How do sailors in your setting deal with the threat of sea monsters?
I think it's safe to say that most monsters wouldn't be after the ships themselves. A mouthful of wood wouldn't be very appetizing for a hungry monster, and the sailors on board wouldn't be enough to make the effort worth it for a monster of that size. Cases of "mistaken identity" are probably more common, where the monster mistook it for something tastier (sort of like how marine biologists think about shark attacks). Maybe they could change the profile of the ship to look less like a whale from below. What do you think?
They read the weather and avoid the monster bringing weather. They have bait ships with meat offerings. They have bigass ballistae. They have nasty alchemical shit that drives them away. Sailors are crafty, invent a lot of shit.
Magical sea shanties keep them away.
If you've got krakens and leviathans and other megafauna, then yes, mistaken identity makes a decent amount of sense. But wooden ships are not easily mistaken for aquatic creatures, as they would smell, sound, and move differently. No, the most likely reason for giant monsters to bother with a ship is that the ship has crossed into those monsters' territory and been deemed a threat. Next most likely, there is an intelligence directing the monsters, possibly their own intelligence, or maybe that of a god or mage.
Always can use more excuses for singing a sea shanty at the table
Want to have an easy solution?
They pay ppl from an aquatic race to warn them of the current hunting grounds / lure them away etc.
Simple explanation and possible hook for underwater quest.
Not everything needs to be thought 100% true especially if you don't intend to make it relevant to the story
You're sure you want to pay everything the aquatic race ask? Each Oath of Dagon?
What the frick is that comic?
I ran a campaign entirely about this.
So, for a start the Great Beasts in my setting weren't always motivated by normal animal instincts - sailing vessels basically pissed them off on a base level for mystical reasons. So they might pursue a lone ship a long way under the right conditions.
Points from my setting:
Whaling. Well, Beast hunting, at any rate, will become a seafaring trade on a par with privateering.
Depth charges were technically possible quite early, and would be used along with cannons loaded with grape/sangrenel. Again, mounts with severe depression (lol, pointing downwards.) could fire into monsters at very close ranges.
Failing the use of main force, evasion becomes important. Ships might well be able to outrun sea monsters in favourable wind, and charting shallows (and other areas monsters don't like) would be critical. Indeed, shipping routes with shorter distances due to better shallow soundings would be hugely prized confidential information. Ditto information about where/when monsters would be a threat.
Striking attacks (bites, ramming) are likely to be inefficient even if harmful. Monsters who can grab a ship and apply the leverage to capsize would be the real ship-killers.
Paired shipping would be the most logical solution. A big monster can't attack two ships at once without exposing its back to cannonfire, and sailing ships actually weren't damaged that badly even by solid shot. The principle risk was to softer targets like crew, and monsters. If fire could be angled properly two closely-positioned allied ships could watch each other's backs effectively and safely.
There would likely be rules of the sea concerning monster attacks, much like all ships rendering aid today.
Mostly by sticking to the shallows. There are a race of elves who tame the leviathans that live out in the open oceans though and live on their back, each one is basically a small city in its own right.
>the sailors on board wouldn't be enough to make the effort worth it for a monster of that size
What size? I don't remember a size being established at any point in your vague and aimless post. It just seems like you had a very specific scenario in mind and made an opening post that drew from that scenario and only worked in its context, with the expectation for us to engage with it and/or praise it, all without bothering to actually flesh out said scenario in sufficient detail for discussion.
Any monster big enough to attack a ship. There's your context. Thanks for the bump
A crab the size of a horse could board a ship to grab a sailor and scuttle away. A 14-meters-long plesiosaurus-like monster could get beside a ship and try to snatch one or two away from the bridge. Neither is so small that 'attacking a ship' would be an impossibility, and neither is so big to make even just one man-sized prey not worth the effort, let alone a whole crew's worth of calories.
>How do sailors in your setting deal with the threat of sea monsters?
Same way they avoid the threat of storms, mostly by praying they don't run into one.
>How do sailors in your setting deal with the threat of sea monsters?
Oh! Oh! I actually have answers to this question! Different groups rely on different methods, depending on what tech or magical assets they have access to.
You've got the big colonial powers, who pay a high price to oracles and seers (organized into guilds, of course) for predictions about safe routes, monster attacks, pirates, etc. Their ships mostly travel in convoys, too, so if something does attack they may be able to ward it off with massed cannons and depth charges. If that fails, chances are that the convoy as a whole will survive, even if one or two ships are lost.
The ancestor cultists from the smaller, southern islands tend to use ghosts as an early-warning system. The remains of an ancestor are sealed into a weighted cask, and dragged along in the ship's wake. Because the ghost does not rely upon mortal sight, it can better detect aquatic threats coming from beneath the sea. If something harmful is detected, the ghost will whisper into the ear of their descendant aboard the ship. This arrangement is actually quite simple and cost-effective, so even independent traders can use it.
Then there are two different nations to the north, who each have means of flight at their disposal. The Rustovians have deployable lighter-than-air balloons that can lift them off the water (at the cost of being at the winds' mercy) and a small number of levi-boats that fly along invisible currents in the air. The Bright Land sometimes sends down an expeditionary force, based out of a literal flying fortress. This is rare, however, since their nation is fiercely isolationist.
Often they don't. The only reason anyone risks sailing is because the ocean's so dominant that it invades the land anyway. Part of the reason for the Coral Principalities' current dominance is that their Innsmouth-looking asses can parley for some protection and make good use of monster corpses when negotiations break down. The Tide Polities also do OK though that's mostly because they're desperate wienerroaches than any actual skill, the Weir Warlords usually have a spare bait on their slave barges.
These are great too.
https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2015/10/merfolk-and-false-shipwrecks.html
https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2015/10/more-merfolk-for-enzo.html
The ancestor-cask is a good one. Copses from shipwrecks ought to be prized for working with absolutely anyone out of sheer spite for the beasts that did them in. Do the Rustovians sail with a bunch of ballast prior to emergency launches? A one-use escape (unless it's refillable buckets ballast) with the balloon interfering n sailing might not be the best exchange. An alchemical reaction which flash-fills the balloon might be better (with some risk of explosion).
The nature of the ancestor cults and their magic is regrettably incompatible with using recovered corpses. Not only is the familial relation necessary (with some exceptions), but a ghost must be actively bound within a short time after death, or else it passes beyond reach. The ancestor spirits that serve as magical sonar are all people who died within comfortable reach of a priest or priestess.
As for the Rustovians, they do indeed take ballast into account. They pack their ships such that the heaviest and least valuable cargo is ready to pitch overboard. Good guess about the alchemical reaction for filling the balloon! Their nation rose to prominence on the strength of their alchemists and artificers, and alchemical lifting gasses give their balloons better lift than anything used in our world. That said, it really is a one-time tactic.
Really like the ancestor-cask idea. What happens if the current "receiver" / descendant of the duo dies? Is the older corpse freed from the arrangement, with his role replaced by the descendant? Or could you daisy-chain them together in a sort of spiritual signal boosting setup, allowing for greater detection ranges?
Also curious to know as to what's in this for the ghost, given that spending decades cooped in a sealed cask doesn't seem like a particularly pleasant existence. Of course, they get to protect their bloodline, but unless it's heavily culturally ingrained or the cultists have outstanding moral fiber I can't see this being so widespread that outsiders can make use of it.
>What happens if the current "receiver" / descendant of the duo dies?
The bound ghost will have trouble contacting anyone who isn't a descendant or an ancestor priest. For this reason, ships may have multiple descendants aboard (easy enough, with sailing families) or will guard their "watch officer" against harm.
>Is the older corpse freed from the arrangement, with his role replaced by the descendant?
Terms of service for ancestor ghosts tend to be carefully negotiated within families. It is tradition that the dead may be bound to service for at least a decade, and some choose to stay on much longer than that. Should the live watchman die, he does not automatically replace the ancestor. But if a ghost becomes eager to pass on, the family would be wise to let them; you don't want grandpa to be unhappy in death, or to get sulky on watch duty.
>Or could you daisy-chain them together in a sort of spiritual signal boosting setup, allowing for greater detection ranges?
Hmm... Got to admit, I hadn't considered that. The ancestor cultists are very traditional people, so experimenting like that would be unheard of, but I could easily see PCs or foreigners coming up with the idea. I don't think much would come of it, though.
>Also curious to know as to what's in this for the ghost
The ghosts are not perpetually awake and aware; they slumber unless called to their family's aid, or ritually bound into the cask. And it is rare for a spirit to spend the entirety of their time in the cask, often being reinterred for a while between voyages. So it is not merely culturally ingrained, and a chance to protect the bloodline, but also an opportunity. They get some interaction with the living world, glimpse the mysteries of the sea, continue their sailing life after a fashion.
That said, there is a lot of family drama, existential terror, and other issues baked into this system. I really fell in love with it the more I developed the idea.
> They get some interaction with the living world, glimpse the mysteries of the sea, continue their sailing life after a fashion.
It does seem a lot more amicable now that you’ve elaborated - almost seems like a sort of semi-retirement in death.
>Daisy-chain
I figured that what with the ancestor being able to communicate with living relatives, the line could probably be extended with multiple generations playing telephone to extend the capabilities of the setup - ie. Granddad talks to Dad talks to the still-living Son and watchman. Granddad could probably trail further away from the ship while Dad stays the normal distance, expanding the range of detection.
It seems like a logical development of the setup - though since you mention services last around a decade long it might be too short for those to form easily. I do think it’d be an interesting scenario, though. Say, if multiple family members are lost at sea in a short time - the ghosts may combine their efforts to make extra-sure that the remainder of their line remains safe (or at least long enough for them to continue their lineage).
Seems like the same principles at play might also work as short-distance communications if the ghosts of different families are capable of interacting with one another.
Right, because asking any question about another anon’s game/setting is being fricking bumpgay now. Look, I hate the fricker as much as the next guy and I sympathise with your frustration, but you’ve got the wrong person here.
>Look, I hate the fricker as much as the next guy
And now you know how the rest of us feel when you talk about it. There is no bumpgay, there never was, it's just low-effort posters trying to compliment and encourage high-effort posters.
I get it, anonymous boards allow you to assume bad faith without limit, it's easy to assume anything you don't like is being made by the same person, and that it's being done specifically to annoy you. That's why everyone is a troony, or a redditor, or a newbie, or a gaiagay, or whatever. But this "Bumpgay" thing, frick me running, this "Bumpgay" thing is ridiculous.
Nope. The exact pattern of autism's too rigid and obsessive to be a gaggle of copycats.
was wrong but that doesn't make the shit you're selling any less moronic.
No it isn't. You are deeply, deeply deluded. You may have screencaps proving the existance of *A* bumpgay, i.e. that one person bumped a bunch of threads that they wanted to see more content for, but that's also normal messageboard behavior, you're just outing yourself as being among the dumbest 10% (at best) of Ganker users. And you don't understand that because people like me usually don't bother correcting you.
This. You're just a nutter.
Like the guy who claims every HYTNPDND poster is the same guy.
It's easier to assume /tg/ is just twelve similar guys (two of whom are evil) than accept the truth that there are hundreds of thousands of daily users and all of us are pretty similar.
Why does "normal messageboard behavior" subside when the fricker's banned then? Besides, by definition it's not normal because those abnormal swathes of necro threads have attracted attention again and again. I don't deny that low-effort posts are to be expected, claiming that the (repeated) extremes of bumphomosexualry is the same this is moronic.
The effort behind HYTNPDND posts is nothing compared to month long bump sprees and the sentiment's far more universal than "feed my cluster C personality disorder".
>Why does "normal messageboard behavior" subside when the fricker's banned then?
People get banned for low-quality posts, it doesn't happen as often as it should but it happens. You believe it's one guy because you spend so much energy convincing yourself. And when you convince yourself, you do it by asking hilarious questions, such as "Why isn't everyone angry about my boogieman?", and "Why does he keep bumping threads that have low post count but an interesting premise?", and "HOW IS THIS ONE GUY SO FRICKING PROLIFIC?!?"
Random low effort posters are to be expected, not:
>every 4 hours
>for weeks
>across the same handful of threads
>usually about the same topics
>asking questions of their own questions
>with the same shitty excuses when people bring up spam
>all vanishes when banned
That kind of synchronicity happens with the mentally ill or dedicated shitposter and the thing with shitposts is that they're low effort/maximum attention. Bumpgay isn't low effort and idiots who don't know any better will happily post in threads with little to no interaction between interested anons.
good points
>every 4 hours
>for weeks
>across the same handful of threads
>usually about the same topics
>asking questions of their own questions
>with the same shitty excuses when people bring up spam
>all vanishes when banned
That's all just confirmation bias.
>Bumpgay isn't low effort
Bumpgay is a large number of low-effort posters.
>and idiots who don't know any better will happily post in threads with little to no interaction between interested anons.
Huh, see that makes it sounds like you don't have a problem with bumpgay, like you just have a problem with bumping in general. And that's moronic. A thread isn't over just because everyone in it goes to bed, the next round of anons might think it's interesting and the best threads come from several layers of participation, that's why it's a messageboard and not a chatroom.
>semi-retirement in death
Exactly. Everyone knows that, at the end of their lives, they will need to put in some time for the family. They grow up hearing great great grandma's voice at the family shrine, or asking advice from grandpa on special holidays. It is normal, and not a particularly unpleasant extension of existence.
>daisy-chain
Well, the effect isn't limited by generation, just by family relation and range from the cask. Ghosts can't travel too far from their reliquary, which creates a limit on detection range. However, your communication idea would work brilliantly in a convoy or formation, as the ghosts can indeed interact with one another regardless of lineage. I could see the islanders getting an edge in a naval battle for that very reason, able to execute precise maneuvers without alerting their opponents beforehand.
>all of us are pretty similar
A terrifying thought! I'd rather believe that I'm quite different to the average poster, if only for my own mental wellbeing.
I figured there'd be a range limit between the cask and how far the ghost could leave - hence how it could be extended by having two casks in sequence with a bit of overlap between them, so the cask closer to the ship could act as a medium between the ship and the furthest cask.
I actually don't talk about it, generally speaking. I do agree that "bumpgay" is more of a style of posting than necessarily a specific individual, but there does seem to be a pattern to the posts - I think it's somewhere in-between, where there are a set of (not necessarily connected) semi-prolific posters with similar posting styles.
That being said, it's not like I'll ever know for sure, so I try not to engage with it usually.
Fuuuuuuuck offffffffff bumptroony, you really need to have a nice day.
There are various ways. Preaching for the gods plus sacrifice, so the Not-Posiedon/oceanus can send one of his big bois to protect the vessel. Normally it cost some cattle, but everyone getting protected from some carybdis level monster is worth it. Local numens/minor deities can protect it themselves but they range is more limited.
Then is pacts with sea humanoids/intelligent monsters. In my setting the cheapest and easist way to navigate around your tribes water zone is that, normally it involves tributes of Sweet stuff as its something sea humanoids love but its hard to get in the sea. That an alchol. In echange helping in fishing or protecting the boats and ships in case of big monsters wandering or enemies tribes raiding.
The thirds is "whaling" for precious materials, food and protection. People in this kind of business have a very mixed signals from the tribes in the cost. For one, they help with reducing dangerous monsters, for other some times they botch it and you end with a minor nuisances becoming a live threatening one, and for others when they get in your port city they tend to cause strife but let a lot of money and resource in it. Monster hunters are ever praised but also feared, because hunting monsters is the fastest way to get more "power" and it upsets the local power levels, but beign so deadly and dangerous is also the one taken either be desperate people or over confident ones.
they avoid them
How?
Ships made of super alloys with rail guns.
Obviously.
Mandrake vivariums, carefully sealed and weighted such that the buoyancy of the glass bubble will pull the plant out of the soil once it reaches a certain depth.
Though the lethal range of a mandrake scream is generally much less than it is given credit for, its effect is compounded underwater - coupled with the sensitive audial organs many sea-beasts possess, the device serves as an adequate countermeasure and deterrent.
>How do sailors in your setting deal with the threat of sea monsters?
It begins on land, at the shore temples of the god of sky and sea. There they pray and sacrifice for safe journeys and easy weather. Then each crew finds themselves any forms of good luck and wards against bad they can get. Nowadays this often means the hiring of a tengu (crowfolk) jinx-eater to eat the bad luck that may arise and as a mediator between the tengu storm god and They Who Are Sky and Sea. Whether a tengu can actually eat bad luck is entirely beside the point and some fairly unscrupulous tengu will hire themselves out without any actual powers or knowledge of the proper rituals for altering luck. A weather mage is important, not just for the weather but also defensive spells, combat, and for any magical or supernatural happenings. Most any long journey ship includes ballista for shooting dragons, sea monsters, and particularly violent whales. Each crew member is knowledgeable in certain pole weapons, sailors tools that can used as weapons, and basic swords for anything that boards.
But for most, its simply hope that you don't encounter one and rely on the word and rumors of other crews in port to know where to not sail right now.
>How do sailors in your setting deal with the threat of sea monsters?
they don't. the oceans of the world are so choking full with krakens and leviathans that high sea navigation is almost unknown, and most ships are designed for rivers and coastal trading, but that's it. rumor says there's a civilization of sea nomads far to the west that have ships capable of outrunning any monster, but that's bullshit
there's an inner sea almost completely free of sea monsters, and the kingdoms that surround it finance experiments to test sea worthy ship designs there, but it isn't the same
there are pirates and sea raiders that have protection from sea monsters, but through dark pacts with the entities that control them
the reason people still try sailing in the high seas is there's a legend that speaks of a gigantic island in the middle of the ocean, and its almost completely made from a legendary metal ore, and they want to find it
Ship-mounted dragonators.
Kraken Oil
most beasties of the deep use scent to find things, so having the scent of something really fricking big gets them to frick off like greased lightning
as for how you get your hands on such substances, you can either wait for one to wash up onshore and make bank, or try slaying one in a hunting fleet for even bigger bank.
sea mines
The feed it with seamen
They hire merfolk for help and/or intel
Also, having a dryad as your ship helps a tonne, since she can just regrow damage.
What if the monsters LIKED the taste of wood?
Don't mind me.
cannons
Oh, look, it's one of those woven tree-gut abomination, the ones that spear whales and drag them to death. Kill it!
Oh, look, that one is diving for pearls. Clearly this is a prelude to an invasion into our boim. Kill them!
Yea, I poked my head up just to say hello and the first thing they did is try to point the cannons at me, we should probably just kill them.
Frick yea, it's a giant treasure chest complete with live captives, I'm just going to break off the mast and drag it home.
Cannons, Depth charges, appropriate sacrifices to the gods and strict adherence to superstition.
The sea monsters only attack ships from within the Divide, a (relatively) narrow ocean separating the two major continents. While any port will have a handful of suicidal sloops claiming to make the journey in half the time, the Giants are the only ones to officially operate ships that can reliably make the journey. Their 4 meter frames and mighty ironwood ships alike are built like a fortress, pulled by sails whose size put entire lesser vessels to shame. The hatches from which they present their mighty oar-spears can withstand even cannon-fire, and the speeds the giants can reach using them rivals even the wind. Combined, the Giant's Vessels can outpace most sea monsters, let alone a man-made craft. Should that not be enough, innumerable ballistae mounted on the decks allow for an unparalleled show of force while making their escape from any abyssal pursuer. The crossing is not one people make lightly. The journey crosses ~1,800 miles and takes a Giant's Vessel a week to cross. Conditions are harsh, with passengers spending most of their time in coffins within the heart of the ship when not immediately occupied with eating, drinking, or relieving themselves, to ensure their safety. If there's a monster encounter, every second counts and nobody has time to watch for passengers underfoot.
I don't have any neat ocean/ship pictures.
>implying I am not actively avoided by all sea monsters after going full giant, reducing the size of, and violently raping a sea dragon as it screamed for help.
Word gets around the monster community and biggest predator in the ocean is actually cruising on top of it.
Mainly sailing established routes that have low chances of encounter and there are patrol ships and escort ships for richer merchants and friends of the Queen of The Sea
There is also the Levia Assosciation that basically rents experienced monster killers but the main way is artifacts and magical trinkets that have a set diration manifactured by the Queen ofthe Sea and the Great Furnace