Player succeeded in gaining control of the land and sea portion of the smuggling operation. They are using two surviving hobgoblins as lieutenants, sending one to go give the lizardfolk the weapons and mining equipment in an attempt to buy their allegiance (party knows nothing about the sahuagin or lizardfolk reality at the moment), and sending the other to deliver the heads of the Sea Ghost leadership to the Saltmarsh council as proof of them eliminating the smuggling operation.
The hobgoblin with the ship is then to go find a buyer for the ship and remaining smuggled goods (player's trying to get 7,000-10,000g out of it) as he intends to dissolve the entire operation in favor of taking the manpower and creating a mercenary group out of it.
Meanwhile the player attempted to convince the council to fund his future mercenary outfit to take care of whatever problems they have to which the council said no, but they're welcome to go about taking odd jobs from the town guard commander stating they have no interest in funding someone else's start up simply because that someone can't fund it themselves. They also threw a counter-proposal that said that they would entertain another, more measured talk, if the player (and party) investigate what is going on with the lizardfolk.
So here I am, lol. I don't believe I am too far off the beaten path of the module, but I am trying to figure out how to play out this player's ambitions. Which appear to simply be 'playing the city and lizardfolk against each other and amassing an army to take everything because' (isn't even a backstory reason, lol).
The party thinks they took out the whole of the leadership of the Sea Ghost, but the ship wizard disguised themselves before coming onto the deck and remains hidden among the crew (which is all still the original Sea Ghost crew minus the captain, first mate, and bosun). I had thoughts of a mutiny or some manner of reveal, but haven't settled on anything.
Curious to see what others might think of this situation and how they might look to play it out, lol.
So here's the situation I'm in:
Player succeeded in gaining control of the land and sea portion of the smuggling operation. They are using two surviving hobgoblins as lieutenants, sending one to go give the lizardfolk the weapons and mining equipment in an attempt to buy their allegiance (party knows nothing about the sahuagin or lizardfolk reality at the moment), and sending the other to deliver the heads of the Sea Ghost leadership to the Saltmarsh council as proof of them eliminating the smuggling operation.
The hobgoblin with the ship is then to go find a buyer for the ship and remaining smuggled goods (player's trying to get 7,000-10,000g out of it) as he intends to dissolve the entire operation in favor of taking the manpower and creating a mercenary group out of it.
Meanwhile the player attempted to convince the council to fund his future mercenary outfit to take care of whatever problems they have to which the council said no, but they're welcome to go about taking odd jobs from the town guard commander stating they have no interest in funding someone else's start up simply because that someone can't fund it themselves. They also threw a counter-proposal that said that they would entertain another, more measured talk, if the player (and party) investigate what is going on with the lizardfolk.
So here I am, lol. I don't believe I am too far off the beaten path of the module, but I am trying to figure out how to play out this player's ambitions. Which appear to simply be 'playing the city and lizardfolk against each other and amassing an army to take everything because' (isn't even a backstory reason, lol).
The party thinks they took out the whole of the leadership of the Sea Ghost, but the ship wizard disguised themselves before coming onto the deck and remains hidden among the crew (which is all still the original Sea Ghost crew minus the captain, first mate, and bosun). I had thoughts of a mutiny or some manner of reveal, but haven't settled on anything.
Curious to see what others might think of this situation and how they might look to play it out, lol.
Level the ship’s captain up as the PCs level up and use him as an ongoing villain.
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