Salty

Sailor’s
Misfit
Tales

Gather round, young misfits. Tonight I will tell you the story of Captain Spaventa,
of Rosaspina, his belle, and of Phantasm of the Sea who killed them both!

The Phantasm of the

Sea of ​​Shadows
The Phantasm of the Sea of Shadows is the first of Bran-
calonia’s Misfit Tales, a collection of short adventures ser-
ving as the starting point for very simple Jobs, between
one main scenario and the next, maybe; or as an encoun-
ter during a voyage; or as an interlude between different
episodes of a campaign.
In particular, Salty Sailor’s Misfit Tales are all set across
the Kingdom’s Seven and a Half Seas and can be used
for Misfittery enterprises, under the command of Cap-
tain Edwige the Bewiskered (see the “A Fistful of Hops”
adventure, to be published).
The Misfit Tale
Ausonian quartermasters narrate that Captain Spaventa
was an arrogant and self-absorbed officer who considered
himself a great lady-killer, when in fact he was a mediocre
navigator, a modest businessman and a habitual consumer of
mercenary love. However, there was one thing that set him
apart from average long-standing captains like himself: his
ennobling love for the beautiful Rosaspina. The fair damsel
was the daughter of the wealthiest ship-owner in Guistown,
and Spaventa, who worked for the gentleman, had long
been accumulating money and wealth in order to marry her.
Between ups and downs, when almost at the height of his

14
Nans Simoni (Order #41100265)
 The Daily Jinx

commercial enterprises, Spaventa, en route to Gibralcanda,

attempted one last, highly profitable deal that should finally
have secured him wealth and admiration: a cargo of silver for
the war, shipped by the Emir to Ausonia’s nobility.
During this journey, however, the Phantasm of the Sea –
who haunted the western waters – saw him from the waves
and fell in love with him. Jealous of Rosaspina, and in order to
have him all to herself forever, the Phantasm wrecked his ship
and sank the entire cargo. Crazed with fury, Spaventa threw
himself overboard to fight the perfidious Phantasm and lost
his life in the stormy sea. Across the sea, in Borgo Guiscardo,
Rosaspina learned what had happened, threw herself off a cliff
and vanished in turn, swallowed by the waves.
Since then, the cursed ship has been owned by the Phan-
tasm, and emerges on the day of the shipwreck, once every
thirteen moons, near the Fang of Bitchfish.
The silver of the Emir of Gibralcanda is still in its hold, and
at the helm is Captain Spaventa’s eternally-tormented ghost,
trying in vain to reach Guistown before his belle kills herself
for him. His dream lasts only a few hours, and at dawn the
sailing ship sinks back into the waves...

The Secret
Reality is very different from the silly legends of Ausonian
boatswains. Captain Spaventa was not in love with the
magnate’s daughter; indeed, there is no ship-owner’s daughter
in this story. Rosaspina was actually his ship, an exceptional
sailboat with an incredible peculiarity: her figurehead was
made of Turquoise Wood, and she was a sentient helmswoman
intended to sail the ship in the best possible manner... a
veritable experiment ordered by the ship-owner himself to
assess its effectiveness before extending it to other vessels.
The only one on board to know this secret was Spaventa, who
gradually began to spend many hours at the bow, chatting and
joking with the figurehead. For this reason, the ship slowly
fell in love with the captain, but for Spaventa this mutual
attraction could never lead to anything stable, or to a future
together. One day, during the silver shipment (which actually
did take place), Spaventa let slip to Rosaspina that, with this
last trip, he would become rich and retire to the mainland.
Crazed with jealousy, Rosaspina did something atrocious: she
threw herself against the Fang of Bitchfish, shattered against
the rocks and caused the ship to sink. She let go of the crew The silver, on the other hand, is real: if the Knaves manage,
but ensnared Spaventa in the rigging, and the two sank to the one way or another, to solve the crazy love story between the
seabed together. figurehead and the braggart captain, they will be able to leave
Now Rosaspina is the Phantasm of the Sea. The ship that with the ingots that have not slipped into the sea from the
emerges is wholly imbued with her sad and angry will; wai- gash in the hull. There are 1d8 + 2 silver bars, each worth 500
ling, she resides in the hold with the silver, and the ghost of Silver Coins.
Spaventa is subject to her will and forever bound to the ship.
The only way to restore peace to Spaventa and Rosaspina is
to find the remains of the two nutters’ bodies in the waters
around the Fang of the Bitchfish, bring them back on board,
or burn them together.

15
Nans Simoni (Order #41100265)