Appearance
title: Passenger, Crew, Guard, and Specialist Roles section: Campaign Start page_type: player_reference player_safe: true spoiler_level: none campaign_phase: pre-session-one status: draft related_pages:
- ./campaign-start-overview.md
- ./the-azure-aviary.md
- ./why-you-are-aboard.md
- ./what-your-character-knows-before-session-one.md
- ../marithel/ships-and-shipboard-life.md
- ../marithel/marithel-at-a-glance.md
- ../character-creation/character-creation-overview.md
- ../character-creation/character-ties-to-the-azure-aviary.md
- ../character-creation/sailor-privateer-and-shipborn-characters.md source_files:
- Website Canon
- Uploaded Sources
Passenger, Crew, Guard, and Specialist Roles
Player Summary
The campaign begins aboard the Azure Aviary, a working Maritheli vessel traveling through Windrider Gulf waters.
Your character does not need to be a sailor. They only need a reason to be aboard.
This page gives player-safe role options for why your character is on the ship when play begins. These are not classes, backgrounds, or required party jobs. They are starting positions: the practical reason other people aboard can point to you and say, “That one belongs here, at least for now.”
You might be crew, passenger, guard, healer, cook, courier, clerk, scholar, refugee, witness, faction errand-runner, sailor between ships, debt passenger, or someone traveling under a complicated name.
A good role should answer three questions:
- Why are you aboard the Azure Aviary?
- What do other people think you are doing here?
- What might become complicated when trouble begins?
How to Use This Page
Choose one role as your public reason for being aboard.
Then add one complication.
For example:
- “I am a paid passenger, but the name on my fare paper is not the one I was born with.”
- “I am a healer, but one patient aboard is connected to a faction I do not trust.”
- “I am working passage, but I know more about ships than I want the crew to notice.”
- “I am guarding a sealed document, but I do not know what it says.”
- “I am a refugee under temporary protection, but someone aboard may recognize me.”
Your role does not need to reveal your whole backstory. It only needs to place you aboard the ship and give you a reason to act.
Working Crew
You are part of the Azure Aviary’s working crew, permanently or temporarily.
You may handle rope, sail, cargo, watches, cleaning, repairs, lookout duty, messages, small boats, or whatever else the mate needs done before the weather changes.
Why This Works
Working crew have a clear reason to be aboard. You belong to the ship’s daily rhythm. You hear orders, rumors, complaints, and bells before most passengers do.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- know basic shipboard rules;
- understand watches and bells;
- can move through crew spaces;
- know who is difficult aboard;
- are expected to obey the captain and mate;
- have heard more than you admit.
Possible Complications
- You are new to this crew.
- You are hiding why you left your last ship.
- You recognize a passenger but have not said so.
- You owe back wages, favors, or apology to someone in Windrider Freeport.
- You know something about the route that others do not.
- You are working under a name that does not match older ship records.
Working Passage Traveler
You could not pay full fare, so you are working for passage.
You may be hauling cargo, helping in the galley, standing extra watches, scrubbing decks, carrying water, repairing rope, tending animals, translating, assisting a healer, or doing unpleasant work no one else volunteered for.
Why This Works
Working passage is common in Marithel. People move because they must, and ships always need hands.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- are short on coin;
- need to reach Windrider Freeport;
- are willing to work;
- may not have strong legal protection;
- can be ordered around more easily than paying passengers;
- are trying not to draw attention.
Possible Complications
- You are more skilled than you pretend.
- You are less skilled than you promised.
- Someone paid your passage, and now you owe them.
- You boarded quickly and left something behind.
- You need to reach Windrider Freeport before someone else does.
- You are avoiding official passenger records.
Paid Passenger
You paid, were sponsored, or were granted passage aboard the Azure Aviary.
You may be traveling for trade, family, law, work, pilgrimage, study, shelter, treatment, escape, or business in Windrider Freeport.
Why This Works
Paid passengers can come from almost anywhere and have almost any reason to be in Marithel.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- have coin, papers, or a patron;
- expect a certain level of treatment;
- are not responsible for ship labor unless danger requires it;
- have a destination;
- may complain if conditions worsen;
- may know less about shipboard custom.
Possible Complications
- Someone else bought your fare.
- You are traveling under a protected or false name.
- Your papers are real but incomplete.
- You are carrying something you do not want inspected.
- You are more desperate than you look.
- You are not sure who arranged your passage.
Guard
You are aboard to protect someone or something.
You may be guarding a passenger, sealed cargo, legal papers, medicine, coin, a witness, a prisoner, a refugee family, a temple object, or the ship itself.
Why This Works
Marithel is full of movement, and movement creates risk. People hire guards when cargo, testimony, names, or bodies must survive the journey.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- are armed or trained;
- know who or what you are protecting;
- are loyal to whoever hired you;
- may interfere if someone gets too close;
- may have authority only in narrow circumstances;
- are watching more than you say.
Possible Complications
- You do not fully trust your employer.
- You are guarding a seal, not the contents.
- You are protecting someone who does not want protection.
- You were hired under unclear terms.
- You suspect the real danger is already aboard.
- You are expected to choose between orders and mercy.
Healer or Caregiver
You are aboard because someone needs care, or because the ship needs someone who can keep people alive until harbor.
You might be a temple-trained healer, practical ship medic, herbalist, battlefield surgeon, midwife, plague worker, bone-setter, shrine attendant, or ordinary caregiver with hard experience.
Why This Works
Ships are dangerous, cramped, wet, and full of accidents. Marithel also moves refugees, witnesses, sick travelers, wounded guards, and people who cannot wait for a safer route.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- know who is ill or injured;
- have access to medicine;
- are expected to help even people you dislike;
- may know private details;
- may be tied to temple law or mercy custom;
- can become important very quickly when trouble begins.
Possible Complications
- One patient’s condition is being hidden.
- You are low on medicine.
- You owe a temple, faction, patient, or family.
- You recognize signs of an injury no one has explained.
- Someone expects you to falsify, hide, or reveal medical truth.
- You believe mercy law is being ignored.
Cook or Galley Helper
You work in or near the galley.
You may cook, ration food, carry water, clean pots, tend the fire, track stores, feed passengers, calm quarrels, notice who does not eat, and hear more than people think.
Why This Works
A ship’s galley is one of its social centers. People come hungry, tired, angry, frightened, bored, sick, or too proud to admit they need help.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- know the crew’s moods;
- know who is eating poorly;
- know what supplies are short;
- can move between crew and passenger spaces;
- hear private conversations by accident;
- are less dangerous than you may actually be.
Possible Complications
- Food or water is being watched, hidden, spoiled, or stolen.
- Someone has asked you to feed one passenger separately.
- You noticed a person avoiding meals.
- You are protecting someone through small acts of care.
- You know the ship cannot stretch supplies as long as people think.
- You found something where it should not be.
Courier
You are carrying something that must reach Windrider Freeport or another harbor.
It may be a letter, sealed order, map scrap, medicine, charm, legal statement, temple notice, family message, debt record, witness list, contract, repair order, or private token.
Why This Works
Ships carry messages as often as cargo. In Marithel, a letter arriving before a person can change the outcome of a hearing, marriage, debt, arrest, voyage, or burial.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- have a destination;
- know who should receive the delivery;
- understand the urgency;
- may be under oath or contract;
- are not supposed to read what you carry;
- may attract trouble if others learn what you have.
Possible Complications
- You do not know what you are carrying.
- You know exactly what you are carrying and wish you did not.
- The seal is damaged.
- Someone aboard is also looking for the recipient.
- You are late.
- The message is only safe if no registry records it.
Clerk, Scribe, or Record-Keeper
You are aboard to read, write, copy, witness, translate, verify, count, register, or protect records.
You might handle manifests, passenger lists, cargo seals, debt notes, letters, temple records, legal statements, route notes, witness testimony, or private ledgers.
Why This Works
In Marithel, records can be protection, accusation, property, identity, memory, or leverage.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- can read official papers;
- know what was listed and what was omitted;
- may have seen names others hoped to hide;
- understand seals and procedure;
- are useful in court;
- are dangerous if you remember too much.
Possible Complications
- You copied a document you were not supposed to see.
- A name on the passenger list is wrong.
- A cargo seal does not match the manifest.
- Someone wants you to witness a statement before arrival.
- You are carrying a record that contradicts someone powerful.
- You know the law well enough to delay disaster, but not stop it.
Scholar or Investigator
You are aboard because you are studying, pursuing, verifying, or investigating something.
Your interest might involve routes, reefs, ship names, old wrecks, refugee movements, strange signals, temple records, privateering papers, folk customs, legal contradictions, family histories, or rumors from another continent.
Why This Works
Marithel is full of old routes, disputed records, sea customs, hidden passages, and stories that become dangerous when proven.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- ask too many questions;
- carry notes;
- know something obscure;
- do not fully understand local risk;
- may be useful if an old name, map, law, or symbol appears;
- may mistake rumor for fact.
Possible Complications
- Your research subject is closer than expected.
- Someone warned you not to ask about a particular route, light, wreck, or name.
- You are chasing a rumor that someone else wants buried.
- You are hiding who funded your study.
- You recognize a symbol aboard.
- You know enough to be afraid, but not enough to explain why.
Refugee or Protected Traveler
You are aboard because remaining elsewhere was more dangerous.
You may be fleeing war, debt, faction pressure, family violence, court claim, religious persecution, monster rule, failed harvest, burned records, a lost home, or a name that became unsafe.
You may or may not have formal protection.
Why This Works
Marithel’s ships carry people as often as cargo. Some are paying passengers. Some are under guest law. Some are hidden. Some are being moved quickly because delay would endanger them.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- need safety;
- may lack complete papers;
- may be traveling under a changed name;
- may fear inspection;
- may be protected by guest custom, temple mercy, or private promise;
- may know what it means when help has conditions.
Possible Complications
- Someone aboard knows who you were before.
- Your papers protect you in one harbor but endanger you in another.
- You are responsible for another refugee.
- You are not sure whether you are legally protected.
- A faction helped you, and you owe them.
- You are safer aboard the ship than you will be after arrival.
Witness
You are aboard because you saw, heard, survived, signed, carried, recovered, translated, or remembered something that matters.
A witness in Marithel may be needed for a court, temple, registry, salvage claim, privateering review, debt challenge, refugee petition, missing-person case, or accusation.
Why This Works
Marithel law often depends on testimony. What someone saw before a ship arrived, before a body was named, before a seal broke, or before a passenger vanished can change what happens next.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- are going somewhere to speak;
- may need protection;
- may not be telling the whole story;
- know more than you want to say;
- are valuable to one group and dangerous to another;
- can be pressured before anyone officially hears you.
Possible Complications
- You are not sure you understood what you saw.
- You saw something while using a name you do not want exposed.
- Someone wants you to change your testimony.
- Someone wants you never to arrive.
- You are both witness and suspect.
- You remember a detail no one else believes matters.
Faction Errand-Runner
You are aboard because a faction, patron, temple, court, family network, shipyard, pilot house, merchant factor, aid kitchen, or private contact sent you.
The task may be simple: carry a note, escort someone, check a cargo seal, deliver medicine, observe a passenger, confirm a rumor, meet a contact, or reach Windrider Freeport quickly.
Why This Works
Factions often need people who can move quietly, plausibly, and quickly before formal procedure begins.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- have a patron;
- may not be free to explain your business;
- know a contact at the destination;
- are carrying something or watching someone;
- may be trusted by one group and distrusted by another;
- are more involved than an ordinary passenger.
Possible Complications
- You do not know the full reason for the errand.
- The person who sent you lied.
- Your instructions conflict with mercy, law, or survival.
- Another faction has noticed you.
- Your contact may not be alive, honest, or waiting.
- The errand was supposed to be simple.
Sailor Between Ships
You are a sailor, pilot hand, deck worker, shipwright’s assistant, cargo hand, cook, guard, or specialist between contracts.
You may be traveling to find a new berth, report to a repair yard, join another crew, follow an old captain, avoid a bad ship, or reach Windrider Freeport for work.
Why This Works
Marithel is full of people whose lives move from deck to dock to deck again.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- know shipboard routine;
- understand sailor customs;
- can judge crew quality;
- have opinions about routes and captains;
- may know people in Windrider Freeport;
- may be carrying rumors from another ship.
Possible Complications
- Your last ship ended badly.
- You are avoiding a former captain.
- You know a ship that vanished.
- You recognize a signal, rope mark, cargo stamp, or sailor’s charm.
- Someone thinks you deserted.
- You are looking for a ship that will not ask too many questions.
Debt Passenger
You are aboard because of debt.
Maybe someone paid your fare. Maybe you owe for passage, medicine, rescue, legal aid, repair, food, shelter, or protection. Maybe a debt follows your family, ship, name, or papers.
Why This Works
In Marithel, debt often travels faster than ships. A person may flee a place without escaping what was written down there.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- owe someone;
- are under pressure;
- may be watched;
- may not be free to leave after arrival;
- may be traveling because delay would make the debt worse;
- may be desperate enough to take risks.
Possible Complications
- The debt is not yours, but your name is attached.
- The debt was paid by someone you distrust.
- The terms changed after you boarded.
- You are carrying proof that the debt is false.
- A passenger aboard benefits if you cannot reach the Freeport.
- You must decide whether to honor, dispute, flee, or expose the obligation.
Traveler Under a Complicated Name
You are aboard under a name that is not simple.
It may be a false name, protected name, ship name, work name, old name, translated name, family name, legal alias, refugee name, temple name, or name chosen because the true one would endanger you or someone else.
Why This Works
Names matter in Marithel. A name can open a court, close a harbor, protect a person, trigger a claim, summon a debt, or expose a history.
What People Assume
People may assume you:
- are cautious;
- may be hiding from someone;
- may have legal reasons for the name;
- may be protected by custom or procedure;
- may be committing fraud;
- may become vulnerable if papers are challenged.
Possible Complications
- Someone aboard knows another name for you.
- Your papers and your spoken name do not match.
- The name protects someone other than you.
- You do not know whether Windrider Freeport will recognize it.
- A faction helped create the name.
- You are tired of answering to a name that kept you alive.
Choosing a Complication
After choosing a role, choose or create one complication.
Your complication should be player-safe. It should create hooks, not block play.
Good complications:
- give your character a reason to care;
- connect you to another passenger, crew member, faction, law, debt, route, or destination;
- create pressure without revealing the whole plot;
- explain why you might help strangers;
- leave questions for play.
Avoid complications that:
- require immediate betrayal of the party;
- reveal hidden opening events;
- make your character refuse the campaign premise;
- make you secretly responsible for everything;
- require the DM to run a separate private campaign for you;
- force other players to protect a secret they do not know exists.
Quick Role Table
| If you want to play... | Consider this role |
|---|---|
| someone practical and ship-aware | Working Crew or Sailor Between Ships |
| someone poor, desperate, or in motion | Working Passage Traveler or Debt Passenger |
| someone socially flexible | Paid Passenger |
| someone protective | Guard, Healer, or Caregiver |
| someone with useful secrets | Courier, Clerk, Scribe, or Witness |
| someone scholarly or suspicious | Scholar or Investigator |
| someone vulnerable but not helpless | Refugee or Protected Traveler |
| someone tied to wider politics | Faction Errand-Runner |
| someone with identity tension | Traveler Under a Complicated Name |
| someone connected to daily ship life | Cook, Galley Helper, or Deckhand |
Questions to Answer Before Session One
Answer a few of these:
- What role do people think you have aboard the Azure Aviary?
- Is that role fully true?
- Who aboard might need you?
- Who aboard might mistrust you?
- What name did you give when you boarded?
- What are you carrying that matters?
- What do you want from Windrider Freeport?
- What would make your role complicated if the ship were searched, delayed, damaged, or threatened?
- What would make you help another person aboard?
- What are you afraid will be written down?
What This Page Does Not Reveal
This page does not reveal:
- hidden opening events;
- secret cargo aboard the Azure Aviary;
- concealed passenger motives;
- hidden faction plans;
- secret villains;
- unrevealed shipboard disputes;
- DM-only mysteries;
- what will happen during Session One.
It gives player-safe starting roles so every character has a clear reason to be aboard when the campaign begins.