The Fool's Venture

The Fool's Venture is a Watderdhavian fast caravel belonging to Neridan. The Fool's Venture, captained by neridan, plys the seas along the Sword Coast from Neverwinter to Calimshan, west as far as the Moonshae Isles. Neridan and his crew call Orlumbar home, but can often be found in the ports of Balder's Gate and Waterdeep, when looking for potential clients.

The Fool's Venture is a privateer ship, they hire themselves to wealthy merchants as protection, often escorting fleets of 4 or 5 heavily laden merchant vessels. She has proven herself very effective in running blockade agsinst pirates while the ships she escorts escape.

The Fool's Venture - Statistics

Base Move: 6 mph
Emergency Move: 7 mph (this is full sail, usually the crew cannot keep this up for more than an hour or two)
Crew: 23/50 (minimum/maximum)
Armor rating: 8
Seaworthiness: 70%
Saving throw: thick wood
Power type: Sail
Cargo Tonnage: 120 tons (this is not nearly as much as a full galleon, but allows Neridan to take on a decent load of cargo himself, and with the speed of his vessel he has often used this function to run blockades to bring supplies to places that need them, for a profit of course)
Keel length: 85'
Beam width: 20'
Armamment:
2 heavy ballistae (1 Forward-starboard, 1 forward-port)
   Range: 6 yds minimum/ 360 yds. maximum
   Damage: 3d10
   Crew: 4
   Rate of Fire: 1 per 4 rounds
   thac0: 12
   Critical Hit: 18+

1 light catapult (aft)    Range: 15 yds minimum/ 300 yds maximum
   Damage: 2d10
   Crew: 1
   Rate of Fire: 1 per 2 rounds
   thac0: 16
   Critical hit: 20
Modifications to the ship:
Increased Thickness to the hull - this increased the hulls Armor rating from 9 to 8, but ate up 20% of the cargo space (15o tons to 120 tons)
Extra Rigging - the masts have been topped out and extra rigging added to the vessel, this increased the base and emergency moves by 2 mph each, but increased the minimum crew needed for the vessel by 50% (15 to 23)
Netting - netting has been strung along the gunwhales of the ship to provide a barrier against boarding actions. Boarders must climb over or cut through the 10 foot high netting to come aboard, during which time they may be attacked by such objects as spears from within.
Crew:
Norlis 1st mate
   human fighter(pirate) lvl:6, Al: CN, AC: 5, HP: 40,
   thac0: 15 (14 cutlass specialized), #att: 3/2 (cutlass) or 1 (lt. crossbow),
   damage: 1d6+3/1d8+3 (cutlass) or1d8 (lt. crossbow) spd factor: 5 or 7

Lanshil Navigator/Ship's mage
   human mage lvl:7 al: CG, AC: 10, HP: 17
   thac0: 18 #att: 1 (dagger), damage: 1d4/1d3, spd factor: 2
   Spells 4 1st, 3 2nd, 2 3rd, 1 4th
Standard memorization:

1st: 2 x magic missile, 1 x shield, 1 x scatterspray(FR Adventures or Pages From the Mages)
2nd: 1 x mist magic (FR Halls of the High king adventure), 1 x flaming sphere, 1 x mirror image
3rd: 1 x Melf's Minute Meteors, 1 x Dispel Magic
4th: 1 x wall of ice

   1 fighter(pirate) lvl 4
   2 thieves(buccaneer) lvl 4
   1 thief(swashbuckler) lvl 4
14 fighters(pirate) lvl 1
6 fighters(swashbuckler) lvl 1
2 theves(buccaneer) lvl 1
4 thieves(swashbuckler) lvl 1

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