Posted February 20, 201510 yr The Serpent’s Crawl. (Challenge IV Prelude, Chapter 4) Previous Prelude chapters: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 The Serpent’s Crawl. Fred’Ae Farsin was praying that this strong wind kept its force throughout the rest of the afternoon, he had not sailed this quickly between Berigora and Ras-el-akhen since the time he was caught with a typhoon to his back. With the time he was making, he almost sailed north to check out the wares at Mpya Stedor, but he did not know what effect the Great Disturbance had had on that city, and decided to stay his present course. It was odd, a minor tsunami had hit the region known as Peregrenis, but the bay that Berigora is settled in received minimal damage. However, reports had already flooded in from the mainland stating that not only was the Tsunami much greater there, but volcanic eruptions and an earthquake that lasted for hours had decimated much of the Kaliphlin landscape. Well, that was unfortunate, but good ol’ Fred knew profit where profit could be had, and natural disaster screamed gold duccats. He had loaded up his PGTC vessel, the Walrus, with foodstuffs, and decided to sail right for the middle of Kaliphlin in the hope to unload quickly before others took up the task too. This wind was a true blessing. It was getting to be late afternoon when one of his sailors screamed “Land Ho!” This was strange, as Fred had cut out wide from the mainland, hoping to just skim the Void Tide – The no man’s land of the Southern Ocean – and still take advantage of the off coast winds. This meant that he should be out of sight of land. Perhaps his Crossstaff was broken? He ran to the helm and gasped. crawl by skaforhire, on Flickr Across the water in front of him from north to south, as far as his eyes could see, lay a large piece of land. The rock formation seemed covered with fresh grass, as if it had been there years, and the formation twisted and turned, but remained north and south oriented. It reminded Fred of a large snake made of rocks, cliffs, and sea caves. As he sailed closer he noticed a wrecked ship among the rocks. The poor saps in that crew must have approached this area at night and missed this new formation altogether. Although he was unsure of it, he knew that this formation had something to do with the Great Disturbance. If he had to make a wager, he would say that all of this had to do with some sort of ancient magic. His thoughts turned to his current predicament. DSC_3867 by skaforhire, on Flickr He sailed closer to cliffs to investigate the wreck. There were no survivors. It was at this point that he saw what seemed to be the last light of day shining from within the sea caves. There must be a way through!!! Fred’Ae Farsin swallowed hard and gave the order to sail for the largest cave. If he found a navigable way through the caves, he would be a very rich captain indeed. DSC_3872 by skaforhire, on Flickr And so it was that Fred’Ae Farsin was the first man to navigate the Serpent’s Crawl, the new land bridge that must have been created by the Great Disturbance. Not only had the University of Petraea credited him as the first navigator of the sea caves, but he also has been credited with naming the new formation. Of course, Ol’ Fred soon quit his job and became a pirate in that same sea cave. That is truly a way to make money in this dire time. ------------------- On a OOC note... I had to put together a build to introduce the next story portion. I am not the best Micro builder, if anyone else wants to do a take on this story, I will gladly add your builds too! Oh yeah! NM's Map! kaliphlin-south-east by Map, on Flickr
February 20, 201510 yr Oooo. Sneaky Kaliphlins, expanding their territory! Nice build, but awesome story!
February 20, 201510 yr Nice micro-build, Ska, I like the twisted look of the rocks I'm looking forward to challenge IV!
February 20, 201510 yr Oh look, another new Kali Island. I wonder if it has any great strategic significance? Lovely new map!
February 20, 201510 yr This is getting exciting! Good job with the story... especially the last line!
February 20, 201510 yr I love the story, and think your microbuild turned out well! With all those fabulous maps, I am wondering if someone would one day collate all the maps to have a proper map of the whole of Historica. As a border town of Avalonia, I am really in doubt as to what I am actually bordering up to! It can be a litte hard to see the big picture!
February 20, 201510 yr Author Early Cartographers dispatched by Gex estimate that the island is about the size of Gorr. So about 1/8th the landmass of Kaliphlin.
February 21, 201510 yr Nice build, but the map really steals the show here Can't wait to know more of what's on that new (?) landmass!
February 22, 201510 yr Author Gotta shake it up. Esterbroke was already on the map though, we just used it first. Ulandus is new.
February 23, 201510 yr Love how this story is getting fleshed out, and I'm really enjoying the presentation too. Really wonder where this is going. We build too many walls, and not enough bridges!
February 28, 201510 yr I'm happy to see more lands get added to Historica, personally. I hope more guilds eventually too.
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