Sessions 12 and 13: Return to the Silver Gentleman's Ship
Six sessions ago they had gone to a ship, and while there they felt like they could have done more, so they went back to save someone. This time I expanded it and had a lot of fun with it.
Unfortunately, due to the pressures of the adventure they couldn't explore it very thoroughly, but that's the nature of these things. The adventure culminated in a very cool dungeon-chase and a true Kingdom Hearts ass moment where Alessa (Mr. Mann) faked shooting herself in the head only to bum rush the evil magician and give his heart back to him, making him not be evil anymore.
All of the players said they enjoyed it and so I don't have many more further thoughts regarding this except that I'd probably be fine with them spending more time exploring it. And also I start to think I may be overreliant on "villain is actually a decent person that just needs some help", but that's not really a fair assessment. Anna la Nera from the Field of Winds was, I suppose, but Galvino from Ogre Island was just plain evil, and before that we didn't really have "villains", only antagonists.
It's a bit of a catch-22 because I don't want my players to feel like every single villain is just damaged and can be fixed like this is Stephen Universe... but at the same time I am the kind of sappy person who does believe love conquers all in some way, so I guess we'll see. I just don't think much about this because it's not an issue, but it is funny that it's happened twice.
Anyway! Here's what the ship looked like on their second run through.
The Silver Gentleman's Ship
For encounters, either draw a card, or 1-in-4 turns roll 1d12.
Encounters (Guest Areas)
â™ K - The Silver Gentleman, masked and in a white tuxedo, welcoming all.
â™ Q - The Northern Wind and her cicadas.
â™ J - The Mourning Dove with a mask and a tuxedo.
♡K - The Silver Gentleman, masked and in a white tuxedo, walking among the guests and being congenial.
♡Q - The Southern Wind with a few moths and Anna la Nera.
♡J - “Cricket” (Grilio), a peasant teen about their age acting as waiter, willing to help if they help him get the soul of his sister back, doesn’t know where it is. Knows about the Heart of the Gentleman.
♣K - The Maître d’ and his sycophantic rabbits pass by, a fat and short rabbit, fawns over wealthy guests, sics the dogs on rabble
♣Q - Agamonda, the Lounge Singer, drinking nearby
♣J - The Captain of the Guard and his hound dogs pass by, sniffing for humans; a tall, droopy eared and eyed baying hound
♢K - The Maître d’ leads a procession to announce and entertain one of the Heavenly Spheres, blocking the way
♢Q - The Northern and Southern Winds, as well as Anna la Nera, are around talking.
♢J - The Captain of the Guard and his hound dogs are here, standing guard and watch over the guests
Encounters (Staff Areas)
â™ K - The Captain of the Guard and 1d6 of his hound dogs pass by, sniffing for humans; a tall, droopy eared and eyed baying hound https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/db/ac/a4/dbaca414fae700a5ef39302cc21c5eb7.jpg
â™ Q - A couple of the hound dogs, off-duty, smoking nearby.
â™ J - Hound dogs and rabbits are yelling at one another over something stupid.
♡K - Niccola and her girls, all different minor animal spirits bound to the Gentleman’s domain, come to clean the room.
♡Q - Niccola is alone, going somewhere.
♡J - A DoberMan corners Niccola and “flirts” aggressively with her; she’s entirely unintimidated
♣K - The Maître d’ and his sycophantic rabbits pass by, a fat and short rabbit, fawns over wealthy guests, sics the dogs on rabble
♣Q - The Maître d’ is alone, walking purposefully somewhere and with little patience, tries to steer “guests” away
♣J - Hound dogs and rabbits are yelling at one another over something stupid.
♢K - A DoberMan on his way to or from his post.
♢Q - A DoberMan along with a few hound dogs are getting mad at one another and getting competitive
♢J - A DoberMan corners Niccola and “flirts” aggressively with her; she’s entirely unintimidated
1. Reception — The Maître d’, a fat and short rabbit fawns over wealthy guests, sics the dogs on rabble. Mostly welcoming folks and clipping them with little bracelets “for security”.
2. The Grand Ballroom — Grand ballroom, lively music, dancing in the middle, food on the sides, wandering waiters with champagne stop all who look out of place. What is currently going on?
The Silver Gentleman has appeared and is thanking everyone for coming.
A quadrille, those who aren’t dancing will look extremely suspicious.
The floor is calm, they’re in between dances and yapping pomeranians are going around with trays of food.
One of the Heavenly Spheres has arrived and people are flocking towards the door
A waltz is going on, a spirit or an elf will approach each of the party and ask for a dance
The Northern Wind is dancing with Anna la Nera above the crowd, blowing refreshing night air to cool off the inside of the boat
Outside on the promenade, port — A bunch of elfin guests are hanging around, arms out, smoking.
Outside on the promenade, starboard — A star spirit, completely androgynous and robed in bright white, surrounded by a minor court. Easily amused with things from this terrene plane.
↕️ Elevator Chute — Fits 2 teens if squeezed. Goes up to the Smoke Room and down to the Engine Room. It is in constant use now that it’s fixed.
The Spiral Staircase — Connects most of the ship vertically. Roll for every floor to see if it’s being guarded:
1 The Captain of the Guard is here with 1d6 hounds
2 1d6 Hounds of the Captain are here
3 The drunk Dober-Man snoozes in front of this door
4 The responsible Dober-Man stands at attention here
5 A procession of rabbits are guiding a particularly important guest towards this doorway, won’t be fooled
6 Door is currently blocked by a massive spirit, yapping pomeranians try to dislodge it with headbutts
7 / 8 Not being guarded.
3. Mezzanine — Overlooking the ballroom an orchestra of vegetable spirits is playing, they remember the players and will play a song on their request. They would appreciate some more food, the Silver Gentleman still doesn’t let them eat; same old. With them is Agamonda, the lounge singer, a beautiful elfin woman, femme-fatale-like voluptuous in a pale blue dress, drinking a cocktail. Still trying to get over her breakup and looking for a rebound.
9. Promenade (Port and Starboard) — Has been turned into an extended casino where guests play cards and gamble, though never with money. One of the guests here is Hondog the Oracular Hog, who’s the best at gambling. The terrier dealers are pondering making a roast.
4. Library and Trophy Room, and Reading & Writing Room — An white-skinned, immensely fat elfin woman with curly golden hair lays at the centre of the room on a divan, being fed grapes by a vertical tower of tiny rice spirits while she reads beautiful poetry. Other spirits sit around the room in chairs, or on desks with typewriters, focused on writing. She asks if anyone has a fan, her little helpers aren’t very good at it, and she would be embarrassed to ask for a spirit to fan her.
If she is helped, she will give two small bottles of rice wine, saying that downing the entire thing will make you into the opposite sex, and also might get you HAMMERED. She also says it is so powerful that a mere sip would begin the process.
Out the large frontal balcony comes distant sounds of the football game being played down at the gymnasium; it’s a short hop from there to the roof of the gymnasium.
5. Smoke Room — Guests behind silk curtains, low light, wet noises and moans. One elfin man paces around uncomfortably in front of his curtained room. If approached he will say he’s tied up the woman inside (peeking inside will reveal a VERY tied up elfin woman, almost completely naked of course, and blindfolded) and just now he’s realised he loves her, and now he’s blushing uncontrollably and doesn’t know what to do, he never planned to get this far.
6. Bridge — A thick iron door covers the bridge; one can peep inside through a small porthole. The door itself is never guarded, but opening it is sure to alert the Captain of the Ship. He is a jolly manatee spirit, as well as his copilot. The crew fear them because they have their own cabin and almost never mix in with them, so they imagine they must be terrible like the Silver Gentleman, but they’re actually big softies who enjoy the company of guests, since they almost never come around.
7. Silver Gentleman’s Apartments - Where the wizard known as the Silver Gentleman rooms; a highly elaborate desk with beautiful fabrics from all over the world on one side, a king-sized bed on the other. On his desk is the painting of an elfin woman, as beautiful as a star, that he ignores.
The Silver Gentleman is a Truscan man from Monpasto named Boiarelio di Carim, uncle to Belina though she never met him because he was “lost at sea” years ago. In fact, he was saved by a beautiful elfin woman after a shipwreck and they quickly fell in love, but she had to return to her land and could not take him, but she asked him to come meet her. Penniless and without anything to his name, he cut a deal with the fire spirit Caligomonte that he would feed him as much coal as he wanted, so long as he worked to move his boat towards east of the sun and west of the moon. He also plucked his heart from his chest as a permanent source for the spirit. Now heartless, he quickly found himself giving into his baser instincts; lusting after women, exploiting his workers, etc.
If brought back to his senses, Boiarelio will drop everyone who wants out wherever and use his hard-earned money to get a sail ship and sail to east of the sun and west of the moon.
8. Prow — Tables have been set up and many guests lounge here. Food has been set up but none of them are touching it, and they talk nervously amongst themselves, eyeing the food. If asked, Chancellor Barthobrand says they can’t eat yet, they’re waiting for the Master of the Swift Amber River to sit first, but he’s currently missing.
If someone brings him here, the Chancellor will gift them with a little vial of Pygmalion Red, pigment imbued with good health. If used to rose the cheeks of a painting, it’ll be so invigorated that it’ll come to life. Who knows what else it can be used for.
10. Gymnasium — A quick flight of stairs puts arriving characters at the top of the bleachers, where guests watch a game of football intently and with raucous enjoyment. The gym is covered but open on the sides with a net protecting it for the ball not to be thrown at sea. There is a 3-in-6 chance that the ball is currently stuck at the ceiling of the gym and one elf is in the process of clambering the net to get it.
The top of the gym gives access to the library via the windows.
11. Poop Deck — The spirit of a fresh breeze in the shape of a pleasant young man of very dark skin and curly hair to his shoulders watches the horizon despondently. He says he feels useless because this powerful iron monster doesn’t require his power to move on the water anymore.
⬇️ A wide staircase goes down to the locker-rooms and then the baths; guests with towels around their shoulders can be seen coming up every so often.
➡️ The gymnasium resounds from here.
12. State Rooms — In one of the rooms is a Thessalian male-presenting person named Ninaventure of Corbald, with a healthy golden tanned skin, but she would rather go by “she” and “Pandora” instead, to those she can trust anyway. She is a friend of Rodovech but is worried about going to the pool, in part because she thinks the other spirits might kick her out or enslave her, but in a bigger part because she is afraid and dislikes what she looks like in a bathing suit.
⬆️ The spiral guest stairway goes up.
13. Baths — People are taking baths and washing themselves, though there’s definitely a sultry air to it and many guests are very close. The Master of the Swift Amber River is here, quite drunk and sleeping coiled under the water.
14. Kitchen — Hustle and bustle of dogs running around, the off-duty ones are hanging around the windows, smoking. Lots of food and drink here. It’s run by Peg Leg Gani, a piratical bulldog who dislikes do-nothings. 2-in-6 chances of being spotted by him if not hiding.
⬇️ Narrow stairway to employee quarters (male)
⬆️ Low stairs to grand ballroom, 3 in 6 chances of runners, dumb pomeranians.
15. Swimming Pool — A Valley Spirit in the shape of a satyr, Rodovech, is swimming and having fun with the other spirits of his valley, but he seems saddened that one of his friends doesn’t join him. He asks anyone that passes to go to the state rooms and check in on him.
If the friend is brought here, Rodovech gives two bottles: one has white liquid and will turn you into a cold mist, the other has fiery reddish liquid like a whiskey and will make you unable to be wounded by the weapons of men.
⬆️ Stairs go up to the Baths.
16. Employee Quarters (Female) — Actually two levels of the ship merged into one long and tall wing where the off-duty “women” - mostly minor spirits that happen to wear female form - do all sorts of regular women things; pluck one another’s eyebrows, drink rowdily and laugh loudly, smoke heartily from thick pipes. They look up to Niccola, an older-sisterly fox spirit who laughs more loudly than anyone else. Has sympathy for humans caught up here.
➡️ Large curtain leads to the men’s wing
17. Employee Quarters (Male) — A sooty place with spirits in the shape of men coming and going from the engine room all the time, marching straight to the public and mixed gender showers, which are less debauched than they sound. Many dogs and rabbits lay around playing cards. They are more loyal to the Gentleman than the womenfolk, but their rivalry prevents them from paying too much attention to outsiders, so long as they don’t bother anyone.
⬅️ Large curtain leads to the women’s wing
⬇️ Steel trapdoor to the Engine Room
18. Barracks — At the back, an area of the male quarters has been isolated. A pair of tough mastiffs stand guard over whoever goes in and out, and they’re treated by the Silver Gentleman as the best of the best, taking no shit from anyone.
19. Engine Room - A terribly hot boiler room. The shirtless men here are always black with charcoal dust, and a work song is almost always on their lips. They are also divided between dogs and rabbits, and the conditions for a brawl to begin for basically no reason at all are there. The boiler spirit is Caligomonte, a massive inferno spirit who sings along with the men and prevents the charcoal dust from getting in their lungs. At the centre of the boiler is the beating Heart of the Silver Gentleman. Caligomonte doesn’t want to give it away because he’d be without a vessel and be snuffed out.
⬆️ Steel trapdoor to the Engine Room