Sit back and let me regale you with a tale of nautical intigue, murder, curses and escapes!
It was early winter when my father asked me if I could use a little extra work before settling in for the season. I laughed saying that I had already greased and packed my instruments, stocked the wine and even found Churchill a companion for the cold nights. He laughed and asked me what I had in mind to keep myself company?
Before I could answer he handed me a letter from the (navigator’s) guild assigning me to the brig Tempest. I’d seen her before; she was an elegant, fast vessel with good accommodations for her size and I was intrigued by the chance to go aboard her. The charter was only passengers and the guild had negotiated an enormous fee for my services which should have told me there was something more to this than a simple last run ahead of the winter storms.
The letter instructed me to report in two days, leaving me little time to make arrangements for my things while I was away or prepare my instruments. Father said he’d see to my things and said that the ship had its own tools aboard; its navigator had passed away with no heir so I could use them. Not knowing the man or the condition of his tools I prepared my own equipment anyway. In hindsight that was a terrible idea.
When I arrived at the vessel, the sailing master told me that I was late and threatened to cancel my contract in favor of another sailor, a fellow I knew to be less than a gentleman, and even less of a sailor. I turned to leave wishing them well on their way to the bottom. Then the captain appeared. He was a classic martinet, a former military sailor who was used to flogging and keelhauling unruly crewmen. He ordered me to stand fast and one of his crew blocked the gangway. He calmed himself and invited me to his cabin and offered twenty crowns apologizing for his mate’s demeanor.
He told me of the charter and handed me the chart, it was bloodied, holed and had been singed. It was old, fragile and showed an alien sea full of tiny islands marked in ancient dialects and more recent translations sloppily added to it. He told me that his passengers were professional explorers, nobles of great influence and power from a northern country, Veluna I believe. They were seeking a discarded and forgotten treasure lost during the great migration – washed ashore in the South Seas. He swore me to secrecy and I promised to keep the map secret and safe in my quarters.
I had heard many stories, ghost ships, phantoms and sea monsters and thought there had to be some truth to at least some of them. I weighed that against the potential rewards…I foolishly perhaps, agreed to sail. It would be twenty seven days to the first landfall. The hold was fitted out with enough provisions for many times that duration and extra room had been allotted to the crew and passengers; that promised to make the trip a relatively pleasant one. According to the plan, we would be home near the end of winter, and enjoy tropical temperatures most of the time. Once we cleared the 25th latitude and its famous storms.
I inspected my quarters and settled in. the previous navigators tools were badly damaged which unnerved me a bit. I then inspected the ship, from her ballast on up. She had been recently refitted and was in superb condition, this put me at ease again. Churchill settled in, ah he’s my longtime companion there in the window, and the next morning we set sail. I met one of the noble passengers who were traveling under pseudonyms. I knew him to be a wizard named Imrahil, I had met him at an event in Bar Harbor once. He was a student wizard as I was; only he was much more advanced. We talked at length about the map which was his apparently but he did not seem to remember me.
We hit a terrible storm at the 25th and it sickened even the saltiest of the crew, confining all but myself, the sailing master and Imrahil to quarters. When we got through the storm we came upon a smaller vessel that had not been so lucky. It had been badly damaged and it was drifting lifelessly. We sent out a lifeboat and three men to investigate her. She was in bad shape and sinking it turns out. The three men who went aboard her returned after an hour with as much of her remaining valuables as they could carry.
The crew vociferously lobbied the captain to take her in tow as a prize for the salvage reward, a share of which is easily two years salary for any sailor, but he refused saying that he could not tow it, or spare crew to operate her and Tempest back across the line into safe harbor. Nor could he assure he could save her from sinking even with every hand put to it.
We sailed away and watched her go down. I can’t remember her name now, but her image haunts me sinking over the horizon. I wonder now if she was abandoned or if our men found the crew injured or incapacitated and robbed them.
Well soon enough we had more misfortune, a passenger had gone over in the night. I was on watch then and was alert as always. I have no recollection of how it happened but I.
Days later the captain had decided to put the crew to work to quell rumors of a curse. He pushed them so hard that they finally mutinied. They threw him over board, murdered the 1st mate and sailing master, letting only myself and the quartermaster, a fellow named Gaston live. They killed two of the passengers who were on deck at the time and resisted then roused the two others sleeping below and locked them in the hold.
I resorted to a spell to save me and the other navigator, I convinced the leader of the uprising the carpenter William Bramble to let us live, and he agreed to do so if I could best him in a favorite game of chance, a friendly wager he said. Ordinarily there are only two sides in a mutiny, thanks to the charm person spell, I had found another. And knowing full well how to cheat at cards, I did so to the best of my ability I even won a second hand where I wagered for the longboat to take me towards home.
I offered to play for the prisoners and Gaston’s release but the pirates laughed saying that those passengers were worth more than the ship! Gaston chastised me for abandoning the passengers to the pirates and I assured him he was the fool for worrying about them that he should come with me, the passengers were more than just wealthy explorers…Gaston, a brave and honorable man would not hear of it.
As I sailed in the tiny long boat, almost certainly to my death, I watched a fire erupt aboard the brig. It seemed that the young wizard was beginning his escape. I could not catch the brig to help or learn more owing to the wind…
A few days later I made landfall south of here on the eastern side of the peninsula away from Gyrax. I sold the launch for a pittance and ventured inland with Churchill to contemplate my next adventure happy to have missed the worst of the winter at sea. I’ve been here ever since.
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