The Longest Night.
The night of the alignment happened and the plan was revealed to all with the power to sense the disturbance in the heaven given order of things. Watching with magical screening the black haired woman looked on with horror as the energy vortices appeared over the land, seemingly at random, causing natural disasters wherever they touched down. Grabbing her staff, a powerful artefact in its own right, and her magical bag, she ran to the teleporter room. Panicking acolytes and seraphs were running around, trying to do something, anything, to stop this disaster, and Kristal, a normally level headed scholar, trained by the woman herself, tried to stop her.
Chosen One, no! You can’t go there, you won’t be able to come back!
Let me pass, Kristal.
No! I won’t let you! We need you here!
Need me, Kristal? You are under the protection of our God here… I need to go protect those that aren’t as close to Him.
But what could you do?
The woman hesitated a second before answering, her solid purple eyes glowing.
I’m disappointed in you, Kristal. I thought you knew me better. Now let me pass.
Chastised, the seraph moved aside, tears in her eyes. The woman strode in the room and took hold of a rock engraved with a opened book that she keep on a necklace, beside the one that held 2 feathers, said a single word and disappeared.
**************************************
The wind was the first to announce the horrors to come. Howling fiercely, coming from nowhere, it buffeted the White Swan like a toy boat in a bathtub with a trashing baby. Caught by surprise by the sudden gale, the crew scrambled to prepare the ship for an unexpected storm. Worried, the captain ordered to set sail towards the nearest land to try to find a shelter, but the wind kept pushing the pirate chaser towards the open sea, despite all the efforts. The growing waves forced the crew to lash everything down, dropping the sails to preserve them.
For most of the day, the ship was rocked by the wind, under an impossibly clear sky with not a single cloud in the sky, several of the experienced sailors feeling sick of the motion. Anyone non-essential to the running of the ship was locked below deck, and safety lines tied those brave souls above deck to the ship, should they be sweep overboard. Kali and Torinn were asked to stay close to the hatch, as their strength might be needed to haul up crewmates thrown overboard by the waves, but the constant motion got to Kali and the poor woman was wracked by seasickness. Styx, while not as strong, volunteered to take her place, hoping that his long limbs would be of help, but fortunately the security team was not needed. The tiefling was taken away by Asuni, who had taken the task of helping the sick, with some help from the druid. Wind gave a red berry to Kali, that settled her stomach somewhat, but did nothing for her queasiness. It did have her question where the hell did he find fresh berries on a ship….
Just then, the blue sky was suddenly zigzagged by hundreds of weird purplish lightning strikes, black and red clouds appearing in the wake of the lightning, covering the entire sky in a matter of minutes, blocking out the sun, turning the day into a dark as ink night. Storm lamps lit on the ship barely pierced the gloom and it felt like the entire world had reduced itself to the ship and the weirdly silent lightning streaked sky. This lasted for what seemed for hours, time perception distorted in the hushed environment, until suddenly the light show stopped and the battered ship found itself in the middle of a windless night, a large full moon shining on the ship, with no land in sight.
Cautiously, the crew got out on the deck to get some fresh air. Work crews were swiftly organized to clean up below deck and to assess damages the ship might have sustained. The captain got his sextant out, to calculate where the wind had pushed the White Swan. Looking confused, he asked for Hector and Machrel, Wind delighted to replace the wiry man up in the crow’s nest. The three sailors started an animated discussion, pointing at maps and at the sky, all three of them taking turns with the sextant. Sandron came to join them, his brusque manner event more abrupt than usual. Kali and Ersin overheard the concern of the vessel leadership and they approached Sunny, already seen as a learned individual, telling him what they overheard. In the week they had known him, the tortle had never lost his smile, but it did dip now, concern in his voice :
Those aren't the stars my mother taught me... I don't think we're where we were before that storm. Maybe another world entirely. But the night eye, the moon, is unchanged... This is... Intriguing...
Asuni had volunteered to clean up below deck and was just coming out of the hold, bearing a bucket of soiled water that she prepared to dump overboard. She heard the wizard and called Styx and Torinn, both working far enough to not have heard either the captain or the wizard, to look at the moon.
Something was very wrong.
Asuni, her bucket forgotten, approached the other two followers of Selune and taking both their hands, told them in a fearful voice.
We need to pray, now! I don’t feel Her as much!
And just as the trio was dropping down on their knees, they all started to see a second, unknown, moon raising up at the horizon….
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:26, Mon 10 Aug 2020.