The Gloss Knight is a 80' Caravel fitted for merchant runs, smuggling, and combat capabilities. She has been heavily modified by the crew to be quite useful for smuggling and to withstand a variety of types of attacks. These modifications include several water pumps (to put out fires), horizontal metal beams in the hull (to withstand ramming), a sharpened vertical metal ridge on the bow (for ramming), a ballista mounted on the foredeck, and several smuggling areas crafted between cabins and in the hull. In addition, the ship's chippy has rigged several clever contraptions for battle readiness, including a reinforced crow's nest, warning bells that chime inside the ship, a trampoline, a fast lift to the crow's nest, and a cover for the ballista that looks like covered cargo and can be lifted in two seconds. As a result she sits lower in the water and runs a bit slower than similar ships.
Specifications
Type: Caravel
Size: 80' long, 30' wide
AC: 17
HP: 450
Speed: 20
Ballista
• AC 15
• HP 30
• Bolt: Range 120/480, dmg 3d10 piercing or 1d10 bludgeoning and 2d6 flame
Crew:
• Captain Coelemal Renals
• First Mate/Ship's Wizard Zoe
• First Marine Janis
• Engineer Lyly
• Pilot Hoban Bernwesh
• 10 Sailors
The Crew
The Captain of Gloss Knight is Coelemal Renals, a Trierzi soldier (Company Sergeant) who bought the beat up old ship for pennies on the dollar after one of the many border disputes between Trierzon and the Azeryan Empire. His acquaintance, Lyly, assured him the ship would sail while everyone else had given it up for the scrap heap. Lyly was right, and Renals kept her on as chippy.
The First Mate is Zoe Bernwesh, who served as Renals' corporal in the border wars. She is extremely loyal. After Renals bought the ship Zoe decided to learn new skills and added Wizard to her arsenal. She is married to Hoban Bernwesh, the Pilot.
The Pilot is Hoban Bernwesh, an affable sailor who served under Renals and Zoe in the border wars, and married Zoe after they left Trierzon to try their luck as merchant marines. He is a capable soldier when pressed, but never eager for a fight. Piloting a ship, on the other hand, seems to be what he was born for.
The chippy, or ship's engineer and woodcrafter, is Lyly Kay, a Gnomish woman who knows every inch of the ship and talks to her. And listens to her. She uses her skills as an Artificer to upgrade the ship at every chance, and has rigged many clever contraptions already.
The ship's Marine is a burly but mostly quiet human man named Janis Cob. He is extraordinarily talented with any weapon, with eating, and with drinking. He fought as a mercenary in the Border Wars between Trierzon and the Azeryan Empire on the side of the Azerians, but is Shorkyni himself. After work dried up in the border wars he took employment with Harbaalese raiders. However, during one skirmish he was so impressed with Renals that he struck a bargain with Renals - he would switch sides and swear allegiance to Renals for 15% of the cut. Renals countered 5% and they agreed to 10%. Janis turned and decapitated the captain of his ship, hopped aboard the Gloss Knight, and has stayed loyal to Renals ever since.
The Origins
The ship was built in Chelemby in TR682 for the Azeryan Navy on the specifications of the Glühwürmchen class specifications for a fast merchant ship. She was christened "Gelassenheit" which means peaceful, serenity, or literally translated "the state of letting it be."
There is a brass plate nailed into the base of the main mast, below decks, that reads in Shorkyni
Gelassenheit
Klasse: Glühwürmchen
Aufgebaut TR682
Chelemby Schiffswerften
She served in various officials capacities for over 30 years before being purchased by a merchant prince from the Kerejian League. As it was being transported back to the Kerejian League through the Venarian Sea she was captured by Azeryan raiders. Gelassenheit was pressed into military use to support the border wars with Trierzon.
Changing Paths
In TR715 she suffered serious non-structural damage and was captured by a Trierzi scouting party. She was brought back to Kethano in Trierzon and declared to be scrap for repairing newer ships. A recently discharged squad of Trierzi soldiers was working nearby and the sergeant and his corporal overheard the declaration. They also noticed that there was a very distressed Gnome woman who kept going on about how the ship weren't scrap, just in need of some attention and parts. Former Sergeant Coelemal Renals walked up to the Gnome and asked her if she thought the ship would sail again and she said "Oh, yes!" He asked "The Venarian Sea?" "Yes, she just needs…" and Renals had spun on his heels and was heading for the Pilot's Shack before she could get the rest of her sentence out.
Renals had a good nose for bad business and enough separation pay and acquired assets (cough) to make him decide to take the gamble. He bought the Gelassenheit and hired the Gnome, Lyly, as the chippy, the ship's Engineer. It was easy for former corporal Zoe Bernwesh to step into the First Mate role to Renals' Captain. Zoe's husband Hoban agreed quite eagerly to take the helm as pilot. Zoe and Hoban had talked about doing something different and this seemed to fit. Pooling the rest of their resources they obtained most of the parts Lyly asked for and she worked her magic. Within a few weeks the crew was ready to embark.
There was one problem. Renals could not stand the fact that this ship had a Shorkyni name, and he could not, or would not, pronounce it correctly. Hoben tried to translate for him, and teach him how to say "Gelassenheit" but to no avail. Renals quite cavalierly declared that he liked the sound of Gloss Knight, had the name put on the register and the bow, and christened her.
For the first couple of years the crew of the Gloss Knight struggled, as ongoing skirmishes between the Azeryan Empire and Trierzon made the waters treacherous in far too many lanes, and the Kerejian League spared no effort in ensuring that their former ship found choppy waters in any merchant enterprise they attempted - anywhere around northwest Lythia. Renals put every penny they earned, or took, to upfit the ship with protection and smuggling capabilities. While upfits were made Hoban earned Pilot credentials and Zoe gained acceptance at a Trierzi Chantry of Arcane Lore. Zoe added Ship's Wizard to her resume'. Another change was the addition of a permanent renter of one of the swankier cabins on the ship. She was a guilded Ambassador Courtesan, her coin kept Renals a bit more at peace about revenue stream, and she brought class to the crew.
In TR717 the crew of the Gloss Knight took a job that brought them back to Chelemby, around the peninsula into the Sea of Ivae and the Gulf of Shorkyne. They decided to try their luck on this side of the seas, away from the border skirmishes and the Kejerians. Indeed there was good work, both legitimate and otherwise, but the Ivinian and Harbaalese raiders were a regular threat, and one bad encounter might end the journey for them. In fact, one bad encounter did change things. The Gloss Knight was spied by a Harbaalese longship flying raider colors and chased for days. By this time the ship had received most of its modifications and was slower than the superior longship. Eventually it became clear that the Harbaalese would catch up, so Renals decided to engage. Hoban executed a drift maneuver that turned the ship around in a surprisingly short amount of time. It was reckless and dangerous and perfect. The Harbaalese could not slow down fast enough to attempt a grapple, and could not maneuver fast enough to attempt to ram. As the Gloss Knight passed the raider ship the crew unleashed a barrage of attacks that killed quite a number of Harbaalese sailors and set fire to their ship.
After a couple more circles the two ships were finally grappled and intense ship to ship and man to man fighting broke out. Renals noticed one rather large Harbaal man slicing his way toward him, and prepared for the fight of his life. Instead, in thickly accented Common, the huge Marine yelled "Fine crew you have here! I will work for you for 15%. Decide now!" Renals was stunned, but then looked back at the Marine and said "Five percent!" "Ten" came the response. "Deal! yelled Renals. The big man turned around, took half a dozen fast strides back to his ship, and decapitated his surprised Captain with one swing. The Harbaalese raiders were stunned, and then demoralized, as the Marine started cutting them down. The raiders fled back into their ship and franticly unhooked their grapples. The raiders left with all haste.
What, Moving Again?
Janis (pronounced YAH-nis) Cob became the First Marine for the Gloss Knight. He also talked Renals into considering moving their business to Hârn. He said that word will get out and the Gulf of Shorkyne will swarm with other raiders looking for revenge - after all, the only ship bigger than a Longship is a Dragonship, so taking down a Longship with just a caravel is an insult too hard to bear. Renals agreed, and the Gloss Knight headed for the fabled, exotic Cherafir, the capital of the Kingdom of Melderyn on the Wizard's Isle.
In TR719 the Gloss Knight was added to the registries for the ports of Cherafir, Nurisel, Thay, Aleath, Golotha, and even the Sindarin port of Ulfshafen. Renals continued to put his money into running and repairing the ship, paying a crew, and when lucky, paying for Lyly's upfits. One of the connections he made while engaging in less legal movement of merchandise is Jamys of Fratane, the Guildmaster of the Lia-Kavair in Cherafir, and through her, contacts in the Lia Kavair of other coastal cities of southern Hârn.
The Gloss Knight is the ship that Jamys and Jerid has procured for transporting their selected group from Nurisel to Thay, discreetly and safely.