The Ship of the Damned

Some magi have become so obsessed with death that they immerse themselves in its trappings. As the Hermetic shipwright is not limited in the materials he can use to build ships, a death-obsessed magi, such as the magus who follows the path to lichdom, approaches him to build a vessel to his design.

The ship is to be constructed out of

bones and the sails stitched from skins. The magus also wants a ghostly crew bound to the ship to serve as its captain commands. Does the shipwright take the commission? Where does he get the supply of bone for the ship's hull? What effects does he need to create to make the ship seaworthy? And how does he hide the construction from the mundane world?

ship along its journey, for instance) can be complete in days (see Ancient Magic, page 133).

Sorcerers with knowledge of the goetic Art of Binding have the power to bind spirits into devices, ships in this case (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 117). While Binding is an Infernal power, spirits of any realm may be bound by the sorcerer. While bound, the spirit can use any of its powers; where those powers affect the spirit itself, even those that allow it to enter and traverse the Magic Realm, those powers also affect the ship. The Goetic Binding power does something that current Hermetic magic cannot, and a Hermetic shipwright may either use this as the basis for original research to expand his own power, or simply call upon the services of a sorcerer to bind appropriate spirits to his vessels. But these powers are Infernal, and magi should be wary, lest they fall to temptation or give their enemies a means to tarnish their reputations.

It is unclear how these exotic magics might interact with Hermetic enchantments, and attempts to do so would certainly mean experimenting within the laboratory.