Tales in the Land of Blood Ch 1. The Voyage of the Saint Demelza: There is Something Below Deck

 

Dramatis Personae

• Anica The Polnenza Caravan Guard
• Fuora The Piskaro Sailor
• Giancarlo Debitore The Clerk
• Holly The Farmer
• Igore Chromsfelt The Siberskian Armorer
• Lenora The Creedhall Student
• Len The Farmer
• Licorice Roc The Blind Creedhall Student
• Nicholas Cantor The Farmer
• Oleksandr The Hemlock Lumberjack
• Richard Johnson The Farmer
• Rorschach O’Gannery The Big Game Hunter
• Sagittarius The Siberskian Serf
• Through-perseverance-the-gods-shall-be-restored The Church of Saintly Blood Flagellant aka Percival
• Yulia The Herder

Boarding the ferry from Veil to Piskaro an assorted group boards the Saint Demelza, a steam powered ferry. It is a standard affair, the passengers board the top of the ship as cargo gets loaded below the deck. Fuora the Sailor makes sure that all the tickets are accounted for and familiarizes the passengers with the layout of the ship. The passengers are told of the two lifeboats, when the food for their day-long journey will be served, and where the rooms are.

The passengers enjoy the day at sea, it’s mid autumn and the while we may have been on the tail end of the good weather before the winter storms began it was still good weather. It was a crisp and cool day, they spent it muttering amongst themselves, Richard Johnson attempting comedy based on his chicken he had brought with him, a few milling about, eating, a few reading in the library below deck.

They head off to bed, expecting to be roused just before sunrise as they arrive in the bustling port of Piskaro.

There is a lurch and a sound of thunder, the passengers are jolted awake. A storm has consumed the ship. With no hope of sleep they begin to explore with the ship made alien by storms. A life boat is missing, and there is no sign of the captain above deck. Rorschach yells that the captain is missing, rousing Fuora from her sleep, in a daze she stumbles towards the top deck. The passengers accost her about the missing life boat and she assures them that it could have only dropped intentionally. She only then just rouses from her sleep to realize the danger of a ship with no one piloting, and assumes control of the ship as soon as she can.

Below deck in the library people begin to realize something is afoot. There is a book written in a script no one recognizes, sitting in the middle of the table. And the bookshelf doesn’t have any missing books in it. Percival claims it is heretical and starts heading to the top deck in hopes of casting it out to sea, but Oleksandr grabs the books before he can fully do that, thinking it might be of some use. 

A few still below deck begin to explore the lowest deck. All of the doors of the crew’s sleeping quarters are open. And a closer inspection reveals the doorknobs for every room except for Fuora has been crushed. Braving deeper and deeper in each room seems to be in a state of disheveledness, until they get to the fourth room.

It’s like a spider web, the viscera and intestines draped across the cramped living space. Holly lets out a scream as she sees it.

There is a crash of glass breaking from the front of the ship where Fuora is.

The passengers all run down to where the scream comes from, Lenora helps Holly look through the remains and realizes one thing clear, these bones were crushed as if bitten by a large animal. 

The rush towards the pilots house and see it, glass shattered inwards and a train of blood leading from where Fuora once stood, following it leads towards the edge of the ship, where it smears downwards into the darkened sea.

Rorschach ponders in his time big game hunting in hopes of knowing some kind of sea beast that could have done this but as he does the sea riots underneath them, turning the boat to a dramatic degree, thankfully no one is harmed but as they all manage to right themselves once more they concoct a plan.

Len, Anica, Nicholas, and Igore stand guard on the top deck in case whatever killed Fuora comes back from the terrible sea. The rest of the group is to investigate the below deck, in particular the cargo bay.

As they make their way towards the cargo bay they are immediately greeted with three bodies hanging from the ceiling on hooks, their throats bitten out. Lenora vomits and Holly screams in terror. The others begin to investigate the cargo and realize one of the boxes has been broken from the outside in. There is hay and a small amount of blood inside the box, massive claw marks on the inside of box.

Suddenly Nicholas hears something, the sound of claws on metal. He alerts the others and readies his pitchfork hoping to kill the thing. As he looks down he sees the face of a human woman with pitch black eyes.

He misses as he Anica rushes forth and readies her musket. She has just been able to keep the match cord dry and unleashes a shot directly at the face. The head blasts off, the gun did what it needed to do.

Before she even has time to calm down one hand reaches out from the darkness and grabs the falling head, crudely reattaching the gory skull to the neck. Panicking, she tries to buttstroke the beast but it’s too quick. In a single bite it has removed her throat.

Len rushes forth and tries to beat it into submission but it’s no hope, with it’s lightning speed it claws at him, the claw catches the stern and rips it clean out of him.

Lightning flashes and for a brief second the stormy night is lit a sickly green and they can see it, the shape of a nude woman with terrible claws, covered in owl fur. Upon its head is a human face warped by gunshot, and a second set of jaws where the neck should be.

Those below hear the commotion and begin to rush upwards, maybe there is still hope.