Tortage Help...

[Tyrant]

Okay,
so I'm in the process of writing a pirate based based campaign for my gaming group (12 players. Help...) and I really want to make this a great experience since some of these people have only recently started playing RPG's, and most of them have never read any Conan at all. They only know the name from the movies and my constant harping about what a great world it is.

So now, I've got the Pirate Isles book and the Messantia boxed set, but I really need information on Tortage, since that's where their main base of operation will be.

Does anyone know of any source material I can check out that might describe the settlement? Names of inns, city layout (well, not really a city is it?) notable characters, that sort of thing?

Thanks.

 

[GregLynch]

Three books/stories I can think of off the top of my head that involve Tortage:

-Conan the Buccaneer
-Pool of the Black One
-Conan of the Isles

 

[SALette]

Use the historical/real Tortage.

Howard certainly did!

Tortage was the port of call for many a pirate crew throughout that period.
Careful research on the Net, or at a library, will probably even find an actual map of this old towne.

Between that, and general information on piracy from history, and you're all set to go!

 

[René]

I'm sure, over there in Canada are some short (ca. 100p.), but good semi-scientific books that deal with piracy in our world (for German GMs: "Die Piraten" from Beck Verlag). There you get a lot of information about pirate culture beyond raiding and dividing of treasure, i.e. about their governmental types, their social life, their conflicts with native inhabitants of the their isles, their agriculture etc., which you usually miss in RPG supplements.

I use these books regularly to give my adventures some realistic background, e.g. a book about the Silk Road is wonderful to detail a campaign along the Road of Kings (you get even some atmospheric pictures: the Silk Road today is used by camels as it was 1000 years ago). The same about Kozaks.

 

[Tyrant]

Tortage was a real place?
I had never heard of it before. I had always assumed that Howard based Tortage on the isle of Tortuga. I've tried a number of web searches for Tortage, but all I get are Conan references. Oh well, I suppose I can always do research on Madagascar and pirate havens in the West Indies and use that.

Still, I think a boxed set from Mongoose on Tortage would be pretty neat.

Thanks guys.

 

[strategoi_nikolai]

I think Tortage = Tortuga.

I have a bunch of the "7th Sea" RPG books (both Roll & Keep and d20 versions) that I may have to plunder (no pun intended) for maps and ideas if/when my players decide to go off and undertake a pirate's life.

Yo ho! :wink:

 

[slaughterj]

Here's a pirates info link: http://beej.us/pirates/#docs

Has a pretty weak map of the fort at Tortuga.

More pirates info at piratesinfo.com, especially for Tortuga at:

http://www.piratesinfo.com/detail/detail.php?article_id=69

 

[Seeker]

Have you (or anyone) tried adapting Green Ronins Freeport supplement to a Pirate Isles campaign?

Also, there was a good description of a sword and sorcery Tortage-type town in the novel "Thongor and the Pirates of Tarakus" by Lin Carter but you may find this a bit hard to track down.

I think some of the Savage Sword of Conan stories (Issue 199 ?) were set in Tortage.

I also found the Kane story "Undertow" useful in describing Messantia (sea port build on ancient ruins).

 

[ahzad]

Have you (or anyone) tried adapting Green Ronins Freeport supplement to a Pirate Isles campaign?

I think Freeport is a great fit for this game. Sure it's a bit more D&D-y than Conan but Pramas is a big fan of the pulps and it comes thru in the products w/ ties to the cthulhu mythos and REH w/ the King in Yellow, Yig, and the serpent men and others.

Even if you want to stay more true to the baseline Conan game it's very easy to strip out the more D&D-y elements and either ignore and replace them as needed w/o a whole lot of work.

 

[Seeker]

Tyrant,

If you are looking for a plot for a Tortage scenario, how about this one.
I am developing it for use in my campaign. It is based on the Thongor story above and other sources.

Swords of the Western Ocean

Chapter 1

The PCs are passengers on a merchant ship sailing from Messantia to Kordava.

They meet a ship drifting aimlessly, its crew apparently having gone raving mad and killed each other.
Boarding the ship, the PCs are attacked by a few insane survivors.

A ship of the Zingaran navy appears. It warns the PCs that a war has erupted between Zingara and the Pirate Isles. A war involving not just ships but also dark sorcery.

The Pirate-King of Tortage has allied himself with a group of sinister black cloaked figures, some say Stygians or other Cultists of Set. They have caused Zingaran ships to disappear and crews to go mad.

When a number of Pirate ships appear on the horizon, the navy ship escorts the PCs to Kordava. There they are introduced to Duke Carolo, a naval officer.

The Duke fears a large scale attack and asks the PCs if they will pretend to join the Red Brotherhood, discover the size of the fleet and the time of the attack.

He gives the PCs a suitable ship and crew and they head for Tortage. Enroute, the ship is assulted by a Sea Dragon (Pirate Isles supplement) who kills most of the crew before suddenly withdrawing.

A pirate ship then appears. The dragon seems under the control of a hooded figure on the bridge. The Pirates come aboard to finish off the PCs.

The PCs now have the oppurtunity to fight the Pirates and prove their worth. If the PCs ask, they will be given the chance to join the Brotherhood in Tortage.

TO BE CONTINUED .................

 

[Bregales]

Tyrant,

If you are looking for a plot for a Tortage scenario, how about this one.
I am developing it for use in my campaign. It is based on the Thongor story above and other sources.

Swords of the Western Ocean

Chapter 1

The PCs are passengers on a merchant ship sailing from Messantia to Kordava.

They meet a ship drifting aimlessly, its crew apparently having gone raving mad and killed each other. Boarding the ship, the PCs are attacked by a few insane survivors.

A ship of the Zingaran navy appears. It warns the PCs that a war has erupted between Zingara and the Pirate Isles. A war involving not just ships but also dark sorcery.

Hmmm, very interesting, nice idea. The PCs may need to coax the merchant ship to approach, for sailors are very superstitious men in settings like this, and would be loathe to approach an accursed-seeming ship. The same with the Navy - with the crew if not the command officers.

The Pirate-King of Tortage has allied himself with a group of sinister black cloaked figures, some say Stygians or other Cultists of Set. They have caused Zingaran ships to disappear and crews to go mad.

When a number of Pirate ships appear on the horizon, the navy ship escorts the PCs to Kordava. There they are introduced to Duke Carolo, a naval officer.

The Duke fears a large scale attack and asks the PCs if they will pretend to join the Red Brotherhood, discover the size of the fleet and the time of the attack.

Nice setup between the Barachan pirates (aka Red Brotherhood) and the Zingarans.

He gives the PCs a suitable ship and crew and they head for Tortage. Enroute, the ship is assulted by a Sea Dragon (Pirate Isles supplement) who kills most of the crew before suddenly withdrawing.

A pirate ship then appears. The dragon seems under the control of a hooded figure on the bridge. The Pirates come aboard to finish off the PCs.

The PCs now have the oppurtunity to fight the Pirates and prove their worth. If the PCs ask, they will be given the chance to join the Brotherhood in Tortage.

TO BE CONTINUED .................

Interesting, bizarre setup. Given how loathe Barachans and Argosseans are to deal with Stygians, I'm suspecting plenty more plot complications, but sounds like a really nice plot.

 

[Tyrant]

Hey Seeker,
those are some pretty interesting ideas. I'll certainly adapt them to fit my game. I particularly like the concept of an actual war between the pirates and Zingara.

I had never really pictured the Red Brotherhood to be cohesive enough to mount the kind of effort it would take to wage an honest to goodness war on any established nation. But the idea of a pirate king whose got enough strength of will to forge a bunch of cut throat reavers into a real naval power is very intriguing, and could open up a whole realm of story ideas, not least of which would be the efforts by both Zingara and Argos to have him killed...

Of course, in my game the players will be pirates of the Red Brotherhood, so which side of the fence they land on this will be interesting.

 

[Seeker]

Glad you liked the idea, thanks for your feedback.

Again most of it comes form different sources eg Road of Kings, "Darkness Weaves" story by KEW, Freeport, Thongor etc.

Here how I though it might continue:

Swords of the Western Ocean

Chapter 2

The PCs arrive at Tortage. They were unable to see much of the hooded figure as he well guarded. He seemed a young bald man of Stygian extraction.

The city of Tortage is located on the main island of the Pirate Isles. It has stone houses and cobbled streets. The fortress of the Pirate-King looms over the city.The stygian disappeared into the Fortress.

Many ships inhabit the harbour. Ruffians of every nation swagger through the streets.

Over the next few days, the PCs start to be accepted as Pirates. (If your team are playing Pirates, this is a good place to enter them into the scenario)

Their days are filled with drinking, brawling and arm-wrestling. The GM can introduce some friendly NPCs at this point.

If the PCs ask about the Stygians, they are told that they appeared from nowhere on the island about a year ago. Their leader is a mysterious figure known as Kamenwati who offered their services to the Pirate-King. The lesser cultists claim that he appeared to them in Stygia and led them to Tortage.

There is little love for the Stygians and their sorcery on the isles but the Pirate-King has ordered that they be left alone.

From time to time, the lesser cultists head off to small island in the Barachan Island group. Some curious Pirates ventured out there but did not return.

The PCs manage to persuade their friends to sail out to and investigate the island. Once there, they discover secret caves guarded by undead (the overcurious Pirates).

The cultists are creating Sea Dragons in pools in the caves with strange liquids. A shrine to Set is in one cave.

The PCs attack the cultists and though most are human, when slain one of them changes into a Serpent-man, the snake that walks.

TO BE CONTINUED ......................

 

[VincentDarlage]

Does anyone know of any source material I can check out that might describe the settlement? Names of inns, city layout (well, not really a city is it?) notable characters, that sort of thing?

Thanks.

Perhaps a bit late for your needs, but my article on Tortage is appearing in Signs and Portents #24.

 

[Tyrant]

Not too late at all.
I'm looking forward to reading the article. The only problem is, it's hard for me to get Signs & Portents here. None of my local game retailers carry it. I guess I can always order the copy online though...

Can you please give us the gist of what's included in the article?

Thanks.

 

[Seeker]

Hi.

Final part.

Swords of the Western Ocean Chapter 3

If the PCs interrogate one of the surviving acolytes of Kamenwati, they discover the Serpent mans plan.

Kamenwati was one of the orginal serpent men who survived being hunted by King Kull. He fled to Stygia (at that time, the land of the Giant-Kings).

He put himself into a mystic trance and slept until awoken by Stygian Tomb robbers. Slaying the robbers, he assumed the form of a Stygian and departed Sytgia with his followers.

Seeking to revenge himself on mankind and resurect ancient Valusia (the Serpent Man Empire), he allied himself with the Pirate-King. He offered the King magical support but plans to double-cross him.

Kamenwati intends to lead the Pirate Fleet against Kordava, attacking with his madness magic and Sea Dragons. Once he has seized the city, he will use it as a base, resurrect the slain into a mighty undead army and conquer Zingara.

Already a mighty sorceror, his power will grow with the blood spilt and he then intends to conquer Aquilonia and Nemedia.

When the PCs return to Tortage, the fleet has sailed. With their Pirate allies, they must sail between the fleet during the battles, overhaul the Kings ship and slay the sorceror before Kordava burns and the undead army rises.

Over to you guys.

 

[Hadrathas]

Here is another link to an article by Foundry Miniatures, has a map and everything...

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/library/tortuga.asp

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hi guys,

We have just what you are looking for in issue 24 of Signs & Portents - check out the Announcements forum!

 

[Fernando]

I've never readed the Howard's tale "The Black Stranger". Does this story tell something about Tortage?

 

[Hadrathas]

I haven't read the Black Stranger in awhile but to my recollection, Tortage may be mentioned but nothing much more than that. The Black Stranger takes place on the coast of the Pictish wilderness...