The Sunken Cephalopod

The Sunken Cephalopod is a schooner, a beautiful and swift ship especially useful for chasing, raiding, and scouting. She is one of the older ships in the fleet and has been hardened by her years, still possessing four of her ancient cannons. The small vessel is not only sentient and capable of speaking telepathically, but she is also able to fully submerge and sail underwater, which earned her the name sunken.

History
The Sunken Cephalopod is an ancient ship. A long time ago, there were more vessels like the Ceph, bearing the magical emeralds that grant the vessel her sentience and her magical abilities. However, mankind's greed for the arcane and the powerful ensured that one by one, the vessels had their power source stolen and they sank to the bottom of the sea, including the Sunken Cepholopod. Until Captain 'Sealegs' Syd found her.

Captain Sea-legs Syd dredged the ship up from the depths of the abyss and returned her to her former glory. They created a new crew with the pirates of Isla de Oro, and together, they made the High Seas of the Caribbean unsafe, capturing plenty of bounty with the sheer speed and finesse the Sunken Cephalopod possessed.

After several long, plentiful years, they passed on the helm to Captain Luxor Jones. The alchemist was a sight to behold, and he led the crew with a genius that bordered insanity. Together, they achieved incredible things. Amongst them was reawakening the ship, which regained its sentience after Everett Seymour Brown polished its magical emerald. The newly-awakened ship tasked the crew with recovering her ancient cannons and sails, which they did with much success.

For a long time, Peanut "The Hollow" was Captain as well, leading the crew with strength and ferocity. The Sunken Cephalopod showed her strength as a scouting and chaser ship under his guidance. With her twelve guns total, she packs quite the punch, and she can dance around the waves like as light as a sparrow. However, after a while, he laid down his duties and gave up the Captain's hat to Everett Brown.

Everett has been leading the crew since. His leadership marks a revitalisation of the crew, and neither the ship nor the crew have ever done better. Under his watchful and nurturing guidance, the crew is at full strength and still growing, exploring their full potential. The Sunken Cephalopod has never been taken care of so well.



Appearance
The Sunken Cephalopod is a three-masted schooner made mainly of teak and mahogany, twenty-five metres (82') long from bow to stern. The keel and frames are made of teak - a wood extremely suitable for a ship as it is said to be able to last centuries if left alone. While the gunwale is made of a flexible pine.

The deck is teak and the masts a lovely red pine. Parts of the ship have been painted with a mahogany finish, mainly the frames, masts, and bow. There are little squid and other cephalopod carvings as decorations on many parts of the ship.

The key part of the Cephalopod’s appearance is the glowing green emerald on her figurehead. The emerald is polished and treated with care as it is said to be the heart of the ship. Four ornately decorated twelve-pounder cannons sit upon the Ceph, two on either side of the ship, with smaller, more modern six-pounder cannons between and flanking them. The ancient cannons still work, but take more time to load because of their size and weight.

Abilities
The Sunken Cephalopod is able to submerge and function as normal underwater, including the cannons. The ship and gill-less crew will both be covered in a thin layer of air, allowing for them to breathe and remain dry. The crew are able to travel a couple of feet away from the ship before the effect wears off. The crew are also able to walk normally aboard the ship.

The ship is sentient and can speak to her crew through telepathic means. On top of that, unlike most schooners -- which have no lower deck -- the Cephalopod has a set of stairs which descend into a magically enlarged space.

Other Information

 * Everett occasionally lets his crew steer the ship underwater to visit the reef. This is not a joyride. No, it isn’t.
 * A portrait of the Sunken Cephalopod crew is hung on board, drawn by Everett.
 * The Cephalopod has a pool room, courtesy of Luxor.
 * The Cephalopod crew is lovingly referred to as “Cephies”.
 * The Cephalopod crew enjoy raids, and so there is an inordinate amount of raid supplies on board - glitter bombs, cookie launchers, glitter cannons, many tubs of paint, paint bombs, fancy costumes, and the like.
 * To the rest of the server and also themselves, they are known as the most wholesome crew, as well as the most furry-heavy crew. Almost every crew member seems to be a furry somehow.
 * The flag of the Ceph was made by Everett (@artbleps).