Chapter 5 - Session 3

The Fury of the Father

Events and Actions

In the Drowned Man's Tavern, the party weighed its options for the cursed sloop-of-war "Father's Fury," now that it was known to be up for sale. Discussion turned to the ship's evident needs — even their own vessel, "The Bull," ran short-handed with roughly a dozen crew against the twenty able seamen a ship her size properly required, and a true warship like the Father's Fury would need still more hands, including dedicated gun crews for a full broadside, on top of the difficulty of finding anyone willing to sign aboard a cursed vessel at all. Wary of committing their own ship too readily, they floated the idea of keeping the Bull as a second vessel — a mobile base and cargo hold to ferry supplies and captured animals back to port — rather than selling her outright, and set the thought aside for later. Having pooled what gold they could between them, roughly two hundred fifty gold apiece and some fifteen hundred all told if everyone contributed, the party agreed to inspect the ship before entertaining any purchase, and specifically not to offer up the Bull as part of any deal until they knew more. Someone floated the idea of simply winning the ship's deed at the tavern's card tables instead of buying it outright, but a quick round of self-assessment found nobody skilled enough at gambling to pull it off fairly, and the notion was dropped. That settled, they made their way to the shipwright's yard, drawing enough attention along the way — Cosimo's conspicuous hat chief among the reasons — that Knick Nab dropped back to watch for anyone following; he found only a knot of local boys eyeing them with idle curiosity, nothing more organized. There they found Master Borin, the peg-legged owner, presiding over a hive of construction: a dry dock nearing completion, and, separately, a ship drawn up on the beach to be careened and cleaned. Borin, checking his books, confirmed the Father's Fury had drawn no reasonable offers yet and quoted the going rate for an ordinary, uncursed sloop-of-war in the low thousands of gold, though he could not say what a seized, unmaintained, and cursed vessel like this one might fetch by comparison. He arranged for a reluctant laborer named Johan to row them out and note their questions, on the condition that he not board the ship himself.

During the row out, Johan recounted the ship's cursed history: long before it was a pirate vessel, the Father's Fury had been a captured northern ship, brought here to be refitted, and only afterward passed through two doomed pirate crews, led by captains "The Skull" and "Wolf," both of whom vanished without a trace after taking her to sea. He also mentioned that when the ship was first captured, its cargo hold held nothing but large barrels of what was said to be water, all of which had been found broken open. Climbing a thrown grapple line, the party scrambled aboard between two large skull-carved posts flanking the boarding point and found the rest of the ship similarly adorned, which Johan confirmed had been added at the Skull's order by the master carver Old Man Rayhar. In contrast, they noted that the figurehead — an exquisite carving of a furious, bearded man, worked from a single piece of oak — was original to the ship, carefully built into its front spar as one integrated piece rather than bolted on like the skulls; its quality struck them as reason enough why, superstition notwithstanding, no one had ever renamed the ship despite its curse. Asked whether the shipyard would still take on rigging and refitting a cursed vessel, Johan allowed that everything has its price. The vessel appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry, still equipped with four cannons, cannonballs, gunpowder, and the personal effects of its former crew.

Before setting foot near the bow, Noddy cast a spell of presence and sensed a sapient being nearby — something with intelligence well beyond an animal's — centred close to the figurehead. Once the party reached the forecastle, Noddy also cast detect magic on the figurehead and confirmed it was enchanted, before Riu attuned himself to it directly, sensing first that it was alive and aware; when he greeted it aloud in hope of a reply, it gave no response at all, but pressing deeper with a second attempt he discovered it was a sentient, magical entity imbued with the power of The Father, and that a third, unknown magic — neither The Father's nor The Mother's — permeated the entire ship, not just the carving. In the captain's cabin, the party recovered the log of Captain Wolf: he had taken the ship after buying it from the Skull, fitted it out with four guns and a bare-bones crew, and sailed uneventfully until a final entry recorded sighting an unnamed northern sloop, which he set off to pursue with all haste — the log ending abruptly there. Before beginning any ritual, Noddy quietly put Johan to sleep so the laborer would not witness what came next.

While Cosimo prepared his ritual, a search of the hold — prompted by a passing thought of where a smuggler might hide something worth taking — turned up nothing; it was entirely bare, without so much as a rat's carcass, an absence the party found unsettling for a ship abandoned in such haste and resolved to look into later. Reaching out toward the ship's magic a second time to aid the ritual, Riu felt his own connection to his medallion abruptly sever; he did not understand what had been lost, only that it took real effort — and a stroke of luck — to grab hold of it again and restore the connection before the ritual went ahead. Cosimo then wove a magical ritual around a simple sound illusion spell, channeling it through Riu's ongoing attunement and praying to The Father throughout, in an attempt to give the ship's presence an actual voice. After a tense wait, the figurehead responded: it animated, pulling itself free of the bow to confront the party as a towering, jerkily-moving wooden golem gripping a wooden trident, seeming to swell larger still as it drew itself upright. The sight struck the entire party with a paralyzing fear that rooted them to the spot; only Knick Nab and Noddy broke free of it, Knick Nab shouting for a retreat and leaping overboard to swim for shore while Noddy vanished under an invisibility spell. The being, identifying itself as The Father, rose denouncing Cosimo as "blasphemous heresy" and commanding him to be gone from its ship; when Mani protested that Cosimo had only ever given it glory, The Father dismissed him just as coldly — "he has done and brought me nothing... I do not know him" — and hurled its trident at Cosimo; only his helmet kept the blow from caving in his skull, deflecting it into his cheek instead. Mani, invoking the power of the medallions against the creature as he shot it — landing a solid, bleeding wound — felt nothing come of the invocation itself, learning that whatever fear or protection the medallions hold over the Church meant nothing to The Father. In the midst of the fight, the party also came to suspect that The Father was a being distinct from the ship itself, raising hope that destroying it might free the vessel rather than doom it.

As the party fell back toward the boats, an earlier spell of Noddy's meant to trip the creature failed outright, and his follow-up water bolt did almost nothing — the creature seemed to shrug off water as though it were part of its own being. Werner's javelins fared better: his prized enchanted +10 javelin, thrown first, punched clean through the creature's chest, and his two remaining javelins followed, one tearing off a finger and the other pinning a foot to the deck, while gunfire and Cosimo's own spellfire, his eyes crackling with lightning as he loosed a bolt, chipped away at it further and set it alight. Standing his ground nearest the creature to cover the others' retreat, Mani twice met its swings with a full parry and a practiced riposte, landing counterattacks that did little more than bounce his rapier off the wood — though one of the creature's own missed blows smashed clean through a section of the ship's carved skull railing instead. Riu broke off from the fight to stem Cosimo's bleeding with a string of healing spells while the others covered the retreat. Mani, the last to leave the ship, tried to swing down on a rope to snatch away the creature's fallen trident and deny it a ranged weapon, but found it pinned under The Father's own feet and had to abandon the attempt, diving into the sea instead as the burning, heavily damaged creature leapt in after him.

NPCs & Creatures

Master Borin: The peg-legged owner of the shipwright's yard who wants to sell the "Father's Fury." He confirmed the ship had drawn no reasonable offers yet and quoted the going rate for an ordinary, uncursed sloop-of-war in the low thousands of gold.
Johan: A laborer from the shipyard who rowed the party to the cursed ship. Put to sleep by Noddy so he would not witness the party's ritual, he wasn't woken until the fleeing Knick Nab was thrown into the boat with him — at which point he saw The Father and screamed in terror, rooted to the bottom of the boat.
The Father: The animated, sentient figurehead of the "Father's Fury," a large wooden golem that embodies the wrath of The Father.
"The Skull" (Mentioned): The first pirate captain of the "Father's Fury," a brash young upstart who took the moniker to inspire terror. After capturing the ship, he commissioned the master carver Old Man Rayhar to add its many skull carvings, then took her to sea laden with swords and muskets, and vanished with his crew without a trace.
"Wolf" (Mentioned): The second pirate captain of the "Father's Fury," a seasoned southern captain who bought the ship from the Skull, fitted it out with a bare-bones crew, and also vanished with his crew after logging a final sighting of an unnamed northern sloop he set off to chase.
Old Man Rayhar (Mentioned): The master carver of Drowned Man's Port, an elderly Islander of exquisite skill, commissioned by the Skull to carve the "Father's Fury"'s many skull decorations from oak staves.

Locations

Drowned Man's Port: The party explored more of the pirate haven.
The Drowned Man's Tavern: Where the party debated the merits of the cursed ship against their own before setting out.
The Shipwright's Yard: A large, active yard under Master Borin, with a dry dock nearing completion and, separately, a ship drawn up on the beach to be careened and cleaned.
The Father's Fury: A cursed sloop-of-war anchored outside the port, originally a captured northern vessel before it was ever refitted as a pirate ship. The party explored its deck, gun deck, and captain's cabin before being attacked; its gun deck was fitted with ports for eight cannons, though only four were actually mounted, run in and untouched for months.

Conflicts

The party confronted the animated figurehead of the "Father's Fury."
Upon animating, the creature struck the entire party with a paralyzing fear, rooting them to the spot; only Knick Nab and Noddy broke free of it immediately.
The creature, "The Father," attacked the party, focusing its wrath on Cosimo.
Cosimo was struck in the face by the creature's thrown trident, but his helmet saved him from a more grievous injury.
Mani invoked the power of the medallions against the creature as he shot it, but the gesture had no apparent effect.
The party fought a running battle while retreating from the ship, inflicting significant damage on the creature: setting it alight, driving Werner's enchanted javelin through its chest, shooting off part of an ear, and burning a bolt across its forearm, though Noddy's water bolt and a spell meant to trip it both failed to do much.
Mani twice parried the creature's blows and countered with a riposte, though his rapier barely scratched the wood; one of its missed swings instead smashed through a section of the ship's own carved railing.
Mani's attempt to swing down on a rope and steal the creature's fallen trident before retreating failed when he found it pinned beneath its own feet.
The conflict ended with the creature, ablaze and badly damaged, leaping into the sea in pursuit of Mani.

Learnings and Discussions

The party learned the detailed history of the "Father's Fury," including that it began as a captured northern vessel before its two vanished pirate crews, and that its original cargo was said to have been many barrels of water, all of which were found broken open.
They confirmed the ship is cursed, with the source being its sentient figurehead.
Riu's attunement revealed three distinct sensations from the figurehead: 1) it is sentient, 2) it has been blessed by The Father, and 3) a third, unknown magic (not of The Mother) permeates both the figurehead and the entire ship.
Reaching for the ship's magic a second time to aid Cosimo's ritual, Riu felt his own connection to his medallion abruptly sever; he managed to reforge it only with real effort and a stroke of luck, though its meaning remains unclear to him.
A search of the hold, prompted by wondering where a smuggler might hide something worth taking, found it entirely bare — not even a rat's carcass — an absence the party found unsettling for a ship abandoned in such haste, and one they resolved to look into later.
The medallions' power, or whatever fear they inspire in the Church, seemed to mean nothing to The Father: invoking them while attacking it had no discernible effect.
The party came to suspect The Father is a being distinct from the ship itself, raising hope that destroying it might free the vessel without harming it.
A ship the size of the Bull needs roughly twenty able seamen to be properly crewed, well beyond the party's current complement of about a dozen; a true warship like the Father's Fury would need still more hands on top of that, including dedicated gun crews for a full broadside.
Johan confirmed the shipwright's yard would still take on rigging and refitting a cursed ship, provided the price was right.
With its trident lost to the deck, the creature was left without a ranged attack for the rest of the fight, a small tactical relief as the party fell back.
The creature declared Cosimo a blasphemer, stating, "He has done and brought me nothing. He is no one. I do not know him."
Before being interrupted, the creature declared, "All power is mine and hers."

Items Gained

The party recovered navigation maps from the captain's cabin of the "Father's Fury."
Master Borin confirmed no reasonable offers had yet been made for the ship, and quoted an uncursed sloop-of-war's worth in the low thousands of gold; the Father's Fury, seized, unmaintained, and cursed, may go for considerably less. It remains equipped with four cannons, cannonballs, gunpowder, and the personal effects of its former crew, all ready for whoever takes it.

Items Lost

Werner used all three of his javelins, including his prized +10 enchanted javelin thrown first, embedding them in the creature — one driven clean through its chest, one tearing off a finger, and one pinning a foot to the deck.