@Expolar

It has been six months since you had left home, driven by these strange urges from your gauntlet. You left your home town, Bayrest, to travel east. You have no idea where specifically you must go but the gauntlet you’ve so far been unable to remove has given you the vague notion that you need to go eastward by any means necessary. And so you’ve made arrangements to board The Sea Wolf, a merchant vessel heading across the vast seas towards the Majadan Empire, one of the largest continents to the east.

Your journey has been far from comfortable, but neither has it been bad either. There have been a few scares of sickness but nothing that affected you, and rough weather was a constant issue, but the crew of The Sea Wolf were hearty and strong. However there has been whispers of a new threat that concerns the sailors. A superstition that roaming these waters was a mighty ghost ship, The Green Tide. An ancient orcish warship had that terrified the entire ocean many eons ago before a coalition of nearly all of the nation’s gathered their navies to crush The Green Tide And it’s fleet. Many say they now traverse its graveyard, and despite its defeat the crew and captain are more than eager to add new ships to their graveyard.

Rumors and gossip of course. The real danger was simply that riptides are common in this area, but avoiding this route would add another month to their journey. This wasn’t the first time the Sea Wolf has crossed these treacherous waters however and the captain was more than confident in his ships ability to withstand the waves.

As for you, you find yourself in your cabin. It was a small but private room with a porthole to see the ocean outside, a hammock for you to sleep, and a chest to store your belongings. No locks, but at least you don’t gave to worry about stepping on your backpack. You have a door to your room at least, with a lock to boot. It was early morning right now and many sailors were up and about changing shifts. The night crew were going to rest for a while as the day crew grabbed their meager meals, grog, and their morning orders. You were free to do whatever you wish so long as you did not disrupt operations.

Rumors of ghosts and other fairy tales were often spread by these salty sailors not because they were true, but because they were bored. Those who didn’t have work often tried to pass the time with gambling or games, occasionally a friendly scrap or too as well. Truly, your worse enemy on this ship was no man or beast of nature, but all the goddamn free time with nothing to do.

So what do you do?

This morning when Caeda woke up, she decided to try relaxing and think back about the past months before and while she board The Sea Wolf. Before leaving her home city of Bayrest, she tried to follow this direction that her gauntlet pulled her towards, only to find the end of the city and the same pull still being present. Once she departed from her estate, she could feel a surge of optimism with each step as she followed the direction that father's gauntlet was pulling her towards. Never has she ventured this far from Bayrest and started to feel nervous as she felt stagnant with path being outside the city. But she would quickly shake off this feeling as she tried to focus. Deciding to view a map to get an idea of where the gauntlet may be pulling her, she would notice the first obstacle being the seas, and then after that being the Majadan Empire, which she was not familiar about.

Now feeling ready to leave with this knowledge, she prepared herself for the travel. She informed the captain of the guards of her travel and hopes to find any clue of her father's disappearance. After the captain gave their permission, Caeda prepared her things, informed her servants of her travel, and politely order them to maintain the Bryberos's estate house until she returned. She would then find a ship that she could board, this eventually being The Sea Wolf.

The beginning weeks on board, she would have her usual routinely training, one on the morning and another in the evening. Mainly using her main hand, being right, for her rapier, still not feeling comfortable enough to use her left which possessed the gauntlet. Most of the rime she would keep to herself, but would some time ask a crew member to volunteer to join her in a sparing match, thing being something she greatly appreciated having as these made training more interesting than swiping the air. She would find some fun educating these few of her fighting style and commenting on her a crew member's skill with a blade. But as training went by, she felt her swings were different and odd than the standard she was used to, but for the better, this was something that she especially noticed when sparing. One of these oddity became very noticeable during a sparing match when the gauntlet fired a blast of dark colored energy with ripples of white light fading in and out of it, this just narrowly hitting her sparing partner. Caeda profusely apologized for the unexpected attack and the following days found herself able to shoot this blast and decided to train herself controlling this blast by shooting into the sea and open sky.

Outside her personal hardship, there were times that crew members found themselves getting sick and she would quarantine herself in her cabin to avoid such illness until she heard that those crew members were better. It was during these moments that she would try talking to those who passed her room and would eventually her the story of The Green Tide and the ship current course to the Majadan Empire.

Then recently during one of her training in the evening when it was getting dark, she would felt the magic of the gauntlet resonate its strange energy. As she reached a free hand to feel it, shadowy blade would emerge and startled her as she thought her eldritch blast was going to exploded her had.

After thinking her time on The Sea Wolf and how her father's gauntlet has been behaving since then she decided to leave her cabin to find the captain to ask how much longer their journey on the seas will be? She was enjoying this travel on the sea as it provided her time to train, understand the gauntlet, and still move eastward at the same time. Knowing that such training won't happen once she reached land and she wanted to ask the captain how much time they had until they reached the Majadan Empire.

As usual, the captain was easy enough to find. Ashbrand was a large swarthy human with a blacken bread with streaks of grey, hence his name, barking orders, pulling ropes, and generally keeping the ship afloat. It was thanks to his constant efforts that The Sea Wolf has always been sailing steadily. You would know that it would y be wise to bother him right now, though fortunately his first mate was always nearby. Azure Wainwright was a half-orc, notably for the blue streaks in her hair, and the large sword she kept on her back made from a single carved blue shell. She made sure to deal with problems that needed addressing but not the captain’s time. At the moment she seemed available to chat, trailing alongside the captain.

As usual the captain appears to be busy as usual, but it's for tbe best seeing as majority of the crew on board seems to be carrying his orders as they are given. But wanting some answers decided to look for Azure who she finds herself always finding instead to have these questions answered. "First mate Azure, part of me has been wanting to ask Captain Ashbrand this question, but he always seems busy. So I have decided to come to you and ask, how much longer do we have until we arrive into a port in the Majadan Empire?"

“You’re in luck. Depending how fair the winds are, we’ll be hitting land in three-to-four days I reckon. Captain wants to get through these waters while the ocean is merely rough, and depending on Lady Luck once the riptides are active they might actually even push us forward faster.” Said Azure. The captain wasted no time working on his ship as the two spoke. Once he was far away, Azure did speak in a hush tone.

“To be frank, there’s a different reason he wants to leave quickly. Word has it that Sahuagin have been active around these waters, purposely damaging ships to sink em. Now, usually this is just some scheme for a conman to sell anti sahuagin charms, but we actually got a bounty for one of their priestess who pairs up in these waters. Captain hopes to deal with em once we’re in safer waters. If you’re interested, could get you a cut too.”

Splendid, news of the arrival to the Majadan Empire excited her, but tried to keep her composure serious and formal, especially after hearing the opportunity of coin. Having some extra coin would be great if her journey continues inland and doing the job reminded her life back in Bayrest as a city guard. That and assisting in this job would probably be the most interesting thing she would come across since she left home. Back in Bayrest she would typically deal with petty bandits and thieves. These things she mentions, sahuagins, Caeda has heard stories of such things, but felt they were comparable to the typical orcs, goblins or ogres. The only difference being that the usually reside in bodies of water.

With such trivial monsters and the extra coins that could help with her travel expenses, she nodded to Azure's offer "These things called sahuagins, if they do plan to damage the ship and remain in the water, then they will be perfect live targets for me to blast. I'll just try and relax on the deck until you or someone request my assistance. But for the monetary reward, how much exactly is this offer?" Caeda awaited her answer, and after that would follow with another question. "Another question, if you do not mind and have the time. But what can you tell me of this Majadan Empire? The continent itself I am also not familiar with, but it would probably be best if I started asking somewhere specific first."

“The bounty is 50 crowns a head, 50 sovereigns for their leader, a spellcasting priestess of a fish. Deal is that if you help us kill the beasties, you can have first pick of the loot, but we keep the heads. Sahuagin craft might not sound the most appealing, but their equipment works wonders in the water, making them quite valuable to sailors like the quartermaster or whoever you think would want to buy.”

In layman’s terms, a single Sahuagin was worth 50 silver, which was 5 gold coins, though their leader is worth 50 gold alone. You won’t get to benefit directly from this bounty as Azure specifically wants the heads to turn in herself, however you’ll be allowed to keep anything else the Sahuagin have as plunder, which may be considerably more valuable depending if you can find a buyer. The Master-Of-Arms, Thoral, was at least interested in their spears, so that’s someone who would buy your plunder.

"I suppose that is a fair trade, especially since you will most likely have to do repairs after their attack. If these things are smart may, they may try and stealth their way near the ship at night and begin their attack. Luckly with my heritage, I posses dark vision. So if you need me to replace one of your watch or need additional eyes at night, let me know. For now I'll take an early rest in my cabin to prepare for the night shift. But if we have an encounter during the day, wake me up." Caeda stood there for a few seconds until she gave the reminder "You still didn't answer my question about your thoughts on the Majadan Empire. Unless you know someone else on board who may know more about the continent?".

“Ah well... To be frank with you, we don’t really have much dealings with the Majadan. Sure we dock up with them, have a few contacts on their shores, but we don’t have much business there. Very militant you know? If luck ain’t in our favor they might just extort is for supplies or some nonsense, so we keep our stay brief. Best I can tell you is that they’ve got some of the strongest spellswords in the world, and one of the few nations that actively engage in slavery. Good thing you’re no smallfolk, or else you might wake up in chains if you stay there.”

Caeda felt troubled that her gauntlet would lead her towards such a place. She has heard brief stories of the Majadan Empire, but felt that they were just complaints and exaggerations of their disapproval of the empire. To think that these things were fact. But perhaps Caeda simply did not want to believe such a place truly exist.

"I see, thank you for all this information, especially with the empire. I heard of the empire being militant to that extent. To think that such a place would be so extreme, especially to enslave the smaller races or keep your business with them so brief to avoid being extorted." Caeda waved as she departed and made her way to the cabin to gain some extra sleep before her night watch began.

The rest of her day went by uneventfully. Though the waters were rough as the day grew late, it was nothing that would be an emergency. In fact it seemed that once the night began, the waters calmed down considerably. Still the captain wasn't going to be careless and made sure to have the ship fully manned. Though not quite as numerous as it is during the day, the night shift consisted of races such as half-orcs and dwarves, those capable of seeing in the dark and generally hardy people. You'd soon hear a knock on your door to let you know that the night watch was beginning. It was Sticky, one of the cabin boys. As his name implies he's rather lanky and skinny, especially for a full-blooded orc. He resembled a tree or quite possibly a dark green elf, depending on what angle you look at. Of the crew members, Sticky is one of the few who is consistently willing to spare with you when he's not busy himself.

"Ah, good mornin! I m-mean good night! Uh, wot I mean ta say, I'm 'ere ta tell ya it's da night watch now! Boss told me ta tell ye, in case ye ah, sleep in or sumthin." He spoke in a typical orcish accent, though not quite as heavy as the other orcs who seem to speak some combined language of common and their native orcish. Compared to most orcs you've met, Sticky only seems slightly below average intelligence, as oppose to very low. In any case it was indeed night time now, and your vision is in a gray scale. Sticky didn't bring anything to provide illumination, not even a candle. You could hear the snoring of other crewmembers down the hall as well as the ocean waves just outside.

Caeda's eyes snapped open after the first knock. The thought of work again as a guard duty reminded her too much of her home in Bayrest. Although the idea made her feel home sick, going back to a similar routine for work got her excited and out of bed. Sensing the knocks were not of furious danger, Caeda told the person to wait a moment. Presumably she guessed it was Sticky since it felt like she saw him the most, probably because she mostly see him during her training. Within a short time, she prepared her equipment at a leisure pace than rushing out. When she finished and stepped out of her room, she was correct in the assumption that it was Sticky.

As they made their way to the deck, Caeda spoke as they made their way through the ship "Thank you again for the assistance Sticky. Tell me, did Captain Ashbrand request you to help us on watch duty tonight? Would be great to have an extra set of eyes like ours to keep watch for what ever may cause trouble in these open waters. That and after our sparing matches, I am quite curious how you can handle yourself in a battle." That last part being her actual curiosity since Sticky does not have the usual orcish physique.

"Ah well, not exactly nah. I uh, volunteered ta help handle riggins, figured you know, since sum of da usual gents are sleeping now dat yer on watch, I ought to do my bit. Wasn't really all dat busy dis mornin after all on account of da captain's fairly smooth sailin, so ain't like I'm tired or nuthin." Sticky says as you two reach the deck. It was a dark night as the moon was covered by clouds. If you were human you'd pratically be blinded by the darkness, but fortunately your eyes allow you to easily see the area around you, at least a little bit. Looking over the side of the ship however, you'd only see the surface of the ocean; whatever was below was covered by an impenetrable darkness.

"An uh, as fer fightin well... Honestly, kinda hope dere ain't no trouble. I knew da first mate mentioned a bounty fer fishmen heads, but usually dey in da waters. Dey don't ever go onto the deck unless dey want prisoners..." Sticky nervously put his hand on the head of his axe. It was a sizable battleaxe, similar to what many other orcs carry. His had a silver coin inlaid on the pommel. His other weapon was a short sword on the opposite hilt, very plain, as well as a light crossbow slung over his shoulders, though it was currently dissembled. It would take him at least a minute to put it together, and a seconds were precious in a real fight.

Caeda was really hoping these sahuagins would jump on board to actually see how much her melee skills have improved, or at the very least, not become rusty. But once again, blasting them with the gauntlet would be more than enough if they decide to stay in the water. As she was thinking of where she should position herself if these sahuagins appeared, she noticed Sticky with crossbow appear broken. The sight of it troubling her of how the crew properly maintain their equipments. "Sticky please tell me, why do you have a dissembled crossbow. If these fish people begin attacking us, you won't be able to help us. Here, let me take a look, maybe I can figure out how to assemble your crossbow."

“Oh uh well, I was just tinkin’ wif it, plus ya know, if I kept da ol bowgun strung up all da time, it’ll mess wif da wood ya know? Always tension an all dat. Plus da salt in da air eats at da iron bits even in da ship, so I keep da bow like dis fer easy storage. I uh... Wouldn’t mind yer help though.” Sticky took the crossbow out and handed it to you. Looked like your fairly standard light crossbow, though there was something strange at the front. It appeared to just be some sort of ring right underneath where the bolts would normally come out of. Aside from that you can easily put it together in about twenty seconds.

Caeda quickly focused reassembled the light crossbow. She felt slightly embarrassed for not thinking of this reason to have the bow in its previous state. Her mind too fixated on feeling ignorant on such a good idea. "Well, although it may have been easier to carry and general good maintenance like you said. Its probably best to have it still at the ready, if these things plan to attack us from the water, you should probably have crossbow more ready in case of such an emergency. That being said, I should be leaving now."

Feeling she is already late first her night watch, Caeda waved good bye and heading outside on the deck of the ship and began looking out in the gray scaled view of the night on the ocean for any signs of threats that may pop out from the surface of the water.

Sticky nodded goodbye as he went below deck, leaving you to your watch. The only other person here was a helmsman keeping the ship steady and another watchman in the crows nest. Tonight's sky was cloudy, and it wasn't long before the clouds covered the moon and stars and turned the night pitch black. Only the sounds of the waves and the creaking of wood could he heard as the boat cut through the ocean. Your darkvision however allowed you decent enough visibility as you patrolled around. However as you were walking around you'd notice a shadow move from the corner of your eyes. It was small, but moved quickly. Surely not a rat; there are two mouser cats on board and they do their job well. Or perhaps it was nothing; with everything so quiet and dull right now your mind may be just making up it's own threats. Twas hard to say unless you investigated further.

The night seemed calm enough, but her rapier sprang out as quick as the shadow move from the corner of her eye. She took the still calm moment to think as she slowly and stealthy approached the direction. It would have been nice to have some light to remove some of the shadow of the dark cloudy night so some color can be seen than shades of grey, but that would most likely make the ship a beacon to attract necessary things. Calling for help now may scare the unknown thing away before confirming what it is. And the odds of being some mouse, it couldn't be as the cats would have probably caught them back when they departed from the last port. Caeda would finally approach and investigate further if need be while still watching her back in case this was just a trick to surprise.

As you sneak towards the shadows, you could make out a vague shape. It was standing on it's hind legs, looking around the corner of a barrel waiting for you, not suspecting that you are in fact watching it. As you peer closer into the crevice of the boxes it was using as cover, you'd realize that it was no mouse, but something more unique. It was a pixie, but one with a notable damaged wing, carefully looking for any danger. She had a small splinter strapped to her delicate belt which she must be using a sword considering she also has a tiny string wrapped around an end like a handle. If you moved quickly you might be able to capture her instantly, or strike her. Or just surprise her.

As Caeda turned the corner, she was really expecting to see some undersea fish monster and was on the stance ready to pierce through it. Quietly sheathing her rapier, her form relaxed as she only saw an even odd sight of a pixie with a damaged wing with a splinter as a possible weapon. Thinking that the fey was most likely frightened, Caeda wished to show she was of no harm and wanted to know what happened to make the pixie scared. Caeda crouched as low as she could and calmly whispered to the pixie, "I wish you no harm. Please, tell me what is wrong."