Fear And Loathing In New Crests

1st of Pegasus – 11:50 pm
Journal Addendum – Hope
Note to self: Update Journal more often,
Times have been Galling and Grand, Calm and Challenging, yet for some reason I start to feel that I might be up to the task the Gods have set for me. Normally one gets his reward for hard work at the end of the task but here I am, watching the reflections in the water and I see Her eyes gazing back at me in a thousand ways.

Hail Isis, glorious Goddess,
Day is done
and the night is come,
the sun is set
and the stars emerge.
This is the Evening Rite,
the rite to end
the day of light.
Let your instrument sound
hailing You with all homage,
Isis, glorious Goddess.
To the candlewick the fire I raise on the altar set to You,
Isis, glorious Goddess,
And the night-time incense rises, sweetly mixed,
to put me in the mind of perceiving You,
Isis, glorious Goddess
Who rises behind me like a flame of gold
and brushes my back with deft wings.
I make open the nape of my neck to You.
Let Your portal welcome You,
O Isis, Great and glorious Goddess.
Up my hands rise and hold the curved bow of exaltation,
And rise once more to the sharp angle of invocation.
Come, oh great and glorious Goddess,
Come in the fullness of force and love,
let Your garment for a moment clothe You,
O Isis, Goddess great and glorious.

I was chosen and sent to help with a monumental task, and in doing so have found my path without even looking for it. I can hear my reward whispering in the wind and Laughing in the Trees, Her voice singing hymns amongst the Joyful Ringing of the Bells.

Father Philip was glad to see us, even if there was a Minotaur in our midst, in fact the only person who seemed to make Father Philip uncomfortable was Overkill, but you just have to listen to the meaning of the words he doesn’t say to get past his gruffness. If he hasn’t axed you in the face it still probably means you are a friend. We rested overnight, with Xerx’ses requesting to stay in the church, I didn’t have any problem with it and neither did Father Phillip, but surely he would have been more comfortable in a bed, but I guess he wasn’t looking for comforts of the flesh.

The next day was one of happy reunion, Tyvernos the Gnome, whom I had yet to meet found us, and we had a happy little reunion. He is . . . unusual, more so in person then just reading about him shows, but he is a good soul happy in his place in the world. After the get together we went shopping and Tyvernos showed his generous side, offering to get some important items for his Holy Relic of Apis, however calmer heads prevailed and we just traded in some more common treasure for what we were looking for. After spending the day shopping (everyone wanted something good to take to the games) we eventually returned to the Church, where I requested Father Phillips blessing for our party, which he gladly gave and I prepared for the Teleport. Dammit, I didn’t mention it earlier, we have a cunning plan. The strange (Erased for security reasons) no should call him by his name. Ja’Deir readied his strange majiks and transferred a part of Xerx’ses memory to mine, so i could picture Rogtilda properly. I called upon the power of Isis and suddenly the world slipped sideways, I stumbled slightly and then straightened. Isis had shown who was whose mama and Teleported us all there flawlessly. I said a quick prayer of thanks under my breath and we got about our business readying the Ship, and what a strange ship is was, knots would loosen when needed, buckets of slop would almost, but not quite spill. Oh yes he/she/it can talk, I always thought ships were female but this one has a definite male air about him and If I hadn’t reads the books of CrIsis I would have thought that Irascible rascal Jadeir was playing pranks on me. I can recommend sailing on an intelligent ship, it makes things a whole lot more pleasant as the ship tries to help. The ship was ready fairly quickly and Overkill set course for New Crests.
The next few days were very pleasant, sailing along, fishing and working in the sun. I can see why Overkill likes this so much, he even got to show off a bit sailing through some reefs and then on the 6th of Pegasus Cava spotted sails and warned everybody. We jumped to our stations like we had drilled for this. Overkill recognised the Flag, Black Sun on Red this time. It was a Pirate who had more mercy then most as he would let you live if you didn’t fight back and he goes by the name Blackbeard. I think he was just envious of Overkill and wanted to show who was best. Overkill picked the best way out of the trap as Blickbeard had 6 ships, he had obviously done a bit of research and knew that one ship wouldn’t have much chance of stopping us.

The ships got closer and closer so I started planning for a battle, but when we got within 1000ft the Ships pilot of the ship we were going to ram leaped 50ft up into the air and overboard, I’m guessing he recognised us and decided he didn’t want to fight. Brave Sir Xerx’ses then leapt to the rescue of said Pirate by transforming into a Gryphon, he certainly is diverse in his abilities, but his Moral strength is like that of Adamantite. I Called upon Isis’s power to give us cover and a thick fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere and Xerx’ses disappeared, covered by the same fog. Overkill was still set in his determination to Ram, the distance closed 50ft, 40ft, 30ft, and then suddenly a freak wave picked Rogtilda up and spun him slightly and we totally missed crashing into the enemy vessel. Overkill recovered masterfully and we made for the open sea. A suspiciously helpful wind then suddenly filled the sails and we arrowed off into the fog and then out again. Overkills masterful sailing skills had us leading and slowly pulling away from the Fiends of the Sea, but our luck sort of turned again and we came across a Land of the South Winds ship, apparently it was out hunting pirates so we called that we were CrIsis and there were pirates a few leagues back, Somehow our words seemed to get twisted and they called out for us to heave too and prepare to be boarded. I’m no Legal expert but that sounded suspicious fo we decided to forgo their generous offer and they then decided to fire a warning shot right into Rogtilda. I didn’t want to harm them so I went downstairs and changed into my Ceremonial Robes, Praying to Isis as I did, and when I finished I felt Isis’s beneficence shine on me and I started glow. I went back up on deck where the Southers were indeed trying to cripple us. I talked and my voice fairly boomed across the water. Cease and desist or feel the full might and Wrath of the Church of Light upon thee and thy soul. Surprisingly enough it worked and they stopped firing long enough for us to get the hell out of there, so we did.

The next few days were peaceful again, that’s one of the good things about being at sea, it’s really hard for people to sneak up on you.
We stopped by Ironshod and the rest of the party talked to past acquaintances will I prayed, and after a brief stay we headed on to New Crests.
Xerx’ses and I then had a long enjoyable talk about morals, rights, wrongs and Good and Evil. Xerx’ses shows the moral fibre of the Blessed Warriors themselves and looks like he will be the parties moral compass, as Overkill is the physical.
We reached New Crests after 15 or 16 days all told and sailed into the Harbour feeling happy.
When we docked and went onto land the friendly feeling we had built up burnt away in a tide of Hatred and Racism as the locals saw Xerx’ses and immediately decided we were a threat. A fight broke out and we made it back to Rogtilda, and they unleashed their catapults on us. Thankfully our magics prevented any major harm to us and we eventually managed to get things calmed down enough to talk to someone in charge, It was the Mayor of New Crests himself, and after almost 7 seconds of him talking made me wish that I was a Priest of the Dark path so I could curse his stupid provincial little mind. We eventually managed to convince him of who he was talking to especially after Mikala showed up and things started to proceed a little bit easier, but he wore his hatred of Xerx’ses plain to see. If I can find a scroll of Boils he is going to have to use a lot of makeup to cover his nose.

Annoted by Indaris the morning of Pegasus 1 and evening of Pegasus 18, in the 1st year of King Guy.

Caravel Photo byPortugal Navy