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Somewhere, in the dry and arid region of the Land of Dawn known as Agelta Drylands, a trio was making their way through the seemingly endless desert sand.
One of them was a goblin, small and sneaky. Able to get through narrow spaces and avoid detection. He was a slave in the captain’s ship once, but he has proven his worth many times over and was elevated to being a crew member of the pirate group. The other was an aven - half human, half bird. She had the head and wings of a dove and the power of flight. In her hand she was carrying a dowsing rod meant to guide them to a secret location her captain desires to find.
And the captain is the dreaded Bane of the Frozen Sea. He was ruthless and the mere sight of his tentacled face struck terror into sailors and land-dwellers alike. He truly was the terror of the North until his defeat at the hands of Franco. Many people believed and hoped he was forever gone, but an octopus is smart and cunning and evasive.
Bane cannot return to the North just yet, not with his fleet decimated. He needed to rebuild his reputation, his power. And so he went to where one might not expect a pirate like him to be - the dessert. But he didn’t go to Agelta Drylands to hide. He went there seeking that which can aid him regain what he had lost.
It wasn’t going to be easy for him, of course, as he was a creature of the sea. Being far away from the sea made him homesick as well as made his skin dry and itchy.
“Ugh. The desert sun will be the ruin of my soft and slimy skin,” he muttered.
He glanced up the sky to locate his scout, the aven Drimix, had been flying ahead to get a sense of where they were supposed to go using a dowsing rod. Not able to find her, he ordered his other companion to stop in the shadow of a great wall of striated rock.
“Gools!” he cried hoarsely, for his throat was dry from the heat. “Let us… stay here for a while. Drimix will find us. Give me my water flask.”
The goblin obliged and handed the container of water. Bane almost drained it in one gulp but remembering he must conserve water, he abruptly stopped himself. Feeling better, he breathed a sigh of relief as he sat and leaned at the natural wall behind him.
“Wake me when the scout has returned,” he bade Gools.
He slipped into unconsciousness and he dreamed of his former life, his former glory. He suddenly woke up and felt sorry for himself for his defeat and loss. A thought crossed his mind. What if he couldn’t find what he sought? Can he ever return to the North? Will he even survive the trials of this forsaken desert?
His thoughts were interrupted by the flapping of wings. Drimix landed and reported that the location of the object he sought was nearby. That renewed his flagging strength and he stood up with renewed energy. As he did, he noticed some recognizable patterns on the wall.
“Look here,” he told them. Seashells mostly, as well as imprints of the leaves of some aquatic plant.
“This portion of the desert was under the sea long, long ago. Either the waters drained or the land itself rose above sea level. We can’t know that now. But I am confident what I am looking for - the Cistern of Storm Summoning - is real and is located here.”
“Sure, Boss, because some moldy map bought from an old pirate is totally reliable,” Gools blurted before he snapped his mouth shut.
Bane glared at him.
Drimix interjected. “Perhaps the captain is right. My people tell tales of trade and prosperity by a merfolk civilization before an unspecified calamity brought them ruin. Perhaps this is the place.”
Bane was still looking hard at the goblin. “I am going to find it. And we will return to rule the Frozen Sea when I do,” he said confidently.
The trio went along the shadow of the wall. Luck was on their side, as further along the natural wall - barely recognizable from age and erosion - was an artificial structure. It was a huge dome with some collapsed parts.
“Stand back,” Bane told them, and he let loose a tremendous shot from his hand cannon that shattered the dome, revealing a gaping hole within.
They stared into the darkness for a long time.
“Drimix, light your staff and fly inside, see how deep it goes,” said Bane.
The aven obeyed and after a few minutes she was back and reported that it was no more than a twenty foot drop.
“I won’t recommend you jump into it. The structure seems sturdy but you never know,” Drimix warned.
Bane and Gools went down using a rope, guided by Drimix’s staff’s light.
“Scout the area, Gools,” ordered Bane.
The goblin scurried about, sniffing and feeling. Finally, he reported a trapdoor with descending stairs within.
Down they went, and though the silence and darkness was uncomfortable, it was preferable to the glaring sun outside.
They ended up in what appears to be a connecting room to a larger area. The room contained numerous books that had collected dust from ages of unuse. Gools, who can’t read, ignored them, but Drimix who was a scholar before she ended up with Bane’s pirate crew showed great interest. She took a book from the shelf
“Look!” she exclaimed. “I recognize the inscriptions here. These are ancient merfolk, though the structure is unfamiliar to me. Give me time to read.”
Bane, who respected her wisdom, allowed her to. He and Gools went ahead to the larger room, which seemed to be illuminated with a greenish light from an unknown source.
“Boss, I have a bad feeling about this,” whimpered Gools.
“Shut up,” snapped Bane, who was similarly feeling uneasy.
It looked like a place of worship. All around them were majestic relief sculptures of merfolk warriors and clerics, fighting various humanoid enemies and unfamiliar monsters they couldn’t name.
And at one corner, they found a pedestal with a glass container. A container filled with swirling liquid, as if being heaved by a storm.
“The Cistern of Storm Summoning!” Bane whispered in disbelief. His trembling hand reached for it and took it from the pedestal. Gools’s mouth was agape with wonder.
“Told you it is real,” smirked Bane.
The room suddenly felt different. Before, it smelled of dust and stale air. Now, it smelled of water and the air began to stir. Without much warning, the ceiling was filled with storm clouds that poured water on the floor and winds whipped into frenzy.
“Damn artifact is activated by touch,” muttered Bane. “But at least it’s wet now.”
“Boss!” warned Gools.
In another, far corner, sleeping the sleep of the ages underneath hardened mud and slime, a creature began to break open and emerge from its case as it was awakened by the deluge of water
Bane was stunned. A sea serpent! It was the stuff of legends, and never did he expect to encounter it at the bottom of a desert!
The sea serpent, freed and hungry from hundreds of years of sleep, slithered viciously for Bane.
“Boss!” called Gools. But Bane was shaken to his core and couldn’t react in time.
It would have been the end of Bane, had not Gools, who had no idea what they were up against, shot it with his sling. Normally, such a pitiful weapon would not have an effect on a sea serpent. But the ammunition were stones enchanted with Sunburst and so the sudden bright light stung the dweller of the deep.
Bane returned to his senses and recognized what Gools did.
“Run!” he yelled, and he and Gools splashed through the rising water for their lives. When he saw Gools struggling against the current, he carried him under his arm.
“Thanks, Boss,” a grateful Gools said.
“Shut up,” said a panting Bane.
Ahead of them, Drimix appeared.
“Captain!”
The sea serpent was on the move again.
“Take Gools up the stairs, to the top floor,” Bane instructed.
Drimix took Gools from Bane. “What about you, captain?”
Bane grinned, “I’ll buy you time and make a tale we can tell the lads afterwards.”
“Captain!”
“Do it!” commanded Bane.
Drimix flew through the storm.
“Now, where were we…”
Bane faced the sea serpent, who appeared to be still dazed from the Sunburst shots earlier.
He gave it several shots from his canon, which enraged the serpent. It reared its head and dove forward. Bane dodged to the side and continued to shoot the monster’s head, which seemed to have little effect.
But concentrating on the head, bane didn’t see its tail lash out and slammed him hard into the wall. Dazed, he tried to get up and just in time saw the monster’s jaw filled with pointed teeth going for him. This attack he managed to dodge and he retaliated with several shots from his canon. “Alright, you wanna play hard? Let me introduce you to my buddies!”
Bane summoned three sharks made of water that crashed into the sea serpent that drove it back.
But didn’t defeat it.
“And so I die,” Bane lamented.
A crackle of magic shot from the darkness and hit the serpent’s head.
“Captain! Let’s go!” Drimix came back for him even though the storm clearly made flying difficult for her.
The sea serpent opened its massive jaws and lunged for the aven.
Bane threw the Cistern of Storm Summoning into its mouth. The artifact made of glass broke into pieces and a spectacular blast of wind and water erupted. Bane hoped it stopped the sea serpent for good.
Bane caught the aven who found it impossible to fly in the adverse conditions.
“I got you,” said Bane. Without looking back, he ran to safety.
Back in the desert, under the setting sun, Bane, Drimix and Gools caught their breath.
“Thanks, Captain,” said Drimix.
“Thank Gools, who saved me from the serpent,” Bane returned.
Gools, embarrassed, stood on one foot as he scratched the back of his head.
“What now, Captain?” asked Drimix.
Bane laughed, the first honest laugh he had in months since his defeat in the North
“Well, we lost what we came here for,” he said ruefully. “But at least we didn’t lose our lives.”
Drimix brightened. “Wait.”
She opened her satchel and dumped its contents on the desert floor. Books and maps tumbled out.
Bane and Gools marveled at her.
“Well, it seems our adventures here have only just begun.”