Legendary Ships

[brian 333]

Some captains achieve legendary status, and sometimes even the crews. But the most enduring legends are of the ships they serve. Long after the deeds of captain and crew are forgotten, the legend of the ship remains.

The Black Ship

The ship is black, as are its sails. The only white which can be seen is the figurehead mounted forward of the prow: a bleached white human skeleton wearing wisps of tattered clothing. Usually the master and crew remain unseen, but if by chance they are they will be zombie-like humans, demi-humans, and humanoids with a diseased appearance.

The Black Ship is seldom encountered at sea, but it will arrive in a port or anchorage in the night. Once there it will simply sit at anchor; it will launch no boats nor disembark passengers.

Those who gaze upon it will feel dread. Those who are within a mile of the ship will feel fear as if near an adult red dragon. Within half a mile the fear is equivalent to that of an old dragon. Within a quarter mile the aura is that of a very old dragon, and to touch or board the vessel one must overcome the aura of an ancient wyrm. (Dragon-based imunnities or resistances do not apply because it is not a draconic power even though the effect is similar.)

While the ship is in port the region will suffer a virulent disease, (of a random variety, though only that one disease type will be spread.) Ships which try to flee the anchorage automatically become plague ships, spreading the disease wherever they go.

Once the disease has run its course the ship will vanish in the same manner it appeared. Thereafter the disease will be less leathal, cure easier, and take less time to overcome.


Wayfinder

This ship is small for an ocean-going vessel, but it has been seen in seas across the world. Its mainsail bears a compass rose which rotates to indicate its direction of travel.

Legends say that a ship that becomes lost may be fortunate enough to see Wayfinder on the horizon. Following her will lead the lost ship to a place where the navigator can find the way back home, though often only after visiting exotic or previously unknown lands.

Ships which are not lost which match courses with Wayfinder may be led to strange ports, or they may see the compass on her sail flip and reveal a second compass rose set at ninty degrees to the first.
If this happens and the ship continues to follow, Wayfinder sails into the air and out into the Sea of Night. The ports to which she sails are other worlds of the prime material plane, and few are the vessels which return from such voyages because Wayfinder does not stick around while the captain and crew explore the new world. Sometimes they learn to sail the Sea of Night themselves, and sometimes Wayfinder appears again to lead them home, but usually they must learn to live on their new world.

Rarely a tattered boat will be found beached or grounded. If adventurous souls repair and crew her they will see the legendary compass rose appear on her sail and Wayfinder will carry them off to a land of adventure. (And abandon them there!)

Dragonship

This vessel is an 80' longship bearing a single mast rigged with a square sail. The figurehead of the ship is a dragon's head carved into the prow.

When attacking, the dragon head spews thick smoke. It can create a cone of fire up to three times a day up to a distance of 80'.

It is rumored that the Dragonship can walk on land, as the raiders who use it can occasionally be found on rivers and lakes with no connection to the open seas upon which the Dragonship roves.

[brian 333]

Feel free to add your own legends, or to post corrections or variants of the ones I've posted.

The Lost Ship

A sail luffs on the horizon. If the ship is overtaken, it will be discovered that the vessel is intact, undamaged, and sitting broadside to the wind. No crew hails the investigators.

If boarded the ship will appear to be intact and well maintained. There may be a small bloodstain on the rail, but no sign of a fight. The galley is in good order, and it appears the cook was beginning to prepare a meal which was left as if he intended to get back to it soon. The cargo is intact, appearing to be basic comodities. It's certainly nothing pirates would want.

As far as investigations can discover, the crew simply disembarked on one whaleboat, (the one stowed nearest the bloodstain,) taking nothing with them except the captain's logbook. Even the personal belongings of twelve crewmen, an officer, the captain, and a passenger are neatly stowed.

[sktarq]

Hmmm Cursed ships that the storyteller can use for adventure drivers....

The Stormwracked aka the Dark Flyer

This ship, (normally claimed as a sloop but some claim they saw a ketch) has not seen a calm sea in over two centuries. The nature of the curse that drives both the ship and the storm it rides is unknown.

The ship itself looks very normal but tends to looks like it is rather fresh (not showing storm damage) and also tends to attract ghostly auroras and St Elmo's fire like effects though they are by no mean constants or even common. Though as few ever see the ship without lashing rain and spray details of the ship are few and tend to be contradictory.

Most legends claim the ship laid becalmed for months before the captain or crew beseached some dark power to grant him wind...what answered is not agreed to and changes with the telling. What is known is that the crew and captain have passed beyond scrying magic and have left the cycle of life and death..not ageing or dying as the years pass.

Now they ride the before the endless storm. The ship can always be found on the leading edge of this storm and the wise attempt to match them. The storm they ride is famed for its sudden onslaught that swamps many ships and for lucky survivors leaving them adrift (and usually damaged) in seas far from waters where the storm hit them (other side of the planet, or a simple tropics to arctic trip, is to be thought of as lucky as the demi-plane of dread and different material realms have, occasionally, been reported). Those who fly from the storm (the sailing technique) tend to be in for rough night and are days off course but if they can survive the weather and spectral visions that deepen through the night (and effect individual sailors differently-both at the time and afterward-many are considered cursed) most of the crew will come out all right...

...though a burnt out madman or deamon-like possessed may now be hiding in the survivors, so "all right" may have a time limit)....


The Bloodfoam.

This Galleon has a long and dark history. The ship is of amazing quality and is outfitted beautifully and this has caused many to take the ship on a great prize, each time under a different name or found with no identification. However each time within a few years of being adopted the crew (and sometimes the captain or sometimes not) has turned to piracy. The few times the crew has not turned is because pirates seized the ship for themselves...and they usually find it very easy, with the crew either turning to help of confused and flat footed. But eventually the Ship is turned to the pirates cause. Gunport have soon been opened, rigging re-set for a sprint to turn it into a predatory vessel but the ship is rumoured to change far more by itself. Its prow growing to accommodate boarding planks and a ram in the dead of night, of the sails growing to catch more wind in the chase. And most famously whatever the ship had been renamed slowly the carving or paint shifts to the name Bloodfoam. The crews are generally happy to see this (and some other pirates will take on the name to try and capture this ships legend for their own intimidation purposes) because the ship has almost always been a highly successful pirate vessel.

The first part of its success is that the ship seems perfectly adapted to being a predator, it is faster and tougher than a normal ship of its size, and those with murder and pillage on their minds find the ship responds to their guidance like it had a will to help. All from the line handlers, to those swinging a cutlass, to spotters in the crows nest find themselves better at their jobs whilst aboard the Bloodfoam. A second part of its success is that the ship seems to heal over time. Few can claim to have seen it but patched hulls blend and flow until the hole may as well never have been there.

But in time each crew of the Bloodfoam have themselves suffered calamity. All hands lost to illness, sharkfolk attack, starvation, or infighting, sometimes a tiny part of the crew survives long enough to bring the ship to port (usually trying to disguise who they are to avoid arrest or attack for their share of saved booty), but other times the ship ends up alone on the high seas on caught on a sandbar. And by the time a new owner finds it, gunports are no longer to be seen, the ram has disappeared, and some other name adorns its stern...

...the only clue to real identity is that blood spilled on the deck and allowed to set overnight does not stain but is absorbed without a trace.


The Wheel of Fortune

Named for the Tarot deck card, this ship has long been sought by the desperate, the adventurous, and the bold. The Carrack has been seen on bodies of water that it has no way of reaching, isolated mountain lakes or rivers that do not reach the sea. Thought to be created by an archmagi long ago this ship is a ship of seekers. It can reach anywhere if the desire of the helmsman is enough.

And the helmsman must be willing to be brave for not only does the wheel (shaped like a wheel of fortune itself) have handles covered in small thorns but the ship itself is creature of fate. If the ship is sailed into a deep fog, and the helmsman grips the handles tightly letting blood seep into the wood and then spins the wheel at full strength (it needs at least three revolutions forward and three back) to point a random direction into the fog the ship may lead the helmsman to his desire, but will always lead him to his fate. When the fog breaks the ship is either far closer to the helmsman's desire, or deep in a dangerous set of waters...yet often if the crew is brave, strong, sharp witted, or wise enough they can find what they seek even in the destinations all others would call a curse of misfortune.

Many things have been found by the seekers on the ship, souls of lovers lost to the underworld have been returned, the breath of spiders needed to create rare magical items, a new home, a home left behind by the now lost, a daughter stolen by effreti, the concept of fame, the home of the gods themselves, a trade port far behind enemy lines, a cure for curse in a form not yet known, an unknown father, the most perfect blade, a secret means to destroy an artifact. . . but for all those who have found more have sought and been unable to take what they have set out to find.

Leaving the ship to drift off, seemingly under its own power (which is a real inconvenience if the crew has only left on a search party) in order to bring it, by fate, into the hands of another willing to take the helm and spin the wheel.



The Wyvern's Wings

A beautifully crafted Elven Frigate the Wyvern wings is legend among explorers and traders of the exotic and is a secret bane of those it visits. A glowing honey colour and at the stern a motif of wings rising up from the sea takes up much of the stern. A Wyvern also makes sits at the very from of the ship...Its head reaching out and its swept back wings sheltering those who would work the foremost sails and rope. But more than its fine construction what makes the ship special is that the ship itself appears blessed by the sea.

Its seaworthiness is unmatched and seemingly able to guide it crew to even distant hard to locate ports or unknown lands teaming with tradegoods. Pirates and navies who should easily have crushed it fail to catch sight of the ship and seem to fight with two left feet if they do manage find and catch up. The weather and currents seem to drive the ship on, cutting travel time by around 25% generally and making events like the doldrums a tale left in a shoreside tavern...the Wyvern's Wings sets sail under the sea's grace and whatever deity-of-trade-you-may-wish-to-pray-to's favor. Fair winds, gold, and glory often fall onto the Wyvern's Wings desks so often that the ship is well known for it's luck. But this blessing has a twofold cost, both unseen.

The first is carried by those who sail the ship but does not effect hem. If someone crews or is passenger of the vessel and then meets a person after disembarking and either talks for more than an hour, shares food/drink with, or trades any goods with that person who shared a conversation, food, or trade with becomes the victim of a curse. The nature of the curse varies a lot. Sometimes each person met by one member gets the same curse, sometimes all the victims at the same port get the same often shared curse (these tend to be the largest and most dramatic), and other times each victim gets an individual curse. Sickness, ill fortune, nightmares, famines, vermin swarms, undead rising, the attention of extraplanar beings, enemy armies having great luck, the list is endless. However the ships crew does not see this effect for it is held in abeyance for the time of the Wyvern's Wings stay and for a single lunar month after the ship leaves...then it hits all those marked. Proper channels can be used to clear the curse before it takes effect but few know to do so.

The second curse is that all the misfortune sown against those the Wing's visits has a moral consequence...and the universe keeps track...all the suffering, deaths, a laid at the feet of those responsible for the ship. Mostly this means that the owner(s), captain, mates, quartermaster, navigator, and other officers are treated as though they they had inflicted these evils once they die. So normally these souls will be dragged of to Hell or the Abyss...That said the link is tenuous and for those with the will to give up the ship and the potential fortune it represents gaining absolution is comparatively easy but not without cost (they may have to join a monestary, give up all their wealth, found orphanages etc - and always know they are always tied to a strait and narrow moral path). In addition those officers who have such a fate hanging over their soul have a sense of what awaits them and a hint of why. Usually this manifests as a dread of death, fear of judgment, and deep sense that they are responsible for great pain in the world. Some head this feeling and repent for events they never got a chance to see, others go mad, and others ignore them or could not be bothered by such moral "weakness".

But the ship may have one final curse hidden within it. Those who have researched it, and those who have labored under the hell-promised dreams of it curse all seem to come to the idea that if the ship ever stopped sailing (or was destroyed) the curse that it represents would be unleashed and all in the world would suffer as if they had just dined with its captain. It is not known if this would ever come to pass or if it is yet another trick of ship itself. But between the whispering idea of dread of keeping it and worse threat of destroying it many owners or officers simply leave the ship....They sell it or don't sign up for another voyage....but with a long history of finding the best trade deals, new lands, friendly ports, it rarely has trouble finding a new buyer or crew and so sets sail yet again......

[Wizard_Lizard]

The Ship of Frostbones
This ship sailed long ago, back when magic was wild and untamed. Legend has it that The The ship of the Frostbones sailed between the stars and planes with ease. It was huge, and crewed by frost giants giants. One dark night however, the ship was attacked by dragons, and the crew all perished. However, as myth and tales would tell... the ship is said to rise out of it's watery grave as a precursor to the end of the world. The giant frozen, skeletal crew shall embark on one last journey to the heart of the sun, freezing it still, and turning it blue as ice.

[brian 333]

Sunchaser

This magical windjammer has never sailed the sea. Instead it has plied the waves of the great desert, making port in oasis around the empty wastes.

It can only sail on fine sand. Rocks are shoals and islands. Salt pans are reefs. Grasslands are mires. However, on open sand and dunes the ship sails in the same way a normal vessel plies the ocean waves. (Watch out for sandstorms!)

I like them all, but my favorite so far is Dark Flyer

[GaelofDarkness]

The Scittering Serpent

This ship is spoken of in hushed tones by those in the magical items trade. Descriptions of the ship differ. Some say that it resembles a longship, some that is consists of multiple segments that snake behind the prow, and others that it is made entirely of pitch black metal. All agree however that it has no sails and no oars. Yet, when a ship carrying a cargo of rare magical items is stranded by a windless day in the middle of a sea crossing the Serpent comes sheering through the sea towards it. None can say what the crew looks like beyond of humanoid shape - or rather none have survived a boarding to say more - but there are those who swear to have repelled it or passed it by. Many insist that it is simply tales of an overturned wreck grown tall with repeated tellings to explain away the losses of ships on a dangerous crossing to superstitious sailors.

But these tales said to come from survivors all share one strange detail that grants the ship its name. As it draws near the sound of a horde of scratching, scrambling, screeching creatures fills the air. Hence, the Scittering Serpent. No matter how secret the cargo, the clandestine measures taken or the number of decoys planted - the sound always zeroes in on only the ship with the rarest magical items aboard whether the crew knows it's aboard or not.

Nothing like it has ever been seen docking at any port on the maps of humans, dwarves or elves. Some say that those who come too close to the rocky shores of the nameless islands in the middle of the ocean claim to hear the sound. But there is no way to go ashore with a ring of jagged stones that surround them.

The Rainbow Flight

The Rainbow Flight is a collection of small boats that are clearly assembled with no coherent order or reason. It's widely claimed that one member of the fleet is in fact a wooden, orcish bath-tub that has been repurposed by the gnomish crew. Of course this makes some sense when you take into account that the Rainbow Flight's locomotion comes entirely from the multicoloured parrots pulling it behind them on ropes. While certainly not very sea-worthy, the Rainbow Flight can be found up and down the local coast during the summer moving from port to port in time with their local festivals.

The crew consists of gnomish druids and bards who garb themselves in fantastically coloured costumes, parading through the port town in celebration from the moment the Flight docks to the moment it sets sail again leaving fading music in its wake. They of course provide music and spectacle, but also shows using illusion and conjuration magic, menageries of exotic but cuddly creatures for children to pet and an assortment of brews fortified by secret druidic practices for the adults. It is considered a great point of pride for young gnomes to be invited on a voyage of the Rainbow Flight and spend a few months in a haze of inebritated merriment both at land and at sea.

[Tvtyrant]

The Lost and Foundered

This ship is older then the Prime Material Plane. A ship made of pearl and silver, it rode the chaotic seas of the primordial soup and passes from plane to plane in search of its lost home. Piloted by the ghosts of an extinct race of Barnacle like creatures that no mortal has heard tale of, the ship will trade passage or assistance for any news of its lost home. The ship itself is the ghost of the original but neither crew nor ship know they have died, nor that there is no home to return to. Many search for the ship in hopes of lost knowledge but it only appears to those in crises, and never in the same place twice.

[Grim Portent]

The Lady of the Mists

It is said this mystical vessel sails between this world and the afterlife, shrouded in a cloak of mist. It is said that those who seek to visit a lost soul in the world beyond can buy passage on this vessel, though the price is dear indeed. Few who voyage with the Lady of the Mists return, those who do come back missing something and often displaced in time.

[brian 333]

The Iron Fish

The legend of this ship takes several forms, but what the various legends share is the fact of a fish-shaped vessel which travels great distances beneath the waves.

The Vengeance Seeker

In this version of the tale the captain, and perhaps the crew, have a grievance with a particular nation or organization and they use the vessel's ram to sink ships belonging to the object of their hate.

The Gnomish Contraption

In this version the vessel is the work of a gnomish tinker which is moored dockside awaiting a crew foolhardy enough to man a vessel designed to sink on its maiden voyage. Skeptics have no doubt about its ability to sink; however, they are dubious about the inventor's claim that it will rise again.

The Treasure Hunter

In this tale the builder desires to explore the deeps for shipwrecks in the hopes of finding lost treasure. Perhaps a specific treasure is the goal, or perhaps any treasure will do.

[sktarq]

New Theme...warships and ideas.

Rood Villsven

A fearsome war longship feared throughout the seas. It is most notable for the very large metal mask of a Boar that fits on the top of the prow as a figurehead. And with the red sails of war the combination is known far and wide. This ship is known to raid even well protected areas, the homelands of other raiders, and those areas that have paid protection tithes/gifts/etc.

It is famous as the lead and last vessel of fierce northern tribe. The exact identity of this tribe changes with the telling and even other dragonships do not know where its home port is. This ship garnered vast sums for its original Jarl who ignored the pressures and honor of the other Jarls to attack any and all. Eventually this turned all who knew of him against him...

The tribe that originally spawned it has long been broken with the few remaining warriors and a prince having taken this very ship as their holds collapsed under the onslaught of his many enemies. The Jarling was last seen vowing revenge on all who had wronged his family as the ship faded into the night. That the flagship and son of the Great Jarl escaped was considered a great stain on the attackers and community at large. Only a couple weeks later the survivors raided the homestreads of one of the attacking groups with the warriors were off selling booty they had gotten from their own assault. And soon it happened again. and again. And while the rate of attacks rises and falls the ship has been seen from time to time ever since.

But the ship has been sunk for over a century now, though nobody is sure of that. When the Jarling was still trying to raise money and warriors to take back his home another captain saw an opportunity. He raised red sails (uncommon but not unheard of) and have metal boar mask made that could fit over his own Dragonhead prow and be removed after....when news of his raid leaked out it was blamed on who was already expected to be raiding in places they shouldn't. And this captain was only the first with the idea. Today desperate captains who are willing to risk everything will dress up their ship as the Rood Villsven for a night and attack those they otherwise would not dare.

and while several fakers have been exposed almost all believe that while this raid may have been faked not all of them have surely ...and that the real Rood Villsven under the heir of that Jarling also hunts those that would take credit for his actions...and so the legend lives on.

Coraxius

In this entry "The Empire" is any significantly economically and magical powerful nation with a coastline who fell from the height of decadence and is basically gone (no legitimate remnant)....replace with whatever nations fits the world.

Even the richest most powerful Empires at their very apex can find certain things too expensive.

The Emperor had tasked his greatest magi to build him a new class of war paddle wheeler. There were supposed to be a dozen of this new ship to act as the great naval fist of the emperor. The ship was to bristle with magic and power to be an icon of the might of the empire.

And an entire council of archmagi set to work to create it. And did truly amazing work. Its mythril hull was shaped and then both magically hardened and made lighter under their knowing gaze. Its obdurium ram and other key components were forged under the most skilled of arcano-smiths. Ballistae and catapults were outfitted to not only load and guide their themselves but could conjure their own ammunition and fling it at great range. The ship cast magical repairs and mendings on itself regularly. Many of the crewmen were replaced with magic as well. Unseen servants, floating disks, and the like were bound to the ship. Freeing the crew to act as warriors or diplomats. Its shorter term defense seen to by its own animated constructs and key weapons like the rail mounted heavy crossbows that fire magic missiles instead of bolts. Yet more powerful still were the great twin side paddlewheels that were animated to provide strength without wind or oarsmen for centuries upon end. But their greatest work was to make the ship itself intelligent. Based upon the magic to grant the most potent magic weapons their own personality and view the wizards set to creating an exceptional aide to the captain able to translate his words anywhere on board to action by its control of all the other magical components on the ship. Its ability to dominate its own bonded user via its exceptional intelligence and charisma was held in check by its loyalty to the chain of command of the empire.

And the ship worked. It was a staggering warship. None would challenge it or the power it represented. But the cost was just as staggering if not more so. The Coraxius was supposed to be the lead ship of a dozen. But even at its height the Empire could not afford this. Its attention was needed in too many places and it was not at all an efficient use of resources. So the Coraxius became a flagship and diplomatic display piece for years. However when the Empire fell the ship changed. It had been away when the most dramatic parts of the collapse. Still loyal to a fallen empire the ship tollerated its crew at first but when they tried to "move on" the ship took this as mutiny and killed the ship's company. For years the ship kept close to the shore of its fallen home hovering like a carrion bird. This is when it was given its new moniker by the rest of the world.

Now the ship still "patrols" the region mostly. Hailing the ship in the ancient fashion as if the ship was a member of the old Empire gets you quietly ignored and so few bother it. But sometimes the ship attacks with little or no warning. Sometimes a single person leaves the ship in far off port and acts strangely for a time. On occasion a ship in dire need has been rescused by the ship (it seems to hate piracy or war Some few people have been able to board it. While it basically seems to simply drive away the vast majority as boarders. Those who have claimed to be representatives of the old empire last for only a short time longer before the ship determines that each such ruse is a a con job within a couple hours. But occasionally a person is seen on the decks and apparently has bonded with the ship. It is unknown where these people come from but it appears they may be the same ones who on occasion get off in far away ports and act "bizzare" for a period of time....
Some belive the ship is searching for the true heir to the Empire, other that it is using its genius intellect to set events in motion to cause the empire to rise again, other think that the inhuman reflection of an intelligent being has simply gone catawompus and is mostly harmless.

in any case it rides the waves and may (or may not be planning something)

xeniphope

Originally an exploratory vessel this ship has since become the most well known ship of the western sea. The Barque was pressed into service in a war many years ago the Xeniphope has since sailed under every war since. Well kind of. The ship has had been modified many times. With a new keel installed one year and a new bow section a few years later and a new sterm the decade after that. It has even been sunk a few times and raised by magic in order to be built out from the hulk yet again. Over time a third mast was added and the bow structure changed multiple times.

With each rebuilding, modification, extension, the ship has been refitted for battle on the waves. and thus it has met the enemies of its crew time and again. And the crew has changed over the years as the ship has been passed between nations and port over the last three quarters of a millennium. But still the name has held and most of ship held during each rebuilding even if little remains of the original ship (though several parts are claimed to be original, nobody knows the truth)

And the ship has seen MANY battles. And usually on the winning side. Its sinking or capture has heralded the shifting of power on the western seas. The ideas first seen on it have been copied so many times that the ship itself can seem clichéd. When this ship fights history is always with it, and history is always being made when she sails. It is claimed that the only two times it has ever lost to a non-westerner the sacrifice of the ship to the waves is what has turned the battle to the greater Western fleet, for sure its arrival has shifted too many too count (and is a standard moment in bard's tales in the region). Its battle glories are too numerous to count. For many the history of the Xeniphope is the history of naval warfare of the Western Sea. Its captains logs have been copied and sold as history texts for centuries children learn its exploits at churches, schools, and hearths throughout the region.

To see it is the stir the blood of any westerner. To sail her is an honor afforded few. Many consider it a near religious experience and only the very best last more than a single tour on it and almost all place that experience as one of the greatest experience of their lives....many tombstones are marked by claiming to be Xeniphope crewman as a title of honor. Those who have worked to update or rebuild her are very often the best in region and do their finest work. . . Even enemies of the nation that mans the ship will often go to work on and share their secrets so great is the honor given to this task.

Having been rebuilt with the best materials, magic, and knowledge. Crewed by the best experts the area can offer and motivated by a near religious zealotry this ship brings a great advantage even if there is nothing supernatural about the ship...but legends claim the heros of the past guide its way, that ship remembers its thousand clashes and brings its veteran status to all its often bloody duties.

The Black Dhow

Years ago a ship from far off lands appeared in the local waters. It carried triangular sails, a curved prow and rare rigging. But this Dhow was was among the largest seen in these waters (50m 150ft in length) and very large even by the standars of it home. Further protected from the open ocean by a thick layer of tar on all its outter hull. In spite of it technically being a baghlah it was soon known as the Black Dhow.

The master of the ship claimed to be an exile from those far off lands and now wished to be a merchant in these waters. He ha a led a family of royal smiths and craftmen and in time became close to rules of one of the great city states before being cast out. His crime was to be too wise and know the where disaster was too strike, for he saw that other cities that claimed to be his sultan's allies were preparing war against him. His sultan did not wish to hear his wise council and cast the family out but had died in the predicited war even before the Dhow arrived locally. And while most disbelieved his claim the man began to amass significant wealth on the basis of an ability to find a good market for his wares. His strategy was simple. Collect goods useful for war from elsewhere and then arrive shortly before war. Which is easier said than done. They would further craft weapons, leather goods, and medicines in particular for sale to the armies from workshops (that their claimed were fireproof) hidden with the bowls of the ship.

In time the ship started to show up early in the tensions between various factions to sell as demand rose. And then go off to collect supplies in peaceful regions where cost were lower. But it presence now symbolized war, either soon to be or currently active, and either locally or near enough to be considered a short market hop. Being an outsider the ship master claimed total neutrality and has he and his decedents still hold to that., though it has not gone unchallenged...In reality the trade opportunities as a total outside party in times of stress were simply better if he could trade with any and all as a neutral party...so he chose to hold to his outsider status which did mean that the regular trade runs were harder for him.
Some claimed the master of the ship, or his mysterious veiled wife, was an oracle who scanned the future looking for trouble to sell to. In time the master had children and those who married into the family, sorcerers, spymasters, and oracles did nothing to aid the good name of the family. In time various family members, officers, and even allies gained their own ships doing similar things. All are still known as the Black Dhow even though not all are even Dhow. Now run mostly by the grandchildren of the founder

Today seeing one of these ships is seen as a sign of bad luck for war is on the horizon, but to see two or more in short succession is a an ill omen indeed.

there are actually a dozen ships in this little fleet...each a bit different but all use the same name in common parlance.


The Black Dhow: Baghlah (150'). The original. Focuses on weapon, leather, an medicine production. Known for having a thick layer of tar and using pucks for ballast.

BBB: Baghlah (100')

CCC: Baghlah (100)

DDD: Ghanjah 96'

EEE: Boum

FFF: Boum

GGG: Boum

HHH: Sambuk

III: Xebec - Spawned from a second son of the first navigator of the original ship this ship is known for offering a few main traits. Speedy critical supplies in the freshest condition, and workers for those crews building fortifications etc. They are also known for buying up slaves in various points especially orphans, deserters, and widows in the aftermath of warzones. This ship is known to have significant magic in its holds. Whilst the details are unknown many of its captives seem to be charmed via their chains and the food is preserved gentle repose or similar magic.

JJJ: Xebec - .

KKK: Polacca: This ship's crew was adopted into the fleet not from a family member or officer but from a close friend of the 1st and 2nd' captains of the Original Black Dhow who had a similar style and was of a quick mind. When his original ship was heavily damaged the Black Dhow's coffers were opened to help a new ship be built but as part of the fleet. It has elements of both the Dhow's and of more local ships with lanteen sails on both fore and mizzen masts. The captain is well known for his insight and often can bring bulk supplies of good like food into areas that will soon either need to feed a mass of seigeing troops or stock up for an expected seiuge. This is now expanding into healing compounds and magic spell material components as the captain son is an alchemist of growing renown..and a young widower which is causing stress in the within the family (debates of marrying him into the family are fierce) but for today the original captain is still in charge. Now well aged with close cropped white hair and an impressive white but oiled beard this ship is the envy of many for it is a fastidiously maintained vessel.

hmmm... gonna finish up all the members later.

I like them all, but my favorite so far is Dark Flyer

Wish I could say it was totally original but it is an adaption and build out.

[brian 333]

The Four Galleys

Sea Lance, Sword of Harrol, Kennick's Cudgel, and Arrow were created by a team of the greatest shipwrights of the Northern coasts, then enchanted by the most powerful wizards of the Northern Kingdom for the four sons of King Harrol I, each of whom designed a ship to his preference.

What the vessels have in common is their legendary seaworthiness and the fact that they are all war galleys. Each of them can row and steer with only one person aboard, their oars and tillers obeying the will of the ship's master.

To become the ship's master one must command it with a crew for a full Lunar cycle. Thereafter the master may command a course and speed and the ship will comply. None of the vessels are sentient; they are simply magical items. As such they will not avoid shoals and reefs or nimbly avoid hazards. A living helmsman can almost always out-perform the vessel's automatic steering even when the master is alert and giving orders.

Lance is the first named, but it was the second to be laid down and was given to Derrick Harrolson, the second son of Harrol. Lance is a two-deck galley with a bronze I-beam ram beneath a bronze knife-edge prow. Lance is capable of carrying up to 150 troops for short voyages or up to 50 for long duration ventures. Its single mast can be stepped for combat.

Sword of Harrol was the first laid down, and built for the eldest son Harrol Harrolson. This three-tier galley boasts two masts and space for five-hundred warriors, or 150 for long voyages. A massive trebuchet amidships can only be used when both masts are stepped, but the ballistae fore and aft mounted on swivels can hurl bronze-tipped shafts of sixteen foot length up to 300 feet with enough force to hole a typical ship's hull.

Kennick's Cudgel is the third vessel laid down and launched. Kennick Harrolson wanted his two-deck galley to be more capable of capturing vessels than sinking them, and thus it is the only one without a ram. Its masts are not designed to be stepped either. Instead, archer's nests are built on each of the three masts and heavy crossbow pivots are built into the rails with crossletted shields to protect the archers. The crew of three hundred can use the half-dozen small catapults to hurl grapnels with chain leaders up to 100 feet to capture vessels and use the capstans to draw the target into place for the spiked boarding ramps to be dropped. The Cudgel is not designed for long voyages.

Arrow is the smallest, and fastest, of the four. It is an open deck longship which relies upon tarps to keep water out in rough seas. Vidder Storm-Eye was Harrol's fourth son, and he was a wizard. He opted for a light raider with a crew between twenty and eighty. The ship's mast could be stepped allowing her oak ram sheathed in copper to be used at need. The hull itself was sheathed in copper below the waterline.

When all four ships worked together to lead the fleets of King Harrol nothing could stand in their way. However, Harrol's death lead to the four sons going each his own way. Lance traveled to the Western Colonies to rule them, Cudgel became a mercenary for hire in Eastern waters, and Arrow sailed south where it is rumored she guards the sea lanes to the rumored Tower of High Sorcery.

But it has been fortold that the four ships will reunite to lead the Northern hosts in the Battle at the End of Time.


Sea Star

Once upon a time this boat was a fisherman's skiff, but after years of service it was abandoned. A young wizard purchased the old boat and with a friend's help restored it. Thereafter the small craft served as the wizard's steed as he spent most of his life wandering the empty seas on one quest or another. In the many adventures of the wizard, many spells were cast upon the boat. Some say the wizard bound a water elemental to the boat, while others claim it was caught by accident in the magical web around the boat. Perhaps the elemental simply found a friend. In any case, a consciousness resides in the boat.

It is a lap-sided boat with a sharp, deep prow and a low, flat stern to which a tiller is secured. It is an open boat divided into three by two thwarts, the forward of which secures the base of the mast when it sits in its socket in the keel of the boat. The mast can be rigged for a square sail, a triangular sail with the boom on top, or a split sail fore and aft of the mast. Many variations are possible within the basic configurations.

The boat can calm the waves within 20 feet, bail itself, right itself if capsized, and avoid submerged hazards. If no one is at the helm it can maintain its course, and if its occupant is injured to unconsciousness it can set its own course home. Best of all, it can maintain rowing speed for as long as it wants without need of a paddle.

It is said to sail the seas with no occupant from time to time, comming and going at its master's command or it's own desire. And if a young person with the potential to become a wizard boards, it will set a course for the magical island where the tower of the archmage stands, to be trained in the art.

[Bohandas]

Gnasher
Gnasher is the personal ship of the tooth fairy. It is made entirely out of teeth and crewed by sailors who are also made out of teeth. It is said that it can sometimes be seen sailing the world's rivers during most candy-centric holidays.

The Seat of the Sacred One
Long ago a deity of light came down to the world in a mortal aspect. He peached a message of love, but the people rejected him, beating him and mangling his legs. His followers built a wheelchair for him, but it was time for him to leave. He was last seen wheeling this wheelchair over the water of the ocean

The Burning Ship
A half-sunken galleon with two enormous columns of flame shooting up from it, many times taller than the ship itself. Closer inspection reveals the flames to be towers constructed from elemental fire. They keep the ship from sinking, the elemental fire hedged out by the water as if it were solid. Based on the fractal of the same name.

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[brian 333]

The Ghost Ship

This vessel is said to be the ghostly remains of a vessel sunk in a long ago war, forever seeking the ships of the enemy that sent her to the bottom.

She has been seen in storm and calm, translucent sails bellied to the breeze, and ghostly crew manning ghostly rigging.

The reality is more terrible: Ephemeral Tide is a pirate ship. Spells cast upon her allow her captain to order the ship into the Etheral Plane, into the Material Plane, or to the border between them. The usual tactic is to surveil the target from the border and if tempting to come alongside, shift to Material form, grappel, shift to Etheral, then capture the prize.

Many sailors are marooned on Etheral islands, slowly fading until the Ephemeral Tide returns to offer the choice of joining her crew or wasting away.

Sigara

On the freshwater inland sea there is a marvel of magical technology known as Sigara, The Water Boatman. It is constructed from the shell of a giant insect called a water boatman due to the resemblance of its four rear legs to oars. The insect, and the boat constructed from its shell, rows on the surface of the water at very high speed.

The Sigara can be entered only through a hatch located where its mouth once was. If floating, this requires the one desiring entry to dive and swim. The boat can also pull itself onto a beach or bank with its tiny forelegs if the ground is firm enough. This would allow one to crawl under the head to gain access. Once inside the occupant can stand or sit behind the large, multifaceted eyes. The interior of the head is a flat-decked slightly triangular sphere. In the center are four levers. Two are side-by-side on a central pedestal and can be used to make the boatman walk forward, backward, or grasp with its forward pair of legs. The larger pair stand on either side of the pedestal and each controls the rowing legs on its side. These can be locked in place so the operator can step away while the boat continues to travel. There are two toggles on either side of the pedestal which control the outer wings, either opening or closing them. This allows access to a large cargo compartment that is an 8 x 16 foot oval which can hold ten tons of weight.

The boatman is ten feet wide and thirty-six feet long, and it can move up to 30 miles per hour. It cannot ram or otherwise attack other vessels because its hull is lighter and more pliable than wood.

[Bohandas]

The Eldritch

The Eldritch is a vessel of the Greyhawk navy dating to the rule of the mad archmage Zagyg. It was designed with several experimental features, including the ability to levitate as well as the ability to phase into other planes of existence, including the far realm. Predictably, to everyone except Zagyg, the test of this last feature resulted in the ship becoming extremely haunted and the crew becoming hideous mugants and attacking the city with the ship's arsenal of shrink item-miniaturized iron rods, before being driven off by Zagyg and disappearing into wildspace. The ship's interior is a nonsensical maze of passages that often go anywhere and rooms that serve no purpose, but it was already like this before the far realm teleported was tested.

[KarlMarx]

The Chrononaus

This quadrireme was the flagship and last surviving vessel of a long-ago explorer's voyage beyond their homeland's shallow seas and coastal hills to the far-off, icebound, polar reaches of the continent. It is said that the explorer, having never experienced a polar winter, became stuck in ice and permanent night during his expedition. In a panic, he ordered the ship's mage to teleport the vessel and its crew back home, but the mage's spell (being unfit to transport so large an object) failed and instead cast the ship adrift in time. Now, it moves forward and backward through the centuries seemingly at random, with its crew never aging or even experiencing hunger or thirst, as it wanders the seas looking for a way back home.