Jié Zuò

Description
Jie Zuo was a ship built by the Cormyrean engineer Ivar Devorast for the Shou merchant Ran Ai Yu. It was a unique vessel that was built with ceramic tiles on its hull.

History
Ran Ai Yu was a Shou merchant who travelled by sea across Toril with her crew. She arrived in the Lake of Steam, where her ship sunk in 1362 DR. She and her crew survived the sinking and had to stay in the city of Innarlith. She found Ivar Devorast, a Corymyrean engineer with ship-building experience and asked him to build her a new ship. Devorast took on the project and created a unique vessel never seen before in Toril which had ceramic tiles on its hull.

The clandestine Red Wizard Marek Rymüt offered to use magical means to transport her and her crew back to Shou Lung but she refused the offer because she distrusted magical means of transportation and preferred to sail the entire way. A few days later Marek transported two giant demonic fish to Innarlith harbour to attack the boat in drydock. Ran Ai Yu and some others succeeded in killing the demonic fish.

Less than four months later, her ship was ready and she departed Innarlith. She named the ship 'Jie Zuo' which meant 'masterpiece' in the Shou language.

Devorast gave a copy of the ship's plan to Ran Ai Yu and destroyed his own copy of the plan. He had no intention of making more of these ships no matter how much money was offered to him. This proved to be true when years later, Ran Ai Yu returned to Innarlith with another Shou merchant accompanying her who wanted to buy his own ceramic tile vessel and Devorast refused to make another one.

Appendix
Behind the scenes: 杰作 (jie zuo) in Chinese means 'masterpiece'

Appearances

 * Whisper of Waves