Crimson Sands--White Harbor (The Missing)

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DwMcAliley
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:02 am

Crimson Sands--White Harbor (The Missing)

Post by DwMcAliley »

Ascher dropped down from Stepper's saddle, his boots making a soft thud in the sand. The coastal grasses were thin here, and the beach was just beginning. The rhythmic crash of breakers on the distant sand bar were reassuring in the silence. Something wasn't right. Stepper tossed his head and pawed softly at the ground with one foot. The horse was uneasy, and so was his rider. Ascher listened hard to the breeze, but could hear nothing but the sea.

It was midday, and the pirates that used this hidden cove as a port of call would be taking their rest, trying to sleep off the effect of a night filled with rum, smoke, and women before embarking on another night of rum, smoke, and women. It could be a hard life, that of a pirate.....or so he'd been told.

Ascher strained his ears, but there wasn't a sound. No dogs barking over a scrap from the feasting...no cats mewing.....not even the hum of the ever-present host of flies that always seemed to accompany pirates. There was nothing moving among the tents at all.

Ascher adjusted the strap of his shield, and drew his blade. He looped Stepper's reins loosely around one of the lines staking down a tent, and he entered the pirate camp. All of the chests had been smashed. There were torn bits of clothing here and there, a few dark stains in the sand, but nothing else. A single gold coin glinted by the dead embers of a fire, and it caught Ascher's eye.

He bent and fetched the coin, sticking it in a small belt pouch for later examination. As he scanned the camp, ever single tent was in the same condition; ripped, ransacked, and destroyed. At the far end of the encampment, a dozen feet above the high tide mark, was a single table untouched by the destruction around it.

On top of the table, gleaming white in the midday sun, was a human skull.

Ascher froze, his blood running cold. He looked back at the smoldering remains of the bonfire in the center of the camp, and tried not to ponder too much what the fuel had been. He went to the table, and stood staring down at the skull.

Beneath it was a folded parchment, fluttering lightly in the wind. Ascher could make out lines and numbers, and what looked like a coastline, but the symbols were foreign to him, and beyond his understanding. Still, it could mean something.

Ascher had come looking for answers, but instead he found more questions. Where was Xander? The man had gone missing after a visit to White Harbor, and his brother had comissioned the Guard to aid in the search. Ascher knew the pirates would have been aware of any mischief going on in the area, so he'd come to ask questions and see what they knew... He'd even brought along some fine aged rums to loosen their tongues.

After all, he could be very persuasive, when need be.

Instead, he'd found an encampment destroyed, the pirates gone, and a sun-bleached human skull on top of some kind of map. Was it a warning, or an invitation? Could it be both?

Was this somehow connected to disappearance of Xander?

Ascher sheathed his Kryss, and opened a small bag. He carefully picked up the skull, and deposited it, along with the parchment, and quickly tied the strings. He tried to touch the bag as little as possible, wrapping layers of cut bandages around it in his pack. Hopefully someone with more skill in forensic evaluations would be able to shed some light on what had happened to that skull, and a cartographer should be able to decipher the chart easily enough.

Ascher took one last look around the camp. Another tribe of pirates would come along eventually. A sheltered cove this far from any guards wouldn't go unclaimed for long, that much was sure. And, with a little fine rum, some roasted lamb and chicken, and a good story, Ascher would be able to ply them for information when neccessary. These pirates were killers and thieves, some of the worst on the oceans. But even they had deserved better than whatever had befallen them.

Ascher thought of the skull in his pack, and shuddered. He said a silent prayer to the Fates for Xander's safety. Whether the pirates had been slaughtered to extract information from them, or to keep them from divulging information to anyone else, it proved that Ascher was on the right path.

Where that path might lead, only the Fates new....

Kylathew
Posts: 85
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:43 pm

Re: Crimson Sands--White Harbor (The Missing)

Post by Kylathew »

His eyes flickered open, as he found himself being drug through the forest by yet another golem, this one made entirely of silver. He yearned for the strength to move, to free himself, to fight, but nothing came. The blackness returned to him as his eyes rolled back and closed once more.

Xander awoke again, his eyes struggling to see through the darkness of the night. He could make out the stars in the sky, and the moon, who it seemed was hiding behind a thick, grey cloud. His gaze traveled down, to the cliffs that surrounded him, and then to the mast and sails of the ship that he was laid upon. With much effort, he raised his head to look around him, and saw not pirates, but a crew of ratmen. At the bow of the ship stood a hooded figure, his robe was stitched from a jet-black cloth, and adorned with a gold trim. There were glyphs woven into the fabric along the seams, which glowed a dark orange in the darkness, like the embers from a dying fire.

The young tailor struggled with all his might to raise his hand to his head. Laboriously pulling off the red skullcap that held in his hair, he crawled to the edge of the ship, dropping it into the murky darkness below.

Exhausted from what was normally the simplest of tasks, Xander rolled his broken body back to where he had originally lain. His satchel was gone, he could not attempt to heal himself, and he was hungry...oh so hungry. It seemed like eons since he had last tasted the coppery sweetness of blood on his tongue.

Something crawled over his leg and scurried underneath the crook of his arm.
Xander reached down, fishing his hand around until his fingers met fur. He grasped tight, the rat biting him on his hand as he raised it to his mouth. His teeth sunk into the animal, as it's lifeforce spilled out and into him. Draining the rat of it's blood, Xander found he had the strength to pick himself up. As he did so, the hooded figure at the bow of the ship, turned around. Two cobalt eyes glowed at him from within the cowls of the hood.

Two balls of fire erupted from the figure's hands, speeding towards Xander and landing squarely on his chest.

The black abyss returned to him once more.

Jupiter
Posts: 379
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:19 pm
Location: The Mage Tower

Re: Crimson Sands--White Harbor (The Missing)

Post by Jupiter »

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