Hornswoggle Port

Hex 16.26. A den of thieves not for the faint of heart, crawling with PIRATES, freebooters, and scalawags. Every sailor worth their salt celebrates their booty hauls in Hornswoggle Port's seaside swill-houses.

Despite the long reach of the Mucklands Trading Co., Hornswoggle has remained untouched by maritime authority, mostly due to the precarious waters of the Shipwreck Straits guarding its shores, and a longstanding stalemate between the megacorporation and the most powerful pirate crews. The port, a collection of winding wooden piers, is sprinkled with a few buildings, but the main attractions are the countless docked pirate ships and the impressive array of mounted cannons, which clearly suggest, "outsiders not welcome."

locations

• The Evil Eye (p292)
• Four Sheets To The Wind (p293)
• The Pine Box (p294)
• The Sea Weasel (p295)

what's going on

• The Dread Pirate Daggerheart is so successful that his rivals have formed the Mucklands Pirate Court.
• The Court and their allies are forming a grand alliance to destroy the Daggerheart's fleet of ships, so they can divvy up the spoils and reclaim their proper place as feared freebooters. At which point, the alliance shall be dissolved.
• SARPATHI REAVERS are competing for the loot stolen from merchant ships out of Muckland Harbor. PIRATES may not be honest, but they certainly aren't as ruthless as the sarpathi.

sights and sounds

1. PIRATES scowl at each other around a rickety table playing Rascal Rummy.
2. A parrot squawks "Landlubbers! Landlubbers!" as the PCs approach.
3. A one-eyed pelikin ruffles their feathers as a monkey runs off with his coin purse.
4. A shabby looking freelancer snatches a wanted poster from a bulletin board that shares an eerily similar likeness to themself.
5. Cheery PIRATES sing a sea shanty together as they disembark their ship with oodles of booty.
6. Boggles with red bandanas strain and shout "Heave! HO! Heave! HO!" as they utterly fail to lift a bronze cannon into a boat. The thing doesn't even budge.

rumors

• Hook Rat Holiday is hiring mercenaries for his Cyclops Pirate crew to track down the Dread Pirate Daggerheart.
• Nothing Silvertooth Sammy says can be taken for absolute truth, but he claims he served with the Dread Pirate Daggerheart himself.
• Captain Verma stole a treasure map from the Felmog Outriders and keeps it located in an iron box beneath her bed on the Pine Box. No one knows where the map leads, but it has been surmised that it leads to an Eye of Ehk.
• Four Sheets To The Wind is the most raucous, dangerous tavern in all the Mucklands.

outbound rumors

• No one knows where the Dread Pirate Daggerheart lays anchor but Silvertooth Sammy has an idea.
• Landlubber Lowry's famed ship the Barking Butcher was scuttled somewhere near Shipwreck Island, and many speculate that treasure went down with it.

the evil eye

Flagship of the Cyclops Pirates. The Evil Eye is a massive galleon and the biggest ship in Hornswoggle Port with the biggest PIRATE crew in Scalawag Strand. However, quantity doesn't always mean quality. The Cyclops are known for their numbers but not necessarily their cunning or skill. But try telling that to Hook Rat Holiday.

HOOK RAT HOLIDAY

PIRATE captain of the largest vessel in Hornswoggle, The Evil Eye, and arguably the most powerful member of the Pirate Court. Hook Rat has a vocal hatred for the Dread Pirate Daggerheart, as well as the marauding sarpathi. And he has has aspirations to be the most feared scoundrel in all the Scalawag Strand.

• Traits: Vicious, wicked grin, suffers no fools.
• Motivation: Destroy the Daggerhearts and take over the Scalawag Strand as a Pirate King.

quests

THE SMUGGLER'S GAMBIT

Hook Rat Holiday needs a hapless—ahem, a daring adventurer—to run the Muckland Bay blockade. Your ship will be loaded up with lots of stolen loot: mostly salvaged Mucklands Trading Co. armaments and shrym tech (no peeking!). This stuff is hot and if you're boarded by an inspection crew, you'll be put in prison for a century. That's why two Cyclops ships will be launching a full scale attack on the Mucklands Trading Co. Navy as a distraction. While the battle rages, slip through the blockade undetected and make it to the harbor.

• The PCs' ship is actually a second decoy; none of the valuable goods are loaded onto it. The crates are filled with straw and debris.
• The real cargo ship is trailing the PCs, as Holiday fully expects the Navy to pursue the PCs even with an assault underway.

THE BLASTING POWDER HEIST

Hook Rat Holiday is a wily old PIRATE looking for a few wily privateers to pull a heist and steal a shipment of shrym explosives from a Subterranean Pits and Liars, LLC transport ship. The SPL ship, GS Wozinski, is heavily guarded with MERCENARIES, and is leaving Muckland Harbor tomorrow night! There's no time to dilly-dally.

• The deck is guarded by eight MERCENARIES (6×L4-G, 2×L6-B).
• Down two levels is the cargo hold, but one must pass the galley and mess hall levels where SPL is having an “office” party, celebrating the fiscal year.
• The explosives are packed into six large barrels in the cargo hold of the ship, and are highly volatile: the littlest spark or a significant disturbance will set off a massive explosion. Two MERCENARIES (L6-B) protect the cargo hold.
• There are other goods such as food and water stored in similar barrels, except without DANGER written all over them.

four sheets to the wind

The tavern hub of Hornswoggle Port where PIRATE folk come to take a load off and get plastered. The place is always packed with rowdy, drunken scalawags, singing sea shanties, throwing darts, and inevitably having knockdown dragout fights.

DUNGBIE WEATHERS

A surly old PIRATE who smells like brine. Dungbie is the barkeep of Four Sheets To The Wind. He speaks in raspy grunts that everyone seems to understand except for outsiders. Notoriously, when a bar fight goes down on his watch, old Dungbie pulls out his blunderbuss and starts firing willy-nilly.

• Traits: Unintelligible, crotchety, trigger happy.
• Motivation: Keep the pirates full of glog and squelch any mutinous behavior.

SILVERTOOTH SAMMY

A boggart aristocrat with beetles in his powdered wig, Sammy is a well-known liar and exaggerator, and the best Huzzah player this side of the Middle-Route Run. He claims to be a former member of the Dread Pirate Daggerheart's crew.

• Traits: Liar, cheat, proper and courteous.
• Motivation: Make himself relevant and useful to the Pirate Court, so he doesn't mysteriously disappear at sea.

quests

THE PRICE OF A TOOTH THESE DAYS

Silvertooth Sammy might be a great Huzzah player, but sometimes his gambles come up stink-eyes. He's gotten word that he has a price on his head, more specifically, a price on his silver tooth. Now BOUNTY HUNTERS and cutthroats are after him. So, naturally, Sammy wants to fake his own death in spectacular fashion, with a funeral and everything. Pull it off and trick everyone, and Sammy will tell you where to find the Daggerheart base.

• Sammy believes the Dread Pirate Daggerheart is to blame for the bounty, but isn't sure if that's true. After all, he didn't steal THAT much from Daggerheart, did he?
• Sammy knows the Daggerheart base is on Lookout Island, but he has no idea how to get inside.

PIRATE GAMES

There's always a game to be played at Four Sheets To The Wind whether it's cards, darts, or arm rasslin'. If you win a round of all three games without losing in one night, well that's called a Triple Tricorn Trifecta. Anyone who could pull off such a feat would surely gain the respect of Hornswoggle PIRATES.

• Pirate Peeknuckle: Roll 2d10 with the goal of getting Menu
• Cheap Glog: It'll put hair on your butt. Gain +1 Mettle for 1d4 hours. Copper •.
• Fancy Glog: The good stuff. Gain +1 Mettle and Charm for 1d4 hours. Silver •.
• Pickled Cacklefruit: Eggs plucked from the nest of a cackletrice. Heal 2 Courage. Copper •. closest to 19 without going over; players can keep rolling 1d10 until they exceed 19. No one remembers why "pee" and "knuckles" are involved.
• Dart Throwin': PCs face off against a maximum of 3 opponents until bested. Players must get exactly 19 points to win (if they would go over 19, they score nothing that turn). Players can earn and use a meta currency called Finishing Points to help themselves hit 19 points exactly. Each turn, make a Nimbleness Check:
• 1-2. 0 points
• 3-5. 1 point
• 6-8. 2 points
• 9-11. 3 points
• 12+. 5 points. Earn 1 Finishing Point.
• Arm Rasslin': PCs face off against a maximum of 3 opponents until bested. Each turn, roll opposed Might Checks, best 2 out of 3 wins.
• HEROIC TITLE ACHIEVEMENT: Win all three games for a Triple Tricorn Trifecta.
• Triple Tricorn Trifecta Champ•. Non-hostile PIRATES have an attitude of respect toward the PC.

the pine box

The flagship of the Woodenfoot Pirates. The Pine Box is a boxy galleon with an abnormally tall forecastle mounted with a mega cannon. Captain Verma runs a tight ship of efficient and ruthless PIRATES that you'd never mistake for lily-livers.

CAPTAIN VERMA “WOODENFOOT”

The one-legged, goblin matriarch of the infamous Woodenfoots, a band of PIRATES that terrorize Shearwater Bay. She can be found aboard her ship The Pine Box. A member of the Pirate Court, Verma is closely allied with “Hook Rat” Holiday, but has reservations about outright war with the Dread Pirate Daggerheart.

• Traits: Strategic, penetrating glare, menacing cackle.
• Motivation: Recruit the largest crew of pirates to work her growing fleet of Woodenfoot ships.

quests

AN END TO THE DAGGERHEARTS

The Pirate Court will stop at nothing to bring down the Daggerhearts, who have a stranglehold on piracy in the Mucklands. If only the Pirate Court knew where the Daggerhearts' secret hideout was, they could launch an attack with the might of the Woodenfoot, Barking Butcher, and Cyclops crews. If you ever find the Daggerheart base in your travels, tell no one and head straight to the Pirate Court!

• If the PCs return with information about the Daggerheart base (p325), Verma Woodenfoot offers the PCs a ship in her fleet. The Pirate Court immediately sets out to launch a full scale attack on Lookout Island.
• A naval battle ensues, but the Daggerhearts are always prepared for a siege, and ships lie in wait, hiding behind the rocks near the island, ready to flank any incoming attackers.
• HEROIC TITLE ACHIEVEMENT: Find the Daggerheart base, report back to the Pirate Court, and participate in the battle.
• Daggerheart Breaker•. PC gains renown and Advantage on Intimidate Checks against PIRATES and sailors.

AVAST YE, WOODENFOOTS

Captain Verma Woodenfoot is recruiting a crew for her new ship the Stubby Plank. Not just any rapscallion will do, though. You must complete three trials to join the crew, no more, no less. Should you succeed, the ship is yours to sail under the official Woodenfoot Flag.

• Trial the First: Slap a GATOR on the snout and look it in the eye before you pluck out one of its teeth, for no Woodenfoots be cowards or slow.
• Trial the Second: Pluck a river baron's whiskers, for there is no lower fiend than one who pilfers a pauper's pocket.
• Trial the Third: Pluck a SKROKWING'S feather, and kiss the peak of Skroknest Mountain, bidding the land below farewell, for a life at sea be the future for ye.

the sea weasel

Flagship of the Barking Butchers. The Sea Weasel is a fast brigantine outfitted with drakewing sails and copper plating to make it really soar in the water. The Barking Butchers are a rambunctious bunch, especially since their captain, Landlubber Lowry, became bedridden. But Lowry still goes out on raids every now and then, barking orders from his quarters. He still intends to retrieve his pride and joy, the Barking Butcher, that was lost at sea.

LANDLUBBER LOWRY

A bedridden, bogril PIRATE lord with a poor constitution, but a rich network of seadog allies throughout Scalawag Strand. Lowry was formerly captain of the carrack The Barking Butcher. He is a proud member of the Pirate Court, though his ship was scuttled and his crew mostly engages in small raids on civilian ships out of Muckland Harbor.

• Traits: Ailing, backstabber, tyrannical to his servants.
• Motivation: Navigate the politics of the Pirate Court and ally himself with the victor.

quests

THE BARKING BUTCHER

Landlubber Lowry, confined to his bed, croaks and coughs about his lost ship, the Barking Butcher. It was a stormy night when everything went wrong, and the crew had to scuttle the ship to prevent the Daggerhearts from stealing their precious booty. Now Lowry will pay handsomely for the ship to be found and the booty retrieved. The Barking Butcher was last seen off the coast of Shipwreck Island.

• Much of the wreck is underwater where LIGER SHARKS (L4-B) and CONQUEROR CRABS roam. One LIGER SHARK (L10-B) in particular, known as Deadeyes, has munched many overboard PIRATES.
• Dragging out the actual Barking Butcher requires a tugboat which can be commissioned in Muckland Harbor (p275) and Anchorbottom (p289), or a dredge, which can be found on Conquered Key (p264).
• Lowry's booty is a locked chest, an Old Hoard (+2) that also contains a skeleton key to any door at Unassailable Co. Headquarters—absurdly valuable.

A PARTY FOR PIRATES

The Barking Butchers are a rowdy bunch of party animals. But no one's organized enough to throw a proper shindig for Captain Landlubber Lowry's seventy- seventh birthday. His first mate, Orange Lungbutter, will pay Ancient Coins to throw the party (you keep whatever you don't spend). Since Lowry can't exactly get out of bed these days, Lungbutter wants to bring the fun to him. Design and plan a party with a theme that showcases each region of the Mucklands. Really make it feel like Lowry is traveling and pirating like the old days. Oh, and if Lowry doesn't like it, you're dead meat.

• Landlubber Lowry is difficult to please if you don't know what he likes. And what he likes is callous humor, ruthlessness, and melodramatic soap operas.
• He wants to feel the thrill of the old days, but anyone who treats him like a doddering old man or patronizes him is in for some trouble.
• The other PIRATES (L7-G) attending are happy if there are glog and party games involved. Otherwise they get antsy and are liable to start an all-out brawl.