Tide's Breath

The Tide's Breath was a merchant ship that operated in the Menagerie Coast. The ship's captain Vandran purchased it using money from the sale of a Cloven Crystal at auction in Port Damali, and Fjord served aboard for many years. In 835 PD, as the Tide's Breath returned to the Menagerie Coast, a crewmember Sabian planted an explosive in the hold and sank the ship. The wreck came to rest at the bottom of the Diver's Grave.

The sinking of the ship, and Vandran's believed certain death, caused Uk'otoa to revoke Vandran's warlock pact and instead offer it to Fjord, who accepted it to avoid fatally drowning. Sabian, who fled before the explosion, as well as Fjord and Vandran survived the shipwreck. The wreck was of interest to Uk'otoa's warlocks as the possible site of the third and final Cloven Crystal. Fjord and the Mighty Nein visited it in search of the crystal, which Vandran hid in his quarters, and discovered it was taken from the site by the sea fury Dashilla.

Description
The Tide's Breath was a multi-masted ship used primarily for sailing and transport. It "isn't an incredibly massive ship" and had a cargo hold, a captain's quarters, and a number of other cabins, at least two of which were where the crew slept. The remains of a cannon were found in the hold after its sinking, but it is unclear if this belonged to the ship or was only being transported at the time.

In the captain's quarters, accessible through an interior space accessed directly from the deck, Vandran kept a reading table, multiple bookshelves, and various decorations including metal candle holders. One of the bookcases had a false bottom in one of its shelves, in which he hid a metal box containing a Cloven Crystal.

Wreck
The wreck of the Tide's Breath lies at a depth of around seven hundred feet in an undersea hollow at the bottom of the Diver's Grave among other wrecks. It is between seven to eight hundred feet from Dashilla's lair. The ship remained largely in one piece as it sank and sits on the seafloor at an "odd angle" with its bow slightly angled upward. It has a gaping hole in the hull on one side of the hold and multiple, smaller holes on the opposite side. Many of its rooms were destroyed in the explosion, though at least the captain's quarters and Fjord's quarters remained intact. The top and edges of the deck were scorched by the fire that broke out as it sank. After a year underwater, it has rusted and been overtaken by barnacles and other sea creatures and plants.

Vandran's captaincy
Vandran, a Revelry captain and warlock of Uk'otoa, left the Revelry after his boatswain and fellow warlock Avantika attempted to sacrifice him to Uk'otoa following a divergence in views about their patron. He fled to Port Damali with a Cloven Crystal and maintained a low profile there for a time before rebuilding his life. He sold the crystal at auction in the city and used the money to purchase the Tide's Breath. He captained the Tide's Breath as a merchant vessel in the Menagerie Coast with Port Damali as home port. He brought Fjord and Sabian, who grew up together in Port Damali, onto the crew, and they served aboard the ship for many years. Fjord primarily worked as a boatswain and, after developing a close personal relationship with Vandran, eventually became the ship's first mate and quartermaster. Like most vessels operating in the Lucidian Ocean, the Tide's Breath had multiple encounters with pirates in its career, about which Fjord said, "Most of those experiences I did not enjoy."

Sinking
In early 835 PD, the Tide's Breath left Port Damali for an unknown port west of Darktow and returned to the Menagerie Coast along an established trade route. It carried a number of crates, including one possibly containing metal bars or similar type of iron for construction. A storm from the west overtook the ship as it passed over the Diver's Grave. During the storm, Sabian went into the cargo hold to plant an explosive. Because it was unusual Sabian was going below deck, Fjord followed, and he witnessed Sabian lighting the fuse and called out for him. Sabian threw multiple daggers at Fjord, hitting him in the chest and downing him, and fled to the deck. Fjord pursued Sabian and found him at the bow, appearing to be preparing to jump overboard. Right then, Fjord was knocked into the water from behind by the explosion. The explosion blew a gaping hole in the ship's hull and set fire to the deck. The Tide's Breath sunk to the bottom of the Diver's Grave.

The sinking of the ship caused Uk'otoa to revoke ownership of the Sword of Fathoms and its associated warlock pact from Vandran, who no longer served Uk'otoa and entirely cut himself off from his patron. Because Vandran was expected to die by drowning and the Sword of Fathoms was to be forever lost in the Lucidian Ocean, Uk'otoa instead offered the pact to the drowning Fjord. Panicked and desperate, Fjord subconsciously agreed to it to avoid fatally drowning; upon waking on the shore of Bisaft Isle, he could not remember the pact and returned to Port Damali. Against the odds, Vandran also survived the sinking and washed ashore on a smaller island in the Bisaft archipelago; he remained living quietly there for the next year. Sabian survived by unknown means and returned to Port Damali as well, arriving before Fjord.

Multiple people in Port Damali quickly noticed that the Tide's Breath and its crew did not return, except for Sabian and Fjord. Fjord's presence in the city after the sinking drew attention and eventually drove him out.

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
Months later, it was known in Nicodranas and reflected in wharfmaster records that the Tide's Breath was lost at sea. Avantika was interested in locating the wreck because she believed that Vandran would not part with his Cloven Crystal and so thought that the third and final crystal she sought was in the wreckage.

Several weeks later, Fjord and the Mighty Nein sailed to the Diver's Grave aboard the Squalleater to find the Cloven Crystal and located the wreck of the Tide's Breath. They noted that the wreck was already thoroughly searched and salvaged. In the captain's quarters, they discovered that the hidden box containing the crystal had been forced open with claws; they later located the crystal in the sea fury Dashilla's treasure hoard in her nearby lair, suggesting that Dashilla took it from the wreck. While the Nein searched the captain's quarters, multiple merrow were drawn to the light of Dancing Lights and attacked the party at the wreckage site.

Known crew

 * Captain Vandran, survivor of the ship's destruction
 * Fjord, first mate and quartermaster, a boatswain most of his career aboard, survivor of the ship's destruction
 * Sabian, sabotaged the ship and fled before it sank, role aboard is unclear but he was lower in the hierarchy than Fjord and was typically not supposed to be in the cargo hold

Trivia

 * The name of the ship was spelled as "Tide's Breadth" on-screen over the combat map in.
 * As Dashila can conjure storms using an altar in her lair to sink ships into the Diver's Grave, it is not entirely certain if the storm that overtook the Tide's Breath was natural or magical.