Name: Captain Hector Draken, EEF
Entry: #95
Data - Encrypted:
The sun rises and I watch flagons of wine and carts of fresh food coming in and out of Thebes. While my associates and allies were busy with our little mining operation, I decided I should begin looking less suspicious by resuming exploration activities in this strange land stuck in time. Security reports for the past while have been nothing too crazy, other than a Resa identified as “Harriot” roaming the land near one of the northern Loyalist listening posts.
I have been interested in researching the strange disappearance of some of the citizens on one of the southern islands. The Haruspex have warned against me going to explore around there but I do not care about their threats, curiosity cannot be stopped!
“I’ve lost a neighbor down south a few months ago, went there looking for rare flowers but never came back”, someone in the forum told me.
“They’ve sent search parties to try finding the missing people but even the search parties go missing”, said a soldier of the city watch.
I think the majority of the people around here know of some strange phenomenon that has been making people disappear, but no one wants to investigate the cause due to the high risk of also disappearing.
The locals have a tale they tell to children, of a demon who drags them into a cave and absolutely eviscerates them if they leave after bedtime. The firepit flickered as the wind blew, my heading? Sparta! From there I hope to charter a ship to the southern islands. I have never sailed by boat here, so this will be my first time. The sun continues to rise, I must ride to Sparta before the sun makes it too hot to travel.
“You are a fool to risk your life for this Draken, there must be a reason why no one returns”, said a merchant.
“And yet I’m the only one with the courage to do it. You are a merchant, whose profession is to trade. Mine is exploring, and to investigate is to explore”, I replied with a smirk.
My strider was fueled up and ready. Before departing, I took a last look at “home” and smiled, a voice in my mind kept warning me to not investigate, but it just kept me wanting to investigate even more.
Name: Captain Hector Draken, EEF
Entry: #96
Data:
MYRINIAN AMBUSH! MYRINIAN AMBUSH!
On my travels to the southern part of Ancient Greece, the hostile Myrinians ambushed me from high ground on a ridge. My current status at that moment was: delayed, looted, and stranded. Another day of bad luck for the dear captain, oh how far I’ve fallen from favor and how far I’ve fallen from grace.
However, during my moment of despair and utter defeat, a familiar voice asked “This is not a good place to rest my friend” as I stared at my ruined equipment and strider. Who may this familiar voice be, a friend, a foe? A Haruspex!
Another wandering Haruspex, living among the people of this land, blending in and embracing the lifestyle of the past. A slight smile came to me when I saw him offer his hand to help me get up.
“You should abandon your investigation, after all our time here, not even the Haruspex have figured out where the poor people end up that wander into the darkness” he suggested after I told him where I was going.
“But that is the reason, to seek answers, to know where the abyss leads, to riches or to death” I replied.
“I can get you on board a galley. Sparta is patrolling the waters for sea monsters and the ship will be leaving port in 2 days. If you change your mind and want an adventure, reach Knossos instead”
“I can’t land at Knossos, my deal with your people was that I don’t explore Knossos and they won’t disturb my faction’s business here”
He smiled, shook my hand, and then offered to lead me to Sparta, which I graciously accepted.
From the ambush point to Sparta, we talked about adventure and treasure, and the objectives of an adventurer and explorer.
Approaching the outskirts of Sparta, a small group of hoplites standing guard welcomed us to their city-state home. A great place to hunt less-aggressive cyclops, Sparta also seems to be a lead exporter of vibrant sweat, a key ingredient in much of our manufacturing. A potential business opportunity? Maybe, however, I do not wish to crash the Loyalist sweat industry since it does make up a significant amount of our exports.
Name: Captain Hector Draken, EEF
Entry: #97
Data:
Day 1 of staying with my Haruspex friend in Sparta has been a wonderful experience of combat training, hunting, and exercise in general. I am really out of shape for an explorer and probably would get destroyed by a larger monster if it weren’t for my high-powered weapons and gear. But what if I don’t have the gear? Do I simply take the hit and be on the verge of death?
The spartans train daily and, I am lucky to get a 5km run into my schedule. In terms of food, I survive mostly on rations nowadays compared to the spartans and my dear Haruspex friend who embrace a diet of real foods instead of processed rations.
At precisely 5:00, we went out on a run and surely enough, I lacked the agility to keep going and couldn’t even outrun the asclarias companion my Haruspex friend had. A slight embarrassment, but it didn’t compare to me being smacked straight to the revive by a cyclops club. I think I broke something and used the last of my fast aid pack to fix it. I’m not sure whether or not this is discouragement or a move to decrease morale, but it is working. I feel discouraged from going on my journey but realize what I have to improve on to have an edge against hostile enemies.
“How did you survive this long on planetside?” the Haruspex scoffed.
“Sheer luck maybe? I swear I was fit back in the day” I said, running out of breath
“It’s because you’ve been traveling too much on skyrippers and striders. What you need is to experience walking on your feet and eat natural” he added.
When we started walking back towards the city, he told me of treasures he found, the origins of the asclarias, and how his most trusted companion is a cute robot that does not exactly fit into the surrounding tech period. Another adventure for another day? Maybe.
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew and I stumbled a little. Trying to regain my footing, I turned around to check on my Haruspex friend and noticed he was gone. Where did he go? What kind of Haruspex sorcery is this? There is no physical way someone could suddenly disappear into thin air so fast. He didn’t run off, he didn’t die, was he just a figment of my imagination? Classic Haruspex, always up to mischievous things.
Name: Captain Hector Draken, EEF
Entry: #98
Data:
Day 2, today is the day to depart from Sparta. The weather seemed calm and the lack of wind might be a problem but I’ll let the Spartan navy figure it out. For now, I just need to get to the docks.
“I’ve been told you can get me to the southern island”
“You must be the explorer I was told about, come aboard sir”
And just like that, my passage to the southern island was arranged by a Haruspex I met months ago while wandering around Orpheus’ Cave. To call this an act of destiny again is an understatement. I feel like I’m being played, Haruspex and ancient greeks both come in to help me at convenient times. I’ll play along still, but to be fair, my suspicions among the various factions are still not gone.
The trip on the galley was a routine patrol along the waters around Sparta territory to keep sea monsters away. The first part of the patrol was overall very boring, I think I ended up playing games on my datapad while they were looking for monsters.
At noon, we started getting into some trouble. The waves started picking up and there was a storm brewing. It got to the point where I stopped playing on my datapad and began wandering the ship. The crew looked uneasy and judging by the general sentiment, something bad was going to happen.
“Best you stay below deck traveler, if the waves come crashing onto the deck, they could pull you into the water”
“A little water doesn’t scare me, it’s just a storm”
“On this boat, you’ll be afraid to get wet sir”
Just as he finished saying that, a loud shriek echoed across the stormy sky and a bolt of lightning struck the ship’s mast. Luckily this was made of wood, but a small fire was lit on the very top, threatening our very survival.
“Must be a sign from Poseidon himself to turn you back from your destination hahaha”
Name: Captain Hector Draken, EEF
Entry: #99
Data:
“Fire on the mast!” someone yelled as I started climbing up to extinguish it.
“WAVE!” yelled another as another wave crashed onto the deck and swept away a bucket and a crate.
On planetside, we never have these problems, we are in enclosed metal ships that have somewhat decent structural integrity and do not fear the heavy storms unleashed by nature.
“INCOMING!” yelled a crewman and a wave came crashing down, sweeping him into the waters.
I continued up the mast, struggling to climb due to the rain, and after struggling to gain some kind of footing, I finally reached the top and started frantically patting the fire with my bag but something wasn’t right, it wasn’t extinguishing, even with the rain wetting it, it wouldn’t go out.
“What’s taking so long up there? Why is there still a fire?!” yelled the captain
“It’s not going out, must be some kind of magic” I exclaimed.
Continuing to smack my bag on the fire, I remembered something from a history lesson. Back on earth, scientists sought to replicate a certain type of chemical that could keep a fire going even when in water. Then it hit me, “could this be ‘Greek Fire’?” I thought to myself.
“Anyone knows if it was lightning that struck the mast?” I yelled down to the crew below.
“Why isn’t the fire out yet? What’s going on up there?” complained the captain.
“There’s no way a bolt of lightning hit it with Greek Fire, we might be under attack”
“Just put it out and get down from there”
Just as he finished saying that, I looked around and saw a ship in the distance coming towards us on our left side, wading through the waves and through the storm, unphased by the continuous crashing waves that hit it.
“Ship on the left! We gotta pivot”
Hearing my warning, the captain looked at the ship and told everyone to prepare to brace for impact. Taking another look at the ship, I squinted hard and couldn’t believe what was coming to us.