MR77: Aftermath: Ghost Ship

[Archer he/him]

MR77: Aftermath: Ghost Ship

Axies the Collector burst from the jungle brush. “Give it to me,” he panted.

“Not on your life!” Captain Pladel growled back. “This beautiful beast’s staying with me.”
“I figured you'd crush things you find cute. Captain, I’m not here for the storming larkin.”

On the beach below, screams broke out from the invading Reshi. 

“Solved that problem for you,” Axis said. “Now where did you put it?”
He riffled through the merchants’ supply depot. “Ha!” His blue fingers pulled out a thick piece of chalk. 

Pladel looked at the beach below, where the men had been torn to shreds. Two-dimensional white creatures skittered along the sand. 
“What are those things?”

“Not what I thought they’d be!” Axis was drawing a chalk circle around himself. “Your worldhopper assured me the text called them ‘spren’.”

Macks sheepishly fiddled with his medallion. “I did say I might be wrong.”
“Let’s hope the rest of your translation was correct. They don’t like chalk lines or liquid, Captain.”

A wild chalkling crested the incline. The sailor known as 1 tried to stomp on it, but it slid onto his skin and enveloped him. 

“Axies! Can you make another portal?” shouted Macks. 

He was busy drawing straight lines around his circle, like the diagrams had shown. 

“Where’s the shardblade?” barked Pladel. 

Where the sword had been lay Star, dark smoke rising from their burned out eyes. More sailors fell as the chalking hoard grew in number. 

“Relu-na protect us,” whispered the king. 

“Relu-na will protect us,” said Talik. “Grab onto something that will float!” 

The greatshell’s trademaster ran off towards one of Relu-na’s ears. Pladel poured a jug of Lavis Beer on a chalking, which seemed to surprise the alien creature. 

Suddenly, the entire island lurched. The ground titled as the greatshell dove into the Reshi Sea. Sailors grabbed crates and trees as they sank, buffeted by crashing waves. In an instant, everyone on the island was dunked underwater. 

Essyn watched from the longboat she’d taken from the beach. It was hard to maneuver on her own, but it was better than trying to sail one of the larger vessels solo. 

The shardblade sat in front of her as she rowed, pulling out of Relu-na’s wake. She would have to get to another greatshell, and barter for passage home. That was inconvenient. 

The trip had been worth it though. She’d acquired a priceless artifact for Diamond, her Ghostblood master. For the first time in her life, she felt a feeling of accomplishment. Her family would be proud. 

Unbeknownst to Essyn, a spider-shaped chalking clung to the outer side of the longboat, waiting for her to find land. 

By virtue of being the last player standing, @coco.pudding has won the game for the Ghostbloods! Congratulations to their co-conspirators @The Unknown Character and @CoderDrag0n8

 

Votes:

Hopper (2): Stardust, Coco
Coco (0): Hopper

Stardust died to the Second Rebuke! Hopper was exed! Both were Merchant Officers. 

GM Notes

Spoiler

Rules

I like a beefy game, and I loved Sart’s Rithmatist LG. The perfect game is one you can play after skimming the rules, but that rewards players who are good at mech strategizing. I think this game would have worked slightly better if it wasn’t all new information. If I’d made a complicated rules set but kept to a familiar theme, like Mistborn/Tyrian abilities, it probably would have been more intuitive. 

Items

I kept most of Sart’s Item rules intact. I don’t love that Axies+Spanreed can be an alignment scanner, and I think we would have been okay with Pre-Written Boast being an Action. I’d planned to have more Crew and didn’t want them to get Action blocked by the elim Officers in an endgame that was heavy v!Crew. Hoid being killed by TUC grabbing the shardblade when he was exed was fun to watch. 

Actions

In the LG version of this game, players had one action per round, but two per cycle. In this game, players had two actions per cycle, but doing two at once seemed to be confusing. 

Suggestion: Replace Action/Bonus Action with two actions: Take an Item and Use an Item/Ability. Or revert this game to an LG. 

Item Play

Over the first three cycles, 12 of a possible 28 Items entered player hands. 

C1/2 Rollover: +3 Items (+3 Expertises), -7 Items

C2/3 Rollover: +3 Items, -4 Items 

C3/4 Rollover: +6 Items, -5 Items 

This was due to confusion around how actions work and significant competition for the same items. Four people went for the Book of Painrial C1, 6 people went for Axies C2. If PMs stayed open, maybe coordination would have been better. 

Shoutout to Grub, who went on a crazy run of winning RNG for a Book, Axies, and got picked to have their inventory shown to the elims. 

Manifests

I expected Manifests to be used more often than they were. Two players started with them, which I expected would result in an immediate flood of new Items C2. Neither got used for a while (one was stolen and one was sat on), which triggered the emergency resupply mechanic. The Cargo Hold was never depleted, so this didn’t prevent the village from providing Favor. It did prevent rares from entering the game though, which disadvantaged the village (and thief!). 

Suggestion: Incentivize Manifest use by giving it a secondary benefit, such as it resupplies the Hold and the player gets a common Item added to their inventory.  

Thief

The thief being exed prevents an Enmity increase, so they couldn’t publicly claim. I gave them a valuable item for both sides (Axies), with incentive to get rid of it (Curse of Kind/losing RNG), with the expectation that they would use it as a bargaining chip. They died too early to draw many conclusions, but losing PMs felt like an appropriate punishment.

Winning

In the 2v:1e C6, it was 50/50 that Rebuke would take out the exe target. Without an NK, that would have set up 1v:1e. Third Rebuke would have triggered automatically, but Stardust had the key to vote manip her way to winning the exe. It would have been a village win as well as an elim win. 

On the flip side, Qian dying instead of Hoid in their tied exe really helped the village because they scanned the NK being used. That was a 50/50 moment too.  

 

The rules as written are ambiguous about when the game stops. I think I changed it to better reflect how we all assumed it would work, but it needed to be much clearer. 

Suppose the game ends as soon as all villagers have died. Does that prevent the Third Rebuke from triggering if we don’t play another round? If they’d killed themselves before Second Rebuke, leaving solo Coco to die to the exe by RNG, does that mean they win before the elims? Do both teams lose? 

I liked the idea of mutually achievable wincons if they trigger on the same round, but needed to better define the end point. I wanted to issue the correction before the village started game planning around that, because it’s cheap to shut down a winning strategy after they’ve started playing towards it. 

In the end, Third Rebuke would have triggered anyway if we’d gone to 1v1, but I don’t want to discount that the village might have played differently had they had the original wincon. If they’d all gone for Shardblade, taken the Second Rebuke C6, and exed randomly, they had a good shot at locking the game before the elims could win, and having Coco die as last man standing. Coco probably wouldn’t NKed then, but it was possible to do execute the plan without their help. 

Setting

I like taking a small book or story moment and extrapolating from it. We’ve probably exhausted the contents of this Interlude, but I generally enjoyed working with the nautical adventure troupe. I enjoyed reading y’alls RP, especially when the X/Y betrayal happened. 

Shout-outs

I’ve got some spare items in the Hold, so I’ll give some shout-outs. 

• Coco, who sailed away victorious, gets the shardblade. That was the Ghostbloods’ goal all along. 
• Hoid Slayer gets the key to an Alerter Fabrial, for catching that NK. 
• TJ gets a Pre-Written Boast for that clutch C4 Favour add. 
• Grub gets the Agreement with Axies the Collector, for having the blessing and curse of being good at RNG rolls. 
• Illwei gets the Lavis Beer, described as the Item that helps you learn more than you should about someone. I’ve never seen someone net two elims so quickly. 
• Coder gets a Spanreed to commemorate that PM and the one where they scared me half to death. You know what you did. 
• Mint gets a Ship’s Manifest as thanks for actually using one…
• TUC has to get the keys to some Backbreaker Poison for shamelessly ruining two lunches and confusing many villagers along the way. 
• Mystic gets my Letter of Endorsement to continue playing awesome pranks. 
• Hopper gets the keys to a Half-Shard, for surviving until the end, and nearly catching Coco with an action scan. 
• Qian gets a Bribe, from the GM, for their silence about mistakes that may or may not have happened. 
• Stardust gets a Book of Treasure, for accumulating the most Items. 
• And lastly, Wahr can have the keys to a Painrial, to ease the pain of dying early so often.

Thank you all for your patience and enthusiasm. I had a lot of fun running this!

Players

Spoiler

1. @Hoid Slayer as Y, an inexperienced sailor with a positive attitude and a secret. Merchant Officer

2. @Stardust Merchant Officer

3. @The Unknown Character Ghostblood Officer

4. @Wahrheitswächter as Ralm the Thaylen Merchant, and Babsk of Essyn, bearing a mistspren, trinkets, and secrets. Merchant Officer

5. @coco.pudding as Essyn, a Thaylen apprentice looking to prove herself worthy of her family name (which is secret). Ghostblood Officer

6. @Mystic as Fickle Thief

7. @Through the Living Hopper as 1. Merchant Officer

8. @Ascended Grubberfly as Darak the Reshi returning home who secretly helped draft pre-written boasts. Merchant Officer

9. @Mint11 as Shejun Merchant Officer

10. @Qianweilian Merchant Officer

11. @CoderDrag0n8 as X, the retired sailor brought along for his experience and his secret weapon. Ghostblood Officer

12. @Illwei Merchant Crew

13. @|TJ| Merchant Officer

Docs

GM Spreadsheet

Dead doc

Elim doc

Thief doc

h

Edited 7 hours ago by Archer

[Mystic He/Him]

Nooo

Hopper didn’t win…

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

1 minute ago, Mystic said:

Nooo

Hopper didn’t win…

I tried

@Archer, thanks for the fun game!

@coco.pudding, that was pretty impressive!

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

Well, Its impressive how often Coco has been elim by now. Its her third time.

Honestly I am quite sad that you lot killed me C1 again, thats the third time that something like that has happened and I found the ruleset actually interesting, but once I am dead, I am quite bad at investibg time to spectate a Game so I cant really comment on if that was suprising or not.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

@Illwei what did I do? Good or bad? I'm flattered either way...

You guys in the docs always impress me. You do better guessing about other people than I do in the game (@Mystic)

[coco.pudding she/they]

Holy that was a crazy game

I was stressing so much. ‘Twas very fun though.

@The Unknown Character @CoderDrag0n8 Thanks for being great fellow elims. Sorry for getting y’all killed I still feel really bad about that. Hopefully I’ve redeemed myself by winning.

@Mystic sorry you couldn’t trust me again this game. Hopefully next time. 

32 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

that was pretty impressive!

Thanks! I was actually so worried you were going to convince Star to vote for me. Then it would have come down do a tie which would have been pretty crazy.

@Archer are you glad I got the chalk? 
Also thanks for gming this was a fun game!

[Illwei]

14 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

@Illwei what did I do? Good or bad? I'm flattered either way...

You guys in the docs always impress me. You do better guessing about other people than I do in the game (@Mystic)

It was the asking if there were 2 elims left lollllllll

[Mystic He/Him]

39 minutes ago, coco.pudding said:

@Mystic sorry you couldn’t trust me again this game. Hopefully next time

I could’ve trusted you. I was neutral, under no obligation to help the merchants. 

Hopefully next time. However, you’ve been Elim like 3 times in a row now, like… that’s a lot 

40 minutes ago, coco.pudding said:

Thanks! I was actually so worried you were going to convince Star to vote for me. Then it would have come down do a tie which would have been pretty crazy

Star had vote manip(that she didn’t use) so it could’ve been worse 

[coco.pudding she/they]

2 minutes ago, Mystic said:

However, you’ve been Elim like 3 times in a row now, like… that’s a lot 

Only twice

2 minutes ago, Mystic said:

Star had vote manip(that she didn’t use) so it could’ve been worse 

So did I but I did a silly and went for the not as good version

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

Evinir Cragborn leaned over the side of the small boat and carefully lifted the sodden journal out of the water.

Piles of wreckage and - occasionally - bodies ebbed in the waves, slowly drifting apart. Relu-na was gone. That was… annoying. It seemed the Ghostbloods had beat him to it.

It also meant he was alone in the middle of the ocean with a week’s travel to the nearest land.

Evinir carefully opened the book. The ink was slightly stained, but surprisingly readable. A small letter was scratched into the leather of the inside cover. Y.

Evinir cast the book aside. It would need to dry. But then… well, he did have quite the trip ahead. Perhaps the adventures of this “Y” could keep him entertained in the solitude.

Congratulations elims!

And thank you @Archer for running this game. Shoutout as well to @Illwei for keeping us all entertained in the dead doc. 11,000 words… It was nice playing with you, and I hope to interact more with you in the future when I have more time to truly get into the game.

I must say, I am astonished by how on the spot my instincts this game were. First Coder, then Coco… I swear, this never happens

I’m entering a period where I’ll have a lot more time for the next few weeks (well, really there’s things I should be doing, but nothing will force me away and that’s good enough) so I’ll definitely be sticking around for the next couple of games

I would like to close my time here with a reminder that the last time I was elim was like six months ago, so, uhh, if anyone reading this ends up GMing soon, you know what to do *wink wink*

20 minutes ago, Mystic said:

Hopefully next time. However, you’ve been Elim like 3 times in a row now, like… that’s a lot 

If that’s true that is actually insane

(needless to say, I am jealous)

Edited Monday at 11:50 PM by Hoid Slayer

[Mystic He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

I would like to close my time here with a reminder that the last time I was elim was like six months ago, so, uhh, if anyone reading this ends up GMing soon, you know what to do *wink wink*

22 minutes ago, Mystic said:

Hopefully next time. However, you’ve been Elim like 3 times in a row now, like… that’s a lot 

If that’s true that is actually insane

(needless to say, I am jealous)

I know, same here. 

Whoever’s GMing next should put Hoid and I on a team 

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

13 minutes ago, Mystic said:

I know, same here. 

Whoever’s GMing next should put Hoid and I on a team 

Yes please we would cook so hard

[Mystic He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

Yes please we would cook so hard

I’m deciding whether we should ping Jo or not

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

Just now, Mystic said:

I’m deciding whether we should ping Jo or not

Nahh it ain't ever gonna happen if we tell him to do it

Then they'll know

"I’m sorry, but X and Y must make it to the end"

Yeah uhh sorry that didn't work out pal

"Just so we’re clear, the NK is currently on elim!Coder. "

I can just imagine Archer with his glasses halfway down his nose looking down skeptically

[Illwei]

Thanks Archer for running this!!

It was a fun game to return to SE to! Thanks yall dead people for tolerating my never ending musings and ramblings in the dead doc!

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

@coco.pudding I have to say I loved your elim doc RP

[coco.pudding she/they]

5 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

@coco.pudding I have to say I loved your elim doc RP

Oh good

I was literally writing that on my five minute water/shade breaks so I was worried it was terrible lol

[The Unknown Character he/him]

3 hours ago, coco.pudding said:

@The Unknown Character @CoderDrag0n8 Thanks for being great fellow elims. Sorry for getting y’all killed I still feel really bad about that. Hopefully I’ve redeemed myself by winning.

Definitely redeemed, not that there was anything you could do to save either of us

These rules were pretty fun, thanks for running them again @Archer. See you all in the next game, which I should be able to invest an inordinate amount of time into

[Mystic He/Him]

1 minute ago, The Unknown Character said:

Definitely redeemed, not that there was anything you could do to save either of us

These rules were pretty fun, thanks for running them again @Archer. See you all in the next game, which I should be able to invest an inordinate amount of time into

I hope I’m not on the opposite side as you(unless I’m Elim)

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

Well played elims!

Thanks @Archer for the ruleset and being a fun GM!

[|TJ| he/him]

I'll reiterate what I said in the dead doc. I'm sorry I couldn't do justice to everyone else to who played the game, I wish I could have been more active. 

GG Coco, and rest of the elim team! And thanks @Archer, for running a fun game! 

@Illwei, lovely to see you back even though we barely interacted, hope you stick around for more games :') 

[Mystic He/Him]

Fickle stepped towards the mast, grabbing some the ropes whipping about in the Highstorms wind. Someone had forgotten to tie them down. Lightning roared in the distance, briefly lighting up the sky. Fickle leaned against the ropes, holding them taught before weaving them into a knot. Everything needed to be tied down, including the masts. One accident and the mast would be torn off the ship, leaving them stranded with the Reshi until they could get a new one.

None of the other ships captains would be helping them. If they couldn’t get to the Tai-na every morning, then that left one less captain to trade for the treasure. So it was slightly important that they tied the mast down. Fickle was whistling to himself as he moved around, grabbing the flying ropes and tying them down. For some odd reason he was always able to hear his voice, no matter how loud the Highstorm raged.

Reaching out to grab a particular rope, Fickle found it frayed. Cut. He looked around, There seemed to be a black figure lurking near the aft. Inky black. The figure seemed to be staring at him, though Fickle couldn’t see their expression, he shivered.

“You there!” He shouted, his voice swallowed by the storm.

The figure didn’t respond, only stared.

Fickle started walking towards the figure, reaching for the long knife at his waist. He ducked under his previous work, only to find they’d been cut as well, the ropes once again flapping aimlessly in the wind.

He almost didn’t feel the cut.

Fickle turned to look behind him, seeing three figures he thought he recognized. He glanced back at the aft of the ship. Nothing. The figure was gone. Fickle’s legs buckled as he received another stab.

His vision began to darken… he thought he saw some light… at the edge of his vision… Another stab. He didn’t feel it. Fickle covered his face with his arms, the glow slightly stronger.

Fickle braced for another stab. It didn’t come. Peeking through his arms he saw the figure. Black. They looked down at him, shaking their head.

————————

Fickle opened his eyes. Then immediately closed them. Everything seemed bright compared to the Highstorms darkness. Spheres pooled around him. Each one glowing with stormlight.

Fickle grabbed one, and was thrown out of his body.

The ship was a double masted sloop, swift when needed but with a large hold for trading. Sturdy enough to survive a highstorm. Yet blood was on its decks, seeping off onto the side.

Fickle let go of the sphere in shock, before grabbing another one.

Lifeless. The spirit was gone. The body, bleeding from stab wounds, was being lifted up, and thrown off the side of the ship. Sinking. Bubbles of air escaping as the lungs filled with seawater.

Fickle let go of that one too, shaking. What was happening? Was it a consequence of his deal with that Amian? That man had warned him there’d be consequences of his deal. He looked around frantically. Spheres were everywhere, Fickle wasn’t sinking for some reason though. And most importantly, 

There was the figure.

Fickle had a good look at him now. He wasn’t just wearing black or in a cloak. Everything was ink-black. Like a skin covered in tar, but smooth. The man—was he a man?—was holding a sword. Long like a shardblade, but elegant and clean. The same Jet-black color as his skin and clothes.

”What’s happening? Was that… Am I dead?” 

The figure paused before answering, “Maybe. Are you going to let you be?”

”No. I have work to do” Fickle responded.

”Good. You are, but only as long as you want to be.”

Fickle extended his hand and said, “Sorry, I didn’t get you’re name”

”I am Jet. A Spren is”

”What about me? That was my body that got tossed into the sea!”

”A cognitive shadow is.”

”What?” Fickle asked

”Your string to the physical is not. But the stormlight made you are”

Fickle glanced at the spheres at his feet. He could still tell which one was the ship he’d called home. “What happens now?”

Jet smiled, “Your physical string is not. But your influence still is”

“You mean… you mean I can still affect them even though I’m… dead?”

Jet reached down to grab a few spheres at their feet, before tossing them to Fickle. “This is”

A Diary. Fickle’s diary. Left sitting in his rucksack with the rest of his belongings. He could imagine every word. The book seemed to be in his mind. He remembered every bit he’d wrote. He could imagine continuing to write, his handwriting spreading.

Surprisingly, his words seemed to be appearing on the book. The image of the book in his mind changing to add those words to the blank pages. Fickle looked astonished at Jet, “I can still write? It’s actually happening?”

”It is”

Fickle shook his head in awe, thinking back to the first page of Diary. Where he’d written Axies’ promise

“A favor for a favor: bring me those five items and I’ll tell you what you want to know”

Fickle grinned, this was gonna be fun. He began to write. The words appearing in the book on Roshar.

———————

Thank you to @Archer for letting me do this.

Thank you to @Cuendillar for not blowing my cover.

And finally, thank you to @Through the Living Hopper for going along with all this after I rudely shoved you into it.

I plan on bringing Jet and Fickle into my next SE game. 

[Cuendillar He/him]

Thanks for the fun game, @Archer (even though you messed up the rollover and robbed me of a 50% to survive)

[Mystic He/Him]

16 hours ago, Cuendillar said:

Thanks for the fun game, @Archer (even though you messed up the rollover and robbed me of a 50% to survive)

You got compensation lol

edit: lol, I can’t even get a big reveal moment cause Archer hasn’t been on in like 7 hours

edit 2: well, since Archer’s not here to say it, yall there was only ever one thief 

edit 3: can’t wait to see Illwei’s crashout, if she pops in to see this. I only focused on making my writing to not sound like me, not sound like anyone else. That part in the dead doc about me not thinking about how people usually speak is complete nonsense. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Mystic

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

On 7/13/2026 at 5:06 PM, Archer said:

Hoid being killed by TUC grabbing the shardblade when he was exed was fun to watch. 

Hey!