Author's Preface
Once, when I was younger, I missed a spectacularly disappointing event in our maritime history off on my own adventure with my wife, one that, to me, turned out even more sorely disappointing. I have yet to heal, and it seems in the almost two centuries since the ship Ruthless has yet to fully recover from its shame either. The parallels between this vessel and my own life are, at least somewhat, beautifully correlated in more ways than one. I discovered the history when considering gifting the ship to myself and my wife when it was up for sale a long, long time ago. I passed on it, but still dream of it now and again. Dark as it may be to admit, part of me hopes her history never truly turns for the greatness she was made for.
~ V.R.
Delight you now in the fruits of my travels and research:
The Only Edition of Mine of Any Work of This Type, Or So I Sincerely Hope
Her Conception And First Defeat
A Mysterious Benefactor
Ah, the Ruthless. As an early clipper ship, she is Ebonreacher in construction, commissioned by an unknown patron in Raven's Watch, Year Restriction 222. According to one of her designers, Tel Orta Abbey-Toftas, she was commissioned so that the patron's nephew could become the recordholder for fastest speed achieved on a sailing vessel, previously held at 19.2 knots. By the time a design was finished and a budget drawn, the patron had disappeared. Rumor has it, they had a falling out with the nephew who was supposed to receive the boat and so abandoned the project in shame. At any rate, the designers were sitting on a large advance in gold and the complete plans for a prospective record breaking boat. They went ahead with the project on their own. Two particularly harsh winters for the mainlands meant the project was slowed substantially, finally being completed just before the harvest season in the Year Restriction 224. In all that time, the designers had not found a crew willing to take on the challenge to set the record with their boat. They would have to do it themselves.
The Hype Before The Fall
Undeterred by the lack of a proper crew to take on the Ruthless, the designers themselves rigged her up and got to work training, making tight circles around various islands and trying to drum up attention. They elected to believe somewhat vacuously the bloomtime winds of Marisong Isle's mountain pass channel would be blessed by Hiloth for them to set the new record. The day of their attempt, M03W3D06, Year Restriction 225, huge crowds gathered on and around the island. A delegation from Avaloch. Half of Hiloth's mighty fleet. Representatives from the Beaumercy and Tohle and Vadd Post. Myself and my wife were rather far and quite occupied. Those in attendence, however, were ready to witness a new feat in sailing, from an innovative and glorious piece of Ebonreacher craftsmanship and design. They left disappointed, as Ruthless that day measured her own top speed at 18.3 knots. After their failure, the designers hoped to sell her. Though she wasn't a record breaker that day, she was a capable ship. After a back and forth over lunch, apparently one of the representatives from the Beaumercy Northwatch became interested in her capabilities. Her displacement was too great for any of their main rescue operations, but everyone at the table was confident she could circle the Trapsands several times per day to warn any incoming traffic, should they wish for a new ship to do just that.
Maturation In Service
Recovering The Ruthless Name
After some major modifications to fit her in line with the Emberlynnie construction and procedures at her harbor, one large enough to have had need to custom build it for her at the Northwatch, a perimeter beacon for the Beaumercy did indeed become her new job. She took to it well, a shining star on the resume of more than half a dozen captains who eventually moved on, usually to cargo runs through stormy waters and other rugged, quick-thinking nautical jobs. As the captains and crews from the Beaumercy would report, Ruthless is a responsive vessel. She does exactly what you guide her to do, so precisely that it's almost off putting and somehow more difficult to account for her immediacy, precision, and reliability. Eventually, too many would apply for a position, as it was perhaps the most notorious and flashy maritime resume builder one could achieve. The Beaumercy had started making use of telegraphy and warning beacons at a newly constructed ring of deepwater stations around the Trapsands. Ruthless became a burden, and by Year Restriction 296 she was up for sale again. Around this time, myself and my wife were preparing to celebrate our wedding centenary on M04W4D12, Year Restriction 296. We put in the bid for an awesome gift to ourselves, but apparently someone made a higher offer. The bastard. I hope they're dead or live in Skaldigsberg.
A Final Interesting Chapter?
Copperpacker Versus Lemon Slice
The rest of the history of the Ruthless through the year I pen these words, Year Restriction 424, is essentially contained in bidders buying the ship, modifying it, and trying and failing to break the speed record. Only one person has made any interesting progress in that regard, a kobold by the name of H.E. Copperpacker and her current owner. Copperpacker picked up the boat in Year Restriction 402, thinking it would be a fun project to take up in his spare time, to soup it up and make a go at the record, by then upped to 19.4 knots. About the Year Restriction 411, his ex wife, Keilani Drixland, learned of what he was doing. A former engineer most noted for her contributions to the major renovations done to the Applebrandy bridge about forty years ago now, she had the necessary confidence to become invested. She spent years to design and eventually in early Year Restriction 421 commissioned Cantank to build her own competitor to the Ruthless. A date for its finalized construction set, she challenged her ex husband to a race on the two hundredth anniversary of Ruthless's first record attempt. Doubting she would have a boat by then, Copperpacker accepted. Come midnight, M03W3D06, Year Restriction 422, a race began between Copperpacker's Ruthless and Drixland on her barquentine rigged Lemon Slice. Copperpacker would finish in record time, finally giving the Ruthless her glory moment of surpassing the old speed record, measuring 19.7 knots at her peak. Unfortunately for Copperpacker, Drixland finished seventeen minutes before him, measuring her own vessel's top speed at 21.1 knots. Today, this record still stands. Copperpacker claims to want to revisit the record someday. I wish him good fortune or whatever. Personally, my wife tells of rumors that he is seeing someone, a tiefling. I honestly believe his chances are better at getting back at Drixland by remarrying rather than pour any more of his spare time into that ship. In fact, if he remarries, I do somewhat confidently predict he will end up liberating himself of it. Hopefully to some sucker or loser with just as little chance at turning this ship's legacy around as history confesses he ever had.