Player Progression Story Mysteries Of The Second Isle, And The Treasures Of Cooke

The Second Isle and its mysterious lights.​

Team one began their venture by setting sail towards the northern seas once more to investigate the reports of mysterious lights on the shores of the second island, provided by the accounts of local fishermen. The efforts were spearheaded by the team leader, and captain of the ship, Baron Salvatore di Olzolli, with the rest of the team consisting of; Cyrus Aredith, Eric Decimar, Seamus Tiernan, Florian Lupenzi, Alexander Donsley and finally Seraphina von der Ebene. The group began their venture first by weighing anchor in the port of a local fishing and harbor town that traded in goods in the north seas down south back to Regalia. They didn’t meet much scrutiny from the locals, given people of all shapes and sizes often came in and out of town frequently. Some members of the group opted to ask around the harbor and local fishermen before setting sail to collect their catch for the day while the rest of the group went straight to the tavern to ask about for local rumors and stories. Florian and Seamus found a fisherman who had seen the lights and recanted his ‘harrowing’ tale to them about how he saw wispy figures dancing off the top of the waters in the distance, saying it was no doubt the ghosts of drowned fishermen who were dragged off underneath the waves but-- the group knew better. While in the tavern some patrons kept ranting and raving about how the isle was godforsaken and cursed that no one who dares sail near is never seen nor heard from again. Eventually, the group found one fisherman who wasn't as superstitious as the others and claimed that in addition to seeing the strange blue wispy lights, he also saw torchlight and what looked like little men carrying cargo along the beaches in the late hours of the night. With their newfound information, they set sail again and began their venture off to the unknown shores of the second island in hopes of finding adventure-- and most importantly new discoveries and glory.

The next day the group arrived off the coast of the island and gathered to conduct the planning of their next move, they opted to send Eric first to both scout and serve as a diplomat, should there indeed be locals like the fisherman suggested, no doubt dwarves just like the last island. Just before Eric departed, magician Cyrus gave him one of the braids involved in the Rest-Speak spell to report back his findings without having to make the entire lengthy journey back himself. Eric was sent off in a modest rowboat and landed on the shoreline. At first, he was relatively safe and undetected, to which he began a small expedition of his own scouting the coastline, first to try and identify the source of the lights for himself and he found exactly that. It was the same moss from the previous Island that was home to leeches but only this time this one glowed a brilliant cyan light whenever night time or darkness seemed to fall upon it. Eric reached over to cautiously collect a few samples of it to return to the ship, but he was discovered by dwarves. Hearing a call in the distance and spotting a patrolling dwarf atop a bathogg pointing his way. Rather than running Eric began with the plan of diplomacy, slipping away his sample and boldly approaching the dwarven patrol in his shifted form attempting to converse with them. Unfortunately, however, diplomacy failed and Eric was taken prisoner under the pretenses of being a foreign trespasser on their Isle. He was brought back to what seemed like an Urdweld camp-- or at least the Captain in charge of the operation was an Urdweld.

Eric was brought to a large red tent set up in within a clearing in what looked like a small forest on the island, trees taken and planted there from the mainland. They seemed young like they had been recently placed there. But nevertheless, Eric was tied up and left in the tent while the dwarven company decided what to do with him. Eric used this time to consider his options, he first attempted to pick the lock of the metal shackles that bound his hands to little to no avail, they seemed as if they were on par with Regalia’s government issue provided to the Violet Order-- if not better. With his own past experience in the guard, he knew that was going nowhere. He opted to try and use words again until a realization crossed his mind; the braid, the braid that Cyrus gave him and instructed him on. He quickly got up and quietly shuffled to a nearby brazier to activate the spell and report back to the nearby ship off the coast with the situation. Luckily, the Dwarves didn’t quite frisk or pat Eric down and he quickly tossed it into the fire. The fire erupted briefly into a green flame before it began overflowing with smoke and soon later an image of Cyrus next to Salvatore appeared waiting for the report. Hastily he gave the news of his situation and discoveries before the dwarven guardsman came back. With a nod of acknowledgment, Salvatore turned to quickly round up the company for a daring rescue to save Eric from his dwarven captors.

As night began to fall Salvatore prepared the team for their next mission and took the last rowboat to sail up to shore from under the cover of night. Thankfully, Eric had given them precise instructions to just where the camp was located and as they made landfall they began the trek up. As they approached the camp they spotted the dwarves hauling Eric out of the tent before an Urdweld Captain for questioning up until the group heard a nearby dwarf shout “More o’ the damned trespassers! To arms kin! To arms!” as the group was quickly spotted, given their only infiltrator was already caught in the camp and none of them could sneak themselves. They quickly all brandished their weapons, Florian and Seamus took to nocking their arrows against their bows while Salvatore, Seraphina, and Alexander unsheathed their swords. Cyrus unclipped the shield from his back with a groan, “Oh joy.” as Dwarven riders atop bathoggs began to ride towards their position. Florian and Seamus managed to shoot out the legs of a few of the oncoming bathogg and dismounting some of their riders but they would have to confront the onslaught of the patrollers inevitably in order to save Eric, Seraphina took command of the situation using her field training to order Florian and Seamus to hold off the oncoming riders while they stormed the camp to rescue Eric. Alexander and Cyrus brandished their shields to protect Salvatore and Seraphina as they charged, intercepting the blows of Dwarven axes and hammers.

As the group of melee combatants charged into the camp and the pair of ranged archers behind them held the line of oncoming riders, the group met with a flurry of dwarven steel. Alexander and Seraphina using both shield and sword to parry what blows they could and attempting to block what they couldn’t but, Alexander found himself in a predicament as he tried to block the strike of a dwarven Warhammer with his shield. It shattered his shield and caused minor fractures to his arm, howling out in pain he sliced the leg of the dwarf in question- at the very least preventing that would be attacker from continuing that onslaught. While Seraphina covered Alexander, pommel striking a nearby charging dwarf and knocking him unconscious just before her feet, his last words were; “I’ll get ye’ for that ya damn elf sh-” and his words sputtered off as his world went dark. The fires of battle raged for what seemed like a small eternity but were actually just minutes. Salvatore and Cyrus fought their way to Eric with Cyrus providing protection and Salvatore making quick work of some of the more slow and clunky dwarven attackers. It seemed Salvatore was uniquely equipped to disabling some of the more heavily armored guardsmen wielding slower weapons, puncturing tendons and wearing them out with keen footwork, however, he received a minor slash from an axe in return. Cyrus, however, remained unscathed for the most part thanks to his skills with a shield that certainly had paid off. He did, however, receive his own fair share of bruises in turn. The group managed to fight their way to Eric and the Urdweld Captain. Salvatore in lieu with their plans quickly struck the dwarf over the head with a fist to knock him out and sling him over the shoulder, while Cyrus took a key off his unconscious body and set Eric free and began checking him over. Eric thankfully was unscathed for the most part. With their success in retrieving Eric, the group quickly rushed back to the archers which had more mounting concerns, quite literally as more and more riders took to the front. One got so close they managed to break Seamus’ leg with a Warhammer. Florian in the heat of the moment quickly swiveled around in an effort to save Seamus’ life from the next blow. Florian quickly threw a dagger at the head of one of the bathoggs and quickly killed the beast on the spot. The group quickly realized that they were getting vastly overwhelmed in an onslaught of dwarves and began a retreat to the rowboats as soon as possible, having to leave one of them behind. Cyrus turned around to help cover their escape, using his Callia’s Grace to block the blow from another dwarven Warhammer that would of, if connected, shattered Seraphina’s leg. The group quickly booked it and helped their injured up onboard the boat and quickly began to sail off out of the reach of the dwarven riders yelling obscenities in dwarven on the shore. Salvatore, painting with exhaustion and adrenaline reached up to wipe beads of sweat from his brow. Cyrus on the other hand quickly began tending to the injured, Seamus would be in crutches for a week and required consistent visits to the physician while the rest of the group had relatively minor wounds by comparison. All in all, no one was actually killed in the scuffle barring a few bathoggs the dwarves were riding and for the most part, it was a success. The group managed to capture an Urdweld official for questioning and obtained another sample of this island’s ‘moss’ for later study.

Once back in Regalia, the team had several options of which they could proceed or go forward, questioning the Urdweld and seeking out alchemical organizations to study the moss, Or herbalists to try and cultivate it in the city. The journey back to the city seemed longer than usual but the group no doubt still sang songs of joy in their hour of victory. They sought adventure and glory, and adventure and glory were exactly what they had found. The group celebrated with a few glasses of wine and a round of song on the deck of their ship on their voyage home.
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The Treasures of Cooke

Meanwhile, at the Regalian library, it took the trio of Dianne, Ernesta, and Damian many hours to sift through the old, tattered pages of the water-stained leather-back book. The journal, belonging to a deckhand known among the crew as ‘Scrub’, consisted of dozens of logs pertaining to the day to day activities of his journeys on The Nomad; scrubbing decks, friendships and squabbles with the other crewmates, even plunders and stormy weathers. What stood out, however, was the repetitive nature of calling Krayr a ‘home of the free’. Furthermore, there appeared to be mentions of crewmembers being ‘swapped out’ for new blood. One log, in particular, spoke of another crew member attempting to sneak a woman from Krayr’s brothel onto the ship, being caught and marooned on an island with nothing more than a cutlass as punishment, then simply being replaced only a few days later with another man from ‘the settlement’. When asking the nearby librarians and scholars for help, one pointed out Cooke’s crew must have been much larger than those that were executed in 280AC, after the Regalian navy sunk The Nomad, capturing Cooke and the crew on board. It was the last few pages of the logs that got rather confusing, standing out from the rest.

Spoiler: Journal Logs

Scrubs Log September 14 278AC

We’ve been sailing east for many weeks from Krayr, and finally moored off the coasts of Farah’deen. There be brown-skin free folk here but Captain hasn't ordered us to engage. Captains acting odd I say. He left the ship to board the Sigil of Captain Al Jaidah, and has disappeared within the brown-skin captains quarters with another man from a Sigil I do not recognize. If he doesn’t come out within the hour, The crew may get restless.

Scrubs Log September 15 278AC

Captain returned just after sundown yesterday and met us all below deck to speak. He says we’ll be returning to Krayr with the brown-folk and the other Captain, to work together, to start a new age for free folk like us. They’re calling them The Three Pirate Lords now. The captain said if he sees me Journal one more time he’ll throw it overboard and I along with it.

Scrubs Log October 29 280AC

I’ve been offboard The Nomad nearly two years now after the others settled on Krayr. Been working in the settlement instead, teaching others how to read and write while building our haven with the other crews. Word came today that The Nomad was sunk by the Regalians, Cooke was captured. Folk are getting restless here, some are saying they want to take what they can and leave.

Scrubs Log December 4 280AC

I’ve finally settled in Regalia after smuggling myself in. I’ll be starting a new life here and putting my old one behind. After the execution of Cooke, it was only chaos. The other Lords turned on each other, claiming portions of the treasures. Loyalists began to pick sides, turning neighbor against neighbor. I managed to take enough for myself to start a new life before escaping on a fishing boat from the harbor and sailing to Daen. Regalia is a big city, I can’t wait to begin exploring.

It was at the end of the book that a librarian they’d asked for assistance noticed something out of the ordinary. Drawn onto the last page of the journal was what appeared to be star map, consisting of commonly known constellations visible from the Crown City itself. Underneath was what would commonly be known amongst sailors as instruction of direction and distance following specific constellations. After an extensive search, no other map in the library had charted routes like anything similar, in fact, it appeared that what was a Navigational Sea Chart, led directly into a small section of uncharted waters near Daendroque. This left many questions to the trio of nobles; Who were these other so-called ‘Pirate Lords’, and what had they done to the island of Krayr before Cooke's execution? What became of Krayr after Cooke’s death, and most importantly, where did this Navigational Sea Chart lead to?

These questions would have to be answered at a later time, as after copying down the contents of the journal and its Sea Chart and making their way out of the library, Dianne suddenly felt a hand grab her shoulder, and another cover her mouth. Unbeknownst to the other two, Dianne had stopped in her tracks, feeling the cold touch of a small metal blade to her throat. A tall, brown-haired Ailor man rounded the corner, grinning mischievously. As he stepped into the light, it was no other than the famed treasure hunter, Fynn Bachehuber, well known amongst the treasure hunting community for his reckless behavior and undying greed for wealth and power.

“That’s it, little Lady, I’ll be taking that.” he spoke quietly in his heavy Daen accent, slowly reaching for the journal in Dianne’s hands. The Duke-Consort, knowing Ernesta and Damian held copies of what was written within, released the book from her hands, allowing the man to take it with no further trouble.

“It’s nothing personal Lady Black, but whatever Cooke’s been hiding is mine, and I’d advise you let me be.” he continued on, quickly sifting through the pages with a devilish twinkle in his eyes. After a quick nod to the mysterious figure behind Dianne, he snapped the book shut and she was released, the two men dashing off to disappear within the crowds conversing the city. With haste, Dianne hurried away to catch up with the other two and tell them of what had happened. One thing was clear for whoever would follow the clues discovered; they weren’t alone in the pursuit of Cooke’s secrets, and would have to act fast if they wished to use their head start to their advantage...​