The Phantom Sailor
Captain's Log
24th day since departing from Kiyowara.
I think it is time to stop drinking shochu. Tonight, the fog rolled over the ocean. We are still several days' voyage from Shilogo, and the open ocean surrounds us. Shortly after nightfall, the lookout called out an alarm. After rushing to the deck, we spotted the arched back of a leviathan coming toward us. The creature was, I estimate, about 20 feet long. It had an enormous mouth that I feared would bite a chunk out of the hull. I ordered the men to fetch the harpoons and prepare for battle. Just as they returned and took positions, however, another vessel appeared. The vessel looked like a small, narrow rowboat with a triangular sail. It looked far too small to be this far from shore, but I didn't see any larger vessel accompanying it. As far as we could see, it had only a single woman as its crew. We shouted to the woman to warn her of the beast, but she lifted a large sea shell to her lips and blew it like a horn. This attracted the leviathan's attention, and it veered away from our ship to go after the smaller one. I knew that woman would be eaten, so I ordered the men to give chase. When it reached her, the woman threw a rope around the creature's neck and then leapt off her boat and directly onto the beast's back! We watched, astounded, as she wrestled the leviathan with a knife. At one point, I swear it got her in its jaws and she used that as an opportunity to pry its mouth open and punch it in the throat! Without any help from us, she killed the creature. Her arms were bloody when she untied the rope and let its carcass sink into the grey waves, but she just waved at us cheerfully, angled her sail, and let the wing blow her little boat back into the fog. The navigator, an experienced old sailor who has travelled more than I, claims he heard her speaking a language he recognized from the Khanty Sea region, and her grass skirt matched it. According to him, she shouted at the leviathan, "Take that, you (expletive)." This is impossible; the Khanty Sea is on the other side of the world. How could she have gotten over here? And why? I fear I must have hallucinated the whole thing. I'm going to bed now, and tomorrow this will be nothing more than a surreal dream.
From the log of Captain Omori Kafu.
This page of the log was found by his wife in a trunk after his death, having been ripped from the book.
The Phantom Sailor is a figure of seafarer's lore. The story sailors pass around in dimly lit taverns is that she is the spirit of a sailor devoured by a leviathan, and continues to haunt the seas looking for revenge. She's an omen of good luck and a defender of sailors everywhere. Stories about her pop up from the Rheic to the Pharusic Oceans, always sailing the same small, Khanty-style canoe. The most intriguing stories are the ones from the far north, told by sailors who break through sea ice and hunt seals for their blubber. They say they've seen her on her unmistakable canoe, but she was dressed in a heavy fur coat rather than the grass skirt she wears in warmer seas. If she is only a ghost, why must she bundle up against the cold?
Children
Gender
Female
Eyes
Dark brown
Hair
Long, sleek, dark black
Height
5'8"
Weight
145 lbs
Aligned Organization
