Thursday, April 7, 2011

F is for Flotsam and Jetsam

Welcome to the Tower of the Archmage’s April A to Z Challenge!

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “F” the number “6” and the support of readers like you.

Thank you.



Flotsam and jetsam are the random finds of the sea. Either things that were tossed overboard (for whatever reason) or floated away when the ship sinks, they can make for some interesting encounters. Below you will find a chart best suited for encounters on the open water. Many items don’t exactly qualify as flotsam or jetsam, but I included them anyway.

Open Water Flotsam and Jetsam
  1. Pale golden skinned mechanical human, black scorch marks cover its chest and head
  2. Large empty cask
  3. Lifesaver with faded writing
  4. Coconut with a bloody handprint
  5. Message in a bottle – See sub-chart A
  6. White leather ball with a face painted on it
  7. Wooden board with the word “Minnow” painted on it
  8. Rowboat with a child and a tiger
  9. Rowboat with the body of a warrior complete with 1d3 masterwork weapons/armor and 2d12*100gp worth of jewelry
  10. Empty Raft
  11. Small iceberg – See sub-chart B
  12. Floating nest with a single large egg
  13. Box 2’x1’x1’ – There are windows on 3 sides, and a door. The lid swings open to reveal furniture bolted to the floor designed to fit a 6” tall humanoid.
  14. Rubber duck/toy boat
  15. Piece of silvery metal 6’ square (very light, floats, very strong)
  16. Ships figurehead – See sub-chart C
  17. Large chunk of a ships railing and deck, tied with a rope to a harpoon that is stuck in a large tentacle.
  18. Body of a Grey in a space suit
  19. Crude totem pole
  20. Sealed bottle with a genie inside (looks like Barbara Eden) who’s only power is to be able to enter and exit the bottle in a puff of pink smoke as long as it is unsealed. She hasn’t been out of the bottle in over 500 years!

Not these two!

Sub-Chart A
  1. Love letter
  2. Treasure map of a Desert Island
  3. Detailed fleet information from of unknown nation
  4. Poems
  5. Seeds and growing instructions
  6. Last Will and Testament of someone named Robinson
  7. Three nonconsecutive pages from a holy book
  8. Empty

Sub-Chart B
  1. Grandma
  2. Polar Bear
  3. Penguins 2d6
  4. Frozen mastodon
  5. Escape pod from JJ’s 1701
  6. Silvery cylinder containing a green slime/yellow mold/etc.
  7. Flying Saucer encased in ice
  8. Nothing special

Sub-Chart C
  1. Mermaid
  2. Warrior
  3. Priest
  4. Eagle
  5. Lantern bearer
  6. Dragon
  7. King
  8. Wolf

4 comments:

  1. Great table! Reminds of the space flotsam and jetsam from Exonauts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it! I don't get your reference to # Piece of silvery metal 6’ square (very light, floats, very strong) but the others raised a smile. No message in a bottle that comes back to the sender wildly multiplied?

    Is the seed packet inspired by the Sailing Letters project?

    ReplyDelete
  3. 6'x6' metal sheet - a "Lost" reference? General nod to air crash debris?

    Iceburg > Grandma

    Aaaaw. That's sad. :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Risus~ It was an inspiration!

    @richard~ I remember reading somewhere about some UFO metal that floated... or at least I thought I did. The seeds were partly inspired by that, and partly just...*shrug*

    @Chris~ I haven't seen lost, so no. More a nod to general UFO debris. And yeah, grandma is sad.

    ReplyDelete

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