The Black Ships

Captain Armand of the Black Ship Kraken

Artist: Lauren K. Cannon 

For generations, stories of the Black Ships have circulated amongst the sailors of Argos. Few claimed to have seen one, and it was said that an encounter meant the death of all on board the unfortunate vessel. Some stories told of a captain who had raced a Black Ship and gotten away, only to find that people he loved were dead when he returned home.

Over the last generation the stories have become more common, and now few who knows anything about the oceans are willing to disbelieve them, although fewer still openly argue the truth of the tales - such things are considered heretical, and the concequenses may be dire. It is also whispered that a ship may escape if one of the crewmembers are drowned in tribute to the Deep.

The Black Ships have been sighted in most waters, and rumors will have it that the good ship Pius has raced them on several occasions. Another story often told these days are of a great blockade laying in the Straits of Ahriman, hindering the Host of Man from invading the Old Colonies on the Dark Continent. An Aragonian fleet of sixteen ships of the line were sent to lift the blockade, but only two were said to have returned. This particular story has been declared heretical by the Temple of Man Supreme, and no one seems to have talked to any sailor who were on the two ships. Still, there are fifteen ships which haven't been seen in any harbour, and no captain is willing to sail the southern Strait these days.

One Black Ship and its captain have been named in the Black Book of Franko da Cola, the Kraken, and Captain Armand.

Captain Armand was last seen on Cora, where Banzel, O'Connor and PrinceAegir followed him to the Broken Keel inn by the harbour. In the catacombs beneath the city Armand managed to defeat the Prince, halt the Dream Demon N'Garthl, summoned by O'Connor, and escape.

There is a story that tells of the origin of Armand. Allegedly, he was once the imperial Admiral of the Scythian Empire - in fact the same man who led the Great Armada when it met the Fleet of the Elf at Waymar before the Signing of the Covenant. If this is true, he is more than a thousand years old.

Captain Radoslav of the Sepulcher

Artist: Martin McKenna

Recently, another Black Ship has been identified. The Sepulcher, and its captain, Radoslav. Nothing more is currently known about neither ship nor captain.

Rumors:

• The home port of the Black Ships is somewhere in the Kraken's Deep.
• There is a certain book that holds the secret about how a Black Ship can be defeated.
• Seeing a Black Ship heralds death.
• A ship that is sunk by the Black Ships will become part of the Forlorn Hope fleet, condemned to sail the oceans until the end of the world.
• Drown a crewmember and the Black Ships will let you pass.