The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

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a hull, lacking any masts or sails. It is quite a large one,
around 150 feet from stem to stern. No sound comes
from it.
As you draw closer, the outline becomes clearer and
new shapes come into view. You see that there are two
broad beams or girders that join the deck at an angle,
leading up into the fog. They connect to something that
seems to be the wall of a fortress, impossible out here in
the open sea. Then you see the unmistakeable shape of
an anchor chain trailing down from it.
Suddenly you realise what you are seeing. The fortress
wall is the side of a ship, a colossal ship, ten times the
size of anything you have seen before. The empty hull
joined on to it by those girders is only a stabiliser, like
those on the side of a catamaran. Fog is streaming from
vents to the fore and aft, surrounding the whole thing,
concealing it from view.
This must be the secret of the Sea Harriers – a
mothership, with who knows how many pirates living
on board. Something like this would surely have been
discovered long ago if it were not for the fog. With a
ship that size and a fleet of smaller ones to carry out
raids, you would never need to come ashore.
Looking at the silent titan, you know you can expect a
hell of a fight. These people are allies of the drow and
somewhere inside their floating stronghold there is a
prisoner who knows the details of that alliance.
Location: The Celebration of Glorious and
Lasting Independence
The Celebration is the mothership for the Sea Harriers.
Its existence is a guarded secret. Azbeth came very
close to finding it out, so she was snatched. The Harriers
have not killed her yet, as they want to know how much
she found out and who she has told. They have not
considered that anyone would come looking for her.
The Fog: The ship is continually veiled in a magical
mist, the equivalent of a permanent fog cloud of
increased size. This is the reason for patches of mist
appearing sometimes when the Harriers make their
raids.
Finding a Way In: The obvious entrances are at the
top of the bracing girders that connect the stabilising
hulls to the main hull. When Sea Harriers come back
to the Celebration after a raid, they moor their ship
alongside a stabilising hull, cross over to it and walk up
the bracing girder to an entrance hatch.
The bracing girders have handrails to make it easier to
climb up. The five-foot-wide hatchways at the top are
ironwood, secured from within by thick bolts. There is
always a Harrier on the other side, ready to admit his
brethren when they knock. There is no way to open
the hatch from this side. The hatches are always kept
firmly closed, as a high wave could crash into an open
hatch and flood the ship.
The great shaft is also closed with an ironwood hatch,
this one twenty feet across. It is kept closed for the
same reasons, though the bolts are on the outside. The
Harriers only open it when they have a large cargo to
lower down.
There is a double door that gives access to the lower
forecastle from the deck. This is kept locked, as it is for
the captains’ use only; it can be opened with a successful
Open Lock check (DC 30).
The fog vents on the engineering deck also offer a
potential entrance (see below).
Walls, Doors and Floors: All walls, doors and floors
within the Celebration are wooden unless otherwise
specified. The outer hull is made from three-inchthick
ironwood planks over conventional wooden ones,
making the ship practically immune to catapult fire.
Stabiliser Hulls: These are exactly what they appear
to be – the empty hulls of ships that have been turned
into outriggers for the main vessel. The hulls are
unpopulated and empty. They are only ever visited
when they need to be bailed out. The Player Characters
can climb up the side of one of these hulls without being
seen. If they check the hull on the opposite side, they
find a Sea Harrier ship, the A Dream of Pomegranates,
moored there. Evidently the Sea Harriers who took
Azbeth have not left the Celebration yet.
Boarding Girders: These serve the double purpose of
keeping the stabilisers fixed to the hull and allowing
easy access to the ship. They are half-cylinders of
ironbound wood ten feet across, fixed at each end with a
flexible pivot to allow a bit of give and insulated against
the wet at the joins with treated leather.
Encounters Inside the Celebration
If the Player Characters are going to survive this
adventure then they need to be stealthy. The Celebration
is not a military base but a floating home, so there are
few guard patrols except in the most important areas.
While the Player Characters are in corridors, there
is a 10% chance per minute of a random encounter
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8