Demon Ships

[Crothian]

With most of my legends I like to present them from multiple points of reference. The following is my legend on Demon ships as is commonly told in any human port. The post following will be an elven historians comments upon hearing this tale.

The Demonships of the Fog

“So, you want to be hearing about the fog? Well, the fog is a weird lady. She hides things and distorts’em. In the fog you see images and forms, nothing that you can recognize yet everything looks familiar. And the sounds. You hear things that aren’t right, muffled moaning and gentle splashing. Things seem to all around ya even though you be alone. A smart sailor knows not to sail in the fog. Not that it’d be a good idea anyhow can’t see a good ten feet from you anyway. But it’s not that that keeps the sailors, least the smart ones, from sailing. It’s the Demon Ships. They sail when the others can’t see. Their boats be a good half again the size of what you see now. And on the bowel of the ship, instead of a nice mermaid to give your ship luck, they had demonic skulls that pour forth smoke and fire!! They have no weapons like catapults, ballista, or such, but they do fire poisonous arrows and toss rocks that explode into fireballs. They call upon the very ocean to attack you, the very sea that yee trust in every day. I’ve heard of them calling forth creatures of the water, squids and octopuses a mile long and sharks that can swallow ships hole!! But that’s not the worst of it. The ships are commanded by demons from the hells themselves. They have wolf like features, while others have large horns protruding from a demonic heads. Still others have great bat wings that they can use to fly and then they land on your ship and start tearing apart the crews. Their ships don’t burn either. Even after dumping oil on them, after the oil all burns away the ship is fine. And the creatures cannot be hurt by normal weapons, the arrows and blades just bounce of their hides. Priest can do nothing to get rid of them and they laugh at the pathetic magics a mage throws at them. Then as quickly as they appeared they are gone. Where and how, tis hard to say, but your left wondering if you really saw what you saw. ”

Common story told by sailors.

 

[Crothian]

This is an elven historians written comments on the above story.



The Demonships Myth by Blyden Flynn

I’ve just returned from the battle for Selenia and beyond. I spent my time their talking to many of the humans as I have never really been given such a good chance to discuss with them there own beliefs. I happened upon this young fellow by the name of Marc Karl, who claims to be a Historian. However, I feel that he is a bit too human, for lack of a better word. He has not realized, nor do I think he ever will, that historians must put aside their racial views and just look at the facts and report the facts.

I did have the fortunes of meeting a Jonathan Brady. Another young man (I’m thrilled to see so many young people pursuing the Historian arts) who has taken on the difficult task of cataloging and analyzing the battles between the orcs and the humans. He has a house in Thesden, and I plan on visiting there someday. We did not talk all about the wars with the orcs, even though that was what he wanted to talk about. I, however, was more interested in hearing about these Demonships. As luck would have it, he knew much about them. At this point I should point out that sailors are a superstitious bunch. This seems to be true of any sailor no matter the race. That really makes me have doubts about these stories. Secondly, everything I’ve heard has either been from Jonathan Brady or from sailors, human sailors. But, I shall attempt to judge the facts as they are.

It seems that these Demon Ships only come in the worst of fog. They come right up to ships and attack. The front part of the ships looks like giant heads that breathe fire and smoke. The crews of these ships are composed mostly of demons and such. Well, the demons attack either by using more fire, spells, or even flying over to the human ship. They attack with much fierceness and in most cases weapons and fire don’t even harm the demons. Then without reason the Demon Ships leave to go back to wherever they are coming from.

Now, I would believe that Demons could sail ships through fog. It is well documented that demons have abilities beyond most mortals and heightened senses are among those. Also, demons posses a wide range of magical abilities that would also help them pilot through the fog. Whatever a demon would make a boat out of would be more resistant to reefs and rocks then the boats others make. So, even if they did pilot into dangerous places they might survive it.

Next, we have the attack method of the demons. Some demons do like the frontal assault method. I believe that many demons would just sail up and attack. Having a creature be part of the boat is very demon like. Having that creature breathe fire and smoke also fits the profile. Many demons do prefer heat and smoke, while some even posses the ability to breathe fire and smoke themselves. The ability to breathe fire is also a very effect anti-ship weapon. The demons attacking with fire, spells, or flying over for hand to hand also fits in with a demons profile. Many demons use these three moods of attack. Many demons are only hurt by magical weapons, so normal weapons having no effect is as odd as it sounds. It also makes demons very difficult to destroy.

Then the demons leave without killing everyone. While I was never told this, it only stands to reason that some people have been left alive to tell the story in such detail. This however is not a common tactic for demons. If it were accurate I would have to summarize that these demons would only have limited access on our world. Therefore they have to cut battles short to get back to the demon world. This would also explain why so few people have seen the demon ships and why the demon ships are only seen in battle.

That would be my defense of the facts if I thought they were true. However, I do not believe them. First of all, all the information presented about the demons is all that is commonly known. None of the little facts about the demons has been presented. Secondly, nowhere in the history of any race has there been a mention of Demon Ships and according to the stories I’ve heard they only attack human ships. Demons are not that picky.

I think that a couple of drunken sailors imagined this story and now it’s become an urban legend. Now everyone who sees a ship in the fog claims they’ve seen the Demon Ships. Or, there is the canine like race who would appear as demons to humans who have no history with them. Either of these explanations is far more believable then Demon Ships.

Blyden Flynn

 

[Crothian]

If you post to a thread on a message board that no one reads, is it still a bump?

or

to bump, or not to bump that it is the question

or

I bumped what?


Note: I know that this thread doesn't need bumping since even though no one has responded, it is still at the top. The point is the irony that I never bump posts except post that don't need need bumping. A take off of the classic Woody Allen line if you will.

 

[Sidran]

First off you elf sounds like a Scientific Detective (I.E. Sherlock Holmes the Elf) Secondly its Mariner's Legend or Sailors Yarn not Urban Legend. And third that just rocks good job Crothian.

See I really want to tell you that this would be a perfect case book adventure for the book I am writing ( Detective's Handbook, hmm hmm) And that perhaps if you were to write up an Case Adventure for it hmm It might be published hmm hmm.

There I didn't give self promotion for a new product by another member of the ENworld

I read your post all the way through at 2:23 AM and still comented about how good it was.

So seriously if your interested in writing that out as an adventure for a Elven Detective then tell me and I will arrange the appropriate doc's to come flying your way

 

[Crothian]

First off you elf sounds like a Scientific Detective (I.E. Sherlock Holmes the Elf) Secondly its Mariner's Legend or Sailors Yarn not Urban Legend. And third that just rocks good job Crothian.

See I really want to tell you that this would be a perfect case book adventure for the book I am writing ( Detective's Handbook, hmm hmm) And that perhaps if you were to write up an Case Adventure for it hmm It might be published hmm hmm.

There I didn't give self promotion for a new product by another member of the ENworld

I read your post all the way through at 2:23 AM and still comented about how good it was.

So seriously if your interested in writing that out as an adventure for a Elven Detective then tell me and I will arrange the appropriate doc's to come flying your way

You're right, it is a Mariners Legend and not an Urban Legend, my mistake. I'm just happy I got a response.

I'd like to hear more on the Detective's Handbook, and what you would require for the adventure (style, length, setting, certain NPCs to be used, etc). Feel free to e-mail me at

cgath@insight.rr.com

I am interested in turning this into an adventure. It was written as an adventure hook for a game 2 years ago. However, the PCs never went in this direction so that was all that got developed