Table Card — The Derelict
Session ii · everything mid-scene, nothing else · full write-up here
At a Glance
- Strong start
- Alongside at full daylight. Read alongside below. Ladder up: DC 10 Athletics only if climbing with a burden. Deal gull-sign to a nature-wise PC now.
- Soft clock
- Brame won't hold station past dusk. Five zones, party picks the order after the deck.
- The one thing
- The box is found and the hull knocks. Everything else can flex.
- Curtain
- Read dusk coming on → end. If Krell lives, his last line: the tidepriest looks like a man who misread a contract.
Run Order
| ~Time | Zone | What happens · what matters |
|---|---|---|
| 40m | 1 · Weather Deck | 2× Shroudweaver drop under the mainmast (≈600 XP adj., Easy–Medium). Webbed rigging = difficult terrain aloft; cut/burned webs drop tackle — DC 12 Dex save or 1d6 bludgeoning. They never pursue below decks. Tell: gull and fish bones in the webs, no human ones. |
| 40m | 2 · Berths | Half-eaten meals, hammocks torn upward. Drops: untaken åsan (tin in a sea chest) + the half-finished letter. 3× Drowned Deckhand in the dark forward (≈1200 XP adj., Medium–Hard) — they wait for the dark or dusk; listen at the door: wet cloth, half a work-song. Sunlight down the hatch is a wall — reward fighting at the doorway. Mercy: åsan in hand + DC 12 Religion → one stands down, staring. |
| 45m talky · 30m bloody | 3 · The Hold | Krell + 3× Wrack-Picker, mid-strip (≈1500 XP adj., Hard — talkable). He offers the Open Hand first. Parley: he'll split the hold, share what he knows, or leave with what's crated — call him gleaner, not thief, and half the negotiation is done. Deal Krell's arithmetic here. If it's a fight: he casts from the companionway, surrenders at half his crew down. Either way: DC 12 Investigation (or Krell says it) — less cargo than a ship this size should carry. |
| 40m | 4 · Cabin + 5 · Bilge | Cabin: door barred from inside, broken outward. The strongbox bolted under the berth, Dohr's blue seal untouched. Read the last entry. Chart drawer: true manifest (⅓ more tonnage on paper — the box proves it). Locker: cap of water breathing + ~80 gp sundries. Box: DC 15 thieves' tools — but that choice plays better ashore. Bilge: keel gouges — DC 13 Survival: from below, one creature, and it doesn't lose ships it wants. Older sigils under them — DC 13 Religion or Krell: Jatu's. Do not explain who. Breach patched from outside. |
| 5m | Curtain | The hull knocks twice from below; the swell goes flat. Read dusk coming on → end in the same breath session iii opens. |
Numbers
| Check / value | When |
|---|---|
| DC 10 Strength (Athletics) | boarding ladder, only with a burden |
| DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) | run / fight / carry on the listing deck — prone on a fail |
| DC 12 Dexterity save | falling tackle when webs are cut or burned — 1d6 bludgeoning |
| DC 12 Intelligence (Religion) | åsan mercy — one deckhand stands down |
| DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) | the hold is light for a ship this size |
| DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) | keel gouges came from below, one creature |
| DC 13 Intelligence (Religion) | the older sigils are Jatu's |
| DC 15 Dexterity (thieves' tools) | the strongbox — better left for ashore |
| Shroudweaver ×2 | AC 14 · HP 26 · +5 Bite 1d8+3 + DC 11 Con (2d8 poison, half) · Web (rech 5–6): restrained, escape DC 12 Str (web AC 10, HP 5, vuln. fire) · full block |
| Drowned Deckhand ×3 | AC 12 · HP 22 · +2 Bite 2d6+2 · +4 Claws 2d4+2 + DC 10 Con or paralyzed 1 min (re-save each turn) · sunlight sensitivity · full block |
| Wrack-Picker ×3 | AC 11 · HP 32 · 2× +4 Boathook 1d6+2 · Pack Tactics · Sea Legs (no listing-deck penalties) · full block |
| Vasso Krell | AC 13 · HP 33 · spell save DC 11: hold person, spiritual weapon, command, inflict wounds, shield of faith (all wear brine) · surrenders at half crew down · full block |
NPCs — one line each
- Vasso Krell — tidepriest of the Gleaners · calm, liturgically precise · tell: ships are “taken,” never sunk · wants: gleaning finished, the rite respected, and off this water · winnable, and worth winning · page.
- The Gleaners — take their cue from Krell entirely; they won't die for crates either.
- Old Brame — holding station off the quarter, won't stay past dusk; his hail at the curtain is the session's last pressure.
Read-Alouds — in order
1 · Alongside (the boarding)
Up close she is worse. The rails are furred with salt, the ragged sails stir without wind, and every line aloft is wrong — thickened, greyed, wound about with sheets of something that is not canvas. The ship is silent the way a held breath is silent. As the boat knocks against her strakes, the gulls overhead cry once, all together, and go somewhere else.
2 · The last entry (the captain's log, in the cabin)
“Fourth night out of Onda, becalmed inside sight of the harbour lights, which none of us likes and none of us says. Puddick swears the water is listening. I have doubled the watch and served the good arak, and if the reef wants a toll I will pay it in arak too. There is a sound off the reef tonight. Long, and low, and patient — like a debt being called i—”
3 · Dusk coming on (the curtain)
You feel it through your boots before you hear it: a knock against the hull, low down. Once. Then again — patient, unhurried, the way a creditor knocks who knows you're home. The dark water in the bilge shivers into rings. Up on deck, Old Brame's voice comes across the water thin and urgent: the swell has gone flat around the ship, flat as poured glass, and the Petrel is standing away whether you're aboard or not.
Valves — running long / short
- Long? Collapse the Shroudweavers into a hazard (webbed rigging, DC 12 Dexterity to cross, restrained on a fail); let the deckhands be heard but avoided — they matter again in session iii.
- Short? Play every zone slow, give Krell the full theology, let the party debate the manifest on-screen.
- Drops tonight: gull-sign · untaken åsan · captain's log · keel-marks · Krell's arithmetic · manifest discrepancy — all optional, all from the Lore Locker.