Blood, Salt & Bones

Linseed Oil. Although it is toxic and extremely Sail and Rigging Repair Kit. This kit contains
flammable, linseed oil is used to treat many things everything one needs to repair sails and rigging while
for waterproofing. Linseed oil can be used a thrown underway. If the character succeeds on a Strength
weapon like a flask of oil (PHB 152). A jar of linseed (Carpenter’s Tools) check while making repairs, they
oil contains enough liquid to treat a 10 x 10 square or may expend one use of this kit for the sails to regain
up to 10 pounds of material. an additional 1d6 hit points. The kit can be used 10
times before it is depleted.
Mast and Decking Repair Kit. This kit contains
everything one needs to repair decking and masts Ship’s Log. Every captain who is seaworthy keeps a
while underway. If a creature succeeds on a Strength ship’s log. It chronicles the events of the voyage, the
(Carpenter’s Tools) check while making repairs to the weather, the bearing and reckoning, the condition
ship, they may chose to expend one use of this kit for of the ship and crew, and other helpful information.
the component to regain an additional 1d6 hit points. Every officer aboard keeps a daily records in this
The kit can be used 10 times before it is depleted. A book. The ship’s log for a lost or sunken ship may be
mast and decking repair kit can be used in addition to worth a lot of gold if returned to the harbormaster of
oakum and a steel lash. the ship’s home port.

Oakum. Oakum is used to fill gaps between wood. Steel Lash. Lashing is a 1-2 ft.long (2-8 inch wide)
It expands when exposed to water and seals minor piece of ½ inch steel with holes cut into it. Bolts or
leaks in the bilge or hull. Oakum can be made with nails are run through it to secure it in place. Steel
10 feet of rope and linseed oil. The character must lashing is often used to reinforce repair work done
succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom (Survival) check. If they while underway. During dry dock repairs, steel
fail, the components are lost and no oakum is made. lashes are removed and whole sections of timber
If they succeed, the components are used up and 2 are replaced. If a character succeeds on a Strength
pounds of oakum is made. If the character succeeds (Carpenter’s Tools) check while making repairs and
on a Strength (Carpenter’s Tools) check while making has at least one steel lash, they may select one ship
repairs to the hull using oakum, the hull regains an component to regain an additional 1d6 hit points.
additional 1d4 hit points. This action uses one pound Doing this uses one steel lash. A steel lash can be
of oakum. Oakum can be used in addition to a mast used in addition to a mast and decking repair kit,
and decking repair kit and a steel lash. oakum, and a sail and rigging repair kit.

Portable Distillery. This small distilling apparatus Water Collection Tent. A water collection tent is a
can be used to make any number of distilled spirits way of harvesting rain water and condensation for
for consumption and sanitation purposes. It requires drinking. It should be boiled after collection to avoid
mash, sugar, and water at the very least. It is capable illness. A water collection tent is capable of producing
of producing one gallon of alcohol every four hours. 1 gallon of water each day.

Portable Drying/Curing Rack. This small, wooden
rack is used to dry and cure food. Smoked cheese,
dried beef slices and cured fish become a staple of the
mariner’s diet when breads and grains grow stale or
moldy. The smoking process requires a small fire and
the drying and curing process requires salt. Smoking
food takes about 5 hours and curing takes about 1
week per pound. While smoked meat has a shelf life
of 5 days, cured meat can last for months if properly
stored, vastly extending food stores.

Sailing Gear 101

RANDOM SHIP AND Captain

CREW GENERATION d20 Captain
1 A gnome with clockwork leg.
Roll once on each of the tables below to create your 2 A dwarf named “Wind-breaker”
own ship, determining its captain, crew, purpose, and 3 A two-headed ogre whose heads bicker with each
significant history.
other
Type of Ship 4 An aarakocra with a tiny human on its shoulder
5 A hippogriff explorer
d20 Type of Ship 6 A one-eyed goblin.
1 A longboat from the north 7 A halfling bodybuilder
2 A frigate 8 An iIllithid (Mindflayer)
3 The bowels of a Zaratan 9 A dragonborn barbarian
4 A small gnomish skiff powered by pedaling a paddle 10 A tiefling scofflaw
11 A prince in search of a pirate bride
wheel 12 A grizzled man nearly deaf from years of cannon
5 A hot air balloon
6 A small steam-powered airplane. fire
7 A zeppelin 13 A exiled noble
8 An inflatable leather raft 14 A ruthless pirate hunter
9 A buoyant chair made of hemp and bamboo. 15 A sea hag
10 A house boat 16 An aasimar wizard
11 An ice ship 17 A retired knight templar
12 Mordenkainen’s Spectacular Ship 18 A saurian
13 A ferry 19 A yuan-Ti pirate
14 The back of a enormous whale 20 A witch
15 A barge
16 A sloop
17 A submarine
18 A gigantic fallen tree that is now driftwood
19 A crash-landed spaceship repurposed for use at sea
20 A Trireme

102 BLOOD, SALT & BONES

The Crew Purpose

d20 The Crew d20 Purpose
1 Solar powered automatons 1 A pilgrimage to a distant temple
2 Lacedons (water ghouls)
3 A rowdy bunch of elves and dwarves 2 Smuggling vessel
4 An eclectic racial mix of slaves
5 Githyanki 3 Funerary pyre
6 Bugbears, orcs and goblins
7 Scavengers 4 Transporting troops for an impending invasion
8 Castaways trying to find their way home
9 Pilgrims 5 Settlers looking for a new home
10 Werewolves
11 Islanders seeking another clan on the archipelago 6 A penal colony
12 Elven traders
13 Waterdhavian merchants 7 A luxury liner for royal parties
14 Refugees or exiles
15 Monks fetching supplies for their remote 8 A dredging barge

monastery 9 Ferries from one shore to another
16 Lost explorers
17 Sahuagin 10 A salvage vessel scavenging sunken treasure
18 Smugglers
19 Knights on a quest 11 A rescue ship
20 Privateers
12 An airship used for scouting

13 A dwarvish submarine used for mining gold from
the river bed

14 A barge on a lake that is a man-made island

15 A fishing boat

16 A ship or boat used to repair other ships in the
harbour

17 A small vessel used to ferry captains and crew into
port in shallow harbours

18 An island-hopping vessel used to ferry supplies to
lighthouses

19 A small coastal vessel used to relay news and
supplies to passing ships

20 A crude barge or a skiff made by a marooned
sailor for the voyage home

Random Ship and Crew Generation 103

Background

d20 Background
1 Sailed into the harbour without a visible crew
2 Salvaged from the shoals
3 Was part of an armada that won a famous battle
4 Once used for smuggling
5 Has been around the world
6 Was once sentient
7 Is haunted
8 Was a wedding gift
9 Is a very new vessel
10 Is the last remaining vessel of an armada that lost

a famous battle
11 Was built by a paranoid tyrant, so it has many

secret compartments, doors, etc.
12 Is the flagship of a fleet of explorers
13 Is cursed with bad luck or plagued with constant

repairs
14 Is from a distant land, it has an exotic design
15 Was formerly the ship of a famous captain or

infamous pirate
16 Is a ship of aberrant or extraplanar origin
17 The vessel was blessed by a powerful cleric
18 Is a highly sought after design
19 Is a common design of simple construction, easy

to maintain or repair
20 The ship has been bought and sold many times

104 BLOOD, SALT & BONES

Oliver Clegg has been creating D&D content for the Anne Gregersen is a writer, university student, and
past few years, fulfilling his mother’s bitter prophecies dungeon master from the cold reaches of Scandinavia.
about what might happen if he didn’t apply himself at Though being a student and dungeon master are
school. He creates/researches Ravenloft and horror relatively new additions to her life, writing is like an
resources, and lives in England where the ever- old friend, as she has been creating stories since
present gloom and rain sooth his frazzled nerves. He she cracked the spine of a fantasy novel for the first
takes no responsibility for pirates, swashbucklers and/ time. When she isn’t writing about playing with kids
or parrots encountered/slain/adopted in this book. or surviving the apocalypse, she enjoys painting and
coming up with horrible pun-based monstrosities
Alex Clippinger has been an active Dungeon Masters for people to groan at. Follow her on Twitter @
Guild creator since 2017. His other publications AnnesFlashBack.
include warlock handbook Tome of the Pact and
Faiths of the Forgotten Realms. He started playing Bryan Holmes is the creator of The Nobility of
Dungeons & Dragons in high school and hasn’t Waterdeep found on the Dungeon Masters Guild.
stopped since, running a home game and releasing From the age of 14 and starting with with the
a number of supplements on the Guild. He spends Dungeons and Dragons Black Box (1991), he has
his off hours surrounded by pets in his home in the become an eternal DM focused on the collaborative
American Midwest. storytelling process. Away from the table he is a father,
gamer, and programmer. Follow him on Twitter @
R P Davis is a voice artist, independent games writer, FallenWyvern.
and editor behind such best-sellers as Mordenkainen’s
Lost Notebook and the Encyclopaedia Formulae Jeromy Schulz-Arnold has been a writer for a little
Arcana, in which he attempts to update every single over ten years. He has been playing tabletop games for
magic spell ever seen in D&D to 5th Edition. He’s over twenty years. Jeromy writes poetry, short stories,
been a gamer the entire time he’s been sentient, and periodicals. He has worked with R P Davis,
through about 17 different careers. Now he spends Christopher Walz, Travis Legge, and Ken Carcas
most of his time in the office next to his recording on the Platinum bestseller Mordenkainen’s Lost
studio in the south of the Netherlands. When he isn’t Notebook (now available in print!) and the Electrum
walking his rescue dogs through the tulips, that is. You bestseller Halaster’s Hoard. In his spare time, he
can find out more about R P Davis the writer here, the enjoys reading and painting miniatures. He lives near
voice artist here, and via Twitter @WP2XX. Allentown, PA with his wife and three corgis.

When not delving dungeons, piloting starfighters, Janek Sielicki is a bestselling author of Options for
or interpreting the Prime Directive, Benjamin L. Trollskull Manor and several other titles for D&D and
Eastman works as a mild-mannered attorney in the other game systems. Recently, he has also started
Maryland suburbs. A friend of DeSoto, he thanks his taking up translation projects to promote Guild
wife and daughter for all the late nights he can play titles among Polish fans of Dungeons & Dragons.
elfgames in their basement. Janek started playing RPGs in the 1990s and never
looked back, exploring dozens of different games and
Matt Dunn is a middle school teacher living in settings. You can find out what he’s currently into by
Virginia with his wife and son. He has been designing following his Twitter account: @Janek_Sielicki.
gaming products for the past few years but has 25
years of playing board, video, and roleplaying games Christopher Walz is the best-selling creator of The
of all kinds. Midnight Revelry and An Ogre and His Cake, a
children’s charity project, for the Dungeon Masters
Ben and Matt are the bestselling creators of Elminster Guild. He began his journey through roleplaying
Takes Initiative and the Leverage: Waterdeep games when he was six years old, looking at the
adventure series. Follow them on Twitter at @ pictures in his brother’s Monstrous Manual. When he
edpresskey. isn’t writing or killing his players, he is trying to turn
his son into a dungeon master and looking for trolls in
Christian Eichhorn did not start playing tabletop the wilds of Central Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter
roleplaying games until 2016, but grew up with @DMChristopherW.
classics like Fallout, Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, Baldur’s
Gate II, Planescape: Torment, Diablo, and Morrowind.
Since no game captured the spirit of these
experiences in more than a decade, Christian set out
to write his own stories.

Author Bios 105