Ghost Ships of the River Kingdoms
The River Kingdoms are notoriously haunted, and theories for this abound, but none have ever been confirmed. While ghost ships are common enough, and spiritual sailors are a legitimate threat of sailing the rivers, the stories have been exaggerated and embellished over the centuries, leading to an entire mythos of ghost ships, real and fictitious.
Signs of a Haunting
The legends all state that when in the presence of a ghost ship, animals become crazed, lights flicker out, the wind picks up, and the temperature drops significantly. The screams and battlecries of damned souls echo across the waves. Sailors might behave irrationally or attempt to kill themselves or others. Specific, famous ghost ships often have their own "tells", as sailors commonly call the signs. For instance, Tempest's arrival is heralded by a single strike of green lighting, and being stalked by Princess Birgit causes ship's biscuit to go bad.Wards Against Spirits
Sailors are regarded by many landsmen as superstitious in nature, and pirates especially so. It is bad luck to sail without a dog or two onboard the ship to warn of unseen phantoms. It is traditional to throw an offering of gold or treasure marked with the captain's blood to the river as an appeasement to ghostly pirates. When sailing at night, only one lantern may be lit save for emergencies. Certain songs are said to repel the undead, such as the Pirate's Prayer. Ships that have a true cleric aboard are considered luckier than any other, and such ships often charge extraordinarily high prices for transport than others. The pirates of the Reaver's Republic have developed a working knowledge of famous ghost ships, and have developed shadowsigns to warn other pirates of a specific spiritual danger nearby.Infamous Ghost Ships
Tempest is an oversized longship said to be crewed by long-dead Braithstrom, heretics to Dracorex. They are cursed to never truly find a home in the afterlife, and on stormy nights they are sent back to the material plane to begin their journey anew. Princess Birgit looks like an Imperial junk, but is invisible to the eyes of those it hunts. It is crewed by pirates who defected from the Imperial navy in The Sundering, and were sunk by their ship's namesake. Thunder's Daughter is a spirit galleon that hunts other ships below the waves. It is captained by the living godchild The Storm That Sings, and crewed by her victims. She pays captains who give her new crew in cursed blood-red coins.
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