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Halloween
"When Roger's Moon looks leers down at you, best be watchin' yer back. You may just find a dagger there."
Mist curled around the hull of the Black Star as it made its passage around Isla Perdida, and into the more populated parts of the Caribbean. Every year it made this trip, but usually Captain Lyons and his crew were safely at port by this time. It was bad luck to sail upon the sea as All Hallows' Eve drew near, but no captain in his right mind would put in at Perdida, and Port Royal was still days away. Cold waves lapped against the side of the ship. Usually a comforting sound to him, the captain found the constant hum of the sea disconcerting, and for once he found himself thinking of the darker side of the sea; of the waves casting drowning sailors upon rocks, of salt crystallizing on ships and capsizing them, and of the dark abyss that lay below the green warmth of the surface waters.
"All Hallows' Eve approaches, and with it, many powers released." thus was how mused to himself. But on they forged, for they had no better place to go than Port Royal, as turning back would only leave an even longer trip. Many small islets they had passed, and each time, their night-watches would be found unnerved by the night before, recalling to their companions how blood-curdling screams issued forth from thick jungles. The First Watch-Man had been found in a prone position, ranting of ghoulish hands reaching over the deck, white bodies crawling onto the deck, and disappearing ere the sun had risen. Perhaps they should have heeded the spirits, but onward they sailed.
One night, the ship rocked. The new First Watch-Man was caught off guard, so all that was heard by his companions was a muffled cry that did not arouse attention. The second came, and a horrid sight greeted him: a headless corpse was there, lying in a prone position. The man ran, heart beating. As he ascended towards that captain's quarters, he slipped on a blue-green mass of algae. A cold hand caressed his shoulder, and then...
Nothing remains of that ship's crew. Now it sails onward, trying to seek refuge at port, but never finding it. Be wary this Halloween, when powers play at night.
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Halloween
09-10-2010, 11:10 PM
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