The Lady Luck

The Lady Luck is the cursed ghost ship belonging to Captain James Gant, later known as Laughing Jack.

History
James Gant crewed The Lady Luck long before the Shadow Lord's second invasion of Deltora. He sailed The Lady Luck up and down the River Tor, using her as a gambling ship to any who wished to try their luck.

Arrival at Bone Point
Sometime before the invasion, the Shadow Lord commanded Gant to eliminate the Bone Point Lighthouse. He attempted to achieve this by conning the keeper of the light, Red Han, into substantial debt and then kidnapping his daughter, Verity. Neither of them would yield, however, so Gant tied Verity to the ship's figurehead so Red Han could watch his daughter slowly die every day the the light remained in operation.

To Gant's dismay, and that of his crew, Red Han refused to yield, and Verity was kept alive by the seabirds. The winds soon vanished after they took her aboard, trapping the ship in place. Gant could not abandon his task and forced his crew to remain.

Eventually the crew decided to free Verity in hopes of lifting this curse. Gant stopped them before they could and explained they were no longer needed at Bone Point. By now the Belt of Deltora had been destroyed, so the ship could return to the Tor. He commanded his crew to the oars, but they refused, since too many of their slaves had drowned while rowing. Gant was finally able to convince them by offering all the gold he possessed. He said that if he took even a single piece, he would take to the oars himself. One crewman — the first mate, Coffin — spoke against Gant's promises, and was killed by the others who agreed to the terms. Verity warned the crew members that their promises would damn them. Unbeknownst to the crew, Laughing Jack planned to have them work at the oars for eternity.

Shortly after, Verity and Gant were on the deck alone. Verity taunted him about the deal he has made, which prompted Gant to stab her in the heart. This sent the sea into an uproar; waves smashed against the ship and drowned the helpless crew. Verity herself was turned into a wooden figurehead. Only Gant survived, thanks to his master, and became the nomad Laughing Jack.

Isle of the Dead
Lief and Barda arrived on the ship after the Shadow Lord sent a storm upon them. They explored the ship and became trapped in the game room. To escape, Lief borrowed a coin to play a game of Cage-the-Beetles. He won and received two coins as a prize. However, the door would not open even when the coin was repaid, due to the clause about paying back three times what you owed.

At this point Lief and Barda discovered the painting left by Verity. While locating the seven errors on it, the two learned of the gruesome history of the ship. During this time, the ship began to move, as the bodies of the drowned crew members were forced to continue to pull the oars until new replacements could be found. They attempted to attack Lief and Barda, but they had discovered the final error in the painting and escaped into the sea. The two of them washed up in the Dreaming Dunes, and learned from Jasmine that they had been missing for a week. Lief later spotted The Lady Luck docked outside Ava's shop on the Finger. Barda believed that the ship was tracking them through the coin Lief kept, and told him to throw it away. Jasmine took the coin instead, since she owed no debt to the ship, and hid it with the money given to them by the Dread Gnomes. In actuality, the ship was following Laughing Jack, who was posing as Ava at the time.

Jasmine later tricked Jack into taking the extra coin. Since he had broken his vow not to take a single piece of gold from the ship, he was transported aboard and dragged below deck by the crew. The figurehead of Verity then vanished from the ship as it sank beneath the sea.

Crewmembers
Besides their captain, Jack, the ship had a large crew of undead humans. The only named crew members were Coffin, Beef and Scrawn.

Appearance
The Lady Luck has several masts, numbering six in total.

Games room
The main room aboard The Lady Luck was its famous games room. It was well furnished with all manner of game tables, and a red carpeted floor. The warmth in the room was greater than anywhere else on the ship, and someone who had been soaked by rain would dry up in a matter of minutes. There was a spell on the room that made it seem to stretch on forever. In the centre of the room was a large casket of gold coins. They were for anyone who did not have enough money to play at the tables. A person would simply take a coin, and then pay it back before they left. The gold would often cling to people's hands to tempt them into borrowing too much. If unable to pay, they worked off their debts by pulling the oars. This fate befell all who borrowed from The Lady Luck, as the small text that describes the terms of payment states you must repay three coins for every one you take. After Verity's death, a painting was placed on the far wall with seven mistakes. Should a person be able to solve them all, the door would open for them to escape, regardless of any debts to be repaid.

Most of the games required multiple players, but there were a few one player games. Jack's Beetles was the only one shown in the series.