Battle of Abendego


Skull & Shackles

Grand Lodge

Did the Chelish Armada of 47 ships constitute most of the Chelish fleet? Was most of the Chelish Navy destroyed at the Battle of Abendego in From Hell's Heart? Has the size of the Chelish Navy ever been established?

Scarab Sages

TritonOne wrote:
Did the Chelish Armada of 47 ships constitute most of the Chelish fleet? Was most of the Chelish Navy destroyed at the Battle of Abendego in From Hell's Heart? Has the size of the Chelish Navy ever been established?

I think the answer to all three questions is no.


KarlBob is correct, the answer to all of your questions is no.


It says that the invasion wasn't even officially sanctioned by Queen Abrogail; it was essentially a private venture by Admiral Thrune. I wouldn't put the entire Chelish navy at less than a couple hundred ships.


In these cases, I tend to search for historical references. I tend to use Spain as a reference for Chelia, as a large empire somewhat dependent on their colonies.

According to Wikipedia, in the 19th century the Spanish Navy consisted of 150 ships, including 47 ships of the line. This is in a period where Spain is rapidly in decline, and has lost several major engagements.

So the Battle of Abendego is a major blow, but does not leave Chelia defenceless. They'll most likely start a rebuilding program (and in a setting with magic available, building is far faster than in the real world), and could draft some easily convertible merchantmen into the fleet.

Grand Lodge

According to Wikipedia the "golden age of piracy" lasted between 1650–1730 in the Caribbean. The fashions worn by the NPCs in illustrations in the Skull & Shackles adventure path appear to be from this period, plus the widespread use of cannon and firearms. Perhaps I am thinking too narrowly and the adventure paths don't have to occur in the same era. The careers of the player characters will last the adventure path and it is very unlikely they will be used for Pathfinder Society adventures or other adventure paths. Skull & Shackles can happen during Golarion's "Age of Enlightenment" period, while Wrath of the Righteous could happen during Golarion's "Medieval" period.

This might be the best way to handle the anachronistic elements of the Skull & Shackles adventure path by placing the events in the future during Golarion's 17th or 18th century period.

Scarab Sages

TritonOne wrote:

According to Wikipedia the "golden age of piracy" lasted between 1650–1730 in the Caribbean. The fashions worn by the NPCs in illustrations in the Skull & Shackles adventure path appear to be from this period, plus the widespread use of cannon and firearms. Perhaps I am thinking too narrowly and the adventure paths don't have to occur in the same era. The careers of the player characters will last the adventure path and it is very unlikely they will be used for Pathfinder Society adventures or other adventure paths. Skull & Shackles can happen during Golarion's "Age of Enlightenment" period, while Wrath of the Righteous could happen during Golarion's "Medieval" period.

This might be the best way to handle the anachronistic elements of the Skull & Shackles adventure path by placing the events in the future during Golarion's 17th or 18th century period.

Different parts of Golarion already operate at very different technology levels. According to the Inner Sea World Guide, some countries have access to movable type printing presses. The Duchy of Alkenstar has guns, but it's been pretty successful so far at maintaining the secret of gunpowder.

Skull & Shackles is written with a default assumption that guns are rare, and only the Hurricane King has a ship armed with cannons. I wouldn't call that "widespread use". There are sidebars allowing a GM to add more gunpowder weapons, but the baseline assumption is that they won't be around in significant numbers.

I think the use of Age of Sail uniforms is more an art direction issue than an historical era issue. It's just fun to reenact Pirates of the Caribbean or Treasure Island with period uniforms.

When it comes down to it, Golarion is, by design, a kitchen sink fantasy world. It doesn't have a consistent tech level deliberately, so people who want to play knights can swing broadswords, people who want to play swashbucklers can swing rapiers, and people who want to play Golden Age pirates can fire pistols, then swing cutlasses.

Separating the APs into different historical eras is a great way to account for the anachronisms. Officially, though, Golarion is experiencing a dozen different eras at the same time.

Edit: Come to think of it, Earth history has plenty of examples of simultaneous eras. It took a while for the Rennaissance to spread from Italy to England.

Grand Lodge

TritonOne wrote:
Did the Chelish Armada of 47 ships constitute most of the Chelish fleet?

I doubt it. Remember, Admiral Thrune is basically attacking the Shackles on her own initiative, with the financial support of her great uncle. I highly doubt that she could sail off with the majority of the Imperial Navy without someone noticing or countermanding her orders.

TritonOne wrote:
Was most of the Chelish Navy destroyed at the Battle of Abendego in From Hell's Heart?

Again, I seriously doubt that her fleet represented much of the Imperial Navy. Only nine of the ships in the armada are war ships. More than half the fleet (28 ships) are sailing ships.

My impression from the text was that Admiral Thrune sailed off with the ships under her personal command, and used her great uncle's wealth to hire a bunch of non-affiliated ships to sail with them. She put her officers in charge of the other ships, but their captains and crew are mercenary not military.

TritonOne wrote:
Has the size of the Chelish Navy ever been established?

I don't believe so, no. It's as big as you want it to be I guess. You can't really go too much by real world examples since there are so many different assumptions in the fantasy world.

Grand Lodge

Did anyone create names for the ships that constituted the Chelish Armada?

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Path / Skull & Shackles / Battle of Abendego All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Skull & Shackles