I had mentioned in a post earlier in the week about the power imbalances in SoB and the fact that the heroes were doing badly and the overlord was 82 conquest ahead. End of last session the combined conquest came to 401 so last nights session started out on gold level. First thing the heroes did was cash in the treasure map at the "X marks the spot" location they were beside, and they managed to hit the Ancient Scroll so went digging for skills.

Then there was shopping for some shiny gold level weapons and theheroes went off on an adventure and rolled a sea encounter on the way.....

The setting is the Giant's Teeth. The encounter was Wolves at Sea. The Heroes were not ambushed so there are only 9 squares of open water between the Revenge and the Inferno. One hero moved and the encounter ended!

Nara the Fang, now with the skills, Spry, Nimble, Shark Tattoo and wearing the Knights ring plus another bonus 1 move ring did the deed. She had so much available movement when including fatigue that she just jumped off the ship, ran across the sea, hopped onto the deck of the inferno. She then grabbed the wheel and spun it pulling Inferno onto the rocks and killing everyone on board.

OL only gains 1 conquest for the dead hero because of the -3 value.

Heroes gain 2 for the dead master and get the loot while they're at it..

The nature of encounters has definitely changed thanks to a bit of shopping. But mostly, it was an awesome manoeuvre.

The 4th Man said:

ROFLMAO!

Lol, awesome story. But on a side note I don't think Nara the Fang would die because she had the swimming ability. When a ship crashes it just says that side loses the encounter, it doesn't say anywhere that everyone on board dies, especially someone with the swim skill. Just something to think about, I'm not sure if I'm right, but I don't think Nara should have died when she wrecked the ship. Awesome story though, lol looks like heroes get a lot better at Gold level as usual.

Kartigan said:

Actually on page 26 it does...but strangely it only says that if the Revenge is sunk, the surviving heroes in the encounter die (granting OL conquest) and are sent to their home port. It doesn't even state they need to be on board at the time it is sunk. If the NPC ship is sunk, the encounter ends as if the heroes had killed all the surviving monsters. I suppose its implied (but not stated) that the people on a sinking ship are what is killed. No mention of the swim ability (monster or NPC) is mentioned in the Sinking Ships section.

Is there FAQ clarity on the subject?

I actually think the reason the "surviving" heroes/monsters die is because they're just shortcutting time. If their boat sinks, it's only a matter of time before either the survivors drown or are hunted down by the other boat.

So, I don't think it's necessarily right to assume everyone on said boat dies when it sinks, though definitely something for a FAQ

-shnar

Agreed, it is something for a FAQ. The rules only state that if a boat sinks, everyone who "belonged" to that ship is killed and the encounter is over regardless of where they were when their ship sank. It doesn't really say anything about anyone dieing if they are on board when an enemy ship sinks. I think Shnar is right, they're just letting it be a time cut so you don't chase one stupid skeleton all over the map.

It does say during Island maps that if the Revenge flees the map, any heroes not on board or in town die unless they have the Swim skill or the Fly skill though. But I don't know that that has anything to do with encounters.