Late one evening, as the first watch has eaten their dinner in the galley and most have retired for the night, four sailors gather below deck of the Sapphire's Light. Lamplight casts and eerie glow on the cards as they play, and as sailor's tales are oft to do the conversation turns to some of the stranger things seen at sea. Whispered stories of shadow ships and skeletal crews draft up toward the deck and into the dying light of the evening sky. Low on tin commons and short for newer tales, one sailor speaks up.
"I've heard tale..." Says he. "Of a ship... no ghost nor shadow is she... but a ship crewed by some of the hardest souls you'll find at sea."
"They call her the 'Merry Rose' and she sails the seas bettween the Empire and the Pelinni Isles, preying on merchant and pirate alike. The captain of the 'Merry Rose' is a she-devil of a woman... they say her hair burns the color of the setting sun and is matched only by the burning fire in her eyes!"
The game has stopped for a moment as the other sailors listen quietly, for this is a newer tale to most and different than those they have heard so far tonight.
"The Rose will sail hard upon you and close to bowshot range... then the Captain herself drops your helmsman with a single shot!" The sailor stabs a finger right bettween the eyes of a nearby compatriot. "And anyone else who tries to reach the helm gets the same! Her sails will then burn crimson as she sails down upon you! The screaming she-devil barks orders and handles her men like only Disciples of Toln are wont to do... and before you know it they are upon you."
"I heard tell that one man... the Captain of a vessel my friend Pierre sailed upon had somehow angered the Devil woman... and as she sailed down upon him the seas turned to blood and a foul wind blew down from the north upon their ship... he swears the wind was solid from the south before she appeared... My friend Pierre he was standing next to the Captain... not a hair's breadth away... and before his Captain could draw breath to utter a command... three arrows turned the man into a pin cushion and took him to Khadina..."
"Stranger still was as soon as the Captain hit the deck the Merry Rose's sails turned white once more, the sea was crystal blue again, and the wind blew swiftly from the south and carried the Rose away... Each sailor aboard that day counted his lucky stars that that Captain was all the Captain of the Rose wanted and they thew his accursed body overboard to make sure that curse did not strike twice."
The other sailors take the story in and then as it seems they will get no more out of the man they return to their game swearing he made it up or that it is at best a rumor... the storyteller does not argue but merely smiles and sets his hand upon the table causing all the others to groan.
"Four emperors boys..." He grins a toothy grin. "Read em' and weep..."