'It ain't hard to keep them happy. Uusally alcohol, cigs and food; and don't let the place get too dirty. Try not to spill too much blood around, or it might get a taste for it.'
-Common spacers knowledge on appeasing a ships spirit.
When a ship becomes a home to its crew, infused with their dreams and lives, a spirit will inevitably manifest. Whether they generate sponteneously or, like spacers, mill about at docks waiting for a likely vessel, is the matter of some debate.
1d10 | Appearance | Offerings |
1 | A wizened figure, the size of a small child, with a beard of soot and embers. Clad in a cloak of reflective foil. | Hard spirits and cigarettes left outside the engine airlock. |
2 | An elongated fox with 8 legs, empty eyes that glitter with stars. Tail turns to pale flames at the tip. | Something meaty, ideally real but krill or soy is fine. |
3 | An extra cryopod, glass misted over. Faint figure seen inside, curled into a ball. Wet footprints appear in the night. | An extra place at the galley table, a locker left empty. |
4 | Thin, 8-Armed man, coal-glasses and a bushy mustache. Squats in life support, arms snake through ventilation. | Herbal tea poured into the water recycler and burnt incense. |
5 | Stencil of a fat golden fish, swims along the walls of corridors. Appears by itself or in shoals. | Drawings, paintings and fried fish curry. |
6 | Enormous 8-tailed rat, fibre-optic strands for hair. Steals small trinkets from crew and passengers for its nest. | Gigabytes of junk data loaded onto USBs and intentionally lost. |
7 | Unknown. Cloaks itself in a pile of blankets woven from rubbish and lost things. Enormous eyes, four pupils. | Shredded items of comfort- jumps, gowns, onesies and slippers. |
8 | Squat iron furnace, moves on lion-clawed legs. Carved face alternates between human and animal visage. Lives inside the reactor. | Spent jump cores. Coal. Used clothes and furniture. |
9 | Disembodied head in a vascuit helmet. Trails thick hair to the floor. | Empty oxygen tanks, prayers sharpied on. |
10 | Vulture-like head and neck protrudes from a heavy radiation suit. Leaves feathers everywhere. | Credits and shiny things. Flesh from those who die aboard the ship. |
Sometimes the relationship breaks down, due to neglect, carelessness or ignorance. A ship spirit can place a curse on the crew, which will remain until the spirit is either appeased or evicted.
1d10 | Curse | Appeasement |
1 | Becalmed. Thrusters produce no movement, jumps cannot be made. | A living sacrifice, pushed out an airlock or thrown into thrusters. |
2 | Water turns brackish and foul, pipes begin to rust. Vents clogged with hair. | Purification. Crew must fast for a week, meditate and thoroughly clean the vessel. |
3 | Glitches cascade through systems, impossible to use any terminals or workstations. | Votive candles and written prayers arranged around computer core and terminals. |
4 | Food rots, no matter how well preserved. | A pint of blood from every crewmember, smeared on the exterior hull. |
5 | Freak accidents become impossibly common. | Statues and icons of the spirit, placed throughout the vessel. |
6 | Temperature fluctuates, between freezing cold and scolding hot. | Feed 90% of food on the ship to the reactor, leave just enough to survive. |
7 | Credits or valuables aboard the ship turn to dust and rubbish. | Sacrifice items of sentimental value to the spirit. |
8 | Interior corridors become a maze. Takes hours to get from room to room. | No clothes or modern technology for 10 days. Crew must smear bodies with engine soot. |
9 | Large, aggressive rats and insects fill walls and swarm across the ship. | Spirit takes a crewmember's body for a joyride on a station. |
10 | Sleep interrupted by howling, banging, scraping at walls and raucous singing over the intercom. Rest is impossible. | Bacchanalia! Music, dancing, wine and song. Liquor on the walls and debauchery in the bunks. |
