Queen Lorel

524TuQuLo

As the party entered the hallway where the Manservant, Tolf, was meant to be found and they were stopped by a stern looking maid and a man who was obviously a healer of some skill.

‘If you’re here for Tolf then he’s asleep. The King should know better than to disturb a man thats resting.’ the stern maid snapped. The healer placed a hand on her shoulder in a kind manner.

‘Tolf is resting, I gave him some medicine to give him a dreamless sleep as the nightmares have gotten worse. Since the incident he has been unable to sleep and his dreams are filled with images of a beast in the halls of the castle. He calls out in his sleep but remembers very little when he wakes, just the feeling of claws on his skin and glowing eyes.’ the healer shook his head and looked comfortingly towards the maid.

‘He should be well enough to take visitors tomorrow after the potion has worn off.’

The party then turned their attention to the next person who the king had suggested, the Queen herself. Ascending the steps the party again admired the fine decorations that lined the halls and walkways as they followed the guard in front of them. They were so lost in the pleasantness of the room that when the man spoke they were startled. ‘Now stay behind me, don’t make sudden movements and remember, she is still the Queen.’ he said as he stared at them. After waiting for a few moments he opened the door that they had stopped at.

Inside the furniture looked worse for ware as several smaller chairs had been clawed to pieces or simply shattered. Bits of timber and cloth littered the room and it wasn’t for a few nervous heartbeats until they saw the queen. She sat in a relatively intact chair in the corner of the room where it was darkest and watched them as they entered the room. ‘Your majesty, we have some travellers, adventurers, here to ask some questions.’

The queens demeanour shifted slightly before she stood and walked forward. The teal dress she wore was accented with a brown tunic that whilst being plain was obviously well made and fit for the queen. ‘So despite me being cured of this disease that no one will tell me what I had I now have these interlopers coming to laugh at me, the mad queen who loses herself and attacks her servants?’ she snapped with the last word punctuated by a snapping growl sound that the party had heard something similar before. After a moment her eyes shifted to something softer again.

‘I apologise. I assure you I am not normally this ill mannered or aggressive. I don’t remember much during the incidents,’ she said as she looked and gestured around the room at the broken furniture and cloth. ‘but I do remember the feeling of being trapped, cornered and angry.’ she smiled weakly, a silver necklace around her neck glinting in the light that came from the windows that nearly had no curtains remaining on them.

After a few more questions, some of which she was more aggressive and snappy with her tone and others she was more polite and queen-like the party were ushered out of the room. The room looked like a wild animal had run rampage in there but the queen admitted to doing it herself during the fits of rage that she was getting.

As they opened the door the guard looked back at the queen who made a noise. ‘Seth, can you get the cooks to send up whatever they are making for lunch, it smells delightful.’ the guard nodded, looking a bit confused before closing the door, baring it from the outside and heading down stairs. It wasn’t until the party had reached the bottom of the stairs that they could smell the roasted mutton wafting down from the kitchens.

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Herald of the Shadow

523TuHeSh

The Stardrinker had been cutting through calm waters since dawn, its sails full, its crew settled into the rhythmic work of the voyage. The sea, gentle and predictable, stretched in all directions, kissed by warm sunlight. It was the kind of evening that made even the most seasoned sailors feel at ease – until the winds shifted. Captain Cali adjusted her course and watched the few gulls flying above them take off in the direction they last saw land. Calling out to her crew and the party who had been helping out on deck she got them to keep a look out for trouble.

Captain Cali noticed it moments before the party did as her fingers tightening around the helm as a breath of colder air curled across the deck. The golden hues of the midday sun dimmed unnaturally, as if swallowed by something unseen. To the east, an ink-black smear darkened the horizon, creeping toward them as the clouds spread outwards like ink in water.

The crew, unaware of their captain’s tension, continued their duties but started to notice the storm. They were heading south and with some luck they would avoid the storm entirely. But luck was not on their side and despite them exchanging good-natured complaints about the incoming storm. ‘A squall?’ The second mate, Roth, scowled at the distant clouds. ‘Nothing unusual.’ Yet Cali remained silent, her gaze fixed beyond the approaching weather, beyond the shimmer of rain and the chromatic hues that the fading sun sent their way signalling the guarantee of rain with the storm to come.

Yet it wasn’t until her eyes glanced back towards the storm that her breath caught, a party member calling out to her at the same time as they both reached the same conclusion. There was a ship sailing out of the storm at a great speed towards them.

At first, it was just another silhouette against the dying light – no visible sails, no visible crew, a vessel drifting in the waves as though the ship itself was fleeing the storm. Cali exhaled sharply, stepping back from the wheel, fists clenched at her sides. It was likely propelled by the winds and seeking to escape from what they had suffered through. The sails were in fact there but a tattered mess and were dark as if fire hate ripped through them. The ship looked like it was in rough condition but somehow still sailing – whoever was still on board would likely be in just as bad shape and needing help, that is if there was anyone on board.

‘It’s here,’ she muttered, though no one had asked. When Roth appeared at her side they had a brief discussion where Cali could be seen visibly denying a request.

The party caught wind of her hesitation – Cali had shown no fear against the pirate ambush the previous day, nor had she faltered in the face of storms. But this? This sight had unsettled her and that gave them cause to be unsettled. As the dark ship drifted nearby, Cali having ordered their sails to be taken in but ready to be let loose in an instant they watched and hailed the other ship to see if there were any survivors.

The second mate, Roth, and several crew members peered over the rail and up at the larger ship, their initial curiosity melting into unease. The Stardrinker had been holding course, yet somehow, impossibly, the phantom vessel had drifted directly into their path out of the clouds that had now caught them, but there was no storm just a endless shadow as the clouds above blocked the sun. Despite them calling out to the crew that was on the ship it appeared as though the ship had made it here without sails or crew.

The bilge rat reported in and gave an update of what she had spied from the top of the mast. The dark ship had its hull and deck was blackened, not just by time, but with a sickly shade of decay, as though charred by fire that had never burned away. Ragged remnants of sails fluttered despite the stillness of the air. Its deck, deserted, was lined with skeletal rigging, coiled and waiting like the limbs of sleeping beasts.

And then, it happened.

The clouds above had caused them to light the lanterns around the deck to ensure that they had sufficient light to continue working. However slowly the lanterns dimmed, the flames flickering from a wind that none of them felt and it was as if the light was being drowned out by something stranger.

‘Turn us aside,’ Cali ordered, her voice taut with something close to dread.

Roth hesitated. ‘Captain—’

‘There is no crew,’ Cali interrupted. ‘No signs of distress. We move on.’

But sailors were creatures of superstition, and hesitation wormed its way through the crew. Some murmured about the unwritten laws of the sea and the good folk that braved the waters. The laws about answering the call of stranded vessels and for what happened to souls that were left to go mad on a ship devoid of sails or aid. Others whispered old tales of ghost ships, and the stories that surrounded them how there was a tale of a ship just like this that used to appear before calamity.

And the party? Their choice did not matter. The Stardrinker continued forward – whether by argument, by the demands of its second mate, or by the sheer will of the sea itself.

As they neared The Shadow, something shifted. The ship was no longer adrift – it was as if it watched them, waiting for aid or something else.

Then, from deep within its hull, a sound echoed – a groaning, ancient voice of wood and rigging stretching unnaturally. The ropes tightened. The shadows beneath its deck crawled.

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