Jim has had an eventful stay in Buenos Aires, and now, before the gangplank of the S.S. Monterey, he hangs his head with exhaustion. He jumps when a hand rests upon his shoulder; it is the local priest.
"Have faith my child," he tells Jim. "Your good works have not gone unseen. Your brave acts are making a difference." Behind the priest is a nun who is holding a shepherdess's crook, she lowers it to above Jim's head like he is to be knighted, and then says a benediction. With a spring in his step Jim boards the ship.
He seeks out Willis, the cabin boy. "You okay?" Jim asks, when he finds him in the galley.
"Yes, Mr. Culver," says Willis happily, looking up from a mess of fishing net he is untangling.
~
The S.S. Monterey steams up the Pacific coast of South America, calls in at Panama, and then continues to San Francisco. As the ship puffs past Alcatraz Island Captain Burdock, in the wheelhouse, shouts down to Jim: "There's gonna be a bridge built here, right across the bay!"
"Hard to believe, sir," replies Jim, gazing overboard at the shoreline.
Shortly afterwards the S.S. Monterey berths in dock. A thick fog envelopes the ship and within moments Jim is drenched, so he goes hunting for a sou'wester. He climbs the ladder up to the wheelhouse. "Hey, Captain---" Jim's question is cut short, Burdock is lying on the deck jerking spasmodically, and atop him is a grotesque harridan plunging away as if she is making love; it is the most revolting spectacle Jim has ever witnessed. Her balding head turns to Jim and she snarls, revealing rancid gums and red, wet teeth. "Be gone," wards Jim, and proceeds to chant words that ol' Marty taught him back home in San Antonio. The Wraith is blasted by the magic spell, thrown against the bulkhead, one of its arms shrivels and curls like a burning twig. It is not destroyed however, and attempts to rise. . . .
OOC: Two wounds dealt to the Wraith's Health, its Toughness reduced to 1. |
Shrivelling card flipped, 0-1: The ritual echoes in your head until it becomes gibberish. Discard this card unless you lose 2 Sanity. Card kept but Whisky discarded.