[Flashback][Solo] A Ship, A Curse, A Svenfra

[Galys]

23rd of Summer,503 AV Southern Suvan Sea, Laviku’s Wind The Suvan Sea’s shining sun shone splendidly over Galys’ head as he napped on the deck of the Casinor Laviku’s Wind. The ship was skipping merrily over the waves of the southern Suvan Sea, where he and Adrian Whitecap – His surrogate father, and the only other remaining member of the Whitecap pod – had been drifting for a year, give or take. Time didn’t matter as far as the two wayward Svefra were concerned, they were on the open sea, living their lives from port to port, free as the dolphins which once swam alongside the Whitecap pod. A sharp jab in the ribcage roused Galys, who upon opening his eyes caught sight of Adrian. The much older man – now in his late sixties – was wielding a pair of roughhewn wooden swords and smiling devilishly. Galys roused himself from the deck of the Casinor, rubbing his ribs where Adrian had jabbed him and twisting his face into a mock-scowl, “You’re getting old; you barely bruised me at all.” Adrian tossed him a ‘cutlass,’ which Galys barely managed to catch, and replied in turn, “Still not too old to thrash a cocky young boy about with a stick.” Galys dropped back into the fighting stance which Adrian had taught him – his left foot back, pointing to the side, his right foot only a step and a half ahead, his weight centered, and his left arm back, out of the way of the ‘blades,’ all this with his knees bent slightly, both to present a smaller target and extend his own reach. To anyone but a fencer, his pose would look completely daft; or it would look daft until he’d disarmed and skewered them. Ha, with the years of training that he had, Galys could take on the – A whoosh sounded through the air, and Galys raised his arm to parry the blow but a second too late, Adrian’s stick-blade colliding with the center of his stomach painfully. Galys jumped clumsily back, Adrian’s blow had knocked the wind out of him. In his momentary lapse of concentration, he had allowed Adrian to push through his not quite defenses; Galys would be dead, were it a real blade. He was furious with himself, no less than seven years of training and now he was letting himself get distracted by flights of fancy? Childish, childish and inept, he needed to keep better control of his body and mind or else – the cold water of the Suvan interrupted his train of thought as he plunged off of the boat, having misjudged the edge of the ship whilst berating himself. Stupid. A few long kicks later, he’d righted himself and broke the surface of the water and his lungs thirstily grasped at the salty sea air. Adrian was hauling the sails closed on the mast, though Laviku’s Wind hadn’t gone very far and it was a clear day. Galys was thankful for that, at least, Adrian would probably have him fencing away for hours before he was done for the day, and getting tired out from swimming a long way to the ship would hardly be helpful there. It wasn’t anything close to the first time that he’d fallen – the Casinor wasn’t really built for swordplay – but he had improved immensely in his ability to not fall off of the ship whilst practicing his skill with blades. After several minutes of kicking, kicking, and more kicking, dragging himself through the ebbing and flowing tide (made no easier by the length of wood gripped firmly in his right hand) Galys made his way to Laviku’s Wind and climbed aboard. Adrian was sitting on deck, acting as though he was irritated by Galys’ blunder, but he knew the old man well enough to see that he’d been laughing heavily and heartily. “You’re ready to start again, I imagine? You showed me, an old man has no hope against energy like yours.” Galys silently resumed his fencing stance as Adrian took his own pose, mirroring that of the younger man. Suppressing a smile, Galys closed the distance, step by step, keeping his mind on his blade and Adrian’s. The older man looked as though he was about to speak when Galys lunged, extending his sword-arm and launching himself forward with his back leg. Taken off-guard, Adrian still managed to narrowly block the blow, and riposted by swinging his own sword in a tiny circle, bringing it to bear on the inner side of Galys’ wooden blade, and then chopping dramatically at Galys’ leg. Galys managed to dodge this blow by leaping backwards as he did earlier, this time landing on the deck of the boat as intended. Adrian’s defenses had lowered slightly, and he had left his left shoulder open to attack – a gambit? Most likely – regardless, Galys took his chance and was rewarded with a solid whack as the wooden blade collided with Adrian’s shoulder. Grinning ear to ear, Galys stepped back; he didn’t often hit Adrian, but when he did, it was a thing to celebrate. The smile slipped from Galys’ face – Adrian was holding his shoulder, and had dropped the blade, clearly confused. Galys lowered his blade and stepped forward. Something was clearly amiss, and concern surged forward in Galys, “Adrian? What’s wro-” “Stay back, damn you!” Thunderous rage permeated Adrian’s voice, quietly as he spoke, shocking Galys into retreating two steps, “You’ll not have my ship! I’ve not seen you before, but-” Adrian’s voice trailed off as he saw his own up the wooden blade and the rage faded from his face. Clearly mortified and notably pale, Adrian set the wooden blade back down and began to turn toward the cabin, “That should be enough training for today. I need to lie down a while.”

[Galys]

32nd of Summer,503 AV Central Suvan Sea, Laviku’s Wind Over the next few days, Adrian remained mostly isolated in the darkened cabin of the Casinor. He seemed to have gotten over… whatever it was which had caused his sudden inflamed temper during their training bout. Galys had assumed that it was just cabin fever, although he’d never heard tell of a Svenfra going mad from isolation at sea. Regardless, Galys kept the ship’s eastbound heading in the mind of the rudder, toward Kalista Island. They’d planned on stopping there to resupply the ship and pray to the temple of Laviku before setting out into the northern Suvan. Galys skipped the ship lightly over the waves with a kind of imprecise expertise which comes only from a combination of good training and a lack of actual, practical experience. He’d never navigated on his own before, always Adrian was but a few steps away, ready to lend a helping hand. Twice, he’d nearly ruined a jibe with a powerful tailwind, but twice he recovered without actually damaging the ship. Although the old man occasionally ventured from the cabin, he appeared pale and somewhat sickly when he did, and Galys refused to allow him to linger above deck for long – whatever was happening to his mentor, he didn’t like it. It was too sudden – what malignant force could weaken such a force of nature as Adrian the pirate hunter? What force would want to? Galys was distraught and handled it as he normally did, taking his feelings out on a hunk of wood, attempting to carve it into one shape or another – anything vaguely recognizable as art, really, would be a pleasant change. There was a loud creaking from the cabin’s doors and Adrian shuffled above deck, wrapped in a blanket despite the warmth of the day. Sunlight bounced recklessly off of the patch of bald encircled by a now silvered half-ring of head-hair. All of the energy, the playful patriarchal attitude, seemed to be drained from his body as he shuffled toward where Galys sat against the ship’s wheel. He sat next to Galys, leaning his back against the younger man’s shoulder and staring at the sunset. “I’m impressed, you haven’t wrecked us yet,” he chuckled, and the laugh devolved into a painful sounding hacking cough at which Galys winced, “How far are we from Kalista Island?” “We’re still at least a day away." “Oh, good. I’ve heard it’s a beautiful place, though I’ve not been there myself. Hopefully Laviku can help me with this blasted cold.” Galys almost reminded him – told Adrian that they’d been there only the last fall – but it seemed somehow futile. A curse? A sickness? Either way, he was powerless against it himself. His chest tightened painfully and he replied, “Oh, for sure. We’ll be there soon enough. Alive, if I know half of what you’ve taught me.” The older man turned to glance at the piece of wood in Galys’ hand, which was slowly taking the shape of a malformed dolphin. Since Galys’ Tavan had died in the same accident which killed most of the Whitecap pod, he had attempted repeatedly to carve a small wooden dolphin with very little success. So far, every piece had ended up hurled into the sea in frustration or surrender to a lack of artistic talent – although he was improving, without a doubt. Now the shape could be identified as an animal with only a moderate effort. “I’d like to see that dolphin carving, once you perfect it.” Galys snorted dismissively, and immediately regretted it. He swallowed awkwardly, “I… doubt that I’ll ever perfect it. At the rate I’m going, that is.” “You’ll get a hold on it someday, mark my words,” the old man stood painfully and started toward the cabin, stopping briefly on the way and managed a weak smile for Galys, “Now get over to the helm and make sure we don’t die too much. I’d like to see Kalista before I die of cold.”

[Galys]

36th of Summer,503 AV Northern Suvan Sea, Laviku’s Wind Two days they spent on the island. Adrian improved visibly in his physical health and his mind seemed to calm, he became completely lucid for the first time since the first incident. Now they had made their way into the Northern Suvan sea, and whilst Adrian’s body remained healthy as it had been on the island, he began to lapse once again into fits of forgetfulness. The old man was spending progressively more and more time inside of the ship’s cabin, lying placidly in his hammock. Galys had turned the ship onto a western heading, trying to cover the short distance between themselves and Alvadas, but it was frustratingly slow going with a strong headwind - they lost time, tacking against the blustering gale, though of course they still progressed. So long as a storm or other such bad luck played no part in the rest of their travel, Galys reckoned that they could make it there within the week. The young sailor had heard tales of Alvadas’ illusionists and hoped that maybe – just maybe – one of them would be able to fix his mentor’s mind. All through the day into the night, he battled the waves and the wind. Had he been more cautious or thinking clearly, without the distraction of his closest friend and only remaining family losing his mind, he may have noticed earlier, but either way he noticed now. As the sun sank down, the stars weren’t visible, and the waves heaved Laviku’s Wind up and down, pounding the sides of the ship with an increasing intensity. What caught Galys’ attention was a single drop of rain falling from the sky and throwing itself into his eye. Snapping out of his anxious trance, he looked about – he’d sailed directly into a storm. For the umpteenth time since the beginning of that fateful summer, he cursed his concentration, “If I survive this, I’ll give myself a proper beating.” The waves tossed the ship about as Galys lashed the wheel in place with a quick bowline knot – hopefully, it would hold well enough – and started for the lines which controlled the sails. Whack! He was thrown to the side, his head smacking painfully against the mast. As he dragged himself upward, using the selfsame mast for support, his head stung badly and warmth seeped from his head – oh. On top of it all, he was bleeding. Brilliant. Ignoring the pain as best as he could, Galys pulled the lines holding the sails up, and watched triumphantly as his efforts dragged the sagging sail down from its perch relatively unharmed. Had the sail been overly damaged, they would be stranded in the sea, drifting along helplessly until they could fix or replace it. He began to tie the line to the appropriate belaying pin when another wave slammed into him, throwing him hard against the mast. Winded by the belaying pin slamming into his sternum with a deafening crack, he slipped down the mast, the rope’s knot catching on his wrist and the belaying pin, tying him to the boat as his world went black. However long it was before he regained consciousness, he couldn’t tell, but it was still the night, and the wind still howling, and the rain still pouring. A dark object on the fore of the ship caught his eye. A dark humanoid shape was leaning over the edge, of the boat, as though it were about to leap from the deck. It turned to look at him, and Galys found himself looking into a pair of wizened bright blue eyes. Adrian? What was he doing outside of the cabin, standing on the foredeck? The figure seemed to say something to Galys, which he couldn’t hear over the wind, and then turned and allowed himself to fall into the roiling sea. “No!” Galys howled, throwing himself forward, but the line knotted around his wrist held him fast and the boat bucked again, throwing him off balance as another wave washed over the deck. He could feel his shoulder popping out of place as he was hurled across the deck, the knotted rope holding him relatively in place. Quickly, he set about extracting himself from the rope, tears of agony and wretched grief rolling down his face and mixing with the water. He freed himself after a brief struggle with the rope, and left the knotted bit looped around the belaying pin. Painfully, he dragged himself over the deck toward the cabin, not believing what he’d seen – it had been a pirate, or a curious Charoda. It had to have been. Attempting to stand, opening the door and beginning to enter it, yet another wave rocked the ship, throwing his left shoulder into the wall. He yelled out in pain as it was popped back into place. Shutting the door behind him, he called out, “Adrian, I’ve furled the sail. We’ll be able to ride it out until we arrive at port.” And he collapsed onto Adrian’s empty hammock.

[Cascade]

Adventurer's Loot Galys' Loot : Skill XP Reward Sailing +2 Swimming +1 Navigation (Sea) +2 Weapon: Cutlass +2 Lore: Adrian Whitecap: Mentor Adrian's Strange Outburst Sailing Into A Storm Mysterious Figures So, I really want to know what happened. Hope you continue this plot and shed some light for me, because I am very curious. Anyway, please note that I gave you points in SEA Navigation, and not just simply 'Navigation'. I'm assuming that the Navigation on your CS pertains to the Sea, so please edit it accordingly (land and sea nav. are separate skills). Thank you! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!