Taleus 8, 1806: Black Skies

From the Journal of M. Maelstorme Smythe
Captain of the Signet Ship "Seraph"
Captain's Log: Official Log, the Thirteenth
Date: Taleus 8, 1806, Year of the Drake

After breakfast this morning, I sent several teams of armed men out in the overcast daylight to collect samples of the aetherie crystals. I stood with Solomon Hungan and two new gunners on the main deck with our aetheric rifles at the ready to protect the teams of men with cover fire. Within a minute of the men's boots leaving the surf, we spotted rapid movement under the sand from the direction of the ocean. Sand rose and split in a long, rapidly accelerating trail. Mr. Hungan called the shot and aimed.

A healthy-sized (8 foot long) tunnel eel burst from the sand, it's jaws crackling with electricity and drawing the aetheric charge from the men's guns as it struck. Mr. Hungan fired on the eel, severing its bottom jaw. The eel's jaw hit the sand, charred and issuing the signature blue smoke of an aetheric energy burn. The rest of the beast flailed madly, and gave Evander Jones a nasty jolt as he met it's top fangs with his saber. Without a full set of jaws, the creature was unable to produce enough electrical charge to either paralyze Mr. Jones or draw the charge from the four-barreled aether pistol he then produced to blast a rather large hole through its sandy skull.

A second eel was upon them in due course, but was ruthlessly dispatched by the vigilant Doctor Dayafter with his rapier and aether pistol before it broke free of the sand. A third eel surfaced beside Chef Gregoe, immediately striking at the massive Chef. His leather-covered chainmail gauntlet saved him from a nasty burn, and he immediately set upon the giant eel with "Papa's knife", a hulking butcher knife with a wickedly sharp, curving edge (our Chef likes to keep all of his good personal knives on him at all times). Chef and his staff proceeded to gut and skin the creature right there on the beach as a calmly intrigued Dr. Dayafter produced several specimen jars.

The fourth, fifth and sixth tunnel eels exploded from the sand near the fresh pile of eel entrails. Fortunately, Mr. Hungan and I had anticipated this. I shot through the eyes of the fourth eel, while one of our new riflemen (Mr. Thurmond Valder) achieved an impressive shot, catching through the fifth eel's head and into the sixth. The men then quickly dispatched the sixth, slightly flailing, eel in short order while I openly bet Valder that he could not repeat that incredible shot. He grinned and accepted the bet for a later time, as we saw that no more eels were arriving to threaten the crew.

The teams arrived back aboard the Seraph before nightfall; a detail that I had been adamant upon. Chef Gregoe prepared both citrus-braised fillets and a rich, tangy stew from the fallen tunnel eels that evening, claiming that there was enough of the eels left for another two meals for the entire crew. The chef also informed me that he was preparing the officers a "special surprise" for tomorrow morning's breakfast, which will be consumed before I lead most of the crew to venture onto the black isle to enter the island cave system.

I have been watching the beaches every night; smoking spicy clove-laced tobacco from father's pipe, with my long aether rifle in my arms and my journal in my long coat's pocket. I do not lack trust in my men to be lookouts during the night's darkest hours. I have simply done this for as long as I can remember, climbing to the highest point on the ship to think and watch the stars ever since I first began sailing as a lad. Being high above sail or zeppelin - close among the heavens - helps me think, I reckon. In truth, I also find it nigh impossible to remain asleep at night without Morrigan with me, so I await her each night atop the crow's nest. I continue to tell myself that one of these nights, my sweet raven will fly back to my shoulder as I maintain my nightly vigil...Axiom, I do prattle on at times.

In any event, I had been spotting movement on the island's shore ever since the Seraph drew close enough to view the beach in detail. Over the past few nights, my telescope revealed roughly human-sized, crab-like crustaceans with many beady black eyes scavenging the black sands after sunset. The creatures walked upon a multitude of tall, spindly legs. Last night, they converged around the remains of the tunnel eel corpses, their large claws surprisingly nimble as they gorged themselves upon the remains with small, razor-sharp teeth. One creature in particular was extremely large, and obviously dominant, as it claimed a large share of the feast (also, its exoskeleton was more faded and battle worn, and sported larger horny growths than the other creatures' shells).

Every so often, another crustacean would try to nick a bit of the leader's food, at which point something incredibly unnerving happened; the dominant crustacean raised the back of its shell, suddenly producing a scorpion-like tail. Within seconds, the challenger did the same. The chitin-armored tails clashed against each other, each striking for purchase at weak spots underneath the other creature's exoskeleton. Within a few minutes of this duel for dominance, the largest scorpion crab (for I have not a better name for them as of yet) seized the stinging tail of the other creature in its massive claw and severed it in twain. As the other crab shrieked with pain, the largest creature struck its neck (or rather what I assumed was its neck) in a fleshy spot where two pieces of exoskeleton met. Even as the creature collapsed, the others were upon it, ripping its exoskeleton apart and devouring the challenger.

At this point, I opened the pocket communicator that DuBreens claims to have finally perfected. The exterior appears to be an ornate silver pocket watch, until one opens the lid, at which point the strange technology of the aether is revealed. I spoke Dr. Dayafter's name into the device. Doctor Dayafter's face appeared with a shaking blue-tinted glow on the lens as I watched it, incredulous that it actually worked.

"I am here, Captain. I say, are you noticing the charming behavior of the local wildlife?"

"I am indeed, Doctor. Prepare a long boat. We'll be going ashore."

Gus raised an eyebrow. "What exactly are you planning, Captain?"

"If we remain on that island at nightfall tomorrow and that giant stinging crab gets a chance, he shall have us trapped, and I foresee a possible bloodbath."

"How do you know that the creature is, in fact, a male? Perhaps she is an alpha female."

"Hmm...Could be a queen...Gus, does it matter, or are you just being difficult?"

Dayafter chuckled softly. "I am, in fact, being difficult, Captain. Are you certain of this course of action? Your reasoning is sound, but do you wish to directly confront the creature?"

"No."

I narrowed my gaze at the largest creature. I aimed carefully and fired. The shot was well placed, the blue bolt of aetheric energy burning instantly between the creature's front eyes, and ending with a vague blue glow somewhere within the creature. As it's challenger had before it, the largest crustacean toppled upon its spindly legs and collapsed. The other creatures appeared uncertain of what to do now that their leader was destroyed. I decided to give them some incentive. I felled six more of the scorpion crabs before the others quickly scuttled back into the sea. As the creatures scuttled clumsily from the shore into the brine below, I relaxed a bit.

We boarded the long boats soon after. I turned my gaze to the stars as we rowed in two boats toward the shore; Mr. Hungan, Mr. Jones and several other crewmen volunteered to go with us (Hungan said for our protection, at which point Gus and I shared a careful look; we knew the other volunteers to be confidantes of Jones). No breeze cooled my face; there is a leeching, stagnant humidity about this island that seems to invade the bones. Mist began to roll in from the strange interior of the dark, dormant volcano whose walls dominate the skyline, blocking the interior of the island like a great tower keep. The faintest of blue glows emanated just within the rims of the volcano's black spires. The waves shallowly covered the remaining aetherie crystals (of which there were few) among the rocks on the black beach, lending a ghostly, ethereal quality to the waters.

The men hefted the body of the massive scorpion crab into one long boat. Two more of the smaller bodies were loaded into the other long boat. We were just casting off from the shore when a shriek issued from deep inside the island. I recognized the sound from very painful memories. It was the unmistakable shriek of a woman being tormented. One thought overcame me...

"Morrigan?!" I started toward the caverns, drawing my pistol, feeling the heavy weight of upcoming deathly folly before me if I chose this course. Something insidiously malign lingered on this island. A thin-fingered hand closed quickly over my shoulder.

"Captain..." began Dr. Dayafter quietly.

"I know, Gus!" I hissed. "Axiom damn me, I know." I stopped in the sand, slowly holstering my pistol. At that moment, a terrible wailing roar pierced the night, echoing around us. The men began exchanging meaningful looks and cursing. They hastily began casting away toward the Seraph, and I backed away to join them.

"On the morrow, Mael," Gus replied calmly, his eyes on the caves. "On the morrow."

I nodded and returned to the left long boat with Gus, two men behind us.

We rowed slowly toward the Seraph, weighed down considerably by the dead crab creatures. In the boat beside us, I heard Evander Jones grumbling mutinously to the man behind him in low tones.

"This was a stupid risk...all fer some damn crab meat? And that shriek...knew having a woman on board was bad luck. Never should've..." mumbled Jones. I growled, drawing my saber in a smooth motion and slashing a long scar across Jones' face. Jones drew his four-barreled pistol, murder in his eyes.

The smooth click and electric buzz of an aether gun rang out suddenly, and everyone stopped. The barrel of Solomon Hungan's aether pistol nestled against the back of Mr. Jones' neck.

Solomon growled curses in some dark, forbidden language as his right arm draped lazily over the crewman in front of him, one pistol still lodged just above Jones' shoulder blades. The other pistol rested on the other shoulder of the crewman in front of him.

Directly behind me, two more sets of buzzing clicks followed. Dr. Dayafter's pistols pointed at the crewman behind him and the crewman behind Hungan in the other long boat. I watched Jones intently, then took the opportunity to strike, slipping the tip of my blade under his pistol's trigger guard, and flicking it forcefully onto the beach behind us. Jones raised his other hand.

"Wait!" yelled Hullman, the crewman behind Gus. "We can negotiate..."

Two aether shots sizzled and exploded in the night, making a disgusting, burnt framework of Jones' head. His hand dropped a small, hidden knife into the long boat as his body sprawled backward into the sea, splashing hard and disappearing beneath white foam and lapping waves. The barrels of Gus and Solomon's pistols billowed blue smoke.

"Would anyone else like to negotiate?" asked Gus loudly to the other gentlemen. The other men were very pale, and very quiet.

"Good," I replied, sheathing my saber. "If any of you lads chooses to continue Jones' mutiny, I shall cut ye down and leave ye twitching for the giant crabs. Do we have an accord, gentlemen?"

Their replies were all affirmative.

"Very well. Let's get back to the Seraph before those crab creatures get a taste of Jones and decide they want more of what be riding in the longboats."

The boats drew ever closer to the Seraph's engine bay. Aul du Breens stood at the open bay doors, holding a lantern and his short blunderbuss rifle. His spider monkey, Crash, sat upon his shoulder. As we drew alongside, Chef arrived and directed the crewmen to carry the crab carcasses into the walk-in freezer beside the galley (another marvel of aetheric science that resembles a giant metal ice box...I shall have to go into more detail on this at another time, however, for the hour is late). Not a word was spoken as the engine bay door closed. I nodded at the men, gave Solomon and Gus thankful cuffs on the shoulder, and headed for my quarters.

On the morrow, we shall enter that forbidding cave beyond the island shore, and see what we shall see. The scream...the roar...I am not entirely certain what they might mean. I can only pray that the shriek we heard was not my beloved Morrigan. If I did not have my crew to think of, I would be in that cave already. However, I do, and that hour will come all too quickly. I should attempt to sleep, though I know I cannot. Perhaps my next entry shall not be so bleak.

Axiom help us.

- Mael