Prequel: Captain Calabran's Flensed Servant

Fact Sheet

Date: 09-11-22

Date in-universe: unspecified, long before we met Eluviel

Players present: Dins, Ecchima, Meinhart, Vinnie. Marty was our GM. Tuur was excused.

Major developments:

We met Anastasia, a young polecat who’s also captain Magpie’s goddaughter
We killed six skeletons, two zombie cooks and the undead captain Calabran, the source of the curse on the infamous pirate ship The Flensed Servant
We liberated Pails (an innocent cabin boy) from this cursed existence
Captain Magpie and Ezra schooled the younger crewmembers about the dangers of curiosity: stay away from rooms full of blood and cursed jewels
We acquired
- treasure, including a fancy tricorn for captain Magpie’s collection
- a shortsword of wounding
- a hauntingly beautiful pirate song Hali might learn to play on her bagpipes
- Polly, a skeletal parrot who’ll never poop on captain Magpie’s back
We learnt a valuable life lesson about loyalty and treason playing out between Calabran and Billy Bones

Notes

The moon is rising on a quiet night, as the Young Kraken sails over the White Sea. Up in the crow’s nest during the late shift, Ezra notices a green flame. As soon as they spot it, it disappears again. Dutifully, they inform captain Magpie, who wants to check it out. We sail towards the spot at high speed with minimal effort from the night crew.

As soon as we arrive at the spot where Ezra saw the light, the Kraken abruptly stops. Despite full sails catching the wind, we’re dead in the water!

There's a flash of green lightening and when we blink the blind spots away, we see another ship next to us. We notice it's called the Flensed Servant. Thanks to a DIRTY TWENTY, Anastasia recounts how years ago this fearsome pirate ship disappeared after a battle with another pirate ship. It was sunk without a trace. How is it even possible that the ship is here? We notice the hull is entirely crusted with barnacles and seaweed and the deck is wet, like it's been under water for a long time.

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Captain Magpie makes a boarding party:

Captain Magpie, our trusted captain
Ezra, a seasoned pirate and well-trained outlook in the crow’s nest
Anastasia, a young polecat, ready to impress her gnomish godfather Magpie
Hali, the water genasi who’s been exploring for a while and has learnt to survive and thrive as a pirate
Storm, another polecat, on his züchtungsreise to develop mastery in his chosen profession (choreography).

Hali boards the Flensed Servant first. As soon as her feet touch the deck, she cringes in pain: there's a lot of voices in her head, calling out "treasure, help Pails, danger". Magpie, Anastasia, Ezra and Storm follow Hali; no one else hears the voices. Unfortunately, Anastasia faceplants when she tries to swing over... and we hear an ungodly creaking! Four skeletons awaken and prepare to attack us!

Anastasia rushes to the front of the ship, where 2 skeletons lumber towards us. Her thrown dagger misses, so she quickly follows up with her rapier and beats up one skeleton
Magpie slides over the slippery wood & hides in a dark corner, readying his gun for when a skeleton attempts to harm his goddaughter
Storm heads to the skeletons at the back of the ship, attempting to stomp one down. Alas, it's a disaster and he misses. Still, both skeletons there are beguiled by Storm's graceful movements. Their next attacks will be less effective
a skeleton misses Anastasia
another skeleton attacks Anastasia, Magpie intervenes doing TWO NATURAL SIX damage. The noise of the skeleton splintering terrifies the nearest skeleton, which is also obliterated
a skeleton lashes out at Storm with a shortsword
the other skeleton misses Storm
Ezra hits a skeleton with their longbow
Hali joins Storm and hits a skeleton with her scimitar

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Anastasia rips her dagger out of the hull of the ship where she'd thrown it, dashes over to the other skeletons and throws her dagger again (with a NATURAL FOUR for damage) and follows up with her second dagger. The first skeleton pulverizes and the second is hurt as well. We hear a voice from the forecastle where Magpie is still hiding: "squawk, impressive"
Magpie turns towards the voice, it's a remarkable bird lurking in the shadow of the mast. Magpie recognizes the beautiful plumage of a Norwegian Blue, with a ghostly blue light in its eyes. Magpie yells at us: don't shoot the bird! The bird responds: don't shoot... Magpie snaps at the bird: then why did you attack us? The bird rejoins: attack us! Peeved off by the bird's meaningless babble, Magpie shoots at the skeleton & the gun's reverberation makes the bird fly off. As soon as it exits the shadows, the moonlight reveals it's a skeleton too, rotted flesh and bedraggled feathers and all!
Storm whirls into a pirouette & finishes with a kick, ripping an arm off of the nearest skeleton
the skeleton beats up Storm
the second skeleton misses Storm
Ezra drops their bow and dashes for the bird, trying to catch it! However, whenever they approach the bird, it just flies off to another perch
Hali misses the skeleton and almost hits Storm (NATURAL ONE)

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Anastasia kills the last skeleton with her daggers. The bird repeats "impressive", while Anastasia collects her daggers and Hali completely heals Storm.

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The fight is over. Anastasia was most impressive: to the victor go the spoils, so she gets the honour of choosing our next step. She proposes we try to find the captain's cabin to discover what happened and how come the wind doesn't propel our ship anymore. Storm asks if Hali knows anything from her compendium, but apart from the god of the seas, she has no clue. Magpie warns against necromancy, a foul magic!

We look down through the grate on the deck:

some soggy hammocks
some barrels and chests
stairs leading further down

Just when Anastasia wants to head downstairs, Ezra reminds our captain he should first check for traps. The door opens without problem, so we can just head down. In this first room, we spot:

lanterns lit with the same bluish ghostly light we’d seen in the parrot’s eyes
a table with a map
a ladder to a lower deck
at the back of the room, 2 doors leading further to the back of the ship

As we inspect, we see the ship's position... but all the lines around it keep shifting. The coastlines, the reefs and rocks, the shipping lanes: everything is in constant flux. Hali looks over, but she can't detect any magic on the map. Intrigued, captain Magpie rolls up the map and pockets it.

We mull over what we should do next.

We go through the left door & check out the last room. It's a broom closet & a broom falls down, startling Ezra and Anastasia. Some spiders skuttle about & we find a chest the size of a jewellery box! Magpie checks for traps, and finding none, he just opens it for us.

Within the chest, there's a red velvet pillow, on which rests a severed human skeletal hand with a beautiful ring. Magpie, Hali and Ezra argue it's a monkey's paw, a cursed object that’s sure to twist any wish so we should leave it. Anastasia and Storm take a while to be convinced, but in the end we move on without it.

Ezra opens the door on the right and steps into the room. They hear hundreds of voices calling out in their head: “danger, chest, cook, careful”! As the pain ebbs away, Ezra relays the message. We all step into the room and notice this is the captain's cabin with a desk, a bed, some shelves and a huge chest. On the bed, there's a small little boy looking at us, with ghostly blue eyes.

Pails (Thomas Rowlandson's drawing of a cabin boy)

A conversation ensues:

Ezra: are you Pails?
the boy: why are you here, you have flesh, what’s happening? Yes, I'm Pails.
Magpie: what are you doing here?
Pails: I died as the cabin boy when I was eleven, but I'm still here, despite the Flensed Servant sinking. I loved being captain Calabran's assistant, but now he's mean and keeps muttering about revenge... I don't like him anymore! I’m trapped on this ship with:
- 6 skeletons who forever return to their skeletal form whenever they fall apart
- Polly the bird
- 2 zombie-like crew members, Slicer the cook and Pointy his helper
- the ultimate zombie captain Calabran.

Pails thinks there's a curse on the ship, after the first mate Bill Bones sold out captain Calabran, allowing other pirates to attack and sink us. He mentions the captain spends his time in the hold, obsessing over his treasure. There's a cursed ring aboard, but the gold treasure in the hold is fine.

From time to time, the crew indulges in raiding ships and cannibalising and torturing prisoners. Pails doesn't know why our ship was stopped... perhaps captain Calabran felt Billy Bones is near?

In the chest, there's clothes, appealing to Ezra, Magpie and Storm. Underneath the clothes, there's a wet blood-soaked leather sack. Pails recognises it as the captain's feedbag to feed sea monsters. It's a bag of devouring, which’ll eat whatever you put into it.

At Magpie's insistence, Pails explains the map is used to travel to different planes.

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We head to the front of the ship. Pails follows us a little ways to wave us on. The moonlight reveals that Pails is also a skeleton.

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At the front of the ship, Anastasia kicks open the door and jumps into the room, daggers at the ready! There's only some crates in the corridors, with a door in the middle and at either end a stairwell leading down.

Written on the door, in wet blood, is the word TRAITOR. Ezra tries the door, but it’s locked. Magpie picks the lock. A smell of iron and blood wafts towards us. The bed, the chair and table are covered in blood, breeding a legion of maggots. We hear a soft, meandering tune, without any indication who’s whistling this?

While Hali jots down some of the notes in her compendium, planning to learn the song on her bagpipes, Ezra gently shuts the door with the words “we don’t go borrowing trouble, crew mates”. Anastasia is a little less gung-ho for adventure after seeing all the blood.

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We arrive on the lower deck. In this area, we can see some empty hammocks, some crates, several iron bound chests, one of which is shaking violently. There are also 2 doors, as well as some stairs leading up and one stairwell leading down.

We head to the next room. There are medicinal jars full of body parts, floating in liquid. The floor is covered in broken glass and leeches. Ezra finds a healing potion, as does Storm! Anastasia is kind of pale.

We head on to the next door: it's the armoury, full of rusted weapons. Storm wonders if we could sink the ship as a temporary solution allowing us to escape, but to captain Magpie, it appears clear we'll have to kill captain Calabran first.

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We head to the lowest deck. An inch of water sloshes over the floor. At the far end of the space, atop a pyramid of chests, a zombified captain sits on top of the biggest chest on top of the pyramid. It's captain Calabran, with a big beautiful tricorn, grinning a morbid welcome at us. He detains any pirates when he senses them, forever seeking Billy Bones. When Storm asks about the blood in Billy Bones' cabin, Calabran grins the blood is from adventurers like you! The captain and his 2 skeletons attack:

Storm steps towards Calabran and fires an arrow at him. With an elegant bow, he beguiles Calabran. His distraction will make his next attack less effective
Anastasia jumps atop a crate and flings her daggers at a skeleton. She jumps to another crate and follows Storm as close as possible
the skeleton lumbers forward and lunges at Ezra, who gracefully moves out of the way
the skeleton hit by Anastasia follows her, and hits her
Hali misses the skeleton, and then shifts into her starry form and pulverises the skeleton pursuing Anastasia
Ezra twirls their shortswords and hits once and misses once
Magpie jabs his rapier through the skeleton's skull & shoots an arrow at Calabran "why don't you pick on someone your own rank"
Calabran growls at us and yells for Slicer and Pointy, who like to indulge in cannibalism. Next he steps down from the chest, and claws at Storm twice (the second misses)

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leaning away from Calabran’s second claw attack, like Michael Jackson, Storm is beguiling in his grace and elegance... Calabran is seduced and halts in his attack
Anastasia hears stumbling on the deck above us, and repositions herself towards the only entrance
Hali repositions herself and readies an action, aiming at whoever comes down the stairs next
Ezra does much the same
though he quickly wonders if Pails might be following us, Magpie prepares in the same way Hali and Ezra did
Calabran shrieks balefully: Anastasia and Magpie are frightened, but the rest of us are okay

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Storm asks Calabran to be friends... but Calabran can't feel friendship anymore, so he breaks the beguilement! Storm responds with primal savagery and claws with acid damage. Now we've both clawed at each other. Calabran asks if he's happy now, but Storm pouts he'd still prefer to be friends!
Anastasia fights through her fear and attacks twice with her daggers with disadvantage, and follows up with a hand axe. A dagger and the hand axe hit home, inspiring Anastasia to overcome her fear. She jumps down and crouches behind a crate
Hali attacks in her starry form and hits. She moves to the side to keep both the entrance and Calabran in view
a skeleton head looks down at us... triggering Magpie's action. Despite his fear, he tries to attack, but misses. Pointy, a skeleton in an apron and a ratty hairnet, attacks Magpie
Ezra shifts into their tiger form and shoots at Calabran
Magpie disengages from Pointy and shoots at Calabran. He strafes to the side, still afraid of Calabran
Calabran strides over to Hali, allowing Storm to kick at his knee. Anastasia attempts the same with her hand axe, but misses. Calabran claws at Hali, but is distracted enough that he misses twice
Slicer the cook turns out to be a zombie with a big meat cleaver. sliding down the ladder, he spots Anastasia and slices a tiny sliver of carpaccio off her arm... with a NATURAL TWENTY to attack and TWO NATURAL ONES for damage

.

Storm hums the song we heard in Billy Bones' cabin (for dancers' influence) and follows up with courtier action. Calabran is beguiled again. Storm asks if he isn't worried about his treasure chest, while rattling the chest, but Calabran is confident in the lock & in the key hanging from his belt
Anastasia attacks Slicer and hurts him a lot
Hali hurts Calabran and uses her free feat to disengage and fires a starry arrow at Calabran
Ezra activates hail of thorns at Slicer, but a NATURAL ONE means they miss
Pointy moves towards captain Magpie and hits him with his shortsword
Magpie disengages and hides behind a pillar, from there he hits Slicer with his gun. The zombie falls apart... but as soon as he hits the floor, he bounces upright again
Calabran breaks the beguilement - Storm's flesh is only appealing as meat, so he isn't seduced into following orders. He claws twice at Anastasia: one hit, one miss
Slicer lumbers over to Anastasia and slices another slice of meat off her

.

Storm leaps at Calabran, but his kick misses. With dancers' influence he lures their attention away
Anastasia disengages from Slicer and moves over to her godfather
Hali uses guiding bolt on Calabran, but despite 19 points of damage, he's still up. She also fires at Slicer, killing him finally
Ezra shoots at Pointy. When their arrow hits, the hail of thorns activates
Pointy heads over to Ezra, missing them with his shortsword. Ezra moves out of range, shifted as a tiger
Magpie slinks into the shadows, out of view of Calabran. He shoots at Pointy and obliterates Pointy. Magpie still can't break his fear of Calabran, probably because Calabran's tricorn is bigger
Calabran lashes out at Storm, who goes down

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Storm fails a death save
Anastasia rushes over to her dagger stuck in the wall and launches it at Calabran. She hits, and her second dagger also hits. Calabran falls down on the floor. Anastasia dashes over to Storm and tries to help
Hali also moves over to Storm and heals Storm
Ezra moves closer, and shoots at Calabran just to be sure, but misses
Magpie is no longer frightened and comes over to investigate Calabran. Calabran doesn't move, Magpie sees the key and a sword which Calabran hasn't used in the fight at all. With those in hand, Magpie dashes over to the chest.
As Magpie starts walking away, Calabran's head rolls over and he gets back up. He attacks Storm again, although he can't quite grapple him

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Storm claws at Calabran with primal savagery, but in his surprise, Storm misses completely (NATURAL ONE)
Anastasia attacks with her rapier, downing Calabran again! Anastasia picks up her hand axe but misses
Hali, having noticed her arrows hurt Calabran quite a lot, moves back and shoots another starry arrow. Alas, it's a NATURAL ONE. She uses her guiding bolt again. Calabran melts away, leaving only his hat and his clothes

The fight is over. A spectral form descends through the ceiling - Pails thanks us for granting him peace!

The water starts slowly rising, but we still manage to loot the ship:

Calabran's shortsword of wounding (+1)
Calabran's luxurious hat
2 healing potions
2800 copper, 900 silver, 490 gold
the magical map from the navigation room

We leave the cursed ring of regeneration and the bloody bag of devouring behind, to Storm and Anastasia’ eternal regret. As soon as we hop back onto the Young Kraken, we see another flash of green lightening. We blink and our ship is sailing again, in an open sea. The magical map disappears, to captain Magpie’s eternal regret.

At least we can remain content we saved Pails.

Polly, the skeletal Norwegian blue parrot, joins captain Magpie. He’s delighted, because this perfect pet never poops on his shoulder!