Wrecked at the Edge of the World

Faced with a binding oath, all the brashness and bravado seems to have faded from my companions. I stepped into the faerie ring alone, accepting Witchthorn's oath, so that we could continue with our mission. Quailing from a commitment seems odd; it's no worse than the violent deaths we court on a daily basis, and the gains are obvious.

Thanks to the shirkers, we only have a month to return with Witchthorn's price (or with sufficient force of arms to unseat him -- though he could simply avoid us in that case). Witchthorn told us that Jartik went to the Isle of Secrets, among the Isles of Light and Darkness, 3000 miles east of the shore of the Shattered Lands. That's much too far for any means of transport that I can muster. In an ironic twist, he then revealed that the only man with the knowledge and means to reach the Isle of Secrets is the Captain of the Black Lightning -- who we so recently crossed in Valen.

We could teleport to reach the Black Lightning, but there was some concern about a mishap landing us in the ocean, so I first fabricated a launch out of a suitable tree. The others were suitably impressed; I'm beginning to wonder how I ever lived without this kind of power. This ease in transformation is so fulfilling I forget how newfound it is.

When we appeared without warning, in a boat, on the mid-deck of the Black Lightning, the sailors overcame their surprise to closely surround us. Fortunately the Votaur Captain was more bemused than angry, and agreed to take us to the Isle of Secrets for a surprisingly small one-way fee. Apparently he dealt with Witchthorn in order to gain ths ship, which is full of surprises: a Storm elemental drives it at immense speed, and he uses an obscure magical artifact for navigation.

Days from land, we sighted a wall of inky darkness across the horizon. The Captain stopped the ship within a few miles (so he said) of the blackness, and told us that the island we sought was about fifteen miles away straight on the other side. Before we could negotiate for return passage, though, the ship was attacked by a monster out of the deep -- a guardian or a wandering marauder, I don't know.

The Kraken emerged and slapped huge tentacles and arms across the ship, bellowing out a cloud of evil which paralyzed Malakar and Borrow before they had a chance to act. I knew it wasn't a "natural" Kraken (well, as natural as Kraken can get) but I couldn't tell exactly what planes had warped it. A bitter fight ensued, as the Kraken wiped the decks clear of crew and shrugged off our attacks; though the Captain got in a few good blows before falling.

It became clear that we were losing the fight, with Malakar and Borrow helpless and most of my spells exhausted, so Livia and I raced back to the deck (I was levitating out of reach of the beast, naturally) and dimension doored us all away into the water. I held us levitated just out of the water, using the ship as cover from the Kraken, as Ili hacked Malakar's divine scrolls to release and heal him and Borrow.

Picture this: we're dripping wet, half dead, having lost definitively to the Kraken, all the sailors are dead, and the ship is being torn apart. The nearest land is 15 miles away inside a mysterious darkness. What does Malakar want to do as soon as he is freed? Attack the Kraken, of course! I thought he was nuts but Borrow was game, so I protected them as best I could with invisibility and followed along at a safe distance.

We came awfully close to defeat again, but Malakar's smote the beast with his full fury, and Borrow's unleashed the full lethality of his shortsword, and the Kraken fell into ruin.

Now we board the remnants of the ship, barely afloat, to see what we can scavenge. I do not plan to linger here, lest another monster attack. It looks like at least one of the launches is left, so we should be able to reach the island as planned. Getting back without the Captain may be another story.