NAUTICAL ODDITY or CURSED SEAS?

By TalkFast

Freak Storms, Vanishing Ships Plague Vajra. Do mysterious malevolent forces haunt the seas?

Sailors and merchants alike in the Varja city of Voreko are worried. This place is home to the most skilled boatsmen in the Galaxy, and it’s said that no storm truly frightens them, but recent events have even the most hardened captains talking of curses and uncanny events.

Over a dozen vessels have disappeared without a trace in strange storms, and the few who survived say this is not natural weather, even for storm-wracked Varja. The surviving crew of the Argon, whose sister ship the Meanar was lost recently, claimed to have seen brilliant lightning flashes and felt terrible waves of fear before the Meanar disappeared into the storm. One crewman commented “Something was not right. This was no boating accident.”

Even more strange are the events witnessed by Liam McKarn, captain of the Ossam Star, the most recent ship to be caught in a storm on Vajra.
He spoke to one of our reporters over drinks at a Voreko bar.

“We were sure we were a’gonna go under! I’d n’er seen waves this ‘uge before! I’d been ‘earing rumors about tha other lost ships, sayin’ they were taken by ghosts an’ tha like.”

McKarn’s strong callused hands shaking slightly as he clutched a pint Nogg’s Grog and told his chilling tale.

“ Well, a terrible fear gripped me ‘eart an’ I could swear I saw dark shapes movin’ about me crew, we were all so terrified, an’ all me hollerin’ at them to man their posts ‘ad nae effect. Then, an’ I swears by Tane this be true, in tha clouds I swear I saw a terrible fight. A great beasty of a man all wrapped in shadows was fightin’ this woman in swirly garb. Now, with tha lightening an’ tha thunder I could nae see much, but I swear twas the Empress! I think she was fightin’ with Nidrigg in tha skies! An’ then there was an awful scream an’ tha storm dissipated like it was never there! I tell ye, I went and drowned my fears when we made port, by Tane’s light I shore did!”