Cameron Drake's Expedition (First Contact)

Expedition

First contact on Breaksky Island, which saw the Coitelan Alliance's Cameron Drake lose a significant portion of crew, but gain a hardy collection of treasures.

The first lands to reveal themselves were The Outer Reaches, the island chain on the northeast end of Breaksky Island. A collection of privateers licensed by the Coitelan Alliance, led by Captain Cameron Drake, made the first recorded landfall on the 16th of Harvest Moon, with the land still mostly covered in fog.   The first crew member ashore cut his foot on what he discovered to be a chunk of ruby the size of his fist. The next crew members discovered similar treasures not fifty yards from the high tide mark. When word got back to the ship, Captain Drake, elated, ordered an expedition formed to continue combing the still-foggy beach for other treasures.   What happened next would be a preview for all other instances of first contact on Breaksky Island.   The unaware explorers, as they shoved precious stones and metals into sacks and onto carts, failed to question the easy access to their loot, or the strange recurrence of vaguely limb-shaped stone housings in which they found the valuables. As such, when the clutch of Basilisks that called that particular spit of island home came upon them, nearly half their number turned instantly to stone.   To Captain Drake's credit, she had enough foresight to order a retreat at full speed with eyes bound as best as her crew could manage, ordering the crew abandon both their loot and their compatriots. As such, she retained enough manpower to set sail back to Freewater Bay, where she could both make official report of her findings and make a sizable sum of money from the contents of the sacks that made it off that first unfortunate beachhead.   The Coitelan Alliance, in turn, declared this a huge success, and in later years would use Captain Drake as a marketing tool to enlist further adventurers to explore the island.