GMShip's Master Casados took the steps down from the aftcastle, his mutton chop beard bristling as he watched his crew with the eyes of a seasoned captain.
"Aback the hatches and hitch the windlass. Let's get some air down there!
"You there, look lively!!"
He walked the deck up to the forecastle, bellowing obscure nautical orders at his sailors, who understood them almost instinctively.
The adventurers assembled along the rail amidships as the caravel came about, the hull leaning over as it cut into the choppy water around the headland. Fine spray dappled their clothes and faces, the crew whooped and hollered and the seagulls around the ship were lofted away by the gusting wind.
The sails cracked and strained as the wind filled them and
The Issitia surged, the deck seesawing joyously as it took the waves.
[
Intro Music]
Cheers from afore heralded the arrival of more seafarers; Sailfin dolphin leapt from the bow wave, their bronze skin glistening in the summer sun and their sail-like dorsal fins forming a flotilla with
The Issitia's own.
Land was soon looming close on the starboard side, only a quarter mile away.
The pale pink cliffs were rugged, often overhanging, with natural terraces along the tops that bloomed with dense, hardy greenery, mostly wild grasses and cluster pines.
A sea eagle took flight, launching from its cliff-top eyrie, stark black and white feathers and bright yellow beak like a butcher's cleaver. With a wingspan as wide as a horse was long, perhaps it was intrigued by the dolphins.
It soared at a few hundred feet, circling upwards and above the ship before banking away to the east and picking up speed...
Across the wooded headland, over fields where farmhands toiled in the sun, and to a town built upon the side of a cliff, overlooking a dark grey river. No ramshackle rustic dwellings here, the buildings were made of rough-hewn stone, with a mixture of slate and terracotta rooves, and fortifications protected the landward side.
The sea eagle swooped low passed a turret adorning the tall tower overlooking the town. It wheeled around and gave a shrill cry.
A woman stood in the parapet and lifted her chin in acknowledgement. She was beautiful even in her forty-eighth year, with lustrous black hair, dusky skin and a diaphanous gown with a plunging neckline. That eye-catching valley was deep enough to be a landmark, but her sultry gaze was even more eye-catching. The Lady swirled and disappeared back into the tower.
The eagle flew on, following the river far below. Steep valleys and sharp-crested hills, deep river gorges with foaming white water, a rugged, wooded wilderness. Onwards and onwards, the eagle beat its wings at a steady, rhythmic pace, as if in time to a galley drum. Then it soared and climbed away.
Below it a hill had appeared, far higher than the surroundings and where it straddled the river, the river had worn a hole through its middle. It looked like the crook of a gargantuan arm and its sides were swathed in a thick, mysterious cloud. The peak was the Titan's Elbow and the adventure had just begun.
[[End of
session 1. Go to
HHE3: The Invite.]]
