LORE: Madame Crossed Bones and the House of 10,000 Cabins

There are few pirates on the Monster Coast more mysterious than Madame Crossed Bones. She has seemingly been around forever, having been mentioned in stories dating back thousands of years. But despite her longevity on the Monster Coast there is very little known about her. The prevailing story comes from the whispers of Cannon Boos late at night as they bother sailors, waiting for cannonballs to fly. 

Is she a bastion of good? Or a bringer of evil?

The Cannon Boo claim that Madame Crossed Bones was once a spirit like them, many millennia ago. In fact, she was thousands of spirits. No one knows too much about Davy Jones’ Locker, but apparently it’s not as ironclad as some pirates think. Some spirits manage to slip out, eager to get back to the world of the living for some purpose. But without some magical guide, these spirits are aimless and float in the void somewhere between the living and the dead. The Cannon Boo claim that after thousands of years all of these spirits floating in the void started to get muddled together, squashing and forming with one another until they couldn’t tell where one stopped and the next started. One spirit couldn’t escape to the land of the living, but this amalgamation of spirits? It slipped through. It was no longer a thousand different spirits, but one new being.

Or at least that’s what the Cannon Boo say happened. Madame Crossed Bones has never spoken to this and just smiles at any insinuation of her past.

Pirates are generally wary of her. Not because they’re afraid of what she might do to them, but because it’s impossible to unravel her motives. 

The Cannon Boo like to spread stories of Madame Crossed Bones...

Five hundred years ago she bestowed a hat upon a pegasus and now that pegasus has saved the Monster Coast hundreds of times. She has rescued ships from sinking and yet other times simply appeared and stood by while others sank. She has stopped violent conflicts, like casting the Plankwalker back into the void. And yet she refused to help stop Captain Lazerbeard’s First Reign. And there are even those who think that she might have had a hand in the Shogun Scourge’s presence in the world of the living… Needless to say, when Madame Crossed Bones intervenes, the pirates of the Monster Coast wait with bated breath to understand why she did. Like the Bootstrap Berserkers. She stepped in and saved their island from sinking into the waves over three hundred years ago… and no one has quite figured out why yet.

The one thing people do know about Madame Crossed Bones is where she lives: The House of 10,000 Cabins. It is unclear if she is the proprietor or the creator or simply the caretaker, but if you need to find her, she’s likely there. The House of 10,000 Cabins is moored in a lagoon, caught in a fog that lanterns can’t penetrate. They say the only way to get to it is on a moonlit night, when the fogs begin to dissipate. It’s a massive structure, larger than some small islands, glowing with lanterns that outnumber the stars. 

The Haunted Hauler will bring a select few to the House of 10,000 Cabins

Only the brave, or the truly foolish, venture inside the House of 10,000 Cabins. Each door within leads to the captain’s cabin of a different ship. Ships that couldn’t possibly be connected to the house. Ships sailing all the far reaches of the ocean. And it’s not just the ships currently at sea. It’s ships that have sunk. Ships that were blown out of the water and not a single board of them still remain. Ships that have yet to be built. Any pirate that tries to make too much sense of the place will find their mind slowly getting dragged to the depths.

Many enter the House of 10,000 Cabins thinking that if they find the right door they’ll be able to see their future. Or maybe speak to someone who’s long since passed away. But no one can navigate the building except for Madame Crossed Bones herself.

Which made it all the more concerning recently when pirates started hearing a rumor… that the fogs around the House of 10,000 Cabins had begun to lift and lanterns had been hung, leading the way for all passerby to the front doors… which were ominously open. And standing there, waiting to greet them was Madame Crossed Bones herself.

And she told all who arrived… that the time had finally come… to give a tour to all who dared enter.