Caislen Campaign Notes

Pirate Captain Salty Merlot was named by my players when for a starter adventure I whipped out some LEGO figures from a pirate set. This one was a captain figure and happened to have a green goblet in one hand, an a hook for the other hand. Even though I kept playing it as a knock off Jack Sparrow and claiming he wanted rum while prisoner, the goblet made them think of wine I suppose and “Salty” likely because it was on an ocean liner and the commentary he was making as a prisoner was perhaps salty I guess.

Anyway Pirate Captain Salty Merlot seemed fun, and eventually the ship went down and he miraculously ended up on the same island that the PCs washed up on, joined them for the rest of their level one adventure, struck up a bro-mance with BreadBert, and jumped through a portal to escape the island with the PCs as part of their party temporarily.

Not long after exiting the portal in a new inland area, Salty Merlot & BreadBert bought a cart at a flea market, two horses that were quickly named Sail 1 and Sail 2, and became the first ever “Land Pirates”, detaching from the party to engage in likely shenanigans along the area's highways in their “land ship” (cart). BreadBert being the “first mate” and Salty Merlot naturally being the Captain. Not long after they'd recruit Mustard Mike into the crew as well.

“Pirate Captain Salty Merlot” was once “Commodore Jack Grigio.” A dashing naval hero in service to a royal fleet. Known for unerring aim with a cannon and flair for dramatic rescues. As the story goes a kraken was attacking a whaling ship, where none other than Urist Saltbeard was the lead harpooner. Urist would not be alive today had it not been intervention by the Commodore and his ship where was near. “Commodore Jack Grigio” gained the moniker “Admiral Kraken’s Bane” for this.

A little down the line the Commodore, was now fully embracing the false title of Admiral, much to the annoyance of his superiors. He received orders to fire upon a peaceful tourist vessel and kill all, which he refused. His second mate did the deed instead, but the infamous blame went to the Commodore. Upset, now fired from the job for disobeying, he vanished for awhile, and when he returned to the seas on his own boat, with his pirate crew, he bore the name Pirate Captain Salty Merlot. This boat and crew fell apart when he met the party (see above).

Urist figures all this out during an encounter at The Card House in Goldvale one day.

Now, as a “Land Pirate” with his horse-drawn cart-ship The Wobbly Wench (complete with makeshift sails and a barrel of grog lashed to the side), he's adapted his seafaring antics to dusty roads, “plundering” shady caravans while wondering if he will ever make it back to the real sea to clear his name.

His pirate crew currently is having a bit of an existential crisis trying to define and draw lines between legal trading and pirate style activities, and wherever that goes should be amusing.