The Ship & The Kraken (Discord Archive)

Viridian rows the dinghy with tireless abandon, and a look of set determination and sheer resolve on his face as the small boat speeds across the open sea by the power of his incomparably strong arms. Sweat beads and drips from his sleek grey muscles and mixes with the sea spray as it drops to the floor. Without a single word spoken to his companions, Viridian rows on with no intention of hesitating even a single stroke until they reach land. Though the sea is now calm after the unnatural weather brought on with the kraken, there is a tumultuous storm born of dread and fear raging inside the stoic barbarian's heart. A primal fear that wells up from deep inside and arrives in full force when one is faced with the certainty of their end looming before them. It is this very storm that fuels his strength to row without stop until his feet are back on the solid ground he had always taken for granted.
 
Unbeknownst to his companions, Viridian’s journey from his childhood homelands up til their meeting in Greyhawk or Diamond Lake had never taken him near any major bodies of water. Until this unnatural shift in their reality, Viridian had never even seen any amount of water larger than Diamond Lake itself. He had never been on a ship – never traversed a waterway aside from natural or manmade bridges that span small streams or rivers. Throughout their sea voyage over the past few days, Viridian never once left the spot he initially found aboard the ship. With one arm never letting go of the rigging at hand, Viridian even slept in that very spot, curled up among the crates and barrels, for fear of getting too close to the edge and falling into the sea below. Among other secrets held within the mighty warrior, one was especially pertinent now – Viridian could not swim. He never had the reason or chance to learn. Maybe the lack of desire to bother even learning to swim came from growing up among a nomadic desert tribe that never saw large bodies of water. Maybe it was written deep in the very fibers of his Dao heritage, to shy away from water and be more at home among the earth itself. Whatever the reason, the reality of his predicament was all too clear now, trapped aboard a ship sailing the vast sea with no land in sight. He had absolutely no intention of moving from his spot aboard the vessel until they reached their destination.
 
When the huge tentacles came out of the raging waters all around their ship, Viridian knew in his heart that this would be his end. The normally fearless and reckless barbarian that would predictably leap into a fray before thinking was now frozen in place aboard the besieged ship as the chaos of events unfurled. Not frozen with fear of the huge beast attacking them, but rather the endless expanse of water below him. While the havoc around him carried out, he closed his eyes and accepted his inevitable fate – to helplessly sink into the waters below and die an insignificant death in a watery grave. In those fleeting moments, he thought of his companions. Of Kit, who he had come to endear more than he thought possible. She was like a sister to him – a hot sister – who he would fight for and protect with his very life if needed. Never having one, he didn’t know if that’s how siblings were supposed to be, but it felt right to him. He thought of Doc, his brother in both beard and battle, who he also cherished as he never would have imagined possible. The short, stout and grumpy dwarf felt like a brother more than a traveling companion. Maybe this was what it’s like to have a family. He felt cheated that he had only now come to feel this kind of bond with someone, just as he was about to die. He thought of Lhoris and how he was beginning to respect and maybe even admire him somewhat. Though he was still an elf, he continued to impress Viridian with both his wisdom and prowess in battle.
 
And Arman. The scrappy little mage was also growing on him despite his distaste and distrust of magicians. He’d been a true friend and dependable ally when things got rough, which was more than he could say for most in his past. Maybe now actually was a good time to die, having come to respect those two. He thought of the owlbear as well. Of all the missed moments he could have shared with the beast, and how he’ll never get the chance to raise the thing he felt a parental affection for.
 
As these thoughts swirled in his head, he was shaken back into reality when one of the huge tentacles smashed into him, carrying him into the cargo hold below. Igniting a solely instinctual reaction from deep within his primal brain, snapping him out of any sense of rational thought that had previously consumed him. It was unarguably the very beast trying to kill him that would in the end save him. Without the crippling shackles of fear or caution, Viridian was now free to fully follow his primal, animal instincts. Hacking and slashing his way towards the front of the ship and his companions, his only rational thought was to get them off the doomed vessel and to the (hopeful) safety of the smaller, untouched ship below them.
 
At one point, Viridian did recall being thrown from the grasp of a tentacle and into the raging sea below. Were it not for the vast amount of the ruined ship’s debris between he and the lifeboat with his companions, Viridian would have surly sank into the black depths below. Through the few coherent thoughts between his primal instincts, he vaguely remembered clambering his way over the floating remnants towards the little boat. It seemed a few times as if the very ropes floating around him tried to pull him under to his death, but he was somehow able to loose himself from their twining grasp and pull himself up aboard the small dinghy.