The Life of An Adventurer

Chapter Three - Battle on The Bellamea

A few minutes later I hear the orc, through the speaker next to me. "Ship to left." Comes his distorted voice through the pipes. I turn my head to the left, peering out into the gloom. In the distance, there is a huge shape slowly moving towards us in the twilight. It's a huge ship, dwarfing ours in comparison. I turn the ship starboard, after a few minutes, that larger ship slowly starts moving past us on the port side – the name comes into view, Bellamea. The name rings a bell, and as more of the ship comes into view – its war wracked body, it has five gun platforms three on the fore, and two on the aft – they look like seventy-five-millimeter shell cannons. There are thirteen metal storm cannons on the deck I can see. Along the broadside are twenty-four cannons with reinforcements around the gun ports. The superstructure is a freestanding tower behind the three platform guns. On deck are two smoke stacks coming out of it. I realize it's a lady's class battleship from The Republic. The Republic was a parliament of eleven islands that fell into the sea, over sixty years ago; which was founded by the three wives of a corrupt king, after he died. They were in the Great War, and their collapse sent the whole world back by decades. I set the wheel to keep alongside of it as I head down stairs. I get onto the deck, where the orc, human, elf, and archer have gathered.

The orc has some rope with a grappling hook on it, swinging it around. They all turn to me as I get closer. "We're boarding the ship." The archer says defiantly, crossing his arms. I smirk. "Good work, thinking ahead makes ordering you around less of a hassle." I say, grinning widely as he turns a little pink, scowling down at me. I look at the orc, he's staring at me, waiting. I nod my head, and he grins, throwing the hook up, thirty feet, onto the railing of the ship. He tugs on it a few times, making sure it's secure, tying it to our ship – so we are being towed by the much larger ship. "Go turn our engines off." I tell the elf, looking up at the ship. She leaves the deck, and a few minutes later the engines die. As she comes back up I order her to stay with the ship while the rest of us go up and search. We're looting an abandoned ship. We climb the rope up onto the fore deck. Looking around there are bodies of bones and partial mummified corpses, laying around the deck. We search them, finding some antique guns, ammo, and swords. After each body is picked over I order the men to start tossing the bones and corpses over board. "Back to the earth, sky and sea, back to your makers and to your ancestors, leave to the Ever Bright, leave your bodies and may you reach the final resting place we all must go to."

After the last body is dumped on the fore deck, we slowly start making our way around the tower and platform guns, towards the aft, looting the chain guns and ammo, they look to be repairable. As we go we're tossing bodies overboard as we find them. We come to a small grate near the anchors, peering down into it, there is a curled-up pile of clothes with what looks like a young girl. I jump down, and inspect her. She's a mummified corpse of a young priestess of VaHlynn – she appeared to have died in terror, the look of fear marring her face even in death. I take her robes – might need a disguise later – before hoisting her back up on deck; I say a prayer before throwing her overboard like the rest. After clearing the deck, we move towards the tower, heading up to the bridge. When we make it to the top most landing, there's a hallway with five doors on it, two in the left, two on the right and one at the end of the corridor. I turn to the first door on the left, it's a small room with a bunk, a table, a chair, and a door leading to a bathroom. On the table is a diary, and a mummified arm. The diary is open, so I start reading the last entry.

"When they come, I don't know what I'll do, there was so much I haven't done, and now I'll never do. If someone finds this, run. Run because they're coming...."

At the end is a dark stain, and when I look closer I notice that it's dried blood, I step back, really looking at the room. I notice dark stains all over the desk, wall and floor, dried blood, probably from the poor sailor who left his ominous warning. I leave the room, the others have been exploring the other rooms, I cross the hallway going to the first room on the right. It's locked, so I pull out my tools and pick the lock, opening the door. It's an estate room and the inside is a mess, it looks like it's been tossed, possessions are everywhere, items thrown all over the room. in the corner near the warped bathroom door are six partially mummified corpses surrounding a bowl, with six cups lying in their limp hands. I go over and look into the bowl, its blackened with mold, it occurs to me that there was something so terrifying that they had to drink poison to escape it. I turn towards the bathroom, managing to push open the damaged door. It looks like a grenade went off in here, there are bits of bones embedded all around, and black scorch marks showing where the bomb had burn the room. I leave the estate room, going to the second door on the left.