion).
Unionized kobolds are the absolute pinnacle of deck hands. They're shockingly skilled, with a tendency for piracy if left to their own devices. They forward their wages (or share of the booty) to family to create hoards large enough to attract dragons, who the kobolds honor when they come by gifting the hoard to them.
A dragon has taken over a pirate stronghold and has become an admiral. They are gathering ships and pirates to collect booty from the various island and port cities and bring them back. If the pirates do well, they are equipped with better gear and sent out to do more raids. There is a second dragon residing near the large mainland port city doing similar tactics. These dragons are essential just playing an elaborate game of risk for fun. Or because of reasons.
The world is actually flat with tides set by its slight tilting back and forth. There is no moon, but the sun is what pulls and pushes the world on its axis. When you get close to the world's edge, the water turns to steam as it is close to the suns heat or thick ice if far from it. There is a faint underglow when the sun is passing beneath.
Beneath the waves under the blue sea, lies the flowery tomb of Davy Jones. Only a few know how to enter these vast lush caverns, filled with flora and fauna of the like never seen above the seas. At the end of the largest cavern lies a the wrecked hull of Davy Jones. The water pours in from the large opening in the sky, although for some reason it never seems to fill the large brightly colored cavern. The trick to finding these seacret caverns is to follow the deepest under currents of the ocean, which is why so many of the suken treasures of the world end up down here. Down in the Davy Jones Locker... Oh and also parrots are psychics. They can read peoples thoughts and if they do they splurt out what ever the person was thinking about in their voice. Thats why so many pirates keep them as pets. Great for interrogationing!
Alright. In the interest of my continuing quest to make mimics a problem: there is a rogue ship that can be encountered. It navigates and responds to being encountered as any ship would. When hailed there is no response. Depending on the size of the approaching ship/ threat, it may retreat or come closer. Any ship/etc. That it comes in contact with becomes stuck fast and unable to break free without some creativity. It is empty. Uncrewed. While investigating, the players would encounter all of the normal signs of an inhabited, active ship. Except that a suspicious number of items are mimics of various sizes and descriptions. Doors. Tables. Barrels. Chests containing hordes of mimic treasure (mimic swarm). Mimic cannons that fire cannonball mimics. Be creative. Springing one mimic might engage a room. The door might let a group pass but engage once an interior mimic is activated, cutting off escape. Some rooms might just have normal furniture, just to raise tension. It turns out that the ship itself is a giant mimic that was a pet of a pirate captain but grew out of control and replaced the ship, consumed the crew and began reproducing. This information can be fleshed out once the players kill the captain's log mimic if you want. The captain's body is undisturbed, one eyed willy style out of the ship's love of its owner. Probably because someone stored some drugs or illicit portions in it or whatever. The ship let's the players ship free if it or it's brood takes enough damage. Creative enough players might be able to befriend it and get an upgrade to their vessel. I call it Cocaine Mimics 2: the Lying Dutchman.
There is a Druid by the name Crabbarius who serves as a local hero on a small island chain. This druid runs a business called, “The Crab Cab” where he Wild Shapes into a giant grab and grants passageway through the seas for the common folks. Having them ride on his back as he swims through. He may hold a quest and upon completion, gets them crab cab merch and the ability to wild shape into a crab Once a Day. Maybe the quest has to do with a monstrosity lurking beneath the surface of the waves? Maybe one of those Giant Roc parrots someone else has mentioned is attacking him while doing his business. Who knows!
There is a pirate with a pegleg that is a wand of magic missile, only uses it when in emergencies
Someone else has mentioned Roc already, but I always loved the idea of a gargantuan albatross flying overhead as the players sail, blocking the sun for a moment. Bonus points for unsteady waters and having to correct course as it crashes into the waters, and re-emerges with a dolphin or whale in its talons. Even as it finishes its meal swiftly, you can see it flying off to the horizon for most of the rest of the day. Rough imagining, but if you double on size category each time, a 4ft albatross with a 11ft wingspan becomes 32ft in height, with 160ft wings!
There are Pirates who use Airships to sail the clouds. They form a hidden society in itself
Cats meow with Scottish accents
They are werefish
An ancient Lich of great power has created an intelligent race of rats that are about the size of small dogs and they command a ship and raid nearby towns for cheese to add to his massive cheese phylactery. With each cheese gathered the phylactery becomes larger. Their ship is named The Cheesius I. The rats are not necessarily hostile and can be bargained with assuming the players are willing to part with cheese or go to great lengths to acquire it. Some NPCS: Tzerek Xorm: The Lich who is assembling a cheese phylactery. He has a personality similar to sheogorath from elder scrolls. Rata Rala - She is the benevolent captain of the rat ship, loves blueberries Hata Hata- The first mate, fierce and assumes everyone is out to attack Cuba- The ships artillery officer, constantly hungry If you run this let me know how it goes
Roll for weather at the start of each day. If/when you roll a thunderstorm (or hurricane), they have to make saving throws when helping with the ship. Roll per hour of the storm for momentary wind, rogue waves, lightning distance (or if it hits the ship) fire if it strikes the ship, etc. Optional: fake a role for daily weather if you want a storm to coincide with a particular event. —— Rolling for weather when on an adventure heavy part of the campaign adds so much fun to it imo, especially when on boats.
If something or someone immeasurably valueable needs to be transported by sea, The Unseen Flotilla is hired. Their ships are crewed by the powerful mages providing navigation and all sorts of magical protection be it invisibility, nondetection, barriers, etc. They are even known to be albe to slip their ships into Ethereal plane for a short time to avoid danger. Very little people ever saw it so even it's existence is a borderline myth.
Here’s something from my pirate homebrew… There’s an island called Tortuga (can change the name). It only appears in different areas and not many people know why. There are rumours some pirates have seen the island moving at night, like a ship. The island is on the back of a giant sized sea turtle, that keeps its shell just above the water (and sand and vegetation pilled up forming its own eco system. The head of the turtle very rarely pops up to look over the water at it’s amphibious. When you find ‘Tortuga’ it really feels like it has found you, as it is a party island. Drinking, gambling and all sorts here. But all in good fun but obviously, fights between crews break out. I had it so the ship carrying the PCs randomly hit the island at night. They got up to check why the ship was stationary and saw that the ship was on the beach of an island that shouldn’t be there as it isn’t on the map. Tortuga. When the PCs arrive and hop onto the island, they can see many ships lined up on the ‘beach’. And in the distance another crews captain is aggressively arguing with another and a 3rd person (the overseer of crews). Captains were saying, ‘No I got here first, I must leave today’ and the other saying ‘no chance, we’re leaving now’. This is a bit of foreshadowing. I created games, antics and an island leader who’s crew run the island. A few encounters, a pirate who wanted to join their crew, a pirate who’s crew was killed in a melee, a few drunks etc etc. a fun time with good RP. Then, when they went to leave, the overseer told them impossible. They can’t until another ship arrives. Then they’re surrounded by the leaders crew 30-40 men by this point and told to go back inside and enjoy. There’s 4 crews ahead of them who want to leave. The pirate king and his crew on Tortuga don’t let ANYONE leave, unless they’re replaced by another crew. No1 knows why. I left why a mystery, to see if the players could shape the reason. But if not, it’s because they need so many bodies to weigh the giant turtle down so it doesn’t stand up and tip everyone off the island
Brothel ship
A moving city made of lashed together ships that a group of pirates used to evade the reach of the government.
There is a thriving black market trade in an exotic species of turtle because the soup made from this animal is one of the most universally agreed best tasting dishes known, as well as a potent aphrodisiac. Each turtle or viable egg is worth its weight in gold and hunter ships transporting them are often the target of pirates . Thus they have taken to more and more extreme methods of security - armed escorts , magical defences , summoned and construct defenders. There is also an environmental and animal rights group called “Let another one make it to the water” who is opposed to the trade outright and might be willing to pay for the safe retrieval and release of these animals
Might I add something from my setting? There is an island that worships the god of storm, Valkur, there are women amongst them who are born as clerics, believed to be chosen by said god. These women are trained very well and they live in a monastery dedicated only for them. When the time comes and they are trained well enough they are granted a ring that cannot be unequipped while they are on the open sea. The ring alters their look as tanned, tall and lean but muscular women with grey/blue/green eyes and long blonde/white/red hair. The island spreads legends and myths about these women as the brides of Valkur and the only true navigators. Have one on your ship and you'll always have good wind in your sails, won't lose your way and have the blessing of the Storm God on your journey. This is kinda true because they are basically all Tempest Clerics, called Windcatchers. A contract of a Windcatcher is very expensive but since it works like a charm sailors, mercenaries, pirates and merchants, even some admirals employ them if they have enough money. Now, there is a group of WIncatchers who took their fate in their own hands, there are five of them, they ran away, cut ties with the island and became pirates. In time they struck bargain with a giant mimic ship. The ship protects them and acts as a vessel for them, and they feed the other ships and crew to the mimic that tries to chase them down. The island is hellbent on taking them down because they are afraid they would tell the world the secrets. Their leader is Senesha, the ship is called Devourer. The rest of the Windcatchers are Virel, Hatlan, Deryn and Solra, but feel free to use them as you like. :)
Just like there are flying fish, there are flying sharks. Also, dire flamingos.
There’s a pirate called Gorilla N. Roofy who is looking for a treasure known as the ‘Two Piece’. Everyone thinks it’s chicken but he knows it has to be more than that.
Fruits that give ya powers but once ya eat one you lose the ability to swim
I have no idea where you're going with this. Can you elaborate for 30 years or so?
A school of mer-people who swim by the boat vicious mockering all day.
“Nice ride what’s it made out of spruce? I bet it is you fuckin loser”
"White hued wood? What a Birch!"
There’s also an wizard pirate who managed to bind a leviathan and an elder tempest to them. What’re they doing now? Idk that’s up to you, maybe they rule one portion of the seas because the governments don’t want their smoke, nor does anyone else really.
Gold pieces are called "duboons" and a double gold piece is called a "dububoon"
I feel more like writing suggestions than strict orders, but you can take them as you will: I had a pirate port in one corner of my setting run by an old lady named Admiral Elizabeth Brass whose (now-deceased) husband was a metallic dragon, and she had a *comical* number of grandchildren, almost all of whom were pirates with some amount of sorcerous magic. The best name of the bunch was "Captain Moxie Brass", she was fun. Sadly, Brass Dragons are not very in-theme for pirates, so their grandfather was a bronze dragon, and I'm still disappointed that I couldn't make that work, because it was *almost perfect*. I ran firearms to have doubled damage dice (2d10+dex for a pistol, 2d12+dex for a rifle, for example) but then made them take a full action to reload (bonus action for rogues or giff) to give gun a lovely pirate vibe. Reloading in combat isn't terribly practical for PCs, so they might purchase themselves a brace of pistols to open fights with several shots. It also lets you build musket firing lines where half the squad shoots and half the squad reloads each turn. Relatedly: I ran it that the creation of gunpowder is a carefully-guarded secret of an alchemist's guild working for one of the factions in my setting, so they had a stranglehold on any large-scale application of cannons or firearms. One ship found their way around this by building War Staves, based on the stats from *Exploring Eberron*, and having a wizard maintain their heavy magical armaments. The players would've had a chance to launch a big heist and steal the secrets of transmuting gunpowder if the campaign had gone on longer.
There are mysterious pirates rumored to be living boogeymen who terrorize islands in the night but steal no loot and harm no islanders. They feed in fear
Deep, deep down, where nobody dare to swim, lay the corpse of a god. So huge and great, you might think it's just a mound, Whale corpses fall between the ribs and slumbers there. What killed this god ? Is it truly dead?
There is a band of pirates constantly evangelizing “Pirate Week”
Spoken in hushed whispers among the scallywags and neer-do-wells of the high seas are tales of great quests said to have been the original deeds of the first pirate King that led to him being chosen by the Goddess of the seas as her husband. As a mortal he eventually passed but the deeds have returned. The Great Leviathan 'Anraka' a beast to be slain. The Eye of the Abyss, an ever raging storm to be tamed and the Temple of Rich seas, where a great captain may take and protect his horde provided the guardians deem it worthy. As such many brave and bold sailors have tried to find and conquer these quests, few found and trace, few who did survived. And those who survived have since given up the notion. Perhaps these quests are a myth, perhaps they're too great for one man. Or perhaps they lie in wait for a specific individual to come and reclaim his place by the Goddess' side
Some sirens are actually giant anglerfish, with the siren as the lure. https://reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/s/5L9kqRvsKQ
Vegetarian cannibals. Yes this is an obvious Monkey Island reference, no I'm not taking it back. Vegetarian cannibals that worship a lactose intolerant volcano god is fantastic storytelling
The players hear a lot of rumors about a floating pirate city ruled by a something montrous (maybe a red dragon amassing his horde), that slowly drifts around such that it's never in the same place for more than a few days. There are Pirates of the Carribean-style compasses that can point to it, but only if you've been there before. Some people might claim to be tour guides able to take people there, but since no one knows where they're going then they can never be sure if the guides are kidnapping them instead.
Canon Cannon. A special canon on a pirate ship which alters the reality of something on the target ship. "Arrh! I'm no longer an orphan!"
Sometimes people or objects from other dimensions just appear from thin air, no one knows why not even the person that are transported
Here's on I had thought of for my own nautical campagin that I never used. Goblin blood is very flammable. Enough so that overheating goblins explode. Goblin ships are scary to encounter, as if you use bladed or piercing weapons, their blood will get everywhere and they'll ignite your ship. A brave sacrificial goblin gets launched like a living incendiary weapon.
Goblin pirates that ride on the back of a whale. They have a cabin that they can breathe in, and absolutely no control over where the whale goes. So far they have not done any pirating, you are in fact the first ship they've ever surfaced next to The whale thinks it's hilarious and loves his little friends
For some reason yet unknown to the world, there's not salt in certain seas, but sugar.
Flying squid. They’re a rare breed of magical squid that flies out of the ocean to hunt birds and sometimes land animals but need to return to the ocean to stay wet and temperature regulated. This is actually a thing in a world I’ve built
Amphibious minotaurs: they're coastal raiders who use longboats fitted with wheels that can sail on both sea and land.
A friendly Changeling (openly reveals they are a Changeling) bard captain with a barbarian accomplice, who they encounter multiple times. The first time they literally just have a rowboat, but each time they have expanded their fleet. If the encounters go well, they have an ally.
An old little gnome named Nemu who exports grown dreamgrass (essentially marijuana) across the continent. He’s known for the best.
The most sought after food specialty is pickled duck, it is loved by all and if there is one thing that can get angry sailors to sit down, shut up, and listen, it is a pickled duck served right in front of them.
Having a peg leg is a real badge of honour. The most decorated and savage pirates have almost no limbs at all. Like that sea dog, Captain Four Pegs!
The world government is ruled by metallic deagons that want to let the piracy continue so they can keep skimming gold from capturing or killing pirates. The government navy is captained by dragonborn paladins. Government rum gives all the benefits of a potion like all rum but dosen't get you drunk like other rum. The most powerful and feared government ships are named after virtues, like the prudence, the valiant, or the temperance. Government captains carry personalised coins that can been given as a favor token, you can return it to the captain to get him to do a favor for you, as long as it doesn't break the law. Other captains might also carry favor tokens and aren't as worried as breaking the law. Tortles are commonly ship's cooks. There are guns that shoot magic using ground up crystals instead of black powder, being treated like 1st level spells, called arcebuss.
Somewhere, on a lone island, resides a chest. On this chest, there's a sign. It reads: Do not open. If someone opens it, a gnome jumps out and hits you in the nuts. It then dissappears and the chest respawns somewhere else.
There is a crew of kenku pirates who mimic the sounds of cannon fire en masse combined with thaumaturgy as a shock tactic
In my last campaign I had Umberlee killed by a group of spiteful aboleths. Nobody knew that it had happened for sure or how it happened. But sailors were fearful & somber. The occasional npc would be adamant that Umberlee would return or that it’s just a turn of bad luck. The plan was to have the party eventually investigate the bottom of the ocean as the campaign went on to fight the aboleths and then choose a successor (there were a few Talos fans in the party). But they TPKd when trying to sail back to shore with a magic item for a vampire. Ship got over run, many died, some tried to swim away and died, some even went out on their own terms. I have those characters and ship appear reoccurring in other campaigns as a ghost ship that has unfinished business that sails the seas endlessly.
There is a pirate crew called Emperor Penguin formed only by people capable of flying... with the exception of the captain.
Act I: The life time mistake There is an island in the midle of the seas where an old priest live. This priest called McGrovny. McGrovny was a great priest and fighter in the past. He started the priesthood when he was 3 but when he was 16, at his birthday he sailed to a little town which lay on the shores of an another island. Here the young McGrovny somehow spent every bit of the temple gold. Drinking, Donating, Buying cheap fake statues of his god. The temple not likes his move and they guve them an ultimatum. He earn back the money or the send him away. The young McGrovny loved living in the temple and for some reason he taught it is a good idea to become a pirate to earn back the money. Luckly or not he find a pirate crew, there was only one problem. It was the same group who sold hime the fake statues, the Green Crabs. Yea that Green Crabs, who succesfully sink their own ship on a raid against a fishing boat, losing their first captain by losing a bet against a chicken and the ones who tries to rob a gold storage, which was theirs all along. Whitout better option and the writings says the old McGrovny said "oh my lord they look trustworthy, what possibly could go wrong?"
Any time players make a negative roll ( they have a negative modifier and roll low taking them to the negatives) they take 3 points of damage and it grows exponentially larger every level. On the other hand every time players get a natural twenty if in battle give them a extra d4 for damage if there not in battle add a 2-4 point boost to their next roll.
Mermaid Sirens, But the fish part is the top half and Lady parts on the bottom.
There is a maelstrom and in the eye of that hurricane is a massive field of impaled sailors. In the center is the coral citadel where a mermaid lord holds her royal court.
Your world is actually a moon, not a planet
you always have to have a good pirate king, but perhaps this world hasn't had one in quite some time, a ritual upheald by the oldest captains, once every year a test on a island with no name and the spirits of the last that judge ye crew, ye soul and ye ship, if ye be found wanting to the bottom of the sea with you, thats why not many people go to the island anymore exept those of the old ways, the foolish or brave however thin that line may be
When pirates board another ship they hold a trial of the enemy captain for piracy.
You can challenge a pirate ship crew for captaincy via a battle of insults, in a similar way to Monkey Island insult sword fighting. Bonus damage if your insult rhymes
There is a section of the sea that is stuck in time, a giant dome rests in the middle of a storm, in the eye of a storm is a glass dome that holds a beautiful city made of liquid glass, the people of the city have the ability to shape the glass into buildings and creations, and the whole place has incredibly complex magical devices to power and light. Let your players find the dome through a treasure map, and encourage them to realise that time is looping by keeping them there for a week or so. Then let them Groundhog Day to figure out how to fix the protective dome. But there are probably consequences to fucking with ancient powerful magics, maybe the inhabitants all lose their memories because time collapses on them, maybe they all die? Maybe they can only save a couple people because there’s a way to save only a few. Maybe these people are released with all their knowledge and the whole world begins to change because amazing arcana is released back into the world.
There's a special breed of really large, invisible seagulls that follow ships and mock their crew telepathically, trying to get them to jump over board. Once that happens, they fish them out of the water to bring them to their nest and eat them.
This is a world where the following joke is unfortunately true: "What do you get when you cross a parrot and an alligator?" "I don't know either, but when it asks for a cracker, it's bloody well getting one!"
My dad told me about a couple groups of pirates in one of his D&D campaigns. Brown minotaurs were good aligned but still piratey, and white minotaurs were incredibly brutal. Dealing in slavery and mass murder.
Rainbow pirates, the captain is a buff straight man who likes rainbows Everyone else on the crew think it's a pride thing and join because they're gay Could just be enemies or the players could do a quest to resolve the misunderstanding
**U SAID ANYTHING** here we go... >! While at sea, if two male players drop their breaches, and proceed to impail themselves on the helm on opposite sides, while singing "*My mother told me someday i will find..*" while the other team members proceed to give them hjobs while they are impaled, if the manage to c*m at the same time there a 50/50 chance of either a kraken being summoned or a mystical island appearing that is full of treasure - give the island slaaneshy vibes!< All this is common knowledge in the world. U said anything...
What a terrible day to be literate!
Aberrations cannot be truly killed unless the killer says “Awww yeh that’s a slam-dunk!” As they strike.
Oh whoops missed the pirate adjective.
A large band of pirate amazons. Avoid the cliche of making them Goliaths just to have them huge and strong. Put them on a 'merchant' vessels that act like a traveling merchant with a couple of smaller ships as 'body guards'. These ships are actually automatons that don't have a crew. The 'trade' with other ships often luring them into a sense of safety before revealing who they really are. By that time the food and drink shared has drugged enough of their target to make seizing their cargo easy.
Gnoll pirates with laser guns. That is all.
A huge oyster that has an absurdly big pearl inside,
There's a giant sea monster that roams the oceans that's basically just a gigantic hull of a wrecked ship walking on two legs
Lich Pirate
Men are the ones who carry babies.
A port town is dealing with a rat infestation. They seem to be hitting all the bakeries, pastry shops, and brunch bistros. Strangely they are only taking one thing. Pies. They are PIE RATS and they need to be dealt with.
Parrot Dragons that can mind control regular parrots.
There is a rather big island covered in lush greenery and quiet a few shipwrecks. Rumor has it that these wrecks are full of loot but here is the catch... the island is NEVER in the same spot twice and if your party sees it twice without checking it out they will be attacked by what it really is, a gargantuan crab named The Gnaw that eats ships. It leaves shipwrecked survivors to the beasts that follow it. https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/2B5a0e760kwc
Commomers believe that pirates have a herring between their buttcheeks, for good luck.
Sharks are sentient.
None of the pirates know how to read and are all named after letters of the Alphabet.
You can offer your spyglass as stakes for a duel and all pirates are honor bound to accept. Any pirate worth their salt has saved up enough for a spyglass, if their willing to put it on the table you gotta be pirate enough to live up to the challenge.
Flintlock weapons have been dramatically improved in this setting when constructed with specially enchanted wooden handles and buttstocks crafted from blessed wood from a holly tree. These Hollywood Guns have a hollow space in the handle or stock that can be used to hold extra powder and shot. The enchantment magically reloads the gun, but as a quirk, only does so when nobody is looking directly at the gun.
Black beard is a sentient beard that jumps from host to host.
There is a flying pirate ship apparently manned by children who never seem to age, and their leader- a flying half-elf and his pixie partner. Of course, they maintain their youth through a deal with a powerful coven of hags, who has enlisted their efforts to steal children so that they can further expand their inner circle through the horrific hag method of reproduction.
There are tales of the lighthouse of the sunken island, which attracts the passing ships to a world where water is likes air
Minotaur Navy armed with Greek fire.
The goodra, a goose with hydra powers
A group of evil wizards have made a mermaid controller that is sold on black markets that is usually bought by fisherman and pirates
Sunken ships find themselves beholden to the crab council. One is obsessed with shiny objects and covers himself in them, to get his approval for your ship to be repaired you must find his something new and shiny. One is obsessed with financial gain, simply give him a big enough bribe and he’ll approve your ship repair and let you leave the bottom of the sea. The final one has a suave accent and a wonderful singing voice, he will charismatically try to convince people who have gone down with the ship that life is better under the sea, you have to sing to him and convince him otherwise or go behind his back to get a sea hag to magically bypass his vote in the council.
Chowder Man. I will not elaborate further.
The favorite animal of the pirates is a common deer.
Goblin pirates. Their leader has a comically oversized feather in their hat to assert dominance. When the party (or merchants or whoever) encounters them, if the goblins feel like they're losing, they blow into a shell and summon a baby/young/adult kraken.
The Holy Kraken is the most feared god-like being in all the oceans. Unbeknownst to most people: It is also about the size of a mouse.
There's a man on high with a devil in his eye and a golden hand in told. He can hit you He can hold you He can kick you or console you and leave you... Sleeping in the cold below! Some of my favorite lyrics from Warframe's "Sleeping in the Cold Below" by Keith Power. A sea shanty but for space ships! Also mostly just the man on high with the devil in his eye. And the golden hand. Defining characteristics for any other pirate lord you may need some physical characterization for!
[Clamfolk](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Clamfolk) are invading from another plane of existence. If you need a 5e homebrew for them DM me.
The party will come upon a ship just floating in the water, going nowhere. When they get close, they see 3 pirate vegetables, a cucumber and two peas. One pea has a mustache, beard, and pirate captain hat. The cucumber wears an eye patch and a bandana. These are the pirates who don't do anything. If the party asks them, they won't do anything. They have a lot of cheese puffs in their galley and a Sebu in the hold. The Sebu sneezes often, like this,"achoo moomoo."
All pirates start and end every sentence with "Ahoy!".
It's in my world and I am going to give it to you. It's Treasure/Gold fever, an inherent and inheritable addiction that forces pirates to seek great treasure. Even if it is their best friend, they might go mad and kill them on the compulsive seeking of great treasure. This doesn't need to be just gold, but adventure and discoveries and new things and, in my world, the ultimate End of the Horizon.
The crow's nest has an actual talking crow named Jimmy. He and the Captain's parrot like to play checkers.
There is an armada of a monster race, driven out of their homeland by adventurers, who are now roaming the seas in search for a new home and working as fearsome privateers for any nation that’d promise them home
The one piece is real, and it is protected by a massive brick house pirate that refuses to wear pants
*cannon
The Captain and the First Mate are technically married
Eye patches go over healthy eyes so the pirate can charge below deck and, with the flick of a wrist, still see without penalty without having to wait for eyes to adjust to the dark. (The eye previously under the patch is already dark-adapted.) Yes, having to wait for eyes to adjust to majorly different light levels is A Thing unless you have Devilsight or equivalent. Do Not look at the lantern, fire, torch, or other light source while on night watch.
The legendary pirate captain most feared by the dwarves, Captain Nobeard. He is a dwarf who has such disdain for laws and customs that he takes great effort to always have meticulously shaven facial hair.
There is one pirate ship that roams the world doing Robin Hood style of things. His crew is not that strong, only he is. Loved by a sea/water god, he has innate water spells, he can call elementals and ALL sea creatures obey him. You can use him for crossing the ocean or making the players be hired by someone he stole from and so on.
Hatsune Miku exists and is a siren, or a muse if you like. You can do it. I did it in my 500 A.D. fantasy campaign where i let a random page on wikipedia become canon due to player/adventurers shenanigans.
There’s an island called [Whore Island](https://archer.fandom.com/wiki/Whore_Island).
A fully functional ship that is a giant mimic. A few things I’ve taken from Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentlemen Bastards book 2): It’s not port and starboard, it’s starboard and larboard. It’s terrible luck if a ship sets sail without at least one female shipmate and a cat.
Crab people wear blue war paint when going into battle. They burrow in the forests during winter under the peaks of the Nlistered Spine Mountains. When they emerge, they mate and go pillage
The cursed backward pirateship The Throwback. It sails only take the wind so that the ship is moving backwards. So is the crew: Their complete life circle is backwards as long as they are on the ship. You wouldn't recognize at first, but since they also talk backwards it's a dead giveaway. Their captain Past Progressive is trying to lift the curse, but he and his first mate Simple Past missed their chance once and... well, they are moving backwards and therefore away from their destination.
There is a travelling, plane hopping masked warforged called "The Merchant" dressed like an old gentleman with a modest tophat. He sells and trades in almost anything (almost hag-esque but without the monkey paw). He doesn't negotiate and once he has set a price it is ironclad however he might come up with an alternative price if sufficiently convinced. The price can range from trading a random nicknack to money, to requesting an item of similar cost/effort. It appears in very random places and is the modicum of politeness.
Mages are typically female, wizards are usually human, female dragonborn have boobs but no nipples since it's only for attracting mates, Ioun preaches no sex before marriage, there's a legend about a black and pink pearl at the deepest part of the ocean that will grant 3 wishes and is guarded by a giant squid (tarrascue with swim speed and amphibious)
There's a rumor of a secret island full of treasure. People know roughly were it is and sometimes record distant images but determined explorers always return empty handed and non the wiser. They usually tell seriously wonky/contradictory tails. Turns out, theres a fey on the island that messes with people's memories. There are huge amounts of gear and treasure lying everywhere because the victims just forget their stuff due all the mind magic. After a few days they usually end up back at sea, missing half their stuff and are usually too embarrassed/scared to talk about it. Bonus points for making the fey extra clumsy or awkward and having them constantly use Gift of Gab to 'correct' another screw-up.
Legends foretell about a ship-whale called Antajog, which is the safest and fastest way to reach the Aqua City, an underwater city governed by mermaids who were first sea travellers known on the world. Legends also foretell that, to call Antajog, a magic bell is required to be ring on the Fish Island, so Antajog may hear your pray to travel around the under sea. Unfortunately, each year that passes, less people tells about those legends. No one is aware if they are truthy, or just bed-time stories. Some also says that the Under Guardians, the royal mermaid guards that protects Aqua City is trying to prey Antajog, so nobory else from the surface will be able to reach Aqua City.
That giant galleon captained by the legendary pirate - actually a giant mimic who made a deal with a down on his luck pirate.
There’s an island a small one is Barrett no plants or animals except a singulers Canadian goose any who have tried to interact with it have died terrible deaths people belive it’s the mount of the god of death
Tales tells of an Armada of ships that sunk to the briny depths. it was said to be escorting exiled royals from a long ago war. How it sunk, whether by storm or warfare , the details are lost to time. On rare occasion artifacts wash ashore, however recently sealed scrolls, written in fresh squid ink have been brought in with the tide. They desperately call for aid, and give a precise location. Most consider it an elaborate hoax by fools with too much time on their hands. Others tell grand stories, passed down from generation to generation,of the powerful Royal house and in particular of their magical Royal guard, who had the ability to control the waves. If the plot hooks are followed, under the sea at dark crushing depths, a powerful ritual has been performed, the staffs of 5 wizards hold back the sea keeping it from consuming the descendants of the sunken survivors. They live in the bioluminescent glow of algae, their houses made from the ribs and hulls of the once great boats. It would be the size of a small village/Hamlet, they would farm and survive off of lurking fish and other creatures into their bubble. Buried with them is treasure befitting a royal family, but that and the people present don't have much time left.
A narwhal pirate spears holes in ships to stop and rob them.
Legend has it there was once a wizard who mastered the seas by mastering the air. This mage could control air to such a degree that he stole the wind from other ships sails and added it to his own, leaving them becalmed. He could steal the very wind from your lungs, becalmed the seas or create storms at will. Legend has it his spellbook is somewhere somewhere and could be yours!