Dead Man’s Tale: An Island Pirate Adventure
A ship rocks back and forth, lost at sea in stormy waters. The party is weary and hopeless, until the day they find the sunny Flintlock Isles breaking through the
menacing horizon. As they sail closer, the party notices a volcanic rock sticking out the side of the island, carved in the shape of a massive leopard head.
As you’ll soon discover, this leopard head marks the entrance of Reaper’s Cove–the lost pirate city.
Legend has it, necromancer pirate Captain Houndstooth and his crew settled the island after finally locating it. However, Houndstooth lost his favorite ship, The Black Cerberus, on the jagged rocks of the Fire Spine. The mad pirate never forgave the Sea–and she never forgave him in return.
That is, until the goblin wizard Baron Bordeaux killed his evil captain–marrying the fool to a leopard he transformed into a woman– and took control of the Flintlock Isles. The island city, Reaper’s Cove, flourished from here for years and grew into a suitable exotic trading post.
However, The Sea has returned to a state of rage.
Explore the city, play pirate games and solve the mystery behind the lingering storm that surrounds the island–before the island is wiped out.
What the players are saying
The pirate adventure inspired a great new campaign for us that we are still working through. If anyone is looking for some new DnD content to inject into their campaigns, this is perfect. -Sam
We picked this up as a side campaign and it was legit so fun. I adapted my regular character to be more genre oriented. It was fun seeing my character in a new light. -Soothsayer
100% recommend! This is one of the most creative & exciting campaigns I have ever played. I constantly found myself thinking about the next game night & how I couldn’t wait to dive back into the pirate realm. -Harrison
My favorite part was the new surgeon class. Splicing pieces from fallen enemies was really fun and added a lot of creativity to our adventure. -B.Rhymes
What to expect
For characters level 3-5.
Dead Man’s Tale is an island pirate adventure that is compatible with the Dungeons and Dragons 5e play system (and SRD compliant). We’ve created a story full of mystery, horror and pirate casino games. Our adventure includes:
- New Surgeon Class:
Includes Tranquilizer and Splicer Subclasses. - New Pirate “MiniClass”:
Includes 3 levels of iconic Pirate features. - New Race:
The Mongru, a horrific combination of bat and goblin. - Pirate technology, gear and weapons
- 5 Pirate Casino Minigames
- New Boss Monster:
The ultimate creation, Specimen 13 - New Boss Monster:
The tentacled horror of the deep, Phylolynth - New Epic Boss Fight:
Captain Houndstooth and His Ghostly Crew - 5 Maps: Flintlock Isles, Bordeaux’s Manor, Bordeaux’s Lab
- A built-in story with stat rewards at its conclusion
Features
New Classes
Pirate Mini Class: Gain up to 3 levels of pirate based abilities, including: swimming, stable legs, map reading, firearm proficiency and Charisma checks.
The Surgeon Class: Gain bonuses to healing, small blades and learning monster weaknesses through examining bodies.
Choose between Splicer and Tranquilizer Surgeon subclasses.
Splicer Subclass: Use monster elements (Beast, Undead, Monstrosity) to upgrade yourself or allies with monster body parts.
Tranquilizer Subclass: Gain bonuses with hand crossbow range and accuracy. Create paralyzing darts.
The Mongru
New bat-goblin race created by Baron Bordeaux to survive the island. Includes special blindsight ability, climbing speed and gliding mechanic.
New Items
- Parrot and Sea Hawk arrows
- Crab Claw Chain Gun complete with grappling mechanic
- Double-bladed Oar Sword
- Leopard boots for enhanced climbing and stealth.
How we developed it
Dead Man’s Tale was created by two guys who’ve been playing RPGs together for a lifetime, including 3rd and 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
While most campaign material is made with worldbuilding, monsters and items in mind, we wanted to create something that added a built-in story that plays like a dungeon crawl.
Our concept is to expand the length of an epic dungeon into an entire island adventure with a lingering apocalypse in the atmosphere.
We hope this triggers a larger campaign for you to explore in pirate style, so we included treasures at the end that directly boost stats for your players. However, this also fits nicely into a weekend session or beer-drinking game night.
Thanks for checking us out!
Jared & Nick
Includes
An adventure for characters level 3-5
40 pages of pirate adventure
5 maps (one version for players/one version for Game Masters)
Original pirate games using Ability Scores and Dice Rolls.
Now available
Experience the lost island for yourself. This premade adventure leaves room for you to flex and mold the adventure with potential side quests and a large island to explore. However, the main storyline flows naturally enough to do the heavy lifting for you.
This adventure offers equal parts adventure, mystery and unique boss fights. We even through in a pirate casino to keep it spicy.
We’ve dumped hours into writing, designing and play-testing this flagship content (see what I did there), so we appreciate your interest and hope to hear back from you. Did you enjoy our adventure?
If you made it this far, thanks again!