Docks At Ransom
Pinned to the Notice Board
A mostly neat handwritten note reads:
Pirate Legion Holds Docks at Ransom
Unless an impossible fortune can be amassed and delivered before the month’s end the outlaws promise to unleash a devastating sea monster upon us.
Adventurers wanted to coordinate with Docks Lieutenant Aria in investigating the validity of this threat, and if necessary sabotage their plot.
For your success you will be rewarded with gold and the seafarer’s artifact The Tidespeak Amulet
Ways to approach
First of all, can we talk about how awesome a pirate legion sounds? Have they always been around in your world or is this a recent coalition in an attempt to gain more power? If it is recent perhaps that's your party's way in (both for an investigation AND for disrupting the plot in a way that doesn't actually deal with a devastating sea monster.
Similar to another poster of mine where the pirates were secretly building a fleet, this one is suitable for any type of party - whether they like to go in quietly or canons blazing. I think this one, however, has the potential to be stretched into a much larger arc and can culminate in a much more climactic fight depending on what happens. The poster doesn't say what the ransom is, so you can really let your creativity fly on this one - the note might not even specify a sea monster and that's just an assumption.
How would I run it? I’m torn between two different approaches. For the first one, I’d operate on the twist that the monster isn’t shackled but is actually the abyssal brains behind the whole operation, using the pirate legion to set up a domain on this mortal plain, however, it has a strange sense of honor, hence why it gives the locals a chance to buy their lives. On the other hand, I could lean into the idea of this being a shackled monstrosity which really should stay a prisoner for the world’s benefit and leaving the party with a moral dilemma; defeat the legion but free the creature, or keep the creature shackled and let the legion go? In both instances I would love to let the Cthulu-inspired monster into the thoughts of the characters, either manipulating them or messing with them.
