As soon as the Crimson Roger fled the battle, the Unchartered Course
and the Maris Stella exchanged signals. Captain Gosse sent a
long boat to receive the heroes and ferry them back to the Maris Stella,
steered by Philip Gosse's own son, Thomas. There, they thanked Philip
and Melinda Gosse earnestly for their help against Reis, received a tour of
the old frigate, and were invited to dinner with the captains. Over
an excellent dinner prepared by cook Gaspar, with Castillan wine supplied
by Constanza, the heroes explained their goals: to convince Captain
Gosse to stop harrying Castillan commerce, to fight off Reis, and to steer
the Vesten Prophecy to a benign end.
In a roundabout way to avoid naming names, Constanza explained that
they had heard that the captain of the damned ship the Black Freighter
had reappeared since Gosse's return to piracy, and was looking for his old
enemy. At first, Philip Gosse did not know whom this referred to, but
when Constanza uneasily mentioned the rumour that this captain had killed
Gosse's wife twenty years ago, a dire hush fell over the room. Gosse
stayed very still for a long moment, then walked out without a word. His
daughter Melinda and her beau, First Officer André Braudel, rushed
after him, leaving only Father Hernando to explain the chilling details of
the tale.
He explained that Comte Robert de Méchant had been a pirate captain
at the same period Gosse was plying his trade, but a very different one. The
two had been enemies, but Gosse repeatedly foiled de Méchant. When
at last he retired from piracy, it seems de Méchant could not bear
the thought of letting his enemy go. He raided the settlement of Utopia
while Gosse was away, carrying off his wife. Gosse gave pursuit and
caught de Méchant's ship, but only to discover the body of his wife,
horribly tortured and murdered. Mad with grief and fury, Gosse tied
de Méchant to the mast, and burned the ship to the waterline. To
the remainder of the crew he offered the choice of dying in the flames or
jumping into the siren infested waters. De Mechant died screaming curses
at Gosse. In all it was a rather horrible incident - the only such
that Ochoa remembers.
At that point in the story, everyone noticed that the sea was getting rougher.
Moments later, a great crack resounded above, followed by cries of "Man
overboard!" Everyone rushed out and climbed on deck to discover that
lightning had struck the main topmast, sending a yard and the crow's nest
into the sea. Constanza tied a rope to her waist and asked Ferdinand
to pay it out as she dove and swam towards the remnants of the rigging and
the drowning crewman caught in it. She caught the man and recognized
Thomas Gosse, but sirens swarmed all around. Lucas and Melisandre helped
Ferdinand pull Constanza back towards the ship, but despite all their efforts
the sirens succeeded in pulling Thomas under and the heroes were unable to
find him again.
The storm was clearly unnatural, although it was different from the the Sidhe's
living storm and from the summonings of the Vesten Raiders. Hideous
shapes grimaced in the the clouds, and over the noise of the storm everyone
heard a mad, high-pitched shrieking laughter. On deck, Philip Gosse
howled in despair. Lucas called on the green Sidhe lady who immediately
emerged from the waves, smiling sweetly. She refused to help unless
he agreed to kill her mother, who she claims is Queen Elaine. He refused,
and she dove out of sight.
The Unchartered Course and the Maris Stella were once again
separated by the elements. The storm lasted a night and a day, at the
end of which the Maris Stella was nowhere in sight. Melinda Gosse
decided to head back for Utopia for repairs, so the ship made its way to
the Midnight Archipelago. Utopia was a pleasant enough place, and the
heroes spent the first few days helping with the repairs and listening to
old sailors' tales.
But in the dark of night while they were Philip Gosse's guests, they were
awakened by a crashing sound. They quickly got up and discovered a small
army of walking undead was crawling all over the house! The zombies
could only be put down by hits to the head. Ferdinand waded through
the melee twice as fast as everyone else combined, while Constanza took unpleasant
wounds. But as soon as Ferdinand freed her from the last of the undead
attacking her, she heard sounds of struggling in Philip Gosse's library and
hurried to his aid while Ferdinand dispatched more walking dead.
As she reached the libray, Constanza heard an anguished voice beg: "Kill me,
father!" She rushed in, to see an undead Thomas pinning Phip Gosse to
the floor and trying to strangle him, but with a horrified expression on
his white face. All her pistol shots already exhausted, Constanza had
no recourse but to slam into Thomas bodily to knock him off. She broke
off one of his arm, yet still he held on with the other, so she pistol-whipped
him. As he fell back, his cranium shattered, he murmured a tortured
"Thank you..."
Philip Gosse finally reached his sword and joined in the melee against the
undead like a man possessed. At last all the zombies were destroyed.
Gosse revealed that he had learned from his research that de Méchant's
power came from a Vesten relic, though he could find no details about it.
He asked the heroes to return to Castille and research this in the famed
libraries, then rejoin him in Kirk. Everyone agreed.
Meanwhile, Lucas had discovered that one of Gosse's crewmen, Torvo Espada,
claimed to be heir to the "true" Aldan school, accusing Lucas's grandfather
Millano Rios de Aldana of having stolen the secrets from Espada's father.
They agreed to have a duel of honour at a later date, though both agreed
the time was ill suited at the moment. Lucas also had the painful task
of enlightening Padre Hernando de Ochoa on his family's recent fate. Finally,
Lucas had returned from Bryn Bresail more Avalon than Castillan, plagued
by a whole entourage of small faeries, and able to understand dog speech.
Lucas was not having a good time.
The Unchartered Course's repairs at last completed, she sailed out
to Castille. During a shift on deck one night, Constanza finds Father
Hernando unconscious and a stranger at the wheel. The man soon revealed
himself as Comte de Méchant and offered taunts and threats , but disappeared
as suddenly. Gosse dropped the heroes off San Cristobal. From
there, Lucas headed to his estancia, while Ferdinand, Melisandre, and
Constanza began by attending mass. But when Ferdinand went to pray at
San Gregor's altar, the head rolled off the statue of the saint and Melisandre
noted that the marks on the statue's neck exactly mimicked those which Ferdinand
had suffered in the sewers of Freiburg against the Caged Beast. From
this, the heroes concluded that Ferdinand had displeased the saint by removing
the Syrneth collar that was to be the mark of the miracle. Ferdinand
stayed to do penance, fast and pray.
Melisandre and Constanza went to the university's libraries and buried themselves
in musty old tomes. They learned a more detailed version of the Comte
de Méchant's story, and the name of the Vesten artefact he was supposed
to have acquired, the Spear of the West Wind, capable of controlling storms
and raising the dead. Meanwhile, Lucas found some letters from don Andrès
waiting for him and learned that Juan Gallegos de Orduño, their companion
left aboard the still-missing Maris Stella, had been excommunicatedin
absentia. Salvaging something from this trip, Lucas obtained a
new Aldana blade and some funds.
On their second evening in San Cristobal, Constanza was approached by a red-robed
inquisitor who questioned her about Juan. Upon learning that Juan was
on the Maris Stella, the inquisitor announced that the ship was hereby
impounded by the Church as soon as it arrived in port.
After he was done with his penance, Ferdinand presented himself to the local
chapterhouse of the Order of the Knights of the Rose and Cross to enquire
whether his petition to join the order had received favour. He was told
that Master Knight Francisco Garcia de Torres would like to meet him, but
that the tests to see if his mettle was worthy of the Knights of the Rose
and Cross would last a week.
Upon Lucas's return to San Cristobal, the four heroes discussed options, principally
whether to travel by land through Eisen to avoid Avalon, or to travel by
sea. It was decided that time being of the essence, they would travel
by sea. Constanza would try to find a ship to carry them on the morrow,
while Lucas visited the swordsmen guild.
