World systems
Sailing System
Travel between Beleghost’s three major settlements is a real voyage, not a menu. You buy a voucher, board a ship, and spend two minutes at sea — during which the crossing can be interrupted by boarders who scale to you. The captain will not let you off until you have actually arrived.
The three ports
Each port has its own dock master and its own voucher (tv_beleghost, tv_aventhine, tv_blackwake). Boarding consumes the matching voucher and records your destination on your character, where it stays until the crossing resolves — so the ship always knows where it is taking you, even if the voyage is interrupted.
Live ticket pricing
Prices below are read from The Whale's Sextant's live store stock, not copied into this page by hand. They refresh with the dashboard export and this page checks for a newer snapshot every 30 seconds.
| Destination | Voucher | Ticket price |
|---|---|---|
| Loading live ticket prices... | ||
Connecting to the live store snapshot...
The crossing
Departure doesn’t teleport you. Boarding starts a 120-second voyage tracked on your character, and the captain refuses to dock until it finishes — his “we’ve made port” dialogue is gated on the voyage state, with a “still at sea” reply until then.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0s | “The ship casts off and the captain sets a course…” — the countdown begins. |
| 15–99s | One ambush window rolls. 40% chance a boarding actually happens. |
| on arrival | “Land ahoy! We’re making port — stand by to disembark!” |
| +15s | You and every party member still aboard are put ashore at the destination together. |
The clock stops for a fight
If boarders arrive the countdown pauses until the last of them is dead. You cannot outrun a boarding party by waiting it out — the voyage simply doesn’t progress while they are alive, and resumes the moment the deck is clear.
Boarders
When the ambush lands, the lookout calls it — “Sails off the port bow — boarders! To arms!” — and attackers appear at two points on the deck.
How many
1, sometimes 2
One boarder always spawns. A coin flip decides whether a second joins them at the far encounter point.
How dangerous
Your level ±5
Drawn from a 111-strong roster spanning CR 5–34, filtered to a band around your own hit dice and weighted toward the middle of it. A level 12 character meets something between CR 7 and 17.
They come to you
No escape
Boarders attack on arrival, and the ship is mid-ocean. There is nowhere to withdraw to.
The roster is shared with the Arena’s showdown pool, so the faces you meet at sea are ones you may have fought — or may yet fight — on dry land.
Staying aboard
The open ocean around the ship is water, and the deck is the only safe ground. Rather than trusting you not to wander, the ship keeps a 14-metre leash from its centre: step past it and you are put straight back on deck, along with any companions who followed you over the side.
Leaving the sailing area entirely cancels the voyage — the crossing only tracks you while you are actually on the ship.
What it costs
Tickets are sold at The Whale’s Sextant, and the price you pay is not fixed. The shop is wired into the same live market that drives the Market Ledger: a destination whose city is prospering sells passage cheaper, and a city in trouble charges a premium. The table above is the base stock price — what you are actually charged at the counter shifts with that city’s standing at the moment you buy.
No voucher, no boarding. The dock master’s dialogue checks your inventory before it will even offer the option, and the voucher is consumed as you step aboard.