Heartache Point

(1st Entry from The Journal of Markas Virnala)
 
It's been a tiring journey across the sea for the last few months but it has been made a little easier by my new travelling companions…. Very interesting people! When I left the Monastery I never expected the world to be so colourful and vibrant!
 
Two in particular I have started to develop a friendship with; Ekani, A large birdman who looks remarkably like a seagull, and Fraeser (pronounced Freezer… I have questioned him at length about this spelling and pronunciation but he seems adamant), a Turtle man! This new land will be a new adventure for the three of us so we have agreed to stick together, at least to begin with.
 
We arrived in what the locals call 'Old Town' and the three of us were pointed to a rundown bar/tavern…. Honestly, I'm not sure it could truly be called either. The place had a god awful smell and seemed to be being held up with its own grime. The cost of the journey here however took up most of the coin I had put together so we opted to stay here, at least until we make ourselves some money. It's been almost a week since we stayed here now and I'm sure my clothes still smell of the place….
 
It was here we stumbled our way into my first adventure!
 
The room we found ourselves in was full of the salty sailors, drowning their earning away, similar to those we sailed with on the way here. The proprietor of the place was an old retired sailor, by the name of Jedd. I don’t think I have ever seen someone so….. Well, decayed! He was missing most of his teeth, was doubled over with a curved spine to the point of almost being folded in half and seemed to be covered in the same grime that covered everything else here, yet the people there seemed to respect him (to a degree at least)
 
Of particular interest around the room where what turned out to be our fellow adventurers;
Baine, A towering Half-Orc weillding a massive sword and long black braids. A loud character but friendly enough, especially once he's had a few drinks in him.
Bogg, A halfling in a tatty cloak, travelling with Baine. The pair seem to know each other well and bounce off of each other a lot. He rather reminds me of Hugo from back in the Monastery….
Maturin, Another Half-Elf (honestly, I was relieved to see another Half-Elf so soon into this journey). He seems to have a history being a sailor of some sort.
Dóddil, A Dwarf with blue skin and a seemingly cold feel around him (Honestly, I thought he was seriously ill when I first saw him….)
 
The night wore on; a mix of drinking, shouting and stories. Stories of Lost ships, Mermaids, Giant sea turtles (apparently a distant cousin of Fraeser's by the name of Fridge), bloody ghosts and lost treasures…. I enjoyed the stories but some were clearly not true…. Ekani shared a drink with Baine that looked… questionable. I'm sure it was this drink that led to Baine violently throwing up outside while his smaller companion held his long braids out of the way (the pair really are inseparable).
 
The shenanigans aside, the night eventually led to what I had been looking for; Adventure!
'Seaweed' Stefan, a strange looking man with pale skin and 2x small horns interrupted a story Jedd was telling and shared his story of a lost treasure, a princess of air(?) who went missing and her lost love, hinting at ghosts, mystery and riches squirreled away in some forbidden place….
 
Needless to say we all were interested and when he offered us the opportunity to earn some money, we collectively agreed to sail with him for this 'forbidden' place, enticing another Halfling captain in the Bar (Nuvros) to take us there. And so we had our destination. An area of dead sea Stefan called Heartache Point.
 
We met in the morning at the old town docks, somewhat delayed by Fraeser trying to 'check-out' of our lodgings. We gathered together and Stefan showed us how he could help us during this trip. I thought he looked odd before. He pulled down part of his shirt and revealed a series of green marking covering his body. He asked us to hold hands and he began to do… something! All I noticed was the green markings over his body begin to shift and change, grow and shrink as a strange feeling took over us, almost like a choking at first. He had gifted us the ability to breath water!
 
We set off, Nuvros assigning us jobs to get the ship sailing. Dóddil, Bogg and myself managed to avoid the draft somehow so I spent most of my time over the few days at sea teaching Bogg how to swear in Elvish. We did however get the night watch quite often as a result.
 
Everything seemed to be going a bit slow until one night on watch. We generally had our 'routes' to patrol but stopped occasionally for a chat and a laugh. Shortly after one stop, I heard a noise from Dóddil and turned to see a ghostly figure, the same race as Stefan staring me in the eyes. Suddenly there was a rush as it flew straight at me. I could the thing try to invade my mind but I managed to fight it off, only for it to then vanish.
 
I turned to see everyone else on deck having a similar ordeal. Stefan and Bogg, managed to fight them off as well but we saw Nuvros and Dóddil jump overboard! The alarm was raised and the others came up from their bunks below deck. Another spirit appeared up on the crow's nest.
 
Stefan seemed to teleport up there with a splash of water around him and tried to fight it, while the others fired their spells and arrows up from the deck. Not being a ranged fighter kept myself ready for another attack on the deck. (those dancing lessons mum forced me to do as a child finally paying off, pivoting around on the deck!). Of all the steps taken to stop this spirit, the one that still strikes me most is Maturin suddenly stopping his attack and asking if the spirit wanted to play cards! To his credit, the thing did seem to be considering it, until Baine fired an arrow through its ghostly body.
 
We saw Stefan be possessed by the spirit on the crow's nest before he just leaped over board. There was still no sign of Dóddil and Nuvros. We waited a little while and when it seemed nothing was happening, a few of us jumped in to give chase, thanks to Stefan's water breathing. Bogg & Maturin opted to remain with ship but joined us a little later, when we didn’t return.
 
We swam through the murky water, only able to follow them by the occasional flashes of the spirits as they moved through the water, popping in and out of site. Fraeser was now clearly in his element, easily outpacing us in the water. We swam past large rocks and came to a series of wrecks, arranged in a semi-circle around a larger, older looking wreck. We followed the spirit into one of the closer wrecks and spotted our missing companions, as well as nearly a dozen of the spirits. We were surrounded.
 
As it turns out, the spirits didn’t want to hurt us but ask for our help. The one talking explained he had come to see seeking his brother but has wrecked here and could not leave until he had freed his brother. His brother was also a spirit, nearby, but was stuck here for some reason and he could not find him. Dóddil remembered Stefan's story and asked about the princess (Kilara? I can never remember) After some thought, the spirit remembered that this princess was a woman his brother was looking for. It seemed, the only way to help them was to go ahead with our plan anyway. Nuvros headed back to the ship, while the rest of us agreed to check out this wreck in the centre, the spirits seemed unable to reach themselves for some reason.
 
We swam over. Bogg and Maturin had caught up with us during our talk so we were all together again. Myself and Bogg opted go into the wreck and look around while the others scoped it the exterior. We worked our way through the decks and found a shut door. As I opened it, Bogg covering me with his bow, we saw a room with treasure chests and a Large sword & Shield.
 
Unfortunately, my memory stops here. From what I have been told, the spirit of the woman of the story appeared behind Bogg and let out an unearthly scream, assaulting our psyches. I had been rendered unconscious immediately and awoke a little later, having been revived by Ekani. I pushed myself off the ceiling of the treasure room and saw the others engaging the wraith.
 
It was a tough fight. Our attempts at driving it off seemed almost useless as the thing simply pulled itself back together again and again, all the while a terrible cold creeping into our bones as ice started to form in the water around us. Bogg was knocked out but I managed to get him stabilised before returning to the wraith. A flurry sword swipes, brown fire from Ekani, arrows and bolts, one with a playing card on it (Maturin, again!) and my own punches and swings of the staff and still the thing attacked us. We were in bad shape but finally, a breakthrough. With Baine and Maturin slicing at the spirit and Dóddil piercing holes in its form with his crossbow, it began to slow down. Ekani fire off another burst of fire towards it and as it shifted just in time out of his way, I saw my chance and brought my staff down on it as hard as I could. A terrible scream rang out as the thing finally dissipated, defeated.
 
Battered and tired, we searched the ship. Maturin went off to explore the rest of the ship while we gathered around the treasure room. Baine, holding Bogg to his chest wrapped in his cloak, tried to pull a fast one over us and keep everything for himself. Thankfully, he listened to Dóddil and agreed to split everything evenly still. Ekani looked like he was ready to fight Baine over it but I think all of us were too tired for that. Baine opted to keep the sword for himself, which makes sense given he seemed well suited to using it, meanwhile Fraeser took the shield. With them both on him now he looks like his entire shell is just shields!
 
We went back to look for the spirits but that had all gone, leaving a small box with some gold in it where we left them. We split this among us too. Dóddil spent some time looking among the other wrecks but returned near enough empty handed. It was only now we realised no-one had seen Stefan since we started making our way to the centre wreck. Bastard must have looted the remaining wrecks while we did the heavy lifting! He was long gone by the time we realised… I doubt we will see him again anytime soon.
 
And so we set off back home, to Port Ffirst, my first adventure in this new land coming to an end. We met with Nuvros and set sail back. Fraeser seems happy with his new shield, Maturin is wearing a necklace I'm sure he never had on the way here and Baine is over the moon with his new sword. During the first night on the way back, I'm sure I could hear him talking to it…. Maybe it's just me. He told us he has decided to call it Phil anyway.
 
We're a day away from Port now. I suppose we will go our own ways once back, but I'm happy the months getting here are seeming worthwhile and I'm sure I'll run into everyone again sometime. I have a little more money now so I can think about getting myself set up a bit better. I can't help but wonder what will come next.
 
[Scribbled at the bottom of the page]
I have yet to find out why Ekani's fire is brown… or why he has a tiny turtle skull for that matter! He seems to use it as a kind of focus but given we travelled here with Fraeser, the whole thing seems a bit morbid to me.