Ghost Ships Along the Sword Coast
HaHaCharade
Member Posts: 1,644
Something I thought that may be cool for future content in BG2:EE or maybe even BG3 if its placed around the Sword Coast, is the inclusion of a Ghost Ship. I always thought the idea of them were cool form the FR books -- Here's an excerpt from the FR 3rd Edition source book on Ghost Ships in the Sword Coast Region.
"The Sword Coast is famed for brutal battles between rival navies, pirates and merchants, sailors and the monsters of the deeps seeking to drag them down - and dragons pouncing from the skies, seeking to smash or slay. Such strife never ceases.
Over the centuries, thousands of vessels have been lost at sea and not all of them lie quietly beneath the waves. Wherever sailors in taverns talk of the sea, they mention Those Who Sail Forever, then duck their heads and make warding circles with their thumbs to keep the undead from hearing and coming for them.
While some pirates and slavers use the cloaks of night, fog and bobbing skull masks to pose as "ghost ships", true ghost ships sail the waters off Faerûn. Spells on the hull or tainted and corrupted magical energies used on the cargo keep some such afloat. They sail empty, or with skeletons or zombies as crew. They may ride the waves with or without sails rigged or wallow along waterlogged, with decks awash yet refusing to sink. Others are true phantoms: wraithlike clouds that are the images of their former selves.
It is said that the evil sea deity Umberlee uses ghost ships to bring long-drowned magic items back into the hands of those who will take them ashore, or bear treasure tales into port to draw the greedy out into her clutches.
Famous ghost ships include Red Prow of Calimport, a slave ship that sank under the weight of the gold and gems it carried. It now houses wraiths and "weirder things" that ride folk like steeds. Perhaps most feared is Ravager of the pirate Gonchklas, a wallowing wreck of a caravel with tattered sails and a zombie and skeleton crew who storm and board every vessel they encounter."
How would you do one? The possibilities are endless. Maybe the adventurers find one docked a short distance off of a dark, deserted coast somewhere, with its skeletal pirates ready to raid some ruin. Maybe some wizard or sage is an expert on the subject matter and asks the adventurers to obtain a dusty logbook from an ancient Captain's cabin on board a mysterious vessel. Anyway just a thought I had. Anything that adds to the "High Seas" feel of the Sword Coast region is good in my book. :-)
"The Sword Coast is famed for brutal battles between rival navies, pirates and merchants, sailors and the monsters of the deeps seeking to drag them down - and dragons pouncing from the skies, seeking to smash or slay. Such strife never ceases.
Over the centuries, thousands of vessels have been lost at sea and not all of them lie quietly beneath the waves. Wherever sailors in taverns talk of the sea, they mention Those Who Sail Forever, then duck their heads and make warding circles with their thumbs to keep the undead from hearing and coming for them.
While some pirates and slavers use the cloaks of night, fog and bobbing skull masks to pose as "ghost ships", true ghost ships sail the waters off Faerûn. Spells on the hull or tainted and corrupted magical energies used on the cargo keep some such afloat. They sail empty, or with skeletons or zombies as crew. They may ride the waves with or without sails rigged or wallow along waterlogged, with decks awash yet refusing to sink. Others are true phantoms: wraithlike clouds that are the images of their former selves.
It is said that the evil sea deity Umberlee uses ghost ships to bring long-drowned magic items back into the hands of those who will take them ashore, or bear treasure tales into port to draw the greedy out into her clutches.
Famous ghost ships include Red Prow of Calimport, a slave ship that sank under the weight of the gold and gems it carried. It now houses wraiths and "weirder things" that ride folk like steeds. Perhaps most feared is Ravager of the pirate Gonchklas, a wallowing wreck of a caravel with tattered sails and a zombie and skeleton crew who storm and board every vessel they encounter."
How would you do one? The possibilities are endless. Maybe the adventurers find one docked a short distance off of a dark, deserted coast somewhere, with its skeletal pirates ready to raid some ruin. Maybe some wizard or sage is an expert on the subject matter and asks the adventurers to obtain a dusty logbook from an ancient Captain's cabin on board a mysterious vessel. Anyway just a thought I had. Anything that adds to the "High Seas" feel of the Sword Coast region is good in my book. :-)
Post edited by HaHaCharade on
14
Comments
...spooky
BG3 could be a high seas adventure. There's all sorts of islands off the Sword Coast. Off Tethyr (where ToB took place) is Lantan (gnomish homeland I believe). The Moonshae Isles are MAJOR, stretching all the way from Amn to Baldur's Gate with no small number of associated islands. Waterdeep, one of Faerûn's largest cities, lies between Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter with Ruathym to the West. I think that if you sail West far enough you can end up in Maztica...
Wizards has a map on their site.
I like it...
Controllable ships for anyone