[Greenwich] The Melody in the waves 17th October (Kalta)

It seemed to Kalta that being in Port Ffirst had been a good idea. It certainly seemed to be extremely profitable. Her first quest had been a surprise- she hadn’t even gone too far out of her way to get it. That had earned her 30 gold and some new, interesting friends.

This job wasn’t something she’d gone out of her way to get either, but a promise of both an easier route to the sword coast and 80 gold pieces upon success was more than she could have hoped for. And she looked forward to working with Bodhi and Moonshine again.



7am, new sword held at her side and a new acquaintance with some other half-orcs in town secured, she boarded a ship to travel to the Strait of Sorrows. She wasn’t 100% sure how she was going to fight a magic storm, but surely whoever was creating it would be killable.

Last time she’d been on a ship, she hadn’t been at all involved in the whole sailing malarkey. This time she had to pull her own weight, even with her ignorance of all things nautical.


Following the instructions of a capable crewman made that easier. Three-fingered Laus (who actually had seven fingers) bellowed orders that she was strong enough to follow with comparative ease, and the "friendly" competition between Moonshine and Crumblesnout meant she got to hear some great music.As they approached the Strait, Kalta was feeling pretty confident. She even enjoyed tapping along to Moonshine’s drumming with her foot.  Sailing was a lot easier than she’d thought.

Famous last words- almost literally. She’d assumed she could handle a storm. A capable crew, some rain and wind- nothing she couldn’t cope with.

Well, she was proved wrong nearly immediately when they actually encountered the storm. A terrible wave had hit the ship, knocking Kalta into the side of the ship, the crew, anything that had hard or sharp edges. The cold salty water drenched her, making her bones shake with cold and her mouth taste foul. It was harder to grip on the ropes that she needed to, but it was more vital than ever. She gritted her teeth and got on with it, despite the growing exhaustion that was creeping into her awareness. The only respite was a few seconds when Moonshine gave her some water and she could down it and return, only a little refreshed, to the work.


She was dimly aware of the other crew members gossiping, sharing rumours and creepy stories. Some nonsense about bubbling water and a ship covered in blue fire. Your garden variety spooky story for a dark night.

That’s what she thought until Karys started yelling about a kraken, anyway. She yelled to another crewmember to take over her position. Fighting any threat was what she was really here for, wasn’t it?

She ran to the side of the ship and saw, not a kraken, but bubbling water. It rapidly turned into what looked like an erupting geyser, shooting water everywhere.

Even given that and the stories she’d heard, she hadn’t really expected a blue, ghostly ship burning with blue flames to emerge inexplicably from the depths of the ocean. It was coming towards them quickly. Kalta squinted- it was raining heavily and the fog was thick, but she thought she could make out movement on the other ship.



Bodhi, at the helm, was trying to turn their ship aside to get away from the ghost ship. Kalta was thinking she should head back to help with the sails when two more massive waves hit the ship, knocking Bodhi from the helm. It was almost like the waves knew where to aim to slow down their escape.

That was when the flaming arrows flew towards them. They were too fast, appearing out of the fog, for her to try and take cover. She let out a cry as two of them hit her, her leather armour failing to protect her against them. Two burning, piercing wounds on her side- she staggered, losing blood. Moonshine grabbed her and cast a spell, healing the wounds enough to stop the bleeding and enable Kalta to move almost easily again. Kalta had no time to do more than mutter a thanks and smile- there was too much danger. She pulled out her bow, squinted at the indistinct shapes on the other ship, and shot, hoping for the best. She wasn’t sure if it made contact, she couldn’t be at this distance and with this visibility.


Crumblesnout did some magic- a terrifying spell that seemed to cause damage to the ghostly ship as little else had. Bodhi cast a spell too, causing plants to erupt from the deck of the other ship and tangle around the shapes there.

Unfortunately, Kalta’s a rrows could only do so much (and that was very little). Instead she ducked under cover, hoping for a better chance. If they could board the other ship and she could fight the enemy properly...


Another wave smashed onto the deck. Kalta saw Moonshine and Crumblesnout get hit by it, both clearly bruised from the impact. She watched Karys attack the creature, and it react- she felt the next attack on their ship-

And then the spectral, flaming ship should have collided with the Marianne. It did. It just kept going straight through.

The flames caught. The ship shook, and in trying to dodge Kalta was knocked down, hearing the chaos around her as her head collided with the deck.


For a second time, she was saved by a bard, as Crumblesnout woke her with a spell. Kalta still felt bruised, and achy, and tired, but she was conscious, and as long as she was conscious she could act.

Bodhi leapt towards the other ship and his shape seemed to change before he fell- another attack hit Crumblesnout and Moonshine, knocking Moonshine unconscious. The mast broke, falling down, and Paw vanished below deck.


Karys was shot and lost consciousness- she wasn’t sure where Bodhi was, everything was chaotic and everything hurt-

She ran to Moonshine and put pressure on her wounds, stopping the bleeding and tearing some of her own clothing to tie a bandage around the worst of it.


She saw, dimly, a harpoon shoot from the Marianne towards the ghost ship. The ghost ship started to descend in the water, the reverse of how it had appeared. Bodhi was back on the ship, though Kalta hadn’t seen how. Another wave crashed into the ship, knocking Kalta down- she thought she saw others get hit, too, but there was no way to be sure as pain shot through her again, in more places than she could count, and she was no longer aware of the danger.

She was unconscious as the ship sank, as the crew died and her friends fought for life.





She woke in surroundings entirely unfamiliar to a shout from Bodhi. She sat up, gasping for breath, and saw him and Crumblesnout several feet away. There was no one else on the beach, no sign of wreckage or other survivors. Her heart sank.

Crumblesnout yelled out for the others, but there was no answer, no response. There was nobody else there, nobody coming.

They were gone.


Then suddenly, as Kalta was looking down, she heard cries of excitement from the other two.

“Faerie fire!”

Kalta looked up, but she could see nothing. Crumblesnout and Bodhi described to her the flare of sorts that they’d seen- flames shooting into the sky. Her heart lifted. The others might still be alive.


There was a small amount of debate about how to explore.

“We need to get to the jungle.” She argued. “We need to find them, but we also need to survive. We’re more likely to find potable water in the jungle than on the beach.”

The others agreed. Though they somehow still had their waterskins, they didn’t know how big this place was or whether they could find a way back to Port Ffirst. Water and food had to be the first priorities.


They travelled through the jungle. Kalta saw no point in attempting to be careful. She hacked through the vines and cleared a path that they could follow, and she hoped she was scaring away any predators in the process.


They’d been travelling for a while when Bodhi stopped them, suggesting he cast a spell to allow him to talk to animals. He could ask them about the others, or for help finding shelter, so they stopped as he did so. The toucan flew off, saying it would return later, but there wasn’t time to wait for it. Strange beings appeared from the trees, beings that Kalta didn’t recognise. Their forms were vaguely similar to fish, and though they pointed their weapons and were clearly aggressive, Kalta couldn’t understand their speech. Judging from her friends’ actions, neither could they.





Bodhi decided it was a good time to practice his unique and admirable brand of diplomacy, feeding them with magic. Kalta didn’t understand how he did it, but she had to admit his techniques were effective. It had helped them with the bandits before, and now it had the strangers bowing to him with respect and leading them through the forest.

Of course, they didn’t know where the strangers were taking them, but Bodhi having befriended them had to be a good thing.

It was a bit of a journey before they reached a clearing with a strange building, unlike anything they’d seen on the island, clearly in a state of disrepair. It was decorated with carvings, symbols of waves and the wind which were clearly significant to whoever had created them.



That was when a tabaxi woman leapt down from the trees to embrace Crumblesnout in joy. Paw! The rest of the party weren’t far behind. Kalta grinned in relief to see them again.



They entered the building. It was what Bodhi’s new friends seemed to want, and it sounded like Moonshine and the others had made some kind of promise to a ghost that involved going in there.


They walked through until they reached the entrance to a room, notable for the carved pedestal in the center of the room, illuminated by the moonlight and covered in the same symbols of the wind and waves.

The strangest thing, though, was how the room was full of skeletons. Skeletons and rotting remains, but it had clearly been so long that it was mostly just the bones that remained. The skeletons still seemed to have their armour and belongings. They didn’t seem to have been robbed. It wasn’t clear how exactly they might have died.


Kalta and Crumblesnout entered first, looking carefully at their surroundings. Approaching the pedestal, something caught Kalta’s eye. Beneath the skeleton closest to the pedestal was a strange sphere. Despite being covered in dust, there was blue light emanating from it. Crumblesnout pointed out that the pedestal was shaped in a way that suggested the absence of the sphere. Clearly it belonged there.


Perhaps it did, but it was also a very powerful magical object, and undoubtedly valuable. Kalta refused to consider taking it- this was dangerous, she’d nearly died three times already, and frankly she just wanted to take a long rest before doing anything else reckless. Besides… it seemed like this skeleton might have belonged to the captain of the spectral ship. If he’d been killed and then cursed along with his entire crew for taking this thing, it definitely wasn’t worth it.

Luckily the rest of the party agreed. Paw picked it up to replace the sphere and suddenly paused. It was as if Paw was watching something none of them could see. Then Paw carefully placed the sphere on the pedestal.


Moonlight shone onto the artefact, and it glowed strongly enough to illuminate the whole room with eerie blue light. Paw spoke of what the sphere had shown to her. The attack on the temple, the theft, the curse.

The solution.

They gathered the remains that they could to put to rest. There was no harm, surely, in taking some of what they found on the bodies. It wasn’t as if skeletons needed coin or anything else. 50 gold each, plus a platinum coin. If they could make it off this island, this mission could be counted as fairly lucrative, even if they didn’t get paid the 80 gold they were owed.



They carried the bodies down and burned them on a pyre below.

At first, Kalta thought she was imagining the storm quieting, the rumbling thunder fading. She thought she was just learning to ignore it, but when they finished burning the remains it became clear. The skies were clear, the storm was over. Those crew who had survived were trying to rebuild a ship to take them back to port, something that would hopefully be much easier now there were no storms.

When they returned, well rested and glowing with success, the 80 gold reward was waiting for them. Kalta grinned. Maybe she could finally stay somewhere better than the Cavernous Sea Shank… though she might prefer to save up for better armour, instead.


(Sorry if I have spelt other player's character names incorrectly. I hope this okay as a write-up).