A foul and overpowering odor nearly causes you to double over with nausea. Straining to keep a grip on your senses, you see a ghostly apparition rise from the chest and solidify to a demoniacal snarl. A mocking laughter echoes about you…
Do you want to fight the demon?
“Say the name of the one who cursed us and you shall hold the key to our very souls.”
“Your answer was wrong! Return again when you have found the true answer.”
As if tossed in the corner with complete disregard are the sorry remains of some once proud adventurer.
Looking over the remains you find:
There is nothing left of interest to you. Just a pile of bones.
A fetid stink assails your noses as you enter the room. You find the partly decomposed body of a cleric with an ornate amulet still hanging around his neck.
Do you want to take the amulet?
Praise the Twelve! My name is Ardora of Gryphons’ Ford. I have been held captive here for months in a magical paralysis. I was sent to investigate this ship on orders from the grand inquisitor so that I could learn its secret and destroy it: I am in your debt.
To finally scuttle this ship of ghosts, you must open the chest at the helmsman’s post with a small golden key and banish the demon, for it is on his power that this ship runs, to his home sphere.
Should I accompany you?
Then let us begin our holy work!
As you wish, but should you ever need my services, you can find meat the “Four winds” in Thorwal. I shall return to your vessel. The Twelve be with you!
You notice a small crack beneath your feet.
Do you want to enlarge the crack and leave this cold and damp bilge?
[NAME] was bitten by a rat.
[NAME] finds 500 silver crowns in the chest!
With a soft creaking sound, the chest opens by itself. [NAME] takes out a small golden key and every character in your team receives [N] experience points!
Leaving the ghost ship, you are almost intoxicated by the fresh sea air that fills your senses, a welcome respite from the ship’s dank hold.
Suddenly, the ship begins to creak and shiver. With a massive shudder it disappears beneath the the surface and is sucked down to the bottom of the ocean before your very eyes. You turn away with a sigh of relief at the demise of the legend of Marbo and the cursed ship of the dead.
Exhausted, you fall asleep on the deck of your ship and do not wake up until land is in sight.
A peculiar wall of fog appears on the horizon and drifts towards you quite fast!
…Too fast!
Within minutes, it blankets the entire vessel with a salty, all pervading mist, blocking your sight in every direction.
It seems impossible, but the bow of a carrack appears from the sea of white and approaches on your starboard side, only a span away from your hull…
But there seems to be no one onboard!
Like a ghost ship it slowly passes by. There is still time to enter and secure the mysterious vessel.
Do you
- Enter the strange ship?
- Let it pass by?
Suddenly, the whole ship starts to tremble. The wood appears to break apart as the hull changes shape and unexpectedly, the stern of the ghost ship falls away. It dawns on you with sudden horror…
The ship is sinking!
Intuitively, you try to reach safety, but it is impossible to escape the floating coffin. Within mere seconds, the briny waves engulf you and become your cold and lonely grave till the end of time.
Do you want to leave this ship of the dead?