Since separating from Lucia, there would be many different possible avenues of researching the story she left behind for Chrys. Each one with varying degrees of certification and authenticity.
The official story found in written history tells the tale of Luthor Harken a mad pirate from a few centuries ago. Written almost as a ghost story the tale documents many disastrous raids and the suffering caused by the man's cursed ship named the 'Dreadnoughtilus' from the dread it caused every time it appeared. Literature described the ship as being forged from dark magic and cursed to remain unsinkable so long as it's monstrous captain drew breath. It took a local Governor, an Admiral, another infamous Pirate and a charitable merchant pooling their resources and launching an offensive that finally brought the ship's captain down.
The written history however don't stop there, as the story continues with a tragic detailing of the damages left behind along the coast following Luthor Harken's death. His ship was reportedly seen riding a tidal wave into an innocent village wiping it out and destroying the Governor's villa in the process. In the records it states there were no survivors and the curse of the Dreadnoughtilus is said to be the cause of various tidal based disasters and incidents since.
There was however another more detailed version of the tale that could only be found by the occasional tavern bard or elder in small coastal villages of Stokbon. It was a more tender story that told the tale of a family man Luthor Harken who had been a brave naval officer who lost his wife and daughter in a disaster while serving. In the tale, the devastated Captain quits the Navy and instead retires to watch over the village where his family was buried until a new trouble struck. A corrupt official given their post by a noble seeking to gain a little more profit began hiking taxes and troubling the locals with increasingly outrageous demands after the fishing industry collapsed.
Rather then suffer in silence the people wanted to rise up but Luthor talked them down, instead bringing them to an island out in Stokbon's bay area where the waters were too shallow for large monsters but deep enough to deter the officials from chasing them. There Captain Luthor Harken took on the mantle as a man of the sea once more, this time, with a ship blessed by the Sirens of the seas after seeing him go through the trouble of exhuming his family to make sure they weren't separated from the villagers they loved. From that moment on, Luthor became a man not lured to the rocks by sirens but cheered on and encouraged by them as he set out to sea fighting for the village's future.
Able bodied men and women of all ages joined him at sea, at first in a humble craft but as time passed, their humble ship had developed and grown into a behemoth of a combat vessel to put food on the table. Luthor struck a deal with a merchant from the mainland, in exchange for food and resources, he would raid the merchant's competition only and harass the pirates to keep them at bay. For a time, this life was perfect for Luthor, even old and gray he remained every bit the legendary officer as he led battles personally cleaving through waves of enemies and heroically baring the brunt of the enemy's counter attacks to protect the crew that had become his new family.
It was only when the Merchant that Luthor once trusted to keep his end of the deal, had betrayed him that disaster struck. Now rich from Luthor's efforts, the merchant became greedy, looking to leverage Luthor's capture for a political position of his own when the Governor retired. The Governor himself wanted to end Harken for all the headaches he'd caused, while the Navy admiral was full of rage for the man haunting his ships like a ghost and the local pirates were fed up of the privateer limiting their operations. The four joined hands and ambushed Luthor during his normal supply run.
The ambush wasn't heroic, there were no grand charges or passionate exchanges of blows. It was quiet and solemn as Captain Luthor Harken surrendered the moment he realized the odds were against them. After losing his wife and daughter, he didn't want to lose his crew as well and agreed to go without struggling as long as his crew were spared. The agreement was easily accepted, Luthor Harken was such a figure that the only way they could finish him was by convincing him to die for the sake of his family and he was quickly hanged somewhere far from the water's edge to prevent the Sirens from interfering.
The story didn't stop there though, so enraged were the Sirens that the ship Luthor Harken once Captained refused to give up. His crew he died to protect swore an oath on it's deck, that they would not rest until they got revenge for the man who was like a second father for him.
They swore they would not stop until they had revenge.
The first battle occurred in the pirate's nest and continued without pause into Stockbon's bay. Blasting pirate ships and naval ships alike to the bottom of the sea it was in these chaotic skirmishes that the Ship's Cannoneers died one by one, refusing to leave their posts with bloodshot eyes they kept firing as the ship burned around them even as their bodies burned. The powder monkeys soon followed, in an explosive end as they refused to stop dropping depth charges to slow their pursuers until one shot happened to ignite their barrels.
The combat didn't stop even in the bay. As they neared the city the Shipwrights died below deck, hammering nails and planks down furiously refusing to quit even as the water kept pouring in. Even when they ran out of boards they used each other's bodies gritting their teeth as they tried to use every ounce of strength to keep the waters at bay until they finally drowned. As the ship was falling apart, the 1st mate refused to slow the ship crashing it through the dock and running the ship aground until he died from the ship falling apart and the deck and mast falling around him to ensure no one could stop it from reaching it's destination.
From there, the tale continued with the Ship hands fleeing the wreckage with weapons and hoarse screams as they ran aground attacking the few officers who weren't on ships. They died fighting their way up to the Governor's villa as the miscellaneous workers charged through the gates. Even in their final moments, the Navigator himself thrust one of his sharp cartographer's tools into the governor's neck as he himself bled out from his own injuries while the Quartermaster perished with the Admiral trading blow for blow before dying with dozens of weapons buried in his body.
The tale says that everything was covered up, a secret shame hidden by the local aristocracy because it stained their honor for a single ship to have caused as much devastation as it did, it was easier to write it off as black magic wiping out a town and villa. The stories always hint at the end though that even with the crew dead, their oath remains just as strong as it was the day they made it. That the ship, the 'Dreadnoughtilus' can still from time to time be seen out in the bay like a ghost on foggy nights circling the coast... searching... waiting... because the Ship refused to sink to the afterlife without the entire crew on it's back to greet their loved Captain on the other side.
The deeper one dove, the more one could uncover. From which island they all called home after fleeing to the sandy wasteland that was the governor's city where his villa once stood. There were numerous sightings of the 'Dreadnoughtilus' on particularly foggy nights and from time to time there was an occasional story about how the ship would appear and battle creatures from the deep that got brave enough to stretch their tendrils into the bay areas.
Among the many smaller points of info one could uncover was a passenger manifesto from the time it was a Privateering vessel. Among them the Captain's name 'Luthor Harken' was written every bit as boldly as the man spoken of in the story. Towards the bottom of the manifest though, almost inconsequentially was another name that was easy to write off if you weren't specifically looking for it. A small note of a Cabin Boy named 'Emerson Hope'.
@Chrys
The official story found in written history tells the tale of Luthor Harken a mad pirate from a few centuries ago. Written almost as a ghost story the tale documents many disastrous raids and the suffering caused by the man's cursed ship named the 'Dreadnoughtilus' from the dread it caused every time it appeared. Literature described the ship as being forged from dark magic and cursed to remain unsinkable so long as it's monstrous captain drew breath. It took a local Governor, an Admiral, another infamous Pirate and a charitable merchant pooling their resources and launching an offensive that finally brought the ship's captain down.
The written history however don't stop there, as the story continues with a tragic detailing of the damages left behind along the coast following Luthor Harken's death. His ship was reportedly seen riding a tidal wave into an innocent village wiping it out and destroying the Governor's villa in the process. In the records it states there were no survivors and the curse of the Dreadnoughtilus is said to be the cause of various tidal based disasters and incidents since.
There was however another more detailed version of the tale that could only be found by the occasional tavern bard or elder in small coastal villages of Stokbon. It was a more tender story that told the tale of a family man Luthor Harken who had been a brave naval officer who lost his wife and daughter in a disaster while serving. In the tale, the devastated Captain quits the Navy and instead retires to watch over the village where his family was buried until a new trouble struck. A corrupt official given their post by a noble seeking to gain a little more profit began hiking taxes and troubling the locals with increasingly outrageous demands after the fishing industry collapsed.
Rather then suffer in silence the people wanted to rise up but Luthor talked them down, instead bringing them to an island out in Stokbon's bay area where the waters were too shallow for large monsters but deep enough to deter the officials from chasing them. There Captain Luthor Harken took on the mantle as a man of the sea once more, this time, with a ship blessed by the Sirens of the seas after seeing him go through the trouble of exhuming his family to make sure they weren't separated from the villagers they loved. From that moment on, Luthor became a man not lured to the rocks by sirens but cheered on and encouraged by them as he set out to sea fighting for the village's future.
Able bodied men and women of all ages joined him at sea, at first in a humble craft but as time passed, their humble ship had developed and grown into a behemoth of a combat vessel to put food on the table. Luthor struck a deal with a merchant from the mainland, in exchange for food and resources, he would raid the merchant's competition only and harass the pirates to keep them at bay. For a time, this life was perfect for Luthor, even old and gray he remained every bit the legendary officer as he led battles personally cleaving through waves of enemies and heroically baring the brunt of the enemy's counter attacks to protect the crew that had become his new family.
It was only when the Merchant that Luthor once trusted to keep his end of the deal, had betrayed him that disaster struck. Now rich from Luthor's efforts, the merchant became greedy, looking to leverage Luthor's capture for a political position of his own when the Governor retired. The Governor himself wanted to end Harken for all the headaches he'd caused, while the Navy admiral was full of rage for the man haunting his ships like a ghost and the local pirates were fed up of the privateer limiting their operations. The four joined hands and ambushed Luthor during his normal supply run.
The ambush wasn't heroic, there were no grand charges or passionate exchanges of blows. It was quiet and solemn as Captain Luthor Harken surrendered the moment he realized the odds were against them. After losing his wife and daughter, he didn't want to lose his crew as well and agreed to go without struggling as long as his crew were spared. The agreement was easily accepted, Luthor Harken was such a figure that the only way they could finish him was by convincing him to die for the sake of his family and he was quickly hanged somewhere far from the water's edge to prevent the Sirens from interfering.
The story didn't stop there though, so enraged were the Sirens that the ship Luthor Harken once Captained refused to give up. His crew he died to protect swore an oath on it's deck, that they would not rest until they got revenge for the man who was like a second father for him.
They swore they would not stop until they had revenge.
The first battle occurred in the pirate's nest and continued without pause into Stockbon's bay. Blasting pirate ships and naval ships alike to the bottom of the sea it was in these chaotic skirmishes that the Ship's Cannoneers died one by one, refusing to leave their posts with bloodshot eyes they kept firing as the ship burned around them even as their bodies burned. The powder monkeys soon followed, in an explosive end as they refused to stop dropping depth charges to slow their pursuers until one shot happened to ignite their barrels.
The combat didn't stop even in the bay. As they neared the city the Shipwrights died below deck, hammering nails and planks down furiously refusing to quit even as the water kept pouring in. Even when they ran out of boards they used each other's bodies gritting their teeth as they tried to use every ounce of strength to keep the waters at bay until they finally drowned. As the ship was falling apart, the 1st mate refused to slow the ship crashing it through the dock and running the ship aground until he died from the ship falling apart and the deck and mast falling around him to ensure no one could stop it from reaching it's destination.
From there, the tale continued with the Ship hands fleeing the wreckage with weapons and hoarse screams as they ran aground attacking the few officers who weren't on ships. They died fighting their way up to the Governor's villa as the miscellaneous workers charged through the gates. Even in their final moments, the Navigator himself thrust one of his sharp cartographer's tools into the governor's neck as he himself bled out from his own injuries while the Quartermaster perished with the Admiral trading blow for blow before dying with dozens of weapons buried in his body.
The tale says that everything was covered up, a secret shame hidden by the local aristocracy because it stained their honor for a single ship to have caused as much devastation as it did, it was easier to write it off as black magic wiping out a town and villa. The stories always hint at the end though that even with the crew dead, their oath remains just as strong as it was the day they made it. That the ship, the 'Dreadnoughtilus' can still from time to time be seen out in the bay like a ghost on foggy nights circling the coast... searching... waiting... because the Ship refused to sink to the afterlife without the entire crew on it's back to greet their loved Captain on the other side.
The deeper one dove, the more one could uncover. From which island they all called home after fleeing to the sandy wasteland that was the governor's city where his villa once stood. There were numerous sightings of the 'Dreadnoughtilus' on particularly foggy nights and from time to time there was an occasional story about how the ship would appear and battle creatures from the deep that got brave enough to stretch their tendrils into the bay areas.
Among the many smaller points of info one could uncover was a passenger manifesto from the time it was a Privateering vessel. Among them the Captain's name 'Luthor Harken' was written every bit as boldly as the man spoken of in the story. Towards the bottom of the manifest though, almost inconsequentially was another name that was easy to write off if you weren't specifically looking for it. A small note of a Cabin Boy named 'Emerson Hope'.
@Chrys
