Limitless Seas 3, Chapter 1.

Chapter 1.

“It’s been a long night everyone, and we still have more work to do, but I think some rest is in order before our people start dropping from exhaustion,” Larson said. Work details were moving about the village, clearing rubble, and searching for any additional threats from either lizardmen or pirates.

“I’ll get the crews in order, and I agree, we need rest before we dig into everything that needs to be done,” Tarley said. He had been a steadfast companion since Larson entered this world, and even now, he relied on Tarley to help organize the fleet. The man had a knack for organization and instinctively knew how to run a ship’s crew.

“I’ll have some of my marines stand guard, we’ll need watchers in the fortress and a signal fire readied if we want some kind of warning if a ship approaches,” Ibn added.

“Good call, but we only need a few on watch, the rest can get some sleep,” Larson said.

“I’ve got my hands full with the wounded, can I borrow a few of your people, Tarley? Some of the sailors are getting pretty good at tending to injuries,” Shada said. She was Larson’s ship's surgeon, but the orc woman was also a powerful fighter, trained by the Imperium as a soldier, but able to wield shamanistic magic. Losses would have been much greater if she hadn’t been by his side.

The others filtered out, finding places for their people to rest either onboard the ships or in the few parts of the town that hadn’t been destroyed in the fighting. Larson stepped gently past an already snoring Bug Bartholomew, the two-headed ogre was making so much noise, that nobody decided they wanted to try to rest in the tavern. His captain’s cabin, once more his own now that the passengers had mostly disembarked, would be just fine for the limited rest that Larson needed.

Sailors, marines, civilians, and town guardsmen greeted Larson as he headed toward the docks. They looked tired but relieved to have survived the ordeals they had been through over the last few days. Things would get more difficult before they got better, though. Much would depend on how the Free Isles responded to Larson’s presence in the former pirate stronghold. Now that he thought about it, Larson realized it was still a pirate stronghold, just under new ownership.

Lucian’s family and the others that had used his cabin on the trip to the island had been considerate enough to replace his furniture where it had been previously. Most of his things had been pushed to the side to make room for more of the children to have a place to bed down during the voyage, and he smiled as he looked at the drawings one of the children had sketched out on his floor, a drawing of what he thought could be either a unicorn or a walrus, depending on how you looked at it. Slithering over to his desk, Larson relaxed and laid his head down.

Instead of drifting off to sleep, he lay there for only a few minutes before feeling as refreshed as he would have if he had slept a full eight hours. With most of the town and the crew getting some sleep, Larson was finally able to inspect the reward he had received for clearing out the dungeon beneath the temple. Pulling it from his inventory, Larson saw that his reward was a small green orb, about the size of a chicken egg that glowed and felt warm to his touch. Concentrating on the strange orb, the system that guided and ruled this world sent a prompt telling Larson what exactly it was that he held in his hand.

The orb of Paktul.

This orb holds the essence of the great lizardfolk war chief Paktul. Usurped and betrayed by his advisor, Tamkul’pa, Paktul was slain and his essence trapped in this orb. There are two options for this orb, and the first is to have it meld itself onto a weapon of your choice. Once melded to a melee weapon, the orb will add a poison damage modifier to any strike made with the chosen weapon. When wielding the orb-enhanced weapon, the bearer will have a small bonus to strength, stamina, and health regen.

The second option for this gem is to use it to return Paktul to his proper place as war chief over his people. To do so, you must reenter the temple dungeon and defeat Tamkul’pa. This quest can only be undertaken solo. Once Tamkul’pa is defeated, the option to place Paktul as the dungeon core will be offered. If Paktul is selected as the master of the dungeon, he will negotiate further rewards with you.

It was an interesting option. On the one hand, Larson could give his rapier a nice bump in power, but would that be the best choice? It might be better to hold onto the orb in case he found a better weapon at some point. Larson had already switched to the rapier as his main weapon from the short spear, and with the smith Felicia Burrowton and the alchemist Sarvo, they might be able to craft him something better. After all, the matched set of pistols that Felicia had created for him were masterpieces.

His other option was strange, and the potential reward was a mystery. The system mentioned that he would negotiate with this Paktul for his rewards, and Larson wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. Larson had never even heard of a dungeon before Narbos had explained it to him. It was a better, and easier, option to keep the orb to use for enhancing one of his weapons, which was a guaranteed reward.

Still, the lure of the unknown tugged at Larson. He had never pursued an easy path in either this life or his previous one, and perhaps it was time to act boldly. The dungeon had powerful guardians, but Larson was keen to test his strength against the place without the help of his companions. From what Narbos had told him, the dungeon would be weaker for a while since they had defeated Tamkul’pa. If he was going to risk this option, now would be the time, or he might be forced to wait until some of his forces cleared the dungeon again, or perhaps he could hire adventurers to do it.

“Let’s just see about getting you a new home Paktul. Your rewards had better be worth it,” Larson muttered to himself as he made his decision. A quick check showed that his gear was all functional, the acid from the stomach of Tamkul’pa had eaten into his armor a bit, but it would still work well enough and he didn’t want to wait for it to be repaired completely. If he was going to clear out this dungeon on his own, he needed to get moving before it recovered its strength.

“Morning Captain, is this going to be our new home?” The sailor Riker asked. The man was on watch, pacing the deck of the Sea Venom and squinting against the bright morning sunlight as he scanned for any threats.

“It looks that way, do you regret signing on?” Larson asked. Riker had been a member of the pirate crew but had sided with Larson after his ship was captured.

“No, sir, but it looks like the life of a pirate is my destiny in this world,” Riker replied.

“It’s a title forced upon us by our enemies, so we’ll embrace it, for now. Have you seen where the alchemist Sarvo has run off to?” Larson asked. He wanted to replenish his supply of healing potions before he went into the dungeon.

“Aye, Captain, last I saw, he’s pressed a few sailors into dragging all his stuff into that hut,” Riker said, pointing toward one of the town buildings that had survived mostly intact.

“Thank you, keep a weather eye out. I don’t think we’re under any immediate threat, but the Free Isles will figure out where we’re at eventually,” Larson said. That was one of his concerns. Lord Mox, or Makon, or whatever he was calling himself now, had selected a perfect location for a pirate base. Would he now think it abandoned with just a few strays left behind from his pirate navy, or would he know Larson had taken it as his own?

He would have to see about beefing up the defenses here at the port, but there was too much to do and not enough hands to do it. When he started raiding with his fleet, Larson knew he would trigger a response, and he wasn’t sure if his forces were going to stand up to the combined might of the entire Free Isles fleet just yet, despite the advantage that cannons gave him. After everyone had a chance to rest, Larson was going to have to look for options to grow their power without alerting Mox to where they were.

“Be careful you oafs! These instruments are fragile, oh, it’s you. I thought you were another of those ham-fisted sailors slinging my materials around like they were cheap cargo. Well, Captain Larson, what do you want, you can see I’m busy here,” Sarvo said, talking a mile a minute as he sorted through everything he had brought to the island. There was enough gear to create a small alchemy lab, but nothing close to the elaborate setup he had back in Stratwall Harbor.

“Glad to see you’re settling in, I’m looking for a few more healing potions,” Larson said.

“Do you think they grow on trees? Wait, don’t answer that, in a way they do, well, on a plant, not exactly a tree, but close enough. To answer your question, no I don’t have any I wish to spare. My stockpiles of ingredients are low, and until I can find a reliable supplier, I have little to spare. Now, move along, I have work to do,” Sarvo said, waving Larson away.

“Hold up, there, Sarvo. You’ve helped us out greatly with the sorcerer's sand and working to get our guns constructed, but just because you’re valuable, it doesn’t mean I’ll put up with any disrespect to my officers or myself. I rule here, and I’m giving you a place to set up shop and work in peace. The only thing I’m asking for is a few simple healing potions to help keep me alive while I do something that will benefit us all. I suggest you find some potions and offer them to me at a fair price,” Larson demanded. Sarvo was rubbing him the wrong way, and the man thought a bit too highly of himself.

“Oh, fine, I may have a few squirreled away that you can buy, but I’ll not cut my price just because you’re standing there all threateningly,” Sarvo grumbled. He rooted through a few crates and eventually passed over four rose-colored potions. After charging Larson a much higher rate than normal due to what the alchemist called “market conditions”, Sarvo went back to work, ignoring Larson who gladly left the hut. After examining the potions, he wasn’t too excited about their quality, but given that Sarvo hadn’t exactly had time to brew much in the way of potions, he’d let it slide for now.

Minor Healing Elixir. These potions will heal a small amount of damage and then increase the imbiber’s natural healing rate for the next 10 seconds. While crafted by a master alchemist, the ingredients used to create these potions are sub-par and their efficacy is slightly lower than normal.

The crew was busy trying to find a place to be down, and nobody stopped him as he climbed the winding path that led from the port to the temple fortress on the cliffs above. Having the lower body of a serpent made the ascent easier, the path to the fortress zigzagged up the side of the cliff, but was wide enough for a small wagon to traverse it. At the top, the damaged gates to the fortress were left open, the solid wooden doors would need to be replaced at some point since they had been blasted open by cannon fire when Larson stormed the place. Getting them repaired, would be another step in the long process of making this place defensible and livable.

“Morning, Captain, anything I can help with?” One of Ibn’s marines standing watch at the gate asked as Larson entered.

“No…wait, there is something you can do for me. I’m heading into the temple to take care of something. Once I’m in, send word to Ibn where I’ve gone,” Larson said. He wanted to let his command team know where he was, but if things went as he planned, Larson would be back before they were done with their rest.

“Sir, should I gather a few of the boys to join you? A bunch of us were going to ask if we could use the dungeon to train,” the marine asked.

“Having Ibn set up a schedule for our folks to train inside is on my list of things to do, but for this visit, It’s something I have to do alone,” Larson said.

“Aye, sir, but you might want to grab a torch if you head down there, I don’t think anybody’s been down there to replace the ones that burned out,” the marine said.

Larson took his advice and found a small supply of torches placed near the battlements, likely for the pirates who were doing watch at night. Battlements surrounded the clifftop fortress, and in the center was the topmost floor of the ruined temple. It was a dark and sturdy stone affair, and you couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding when looking at it. The entrance was unguarded, and he would have to make sure there was a watch set here, and also at the dungeon entrance itself. It wouldn’t be good if someone from town wandered in, or worse yet, some kids decided they wanted to play adventurer.

His new body could see pretty well in the dark, but the torchlight was comforting as Larson descended the stone passageway leading to the dungeon entrance. A glowing blue oval on one of the walls marked the entrance portal to the dungeon. When they had first entered, the portal had been much brighter, but with the defeat of Tamkul’pa, the dungeon had spent most of its energy. While he would love to storm the place with the ogre, Shada, and Ibn at his side, this was a task he had to do solo. With some trepidation, Larson entered the portal.