[Log] The Wreckage of the BSS Sepoy

[malachi_rta]

Synopsis: Nel, Rose, and Malachi are sailing from Amber to Begma when they come across the remains of a destroyed ship. Nel and Rose go out to investigate, and then things become Strange.


The voyage from Amber to Begma has been uneventful so far. At specific points along the way, the captain has been demonstrating to his cousins how to bind the shadowpath in place through standard maintenance, but otherwise the seas have been calm, the sailors focused on their tasks, and nothing of interest has happened. Right now the Orchid Queen sails across a green ocean in Shadow, nearly to the oceans of Begma itself.

Malachi stands at one of the railings with a spyglass raised, surveying the horizon of the path ahead.

Rose looks over Malachi's shoulder as if trying to discern what he is spying.

Nel has stayed rather quiet the whole of the voyage, keeping out of the way of Malachi in particular. She notes with interest his explanations on binding the shadowpaths, but it might seem to be more out of courtesy than anything else.

Malachi passes the spyglass over to Rose. "Wreckage in the water," he says. "Direct in the path." There's a brisk wind behind the ship, and already a smudge in the water up ahead is visible to the naked eye. He glances back to his first mate, who's already moving sailors to action from those two phrases. "Ever met Begman pirates?" he asks Rose.

Rose looks through the spyglass and replies distractedly, "Do lawyers count?"

Malachi says dryly, "Only when on ships."

Nel slips up toward the railing so that she is next to Rose, quietly out of the way, but still there.

Malachi glances over to Nel, then leaves the railing to go speak with his first mate. Meanwhile, the smudge on the horizon is creeping closer, resolving into floating wreckage.

Rose offers the spyglass to Nel.

Nel smiles. "Thank you." She takes the spyglass, frowning as she peers through it.

Barrels and planks and pieces of what used to be a ship bob forlornly about in the water ahead as the frigate draws nearer. Through the spyglass, there's a glint of a curved, metallic surface visible in the center of all the wreckage,

Nel points toward the metal that's gleaming in the water as she hands the spyglass back toward Rose. "What's that?"

Rose peers at it again and says, "I have no idea." She looks to Malachi.

Malachi returns to the women at the railing. "Unlikely to be survivors," he says, with a jerk of his chin towards the wreckage as if his context weren't already clear. "Should stop long enough to check for a name, and signs of what did it. Not a usual stretch for pirates or sea monsters."

Rose's brow furrows. "Is it in the way of the path?"

Malachi shakes his head. "Path's wide enough to go around. Might have been sunk by something from the Road. Or something new." He looks to Nel. "Studied anything of magic in Chantris?"

Nel's brows knit slightly. "Magic? No...I've studied, but not necessarily magic. Why?"

Rose gives the spyglass to Malachi and looks to him as he answers Nel's question.

Malachi takes the spyglass, and says, "If it's something new sinking ships, better to know before it attacks us. This close to Begma, more likely the Road. Or Begman pirates. Still better to have more eyes on it." He adds as he looks through the spyglass, "Investigation of a crime. Right up your alley, if you want to take a look."

"Well, /that/ I can do," Nel smiles. "Though I have to admit this is a bit unusual circumstances for me. But certainly. Are there any markings on the ship that you can see?"

Rose leans forward, out over the water. She seems to be looking straight downward.

"Not from here," Malachi says. He closes up the spyglass. "Won't risk my ship too near the wreckage. We'll send out a longboat."

Rose straightens back up. "I can't make out what the ship's name used to be," she says. "But I can see a few letters on the bits we're running over."

Nel looks over the railing, squinting. "Can you write out what you saw?" she says as they seem to have passed over the parts with letters for the moment. "Otherwise I can go out with the longboat, I suppose.."

The wreckage sways up and down gently on the waves, approaching more slowly now that the sails are being furled to avoid running into the mass straight-on. All the broken wood spreads out in a rough circle around a central point, where a gleaming copper curve looks like someone has thrown a fishing bobber the size of a carriage into the sea.

Rose nods and produces a stylus and paper from a pocket. She draws out the letters quickly but accurately and hands the paper to Nel.

Nel studies that paper for a few moments, then looks up at the wreckage and down at the paper again, frowning.

Malachi considers the wreckage ahead, his own ship, and looks over to Rose. "Care to lead the boat out?"

Privately, to Rose, Malachi looks to be thinking of the wisdom of having someone who can shift Shadow out there if trouble comes up, but is likely disinclined to leave his own ship when he doesn't know what might be in the water.

Nel says after a minute or more, "It's Begman. I can make out "EPO," but that's it."

Rose nods and moves toward a longboat. She is intercepted by two crewmen.

Malachi turns to Nel. "Could use you better out there," he says, with a flick of his hand towards the shattered ship. "Your choice."

Nel says, "Of course," nodding and moving to follow Rose. "It's the least I can do after you agreed to allow me on this voyage."

Malachi goes to confer with one of his officers, while the sailors ready the longboat to lower it down into the water.

Rose climbs aboard the longboat, refusing the offers of the sailors to assist her. Once Nel is aboard, the boat is lowered slowly into the water. Rose smiles and takes up the oars. "Shall we?" she asks as if they are heading towards a nice tea.

Nel is rather less casual about it, but she nods. "Yes," she answers, grimly looking out toward the wreckage. "Before it drifts much further."

Rose begins to row.

As the longboat gets closer to the wreckage the two ladies can see movement in the distance. It appears to be another ship on the other side of the shattered hulk but it is difficult to focus on. As if seen through a heat shimmer.

Nel lifts a hand to point out that shimmering mirage of a ship. "I hope that's not for real," she notes, sounding worried.

Rose looks in the direction of Nel's pointing. "Oh, my," she says.

The wreckage is spread wide enough that the longboat can navigate between the pieces without catching on anything but the smaller bits, with the occasional oar out to push a floating barrel out of the way. In the center of it all, the gleaming metal sphere draws closer, though it looks to be sinking a little further down with each bob up and down in the waves.

Rose says, "Some sort of weapon." She points to the large sphere.

Fog begins to roll in.

Nel gazes down at that metal sphere for a long time. "If it is, I've never seen anything like it. At all." She glances up at that fog. "Let's not lose sight of our ship."

There's a distant, muffled sort of noise coming from the sphere as it sinks. Some sort of hammering.

A noise comes from the fog, as well. It sounds like singing but it is too faint to make out any words.

Rose says, "I'm uncertain which of those to be more concerned about." She continues rowing towards the bulk of the wreck.

Nel nods to Rose, not disputing her decision to continue investigating. She has her head tilted, trying to make out the song or the words.

The sphere isn't perfectly smooth: rivets and welded seams decorate its sides, and a round door large enough to pour through--or large enough for someone to squeeze through--with a round wheel to seal it slowly rotates into view.

Rose rows until the longboat bumps up against the piece of the wreckage with the sphere on it. She ties the boat to a relatively upright piece of metal and looks closely at the sphere without leaving the boat yet.

Nel stares at the sphere and the wheel on it. "Do you think we can turn it?"

Nel says, "The wheel, I mean. Maybe it opens something."

Rose nods and says, "That sound like a good idea." She stands and makes her way onto the wreck very carefully as if she is not accustomed to moving about on ships which are not intact. She places a hand on the metal object. "I saw one of these being loaded onto a ship when I was in Begma with my fiance. They called it a bathysphere." She pronounces the last word slowly.

Nel repeats the word, a perfect imitation of Rose's pronunciation. "Who are you engaged to?" she asks, finally getting to ask her traveling companion something about herself--Nel has been very quiet the entire journey. She stands up, looking to follow Rose onto the wreck, but hesitating. "What's that cable there?" Indicating mangled cable stuck to a valve on the spheer and another hooked to a ring on the top.

The rim along the hatch door has been struck by something forceful enough to leave a big round dent, warping the metal firmly shut.

The singing gets louder for a few seconds and then recedes. The fog thickens.

Rose looks at the items Nel asks about. First she says, "Addison Feldane. He's from Begma." Then she says, "I don't know what these things are for but they won't be doing it again any time soon." Her brow furrows, "Does it seem that there are more pieces around than a single ship could account for?"

Nel leans over and reaches for the bit of mangled cable stuck to the valve on the sphere. She gives it a very hard tug as she answers Rose. "It does, yes. Feldane. Haven't met him or any from Feldane." She pulls again.

Rose watches Nel's progress and nods appreciatively. "You must come by the solar for tea, then. I'll introduce you."

"Tea!" It comes out as a sort of squeal as the cable unexpectedlly comes out, winding up in Nel's hand and sending her halfway toppling backwards into the longboat. She glares at it. "Yes, tea. And two boats, I'm sure of it."

When the cable snaps out of the valve, there's a whistle of air inside the bathysphere. And, faintly, voices beneath the banging still coming from in there.

The Orchid Queen is no longer visible in the fog.

Rose peers into the bathysphere, one hand on her sword though she does not draw it.

There's light coming through that valve, but it's hard to see much of anything through such a small opening. The banging is definitely against that sealed hatch.

Nel doesn't notice that the Orchid Queen has slipped into the fog. "There's someone in there! Can you open the hatch?" she asks Rose. She climbs cautiously out of the longboat to get her footing on a floating piece of wreckage.

Rose nods, "I shall do my best." She places both hands on it and spreads her feet to give her better leverage.

Rose shakes her head. "It's been too badly bent."

Nel frowns. "Maybe together? Maye pry it open?" She finds a floating piece of metal in the water, then carefully steps onto the sphereto try to leverage the hatch open.

Rose and Nel pull and pry together. After nearly half a minute of trying, the hatch bends outward with a slow grinding noise.

The singing from the fog is more like a whisper but it is clearer now. Nel can make out a couple of words in Old Begman. One of them is 'revenge' the other is 'melody'.

Nel is drawn to look at whatever is in the hatch, natrually, but the words carried across the fog make her pause. "Not good," she frowns at Rose. "Not good at all. Hello?" she calls into the hatch.

Rose looks concernedly at Nel but then focuses her attention downward.

A man comes scrambling out, in such haste that he slides right out the hatch to splash into the water beside the bathysphere. He wears tinted goggles and a dashing adventuring outfit of leather and red silk that no doubt looked quite natty before he was deposited into salt water. He shakes a fist at the wreckage, going into a shouting tirade on the heritage of the people who have destroyed his ship, the shoddiness of their engineering, and their unnatural relations with mechanical devices. Then stops abruptly, as he sees the women. "Pardon my language," he says.

Rose replies to the man, "No, no. Quite understandable"

"Who are you and what is this? And why are they.." Nel jerks her head to indicate teh direction of the singing coming from the fog, "singing about revenge?" She sounds angry.

The inside of the bathysphere is well-lit and well-furnished, with velvet seats that wouldn't look out of place in the Palace, and gleaming brass knobs and levers and dials and ominous-looking blooping lights. There's a second man in there, slumped over one of the seats.

"Captain Otis Baron," the man says, trying to bow while treading water. "A pleasure to meet my rescuers, and could you tell me what the he--what in the name of all science happened to my ship? We were down below looking for the wreck of the Sepoy, and then all our cables were cut, right like that. I don't know a bl--a single thing about singing, ma'am, but you can be sure I'll have my revenge."

Rose looks utterly confused but quickly goes into some sort of automatic courtly mode. "Inspector Nel of Chantris and Princess Rosalynd of the House of Florimel." She makes a sweeping gesture. "This fog came in rather quickly. And there is some sort of singing ship with it."

Nel says, "Sepoy?" She squints. "We saw pieces of that drift by. In the water, under our own ship, which is...." She squints into the fog. "Here. I hope."

As if on cue, the singing comes in on a gust of wind. This time, a low howl comes with it. Water begins lapping against the sides of the wreck as if in response to the wake of a fast ship.

The Begman captain drags himself up onto a piece of wood, and just sits there a moment, catching his breath. "You're telling me that's not your ship with the creepy singing, then," he says, in the sort of calm, reasonable voice that suggests he's going to break into a panic attack at any moment. "Yes, the BSS Sepoy. Famous old ship, meant to recover some of the artifacts for a museum. What it might be doing floating about up here I can't imagine."

Nel points into the sphere. "Is that man alive in there?"

Otis nods. "John took a bit of a whack on the noggin when the bathysphere cut loose. He'll be fine if we can drag him--you said you had a ship, then? An actual ship that's still afloat? One without creepy singing? Not that I would turn down a floating ship with the singing, mind you, if that's the only option."

Rose nods, "Let's get back to the Orchid Queen." She reaches downward for the unconscious man.

Nel makes her way back toward the longboat. "I agree, and the sooner the better."

The man still inside the bathysphere is a thin, weedy type with grease under his fingernails and a patch of dried blood on the back of his head. Captain Otis hauls himself to his feet, tottering about on the unsteady piece of deck he's found, to help with the pulling out. "Much obliged, your, er, Highness," he says. "I think we would have been stuck in there until the air ran out if you hadn't come along. The hatch just wouldn't budge."

Rose drags John into the boat and says, "We had noticed."

Nel helps Rose get the unconscious man into the boat, then settles herself in and waits for Otis to do so as well. "I'm afraid your research will have to wait for now. I don't like the looks of this whole situation. Does anyone know which way the Orchid Queen lies?"

Otis perks up once he's inside an actual boat again. "I say, are you botanists, then?"

Rose closes her eyes for a moment and her brow furrows in concentration.

Nel watches Rose closely, waving off Otis's question with a hand.

Rose opens her eyes and points in a direction different from the one they came from. "That way," she says as she unties the boat." Then she asks Nel, "Would you mind rowing?" She unslings her bow.

Otis reaches for an oar. "Never did make the rowing team in university, but I believe I can lend a hand, if you don't mind."

Nel takes the other oar. "You sure?" she asks Rose. "How can you tell?"

Rose wraps a piece of paper around an arrow and says, "I can sense Malachi but it's faint." She fires the arrow in the direction she had been pointing.

The low howling is getting louder.

Nel rows quicker, though it's clear she's focusing a lot of attention listening to that howling.

Otis matches Nel's speed with all the celerity and eagerness he has in him.

The howling sound seems to be coming from directly between the longboat and the Orchid Queen now.

Nel shivers as she is rowing now. "Can we go around that howling? I can't tell what they're saying, but I know I don't like it. At all."

Rose nods and says, "Let's." She follows this up with, "Row us around that bit of wood, there and once we're past it, bring us about to the star--Um, no. To your left, Nel."

A crossbow bolt whips through the fog and buries itself into the wood of the longboat's floor, right next to Otis's feet. He stifles an ungentlemanly shriek, gesturing towards it with his elbow without letting go of the oar. "They're shooting at us!"

There's a slip of paper bound around the bolt.

Rose says, "No, that was from Malachi." She reaches down for the paper.

Malachi's message says, "Detour starboard. Will meet you there with ballistas loaded."

Nel follows Rose's instructions, or at least starts to, jumping and nearly dropping the oar when the bolt hits the floor of the boat. "What's it say?" she asks, swallowing her own urge to scream.

Rose replies, "He says for us to go that way. He's moving the Queen to put us further from the other ship." She indicates a slightly different course from her first idea.

Nel nudges Otis in the ribs. "Come on, row." She puts a considerable amount of energy into it.

Otis rows as vigorously as he can. "Aye aye, si--um, m'lady!"

The longboat courses through the water and into deeper fog. As it does so, a dark shape can be seen off the boat's port side. The howling is so loud that it nearly drowns out the words shouted in Thari by some mangled throat. "Come about! Fire at will!"

Rose says, "Bugger." She aims an arrow at the dark ship, seeking a target that looks like it might be hurt by it."

Nel hisses to Otis, "Row, dammit." She whispers, though--not wanting to give away their position with the sound of her voice.

Otis is rowing like his life depends on it, and from his expression, he thinks that it does.

Rose releases an arrow and then three more in rapid succession. She turns to her companions. "No idea if I've hit anything." Then a gargled scream rings out and is followed by a splash. "On the other hand..."

Nel asks, "Can you see the Orchid Queen yet? How close are we?"

Rose shrugs, "I've lost her. And I'm not willing to risk taking my eyes off them long enough to get another reading. It's not very accurate, anyway. Just keep going the way Malachi said." Her voice has more than a trace of uncertainty in it.

There is a resounding SPLASH a few yards from the longboat as a large, rotten chunk of wood hits the water. Everyone on the boat is now soaked.

Nel says, "What the..?" She tries to reach for the chunk of wood with her oar. "That some sort of signal?"

Rose peers at it. "It looks like a piece of a ballista missle."

Two more great splashes hit. They're getting closer.

From the starboard side, another dark shape looms through the fog. The Orchid Queen slips into view, ballistas loaded--then, all at once, unloaded, as the artillery sends a whistling barrage of enormous iron-tipped bolts overhead to smash into the rotting ship beyond.

At the sides of the frigate, sailors already wait with ropes to get everyone from the longboat on board as soon as it's within their reach.

Nel rows the longboat the last few yards to the Orchid Queen, then scrambles to help get the group aboard.

Rose picks John up in a fireman's carry and climbs the nearest rope ladder one-handed. This time, she is more than willing to accept help.

Otis goes for the ropes as soon as the two women and John are onboard, taking any sailor's hand offered to him on the way up. "For the love of progress, let's get out of here!"

The rotting but still sailing hulk of a ship of Begman design flees from the Orchid Queen's firepower. Men with wounds so terrible they should not be standing man the rigging.

Nel turns to look at just what the Orchid Queen is firing on once they're all on board. "What happened? What's going on?"

Malachi stands on the deck while men rush about him to reload the ballistas. "We're leaving," he says crisply, with a glance flickering across the sailors about him. "We'll discuss the details later."

Rose nods and places John carefully on the deck.

Once the rotting ship is well out of sight, Malachi leads the way to his cabin, with a curt gesture to Otis to indicate that the Begman should follow along with Nel and Rose.

Nel crowds into the cabin with the others, arms folded across her chest, her jaw set in a hard line.

Rose follows and looks worried.

Malachi closes the door once everyone's in. "That ship," he says evenly, "was the BSS Sepoy. Sank decades back. Looks it, too. Any of you close enough to see who was crewing it?"

Otis swallows. "I was rowing too hard to notice that, Captain, but that doesn't make any sense. That's history."

Nel says, "I saw them from the deck here once we were aboard. They should have been dead. The crew. They were all wounded, or worse. How can that be?"

Rose looks to Nel and nods. Then she says, "I saw something similar at the Oisen. The dead rose up against us as soon as we shot them down."

Malachi puts up a hand. "Don't speak of this to the crew." He fixes Otis most especially with a cold look as he says this. "Time yet to investigate. Rumors of ghosts among sailors don't end well."

Nel says, "Is this what happens when the shadowpaths deteriorate? Is this what you've been finding?"

Malachi says, "Might be related. First time I've seen this."

Privately, to Rose, Malachi glances to his cousin for some confirmation either way, with her experience fighting the Road itself.

Otis nods unhappily. "Maybe they only /looked/ half-dead. Some new form of scurvy... I won't spread it about through your crew, of course."

Rose sighs and says to Malachi, "You know who should be told of this." Distaste is clear on her face. She looks as if she has swallowed something sour. "If it's the Road, and I think it may be, he will want to know."

Malachi nods to Rose. "I'll let him know." He includes Nel as well in his next statement. "Keep your eyes open. Anything more like this, or anything unusual at all, I want to know. Nearly to Begma, so I don't expect more before port. Might be anyway."

Nel looks between the two. "Who?"

Rose wrinkles her nose and nearly spits the word, "Cyrus."

Nel nods, though, as Malachi addresses her. "I will. And there was some sort of strange chant. Awful. I couldn't make it out, but...well, I remember the words or nearly so." She pauses as Cyrus's name is mentioned. "Is there a problem with his knowing somehow?"

Malachi says flatly, "No. Give him what you saw, and anything you picked from the chant. He might recognize it."

Nel shrugs. "All right. I will. I need to think about it, though. The chant, that is."

Rose nods curtly in response to Malachi. Then her expression softens as she regards Nel. "He and I are best left far away from each other. I should not take my personal grudges into the open like this."

Nel smiles at that. "It's all right. We all have our own personal battles, no?"

Malachi says, "Need to see to the men." He opens the door to the cabin and steps out, with a curt gesture towards Otis for the man to follow him.

Otis straightens his shoulders, and sweeps a bow to the women. "My lady, your Highness. Let me know if I can ever repay you for the rescue." Then he goes running off to catch up with the captain of the ship.

Rose nods to Malachi and then says to Nel, "Thank you for understanding."

Nel says, "You're welcome." She rises as well. "I'm going to try to write down whatever I can remember of that horrible chant. Before I block it out completely."

Rose says, "I shall atttend to brave, young John." She moves out of the cabin. "Let's meet up in a...quieter setting some time," she offers to Nel.

Nel smiles. "Yes. One without ghost ships and horrible songs. Until later, then." She heads to an out of the way spot on the ship where she can think and not bother Malachi and his crew, as she had promised.

Rose looks to the care of the Begman lad.