Swamped

You still have to report on what's happened, but then, there's someone you can give orders to without talking to him in person. It's just that he won't necessarily follow them.

You're now Wiz. You've gotten Donnie to safety, though you're still no closer to figuring out what's causing the ship to lift and lower. He's starting to mutter things under his breath, which you aren't paying much attention to. You've got no business snooping, after all.

And then you hear Resk talking to you.

Wiz. The Ship of the Dead is coming for us. Don't suppose you know anything about how to fight ghosts?

Really, now. You thought he knew better than this.

Haven't we discussed this before? Ghosts don't exist.

You hope you don't have to repeat the whole proof. It's so tedious to explain all the ethereal properties that prevent a dead soul from lingering in the mortal world.

Fortunately, Resk seems to know better than to press the point.

Maybe not, but there's a ship that looks like an utter wreck sailing towards us at high speed. And according to the stories, we've got until nightfall before it attacks.

You roll your eyes. You suppose you'll have to take this a little seriously.

Well, the most likely explanation is that someone is controlling the ship magically. They'll probably try to ram us, since we've taken significant hits already and it's easier to fake a ghost ship than an entire ghost crew. If the ship's already in poor shape, cannonballs won't do much, so our best bet is fire.

Resk sounds annoyed.

Wonderful. Then when they ram us, they'll set us on fire too.

Ah, of course. His ignorance of magic showing itself again.

That would be fairly effective with normal fire. That's why I was thinking of using magic to speed it up so the whole thing burns away in less than a minute. I'll still need about a barrel's worth of fire powder to get it set up in time, but it should work.

Resk sounds relieved.

Great. Ask the quartermaster for some. I've got to finish filling the Captain in on what's happened.

You were hoping he'd send someone on your behalf. Not only is it tedious, but the quartermaster doesn't like you. You never bothered to find out why, since you rarely deal with her.

Oh well. Best to get it over with. You start heading for the quartermaster's.

"Hey! Wiz! Wait up!"

Someone's calling to you. It takes you a moment to remember who it is.