Thank you Philip! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was going for the "Northern" theme and in the Upper Midwest, wooden iceboats were in use say a hundred or so years ago. Once I considered iceboats, that instantly led to the idea of ice pirates!
I wanted to provide a table to roll on for the number and frequency of encounters with the pirates, but with the space constraints I decided I would leave it up the GM, much as you surmised. The page was starting to look pretty full to me, so I provided the suggested content with the hopes that the GM would improvise. Ingrid can certainly jump to your ship (and she would definitely do this!) however the encounter plays out. I like to imagine one ship or the other hopelessly broken after a ramming attempt, with the skimmer impaling the pirate vessel. That would be an ideal time for a fierce boarding action, from one side or the other!
I do love the idea of a disposable NPC whose fate would provide a sense of dread and tension! And you can never go wrong with undead pirates from hidden grottos. :D
After the jam is over I would like to eventually post a longer "director's cut" version of this adventure with a map of the shorelines, towns and trading posts. It would also include a few pages with encounter tables, additional NPCs and subplots, and maybe a zombified lake perch accidentally included in the pickled fish. :D
Thanks again!
Dennis