Open Chronicles They Came By Sea

[Sigmund Sigvatsson]

When morning came so did the rain and mist. Wind whipped across the beach sending foam and sand into the air at stinging speeds. The storm had formed quickly, almost suddenly, in the early hours of the morning. For the townfolk, storms like this were normal occurrences, but rarely seen this time of year. Most took the weather as an ill omen, opting to remain indoors for fear of evil spirits or angry gods. The truth was nearly as terrible and far more real.

Sigmund stood at the prow of his longship. Behind and around him his men rowed and prepared for the coming fight. He'd led his warriors this far south in search of new plunder and trade routes, so far they'd been unsuccessful. A few villages and fishing craft was all, but one small raid turned this place up. It was a modest coastal town, but one of the better stops for merchant vessels along the nearby trade route. With so many merchants in one spot there was bound to be plenty of plunder.

He gripped his ax tighter and blinked his eyes against the salt spray. They would make landfall soon...

 

[Oliver Rose]

Rysa had a talent for ending up in places she didn't belong.

Her current journey had the goal of simply finding new trading partners for her inn as her current meat supplier was awful with scheduling. Somewhere along the road she'd taken a wrong turn and was now being pummeled by rain.

"Just my luck," she grumbled to herself, pulling her cloak tighter around her middle and throwing her hood over her head. She'd come across a humble village only a few minutes ago, but the cold was biting at her skin and her eyes drew heavy from fatigue. Rysa wanted to find someplace to stay as quickly as she could, but her wandering mind focused instead on a ship in the distance.

Cowering under the roof of a random building, she watched as it neared closer and closer. Laying her head against the side of the wooden building, she thought of Silvan back home in Alliria. She would have to send him a letter describing how she'd gotten lost on another one of her accidental adventures.

Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she instead chose to watch the way the ship swayed in the wind, standing strong against the foreboding weather.

 

[Mualiin]

He heard it long before he saw it - the tell-tale shadows of a ship approaching shore. The storm was harsh, the winds almost slicing into his skin from what openings there were on his armor, but this he merely noted, a sensation he was accustomed to many times. From flashes of lightning that lit the clouds ablaze, he saw for a few scant moments, multitudes of people upon the vessel. He had been searching for a vessel to take him northwards, and it appeared he had found one such ship.

That is, if it was the ship he had been imagining it to be.

Striking an imposing figure on the ports as he walked to and fro, he kept a hand on the ironwood handle of his axe as he awaited the ship's landing. It would be a toss of the coin - A friendly merchant's vessel? Or the incoming approach of pirates and/or raiders.

Purple irises narrowing in focus, he continued his impromptu patrol, black boots stomping on the wooden planks with a constant wariness. The answer would come soon enough.