Ghost Ship (2) - A Ship on the Sands

Writers: Eimi, Paula, Suzee
Date Posted: 4th October 2017

Characters: D'arvn, Naton, Torwald
Description: D'arvn take Naton and Torwald to check out the abandoned ship he found on sweeps.
Location: Citrus Bay Hold
Date: month 13, day 4 of Turn 8
Notes: Note: 2 in a series

D'arvn

The black of /between/ grabbed them for a few moments and then they
bagun their spiral down toward the beach but well away from the wreck.
"Right over there," he pointed at the beach up toward the treeline,
"is where I saw a body."

"Let's start there, then," Naton called back.

Torwald swallowed few times and shivered when he was released from the
black void of /between/. He pulled his attention back to the business
at hand.

D'arvn lifted his chin in acknowledgement and they landed not far from
the body. "What do you need me to do," he said as he unbuckled.

Torwald was glad to dismount the dragon and quickly jumped down to
sand. He turned to look Naton questioningly, since he was the expert
here.

"Well, we don't know how the man died yet, so, we don't want to get
too close. I think we need to find some kind of long pole to turn him
over with." The man had fallen face first into the sand. From this
vantage any signs of what might have killed him were buried

"Here's one," D'arvn directed Falzeth to pull a branch down from a nearby tree.

"Handy, that one," Torwald watched the blue with open admiration.

Having the right tool for the job, it was time to turn the body over.
It took a bit of trial and error, but finally they had the pole
positioned just right and were able to lift the body enough that it
came to settle on it's back. "Oh shards," Naton breathed when he got
his first good look at the body. It was obvious they were not the
first to discover him. Tunnel snakes had found him first. "Cover your
mouths and noses, and stand back. We still don't know what killed him
yet."

"Eww," Torwald took more than one step backwards, looking bit green
around edges. He covered his mouth.

D'arvn didn't hesitate to do the same. "Do you have the equipment to
deal with this?" his voice came through a bit muffled.

Naton shook his head, holding his shirt over his nose. "All I can say
is that he didn't just die. He's been dead sevendays at least. There's
not enough left to know anything else for sure. Let's leave him here
and take a look at that ship you were talking about."

"That way," D'arvn pointed down the beach where the beached ship
listed on the rocks.

Torwald was happy to leave the corpse and strode towards the ship.
Now, here was something he undrestood.

What struck Naton immediately was the sails filled fully by the wind.
"The sheets are all unfurled. The crew should have hoisted them when
they ran aground if they were able." Not only that, but he could tell
that there were rips and tears in some of them, probably from being
lowered in winds they were not designed to withstand. All signs
pointing to the fact that the crew had been incapacitated for quite
some time. "D'arvn, there have been dragons flying over this area
since the tsunami, certainly. And there was Threadfall
just a few days ago. Are you sure this ship wasn't here
before?"

"I'd have to check back with the Weyr but I wasn't told to look for
anything. If it had been seen her someone would have come to the Hold
right away, like I did." D'arvn shrugged.

"Yeah," Naton nodded, sure the bluerider was right. It was easier to
think out loud. "So, the sails have been down in all weather.
There's no reason for the crew to put them down after they hit the
beach, so they must have been up long before that. And probably it
was the wind in the sails that caused it to beach. It's listing to
port because no one tied the mast off to a tree to keep it upright
like they should have done. All the signs are pointing to there not
being any living aboard the ship since before it settled into the
sand, which was sometime within the last sevenday. And there is a
dead man, who seems to have breathed his last long before that. So
either he isn't from this ship, or somehow a dead man walked away."
Naton turned his eyes to Torwald for confirmation of his analysis of
the situation.

D'arvn's eyes widened and he smiled at the Dolphineer, there was no
doubt he deserved those Masters Knots, figuring all that out just from
the way the ship sat on the sands. "What should we do?"

"Aye, and there's a current that often throws stuff to these shoals
and sometimes they been adrift a long time before they land here,"
Torwald agreed with Naton's assesment. He started to climb up to the
hull's side. There was enough ropes hanging down for a nimble
seacrafter. He saw more dead people on the deck. "Collect the bodies
and give them a proper burial. Get a healer to look at them first," he
suggested and jumped back down.

"Shards. So that means the crew didn't abandon the ship." Naton
suspected as much, but there had always been the slim hope. He braced
his hands on his hips and blow a long puff of hair that rustled the
hair on his forehead as he thought what their next step should be.
"Alright, before anyone can come aboard to do any kind of salvage, we
need to make sure it's safe. D'arvn, your dragon might come in handy
here. The ship is leaning to port. If a big enough wave hits it, it
could cause the ship to tip over completely. We need to get a long
rope from the Hold. We need to tie a loop in one end, and if you can,
have your dragon drop it over the top of the tallest mast. The other
end needs to be tied tight to a tree on the starboard side to make
sure the ship can't fall any further. Torwald will know how to tie it
secure. While you do that, I will sound the ship and make sure it's
safe. Agreed?"

"Long rope," D'arvn repeated and ran toward Falzeth. He leaped aboard
and /between/ as quickly as he could make it happen.

"I could cut off what's left of the sails. Strong wind could rip them
off and cause more damage," Torwald suggested. If the hull was sound,
the ship could probably be repaired and taken back to use. Presuming
you found crew willing to work in a ship that was filled with so much
death. Seacrafters tended to be superstitious lot. "I can also look
for captain's log."

"No one on board," Naton said emphatically. "We've already been too
close for comfort. If they didn't abandon ship, and there are no
outward signs of an explosion, that seems to indicate they all died
of some kind of sickness. It could have been some kind of rapid food
poisoning or from something they carried in their hull. We don't know
and can't know until a Healer deems it safe to board. We need to tie
the ship off, and get back to the Hold to get checked ourselves." Who
knew what kind of plague that body they had handled might have
carried. "The bluerider will be back soon. Please find a tree that
will be strong enough to tie the ship to. I'm going to sound the ship
from below the waterline."

"Yes, sir," Torwald replied

Last updated on the November 2nd 2017

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Ghost Ship (2) - A Ship on the Sands