Meet the Crew of the Iron Wind

When I started this particular Pathfinder campaign I knew one thing for sure. I was gonna get them a ship. The very first adventure I ran for them ended with them possibly sailing away with their own ship. Which they did. A small ship, but a ship none the less. Then I took it away from them by magically transposing them to another part of Golarion against their wills.


Shortly thereafter I got it in my head that I would get them on to the crew of a flying ship. An alchemical dragon to be exact (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Combat page 187). I really didn't put much research into it in the beginning. I was willing to handwave the rules for flavor and building a crew that was full of cool characters. As the campaign progressed, it became more important that the ship and it's crew needed to be revisited.


Random encounters of flying beasts, storms and weather made it obvious to me that piloting the ship and protecting the ship had to be done by crew that could actually do those things. Initially I had a captain, first mate and a crew of generic sailors. Yet sailors are not the ideal crew for an air vehicle - the crew I had was actually worthless. There needed to be crew members that knew alchemy and arcana to keep this tub in the air.


So ... it's come to this. I've rehauled the crew.


The Captain: Bartol "Barstool" Ehrdrick
Male dwarf alchemist lvl 6
I discovered "Barstool" in the back matter of the Pathfinder comic book series "City of Secrets" #6. Immediately I knew I wanted him to own, pilot and captain "The Iron Wind." In the brief description it says he believes that dwarves must master flight and what better way then with an air ship?


First Mate: El'eeot
Tengu rogue lvl 6
When I chose this character it was a nod to a young man named Eliot who was part of our public play table at Legend Comics and Coffee. We've since moved the game out of the shop and into our homes and circumstances being what they are, lost a few players. El'eeot cannot contribute to the piloting of the ship in any way. Being one of the original crew he was there for flavor and as a tribute so it didn't matter then. But he is invaluable on the ship. He is the runner, motivator and mouth piece.


Quartermaster: Position unfilled.
The dwarven monk, Branock Ulgrehn, recently took leave of the ship to join the Monestery of Fallen Stars and his position has yet to be filled. Barstool did approach one of the PCs and offer the spot, but they turned him down. He is now accepting applications.


Boatswain: Dihak Nirati
Male dwarf investigator lvl 5
Dihak comes from an issue of Wayfinder. He is a desert dwarf from Osirion. But I transposed him to Qadira and used him to spark a quest line surrounding a magical legacy longsword forged by his father that he wished to reclaim and see put into the hands of a worthy hero of noble blood. The sword was reclaimed. But none of the crew are of a bloodline to unlock the blades secrets and power.


The rest of the crew was added to fill the roles needed to pilot the ship and to do all the physical tasks that accompany day to day living on such a vessel. They are a mix of iconic characters as well as from the NPC Codex, Game Mastery Guide and various third party sources.


Immerstal the Red: Male human wizard lvl 10
Tredora Goldenbrow: Female aasimar cleric lvl 9 (Medic)
Lars Ulverth: Male human fighter lvl 8
These first three are NPCs from one of my favorite D&D 3.5 modules "The Red Hand of Doom." I actually have taken two encounter areas from that module and story stitched them into this campaign to carry that love even further. I found Pathfinder converted stats of the
enemies and allies and put them on the crew.


Sokurah of the Stormbrides: Female suli ranger lvl 9
The crew picked up Sokurah from the module Feast of Dust which we recently completed. The Stormbrides are a band of wandering female desert rangers that the PCs aligned with during the course of that adventure.


Mavaro: Male human occultist lvl 7
Lem: Male halfling bard lvl 7
Lirianne: Female half-elf gunslinger lvl 4
Three of the iconics chosen for their skills in arcana and alchemy. Nothing more to it.


Havah: Female human expert lvl 1/rogue lvl 3
Tomax and Xamot: Male twin half-orc experts lvl 4 (Carpenters)
Frotix: Female halfling commoner lvl 4 (Cook)
Miriyam: Female human expert lvl 2/wizard lvl 2
Anando Veresisi: Male halfling aristocrat lvl 2
Brad: Male human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl1 (Shipmate)
Craig: Male human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl 1 (Shipmate)
Washington: Male human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl 1 (Shipmate)
Joseph: Male human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl 1 (Shipmate)
Cass: Female human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl 1 (Shipmate)
Seekrit: Female human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl 1 (Shipmate)
Marie: Female human expert lvl 1/warrior lvl 1 (Shipmate)


I'll be posting a bit of a follow up to this post wherein we will be putting some of the crew to the test as they do some research for the PCs while they are off ship exploring and looting the Tomb of the Iron Medusa.