Limitless Seas, Chapter 14.

Larson slid off the side of the Gull Dropping and back into the sea. It was dark and though he could see better than a human, Larson was still hampered by the near pitch black of the deeper water. Thinking logically, the makon must have tracked him back to shore after sensing the huge amount of blood that had been shed in his fight against other makon and its shark companion. It either took them time to arrive, or time to gather their forces, he wasn’t sure which. If they planned to keep the captives alive, they had to either maintain the air spell over their heads, or take them to some place with air, like a submerged cavern or a secluded stretch of the beach. His own limited experience with magic told him would be impossible for a single caster to keep that many spells going at one time, which meant they had someplace close by with air that they were taking the captives to.

Larson swam about the bay, using his new senses and looking for a clue. He tried to concentrate on his Sense Disturbance ability, feeling where the water was being displaced by the frantically squirming humans and elf. The makon were able to slip nearly silently though the water, but the earthbound creatures’ panicked movements were easy for Larson to zero in on. The lack of sea life inside the bay also helped him to keep track of his target as they headed toward the rocky outcropping that made up the western half of the bay.

The disturbance in the water peaked and then cut off abruptly when the group more than likely exited onto he land. Following the same heading, Larson found a section of the rocks that had a gradual incline leading up from the sea. A smooth path had been worn in the rocks and Larson pulled himself onto the ledge and followed the trail. The narrow opening of a cave loomed in the darkness before him and Larson slithered off the path to watch the opening. After several minutes, he didn’t detect any guards covering the narrow passage, but he did hear sounds emanating from deeper in the cavern.

The rocky trail gave way to soft sand as Larson squeezed into the opening. The passage continued in a straight line, slowly descending and Larson could make out a faint light source at the end of the passage. As he approached, Larson could hear raised voices with strange accents, the makon he assumed. As he neared the light, he realized that the passage opened into a large chamber. From the shouts coming from inside, it sounded like some of the makon were really not happy with each other.

Larson paused in his approach, spotting a pair of makon standing guard over the passage. Lucky for him, the guards’ attention was focused on the chamber and not down the passage toward him. Larson settled in a waited for an opening. As much as he wanted to rescue his crew, assaulting a pair of makon single handedly and warning what sounded like a chamber full of them wasn’t a good plan.

“Kah, we wither away, and you would deny us the chance to feed!” A voice shouted.

“It the command of our master, he demands to be fed and his will is to be put before us all. Your hunger is weakness in his sight. Tibux, deny your weakness and follow his command. Throw the dead into the forbidden pool as an offering right now!” The voice of the makon Larson figured was Kah shouted back.

“What command, I hear nothing, and we have too long accepted the word of the water shapers as true. Perhaps it is time for our people to follow a new path and find our own way. It is time for us to hunt flesh for ourselves to consume, not for some imaginary master you’ve conjured up. It is time for us to grow strong once more,” Tibux replied.

“We have offered to our master for a generation, he is on the verge of emergence and once he rises, the great hunt can begin, and we will gorge to our hearts content. Heed his call or we will be his first victims,” Kah argued.

“Bah, I think there is no call of the master and the sea shapers have fooled us. I believe that when nobody is looking you swim to into the forbidden pool to feast on the offerings yourself. Come brothers, it is time to give up this false master and follow our instincts. Join me in feeding,” Tibux said, causing a murmuring among the other makon. Larson didn’t have a good count of their numbers, but there had to be quite a few inside there.

“They will not follow you Tibux, and now you will face judgement for your actions. Feed him to the master that his anger over our disbelief will be sated,” Kah ordered. Larson heard a struggle and the snapping of teeth. The guards at the entrance walked toward the growing brawl, giving Larson a chance to sneak up and peek inside the chamber.

The cavern was huge with a wide sandy floor and at the far end was a perfectly circular pool, the water dark and swirling. Patches of glowing moss lined much of the roof of the cavern, giving off a dim light. Larson could see several smaller passages leading off into the dark. In front of the swirling pool, he could see the three corpses that the makon who escaped the battle had dragged back with them. Two of the corpses were of his crew and the third was that of a makon. In the near corner of the cavern sat the prisoners, a makon still standing guard over them. They looked pretty banged up and one of his crew had a bloody wound over his shoulder.

Over the corpses, two makon fought a bloody battle. One was wearing a set of robes like the mage on the beach had worn and the other was huge, his size standing out amongst the rest of emaciated makon. The larger makon was was starting to overpower the weaker spellcaster. With a shouted command word, a burst of power flowed from the mage’s hand, knocking over the makon that Larson figured was Tibux. The mage, Kah, retreated from the fight as he gestured toward two of the score of makon gathered in the chamber. The pair charged into the stunned Tibux, knocking him over while slashing and biting at their victim.

Tibux was no pushover, and Larson was glad he hadn’t faced the monster in the earlier fight. With a roar, Tibux thrust a claw completely through the body of one of his attackers, and in return, suffered a vicious bite from the other. The mage continued to back away from the fight, shouting more orders for the makon to kill the usurper Tibux. Several started toward the fight, pausing as Tibux dispatched his second opponent with a bite to the throat. The large makon took another bite of his opponent, spraying blood about the chamber. This was too much for many of the half-starved makon who fell into a frenzy as they tried to get at the food in front of them.

Kah was able to rally a few makon to his side, somehow overcoming the frenzy in front of them. From out of the feeding scrum, Tibux emerged, charging toward his foe, tackling the wizard before he could get off another spell. Larson saw his opening as the guards watching the prisoners joined in the brawl. Slithering toward his crew, he caught their attention, waiving them over to him. His men began skulking their way across the chamber toward him. The pirate officer, the elf named Kalas’re, looked toward him and instead of following, he slunk off toward the back of the chamber. Two of the pirate prisoners followed the elf while the remaining pair headed toward Larson.

“Hide yourselves outside the cave, I’ll follow you out shortly. If for some reason I don’t come back, wait for daylight and try to make your way back to the ship,” Larson ordered. His two crewmembers nodded and rushed from the cave, the pirates following behind. There was some risk the pirates would overpower his crew since one of them was wounded, but at least for now, he believed they wanted to survive and would work together rather than end up back in the hands of the makon.

Concealing himself in the shadows as best he could, Larson watched the fight unfolding around the swirling pool. Of the score of makon that had occupied the chamber a good half dozen were down, dead and partially consumed. While he was recuing his men, the mage Tibux had fallen and Kah was now fighting for his life against another makon trying to feed on his bloody wounds. A pair of makon that were grappled together, tripped and fell into the swirling pool, their piercing shrieks went unheeded as something drug them beneath the surface.

Two shafts of sickly green light emerged from the pool as the water roiled even harder. One of the beams connected with Kah and the other, strangely enough, linked to the elf pirate as he and his pair of followers ducked into a dark side tunnel. The two stopped and frozen for a moment before the light faded. The elf scurried off and Kah, a look of terror on his shark-like face, fled toward the entrance.

Larson stepped back in the narrow passage, his shield and spear at the ready. If he had to fight, it would be with only one opponent at a time. Just before he left the chamber, Larson spotted a horrible sight. Slimy tentacles burst from the swirling pool, grasping both the dead and the living still inside the chamber. As he backed away, Larson saw the panicked Kah running straight at him. A blue glow encompassed Larson’s spear as he imbued it with water magic. A look of shock and pain overtook the shark-like features of Kah’s face as he ran directly into, and impaled himself onto, Larson’s spear. Already wounded from his earlier scuffles, the mage fell silently to the chamber floor. A thin wisp of the green sickly light left its body as it died and drifted back into the main chamber.

Still backing his way down the passage, Larson stopped when he caught the flash of gold around the makon’s neck. A necklace he hadn’t noticed was clasped there; treasure he couldn’t just leave behind. It took him a few seconds to find the clasp and unhook it, fastening the jewelry around one of the handles of his shield as he detected movement at the chamber opening. One of the tentacles that had emerged from the pool was feeling its way along the passage. Not wanting anything to do with the grasping appendage, Larson turned and fled as fast as he could toward the exit, catching a final glimpse of the tentacle wrapping itself around the corpse of Kah and dragging it away.

Once outside, Larson retreated nearly to the water, wanting to be as far away from whatever it was that had emerged from the swirling pool. Thankfully, nothing monstrous poked its way out of the cave and it appeared the threat was limited to inside the cavern. It took Larson a few minutes to track down his crew. The pair of crewmembers along with the pirates were tying to hide behind some of the rocks near the shore.

“Sir, what happened in there?” The uninjured crewman asked.

“Nothing good, but at least the makon threat is handled for now. We need to make our way back to the Gull Dropping and I don’t think we’ll get there overland. The bay should be safe enough for us to swim back. I’ll help our wounded sailor back, but the rest of you will have to make it under your own power. Something’s going on inside there and I don’t think we want to stick around here all night,” Larson ordered.

The men were reluctant, but they all got into the water and started paddling their way back toward the beach. Larson brought up the rear, holding the wounded sailor, a man named Creech, in one hand and his spear in the other. He didn’t know what that thing in the cavern was and hoped it didn’t have some way to escape out into the bay. They made slow progress back to the beach with Larson having to stop often to keep the others on the right course. He didn’t need to use his hands while swimming, freeing up one arm to hold up the wounded Creech, while the other hand could juggle his spear and help support any foundering swimmers.

When they finally reached the beach, Nogreb and a pair of sailors armed with the new spears were waiting for them. They helped their comrades out of the water and made sure the prisoners were put back in chains. Shada healed up the wounded sailor while Larson gave his ship’s officers a rundown of what had occurred inside the cavern.

“So, you think the makon threat is neutralized, but what about that monster inside the cavern?” Tarley asked.

“I have no idea what that thing is or if it will find some way out into the water. Our best bet is finishing up the repairs as quickly as we can and get moving away from this place,” Larson said.

“Agreed, let’s get a watch set and let everyone catch some sleep while they can, we’ll have a full day of work to do tomorrow, Nogreb added. The remainder of the night passed uneventfully and with them being so undermanned, Larson took over a couple of watch shifts to give the crew a bit more time to sleep. Bug Bartholomew stayed up with him for a while, going over his plans for the Gull Dropping. The ogre planned to use log rollers to pull the ship completely out of the water to work on her. Sturdy bracing would keep the ship in place while the repairs were completed. They still had a problem with tools and Larson did pass over some of their old weapons to the ogre for him to repurpose into tools. There was no way he was going to give up his new weapons to be bent into tools, so the ogre only had a few things to work with.

Larson accessed his interface and pulled up the latest information on his ship and crew. He had wondered if the reports were only available when interacting with this officers, but it appeared he could access the information on his own at any time he wished.

Ship’s Complement for the Gull Dropping:

Crew: 8/60.

Specialized Crew: 0/10.

Officers: 4/5.

Prisoners: 2.

Passengers: 1.

Personal weapons: Average. Your crew is equipped with good quality steel melee weapons, but you lack ranged weapons and skilled crew to use them.

Personal armor: None.

Other equipment: None.

Ship’s coffers: 5,694 scales, 400 fins, and 81 landsmen gold

Crew:

Level 0 sailors, 6. Most of your crew were crimped into service, meaning they were forcibly taken to serve on the crew. Their only sailing experience is in pulling an oar. At this level, a sailor cannot chart a course, raise a sail, or make more than the most rudimentary of repairs. Untrained, the sailors of this level are poor fighters and at a severe disadvantage in combat.

Level 1 sailors, 2. A few of the former prisoners had a basic understanding of working on a ship. Some crewed fishing vessels or small merchantmen for at least a brief time. The level 1 sailors can perform simple tasks when ordered under the direction of an officer.

Officers:

Larson, Ship’s Captain level 2.

Tarley, Level 3 First Mate/unknown second class. The first mate is an experienced sailor that had moved up the ranks until attaining officer status. In charge of the crew and day to day ship operations, the first mate defers to the captain for any major decisions.

Nogreb, Level 2 Bosun/ unknown second class. The bosun or boatswain, is in charge of the ship’s hull and the components attached to it. Working with the first mate, the bosun maintains the ship and organizes damage control parties when needed.

Shada: Level 2 Ship’s Surgeon/ Level 2 Shaman/ unknown third class. In charge of the health and welfare of the officers and crew, the ship’s surgeon uses various techniques to help heal wounds and prevent infections and disease.

Average crew health: 89%. Your crew is physically exhausted and traumatized by recent events, but with good food and rest, they will be back to full health shortly.

Morale: 64%.

He was down to eight crew and it appeared that Bug Bartholomew was showing as a passenger. The maximum ship’s complement had increased to sixty which was likely the result of his achieving level two. The new category of specialized crew was a bit of a mystery, but Larson figured he could now hire on people with special skills like marines, engineers to work siege engines, ships mages, and the like. With the weapons they had discovered, his crew had a chance to defend themselves despite their lack of skill and the fact they had no armor to speak of.

His treasury had filled up nicely, where before he only had a few coins scavenged from the dead, now he had bags of coin stashed all throughout his cabin. Larson made a note to track down some kind of safe or lockbox once they made port. He liked the idea of a decoy box with a modest amount of coin in it while the rest was hidden away somewhere else on the ship.

Alongside his own level up, his ship’s officers had also increased a level in their duties. It remained to be seen what effect that might have. Morale had also ticked up slightly, but it was still going to be low until he had an actual crew that wanted to be aboard of their own free will.

The night was quiet and the soothing sound of waves hitting the sand put Larson in a contemplative mood. He wished he could remember more of his old life, and who he had been. No, that wasn’t quite right. Larson knew who he was, he just didn’t remember the details. Somehow, from his old life to this one, his being, his values, drives, and desires had transferred over. He would be true to himself and answer to no others, living his new life the way he felt it should be lived and woe to any who tried to prevent that