CHAPTER 2: Exploring the Ship

Most of the ship is eerily empty, however as the players explore, they will find some things of interest.

If the party don't go to any of these locations, "Chum" (NPC) can suggest that they go (his line to suggest they go is given in italics underneath each section header) - use these sparingly because you don't want it to feel as though the party are just going wherever he suggests.

Officer's quarters

Reckon I might be able to find me some gold or valuables in the Officer's quarters.

As they enter the officer's quarters the party sees a table and chairs set up in the middle. In one chair is a body of an orcish man, slumped forward, with two daggers - one protruding through each hand, and into the eyeballs on the body's head (he was made to stab his hands onto the daggers and then, with the blades pointing upwards drive their head downwards with their eyes striking the points of the daggers). The second body is that of an elvish woman, sitting with patches of flayed skin lined up neatly before her on the table, and patches of her skin missing from all over her body (she was made to cut off parts of her own flesh and lay it out neatly on the table until she died).

Galley

I'm famished, there must be some food and drink in the galley.

In the galley, the party can find fresh food and water including salted pork, rum, biscuits, cask wine, pickled cabbage, garlic, legumes, dried peas, rice, flour, oats and water. All are edible and relatively fresh and have no negative side-effects, though the players may be suspicious of them.

Cargo Hold

We should go see if there's anything useful in the cargo hold.

Within the cargo hold the party can find general sailing supplies (ropes, nets, harpoons, daggers, poles, hammers, nails, oakum caulk, caulking mallets, caulking irons, tar, oil, pitch, spare sails, rigging lines, pulleys, heavy needlework tools, timber, spikes, copper bolts, iron hoops (for barrels), tallow and grease, fishing supplies, gunpowder, cannon balls, grapeshot, chain shot.

Hiding out within the cargo hold is the last (innocent) survivor of the voyage; Milly Minter. She is a young human woman (22 years of age) who boarded the vessel.

Milly will not reveal herself to the party, but if the party pass a DC 14 Perception check, or spend a reasonable amount of time searching around the cargo hold they will find her. She will be sane - albeit terrified. She will tell of the passengers and crew of the vessel at first becoming aggressive and argumentative with one another, but eventually resorting to self-mutilation and harm, throwing themselves overboard or inflicting gruesome fatal wounds on themselves. She suspects the captain; Captain Malachi Abernathy, as he seemed to not be subjected to the effects and she saw him laughing as these people were killed. The captain was a man with a bright red beard and hair. She doesn't know where the captain is, though. Milly was travelling with her newlywed husband Adrian, in search of a new town where they could build a life together.

Milly is reluctant to come out of the cargo hold, but can be convinced with a DC 12 Persuasion check. She has a bottle of rum with her, which she holds by the handle like a club, and she insists on keeping it close to her if she comes out.

Captain's Quarters

The captain always has the best liquors, I'm headed to his quarters to find some.

Captain Malachi Abernathy's quarters are mostly empty and neat. His journal is laid out on his desk and it covers multiple voyages. There are only two entries for this voyage, the first one being them casting off from Griffith's Lodge (notes on weather etc) and the last page, which appears as the following image (which you can print out and hand to the players if you like):

There is a page between these two entries which has been torn out; a fact the players can discern with a DC 12 Investigation Check.

Purser's Quarters

If anyone knew what was going on here it'd be the Pusser, we should go check out their quarters.

The Purser (who was responsible for administrative and financial matters) kept the passenger manifest. Checking the passenger manifest the party can see that there were fifteen passengers who set out from Griffith's Lodge on the Erebus. Passenger Names were as follows:

Karis Thwailes
Brenna O'Connell
Adrian Minter
Milly Minter
Orliath Fitzgerald
Mariah Fitzgerald
Thomas Fitzgerald
Elodie Fitzgerald
Thomas Wright
Corrin Embersleigh
Xander D'ran
Julien Mercer
Karina Mercer
Gwyneth Kelly
Siobhan Kelly

Other locations

Other locations on the ship are empty of people and have little of note within them, unless you want to add something that you think could add depth or interest to the story.