Sunken Ships
Rumors tell of great treasures and adventure to be found in shipwrecks at the bottom of the sea. But what sets one promising shipwreck apart from another? If you're an unprepared GM, that grizzled ex-captain telling tales of a mysterious shipwreck may be hard-pressed to give the party the details that will get them excited, but this graveyard of sunken ships is ripe for dropping into your game!
1. The Mystic Lady. This famous sunken ship was the pleasure barge of Euthias Dold, a conjurer of great fame and renown. He would take the Mystic Lady on voyages up and down the coast, stopping at each major port for a few days in order to hire himself out to the local merchants and nobility. The exact circumstances that led to the sinking of the Mystic Lady are unclear, although Euthias, the only survivor, claims it was simply bad weather. Rumor has it that the ship was crewed by bound creatures from other planes, and that some of them might still be confined to the wreck, forced by their contracts to guard, clean, or otherwise perform their duties.
2. The Grim Lance. This massive galleon is still spoken of only in whispers by members of the pirate community, and is responsible for sinking or capturing nearly thirty pirate vessels over its ten-year career. In its heyday, it was all but undefeatable on the open waves, and any unlawful vessel unfortunate enough to be caught within range of its cannons had little hope. Captained by Admiral Regina Star, the Grim Lance finally sank after several pirate groups worked together to set an ambush for the ship, which generally sailed alone. It took the combined might of seventeen pirate vessels to do the deed, and half their number were destroyed, all the same. While the numerous cannons aboard the ship are likely too heavy to be scavenged, Regina was known to carry a powerful sabre that she used when dueling pirates, which is believed to still be aboard.
3. The Descent. This grim vessel served as the last home of hundreds of thousands of the terminally ill. A plague ship, it travelled from port to port, collecting those with contagious and life-threatening diseases, and essentially imprisoning them aboard, to protect the rest of the world from them. Although the ship did have alchemists and priests who did their best to ease the suffering of their patients, life aboard the Descent was as dismal as the ship’s name implies. According to his correspondence, one of the ship’s doctors, an alchemist by the name of Theobald Fent, had been on the verge of discovering a cure for leprosy when an uprising by the patients resulted in the ship’s destruction, and some believe that there may still be some clues to his work concealed in the wreck.
4. The Adventurer. This practically-named ship was owned and operated by the famous treasure-hunter and explorer, Francesca d’Artiz. Built for a mix of speed and firepower, the ship served her well in her various run-ins with pirates, underwater foes, and occasionally the forces of the crown. The ship sank under mysterious circumstances not far from a group of islands that, decades later, were discovered to contain some very ancient ruins. The ruins had clearly been looted when they were discovered, and many believe that Francesca was the one to do so, and that numerous treasures from these ruins may still be on the ship.
5. The Lucky Lamprey. A famous smuggler’s ship, which was said to be as slippery and difficult to catch as its namesake, the Lucky Lamprey was small and fast. Unfortunately for its captain, James Drouillard, the ship’s luck eventually ran out, when he made the mistake of cutting too close to some rather hazardous reefs while trying to avoid pursuit, sinking the vessel. It is unknown exactly what cargo the ship was carrying at the time that it went down, but an anonymous—and well-funded—party is very interested in recovering the ship’s contents, and has been actively recruiting for a salvage expedition.
6. The Abbot’s Miter. This merchant vessel, one of many in the fleet of vessels owned by the Doreda family, was captained by Selena Doreda, a black sheep of the family more interested in sailing than in social climbing. Although the Abbot’s Miter was not a particularly exciting vessel to captain, it still sated Selena’s love of the sea. According to the manifests in the hands of the Doredas, the ship was not carrying anything particularly exciting when it sank (tea and spices, mostly). However, the wreck is of note because the few survivors insist that no less than two pirate ships went down with it, despite a complete lack of weaponry on the Abbot’s Miter. These claims seem to be supported by flotsam from the wreckage. Theories about the nature of the wreck abound.
7. The Seahound. A massive prison ship, this boat contained numerous prisoners deemed too dangerous to be kept in any land prison, and were instead imprisoned on a moving ship in the middle of the ocean, where even if an escape occurred, only a cold death in the ocean awaited the escapee. The ship sank due to poor weather, claiming the lives of crew and prisoners alike. Interested parties are actively looking to find the wreck and recover the corpse of one or more of the prisoners, for unknown reasons.
8. The Devil’s Barb. A sleek, fast vessel heavily loaded with harpoons and ballistae, The Devil’s Barb was captained by Gisela Moremont, who specialized in hunting sahuagin and similar undersea menaces, selling their hides for bounties. Gisela had a small fleet of four or six ships under her command, and would travel the coasts in search of these monsters. The ship went under when, during a battle with a particularly savage group of sahuagin, an enormous shark the size of a whale or larger bit the boat in half. Though the rest of her fleet escaped, without the captain, it disbanded soon after.
9. The Cunning Scorpion. This pirate vessel, led by the dread pirate Francois Rivero, was the last sight that many sailors saw, as it bore down upon their ship. Famous for its flag, which depicted a red scorpion on a black sail, tearing a ship apart with its claws, the ship had a reputation for its vicious and ruthless crew. The ship disappeared several years ago, and is presumed to have been wrecked, but no one knows exactly where, or what circumstances led to its current fate.
10. Marid’s Joy. This unusual ship is not actually wrecked, although its supernatural and magical abilities sometimes cause it to be mistaken for a wrecked ship. Bearing strange magic, presumably laid upon it by marids, the ship is actually capable of sailing beneath the waves, and grants those in contact with it or its rigging the ability to breathe water as easily as air. The ship often sails below the water, rising to the surface only to interact with other ships, or to come to port. In the past, the ship was crewed by a gang of unscrupulous pirates, but its previous owner, Tricia Blackblade, met an ignominious end in a duel, and the ship’s current owner is unknown.