[ESL-Ch1a] Orbinson Crux and Mercredi

[Sir Stig]

Read part 1 first here: Into The Wild

The men were exhausted, and lost their keen sense, when we reached a clearing in the jungle. What was this? An old man and a half-man, half-serpent being standing before us.

"Please, you mustn't shoot. We want you no harm.Mercredi, calme-toi!", the old man, in great distress, repeated, switching his gaze between us and the half-serpent.

My men were jumpy, and I felt quite uneasy myself at the sight of this strange creature, but something was wrong here. The old man knew our language, and his complexion was to pale to be native.

"Easy now, boys.", I tried to calm my men before addressing the old man:

"Who are you? And what business have you on Eslandolan soil?" Sensing the tension sink, I ordered Enrique and Ricardo to stand down, and this apparently calmed the half-serpent enough to lower his knife.

"We are castaways, we have no weapons, we were just preparing some food to offer you. We saw you arrive at the beach, and hoped you may have the mercy to take us aboard. Please, don't be alarmed".

These men were no threat to us, so I accepted their offer, and in return offered one of my cigars. We sat down and dined together as they shared their story.

"My name is Orbinson Crux, my friend here is Mercredi. I was the lookout onboard the Oleon vessel Ladybird on an exploration mission many years ago. Unfortunately we hit a,”. He paused long, “Hit a streak of bad luck, and I was the only one that saw it coming. Mercredi was just a boy then, the chefs apprentice. We encountered natives on the island we landed on, and they greeted us friendly at first. But they fooled us. We were led into an ambush and they assaulted us. Mercredis head was cracked by their primitive weapons, but I scared them of when I fired my pistol. I managed to save Mercredi by placing a huge snake skull the islanders dropped around his broken skull. The natives kept away long enough for me to build a crude raft and escape and drifted until we stranded on this island. Mercredis skull healed up, but grew stuck to the snake skull, and the poor boy lost his speech. But his talent for making food is intact. The herbs and spices here makes him able to make just about anything taste delicious. So, here we are, the only survivors of our expedition. "How does the food taste?"

Their food was absolutely delicious, albeit spicy. Enrique seemed to find it a little to hot, but Orbinson offered some sugar strands that helped after a while. We took them aboard along with some of the local greens of Mercredis choosing.

[Captain Genaro]

An interesting story with a nice MOC to go along with it. The trees are nice, but I'm particular fond of the ground and the use of the brown curved piece to represent tree trunks.

[Captain Dee]

Interesting story and characters. (Orbinson Crux? Hmm... ) The setting is nice and I like the tree and the terrain. Adventure surely awaits...

[blackdeathgr]

Nice lush greenery!