"Land ... LAND HO"!
The cries from the crow's nest was a welcome sound to the admiral. Lord
Admiral Francis Notchcliff, the famed explorer of the early 1500's, was elated
that this journey was coming to an end, a journey which was doomed from the
start. As the islands drew closer into view, the Lord Admiral took a moment to
reflect on the events leading to this moment.
The admiral had just returned from a
successful archeological expedition when the news of the discoveries of
Christopher Columbus were being told throughout the township. A call was made
for brave explorers to continue the world exploration and the Lord Admiral,
tired of looking at the past, was quick to volunteer for this chance to
discover the future.
Arriving at the dock Francis was greeted by his Captain, Victor
Chesterton, a rough looking seasoned seaman with the look of vast experience,
Francis felt comfortable with him. Chesterton was barking orders to his crew of
the "Sea Witch" as a man approached, appearing as if from thin air,
seeking passage to the new world. He seemed eager to sail, but would not give a
reason for such a request but Francis felt there was something special about
this man and convinced the captain to take him on. This choice proved to be a
grave mistake made by the Lord Admiral.
With the "Sea Witch"
prepared the crew of nearly100 made the ship ready and the expedition was
underway. It was during his first nightly walk that the Francis had the
opportunity to chat with the man who had joined them at the docks. "Ayden
is my name" he began "and like yourself I am also an explorer to some
extent, a man in search of a dream." Ayden was a tall man and unusually
pale with mysterious eyes that seem to captivate and hypnotize any who gazed
upon them. The two men walk the upper decks and talked through the evening
until sunrise when Ayden quickly dismissed himself saying he needed to go rest.
This was the first of only two times that
Francis would see Ayden. It was shortly after that night that the terror began.
On the seventh day of the journey the "Sea Witch" discovered a small
port city, needing to resupply Francis had the crew steer the ship to the
docks. It was a welcomed stop as the crew was getting a bit restless and needed
to unwind. As Francis made his way off the ship he noticed the moon high in the
sky, full and bright. Only a small group of men decided to remain on the ship
and when Francis returned with some of the supplies he would find some of these
men lying on the deck ripped apart as if attacked by a wild animal. he began to search the rest of the ship and
discovered more lying below bleeding from the neck from what appeared to be two
stab wounds. only a few survived the attacks but could not give any accurate
account of what had happened.
As the rest of the crew returned and witnessed
the aftermath of the attacks many began a search of the area and discovered
several bloody wolves lying in the city square shot by the locals who claim
that the wolves were seen coming from the ship. One local man, known only as
"Pappy" was rambling about a curse placed on the city, and begged the
crew to take him with them. The crew did not want to stay to hear the full
story, took the man, boarded the ship and set sail as quickly as
possible.
The "Sea Witch" sailed for many more days until
the next sighting of land. Francis was hoping for another chance to give his
crew a much needed rest but unfortunately the land mass turned out to be a
small island nothing more than a small sandbar. The crew was getting restless,
more and more of them turning up missing, several refusing to work during the
daylight hours, and others seemingly losing their minds repeating the story of
the curse mentioned on their last port of call. Francis feared a mutiny would
be forthcoming.
The final night before this new land
was discovered another full moon appeared in the sky, shining brighter than any
moon Francis had ever seen. Shortly after the dinner meal screams were heard
coming from lowest decks of the ship. Francis bolted quickly towards the
terrifying sounds to find what appeared to be a wolf standing on its hind legs
attacking one of the crew.Without hesitation Francis drew his pistol and
fired his single shot at the beast
hitting it directly in the heart. The beast let out a huge roar and ran past
Francis up to the upper deck more crewmen took shots at the beast driving it
from the ship into the waters below.
Returning to the wounded crew
members in the lower deck Francis was met by Ayden who was tending to the
wounded men. As Francis looked around he noticed the same injuries as the first
attacks the night of the port of call, some of the men torn apart others with
the same stab wounds to the neck. He turned to Ayden and noticed traces of blood
from the corner of his lips. Asking if he was injured Ayden told Francis it
must have come from the crew he was attending to. Francis began to search for
the captain but he was nowhere on board no one had seen him all evening.
A flash of the encounter with the beast ran
through Francis' mind "The beast was wearing a shirt belonging to the
captain...but that is impossible". "Could the tales of the curse that
was told to the men be actually true?" As the sun began to rise many of the
men rushed off the top deck and Ayden also excused himself and retreated to his
quarters. Pappy was sitting up near the bow of the ship his clothes torn
mumbling to himself, Francis approached him fearing he too was attacked but as
Pappy rose and turned to Francis no injuries were seen. Pappy looked at Francis
and recognized his confusion, placed a hand on Francis' shoulder and said
"it is better you do not know." and with that Pappy walked away.
Another call from the crow's nest brought Francis out of his
reflection and to the situation at hand. The long boats were prepared to take
the landing party ashore. The anchor dropped and the boats lowered, Francis and
his small team made way to the shore. As the party drew closer to the shore a
crew member shouted a body lying ahead and when they could see clearly it was
discovered that the body was that of the Captain. Francis jumped from the boat
and rushed to Victor, noticed that the shirt he was wearing, torn by the many
bullet holes that were fired, was in fact the same as the beast from the night
before. Francis decided that the crew will never know this detail and that it
would be best to tell them it looks as if he battled the beast and was thrown
overboard.
Camp was set up quickly and the scouting party returned with
fresh game as the boats from the "Sea Witch" began to come ashore
with supplies and the body's from the attacks of the night before. Francis knew
that the first priority was to give those crewmembers a proper burial. The
remaining crew, 30 in all, were broken down into teams to begin mapping,
scouting and establishing a strong base of operations...... (To be Continued)
