User blog:Tdburns/Prologue

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and if the wind held, they should reach Erendel in just over a day. Despite this good fortune, Captain Erwin Dorfiel was not in high spirits. Earlier that day, his first mate Amra Beijeon came to him warning of a storm to the south, and although he could not see it, he trusted Amra’s word.

Such a storm would be catastrophic, especially for such a small schooner. The Red Lance was far from the biggest ship in the Elven fleet, but it was the fastest and his mission was urgent. This is why he gave the order to turn north to sail past Kuulpec and through the Pirate Sea. Kuulpec is a wild and ungoverned land, and the seas off its shores were a perfect haven for pirates. He’d ordered a strict guard, with all hands on deck watching the sea for any unexpected sails on the horizon.

He had been asked personally by his king to travel to the sword coast and return with a group of people qualified to investigate the recent disappearances. The king had made all the arrangements, all Erwin needed to do was travel across the sea, take on his new passengers, and return with as much haste as possible.

The group, however, was not at all what he expected. He stood on the deck of the ship observing them during their voyage. They seemed awfully mismatched to his eyes and did not seem at all qualified to perform such an investigation. The two elves seemed to be reasonable enough, albeit a little unconventional. One of the elves seemed preoccupied with starting fires to the point where he had to assign one of his crew keep an eye on her. The other elf looked like she may be highborn, and although he could not pinpoint exactly why, she made him feel uneasy.

There was also a human among them, or at least he looked human. Erwin had met many humans in his travels, and none had been like this one. He seemed to radiate power, and although that scared Erwin to his core, something about his presence was oddly calming. Among the travellers there was also a massive creature. He had introduced himself as Torgen, and said he was a goliath. Erwin had never heard of a goliath before, and from the way this one seemed to stomp around on the deck impatiently, he thought that was probably for the best. Finally, there was a little Tiefling who seemed nice enough, although she clearly did not have her sea legs. She looked to be perpetually sick, and eventually Erwin had to tell her to go see the ship’s doctor.

The five of them spent most of the time on deck playing with dice and yelling nonsense at one another. Occasionally one or two of them would head down into the armoury near the bow of the ship. Normally Erwin wouldn’t have allowed this, but these people seemed able to handle a sword and, in these waters, the more swords he had the safer he felt. Unfortunately for Erwin, swords did not matter.

The ship lurched violently forward, and at first Erwin thought they’d hit a reef or a sandbar and run aground. That was before he saw a massive tentacle rise out of the water off the bow of the ship. As soon as the first had appeared three more tentacles appeared, surrounding the ship. Four massive tentacles with barbed spikes at the tips wrapped around the mast snapping it in the two.

Looking around he saw five of his crew had be thrown overboard and were disappearing into the depths, weighed down by their weapons and armour. The remaining crew were all on their feet, shooting arrows at the monster in a vain attempt to repel the attack. He did not waste a second, he charged the nearest tentacle and started shooting it with volleys of arrows. A few arrows seemed to land, but the majority just seemed to bounce off the hard skin without doing any damage. This was when he heard a twang he recognised as the ship’s ballista. In the chaos he had foolishly forgot about the ballista! He looked towards the bow and saw the Tiefling sitting on the weapon, and a massive bolt flying towards one of the creature’s limbs. It caught it near the top and passed clear through the monster’s flesh causing a large piece of the limb to be severed and fall into the sea.

Clearly angered, the monster struck a blow to the stern causing a deafening crash. Erwin stared as a massive piece of the ship was torn away. He knew in that moment that the ship was lost, there was no way the cabins would not be filling with water.

He suddenly realized in all the commotion, that he’d lost track of his first mate. He searched the deck quickly but there was no sight of Amra anywhere and he feared the worst. From behind him he heard a loud shout coming from the goliath, and Erwin turned just in time to see him fall into the sea. Erwin was furious, the ship may be lost but he would not allow it to go down without a fight. He drew his dagger and ran straight at the nearest tentacle. He let out a fearsome battle cry and leaped from the deck towards his foe and grabbed hold of it with all his might. He stabbed wildly but it did not seem to notice or care, until eventually it flung him high into the air.

Time seemed to slow down during his brief flight. Below him, he could see the entire scene clear as day. As he reached the apex of his flight, the Kraken struck its final blow to the ship, snapping it in two. The last thing Erwin saw as he sailed downwards towards the blue water was his ship slowly sinking into the abyss.