Captain Stone

Stub-class article · First seen: s17 · Last seen: s17 (held); s18 (not referenced; presumed on Mike's body)
Captain Stone
the painted pebble · Pim's gift · the captain
Captain Stone — Mundane sentimental object portrait
Item
StatusPresumed Lost
First seens17
Last seens17 (held); s18 (not referenced; presumed on Mike's body)
TypeMundane sentimental object
AttunementNone
HolderMike (deceased); presumed on his person at death
OriginGift from Pim, daughter of Nessa, s17

Captain Stone is a small, smooth grey pebble with “two cold dots and what looks to be a scratched mouth on it” — a child’s painted pet rock — given to Mike by Pim (the elder of Nessa’s two children) on a wrecked fishing boat in the Sapphire Sea in session 17, in exchange for two trail rations Mike had just handed the family [1]. Mike then ritually cast Detect Magic for ten in-fiction minutes; the DM ruled the pebble is not magical [8]. Mike kept it anyway and used it as a goodbye wave when the skiffs parted [3]. Pim’s framing was the line that named it: “See, here’s this Captain Stone. He’s brave.”

Overview

Captain Stone is a small, smooth grey pebble. It has two cold dots painted on it for eyes and a scratched mouth scratched on it for a mouth, per the DM’s description at [1]:

“she pulls out of her pocket a small, smooth grey pebble. And as you kind of look at it, you see two cold dots and what looks to be a scratched mouth on it. And she hands it over to you. See, here’s this Captain Stone. He’s brave.” — Nick (DM, voicing Pim through Nessa), [1]

The gift was an exchange for Mike’s two trail rations to Pim and Leo — the only food the party gave the family. Mike, lawyer-brained and recently shipwrecked, ritually cast Detect Magic on the pebble [2]. The DM ruled it not magical. Mike pocketed it anyway and the next time he interacted with it was the goodbye wave as the skiffs parted [3].

Significance

Captain Stone is non-magical and mechanically useless. It is logged in the wiki because:

  • It was named in a moderately significant scene and may become a callback or sentimental prop.
  • It is the only piece of inventory the s17 Nessa encounter generated for the party.
  • It is Mike’s first non-Mizzium-Apparatus item revealed on-character and is the kind of detail a future scene could revisit (e.g. if the campaign ever swings by Gloamhearth and finds Nessa again, or if the pebble’s “two cold dots” become something on a closer look in the right magical light).

Status as of session 17

Held by Mike. In a pocket of his backpack or chain-mail. Not magical. Not attuned. Not lost.

Status as of session 18

Presumed lost. Not referenced anywhere in s18. Mike was killed by the Aurelian patrol at the road approach to The Bright Gate [4]; the patrol confiscated the Mizzium Apparatus [5] and Mike’s spellbook [6]; Hugo recovered a holy water flask and the garbled “biogrimmed auctions” item before burial [7]. Captain Stone is presumed to have been on Mike’s person at the time of the patrol intercept and therefore presumed taken with the rest of his effects.

Flagged for DM clarification. Captain Stone is a non-magical, mundane sentimental object (a painted child’s pebble, not a magic item), so it is plausible the patrol overlooked it during the search, since the confiscation logic on transcript explicitly targets “the very obvious magical artifact that he used to cast the spell” [5]. The pebble would not have lit up to Detect Magic [2] confirmed it as not magical). The realistic possibilities are: (a) confiscated with the rest of the body’s effects as a matter of routine, (b) overlooked by the patrol and now buried with Mike’s body in Hugo’s roadside grave, or (c) recovered by the party off-transcript. Pim’s painted-pebble gift is sentimentally important rather than mechanically useful, so the resolution matters less than the entry recording the ambiguity.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 17, line 927 — Pim hands over the pebble: "See, here's this Captain Stone. He's brave.".
  2. ^ Session 17, line 932-938 — Mike ritual-casts Detect Magic for 10 minutes; DM rules the pebble not magical.
  3. ^ Session 17, line 1057 — Mike waves Captain Stone at Nessa as a goodbye gesture as the skiffs part.
  4. ^ Session 18, line 2272-2274 — Inline citation.
  5. ^ Session 18, line 2287 — Inline citation.
  6. ^ Session 18, line 2437 — Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 18, line 2414 — Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 17, line 938 — Inline citation.
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