[Exposition] Chapter 2: The Meon's Journey
Chapter 2: The Meon's Journey
The Meon's journey had begun with hope, that most fragile and potent of fuels. New routes, new navigation methods - the promises had flowed like honey, sweet and golden. But the Eternal Lands cared nothing for the ambitions of mortals. For a year they sailed, their course ever more erratic as the mists of that forsaken place clouded mind, time, and map alike.
Conflict erupted like a festering boil. The Awakened aboard, their senses attuned to energies unknown, felt the pull of the Eternal Lands. But the human navigators, their minds muddled by unseen forces, clung stubbornly to their charts and instruments. Tales of mutiny emerged, the voices flat and eyes distant of those who recounted the survivor's words. The captain’s mundane mind, fractured by the mists, eventually fell to friendly blades. In the aftermath as blood was scrubbed from the deck, the actual cost of the Meon’s quest began to dawn.
When they finally made landfall, it was not with jubilant cries but wary silence. The Eternal Lands stretched before them, a vista of beauty and terror intertwined. Sandbars and knife-edged rocks barred their approach, as if the very land conspired to keep them at bay. Some spoke of divine guidance, an Echo in the winds that steered them to this treacherous yet navigable shore. Others muttered darker theories, of malevolent forces toying with them like a cat with a cornered mouse.
When the morning sun broke the tense night, a strange flash of light blinded one of the crew members. A rock outcropping jutting from the water served as the first gaze into the death to come: three corpses, their bones tightly entangled together in sun bleached clothes. They were huddled together as if leaning over something, and had used their clothes to tie themselves tightly around the tallest peak of the outcropping. A shield of one of the skeleton’s had reflected directly back to the ship, even brighter than the reflections of the calm ocean below.
How they got here was not apparent: they were miles from the shore, and what reason would they have to die here, lonely and so far from land?
Eventually, a raft was sent out to recover the bodies so they could be taken home to their families and be buried in Roera. Driven by a mix of duty and morbid curiosity, the crew recovered the remains. This act of human decency unveiled a treasure beyond measure: a leather-bound journal and a small, ornate mirror, both protected at the cost of three lives. The journal, penned by Esmeray Soleil of the long-lost Dragon's Breath expedition, spoke of horrors beyond imagining. It told of the Reflections, creatures that could possess the bodies of mundane humans with a mere glance, reproducing through eye contact. The one Awakened among them, mysteriously immune, simply forgot the monsters' true nature if the Reflections tried to ensnare them.
The mirror, however, proved to be both a blessing and a curse. Esmeray's notes described it as a tool capable of drawing out the Reflections, but its use came with grave risks. When confronted by a Reflection, a potential victim would need to raise the mirror, forcing the creature to gaze into its reflective surface instead of making direct eye contact. This maneuver, while potentially life-saving, was fraught with danger. It required split-second timing and unwavering nerve, for any hesitation could mean instant possession. The mirror offered a slim hope of survival, but wielding it was a deadly gamble that few would have the courage or presence of mind to attempt when face-to-face with a Reflection.
Moreover, the mirror's effectiveness was limited. It could only be used in the crucial moment when a Reflection attempted to make eye contact, leaving users vulnerable before and after this brief window of opportunity. The crew realized that while the mirror was a valuable tool, it was far from a perfect defense against the insidious threat the humans among them faced.
Armed with this knowledge and the mirror's limited protective power, the Meon's crew faced the challenges ahead with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Each member eyed the small, seemingly innocuous object with a combination of reverence and fear, aware that it might one day be the only thing standing between them and a fate worse than death.
What transpired during the Meon's actual time on the Eternal Lands remains shrouded in mystery to the public at large. The accounts from Zeix Amaranth of the short time on the island are classified as the most restricted need-to-know of knowledge, granted only directly to the Awakened embarking on the Expedition through their missives. However, one thing is known for certain: the island is home to various and deadly monstrous entities called Nightmares. Tabloids in Roera claim that the Meon was fortunate enough to encounter few of these monsters on their short landfall.
When at last the Meon set sail for home, their ship was a patchwork shadow of its former self, and their numbers drastically reduced. The months-long return journey proved to be a slow descent into hell. The Awakened aboard could not feel the pull of Roera like they did of the Eternal Lands. Illness swept through the crew, Awakened and human alike. Those who didn't succumb to the fever succumbed to paranoia and infighting. The ship itself seemed to turn against them - the hastily repaired hull leaked an otherworldly miasma from the godstongue they had been forced to carve into its wood.
Any human suspected of harboring a Reflection was put to death, but even this brutal precaution couldn't stem the tide of decay that had set in. The Awakened aboard the returning Meon, while immune to the Reflections' influence, were not spared the ravages of disease or malnutrition and the insidious effects on their minds and decision-making.
In the final days of the voyage, a bloody confrontation erupted when several crew members, their minds broken by stress and sickness, became convinced that the others were harboring Reflections. The ensuing chaos claimed the lives of nearly everyone on board. Only one survived the carnage, too weak to do more than drift with the currents, clinging to life.
The Meon drifted aimlessly on the open sea, a ghost ship with a single, barely living occupant. Its salvation came in the form of an unexpected encounter. The Stormchaser, a recently embarking vessel on its own journey to the Eternal Lands, spotted the derelict Meon on the horizon. Intrigued by the ship's strange repairs and erratic course, the Stormchaser's captain decided to investigate.
The crew was met with unimaginable horror as the Stormchaser drew alongside the Meon. The deck was awash with signs of violence and decay, and an eerie silence hung over the ship. It was only when they ventured below decks that they found the survivor, more dead than alive, surrounded by the grim evidence of the Meon's ill-fated voyage.
Recognizing the significance of their discovery, the Stormchaser made a crucial decision. Despite the risks and the delay it would cause to their own mission, the captain ordered the Meon to be taken in tow back to Roera. The wealth of information that the ship and its lone survivor could provide was too valuable to abandon.
The journey back to Roera was tense and fraught with difficulty. The Stormchaser's crew worked tirelessly to keep the Meon afloat, and their healer worked endlessly to keep the survivor alive. Dawn broke and shone on a distant lighthouse, welcoming them back to the familiar shores of Roera.
