Abandoned cities have lots of strange animals

General Summary

Once Cap and everyone else was on board, including a new passenger that used to be a werewolf. He is rather lacking in appropriate clothing, but we grabbed some extra clothes from some sailors. He at least has a shirt on now. Where was I? Oh yes, we sailed through the portal.

GIANT SEA TURTLES

I think we had maybe a minute before our ship was attacked by a giant sea turtle. Giant does not begin to describe it. The creature was probably close to the size of our ship, and she rammed us. The side of the ship stove in and we took on water. “Start baling water,” Cap called, “Steer towards shore!” The helmsman held the wheel steady and we all wished our way to shore, and that is when the turtle climbed the side of the ship and knocked our helmsman and someone else off the ship. “Creator grant me lightning,” Cap roared. A storm gathered over our heads and a bolt of lightning struck the turtle. It sank back into the water, and the ship lurched again. I tried to confuse the monster, but it shook its head and swam towards the ship again. “Curse you to the Dark One,” I swore. “It’s coming back.” Cap threw another bolt of lightning as the creature surged up the side, and it grabbed our monk twin as the man screamed in pain. Milli shot the creature with arrows and it let go of the poor man in surprise. His arm hung at his side broke into strange angles. “That’s it,” I cried, and called out commandingly pointing at the water, “Maelstrom!” A whirlpool appeared behind the turtle pulling the animal into it. “Steer us away!” I called back, “It’s caught in a whirlpool and we should be able to get away.” “Dimitri!” Cap called at the injured monk, “Steer the ship. Lightning!” Another bolt tore through the sky hitting the turtle. The monk staggered over to the wheel and tried to steer around the whirlpool. “Captain,” his clipped, carefully not panicked voice called over the noise. “I can’t get it away from the whirlpool.” “What kind of sailor are you?” Cap roared shouldering the man aside, “Get below decks and help there.” Dimitri blinked blearily at us and stumbled downstairs. “This damnable water is pulling me in, Addie can you stop it?” “I don’t know! It wasn’t supposed to catch the ship!” I called back. “I’ve got an idea!” I jumped off the stairs and stumbled trying to climb below and shore up the side. “Cap!” Milli cried, “It’s coming back!” She put two more arrows between its eyes, but it slowly struggled out of the whirlpool holding it. “I can’t shoot him from here,” Cap said. “I can steer or I can summon the lightning.” He struggled briefly with himself and ran to the side of the boat, throwing another lightning bolt down at the turtle. CRACK I looked over and watched in horror as the sides of the ship tore apart from each other and we were left with two half ships filling rapidly with water. “Abandon ship!” Cap cried loudly. Sailors swarmed from below decks and we all clambered into the rowboats. I took a moment concentrating and changed my maelstrom to a tidal wave, lifting us off the sinking ship and away from the turtle.

SAFETY?

We rowed for all we could to shore, and for the start, I helped push us to shore until I lost the concentration to control the water. Ahead of us lay a large city with a well-developed harbor. On either side stood towers with a gate of chains connecting them. “Addie, can you shift and get into that tower?” Cap asked. I thought of all the ways I would get shot approaching an unknown tower and shook my head, “Too many risks Cap. They’d shoot me before I said two words. It’s safer to land next to the city.” “Okay, then to the beach it is.” The beach we landed on was not welcoming. It was not the sand and sea I was used to seeing, but black volcanic rocks covering the ground. We carefully pulled our ships up out of the water and looked over the land. “This is a pretty start,” I muttered. “Let me see your arm,” Milli said to our communication twin, I really should learn his name. He tried to hold his arm up but screamed in pain as he did. “Reformacione,” and slowly the arm rebuilt itself as the bones knit together. Milli sagged with the energy expenditure struggling to catch her breath again. “Come here,” and Cap pulled the former werewolf over and said, “Restiture,” and he waited, but nothing happened. “Strange,” he muttered, “It feels like something is blocking the spell.” “Let’s camp here for the night,” I suggest, “And then hike over towards the city tomorrow.” We tipped the two skiffs upside down to create a crude shelter and huddled together for warmth. I thanked the Creator the next morning for the calm night we experienced, all I saw during my turn on watch were some wolves on the horizon. “Everyone grab a side of the boat,” Cap said, and we carried one of the ridiculously heavy boats across the land to the nearest river. After about an hour of swearing, sweating, and stumbling over rough ground we reached it. “You stay here and guard the boats. Keep an eye out for the pirate.”

CROCILLIONS

We rowed our way slowly down the river, when our boat was hit by something from the side, it rocked and our former werewolf companion shouted, “Water clouds!” “It’s a crocodile!” I called. “I’ve got a hippo over here! Cap called out. Then the creature surged out of the water towards us, we were both right. And both wrong. It was part crocodile, part hippo, and part lion. Great, I thought, a chimera. It swam to our boat and pulled Milli off. I watched in horror as she disappeared down his gullet. “Cap! It got Milli!” I cried and threw a spell of confusion on the creature. It shook his head, and Cap shouted a phrase and it started to convulse before throwing up Milli back onto the boat. “Hold on,” I shouted, and muttered a quick phrase, and our boat landed with a crash on the shore as a wave pushed us up. “Pull it up and let’s get into the city.” I looked around us and the city didn’t have roads, but canals all throughout it instead. I looked over the water and saw large shapes moving under the water, and shuddered. “We want to stay off the water. I don’t think our crocilion is the only one in there.” The Former Werewolf headed into a nearby building, and we followed him in. He picked up a small folded up piece of paper and handed it to me. “Thank you,” I responded looking over the paper and pulling at it slowly. As I worked at it, piece by piece it unfolded into a bigger and bigger item until I supported a boat, rather like the ones we’d left behind, only much lighter. “Have you been here before?” I asked him. “I see dead people,” he exclaimed happily. The ground rumbled under us and the Former Werewolf ran up the street and having no better plan we followed him.

Report Date

23 Dec 2021