The Sea Drake and the Coral Crown

After Neil’s strange departure and a decent night’s sleep, the three of us woke to see the Admiral had joined us during the night and was stoking the dying embers of our fire.

In the early dawn’s light, we headed back to the crumbling building alongside the temple where we had discovered a secret door in the ground which opened into a dark tunnel. We had been too tired to explore it last night and had resolved to take a closer look this morning.

Shining a sun-rod into the hole, we found several filthy people, huddled together for warmth. Unlike the Coyomi natives, though, these people shouted in Common for help and wore the garb of sailors. The Admiral, Praxis, Varis, and I helped the men out of the hole and fed them and tended to their wounds. Most of the men were human—typical seafaring folk. One, however, stuck out from the rest of the bunch.

I immediately went to help him as I assumed he must be very ill by the strange, greenish hue of his skin. He happily introduced himself as Gar and, along with the other captives, told us of the infamous pirate Ulars Bhet who had captured them and thrown them into the holding cell below the ancient, crumbling building.

It seemed we now had an able-bodied crew, but no boat. The Admiral agreed to stay with the crew while we continued to search the temple and its outlying buildings. Being the adventuring sort, Gar decided to join us in our search.

In the building behind the temple we found a similar door, hidden under a layer of dirt. Once we opened it there was another rope ladder and light emanating from below.

Praxis was the first down the ladder and I was the last. Unlike the holding cell, which was more just a hole in the ground than anything else, we could tell that someone had taken the time to clear away most of the rubble to make a roughly rectangular room. At the end of the room were stairs that descended further into the cavern. There was rubble to the right and more stairs that descended into a room lit by a glowing fire in its center. Praxis, with his elven senses, managed to sniff out two overgrown baboons that were trying—but failing—to hide in the room.

The baboons tore into Varis with their vicious claws as Praxis fired his noisy gun, causing rubble to fall from the roof and surely alerting anyone with ears to our presence here. Gar, not to be outdone, charged right by Praxis and turned into a wolf—a wolf!—and attacked one of the baboons. In awe of my fearless friends, I could do nothing but miss terribly with everything I tried.

It wasn’t long before my luck started to wear off on my friends. From behind a closed door at the end of the room came a loud bang and the sound of rushing water. Soon, brown water flooded through the doorway as the door was opened by a pirate I recognized—none other than Ulars Bhet. He didn’t stay long, muttered, “Hellfire! We’ll finish this later,” and left in a huff.

We were still too busy with the one remaining baboon to give chase. By the time we had felled the beast and Gar had turned back into Gar, we tried to pull open the door only to find it locked. Varis, the apt treasure hunter, had a kit to pick the lock and had it open in no time. Beyond the door was the cozy quarters of Ulars Bhet, by my guess, complete with his very own wanted poster tacked onto the earthen wall. An embroidered carpet covered the dirt floor, now soaked through with whatever foul water was contained in a large, now-broken glass tank. By the broken tank was a table with papers strewn about. Most were blank besides a page with notes and depictions of the ‘coral crown’—a beastly crown that pierced the wearer’s skull and allowed the wearer to control the sea demon, but only at the cost of the wearer’s sanity. I hoped one of us wouldn’t have to wear this crown in order to subdue the sea demon. I shuddered to think of the ramifications.

While I was lost in my grim wondering, Varis was hard at work picking the lock on a large chest. Inside he found courtier’s clothes! I squealed with delight and shoved them down my bodice for safe-keeping. I didn’t even bat an eye when Varis slipped two large emeralds into his large sack ‘for safe-keeping.’ There would be a later time to ponder whether it was a good idea to let the treasure hunter keep all of our loot.

After a simple inspection of the room, we realized there was no other way out. So, unless Bhet simply ceased to be, he must have used a secret door. This time Gar was the one to discover the secret door, and the chase was on again.

The tunnel we entered was roughly carved and sloped downward at a fairly steep grade. The tunnel ended in a large, finished room with a lever in the middle. The floor was covered in blood and the room was lined with small, clay statues of warriors.

That was not the type of room I wanted to be in. After seeing similar clay statues come to life and attack my friends and I, I wasn’t about to enter a room full of them with a floor covered in blood.

Varis and Gar weren’t swayed by the gory scene, and after a little inspection, decided to pull the lever and see what happened. We heard the grinding and workings of old machinery and a wall slid past the doorway in front of us, separating Praxis and I from Varis and Gar.

After a moments panic, the switch was pulled again, followed by the grinding noises, and Varis reappeared before us in the room.

“What did you do to Gar?”

Varis said he had slipped out into another hallway. Worried about our new friend, we pulled the switch again and the three of us dashed through the opening before it shut. Now, with everyone reunited, we continued down the tunnel. Suddenly, a great roar reverberated along the tunnel walls. The splitting of wood and cries of alarm were heard ahead of us. We continued a little further and the roar nearly deafened us.

Around the corner we found Bhet, ragged and covered in blood. “Damn you. I almost had the secret of the coral crown. The sea-drake was almost mine. That bastard with the crown is going to have his pet sink my Raptor. If you don’t stop him, no one gets off this island.”

We tried to drag the pirate along with us, but he clutched his side and said he was too weak to go on. He fought back when we tried to place the manacles on him, but another roar and the crunch of wood giving away left us with an easy choice. We would have to leave the pirate in order to try and save the boat. What good was a wanted pirate, tied and bound, when you couldn’t get off the island to get your reward for him? With firm words to stay put, we continued on down the corridor.

The tunnel opened up into a large grotto. To the right was a dock with the Raptor tethered to it. Blue tentacles lashed out at the ship, taking chunks out of the only means of our escape. On the docks, those ugly little creatures—several of them—dressed as sailors hooted and hollered in alarm as the sea drake destroyed their ship.

As Varis ran off to hack and slash at thin air, I went to rally the strange creatures to fight the sea beast. The little creatures manned the large crossbows and took aim with anything they had to hurt the beast. Once they were sufficiently inspired, I went back to help the boys who were now hacking and slashing at a stone statue. I turned away for a moment and when I turned back, the statue had moved.

All right, so something was fishy about that statue. On closer inspection, it was wearing the coral crown from the picture! The thing shifted from its stony visage into real flesh and everyone took turns hitting it with everything they had.

By this time, the sea drake had begun targeting the small creatures that were trying their best to fell it. One mighty swish of its tail and half the creatures were either dead or pulled under the surface of the water. They needed my help to lift their spirits again. I sang them a rousing song to help them muster what was left of their courage and continue the attack. By this time, the stone statue was now even closer. He turned to flesh again and I stunned him with a simple attack, allowing Varis to take a swing—which he unfortunately missed—and I then pushed him right off the pier.

I hooted in victory, until I realized I had pushed a sea demon into the water—his natural habitat. Rather than sink to the bottom of the grotto, the demon would simply swim to safety.

“Oops.” I cringed.

Now, with only two of the ugly, little creatures left to fend off the sea drake, my friends turned their attention on the large monster.

Gar was the first to attack, and the first to get throttled by the creature. He was in a bad state, and needed some healing. I rushed in, healed him, and rushed back out to safety before the beast could strike me. Praxis loaded his noisy gun,  took aim, and fired. Wouldn’t you know it, the beast was already near death, and after Praxis’s attack, my little wand was what felled the beast.

He slumped against the pier and the remaining little creatures cheered. We now had our boat, and with a few repairs she would be more than sea worthy. With an actual means to leave the island, we weren’t too broken hearted when we learned that Bhet had fled, apparently faking the severity of his wounds.

As the boys and the little creatures—they called themselves Goblins—repaired the boat from the shattered remains of the pier and other spare wood we could find, I went about tailoring the courtier’s clothes—men’s courtier clothes—to my more feminine frame. Finally, I had a nice pair of pants.

We would sail back to The Boneyard to restock our ship and maybe get some much-needed rest—in an actual bed. From there, we would decide where our next adventure would take us. Me and my silly boys.

~Zaly

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