"From the port side bow! Royal Navy!"
The stern's bell resounded through the tumult, and so persisted its ringing in spite of its operator scrambling across the deck. Each rock of the ship swayed it side to side, almost as if flipping her cargo side to side like they were morsels in a frying pan. Yet as each thick raindrop pelted upon their flesh it did almost instantly turn to ice, as howling wind and the cannon fires alike continued their assault. Though the storm's constant, shrieking whine that, almost in synchronization with each freezing raindrop driving a frigid stake through one's ears, an unyielding roar of cannon fire dominated as the prime deafener.
"Main deck! All hands!" Kazik roared out, competing with a constant bark and howl of a storm with quite some rivalry, "Port side mains, get them ready!"
The Czaszkan barked orders quickly, yet performed the same orders in more rapid pace while he pushed and shoved aside some scrambling crewmen whilst he pumped the sponger in and out of cannon after cannon. Tumbling and diving from arm to arm, Kazik soon had sponged each and every one of the 12-pounder guns, and soon began to take up with vivid, ireful eyes as he commanded their continued opening amidst their constant watery assail.
"She wouldnae chase us in this weather!" Charlotte cried out, her left forearm giving their grandest performance to ensure her clear sight, "We need tae veer off!"
"I'm not doin' it!" The helmsman protested, anger and weariness crying straight through the rains, "The storm's too strong! We need to keep fighting through the blizzard, it can't go on forever! It's gonna die down soon!"
"It's bloody April!"
Whilst she continued in her plight to remain upright and well of sight, Charlotte staggered down from the bridge, each step of a plank coated with a solid icy gloss that threatened to remove her balance with the slightest misstep, to which the tempestuous breeze did always ask for her hand in that dance, the likes of which would certainly spell her imminent - yet thoroughly slow and agonizing - demise. The icy ocean waters of the Chotinay Sea spelled the ends of the hardiest of men, for the waters ran so chilling that in mere minutes, entire men would be frozen to their cores inside; their blood ceasing to flow as their veins turned to a crystalline solid, then inevitably shattering with even the slightest twinge. Yet for just that brief moment, Charlotte's expression turned overboard, and any onlooker knew whilst weathering that storm that she wondered if such a fate was better than to be killed by pirate hunters.
"All hands, ready!" All six of them - Kazik among that count - held forth their triggers the same way they clinged to the heavy masses of iron while the ship rocked and swayed. Their target raised and lowered, too, whilst the ship undulated, like some crooked pendulum with a deafening whine. Kazik, determined and pressed, did keep himself raised whilst those sad and jaded eyes locked upon his prey with gaze to rival a harrier.
"FIRE!"
The sonorous resound of the 12-pounder array bayed back with the ship, sending its carriers struggling to keep their footing. Whilst that roar too combined with the bellowing of the winds, an ear-splintering cry shattered the balance of the crew, the payload of their fire barely audible whilst the shot whistled through the storm. Kazik made his best attempt to rise again, his hand covering his left ear whilst his elbow did its finest to shield his eyes from the sleet's ceaseless pelting. A faint, dull glimmer splintered off the raindrops as they collided with their cannonballs, and for a second's fraction, a faint hope had arisen.
Thunderous rolls arose from the silver-masted ship in the crew's sights, and through the incessant argent assail, their foe's midsection howled forth in torrid display. Great, long shards of molten material flew above, even the ignited splinters of what was their rear deck stroked across the storming seas as Hell itself unfurled its artisanship. A thick volley of smoke soon followed, fueled by a raging inferno below, and for that moment, what remained of the crew did unravel a triumphant rejoice.
"We've hit their ammunition hold!" The man announced with so great of joy that the storm itself proved no obstacle to his sanguinity, "She'll be crashing into landfall! She-!"
Yet what Kazik was met with was the floundering of his Captain-in-arms embroiled in unyielding shouting between her and the helmsman. Charlotte's voice did not yet exceed that of the wind's assault, for when Kazik followed the ireful gestures of Charlotte, he turned to face, with his own face turning so pallid and fearful, a much larger threat, just before the bow.
"What are you doing?!? WE'RE HEADED STRAIGHT FOR LAND YE BLOODY EEJIT!"
"It's an iceberg! We need to hit it straight on!"
"You bampot! YOU'LL KILL US ALL!" Charlotte threw her whole self to the helm, wrestling what little she could from their would-be killer to veer the ship left, yet her efforts did little to direct her to safety. Her journey was a collision course; Her fate in fortune's hands.
Kazik stood atop a cannonade, bellowing out as best he could with a throat-splitting screech:
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
Tremors ripped through the ship, a splintering shatter screeching through whilst the recoil of their impact threw those unfortunate souls upon the ship rearwards. There were some verisimilitude of cries, roars, and pleads for either help or mercy, yet the combined efforts of the icy waters below and that rocky coast well devoured what the shattering ship did feed to them. Some debased, ravenous gourmet took slowly what the impact alone did not, for what remained of that fateful privateer's crew clinged aboard some thirds of a ship whilst it made some rapturous journey toward the coast. No longer was it possible to stand upon the deck of this half-ship, for so overtaken was it by manner of undulation and quake that the vibration alone drove splinters into the flesh, where the tempest above, so graciously in turn, dug its freezing rains into the skin of the disparaged.
And for what better end to such suffering than the final capsize? That remnant of a ship, shattered in pieces innumerable, did finally rest upon the frigid shores of Cochise, giving one final bellow as it gave its survivors one final throw.
...
......
......
...
..
Weak grunts came before their awakening. The duo slowly rose from their snow-heaped ruin, rising to the storm whilst the rain slowly turned to snow. Such minor mercy seemed much appreciated, for how Charlotte did have her expression changed from anger to annoyance, yet such pittance to the Czaszkan captain made to appeal to how his consternation rose with his posture. A foot before himself, then a slow run, he gave chase - in clear injury whilst he huffed with every move - to what once was of their supply.
"That...we need our supplies." he heaved, stumbling forth towards a steadily impaling wreckage. His teeth gritted whilst he did witness all his efforts be slowly consumed by a heap of jagged stone and storming tidal waves ripping coin and provision alike to oblivion.
Key items, interactable objects, and other articles of import are outlined in bright orange. Whilst not everything not outlined in orange cannot have some manner of utility, those in the color are of particular interest.
Create your own key objects using the hex code e99e5b.
Create your own key objects using the hex code e99e5b.
"Kazik...!" Charlotte cried out, reaching forth toward the determined man. Those fingers clenched around his ice-laden shoulder, a heavy shrug insistent upon Kazik's continued march.
"Kazik!" she ordered once more, at last halting the man in his trek, "Kazik, mate...it's gone."
Moments passed whilst he stared down the wreckage, who remained slowly peering into the pair's view. Charlotte did trot forth through the calf-deep snow, Kazik slowly following behind whilst he cursed beneath his breath:
"Had this tempest not caused enough quagmire already," he swore, "It's robbed me of the pleasure of killing Ambrose myself."
Persons of interest are colored bright green. They typically are those with key plot elements tied to them, and will usually dispense quests, information, services, or other useful tidbits.
Create persons of interest with the hex code 5ba259.
Create persons of interest with the hex code 5ba259.
Kazik lambasted their now-deceased helmsman with a disappointed sigh, firstly that he had brought such ruination to them, and secondly that he had not had - to Kazik's clear displeasure - the capability to survive whilst Kazik enacted just revenge for his idiocy. Yet such affairs, the Czaszkan knew, were no longer for contention, for the moving of other figures meant they were still not yet among the sole survivors of their trepidation. His performer companion, holding her hood tighter about her head whilst she waved back to the ship, called out whilst Kazik inspected his surroundings.
"Aye! Hello?! Can any of you hear me?!" she "introduced", insofar that a disaster on the likes of this could constitute any manner of proper meeting. Charlotte had been acquainted with much of the crew before - and while she prided herself on remembering the names of the many she had met - did make haste in some attempt to the surviving crew.
"I...ah..." Charlotte drew breaths as she tried to stay warm, yet the posturing of her comments made it clear she, too, was equally consternated by their threatening scenario. At odds with her usual silver-tongued demeanor, Charlotte didn't quite know what to say.
"It's good seeing ye all." she nodded, looking over the collecting cast, "I ken we're off to a grand start...but, we can come up with something, I know."
Kazik turned back, shouting forth at the assembly, "Yes! Ahead!", he pointed, tilting his frame back whilst he pointed north.
At the edge of sight, along the blinding coast obfuscated by the arctic tempest, a yellow beaming pulsated periodically. For a second did it wax into full then wane into nothing, returning at regular intervals. Charlotte lowered her head, heavily sighing in relief from the view.
"Oh, thank Gods...it's a lighthouse..."
Places and locations are highlighted in blue. They are typically nearby, though they may also be illuminated when done in reference to a location of particular note.
Reference such places with the hex code 5ea3b9.
Reference such places with the hex code 5ea3b9.
"There must be someone keeping it on." Kazik insisted, waving forth the group, "Come! If that is true, then we-"
The unmistakable bellow of gunfire erupted from the north, just above a ridge which overlooked the craggy coast below. Though behind them lay the faint outlines of several coves, their assailants had the definitive upper ground, only mercifully graced by the intermittent gales which provided concealment through turbulent snowfall. Along the lower shoreline were many of the same creeks and jagged rocks, enormous shards of obsidian spiking out from the volcanic geology. To the bare - and the incautious - the volcanic glass would certainly slit the unwary open with grievous injury. Yet the sole pass down from the ridge - while gentle and shielded from the gale force winds, presented danger all their own; A few score of men - clad in bright blue and white - heaved a mighty battle cry whilst they charged down the pass. Pirate hunters. Royal Navy.
BANG!
BANG!
More gunfire echoed. Kazik's pistol smoked from the fire, his two barrels expended whilst one several meters before him fell, clutching his wound.
His right hand clutched his blade, crouching behind some stone, and roared back at the survivors:
"Pirate hunters!"
They would have to be fighting their way to safety. Charlotte, too, prepared herself, drawing forth her flintlock while she looked about for some manner of vantage point.
Welcome to Cascadia.
