Captains Log of the Emperor of the Waves
Captain’s Log - Narváez Tsiyu - Emperor of the Waves
…At approximately 21:00 the 42nd of this moon, our escort - Drallion’s Spear - and our ship were beset by a sudden storm. Separated from Drallion’s Spear, we were blown off course, possibly southeastward but it was admittedly hard to tell. We were at the mercy of Procan’s rage for perhaps five hours, and by then we were thoroughly lost. The sky stayed dark with clouds, making solar navigation impossible. I was hoping to delay this entry until our position could be reliably determined via stars or coastline, but alas - two dawns and the sky remains opaque.
In the meanwhile, we have attempted to let the trade winds take us to shore; the ocean is not too wide in these parts. The compass indicates we are being taken on a southwestern course, and so we shall arrive near our intended destination anyways. The winds are strong, too. Stronger than usual. Our voyage should be short, then, Gods willing
I fear another storm.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
44th of Middays, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
44th of Middays, 209 Imperial Era
The skies have stayed dark. No celestial navigation nor location can be performed. The winds have remained steady in speed, but the compass has not been so reliable. Either the panther Zephyr has gone mad, or something is interfering with all our needles. One moment we’re headed due southwest, the next north-northeast! Perhaps that storm was arcane in nature in a way we did not realize.
The crew is restless; they don’t like letting the wind carry us and they fear without our escort we may be vulnerable to piracy. While I share in their anxiety about the former, I cannot understand the latter; we have not seen a single ship out on these dark waters in the three days since our separation from Drallion’s Spear! Besides, our most valuable cargo is promissory notes; hardly the sort of thing the Sahuagin would assault a vessel for.
We have enough rations for another month’s worth of travel. Even were we to be lost as sea, surely we’ll find a friendly ship, port, or charted isle to get our bearing and refuel before the equinox.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
45th of Middays, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
45th of Middays, 209 Imperial Era
The skies cleared! After nearly two long weeks of being adrift under a dark sky the blue is above us once more! While our compasses have remained inane the crew’s spirits - and my own - have soared. Now we need only await sundown, and we might know where we are in this vast ocean.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
13:15 on the 1st of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
13:15 on the 1st of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Our voyage is accursed.
The sun has set and the stars are out, but they are of no use; they shift and move in strange ways. Not the ordinary twinkling of celestial lights, but more the… meanderings of ants – or the writhing of a cephalopod. The World’s Arch is an unhelpful reference as well; points of light dart behind its veil and from beyond it like eyes rapidly blinking. No stars are still; the North Star seems wholly absent in this bizarre tapestry – instead there is a new wandering star in the sky, a planet I have not seen before in all my learning of star maps. It swirls and twinkles red and blue, violet and brown – as if the Gods cannot decide what color to make their new creation.
I do not like this new star.
I know not what fell magics have accomplished this, but the crew is nigh unwilling to continue sailing under such strange skies. I fear a mutiny should one of them convince the others of a better plan than “follow the winds and pray”
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
19:35 on the 1st of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
19:35 on the 1st of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
The meandering stars have continued – and the wandering star sits seemingly still above us – but hope is perhaps on the horizon. The Dawn revealed a series of islands! They are very near; the archipelago must’ve been obscured by the darkness of night. The nearest is visible as a dark jagged mountain, its obsidian shores jutting from the surface and reaching into the sky. Considering a similar, larger isle further out has a pillar of white smoke, I assume these islands are volcanic. Less than ideal, but an inactive one would be suitable for harbor.
What’s strange, though, is that these islands match no known chain on any maps in my possession. Perhaps they are uncharted, or perhaps we have sailed far further south than I thought. I pray it is the former and not the latter; while all manner of dark beasts and odd men inhabit uncivilized places, if we are still in Procan’s Depths then perhaps we can be found.
We should make landfall within another day or two. Our luck is mot out yet.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
2nd of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
2nd of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Today we made landfall on this strange isle. It’s shores are indeed of volcanic glass, and as such little grows on this blasted heath. I find that strange in and of itself – the spires of this isle are old and worn, there must’ve been time for rich soils to form and all manner of plant life to take root, right?
Thus far the crew and I have found neither man nor beast upon this land (despite feeling watched, as if within a thick and populous forest at night) – merely smooth glass and a jagged caldera. To the northeast lies further mountains, the furthest and tallest having a huge peak of black contrasting against a white plume of volcanic smoke. To the southwest lie, as far as we can see, one further isle – only a black spire, like an obelisk, left of its mountain. We have anchored the ship on the shore and will continue to rest there. I do not think there is anything of use on this strange island.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
3rd of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
3rd of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
I sent a few of the boys – Juan and Listens to the Wind – out to scout the next island over on a rowboat this morning. They have not yet returned, and it is getting late. I hope they are alright. Should they not return by nightfall, a more thorough search will need to be conducted.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
17:30 4th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
17:30 4th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Seeing no sign of the earlier party, the men and I went out in two bands of ten each seeking our missing comrades. As the waxing moon rose we set out, but all night we searched – and still no sign of them save for their rowboat, bobbing in the wake, tied to a rock on shore. I fear they may have drowned, or gotten lost, perhaps trapped in a crevasse somewhere.
We will wait two more days to see if they return to us, and then attempt to set sail as the storm clears. The sky is still so strange, and the missing crewmembers has everybody on edge. I do not like this place. We must leave.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
02:45 5th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
02:45 5th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
We searched again for our comrades tonight. We did not find them, but we did discover a wrecked ship on the far side of our neighboring island. A large galley, The Sanguine Jewel. It appears to be many decades old, scrapped upon the rocks and missing its entire aft half. The main-mast still stands – albeit at a strange angle – a tattered Keoish flag flapped loosely in the coastal wind. It is both comforting to see that we were not alone here, and terrifying to think what happened to those Imperial Men.
Juan and Listens to the Wind were not aboard or around the ship. Neither were the bodies of whoever was once aboard it – nor any notable cargo. Perhaps their flesh went to birds, and their bones and belongings to the sea.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
6th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
6th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
The moon as begun to wane again, and tonight we found their bodies, face down in the shallows on the eastern shore of our island. Strangely, they seemed to be in an advanced state of decay; their skin was bulbous, their color blue, and their flesh rotting; but they could only have been dead for three days!
Worse yet, it is obvious to us all that they died either due to a series of terrible falls upon jagged obsidian spikes – which these strange and twisted volcanoes have no shortage of – or were lacerated by enemy blades. This can mean but one thing:
We are not alone on these isles.
The crew and I are in agreement; we have overstayed our welcome and must sail posthaste out from under these strange stars and away from these black spires. I care not for the night; we flee under cover of darkness.
Perhaps the green lights the crow’s nest can see from the other island won’t notice us that way.
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
7th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Captain Narváez Tsiyu
7th of the Month of Silver, 209 Imperial Era
Cover image:
Ghosts of Saltmarsh p. 88
by
Wizards of the Coast
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