Adventure Type: One Shot
Adventure Goal: Sail a cargo ship from Seagate to Old Port while avoiding tariff zones.
XP Reward: AL appropriate XP and GP rewards, see below
VTT: Foundry VTT local server
Call: At session time, see Voice Channels on the Discord server.

Important Note:

This is a sandbox adventure designed for different tiers of play:

• AL 2 for character levels 1-3
• AL 5 for character levels 4-6
• AL 8 for character levels 7-9.

Leave a comment when signing up if you are also avaiable for other AL with your other characters. The final AL level run for the adventure would be decided by amount of signed up character tiers.

Notes:

A. If you are bringing a character or features from Esper's book, please provide those beforehand — if I have enough time, I will automate them for your convenience on Foundry. To save time converting your characters to Foundry VTT, please provide one of the following no later than 1 hour before session:

1. a D&D Beyond sheet;
2. a filled-out PDF or plain-text character sheet;
3. a fully filled-out character sheet on the website.

B. Rules: server rules RAW, 5.5e rules RAW.

C. This adventure uses homebrew rules for sea hexploration and naval combat. You don't have to know them as I will be guiding you through the mechanics. If you have experience with Ghosts of Saltmarsh or Limithron's Guide to Naval Combat - count yourself knowing the rules.
Link here.

Description

The cargo is already aboard.

Crates sealed under the mark of Basilius Merkinador, a trader out of Seagate, sit lashed beneath canvas in the hold of a modest but seaworthy vessel. The destination is Old Port, a port that should be only a manageable voyage away — if the ship follows the usual sea lanes, submits to inspection, and pays the new tariffs imposed across the safer waters.

Basilius has no intention of doing that.

Instead, he has hired adventurers to crew, guard, and guide the ship along the Marikinos Sea with unreliable charts, and open water just outside the declared tariff zones. The passage is legal enough to argue over later, but dangerous enough that ordinary sailors want no part of it.

The party must keep the vessel moving, protect the cargo, avoid patrols and tariff beacons, and make hard decisions when storms, hostile ships, sea hazards, and suspicious signal lights threaten to force them back into taxed waters. Every wrong turn risks delay, damage, inspection — or worse, losing the cargo entirely.

Basilius calls it a simple delivery.