by Marty Myers
He looked into the scrying pool and around at several collapsed brigand bodies. “ Just what have you been up to and for how long,” he asked. “ I went over with him how to use the mindscape and we practiced those curses Birch was having trouble with. I also told Birch this talent is to remain a secret between us three and Llywelyn who knows all about it.” As Alastor looked around and talked he too was drawing closer to Birch due to the three of them all sharing one headspace. This adjustment wasn’t as pronounced as Hanks was because he wasn’t involved in the magic’s possession of Birch, but it still had its effect. They spent another few minutes talking over this development before Birch returned them all to the realm.
Alastor found himself twitching just a small bit while Birch stumbled before he and Hank caught their stride and walked back across the room. They settled down and prepared themselves by casting a semblance of life upon Birch and by summoning some gold from the vault from for him to bargain with. Then they began the scrying to view the wreckers island they had chosen to visit. It took a little while for them to reach it, but once they had found it the image firmed up and they were able to zoom in upon the island.
It was not overly large and their scrying found only three settlements upon it. The largest by far was a well-off harbor town set in a bay with a river running into it. The other two were smaller more modest looking villages. One of which appeared to be a fishing village. They chose to send him to just outside the third remote settlement near an inhospitable coastline.
As Birch and he were teleported away Hank was busy hoping this would work. He had to admit to himself that he really did seem intent on taking chances with his new existence. When they appeared Hank felt his tether to his body stretch out worryingly thin and he felt a moment of weakness as he adjusted to being so far away from himself. He didn’t think this would be remotely possible if he hadn’t first possessed Birch who was acting as a mystical booster for him and even then he got the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to maintain his presence here for too long.
Birch set off immediately looking around for any sign of the wreckers. He too felt the pressure Hank was under and hurried on his task. Birch found a few villagers in the village’s center. “ Excuse me he said to them I am a stranger looking for someone to point out to me the local Wreckers guild I wish to procure their services.” “ There be no wreckers here stranger,” an older bearded man said. “ And we don’t take kindly to strangers insinuating anything of the sort.” Birch said, “ I am sorry, I don’t know the customs around here. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“ But I am willing to pay to be led to them and to smooth over any offense I have caused.” “ Well that is a different story,” then, the man said in a slightly less hostile tone. “ How much pay are we talking about.” Birch pulled out two gold coins and showed them to the man, he handed one over and said, “ The other is yours when I see the wreckers.” The old man hesitated before Birch pulled out a third coin and gave him it as well. “ Time is short for me,” Birch said, “ if you can lead me there right away two coins shall be yours.”
The old man looked around and then led Birch off at a quick pace out of the village and towards the rocky shore. The spry old man led them down a goat path and through some randomly strewn boulders until at last they reached the mouth of a cave cleverly hidden by long overgrown vines. “ Here be the meeting place of the wreckers,” He pushed aside some of the vines to show off an anchor symbol carved into the rock.
Birch gave the man his gold and asked. “ So what do I do to signal I wish to meet with them?” The man gestured inside so Birch stepped inside through the vines only to find himself met by three men’s sword points menacing him with another sharp object poking at his back. “ Now then,” the old man said, “ let us see just why a hidden deader comes looking for the Wreckers shall we.” Hank was startled but he could feel Birch was relatively calm as he answered. “ I have come just as I said to see about hiring the Wreckers Guild. I have heard of them and want to enter into a partnership. I fear to try to recover something from the sea and incurring the Sea Lord Manuck’s displeasure.” Yeah one of the three swordsmen said, “ you deaders are sure already cursed enough by the Lord to be wantin any more.” The old man harrumphed to quiet the talkative one down.
Then he said, “ so then why should we wreckers risk working with you.” “ First off Birch said. “ I will pay you well to hear me out and for the first job so that you can see what I intend to do. Secondly, I think you will then see for yourself just why you would want to work with me.” “ Thirdly Hank spoke up from within Birch, “ some of us Dark Ones have learned our lesson and have come to ask the Lord Manuck’s permission before we enter the seas and tamper with anything he might consider as his.” The wreckers stance and attitudes seemed to change as Hank spoke of the third reason. The old man said, “ the wreckers will hear you out now Dark One.”
He led them all into the cave and into another chamber where more people stood and sat around a large table. Birch slowly pulled out a pouch of gold coins and sat it upon the table for all to see. “ I am Birch and I am here on behalf of my own master a Dungeon of the Dead called Hank of the Graves. He is also here with us in spirit within me.” At that, some of the wreckers looked a bit stressed and made signs against evil. “ No dungeon has been welcome on the seas since Scarlocke sailed his colors,” one of the men muttered angrily. “ My dungeon is nowhere upon the seas or your lord would already know of him. In fact, we are high up in the mountains far from here,” Birch said.
“ We want to make a deal with the wreckers. We have heard that you scavenge shipwrecks and bring up their treasure from the seas. We want to reclaim the bodies and remains of the dark ones lost to the seas and the bodies of those suitable for us to raise as minions for our dungeon. We believe there would be such remains to be found amongst the shipwrecks, especially pirates as we have heard they tend to be members of cults devoted to the Darkness.”
The wreckers looked at Birch in consternation. One of them asked, “ and just how much could you pay us to hall up bodies instead of treasure from these wrecks to make it worth our while.” A stirring of others agreeing with this could be seen on their faces. “ Well,” Birch said. “ You mistake how exactly this would work. We are not asking you to bring the bodies up from the wrecks yourselves. We want to work with you in this by having you show us where the wrecks our and get us permission to raid them for bodies and treasure, then we will lock onto that which we want to bring up and teleport it back, ” he said. If I may offer a demonstration. Can someone take this gold here over to the other side of the room.” One of the three swordsmen scooped up the bag and walked over to the other side. “ Do not be alarmed,” Birch said as Hank reached out and teleported the man and the bag of gold back over to Birch. “ Hence,” he said with some pride in his voice “ my master’s magic may move many things.”
“ Like I said he would like to pay for your help in appeasing the Lord of the Seas and in identifying about where in the seas to scry for the ships remains. Then we should be able to bring up the bodies and the treasure that is there and split it with the wreckers.” “ That was a very nice bit of magic,” one of the wreckers said, “ but many a mage can summon a bag across a bar room. Fewer could move a man but there are all sorts of tricks like that, that won’t work over greater distances or within the waters of the seas.”
Birch nodded and another bag of gold appeared upon the table before him. “ This one has just come from my master’s vault,” he said. “ If I may propose a test for us all. Let one of you take the gold and drop it into the seas somewhere you know. Maybe even close to a wreck if one is near enough and we will see if my master can retrieve it. Or would that anger the Lord of the Seas,” he asked them. The old man spoke up and said, “ no as long as that was what was recovered. He claims not the property of others. First though let us look at the bag and gold to be sure no special enchantment is laid upon it.” Birch nodded and slid the pouch over
to them.
Hank meanwhile was hoping that the test wouldn’t take too awful long. The pressure was beginning to mount and while he thought Birch was doing a fine job something told him that losing his hold on the possession of Birch so far away would certainly be a bad idea. The wreckers meanwhile were satisfied that there was nothing special or magical about the bag or its golden coins and had a man take it away to presumably to do as they had agreed.
The old man spoke up. “ I want to hear more of your plans from your master.” Hank spoke up at this point with his own voice saying “ what is it you wish to hear? Where I am there are few unclaimed bodies for me to use to fill my dungeon. Unlike many another dungeon, I seem to possess quite a great range of talent to retrieve things with my teleportation. So I am trying to find the minions I need from somewhere the Light has not meddled with them.”
The old man nodded. Hank somehow felt there was more to the man’s questions than met the eye. So continued speaking and said, “ I also want to see if I can retrieve any of the Dark Ones who may still be done there lost to the seas.” he said. “ I would like Manuck’s permission to do this type of hunting and from what I have heard the wreckers apparently have it.”
The old man said, “ if you would truly have that than you must come with me and face the Lords judgment yourself as we have.” He rose and waved off the other wreckers who were getting up and led Birch and therefore Hank further into the cave system. Back to a cave partially flooded with seawater. The man waded into the water and spoke words which blended with the sounds of the waves and the water’s movements. Hank could not make any of it out.
A greenish blue glow came over the man as seaweed gathered upon him and power flowed through the cave and into the figure before them. When he turned back to Hank and Birch he looked more like a version of Swamp Thing than what Hank had been picturing a Sea God would look like. Still, the power and persona contained in the figure were mighty intimidating.
A powerful voice spoke then through the man which Hank knew with absolute certainty was Manuck the Lord of the Seas. “ I have heard your petition Dark One. I am not yet convinced to grant all that you have asked for.” Hank bowed before the Lord and asked, “ what is it you would have me do to placate you. I am sorry. I apologize on behalf of,” Hank suddenly felt constricted and he could not bring himself to apologize for the Darkness, Here in this realm doing such a thing was akin to magic and he was just a lowly servant bound to the Darkness, only if the Darkness wished it could he apologize on its behalf.
Instead, he gathered himself and said, “ I apologize on behalf of dungeon kind for our past actions.” He felt something give within himself and the feeling of constriction passed. Through his psychic connection with Llywelyn, he could feel something from her as well. She was the oldest, first and greatest of them all and eben though he was the youngest and least of them the chain still ran clear and strong through them and connected him back to Scarlock’s actions and lineage. He now somehow knew Scarlock to have been Llywelyn’s son and that in this moment she too agreed to ask for Manucks forgiveness for her son’s actions. The Lord of the Seas stood still for a time, then remarkably he took their apology and accepted it. Somehow Hank knew that Scarlock too had asked for the Lord of the Seas forgiveness for his actions and that now somehow after all this time he too had finally received it.
“ You are now accepted as a Wrecker Hank Graves,” The Sea Lord said. “ Take not that which is mine nor desecrate the seas or oceans and their bounties or those who revere me and my wrath shall not befall you or yours henceforth.” Hank felt different. He checked himself and Birch and found nothing as drastic as a bond but there was something less than that linking them to the Lord of the Sea and his domain. He saw too that he now possessed a small affinity with waters essence. “ Your mark as a Wrecker will only be visible when you are nearby my domain,” the Lord said. “ It should not pose a risk to you or yours with the Darkness. The Wreckers and a very few other groups walk a fine line between both of our dominions which benefits us equally so we continue to allow it. Hank noticed that the cave they were in had a bit of darkness settled in about it that he had not noticed before as well as the essence of the sea that he could clearly see flowing everywhere.
“ Any unclaimed bodies that you recover will bear the same Wreckers Mark and any of your minions you enforce my strictures upon will carry it as well. You may now try to retrieve and claim the Dark Ones lost to the Seas or cross my domain without penalty. But you must fairly treat with your fellow Wreckers and stick with any bargains you are striking with them. If your talent can indeed scavenge the wrecks and bring up the treasures that you both seek then the remains are yours and the treasure is split thus, half goes to you and half to them.”
“ Your mark will allow you to see what is mine and is to be left alone. I ask that you do not claim any remains sworn to another Lord or dominion besides that of the Darkness. You can also claim any who had no allegiance at all in life. Lastly, you may claim any who will freely swear to your cause.” The voice stopped speaking so Hank bowed low again to the Lord and said, “ thank you very much Manuck, Lord of the Seas.”
Hank was ecstatic. He waited impatiently as he and Birch were lead back from the Sea Lord’s Shrine by the sea cleric Rhodes to the Wreckers meeting room. The old man said, “ brothers the Lord has spoken with Hank and has proclaimed him a Wrecker in truth. He is going to deal with us as he has said and as soon as we see if his magics can indeed retrieve treasure from below the waves we are going to plan our first target for salvage.”
The man who had left with Hanks gold came back not too long after this pronouncement. At last, Hank thought he could begin searching for the gold. He could still feel Alastor through their link scrying on their situation although he doubted he had been able to see the meeting in Sea Lords Shrine. He focused his awareness on Alastor and the srying pool and concentrated upon searching for the gold. They both focused upon their target and their scrying vision flew out of the cave and off of the island.
Their viewpoint dipped under the water and was tinged blue. Down it went further and further approaching the sandy bottom. Then Hank saw a large roundish blue hole in the seabed which his scrying led down into. His scrying vision actually strengthened as they descended deeper into its dark depths below where light hardly reached. Hank was shocked to find so much Dark essence here but he quickly realized how foolish he had been not to expect it. He knew from watching nature shows that the light of day only reached so far down before his own worlds oceans were lightless expanses of salt water twenty-four seven all the way to the sea bottom far below. Perhaps this was why the Lord of the Seas would be willing to cooperate with the Lord of Darkness at times Hank thought.
He continued downwards for quite a while before he found his pouch of coins lying in the sediment. Hank looked around himself the darkness being no impediment to his viewing the bottom of the hole and found the bottom of the hole was still pretty far across. He didn’t see much down her besides a few mounds of sediment pushing up the otherwise flat surface. He passed down through the sediment and found one of the mounds was actually the hull of a boat that had fell to the sea floor hull up and become covered over by the untold years of sediment.
Under it, he found the remains of three individuals. He was wondering how he was to tell if they were fair game or not when he noticed that their bones still carried traces of their auras which were dark. He also found the grimoire he was connected to had in it a chant which even now flowed into his mind to read the bones and learn about them. He cast it upon them and determined they were all three smugglers aligned with the Darkness who had gone down during a bad storm long ago. Nothing more than their skeletons remained of them. Hank also found they had been carrying quite a bit of gold in two chests with them. He looked it over for any sign that Manuck had laid claim to it and not seeing any he decided that he would try to bring it up as well.
He passed through another of the mounds and fou
nd a gigantic corpse somewhat resembling a whale. The body was badly decomposed with bones sticking out here and their and Hank could see at once that the creature was claimed by Manuck as his essence clearly marked it. Hank carefully backed away and decided that he would come back later to check the rest of the hole. In the meantime the strain he was feeling from being so far from home was growing very uncomfortable. Hank went back to the sack of gold and teleported it back to the wreckers table where he had originally laid it. It was a bit more difficult than he thought it would be. The three bodies and the two treasure chests he focused upon next and sent them up to the cave’s entrance they had first entered through as he was worried that dropping all the remains into the wreckers main room would be too messy.
It took Hank a minute to get the teleport to carry everything up and he definitely felt like he was pushing himself to his limits. He quickly relinquished his scrying and returned to Birch’s body where the strain lessened. There he found the Wreckers examining the pouch of coins. “ Well enough,” one of them said in satisfaction, “ these are the same coins I dropped off into the blue hole. I didn’t think you would be getting them back as that hole’s too deep by far for us to salvage.” Birch and Hank smiled. “ It is deep, that is true but once you go down far enough the light of day no longer reaches into the sea and my senses become sharper in the dark.