...............You must forgive me dear reader, recounting these events brings a great weariness upon me and I fear that telling you of the horror that awaited us upon the next island may yet steal the last breath from my body. Though I managed to see my valiant crew through that horrible ordeal, I daresay we lost far more than just our guides and valets in that desolate place. I speak of course of the “Vulkan* of Open Graves”, a place we had found evidence of during our time on the “Vulkan of Chimaeras”.
No
doubt the mad Wizard of that nightmarish place had some inkling of other people
living on The Fire Islands, for their grand shining cities were mentioned
constantly in his notes. The wizard feared them, that much I could gather from
his scribbled rantings, but I could find no record of them more recent than a
few decades old. Beyond that point, the notes became completely indecipherable
both in their rambling content and propensity for using characters and symbols not
found in languages known to the sane. If there were a civilization somewhere in
these wretched lands, it would seem that the “Vulkan of Open Graves” would be
the place to find them.
Attempting
to find the Vulkan proved to be more difficult than initially anticipated. Several
days were spent attempting to scry* the location of the island without success
and even with the crude map I had been able to sketch based on our travels,
navigating the islands remained a harrowing task. We quite simply could not
afford to spend the time it would take map all of the reefs and shoals that
could threaten a ship as imposing as the mighty Haskell. If we were going to
find the Vulkan and its inhabitants within our time table, we would need to try
another approach. Thus, the task was turned over to the ever capable Mr.
Pazoozoo and his uncanny pack of trained beasts……
_____________________________________________________________________
My mind
raced at the possibilities! Naming conventions across the world can vary
drastically and often there is a great deal of historical context surrounding
the names of settlements. With so little documentation about this region
available, narrowing down the likely answers would be impossible without first
landing on the Vulkan. I could barely contain myself as I spoke, “It could mean
any number of things my friend. The name might refer to a specific burial
custom that has an important role in their society or perhaps it has a
theological meaning, such as belief in an afterlife. It might even refer to
immortality or resurrection.”
The old
man wrinkled his bushy brow and pulled thoughtfully at his beard, “If you don’t
mind me saying so Captain, that sounds entirely too optimistic. Given what we’ve
seen of these islands, we ought to expect the worst.”
“Come
now Thadeus, there is documented evidence that this Vulkan has been settled by someone for more than three
centuries. It cannot be as bad as the last Vulkan.”
“Documented
by a Mad Wizard, Captain.”
“Well…it
is documented no less” .…………………..………………….
_____________________________________________________________________
…………I stared in frozen horror at the rotting shambling
wretch of a man, whose dead eyes spoke of a soul that still wandered the depths
of hell. Even as my lips uttered the frantic gibberish spoken by beings locked
in the clutches of absolute terror, I knew such a creature would only
understand one language. Fire………………..
______________________________________________________________________
………………..“Such things cannot exist.” Pralana said plainly. “Death
is final, even for the gods.”
“I
daresay it might do well for you ninja to think of life and death in less rigid
terms.” I said decidedly out of breath after throwing the heavy bolt on the
temple doors closed behind us. “Such things can and do exist, as we’ve just
seen first-hand. They are not [i]supposed[/i]
to exist I’ll give you that, but such magic has never been completely lost
to this world. The guardian that is making such creatures though…that cannot
exist. The power to raise the dead so quickly just by will should have died
with the gods. “
Parlana,
ever vigilant, cared little for discussions of mythology and semantics. “We can’t
stay here, this place is far too large for the two of us to defend. I’m going
to see if I can ring the bell in the tower to signal the others. ”
“Don’t
you think that might attract more of those creatures?” I asked as she effortlessly
bounded up the walls of the bell tower.
Looking
up from the bottom of the tower, I could barely see her distinct feline profile
dotted by a pair of glowing emerald eyes staring back at me through the
darkness. Her voice, calm and professional, echoed down the walls. “I’m counting on it captain.”………………………..
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Vulkan: Literally meaning Volcano in Norse. Used throughout
the book as the term for each island. (“Vulkan of Black Spires”, “Vulkan of
Sentinels”, “Vulkan of Open Graves”, etc).
*Scry: Determine the location of something through
divination magic.
