Ghostbusting with Rooroot Beer (or Grog)
For that too, showing face by the Swamp's Witch will be almost mandatory, at least to get the ingredients, if not also for the recipe, the ustensiles and / or the required special sprayer for such fluids… It goes without saying that Rooroot it not (quite) so common on the street, at least not on Yellow Lizard's Island; it goes as well without saying that the Swamp's Witch grows some (swamps are the ideal place for it as can be seen in Hattea's description) for Rooroot Beer or Grog are far - much further than that! - from only being used to refresh oneself (diluted versions) or to dissolve an aggressive malevolent Ghost… Rooroot is Life, it increases Consciousness and allows for Space travel (the one of Curry-Bean Shamans as well)… But we are loosing the focus!
And if the way of the Witch leads nowhere, we saved for you, Friend Game Master, a rescue option in the purest style, which we let you the pleasure to discover soon in the following lines…
Another negotiation with the Witch
The whole question lies actually in that which our Young Friends will tell the Witch as they will see her. Indeed, if they mention the Ghost of Pedro Delgado, it is likely that she'll tell her a bit more regarding that unfaithful guy, when she'll be assured they are no friend of him. She'll explain then how he made profit of her blindness and how he finally robbed her of several objects.
She of course « omits » to mention that the Medallion belongs to the lost objects and that it is a powerful artifact which is precious to her (how else…) and that « her » eyes actually are in the skull placed at her side… That said, a successful Roll versus Perception + Look-Out indeed brings to see that the eye-sockets of the skull move on their own; a Critical Success to another Roll versus Cleverness + Won't Get Nabbed! further allows to confirm that their movements are consistent with the currently led conversation or the moves of the Witch…
Finally, whatever the Witch tells them about Pedro Delgado, she'll suggest, but not too directly, that she could propose a more clever deal but that to free the Ghost of Delgado one has to bring her an object which is of importance to him. And by chance she heard directly from him, on that evening when he came there, he told her about a medallion with a horse-like head he had around the neck.
« Well, precisely that one simple medallion I need and pfft, Delgado, rather his Ghost I should say, will stop bothering you! For what concerns Rooroot, there is not much there and that's expensive! Then you need to know how to brew it… By the way, why do you try so hard to free the Ghost of that bandit?… »
If the Young Pirates stay on their idea with Rooroot and / or the recipe, the Witch will send them into « quests » which are all as impossible to complete as the others, for instance like bringing back a block of sulphur from the crater of the Octopus or the tail of a Scorpion-Shark of Bermudas Islands or any other crazy thing coming through your mind at that occasion…
Deus Ex Machina!
Well, we almost forgot it but we have here something for the worst case(s)… There still remains, on that island, an automatic-vending machine for Rooroot Beer in Nice Borrough (the one which was in Chedham was sent to the breaker's yard long ago). The remaining one, however, is since a long time out of order and nobody use it anymore. That which our Friends certainly do not know is that one or two Rooroot Beer cans remain there, not fresh, forgotten even from the Lwa and thus still there today…
Note for the Game Master: it defies any likelihood and it is even artificial to want to roll versus Cleverness + any Skill you might think about in that situation since it is well know that the machine is out of order! Unless one gets a Critical… Failure! The best is to use that object only if our friends Young Pirates don't manage to get out of the mess through any of the other possible ways.
Rather than letting them stuck in that non-sensical dead-end, you can bring forward, as one of them or the whole little group - even better by night - pass by there where the antique vending machine stays, that it is strange that the vending machine of Nice Borrough was not scrapped like that of Chedham. And precisely when they're wondering about that strange fact the machine wakes up suddenly with a stupid high-tuned music, flashes three or four times and spit two cans of Rooroot Beer through its rusted openning before getting shut down, this time for good. No explanation is possible to such a mysterious event! Deus Ex Machina, you take it as it is or not at all!
After that, they only need to assemble a device to spray Pedro Delgado properly and that will be the end of the poor Ghost…
We try to let you cry, handkerchief! But, truly, Delgado will have deserved it! Refer to the section regarding Hattean Voodoo to know more about how to manage fights against Ghosts with a Rooroot Beer sprayer – as for Rooroot Grog, this is just the same thing but a single spray in the bull's eye will be enough, straight. Whatsoever, Game Master, you'll take care not to grant too many Experience Points to our friends Young Pirates for such deeds. They deserve of course more of them if they manage to send Delgado to Hell (well, who knows, after all?) through giving back the Medallion to the Witch…