Haunted Waters: The Crew’s Encounter With the Phantom Ship | Jan Teschner

Open Seas North of Arcachon – With Clarence’s custom-built Flux Stirling Engine finally affixed to the Stolen Property after four days of meticulous work, the crew prepared to set sail north towards Camborne’s Rest and Tripoint. During this time, Clarence hired a new assistant named Ainz, an ambitious, if overburdened, mage. Her enthusiasm quickly waned as Clarence began assigning her impossible 28-hour shifts. When she casually mentioned her criminal past and ongoing necromantic studies, Clarence reacted with predictable outrage and fired her on the spot. Unfazed, Ainz accepted the crew’s invitation to join them instead.

A Ship Out of Time
Not long into their voyage, the Stolen Property encountered a ghostly vessel drifting silently through the waves. The air stilled, the ocean fell quiet, and a pale green silhouette of a ship pulled alongside theirs – sailing unnaturally against the current.

The party boarded the spectral vessel. Selah climbed into the crow’s nest and confirmed the ship was riddled with damage but floated steadily. Ainz opened the captain’s quarters and found a skeleton wearing a distinctive tricorn hat. Mad Matt insisted on a captain-to-captain conversation and entered with her. Sitting at the piano, he played a haunting melody that summoned the ship’s spectral captain from his bones – Captain Camborne. The ghost seemed confused and unaware of his own death. Screaming that the ship was sinking, he disappeared below deck.

Matt continued playing, sending his undead monkey, Sir Spencer, to track the ghost. Meanwhile, Tiyana explored the cabins and disturbed two ghostly sailors playing a never-ending card game. The ghosts chased her to the deck, where battle broke out.

Tiyana cast Magic Missiles, dispatching one of the spirits, though narrowly dodging the ghost’s spectral blade cost her some of her memories – she momentarily forgot her companions' names. Ainz fired her own volley of missiles, injuring the second ghost. Selah, leaping down from the crow’s nest, drenched the remaining ghost in holy water, dissolving it instantly.

Beneath the Decks
Ainz and Merlin later animated a nearby skeleton using necromancy, but its memories were fractured. It spoke of human-<0xC2>ical attackers long ago, but nothing of its own fate or the ship's demise. On the middle deck, Selah discovered ghostly coins, which she tried to grab – only to have her hand pass through them. One coin turned solid when she doused it in holy water, though the crew had no more left.

Further exploration revealed crates and barrels, which Merlin cleared out with brute force, unintentionally alerting whatever might have been hiding below. Ainz summoned a shadow panther named Kitty to scout, but even her summon found nothing of value. A large hole in the floor offered a view of the lowest deck – and the spectral form of Captain Camborne, furiously trying to bail out imaginary water.

Tiyana tried speaking to him, but the ghost captain was too absorbed in reliving his last moments. When Matt finally joined him, he began mimicking Camborne’s motions. Suddenly, a ghostly kraken tentacle burst through the hull – a memory or hallucination, no one could say.

When Matt asked Camborne if he was the same man for whom Camborne’s Rest was named, the ghost seemed confused. He remembered only "Mirror Island" – a clue that the name change happened after his doomed voyage.

Things escalated when Camborne, lost in delusion, accused the crew of mutinny and attacked. Four ghostly sailors joined him.

Duel of the Dead
The crew split up to handle the threat. Merlin began dispatching ghosts, though one psychic attack made him forget how to use his trident – he ended up swinging it like a hammer, which somehow still worked. Ainz continued casting Magic Missiles from above. Selah, still on the upper deck trying to pocket more ghostly treasure, was attacked by a ghost phasing through the floor. She briefly forgot where she was, but Tiyana’s missiles eliminated the threat.

On the lower deck, Camborne dueled Mad Matt. Matt proposed settling things with a game of liar’s dice. They gambled decades of servitude across three rounds – Matt won the first two ones, but Camborne won the last high-stakes round. Each 30 years indebted to the other, they decided to call it even and go back to sword fighting.

Selah joined the fray, landing a devastating punch with her meditation-infused power. Camborne retaliated with a psychic blast, damaging the crew’s memories. Tiyana created an illusion of kraken tentacles, catching the ghost captain off guard. Matt amplified the illusion by summoning spectral tentacles from the hull’s opening.

Realising she might lose more of herself, Selah retreated to meditate. Merlin, spotting an opportunity, tackled Camborne through the hole in the hull. Matt’s tentacles restrained him as Camborne – momentarily lucid – pleaded with the crew to return his sailors home. A final appearance of the ghostly kraken tentacle pulled him into the depths. Camborne was gone.

Heading to Camborne’s Rest
With the ghosts defeated and the ship beginning to flicker in and out of existence, the crew gathered their spoils. Tiyana used Mage Hand to collect a crate of ghost coins – her magical construct could touch them safely. Before departing, Mad Matt and Merlin took the piano with them, claiming it as a relic of the voyage.

Back aboard the Stolen Property, the ghost ship faded into nothingness. The mystery of Camborne and the fate of his crew lingered. Hoping for answers, the party set sail for the island once known as Mirror Island – now called Camborne’s Rest.