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Sat 23rd Oct 2021 10:03

Session 39: Exploring a Ghost Ship

by Cali Zendyr

Jade immediately goes to take a bath in the inn, and Wulf wonders aloud why Jade bathes so much and thinks it's as important as sleeping. Quell and Cali tell him about the importance of bathing, and then we discuss Jade's hygiene habits. Eventually we all go to bed, and listen to the only other person in the room, as she loudly snores. Cali is mildly comforted.
 
In the morning, we head to the dock. It's cold and slippery. Captain Olav tells us to not go toward the covered area of the ship, and to not touch the cargo. Otherwise the ship is free reign. Quell finds a spot out of the way where she lays her beads out and prays for fair weather. Cali starts to follow her, but when they realize that she's trying to pray, they awkwardly stop and pivot and stand somewhere else. Jade lays out and reads a book.
 
On day 4 of travel, we get heavy fog and lots of wind. It's a weird, quiet day. Viktor tries to get a shanty going a few times, but no one joins in. Someone else grumbles that they don't know what else will join in if they start a shanty. This is eerie and odd, even for the sea of souls. Later on in the day, a crew member has a twisted ankle, and Wulf is asked to take over in the crow's nest. Cali is desperate for something to keep theirself busy during this weird energy, and a woman named Thira gives them a ripped tarp to repair, that got ripped during a brawl the night before.
 
Quell asks her Lady about the area and the weather, and discovers that this fog is not naturally occurring. She goes to find Jade, who is playing solitaire, and Jade detects magic on the fog. There's magic faintly lingering everywhere over the water. From the crow's nest, Wulf uses the wind fan and attracts a crowd of sailors as he does. It briefly disperses some of the fog but he doesn't get much more information than the tip of a seagull's wing. Jade considers using her air elemental.
 
"This is suspicious fog!" Wulf calls down to us.
 
Quell and Jade go find a man named Thom, one of the crew members who gets drunk and sings most nights. He's preparing some food and Quell and Jade help. They ask him what he knows about fog. He tells them stories about the sea of souls, including stories about bone ships, with crews of skeletons. He says he saw one of those once. He also says that there's a rumor one of the Old Gods died here in the sea of souls, and that's what causes the magic and stuff. Quell finishes up helping him, and then goes by herself to cast Legend Lore.
 
Quell learns lots of general legends--phantom ships, death omens, etc, and then of a few specific legends mentioning dark magic of the ancients, spells cast by an ancient spell caster from Armos, and a death scene of one of the Old Gods, usually the Shark King but with variations. Really any of them tied to the sea, but he's the most common one.
 
Quell approaches Cali and asks what they know about the Shark King. All they were taught is that he's half shark and war-like. They guess at dead fish or sharks as an offering of some sort, but aren't sure. Quell asks if they have any fish bones, and they say no. They start to wonder aloud about catching fish, and then realize it might not be a good idea to take the Shark King's fish and give them back as an offering. Instead, Quell waits for Wulf to come back down from the crow's nest to ask him for fish or fish bones. He offers to catch something.
 
As it turns out, Wulf knows a bit more about the Shark King. He rules the waves that people sail on, and war as well. Quell asks what offerings to give. Wulf says there are legends of him feasting upon the bodies of fallen sailors and return them to the waves. Quell says "oh. yeah we probably don't have any volunteers for that." Wulf asks Thom if he has any dead bodies on this ship. Thom speed walks away.
 
Quell draws a little sailor on some parchment and drops it into the water and asks the Shark King for safe passage.
 
A bit later in the evening, the crew member who swapped with Wulf in the crow's nest, falls and his body hits the deck. Another ship collides with ours, although there seems to be no damage. It just looks like we have merged our ships. Viktor and some other crew members lie motionless on the deck, and Bridgette stiffly moves to the sails.Wulf rushes to help her. She can't find Olav. The crew on the deck are breathing, and Cali tries to cure wounds on one. He heals a bit but doesn't wake up. Dag, the one from the crow's nest, seems to be dead. Wulf carries the body to Bridgette, whose pain is actively getting worse.
 
Wulf carries Dag's corpse to the group, and suggests we offer him to the Shark King. He and Quell toss him overboard, and then Quell uses her bronze spyglass to look for movement on the ship that hit us. She doesn't see anything at first, until some green mist appears and skeletal rats appear. We roll initiative.
 
We fight the skeletal rats, and Viktor climbs up, pale and exhausted, from the other ship. He tells us that "it took Olav". Cali heals him a bit, and we go to help Bridgette, who is in pain. Cure Wounds does nothing, but Jade determines that she's cursed. Jade casts Remove Curse on her.
 
"Stirk says you are never dead until you are dead." -Wulf
 
Jade sends her air elemental to clear the fog in some places on the ship. Quell sends rabbit, who sees a human skull and a closed door. Cali uses the gem of seeing and notices a much more sturdy ship through the gem. They tell the others, and Quell says that means it's ethereal. Wulf leaps onto the deck before anyone can stop him, to see if it can hold the weight of a person. The deck bends a bit beneath him but does not break. Cali tentatively steps onto the ship behind him, gem of seeing up to their eye the whole time. Wulf makes his way through and then determines he'll need to jump through a hole in the deck to safely explore more. Jade gives him a tooth and Quell gives him magical resistance. Cali follows him from a bit of a distance.
 
Wulf finds some doors that he has trouble opening. Jade goes into a trance and watches from the tooth she gave Wulf, that he placed in Mother's mouth. Cali hands him a crowbar and he gets one of the doors open. It's just a couple of chests. Jade detects magic in one of the chests before he leaves the room. She sends him a telepathic message saying, "the magic gets heavier the further you go into the ship. one chests has magic too. be careful." Wulf relays the message to Cali, and they decide to open them together with the crowbar.
 
One has a mass of waterlogged papers and 1 leather bag.
 
EOS

Continue reading...

  1. Session 1: Scaling a Lighthouse
    08/?/19
  2. Session 2: Sleeping in the Lighthouse
    8/14/19
  3. Session 3: Finding Anaka's Apprentice
    8/21/19
  4. Session 4: Anaka and the Town Feast
    9/04/19
  5. Session 5: Fighting a Ghost in a Clearing
    9/18/19
  6. Session 6: Meeting the Revenant
    10/9/19
  7. Session 7: Tasha Bloodsail and Her Magic Mirror
    10/23/19
  8. Session 8: Killing a Gang
    12/04/19
  9. Session 9: Making Things Right
    1/22/2020
  10. Session 10: Getting Sappy on a Ship
    2/12/2020
  11. Session 11: A Raccoon Named Kama
    3/4/2020
  12. Session 12: Killing Lady Loaka
    4/11/2020
  13. Session 13: Lizards in the Desert
    4/29/2020
  14. Session 14: Jade
    5/20/2020
  15. Session 15: Diving Down a Magical Well
    6/12/2020
  16. Session 16: Himbo Rights
    7/17/2020
  17. Session 17: Liya Takes Our Blood, and Quell Explores Her Backstory
    8/17/2020
  18. Session 18: Nyala, 5-Star Travel Guide
    8/28/2020
  19. Session 19: Haunted Cairns and Rock Spiders
    9/19/2020
  20. Session 20: Stumbling Into Politics
    10/31/2020
  21. Session 21: Wulf Meets His Pup
    11/21/2020
  22. Session 22: Fighting Zombies in the Woods
    12/05/2020
  23. Session 23: Burying A Suicidal Dead Guy
    12/24/2020
  24. Session 24: Hey, Your Husband's Dead... Here's a Steak!! ...It's Not Your Husband... to be Clear...
    1/02/21
  25. Session 25: Ghostie Tirga da Narei Got That Drip
    1/23/21
  26. Session 26: This LEAF is a BOAT?! (oh and also we're being hunted)
    2/6/21
  27. Session 27: Jade Communes With the Fog
    2/27/21
  28. Session 28: Fighting Oozes In An Abandoned House
    3/20/21
  29. Session 29: Wulf Learns The Dangers Of Mishandling A Corpse
    4/17/21
  30. Session 30: Jailbreak
    5/01/21
  31. Session 31: Wanted, Inaccurately
    6/05/21
  32. Session 32: Ghosts and Mammoth Meat
    6/19/21
  33. Session 33: Jade Is A Monster Fucker
    7/10/21
  34. Session 34: Do Seagulls Have Fangs?
    8/07/21
  35. Session 35: Facetime With Tasha (oh, and Jade is a double agent)
    8/21/21
  36. Session 36: Wulf Dreams of Puppy Piles
    9/11/21
  37. Session 37: Wulf & Jade (separately) Bond With Tulan
    9/25/21
  38. Session 38: The Gang Sees A Psychic
    10/09/21
  39. Session 39: Exploring a Ghost Ship
  40. Session 40: Olav is... Not Dead?
    11/13/2021
  41. Session 41: CALI IS NOT POOR OKAY
    12/11/2021
  42. Session 42: Wise Old Egil
    01/15/2022
  43. Session 43: Christmas Morning, Via Egil
    02/05/2022
  44. Session 45: 44 didn't save
    3/12/22
  45. Session 46: fighting a waiver (that means dragon)
    04/03/22
  46. Session 47: Hole-ception, Donut Hole if you will
    4/30/22
  47. Session 48: Scry City, Bitch
    5/14/22
  48. Session 49:
    6/4/22
  49. Session 50: Sink or Wind
  50. Session 51: Scouting Our Meeting Place
    8/27/2022
  51. Session 52: Battle on the Beach
    10/01/22
  52. Session 53: Wulf Sneaks onto a Ship
    10/15/2022
  53. Session 54: Wulf Is Not Allowed Near Windows
    10/29/2022
  54. Session 55: THERES A TROLL (Beast) IN THE DUNGEON (outer fields)
    11/12/22
  55. Session 56:
    12/10/22
  56. Session 57:
    01/15/2023
  57. Session 58: Quell is Cali's Imaginary Friend
    01/28/2023
  58. Session 59: SECRET TUNNELLLLLL
    02/11/2023
  59. Session 60: I'm gonna dip you in butter
  60. Session 61: We're Looney, We're Tuney
    04/1/23
  61. Session 62: The Mother Herself Said She's Alive!
    4/8/23
  62. Session 63: Wulf DoorDashes Rats
    6/10/23
  63. Session 64: Are We Dead? Are We On A Boat? Will There Be Meat?
    7/1/23
  64. Session 65: Cali wants the Tea
  65. Session 66:

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 00:53, May 31 2025