Later that day Carlton, our outlook in the crow's nest, informed us that he had spotted a structure, a good distance off the coast, that looked like a partially submerged church belltower. The Captain decided to investigate, and as we approached, we could see further structures on the bottom of the sea. The ship was anchored carefully, and, courtesy of Master Krastus, each of us was encased by in a mystical bubble of protective air as we dove down.
Indeed, there was a whole small village below there, a small settlement, its architecture vaguely European, and unlike anything I had previously seen in Caribdus. We descended into the main square and picked to first investigate the cottage opposite the dark and foreboding church. There was a plaque attached near the door, with what seemed to be a name engraved in Latin script, the name of a Bohemian family perhaps.
The Captain ordered the door opened, and Master Krastus went to work rather unsubtly, with his large hammer. The bashing sounds resonated deeply across the village square. Before long, the door gave way, but as we found out, the cottage was not deserted at all. Instead, alarmed by the noise, two of the inhabitants, or what was left of them, sallied out, bloated but otherwise intact human corpses animated by some foul magic. The Archmage and the others faced the undead outside the door, blocking their onslaught. I was tempted to peer into a side window, in order to see whether there were more of these shapes inside, and indeed there were, and they were no less creative than me, as they had been tried to climb out the window to flank us. Now I was their first target, and I found myself quickly flanked by two of the fiends.
The whole scene was reminiscent of our first undersea ruin dive, up to this very point, for things were to change drastically. With a deafening noise, a giant creature emerged from the church. Far too large for the church gate, it cleft through, collapsing part of the facade on its way. And there it was, a colossal scaled horror, with four muscular clawed legs, a tail several paces long by itself, and a head with a fierce, toothy maw set on an elongated neck. It shook off debris as it straightened up on the village square, then turned towards us, and out of its mouth, spewed a jet of scalding steam at us. What had just been mere legends at home had become bitter reality: we were facing a dragon.
My friends immediately became aware that, while unnaturally resilient, the undead were no longer the main threat, and one by one, they turned to face the beast. They had not taken their gunpowder weapons underwater, and so they had to resort to close quarters combat, and they tried to take the dragon from all sides. How their efforts went, I could only estimate, as there were now three undead Bohemians surrounding me, and between keeping them engaged and trying to survive myself, I was quite occupied.
Mere moments seemed like eons to me, and while my comrades had been able to survive the dragon's attacks so far, they had been unable to harm the well-armoured beast, while I was still outnumbered with no relief to expect. Then, I heard the Captain order us to retreat to the surface, and out of the corner of their eye, I saw the shapes of my friends moving upwards, one by one, suddenly overtaken by a much larger, faster shape that blotted out the sun for an instant. I tried to follow, leaving the undead below me, finally reached the surface and looked around.
I spotted the heads of several humans above the waterline, but our Archmage's familiar shape was missing. The dragon, that had risen much faster and must have emerged from the water somewhat earlier than us, was nowhere to be seen, and our ship drifted idly among the shallow waves, seemingly oblivious. We swam towards the ship, climbed onboard and, greeted by the single watchman on deck, looked around.
At this point I realised that there had been one swimmer too many, a delicate young lady of Far Eastern provenance, quite a striking sight as she stood there in the nude, clutching a familiar, yet oddly oversized warhammer. The others indicated that this was who our Archmage had transformed himself into. This was unexpected, and if he was just aiming to outclass me in yet another area, I had to give him credit for that. Or had this been the work of the wyrm? The dragons of legend are said to prefer virgins, and with those being in short supply on the seabed, had they resolved to manufacturing them? At any rate, to me, she was much easier on the eyes than the previous crustacean.
Master Krastus, however, appeared dissatisfied with his condition. It turned out he had imbibed a magical potion he had obtained in the compound in Daiking, assuming as it was well-hidden and obviously valuable, it must contain some useful power. Some power indeed! I had not thought such a thing was possible, and was wondering how lasting and thorough the effects were, for what purpose they had been made, and how one could procure such a potion.
At this point I spotted a conspicuous patch of fresh blood on deck, bringing my thoughts back to the prime threat. If the dragon had come out of the water, the watchman had to have seen it. Yet he maintained a calm demeanour, denied that there had been anything out of the ordinary, and did not know where the puddle of blood came from. This seemed so grotesque that to me, the only logical explanation was that this man was the dragon in disguise!
I started questioning the man about the preceding days, the mutiny in particular, in order to confirm his identity. He acted confused and quickly got defensive, giving only evasive, non-committed answers. My friends didn't seem to share my sentiment, and especially Carlton helpfully supported the watchman, prompting him whenever he wouldn't answer immediately, and thus I was getting nowhere. The Captain noticed that, and in order to stop this ignoble spectacle, sent me downstairs to fetch some clothing to lend our Archmage. I didn't have much to part with, but I could provide one of my favourite tunics.
With our Archmage covered up, things returned to normal, and I tended to the Captain, who had been injured by the dragon. After that the usual preparations were done on deck, when suddenly Carlton became agitated as he had made a gruesome discovery. He had found the body of the watchman, which, badly mauled, had been crammed into a barrel on deck. This confirmed my suspicions, and as we hustled to find the "other" watchman, we heard a suspicious noise from the Captain's cabin. There he was, standing in front of the ship's locker which he had obviously broken apart with superhuman force, with the coffer containing most of our ship's money in hand.
The Captain ordered the man to desist and surrender, and he reacted by transforming back into the giant beast, which then spread its wings and prepared to break through the side wall. Reacting quickly, Carlton shot at it with a musket, and managed to inflict a visible wound. This enraged the beast, that turned to charge at us instead. I dove to the side, as the beast dropped the coffer and crashed out onto the main deck, hunting after Carlton. The Captain challenged the beast with a rather mediocre insult, and it simply lunged at him, mauling him terribly, while the warhammer girl flung bolts of fire at it, that it shrugged off with little effort.
The beast then turned to Sira who had been preparing a cannon against the beast, but just as it reached her, another of Carlton's musket shots pierced the air, and this one struck true, hitting the beast square in the back of the head. The dragon lurched uncoordinatedly for a moment and then collapsed on deck as an inert heap of scaly flesh. Once more, Grandpa had saved the day. I rushed towards the Captain, who had grave injuries, especially in the face, but was still alive, and fortunately reacted well to my healing magic.
Later that day, I had the questionable pleasure to direct the dissection of the beast, preparing its skull to mount as a figurehead, as some of my friends insisted. They, in the mean time, made another delve into the Bohemian village, looking for the riches the greedy reptile had accumulated in its lair. And indeed, when they came back to the ship, they had recovered a load of gold coins and other assorted treasure, two well-made sets of flexible armour, an arcane tome, an ornate ring, and a shimmering sidearm matching the Captain's blade.
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