Salt-Maggots

"Do you see those flies, buzzing around that ship at the end of the dock? Those are salt-flies, and they're bad news. That ship may seem pretty on the outside, but there is something rotten at her heart. Dig deep, and you'll find she's full of maggots." - overheard in the docks of Aerendel, an older sailor instructing a younger one.

Every sailor will tell you that a ship has a feel about her, an emotional atmosphere created by the alchemy of ship, crew, and captain. When all is well, the ship is a happy place and it feels like it. But when there is a real problem, the ship's atmosphere will turn sour and begin to curdle. When that happens, salt-maggots appear.

According to the lore, these insects can appear anywhere on the ship, spontaneously generated by the rank emotional and metaphysical environment. A sharp-eyed sailor might spot an incoming infestation, as bits of wood will start to go soft with rot a day or so before the maggots appear. Occasionally it is noticed in enough time to try and fix whatever problem is poisoning the ship - more often, it is only noticed after it is far too late.

Once the maggots appear, rot starts to spread. It strikes in dark places, hidden deep within the ship. The maggots consume the wood, and then metamorphose into salt-flies, which are large and black and tend to bite anyone they encounter. Being bitten by salt-flies hurts, and more than one crew has been forced to confront their problems when a swarm of them has emerged from somewhere in the hold. Salt-flies are sometimes known as mutineers, since they have heralded the beginning of more than one mutiny.

Salt-Maggots are known for rendering ships unseaworthy, sometimes at an astonishingly quick rate. By the time flies appear, there are a hundred times as many maggots throughout the ship's structure, each eating and destroying all the wood nearby. Dealing with the negative atmosphere of the ship is not enough at this point, if that is even possible, as the stress of the infestation rarely leads to good choices. Abandoning ship completely can sometimes save the vessel - with all the people removed, the Salt-Maggots grow lethargic and die off. At this point, a skilled shipwright may be able to replace the damaged components, although it may prove better to simply scuttle the ship and build a new one.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Salt-maggots are small, with several segments and a yellowish exoskeleton. They have six legs and a ring-shaped mouth that can bore holes into rotting wood. Sailors who have encountered them claim that they have an odd odor, usually described as moldy sawdust. After a few days of eating, the maggots will retreat to the bottom of their boreholes, and undergo a metamorphosis into the salt-fly.

Genetics and Reproduction

Exactly how the Salt-maggots and Salt-flies reproduce is unknown. Sailors swear that they arrive spontaneously, and only when the mood of a ship has become so unhappy as to summon them forth. Some scholar theorize that they actually originate in the Spirit Realm, and that they are fiends who can assume a physical form solely to feed upon the negative emotional energy on board ship. Others believe they are a manifestation of Sailor Folk Magic, and thus are purely magical creatures. Opportunities to study them are limited, since many ships that suffer an infestation of Salt-Maggots never make it back to shore.

Geographic Distribution

• The Islands

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