Laden with loot, the party wasted no time getting to the port to board the ship Bastard Nigel (who liked to be referred to as “just Nigel”) had arranged to take them to Durbin, where they might find Reed Rhergin, whose head they had promised to send to Nigel. In the harbor, they found Nigel’s Wit, a twin masted brigantine, waiting for them to board before launching.
Upon the ship, they sought out the captain, and met Captain Moogie. The fierce woman had circular scars in a line down her face, a glinting gold tooth, and an excellent accent. She let them know that though Bastard Nigel (whose name the whole crew appended Bastard to) thought the ship’s name came from its speed as one of the fastest ships in the water, thus equal to his wit, really, it earned the name because it had been defeated thrice in battle, and prone to leaks.
Moogie pointed out bosun Krakow, a big burly barbarian orc, keen to wager on arm wrestling matches atop his barrel of grog. Fey, eager for the challenge, squared up with the orc. Orophor, sniffing out a profit, wagered a gold piece on their giant. But Krakow, a simple bosun, couldn’t afford the bet. Instead, he wagered treasure maps.
He and Fey tested their mettle against each other thrice, and though she got close, each time the roided out orc pinned her. But the closer Fey got to winning, the more Krakow seemed to enjoy it, relishing the opportunity to lock limbs with such a healthy woman.
Sven gave it a try as well, but even with a shoulder rub from Balthazar, tasted defeat. Orophor, down seven gold pieces, made an attempt and nearly had his arm ripped from its socket. Fey gave it one more attempt, and while Krakow tried to flirt with her, he lost his concentration, and she slammed his arm down. Thus they won a treasure map.
Once out to sea, Tenli decided to climb up to the crow’s nest and joined Winchell, the lookout. Zain followed close behind, enjoying the view as he followed Tenli up the rigging. Tenli, looking for trouble, asked Zain to steal Winchell’s spyglass. Zain crawled under Winchell and tried to steal the apparatus as the lookout was actively using it. Given that the object was in the man’s hand, held up to his eyeball, Winchell noticed the attempted theft, and asked Zain just what in the Spirit’s name he was doing.
Zain explained that he only wanted a peek through the spyglass, and convinced Winchell to hand it over. And as soon as it was in Zain’s grasp, the rogue bolted down the rigging. Winchell called out for Captain Moogie, and when Zain reached the deck, he found Moogie there waiting open palmed for Zain to return the spyglass. Tenli, Sven, and Balthazar all had a good laugh.
As the day came to a close out on the sea, the party hunkered down in their private room, where their hammocks hung and Fey’s coffin leaned against a wall.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The next day, they spoke with First Mate Winter, a lank haired downtrodden looking githyanki. Winter seemed a bit cracked, and as they spoke with him, he told them a ghost haunted him day and night. They decided to check on his story, and spoke with Captain Moogie. She confirmed, Winter was haunted.
That gave them enough reason to help Winter rid himself of this ghost, and so they awaited midnight and gathered around under decks for a ritual Winter asked them to perform. They lined a circle of salt on the floor, and set five candles burning along its edge. Then came the chanting. “Go away ghost, go away ghost,” they cried, until a spirit apparated in the circle.
The disembodied spirit of Captain Barf appeared. The former captain of Nigel’s Wit had lost his life to a mutiny aboard the ship, and now haunted Winter, because the bastard was really annoying in life.
They tried binding the ghost in a body from Orophor’s bag of holding. It seemed to work, but only in the loosest sense, as the body cried out in anguish, so they hacked it to pieces. The ghost returned to the circle. Ultimately, they decided to seal it in a bottle, and toss the bottle off the ship. It floated away, glowing blue, out into the vast and glooming sea, doomed to drift in that bottle until the last stars in the sky burned out and the world came to an end. Or until an unwitting fisherman picked it up and uncorked it.
Fresh and eager the following morning, Fey decided to go give Krakow another romp. This time, she beat him handily, even popping a vein in his arm, which seemed to thrill him to no end, earning them another map.
Maps in hand, they went to find Moogie, and ask whether they might follow them to find plunder. Being that the ship had been contracted to carry them where they wished, Moogie agreed. After a few days of sailing, Tenli, stationed in the crow’s nest with Winchell, shouted down “Land AHEAD!”
To ensure Nigel’s Wit didn’t raise anchor without them, Balthazar made the sacrifice of separating from Sven to stay aboard the ship and keep an eye out. The rest of the party boarded a dinghy, and rowed to shore.
They found a small island, short enough to cross with a five minute walk. On the island, a cabana stood, with a barrel of rum, a firepit, and wood stacked next to it. A single coconut tree dangled its coconuts, and a giant boulder rounded out the entirety of the island.
The party partied until the sun began to set, and of a sudden, the shadows of the tree and the boulder crossed, forming an X. They dug, and soon hit metal. A chest. Orophor picked the lock, and inside, they found… a sword hilt wrapped in dyed purple leather, and a note. “Better luck next time,” the note read. “Signed, Purple Handle.”
Zain recognized the sword hilt as a calling card for a high ranking Purple Handle guild member named Graybeard, who operates predominantly out of Bergen. Ironically, Graybeard is a clean shaven human. He typically runs heists outside of cities, preferring relics and ruins to the coins and jewels of nobles.
Orophor, burned to his core by the jape, investigated the chest for any hidden compartments. After a time, he found one. Inside, another note read: “Ha, got you again.”