[Ansteorra] Story Time: The Ansteorran Royal Navy (was Dawn's Crisp Wind)

[Pukhta 'Pooky' Lovtsevich]

{Scripted by Lord Duncan MacNamara, posted with permission by Pooky}

SET THE SCENE; The H.M.S. Iron Lotus captained by Lord Duncan
MacNamara finds herself adrift in the mists.


Awash in the salty fog and moonlit night, a cold wind stirred the
strips of tattered canvas mainsail. A creaking came from far below, as
though the vessel was groaning in labored breath, tired and weary from
far too many months wandering aimlessly through the mists. It
was quiet, far too quiet, like the eerie silence of a graveyard after
an autumn rain, with only the random patter of water dripping off the
spars and rigging.
Gloomy beams of moonlight faintly cut through the haze to illuminate a
haggard appearing figure clutching the helm, as though he had gone mad
from cabin fever. The figure muttered incoherently to himself as he
steered the vessel through the fog, for all the good it would do...
the endless fog seemed to him a living beast who had swollowed up the
HMS Iron Lotus, and was even now slowly digesting the vessel. Hope
turned to madness long ago... Now it was the only way to pass the
time, standing watch at the lonely helm.
One by one, crew members had seemingly vanished from the ship, until
the Captain found himself alone on the deck with the demons of his
mind plaguing him constantly. Was there any crew left belowdecks? He
thought he heard the muffled sounds of boots scraping belowdecks,
though that could have only been the creaking of the ship's bones...
he couldn't be sure.
The mind played tricks when you're this long at sea. Was that the
voice of his first mate? It could have only been
the wind... the heartbeat of the ship's drums had mysteriously
vanished, he couldn't be sure how long ago now. Seconds trickled by,
seeming like hours... days. Or was it hours and days that were flying
by like seconds? The ship's bell hadn't tolled in so long he had lost
all sense of time. Confound this damned fog... no way to sight the
stars... not that the daylight was any more visible for sighting in
this infernal soup. The Captain continued to mutter, his hoarse voice
keeping pace with the wind... "Yo, ho... all together, hoist the
colors high..."