BOOKINGS - Episode 1, Part 2
Source: New York Public Library
2: Shell Collecting
Aboard Bethan’s Hand.
Grispin is a professional - I boarded and set up basic accommodations away from the crew, drawing little attention. With all the expedition particulars already set in advance, we barely made eye contact. Z6 is a new broker and new to me as well; this sort of smooth flow speaks well of them, and a reputation is all that brokers have of a career.
I’m back in storage as we head out towards the Shielded Sea. The ship is a trade vessel, so not really meant to be taking people on journeys, let alone off-book. The voyage into the Shielded Seas and to the lost isles will take days, but it’s still the most economical and structured.
Normally a transport ship drops off for a prescribed period (consistent with the official vessel business and timeline), and then returns to the drop point for pickup. It will stay for a set number of days in case the trip takes longer than planned. Those extra days can be expensive to the financiers, so unless I plan on setting up a trading post on a forgotten island overrun with unknown dangers, time management is critical.
I have one piece of fortune though, from the Miniature City expedition: a merchant scroll detailing a one-use teleportation sorcery. I hesitate to burn it, but there is much ground to cover on this journey, and many unknowns. I increased my fees 8% for using the scroll, and figured it would be a wash in the books. I had it assessed by a Wizard, and he promised it would work. He had better be right.
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The night was uneventful; being at sea has gotten easier in the past few expeditions, and I’m not able to sleep calmly and worry less. Now on the first full day of the journey, reviewing the target. Target is a staff, forged deep under the sea and supposedly imbued with a power to command the tides and aquatic life.
I’ve only seen a few targets before the most recent city-in-miniature expedition, but this is my favorite part of the journey - analyzing this fantastical artifact that someone out there has been convinced carries great power, yet power forgotten for generations by the and i always look to figure out how they do the amazing things that they supposedly do. This one hasn’t revealed its secrets yet so i’m excited to get hands on it, if but temporarily.
The crew of the ship is a mixed bunch - some have never taken a charge like me on a voyage, and I absolutely get strange looks when I come up. I have only taken a few vessels, and this is the first time I have been aboard the Bethan’s Hand. I suppose it gets easier with experience, and with more repetitions with the ships known to harbor explorers. Hopefully they eventually warm to me; it’s not a short trip to the lost isles.
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Day three at sea and enough people have seen me to take it more for granted. I can walk above board without questions, and without a word from the Captain. Usually on these trips, a word from the captain is the first sign you are on very thin ice.
Our drop point is still probably a week away.
There are threats out here on the water, but also opportunity - they harvest things, capture food, and prep supplies and spells for the next phase. While the official ship business is trade (buying and selling goods from different islands around Otaria and Terisiare (even as far north as Shiv), the cargo and crew can still bring in good money from preserved sea fare, blubber and shells. Most on the boat are trades workers used to this work day-to-day, working to catch game for money back at shore while Grispin manages the trade agenda.
Also spending more time with my plan to recon our mystery sea staff. Description of the staff is covered in seaweed, shells, but it is also heavily compressed wood - likely underwater for a great age, and potentially made in deep sea. Merfolk? Their nobles and deities could explain the reputed tidal influence abilities. They aren’t supposed to be heavily populating the seas around the lost isles anymore, though i haven’t heard any explanation as to why.
Going to help the crew harvest nets. Signing off
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We have an issue. Something very wrong in these waters.
Fishing in the open sea, a few days out from the drop point, crew started talking about something wrong in the water. Temperatures running too cold. The fishing yield was also changing. Fish growing larger, stranger color and patterns. The whole crew took on an even quieter tone than I’m used to from them. Then we pulled up the fishing nets.
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Waters are getting worse.
Crew now very concerned, and afraid to talk to me. I think they see me as a stranger, and maybe responsible for the thing in the nets.
Something inexplicable was in there. We had the full crew pulling but the net still came up slowly, having caught something larger or maybe with a great fight in it. We pulled for what felt like twice as long as normal, and the nets shook every moment with a great distress. Even tore some threads.
A disembodied crab claw. Odd for open sea but it was the size that brought us to a dead stop. It was huge - the size of a dolphin or small whale. We pulled it up thinking it was part of a ship wreckage.
Inspecting. The thing was hollowed out - all meat consumed, or we’d never be able to lift it up. Hundreds of cuts and gouges, some fresh, some old. Also, somehow, touch revealed characters scorched on the chitin?
What could burn something underwater?
A deep cerulean blue. This creature saw incredible violence.
Claw dragged along the ship deck and created a huge gouge in the wood, so the claws were unnaturally sharp.
The strangest thing - the claw was decorated - ringed with ropes, and on those ropes: shells, carved with designs. Repeating glyphs, patterned in colors, and in some cases even branded on the claw chitin itself.
Maybe this creature was a holy figure to some local community of the isles, and it washed out to sea? I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this. It worries me to see that the entire crew, despite their experience, feels the same fear.
There’s something down there, and no one on the deck recognizes the real potential of this discovery. Folks are spooked, and superstition leads them to look at me as an interloper, a vector of change who must thusly be responsible for whatever curse is upon us now.
I have to rethink the potential origins of the staff.
I am trying to smooth the seas for a bit for our voyage to be a calm one right now, even though it expends resources. Should be easy enough to replenish my stores out here on open water, so spells are fueled when I arrive. But whatever we see here, there is a sea beneath us teeming with strange new life. I can’t ignore this in regards to the flood staff. If I have to venture into waters around the island, I might face one of these monsters in full form! I don’t know that I’m ready for it. Can’t turn back now, but this is not something they included in the brief. I am not sure this is even a known change in the island’s biome.
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Two days from drop point. They have been finding more of these strange shells and parts below. It’s almost as though these are remnants of some military field of battle. I wish i wasn’t getting left out in the open seas on my own under these circumstances. Grispin never struck me as suspicious, but they are silent on the whole topic. Not even acknowledging what’s happening.
Prepping my final kit for drop down. Now i have to ready some offensive tools i did not anticipate needing this early
I have my arrival landmarks, where i should be landing, and my contact - Brell. Brell is one of few veterans of this business, who recently set up base on the island. Heard of them but never met them. Hope they are competent. Honestly, my contacts and network told me only a truly mad explorer would choose to spend more time on the lost isles than necessary. We’ll see.
Signing off.
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Almost at the isle now; departed the Bethans hand on a rowboat, bound for the island.
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One of the creatures came upon me while rowing.
I touched down at sea and had been rowing by moonlight for 4 hours when it came upon the boat. Almost tipped the boat but i stabilized it. It came up on the boat slathering and lunging. It took a psionic blast to push it out of the boat, then I had to use the first Aeolipile on it. Blew its arm clean off and it ran. I still have the arm in the boat.
Boat damaged but holding water. I need to get off the sea
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Shouldn’t be more than an hour to reach land now. I can see it under the waking sun. I spent a good bit of mana smoothing a path and avoiding choppy water, but there’s something else. It’s some kind of sound. A ringing. Not above, not on the water. It’s inside. Below.
That staff. Something strange is in this place, down by the forgotten island.
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TO BE CONTINUED …