Maiden Voyage: Part 2

AKA long live captain Jonas Abraham

As the crew trudged their way back towards the Rebecca along the dunes of the beach, on the northern coast of Torath-Ka, loaded down with the fruits of their encounter, an anxious and foreboding feeling crept up on them. Their intuition proved correct as they rounded a bend and crested a dune to be greeted by the image of their ship in the distance, burned to the waterline. As they approached further, they realized there was no sign of life left, not even bodies. Pools of blood slowly diffused into the sand, and the crates of supplies and provisions unloaded from the Rebecca by the missing crew were nowhere to be found.

It seemed to the group of 4 that something terrible had taken their mates away, along with the provisions. They knew not where to begin the search, as they knew not of the force which had caused the vanishing to occur, until Aurora looked closely at the sand leading away from the burned hulk towards the thick jungle less than 100 feet away. She observed not only drag marks defined in the grain, but also indentations resembling the footprints of some large bipedal creatures. Concluding immediately that their mates and their life support had been captured by the savage Ugaks (Red Men) native to this continent, Aurora, Spool, and Snips set off into the dense foliage, leaving Jean to search through the wreckage of their boat, and salvage useful parts.

The trek through the jungle was tough for everyone. Aurora had an especially difficult time, and slowed the pace of the party for the journey. The path taken by the Ugaks was difficult to follow through the dense foliage and wild growth of this savage landscape, but the heroes stayed true to their course, and avoided fatal deviation. After an hour and a half of trekking through this sticky forest, Spool stopped the party. He had heard a chanting of some sort, a language and tone that was unfamiliar and unsettling. They decided to approach cautiously, to obtain a better view of what they assumed were the captors.

Their suspicions were correct, as they parted the thick green vegetation to look out onto a clearing, housing a large stone edifice. The structure was hollow, containing a large pool of red tar-like liquid which bubbled and oozed in a sinister manner. At the top of the pool, on a raised dais, sat a 20’ tall stone statue of a Giant Monkape, along with 6 of the crew (including Captain Jonas Abraham), and 6 chanting Ugaks. The red man who led the chanting looked to be the shaman of this tribe from his garb and headdress. The party retreated back into cover to formulate a plan, but as they spun ideas and possible methods of saving their comrades, the chanting grew ever louder: more forceful and powerful. They eventually decided on a silent attack plan as their best bet. Aurora flanked the group from the left, sneaking through the jungle to a point where she could have a clear shot at the Ugaks. Spool followed, prepared to run away and cause a distraction for Aurora when they were noticed. Snips went the other way around, circumnavigating the clearing until he was behind the dais. Once everyone was in position, Aurora took the shot, and hit one of the Ugaks, halting the incantation. The shaman, realizing they were under attack, began the process of reanimating the great beast of this ritual site by kicking Captain Abraham into the blood pool. He was dead within moments after submersion.

A battle ensued between the Ugaks and the heroes, in which wounds were both incurred and dealt by each side. The fight grew much more perilous for the party when the shaman had completed his ritual, and the Giant Monkape of this blood pool was animated, turned flesh from stone. While Snips freed the captured crew from their bounds, Aurora and Spool meet the red men head on, fighting tooth and nail. Finally, after each last Ugak was killed, the only target left was the 20’ tall monstrosity who had already killed one crew member, and mortally wounded another. The heroes turned their full attention to it, and gave it all they had. Bullets seemed ineffective, so of course Aurora the tinkerer designed a more powerful weapon on the fly. Loading her gun with 4 shots worth of powder, stuffing it with rags, and anything plug she could find, she made a truly remarkable improvised shrapnel bomb. She then set it so that it would fire, and therefore explode, on impact. With great care, Aurora launched her creation at the Monkape, and waited as it arced towards the beast. Detonating upon contact with its left arm, the gun exploded, sending chunks of metal deep into the ape. Her only weapon previously used as an IED, Aurora scooped up a spear dropped by a fallen red man, and proceed to prod and thrust into the beast for the remainder of the encountered, injuring and annoying it.

Spool took a different approach to this battle with the beast, preferring to stay close as can be, rather than at spears length. Leaping onto the back of the Monkape, Spool held on for dear life, resisting the beasts attempt to buck his undesired rider. He stabbed at whatever he could with his knife, bloodying the ape, and draining it of its fight.

Snips used his snipping pincers to castrate the monster, causing blood loss and anger. Alternating between shots with his blunderbuss and reloading, he snipped at the beasts lower regions, like only a tiny crab man could do. He finally felled the beast by cutting both of his Achilles tendons at once.

Once the beast had been defeated, its body slowly dissolved into black energy that dissipated into the jungle. The pools surface was unperturbed, and the statue did not reappear. One of the rescued crew members: Mongrel, a Kehana, was bleeding out and would die if not treated immediately. Spool, a Doreen, refused to save a Kehana, and it was left to someone else much less experienced in the medical arts to tend to him. Senor Miguel Figuroa, a member of the rescued crew, insisted that someone help his dying crewmate, and Aurora answered his call. Miraculously, she was able to save him, through the application of constant pressure and other treatments she had seen attempted before.

The crew then gathered up the provisions stolen by the now dead Ugaks, and followed the way they came from the remains of the Rebecca. It took 2 hours, but they made it, with sufficient supplies and provisions to last the now reduced crew of 8 for at least 7 days, enough to give them a fighting chance.

Gathering lumber from the wreck of the Rebecca, as well as an old sail to use for the skiff, they prepared to make the trek down the beach. It was about a 3 mile walk, and by the time they arrived at the site of the Yellowback encounter and the beached skiff, the sun was setting. They made camp on the sandy shores, looking back and forth between the open sea before them, and the dense, wild jungle behind. The serene lapping of the sea against the old skiff was all that was heard as they took a moment of silence for their fallen captain and comrades. Figuroa, who had been a friend of Captain Abraham for over 7 years prompted a circle of eulogies for those lost. Their mission had gone sour, but their adventure had just begun.

In the middle of the night Aurora raised herself from her rest, and swam into the ocean, remembering the times she used to watch the captain leap from the deck of the Rebecca to bathe in the salt sea while she watched from the crows nest. She had lost someone dear that day, and would not easily forget him.

The next morning the crew were roused by the sun as it breached the horizon, like a fist punching through the nighttime cool. They set to working immediately, Spool staying as far away as possible from Mongrel, who had by now learned of his refusal to save him from death. Aurora led the repairs, and in a matter of hours, it was complete. The skiff looked seaworthy, and while it was not a permanent fix, it would do. Taking a small vial of golden paint salvaged from the wreckage of the Rebecca the crew give this ship new life as they wrote its name on the hull: The Captain’s Mistress, in honor of Jonas.

Elections took place for the new captain, and while Snips was favored for a while, the title ultimately went to the reluctant Senor Miguel Figuroa, and grizzled veteran of the seas. The ship was loaded, and a course was charted for the Kieran Empire, their original destination, to find fortune, and possibly a new purpose.

After an hour or two of sailing Spool cried out from the prow, he had seen something far ahead of them in the water, what looked like a wreckage of some sort. Fearing whatever force caused this destruction, the crew steered the ship cautiously towards the debris field. What they saw as the got closer was a curious sight indeed. A scurillian, clinging to a broken mast, waving at the boat for help. Rushing to save this floundering crab man, they pulled the skiff up next to him, and hoisted him aboard. He carried measurement supplies, lots of scales and charts, pens and inks. He walked with a stick covered with incremental dashes. As he clambered aboard he introduced himself as Equais, and lauched into a speech of sorts:

“Thanks. I think. Your craft might be less safe than that debris I was floating on. One of those big sharks the ugaks summon hit us. Ripped the hull right out of the Lala’s Pride and sent her to the bottom. The men went down with her. It tried to take a bite out of me too but spit me out. Too tough, I guess.”

He gave a half-hearted smile, but no more, a sign of his inherent grumpiness. Once they had gotten back underway, and Equais had settled in, the crew questioned him about the wreckage. He responded with another speech:

“I used to be a super for the Spanish Guild. I got to travel a lot. We scurillians like to measure things, y’know. Facts and figures. That’s us. So everywhere we went, I began measuring the depth of the water. Over the course of a few months, I noticed the water level had risen nearly six inches! Numbers don’t lie, so I cashed out my retirement plan, hired a boat, and started cruising around the isles measuring the water depth. I’m sorry to report that Caribdus is still drowning. My best guess is that the Free Towns as we know them will disappear in three years. Within a decade, the entire world will be underwater and all surface-life will cease. You can imagine the wars that will be fought over the last few islands in the meantime as well. If you’ve got it in your heart to perform some noble quest to stop it, I’m afraid I can’t help you. I don’t know why this is happening or how to stop it. My best guess is that our assumption that the Sea Hags’ flood was over was wrong. Perhaps it has just slowed to a steady drip. I had thought about asking Tressa the Red about this matter, but I have no means of navigating the Gullet, and am not sure she’ll want to share anything she knows anyway. You know how those damnable mages are with all their secrets and shenanigans.”

Shocked and concerned by this news the crew took it all in. It made sense and it didn’t look like Equais was a jokester of any sort. But specific parts of his speech interested them. Intrigued by Tressa, the last known archmage, and the aforementioned deadly “Gullet”, the characters questioned this scholar further. They were interested in how they could stop this flood, as it seemed like each of them had just received a death sentence to be delivered 10 years down the road. Fortunately Equias was also interested in staying alive, so he offered the heros another morsel of knowledge. He explained to them that the Gullet was a part of The Teeth, the magical fortress where Tressa lives:

“I’ve actually been to the Teeth once. Tressa hired a ship to bring her some carroway fruit from Maroa and I was fortunate enough to be on board. I don’t know how much you know about the Teeth, so before you get the idea to go there you’d best be warned. The Teeth are a circle of rocks—mountains, really—that surround a beautiful sunken lagoon. Don’t ask me how that’s possible— magic, I’m sure. In the center is a massive geyser of water—more magic—and atop that is a floating island where Tressa lives. To get inside the Teeth you have to sail down the Gullet, a deadly rapid that has claimed many vessels. You’ll need a firm crew and perhaps a little enchanted help to survive that ride.”

So with this new information, the heroes decided that visiting this red archmage would be a task in their future, but it would not be done with this ramshackle vessel, or this injured and piecemeal crew. With new purpose and wonder in their hearts, they set their sails toward the east, and resumed their course across the ever-rising sea, to the last remaining state of this drowning world: The Empire of Kiera.