Vigilant Ship at Britton Hill [The Day After Ragnarok].

Vigilant Ship at Britton Hill

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Britton Hill (in what used to be Florida) is unique for two reasons: first, it is the only part of Florida that was not inundated by the mega-tsunami during the Serpentfall.  Secondly, it is the final resting site of what appears to be a Royal Navy submarine (the HMS Oberon).  Assuming anyone checks, the Oberon is thoroughly incapable of sailing again; there are gaping holes in the hull and the keel has been thoroughly shattered.

There were no obvious survivors, and the entire area was thoroughly scoured of human life by the implacable waves.  To this day nothing human lives within twenty miles of the place — and, for that matter, very little that is monstrous does, either.  Britton Hill has a Serpent Taint of 2 generally, and 0 inside the Oberon itself.  The aura of calm that surrounds the broken submarine is pretty much palpable.

Exploring the Oberon itself reveals that its crew apparently died at their posts and left to moulder in piece; their skeletons show no signs of being worried at by animals or fouler things, and are remarkably intact, given the circumstances.  Alert searchers will note the surprising number of pistols and navy cutlasses at hand (as it were), but are likely to chalk it up to British affectations unless they’re familiar with submarines.

Treasure chest? Of course there’s a treasure chest.  It’s in the middle of the ship, surrounded by more of those unusually cohesive skeletons, and when opened the chest reveals, well.  Those really do look like the Crown Jewels, don’t they?  And there’s an ancient-looking drum. And… a walking cane and bowler hat?  Party members with any Arcane Background except Ophi-tech will be able to feel the thrum of power coming from all of these items, but given the circumstances such a confirmation of the esoteric nature of these items will likely be redundant.

You’re probably wondering when the skeletons start attacking.  Well, it depends on what the explorers plan to do with the items, honestly.  At this point, the spirits inhabiting the skeletons will accept a sincere desire to sell the items back to the British, if that’s what it’s going to take to reunite these items of power with the proper authorities.  It helps a great deal if one of the discoverers is from the British Commonwealth, of course. Or has a plausible claim to the throne.  Otherwise… yeah, it’s a bunch of skeletons against the party. And while they can be disarticulated, they’re really not that easy to outright destroy.  After all, they’re already dead.  On the bright side, they’ll let people run away.

But! As was noted above, the skeletons are at the point that they’ll make a deal: bring the items to the British authorities, and you can keep whatever reward that will be given out for it.  And without a curse!  Just don’t go back on that deal, though.  If you do, the skeletons will come looking for you — and this time they won’t let you run away.