Hélène: Left hanging

After the assault, we decided to return to the relative safety of our ship, and discuss our options there. Since we had already finished our trading and replenishing, a vocal minority was in favour of leaving the town immediately, and for good. With the council opposing us, we would stand no chance of getting the promised reward for dealing with the ghost problem anyway. Others, including me, were in favour of helping the citizens, who the council had obviously intimidated.

We spent the night aboard, without any further incident, and the following day, Sira and I, considering ourselves to be the ones with the potential to be the least conspicuous, decided to go into town again, and research about the council by casually asking around with local merchants and the like.

After a long while, we had to realise that our endeavour was not met with success. There was an awkward silence about town, and even finding out the identities of the councilmembers was difficult, owing to a climate of fear and distrust. At this point, I was ready to admit defeat and return to the ship. Sira, though, apparently needed a way to vent her frustration, and without much pretext, headed towards a local tavern and kicked in the door.

At this, I envisioned we could be in deep trouble with the local watch if we stayed, decided to panic a little, and make my way back to the ship alone. Alas, it appeared that someone had a trap prepared on the way back, and I was the one to spring it. On a small square somebody had been in waiting, and the whole area was infused with sleep magic. As I felt the spell sapping my vigour, I could see bystanders collapse left and right. I was among the last to stand, by finally I succumbed to the magic, which had taken me off guard.

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was bright sunlight, a strong breeze and the odour of oil. The shock brought me to my senses quickly My body felt contorted into a rather awkward position. I found myself far above the deck of a small ship, tied with my back to its main mast. There was no one else visible on deck, but there were tipped-over barrels, and the whole ship was covered in oil. Someone had set up a contraption with a candle, to ignite the whole, highly flammable, mess.

I tried to very carefully get a hand free, when I noticed they had balanced several small items on my arms, outside of my field of view. I decided to be very mindful and not risk anything dropping, but still managed to put myself into a position where I could weave magic, albeit with difficulty. Now, I could conjure up a small quantity of water to douse the candle below, removing the most immediate threat. With this accomplished, I felt time was no longer running against me, nd could take time to consider.

The ship, a small, barely seaworthy sloop, was drifting off the coast of Jomba Town, and I reckoned it would be in good view of the harbour at the same time it would have ignited. This being no longer a concern, I could wait a bit to have a good view of what was going on in the harbour. Our ship was still docked, and when they spotted the sloop, I could see people on deck springing into action. A dinghy was prepared, and several of my crew approached the sloop.

When the closed in, I could see the Captain and some of the officers. I shouted down a warning; The ship was still very flammable. Master Krastus used his magic to allow himself and the Captain to board the ship. They spotted another trap, which the Archmage proceeded to examine, while the Captain climbed up the mast, removed several vials, presumably of a self-igniting mixture, off me and helped me get down onto the deck. From the aft, however, where Master Krastus, had been working, something had still ignited, and the Captain and I darted to the side, to jump off the deck and into the water.

And not a moment to soon, because quickly the flames had spread across the oily deck, setting everything ablaze and dooming the old vessel. We swam around, in a wide circle, to board our dinghy, and returned to our ship. I was eager to get all this oil washed from myself and my garments, and also, in light of to what lengths the council would go to theatrically harm us, we had to reassess our situation now.

Kyrie: I'm useful

I'm very sneaky and I got to follow the Captain around. I then helped Carlton with a spying job. It was boring, but I told the others that I had to dodge a guard patrol and two merchants who were very suspicious.

I mean... I didn't make the last bit up. It was rather tricky!

Cortez: Things are heating up

I apologize for the pun, but there really is no other explanation.

I had made the decision to go after this murdering ghost in an attempt to build some good will toward us in Joomba town. Unfortunately, things took a turn before we could approach the ghost.

Sira and Helene went into town to gather some information. I believe one of them was concerned that the Ghost was a wronged person and the town council had actually committed some murder. They used my own evil-shadow as evidence. I'm not really convinced, but I thought little harm could come from sending them out to investigate.

The rest of use stayed aboard and played cards.

It was a little while and then Sira returned. Without Helene. Apparently our blue-clad mage had been captured by thugs. We had little to go on, so we went to the authorities. This turned out poorly. The Constable seemed unconcerned entirely. And said she probably ran away.

We staked out the head of the Council. A Reverend who keeps quite good care of his lawn. Krastus decided to try to break the lock of the gate with everyone watching and we had to leave. Instead we staked it out for an hour before giving up. Either he is innocent... or he is a very cool customer.

Upon returning to our ship we found Helene. Tied to the mast of a derelict sloop... and upon further observation doused in oil and trapped with deadly fire.

Krastus and I went to work on the ship. Our Archmage to disable the trap, and me to get Helene. I did a very good job at climbing, despite the slickness of the oil, and was able to get Helene down safely. However, the fire DID start and we had to make a jump into the water.

Perhaps the council, and I'm sure it must be the council, will think they have scared us off. And I am willing to let them have that idea. But they have attacked my crew, and I cannot let them get away with it.

Krastus: The one in which I encountered a gate

Well, when we left off we had vanquished the incredibly mediocre thugs of the town council - really awful thugs. If I'm ever an evil lordling, I'm making sure 'Competent Thuggery' is a rewarded talent because this is why all these idiots fail. Poor quality thugs.

Anyway, some of them were alive. I mean, not the first guy I poked. He croaked and died.  Very unhelpful. But a few of the others. So I manacled one and put him over my shell and headed back to the ship with my prisoner. The captain decided he wanted to talk to my prisoner - which is a liberty as he was my prisoner - but fine. I let him. Turns out they didn't know much, but gave us some hints. And the captain let them go. Sigh. The soft hearted fool - we should have at least taken a leg or something as punishment for trying to bludgeon us to death.

Carlton claims he saw a ghost. Saying she w as trapped and needed help. I thought we should go off and deal with this, but everyone else wanted to go get more information - since when were we the crew of 'thinking things through in an over complicated manner'? Action! Action and trusting the Krastus, this we have learnt. But no. Only me.

Anyway, we sent Sira and Helene to go and explore while we stayed back and played cards. I fixed the table a bit as it was wobbly. We waited some more. And then Sira came back. No Helene. Slight problem.

So we went off to tavern to ask. The captain was being cagey, so I naturally decided to take charge and asked the man directly where the town council building was. He obliged and off we went and....they were not in session. Blast. And the jail only had an old man in it. This wasn't good.

Still, we found out where the town council head was so we went to his house. Some human woman lied to us about him not being in - he clearly was, humans never do anything interesting when they have nice houses. I quickly got to work on the lock to the gate because the Captain was dithering again. Dither dither dither. He is slow like a Walrus these days - I wonder why. Oh yes, because he turned into a Walrus. Ha!

The garden man came over, but I was busy so I told the captain to talk to him. And they asked that I stopped. Really, this was no fun. But no, Krastus is trying to be supportive of the foolish decisions the captain makes. Krastus remembers this. And so I obliged and we skulked back to the ship.

Where upon, some time later, we saw a derelict floating towards us with a Helene on board! And so we hopped in the boat the captain and I and we rowed for her. He started climbing quickly, and then the fool said 'Oh, I'd like to be able to wall walk and have protection from the environment'. Things I need to touch him for. Silly human. So I wall walked myself up and gave him my magical blessings. It seems they had rigged the ship to blow, with a rope and mechanisms and fire and oil. The captain went to rescue Helene while I went to disable the trap mechanism, while standing on the side of the ship. I drained my magic to keep myself there but it worked. And I disabled the mechanism just as my magic wore off and I leapt and glided back to the rowboat. Now. It seems the mechanism had a backup and it started the wall of fire. I pushed off the rowboat a little - I don't fancy being roasted - and watched to see if the others would make it. They did. Which was interesting. And so now we have to work out our next move. Still, an amusing time.

Sira Saran: The honorable Joomba Town

So we were attacked in the streets, the local authorities seem to be in on it or some other dark power is at work here.
We tried to get some word out and when Helene and myself could not get any information out of the local citizens, I tried a different approach and entered one of the taverns. Helene did not follow, instead she walked on without me and a while later I heard she was kidnapped.
I searched some streets but she was nowhere to be found.
After a pointless search I returned to the ship. We tried with the council, but neither the police nor the so called "reverend" seemed to be in the mood to help us. We again returned to our ship to formulate a plan of rescue but suddenly a small ship appeared and the spyglass revealed Helene tied to the mast.
We took our longboat to a rescue mission. The small boat Helene was on was securely trapped, it took some time and effort, but our Capt'n got Helene from the mast and into the water right on time before the whole ship exploded.
This was quiet a turn of events. It seems someone has something against us.
We will have to do something about this town!

Carlton Grey and the Trouble with the Town Council

After the fight, we examined the bodies, and found some still alive, so we took them with us. Heléne treated them, and they told us about how they were hired by someone to attack us and other things, but that is scarcely important, since something much more interesting happened to me.

I saw a ghost! I was keeping watch in the crow’s nest, and this hooded ghost figure came up to me. The sailors could not see her, so I guess she was an invisible ghost. I don’t know why I could see her, maybe it was because of my magical hat, although I did not know it was magical before this. It had to happen eventually I suppose, I was sort of missing my magical coat for a while now.
Anyway, the invisible hooded ghost lady said, that she was in some sort of trouble on an island and only I could help her, even though she has mistaken me for my brother. So I guess she was also mistaken about only my brother being able to help her. She might not be very smart.

I told the others about the ghost, and suggested that we get out of here, and help her, since we already saw everything interesting here, but they think that this is not the ghost we have been looking for. Also they want to get rid of the conspiracy council for some reason. I don’t know why, I mean they seemed perfectly fine before we arrived, and now there are a lot of dead people around.

In the end Sira and Heléne went out to ask questions around town, but only Sira returned. Heléne seem to have been kidnapped by some guys, so we had to go into town together and rescue her.

First we visited the prison, but there was nobody there only a clerk, a guard and some prisoner guy. I asked them all, but none of them thought that they were Heléne, so we left. Next we went to the house of the head of the council, and tried to get in, but they didn’t let us, so we had to leave and watch them from afar. This did not help us to find her either, so we went back to our ship.

That was when we saw Heléne on another ship, which was rigged to blow up.  The captain, Krastus, and Sira went out and saved her, while I watched from our ship. They found some traps, and disarmed some them, but they still decided to blow the ship up in the end for some reason.
Thankfully now we are all back together, and we can focus on the important things, like saving the lady ghost and meeting the other ghost. Hopefully the Town Council people will leave us alone while we do that.

Strange Events

So we meandered around Jumba Town once we finally got there - really, I feel like we'd do more if I was left in charge.

We had another disagreement about my little axe, but there was nothing resolved. The others can have it, but first they will need to kill me. And I bet I can walk off. Maybe up a wall. And flee. Silly humans, so weird. And sometimes a Walrus.

Anyway, we once again found ourselves in a plot that involved murders - men with slit throats. Surprisingly, and we did all check, the captain's shadow was still there. So it maybe wasn't him (I give even odds either way). The reason the person gave was...elaborate. About conspiracies. And nonsense. Far simpler to suspect the captain is murdering people again - he does have form. But then Helene pointed out this wasn't a little boy, so, I guess she has a point. We should search for the real killer.

We moved through and out into the jungle, try to find out more. But just as soon as Carlton spotted the man watching us - he is very good at that spotting. That is why we put him up in the crows nest. Also because then other people can't hear him....well. Anyway. just as we went running off - leaving behind the man who took us out there - we ended up back at the outskirts and got attacked by thugs. They were quickly dispatched - and more viscera was added to my shell - but then we realised we had left the man behind. We really are the worst explorers ever. And everyone keeps telling me that we can't be pirates. We were better at that. Not good, no. Not good. But still, better than this. And money. I like money.

Kyrie: Like I don't even exist

So I've been traveling with this band of sailors for a while. I was impressed with the Captain. He seemed to be a man who didn't leave people behind. Now he's a Grael who doesn't leave people behind. Unless you're talking about me. Then he never takes me anywhere. It's like I don't even exist!

I'm going to have to force the issue. I'm going to show him that I can be useful. As useful as that other mage woman who is always going around with him. She dresses far too conservatively, anyway. And I think the Archmage is right, she might even be pretending to be a mage.

Carlton Grey and the Not Too Well Hidden Jomba Town Conspiracy

After we left behind the octopus lady, we went to Jomba Town, to buy supplies, and trade things and other boring stuff that comes with having a ship. The place was sort of depressing, with everyone moaning about some ghost who goes around scaring people. This time it was not our child-killing pedophile ghost, but still, we agreed to help them.
The ghost is said to attack red haired people, so I got lucky, but before we could do anything, we were approached by some random guy, who also wanted our help. Being a hero is hard work.

Anyway, the guy wanted to show us some dead man with a cut throat in the woods. I thought at first that he wanted us to resurrect him or something, but no, he just wanted to promote the secret conspiracy on this island. That still did not make a lot of sense to me. I just don’t get while these secret conspiracy people always want to involve everyone in their schemes. Maybe if once in a while they could just shut up about their stupid conspiracies, they would remain secret. Or maybe some of them do, and we just never learn about those conspiracies.

I could not think about this for log though, because already someone was trying to spy on us. I warned the others, but we could not catch the man, and soon we were attacked by some thugs, who were either his friends, or were also spying on us without us noticing. We have beaten most of them, and the rest ran away. Hopefully now the conspiracy people will leave us alone.
I would really hate for them to interfere with our quality ghost-finding time.

Hélène: Spirits and conspiracies

As we continued our journey down the western coast of Taratos, we found things had pleasantly returned to normal. After about a day of swift travel, we arrived in the harbour of Jomba Town, where we intended to replenish our supplies and trade commodities. We found that area was quite rocky and steep, with the town itself was situated far up the cliffside, somewhat remote from the harbour. There was a path up which appeared rather rickety, and I felt a bit uneasy during the awkward ascent.

In town, we agreed that while I would deal with the mercantile aspects of our voyage, the others would gather information and rumours from around town. So, I went to the market and the traders' booths, but I quickly found that we had arrived in Jomba Town at a rather bad time, and there was neither big demand for the wares we had in store, nor was there much surplus food to purchase. Still, in the end I had found some good bargains, though low in volume, and I had hopes that we would find more affluent purchasers at our next stop. I took care of the formalities, and sent the porters down to the ship, where Equias would finalise the deal.

While I was still scouring the market, the others approached me. In a local tavern they had heard reports of a spirit that was supposedly roaming about, attacking people. And notable, after several of these attacks, the locals claimed to a found that every group of victims had contained at least one red-haired person. Auburn-haired Carlton, being his usual self, was thrilled at the prospect of meeting this ghost. I wasn't, really, but there was a reward advertised for putting these attacks to a permanent end, and also I felt that if there was a way to save lives here, we should, with our half-baked expertise regarding spirits, possibly investigate this.

There was another thing to investigate, however. A local man had approached my friends in an alley, appearing rather nervous and frightened, and he had insisted to show them an important secret, out of town. Was this a prank, a trap or something serious? Considering safety in numbers, the Captain wanted the whole group to go, and so the others wanted to pick me up to go to the meeting point immediately, which was about an hour's walk inland. So, we all went there, and indeed our contact was there, and showed us something rather gruesome. At this spot, the corpse of a man had been recently disposed of. Taking a closer look, we found that the victim's throat had been cut.

Our contact informed us that the man had been a traveller, who had disappeared some time ago, after he had made several inquiries about members of the town council. He urged us to investigate further, since obviously no local had the courage to, but also to be careful, since whoever did this was not too squeamish about murdering foreigners. At this point, Carlton spun his head around; He had heard somebody in the bush and courteously asked the man to come out. The Captain called for my magic, but when I could react, the person who had been eavesdropping on us was already sprinting back towards town. We pursued him at length, each one at their own pace, but in the end, none of us were successful, and before anyone had caught up, the spy had reached the town outskirts and had disappeared into the labyrinth of shacks. We scoured the town for a short while, but we found no trace.

Eventually all of us had arrived in the town centre, and there, we considered our options. We had little chance to find the spy, but I remarked that our informer, who may have been identified by the spy, was now in grave danger, and we should warn and protect him, and thus reach him before the conspirators did, whoever they were. We made our way back towards the outskirts of town again, but it appeared that the opposition had reacted quickly.

Our path was cut off by a group of rather rowdy people, weapons in hand, and we were surrounded by more suspect persons from the alleys around. I tried to reason with them, telling them that whatever plans or orders they had, they were not worth risking life and limb for. That they disagreed with that assessment became obvious when they reacted by assaulting us from all sides a moment later. Unfortunately for them, Master Krastus was at his best again. The combat was brutal, with my friends clearly outclassing the thugs, but they were too stubborn (or perhaps to terrified of their sponsors) to relent. After too much time, and too many lives lost, they finally retreated, leaving their dead comrades, and us, behind for now.

We were at a loss what to make of the situation, but one thing was clear. At least to somebody in charge, we had already overstayed our welcome.

Sira Saran: The Ghost and the Dead

We were sailing to Jumba Town. The small town we know from our last visit hasn't changed much.
The only thing new is a ghost roaming around killing people. That is a case for Capt'n Grip and his group of daring investigators.

Soon after hitting a tavern we were approached by a very frightened man who wanted to show us something. We agreed and he led us to a place near town where a dead man was burried. He seemed to have been murdered after asking questions about the towns council. So he was an investigator too!

Carlton noticed someone spying out of the bushes and before we could react he did ran into town and disappeared into the crowd. Somehow we got the impression our investigation did not go unnoticed.
This impression hardened when we got surrounded by a bunch of thugs with pistols and cutlasses in a backstreet.

We tried to give them a chance to run away, unnecessary bloodshed is not really our style, but they did not get the hint. The fight that broke out was really messy. A lot of dead thugs in the street.

That will be a really hard thing to explain to the local authorities.

Cortez: Mysteries... Deadly Mysteries

So we were heading toward Jumba Town-- again-- and this time we made it without any real trouble. Which I'm happy for, since we've been running into trouble too often. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a force conspiring against us, or if it's just coincidence sticking it's foot into our path to trip us up.

When we arrived in the city, we docked and went into town. I sent Helene to conduct the trading while we went to the bar to hang about for a little while. We heard the interesting rumors about a ghost attacking people. I remember this tale the last time we were in the area. I am slightly skeptical, but I don't think the random people have any reason to lie.

On our way out of the bar, a man approached us and told us to follow him for some information. Suspecting a trap we made our way together with him. But what he showed us wasn't a trap. Not for us anyway. He had dug up a corpse. He claims it is of another sailor who came from outside the town. The dead man was asking questions about the local town council. Then ended up buried in the ground.

Someone, unfortunately, spied on our little meeting and escaped back to town before we caught him. We were approached by some thugs in the street. And by approached I mean attacked. We fought them off... but that leaves us with more questions than we had before. And perhaps we are in a dangerous and unfriendly town. Sounds like we'll feel right at home.

Never trust dragons - or why people should listen to Krastus

Now, I wouldn't have risked our necks for these people who turned out not to be people in the first place. So what follows, it must be understood, is most certainly not my fault nor anything to do with me when it comes to apportioning blame. As surely will be done at some future point as we face some catastrophe.

Carlton wished me to hand over my axe. I told him he was welcome to take it from me. This went on and on for quite some time. Those silly others, so concerned over Krastus' excellent skills. They are all happy when I'm slaughtering our foes, but they get a little boo boo from some incident they claim happened - and I'm not sure they aren't the ones being delusional - and suddenly its all 'Hand over your weapons Krastus'. That is racial profiling. And I'll not stand for it.

Eventually we made our way in land. Eventually we made our way into a cave that seemed dragon-ish. And there was a dragon. And then Helene disappeared. Which was certainly odd, but she usually re-appears. Or she was dead. Either way, not much to be done or worry about at that time. So we explored. The dragon had a library and I went in and explored it with his permission. Only...it turned out that everything in there, after hours of studying, was nonsense. It made no sense. So I went out and confronted the dragon and....found myself in a cell.

Eventually the others joined myself - and Helene who was already here of course - though Sira came through a little more....bunny-like than usual. It was a cute look for her, perhaps the captain would finally take a love interest in her. Eventually we found the master of this nonsense - a Kraken. I hate krakens. They are evil, should be killed - including that little worm of a one we had on our ship and yes. Evil. This is, you understand, not racial profiling - just about how evil and necessary all of their deaths are because they are blasted krakens.

She wished us to amuse her. I...really did not care for this, but the captain tried to oblige. He didn't do well - we shall chalk this up to the latest thing at which he is not amazingly well suited - and so the kraken turned me into a likeness of Serene. I'll add this to the list of reasons to murder her and all of her kind one day. But the captain persisted and eventually he amused her - see how simple the krakens are really compared to us true masters, the scurillions? She let us go, none the worse for wear. And we enjoyed freedom. Well. Enjoyed is too strong a word these days - tolerated. We tolerated freedom. Well, those of us who truly have it due to our nature as superior beings. It is a burden being me at times. Always right, but doomed to comfort the others. Curse my soft kindhearted nature.

Hélène: Less than meets the eye?

As we stood there on the beach, we found that there was actually no trace of the shipwrecked we had spotted earlier, and the breeze seemed to carry a faint laughter. The others remarked that a remote island like this, while a bit of a cliché, would be a decent spot to bury a pirate's treasure, and to emphasise the point, the Captain just dug some inches into the sand with his hands, unearthing the lid of a chest filled with gold. This was definitely too much of a coincidence for me. The others didn't seem to mind much, though, except for the Captain, who was rather ecstatic with his find, and we decided to march further towards the island centre, dragging that chest behind us rather awkwardly.

The island appeared rather welcoming, at first, although in the distance we could spot rather peculiar wildlife, and as we went about our way, we eventually came across a cave entrance. We argued a bit how to go on from here, and when we had reached a consensus to explore that cave, we realised that we had been distracted, and the heavy treasure chest, which we had left only a dozen paces back, was no longer there. This was mysterious, as if the reality we perceived on this island was changing with our own thoughts and imaginations.

Carlton remarked, inanely, that the large cave was probably another dragon cave, and he was thrilled to meet dragons, especially friendly and courteous ones. Only a few moments later, we found a large, rather quaint door installed in the cave wall, and upon opening it, we spotted a kind of living room with cozy, oversized furniture, and an even quainter wyrm greeted us and introduced himself as Carpatolyx, the courteous and hospitable dragon of this island. This was the point that finally overtaxed my capacity for surreal nonsense, and while the others sat down and joined the dragon in friendly banter, I was convinced that this was all just a figment, and concentrated on examining my surroundings thoroughly, intent on finding a weak spot in this spectacle, to gaze behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, as I saw through the mirage, it saw through me as well, for when suddenly the veil lifted in front of my eyes, I found myself in a large holding cell, with no dragon or living room in sight, nor any of my companions. There was no obvious way out, so I decided to wait and see for now, if anything else would develop. Indeed, after several long minutes, Master Krastus appeared closeby, who told me that he had been invited into the dragon's library, but found the books there were all fakes, filled with pointless random symbols, and when he became suspicious, he ended up in a cell.

The others took a bit longer to see through the ruse, if at all, but in the end, they all found their way here, sort of. Serene appeared, followed by the Captain, then Carlton, and finally, rather disconcertingly, a restless, unusually aggressive rabbit dressed in a miniature replica of Sira's clothing and arms. Carlton proceeded to tell us about everything else we missed, which apparently included a large albatross, a large blue glowing humanoid "teleportation monster", another evil lich and whatever else Carlton's creative mind, or lack thereof, had envisioned.

After a while, something happened, though. A squad of armed fish people appeared in the prison corridor, and we were ordered to follow to see the regent of the island. We were led towards a large room that was not unlike an underground amphitheatre. There on a throne sat a female kraken, who informed us that she considered herself the ruler of this island, and she had been watching our exploits, which had mildly entertained her at first, but no longer. She demanded that we increase our efforts and amuse her. And only if we could make her laugh again, we would be set free. In a way, I could understand her boredom.. Being in a place where everything that happened derived from one's own mind, I figured, once the novelty had worn off, one would be desperate for an outside inspiration.

However, while we were still uncertain in what way to amuse her, she decided that watching a fight to the death may strike her fancy, and picked Carlton, whom she sent down into the arena, to fight, one on one, against a Cerberus-like beast. Initially, Carlton could hold his own, but with his efforts, the three-headed monster grew in size and strength, and eventually, when he was nearly overwhelmed by the thing, Master Krastus intervened and joined him in the pit. Immediately, a second one of those beasts was conjured up. Our Archmage fared worse than usual, and as we feared that our friends' defeat was imminent, the Captain decided to parlay and use his diplomatic skill to convince our host that there were more pleasant ways to amuse oneself.

The Captain then tried his skill as a jester, but his first few jokes failed to meet the kraken's fancy, who demonstrated her own sense of humour, as down in the pit, she had Master Krastus transformed into the likeness of Serene, which amused neither him, nor Carlton, nor our original Serene. The Captain, however, was undeterred and showered her with more jokes and tall tales, and I have to admit, that even in a situation as cruel and grotesque as the one we were in, with my friends fighting for their lives down below, I found myself giggling at his antics. And the kraken did as well, for at some point she couldn't hold back any longer and burst into a fit of unrestrained laughter.

In the end, she had kept true to her word, and we were released back onto our ship in but an instant, none the worse for wear, and left to wonder which of our experiences on this mysterious island had actually been real.