Van Cocidius

Captains Log.
Britannian Date: Nov 69, 361
Weather: Raining

With The Indomitable's repairs all done, and with me now in charge, I reckoned I put the ship to some use. The Swaggers Inn seems to be in some financial difficulty and the barmaids have lost all faith in men after one of them was stood up on her wedding day. So with all this in the air, I thought I'd go on the hunt fer some loot. I'll set sails to travel East from Vesper, past Nujel'm and leave Britannia far behind for the island of Galilee, an asylum for Pirates. Once there I'll look to bring together a small crew to man the sails as we hunt for loot to bring home to Vesper. Estimated time it'll take to get there, considering the waves are quite subtle despite the storms, two days or so. My next log shall be when i arrive at Galilee in two days time.

*Signed: Captain Cocidius*

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Van Cocidius

Captains Log.
Britannian Date: Nov 70, 361
Weather: Sunny

It seems once I left Vesper the rain died down and the wind soon came blowing, propelling us to Galilee at twice the speed, meaning I got here in half the time expected. That of course didn't mean there was time to rest just because I'm ahead of schedual. It just ment the was more time to get my crew together, and I wasted no time in doing so.

I started off by seeking out the Bellamy brothers, two talented fighters with blades. Their father John Bellamy was briefly a member of the Indomitable crew back in the day, but he ended up returning to Galilee to become a fisherman. Sadly John passed away a few years back, but on the bright side, Harvey and Dwayne Bellamy we're more than willing to help me with my quest for little to no gold. The adventure and experience was more than enough for them.

With the brute force taken care of, I next needed to find the eyes of the ship, and along with that, the brains. My old drinking buddy Hubert Cutler has the eyes of a hawk. Seriously, he was playing with gunpowder as a kid and blew both his eyes clean out. Luckily for him a backstreet surgeon was able to give him the eyes of a hawk...

The navigator was a little harder to find. The one I had in mind, Tom Slank, has been missing for twelve months now and I had no one else in mind. To my luck, some drunk had found out I was looking after someone who knew the seas like the back of their eye patch. Jim "The Skullcracker" Jones claimes he knows of a place where there's loads of boats and a big "moo-moo" whatever that is. Seeing as he was my only choice, I had to just go with him...

To finish off the team we needed someone to cook, clean and entertain. Jan Peckerwood was qualified for them all, and quite keen on the eye. She's been said to make an amazing blueberry pie, which'll more than motivate the crew seeing as we don't know how long we'll be out there at sea.

And that completes the crew, the six of us will leave tomorrow at the break of dawn and sail West to an area of water where many fishing boats tend to go. Hopefully we'll be able to loot a few ships and make us some gold.


*Signed: Captain Cocidius*



**Folded neatly in the book is a map of Galilee**

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Kiran VTC

OOC - Love the hawk bit! Wicked story mate

Van Cocidius

Captains Log.
Britannian Date: Dec 1, 361.
Weather: Warm

We took a day out to get together some stock for the travels. I did look to add to the crew in that time, but no one was really interested. Never the less, I was more than happy with the current crew and at 0600 hours, we finally set sail around the boarder of Galilee and West past The Highlands, where Jim says there's loads of ships for easy picking. We should be there by the end of the day so I shall log abit later on with what findings we have...

...We’ve been sailing for a good few hours now and we finally got a taste of Jan’s cooking. What can I say, she’s pure brilliance. Her blueberry pie was just amazing and all the crew are feeling more satisfied and ready to fight what comes our way. I even promised Jan a job in Swaggers, which she has only ever heard stories off. I’m sure Kiran will give her a little job in the kitchen after a talking too. No sign of any ships yet, I’m hoping to find at least two before nightfall, otherwise there will be blood spilt...

...The sun is setting outside my window, and we’ve had no sign of any ships. I’m hoping Jim hasn’t gotten us lost or I will kill him no doubt. We’re going to carry on sailing through the night with Hubert and Dwayne sharing lookout duty for any ships. This isn’t going as planned yet, in fact I think this might just be the worst trip ever. Let us just hope tomorrow is more fulfilling. Thankfully the smell of Jan’s cooking is keeping me happy, I’m glad she came along with us. The others are yet to show their uses...


*Signed: Captain Cocidius*

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Van Cocidius

Captains Log.
Britannian Date: Dec 2, 361.
Weather: Foggy

I woke up this morning to the sight of nothing, not a goddamn thing in sight. With all this fog we haven’t a chance in finding anything. Hubert tells me we should turn back and return another day when the weather is more sea worthy. Sadly for him I wasn’t coming out all this way to “come back another day”. When I do something, I do it in one go, and go we will. I’m hoping for the fog to die down by this afternoon and we’ll have a clear sight of many fishing ships for our looting pleasure. Also, Jan’s stew washed down with some Rum is pure heaven. The Swaggers will benefit from having her I can assure…


…Well, we found some ships. Thing is, they’re all deserted. Something about this just doesn’t seem right. There’s a good twenty something ships in range, and all of them are empty. Nothing worth looting neither, which is a real shame with the clouds ahead black with thunder. Maybe we should turn back and leave this ship graveyard, I really don’t want to find out what caused all this…

...It wasn't long until we found out what exactly caused all these shipwrecks to be deserted as they were. This graveyard was actually the home of the Legendary Leviathan, a mythical creature that I personally have only hear stories about. It all started with a rumble coming from the water, the waves picked up and the ships was rocking so much we nearly went overboard. Next thing you know, this long serpant beast thing springs from the ocean and gazes down at us. We froze with fear, there was no way we could attack it, and escaping it seemed just as impossible. The creatures tail whipped up into the air and came crashing down on the ship, creating a big hole in the deck. The force of the tail crushed Harvey and he was washed overboard, I can only presume he's dead. May the Gods look after him. So as we all held on for out lives, we saw no way out of this, no way apart from Jan. Something she didn't mention to us was that she was quite an adept magician. Using magic she managed to distract the Leviathan, giving us a chance to escape the beast...


***On a peice of stained paper is a detailed drawing of the Leviathan and The Indomitable***



...We have no idea where we're going, and the ship is taking alot of water on board, I can only hope and pray that we don't end up the same fate as the crews on those other ships...


*Signed: Captain Cocidius*

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Van Cocidius

Captains Log.
Britannian Date: Dec 3, 361.
Weather: Clear

We're tired and hungry, the food has been rationed and the ship is taking on board more and more water. Despite all our best efforts, this waters no going to stop it's flow. We can only hope we hit some solid ground soon to make repairs on the ship and get home. Their is hope though, theres a flock of birds overhead which usually means land is near. Hubert is on top alert and looking for any trace of land we can see, all we can do now is try to follow those birds the best we can...

...My heart lept when I heard those magic words "Land Ahoy!". At first I presumed my mind was playing a fool of me, but as I looked out my window, there it was. None of us know where we are, this island is not on any maps we've seen before, but whatever is on there we have to somehow get the ship up onto the beach and repair the damage done before we can set off home

We've set up camp and repairs have begun. Jan and Hubert are both adept builders, so naturally they've been stuck in charge with the repairs, we'll help out best we can. The death of Dwayne's brother hasn't affected him at all, he's building us a camp as if nothing happened, I admire him for that. Repairs should take a day or two, so in the meantime, myself, Dwayne and Jim will go explore the island. Who knows what we'll find, I just hope its nothing dangerous...


*Signed: Captain Cocidius*

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Van Cocidius

Captains Log.
Britannian Date: Dec 5, 361.
Weather: Clear

This voyage has turned from what should have been the usual smash and grab trip, to the trip from hell. I’ve missed a few logs so I’ll fill it in from the beginning…

In my last log I mentioned us going to explore the island, myself, Dwayne and Jim. And that we did. We ventured through the woodland which was quite dark and filled with nasty bugs and such that just bite and bite. It all looked the same to be honest, and after a few hours trek we had no idea which way we were heading. The compass was spinning like mad so we were officially lost. Not something you want to be on an island you’ve never been on before. We decided to take a rest and basically discuss what we’re going to do, but it wasn’t long until we were interrupted. A hind ran straight through the opening where we were sat, as we turned round to see where it came from, there stood a man in well, nothing. The rest is a blur…

I later woke up tied to a wooden pole with a blindfold over my face. I had no idea where they took Jim and Dwayne, and I still don’t have a clue what they’ve done with them. I was tied there for I presume the night, I can’t be sure because after all, I was blindfolded. The next morning they woke me up and took off my blindfold and took me to their leader. He began speaking to me in some sort of jibber jabber, I couldn’t understand a word. His patience was growing thin I could see, and I will be the first to admit, I was starting to shit myself. Eventually one of the tribesmen spoke up and started to draw in the earth next to my feet. He drew what looked like a triangle, an eye and a chest. Still bemused I had no idea but I nodded along. He then drew a cross over the chest and said “Chest, No!”, he never said why, but I later found out…

They untied me and led me through the woodland, we we’re walking for what seemed forever, the sun was beaming down on me and I was starving. We finally came to an opening amongst the tree’s, as we walked through it, before us was what looked like a temple, like the one the man drew on the floor. We walked around the temple to the entrance and they handed me a sword and pushed me towards the way in and one by one they began chanting “KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!”. Yes, I was proper crapping my pants at this moment, as I walked down the long corridor leading down into the temple, the light was dim and the stench was unbearable. The corridor twisted and turned, all leading downward into more darkness, by now I couldn’t see a damned thing. I feared if I had turned back they’d kill me, nothing down here could be worse than that, could it?

Eventually, there was a light at the end of the way. I picked up some pace, breaking into a jog. The room at the end was huge, and bright, very bright. There was piles upon piles of gold and jewels, chests spewing up coins, golden suits of armour layered the walls. In complete awe with what I was seeing, I had forgotten the warning given to me back at camp, “Chest, No!”. What did I go and do? Yep, I went and touched the nearest chest of gold. There was a sudden shudder from the floor, then a echoed roar that came from the other side of the room. I was frozen on the spot, my heart beating ten times faster. I grasped my sword tightly, thinking to myself whatever was coming I could take. I learnt that wasn’t going to be the case as a pile of gold in the distance exploded, firing all sorts everywhere. I crouched behind the chest to avoid anything hitting me, to my horror though as I peered around the chest, there it stood…

***A poor sketch of the Behemoth***


A beast, bigger than anything I had seen walk on land before, twice the size of any Demon you’ll find back at Britannia, which is where I really wanted to be right now. The beast just stood there though, staring me straight in the eye, I was afraid to move, to even breath. I tried to plan how I could take this thing down, but it really was impossible, this thing was huge. Each scale upon it easily the size of the average man. I slowly rested my hand on the handle of chest and it began to charge at me. I glanced round at the corridor, slammed the chest down shut and heaved it onto my shoulder and ran like a bastard from the law. I was barely out of the room before the beast crashed into the wall making the whole place shake like heck. I managed to keep my balance and carried on running. I could hear the beast crashing repeating into the wall trying to get through, which just made me run even faster. As I ran out through the big temple gates, I had completely forgotten about the tribe members. They looked at me in utter disgust, and I was expecting them to cut me down where I stood, but instead they just ran away shouting “BEHEMOTH!”. Behemoth? Could that be what the beast was? Fuck cares, only thing on my mind was getting my arse off this island and back home. Still, I had no idea where Jim and Dwayne had been taken too, I hoped they had made their own way back to the ship. I ran, and boy did I run, I had no idea where I was heading but I just ran as straight as I could, I’d have to hit water soon. I leapt over logs, ducking through branches and getting the occasional piece of clothing caught on loose twigs, ripping them from my body. Surprisingly it wasn’t long until I reached the beach, and my eyes were blessed at the sight of Jan and Hubert standing beside the pearl of the sea, The Indomitable. I ran at them, shouting and yelling “GET THAT SHIP IN THE WATER! NOW!!”.

I climbed upon the side of the ship, throwing the chest down and getting the sails up and spinning the ship round as quick as I could. Jan was asking question, but the questions had to wait, we needed to get as far away from here as possible. Back on the sea, we watched the island slowly disappear into the distance, but that isn’t where it ends. The island let out another roar, and from the temple emerged the beast into the sky. He looked pissed I can tell you that now as he spurted fire, setting the whole of the island alight. The only thing going through my head was that I shouldn’t of touched the bloody chest…

With the island in flames, the beast took no time to turn his anger onto us. It flew high into the sky before diving directly towards us. We all feared the worse, all those I loved I would never see again, but at least I’d die at sea right? Wrong. There was one thing we forgot about, Leviathan. As the beast drew closer, the waters began to excite, the waves grew in height and before our eyes, the Leviathan leapt from the waters into the sky, grasping the beast in it’s mouth, wrapping it’s long snake-like body around it and falling into the water. Waves the size of mountains came right at us, despite the danger from the beast gone, these waves we’re going to kill us for sure…

The waves didn’t kill us, but it pretty much destroyed the ship. I managed to refuge a piece of the deck which was afloat with the chest one. Talk about luck.? As I scouted amongst the wreck, I found Jan, she was in some pain, blood pouring from her leg. I dragged her onto the “raft” and bandaged her up best I could.

Sadly, just before nightfall, Jan died. As I held her, she looked up to be and spoke her final words “Thank you..”. My heart literally shattered as she laid there lifeless, I spoke to her of a life at Swaggers, he excited little face kept me going when times where tough. Now she’s dead, and I can only blame myself for taking such a young girl on such a trip. I guess with no food or navigator, it’s just a matter of time until I pass. At least I have my chest though hmm?…


*Signed: Captain Cocidius*

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