Rebirth: Over the Horizon

The woman in the naval outfit who stood by Ponrindan's pillar suddenly burst out laughing.

"Ah! Once again, the God of the Seas favours me above all others." She grins, pointing her finger at the rest of the group.

"Listen up! I, Velara Bloodblade, Queen of the Pirates, am the only one who can successfully captain such a dangerous voyage. As fortune would have it, my finest ship is already here in port."

Velara plants her hands on her hips, grinning triumphantly.

"So, it looks like you'll have to convince me of your worth if you want to survive this trial."

"Make it worth my while, and I may just find places for you with my crew. Who's ready to set sail?"

Embris rolls her eyes. "I'd sooner fail this trial than debase myself by seeking the approval of a lowlife criminal vagabond."

Velara gives Embris a challenging grin. "The offer wasn't open to any stuck up royals. There's room for only one queen on my ship."

Embris sighs and shakes her head, turning her back and walking off. "My flagship may not be here, but I am quite certain I can purchase a suitable vessel."

"Lord Garst, come. I shall need you as quartermaster for the voyage."

Garst seems surprised by the instruction but quickly follows along. "Right away, your majesty."

The mute girl in black follows as well, hurrying right behind Garst. Dannis squints at her for a moment.

"Did we ever get her name?" The bard asks Callia.

"Hadrene's chosen?" The muse clarifies.

"No. I believe she's mute."

"Mute?" Dannis tilts his head. "That's a funny name. I suppose it suits her."

"No, it's not a… oh, never mind." Callia sighs. "We may as well call her that until we learn her true name."

"Well, I, for one, will gladly take our beautiful pirate queen up on her offer of service aboard her ship."

Pergia says with a grin and a waggle of his moustache. "After all, thieves and pirates are kindred spirits, are we not?"

"Anyone who'd steal a king's treasures is welcome on my ship."

Velara says, clapping Pergia on the shoulder. "Who else wants to come along?"

Velara looks over Adam, "I heard you are chosen by Hecate." "Well…Do you want to come with me?"

Adam nods with a small smile.

"Alright. I'll take you aboard. Don't make me regret it."

She leads him to a frigate anchored at the end of the harbour, with grim black sails and a figurehead depicting a man with horns on his head.

"The Devil's Bargain. My pride and joy." Velara says with a grin. "Make yourselves at home."

The wide-open sea stretches as fast as anyone can see. The first hours of the trip are eerily calm.

Adam gazes through the horizon.

At first, he glimpses merchant and military ships here and there, but as the ship nears the Strait of Messala all of the other ships break away rather than brave the passage.

The sheer white cliffs bordering the strait come into view, and the ship plunges right in. There is no time to lose.

Velara carefully navigates through the narrow strait.

There is little room to manoeuvre, but he soon realizes that this is not the true danger of this place.

After a few more turns, the channel opens up to reveal a terrifying sight.

The passage ahead holds two mortal dangers, aquatic monsters of legend.

The right side of the passage hosts a massive whirlpool. The water spirals down to the mouth of an infamous sea monster: Charybdis, a beast said to swallow ships whole.

Adam can see Embris' ship already caught in the whirlpool, being slowly dragged towards certain doom.

Adam also spots Daedala scrambling on the deck of the ship, desperately trying to find some way to save them.

On the left side of the passage is some sort of terrible sea serpent, a mass of gaping maws full of fearsome, sharp teeth.

The beast has at least a dozen heads, each larger than your entire body.

The creature also has countless writhing tentacles which reach greedily for your ship.

This can only be Scylla, the terrible serpent who guards the strait.

Velara turns the wheel hard to the left, a manic gleam in her eye. "Get ready, lads and lasses! We're cutting our way through."

The ship ploughs straight into Scylla, who quickly ensnares the ship with those tentacles and greedy maws.

Adam feels the ship lurch downward beneath him, pulled towards the depths.

Velara, Colosson, and the rest of the crew draw weapons, ready to do battle with the beast.

Pergia sneaks below decks to avoid getting drawn into the battle.

"Sigh...Abyss Angel"

The black exquisite spear with many glyphs, embedded with some magical stones appears in his hand.

Adam rushes into battle and begins hacking and chopping at Scylla's limbs.

The creature is massive, but the tentacles contain no bones and can be dislodged with a few powerful swings.

He also saves his mana, in case if something more dangerous knocked on his door he will escape with it.

Then you see an opportunity. One of the monster's heads darts in, trying to snap Velara up and gobble her whole.

He dives in at just the right moment, hacking clean through Scylla's neck. The monster has other heads, of course.

Still, the decapitation seems to have been enough to make it release the ship entirely, the remaining heads wailing in pain.

Velara, looking just a touch relieved, retakes the helm. "Good. Now we-"

She's cut off by a sudden impact that jolts the ship to one side.

Daedala, Embris, and the rest of the Chosen have converted their ship's rowboat into some sort of rocket, aided by one of her strange metal contraptions.

The rowboat is launched directly onto the deck of your ship, belching black smoke everywhere.

"Sorry about that," Embris says, as imperious and unapologetic as ever. "Had a bit of trouble with the last ship."

Velara sighs heavily and steers the ship out of the strait before Scylla can recover.

All twelve of the Chosen have now gathered on the single surviving ship.

They look at one another with suspicion and distrust, tensions high after the perilous crossing of the Strait of Messala.

Velara and Embris glare at one another. Even without words, Adam can see that each blames the other for the losses suffered in the crossing.

The cliff walls surrounding the strait fall away up ahead.

Past it, he catches glimpse of the Sea of Sorrows: a foreboding stretch of open ocean capped by a thick cover of dark storm clouds.

He can already hear the crack of thunder and the rush of strong winds.

"Listen up!" Velara shouts over the din. "We need to batten the hatches and ready the sails."

"Do exactly as I say, and we'll make it through this. I've been through worse storms than this!"

"Who decided you were in charge?" Embris bellows back, her annoyance obvious. "I am the only true leader here. I will take command."

Velara immediately shouts an objection, and as the ship nears the roiling waves it looks as if the Chosen are about to turn on each other.

Only Mute ignores the brewing fight, instead of climbing into the rigging.

It looks as if she is focused on making certain the sails are prepared to endure the storm.

His rage was over the top, 'These are the worst NPCs I have ever seen.'

He controls himself and shouts, "IF WE ARE GOING TO ARGUE LIKE THIS, BE PREPARED TO DIE."

Velara agrees. "We must collaborate. When the storm has passed, we'll figure out who's in charge."

"Agreed," Embris says this with apparent reluctance. "For the time being."

Embris gets a nod from Valera.

The ship is sucked into the eye of the storm, with the thick storm clouds producing near-total darkness, broken only by intermittent flashes of lightning. The storm lasts for several hours.

Finally, after many hours which seems like days, daylight breaks through the dark sky.