Grevor sat in the morning fog. He was watching to see the events about the ship that he was soon to board.

The fog cleared int the late morning late morning. Grevor and the sorceress they around loitering at the docks, a few of the workers were starting to eye them, and giving them reason to board a ship or move on.

Grevor ignored them as he continued to watch.

There were not many passengers. Most of the people were crew members, a few of which were clockwork constructs. The passengers were easy to find, they used the main loading board, where as the crew went in through the freight lifts or side freight hatches. Most ships whouldn't have a side hatch, but this one road high enough out of the water to allow for the side hatch to stay dry.

Of the few passengers, there were 3 that were noteworthy. A gentalman who was covered in light tan robes,and did not show a square inch of skin at any time. He carried with him a box, that could have held the missing polearm. There was also young lady who was covered in pouches and scroll cases, she also carried, or more like lead, a levitating chest. Lastly there was a gentalman, who looked as if he was from a wealthy family. He constantly sprayed himself with perfumes, as if to keep the stench of laborers off of him. He kept his face veiled.

At noon, when it was clear that the ship was on last call to boarding, and it was high tide, Grevor and the sorceress quickly boarded.

The captain met them at the top of the ramp and said, "Finally nice to have you grace us with your presence. I have seen you on the pier for hours just watching us. If you have that much apprehention about sailing, please be assured that we have had no incidences in many years."

The captain was taken aback when Grevor looked up at him, and he could see the mutilation of Grevor's face.

"Sir, are you man or beast?", the captain was trying his best to sound polite.

Grevor now looking irate, stared him as stated "I am still a man, as long as I need to be." Grevor then walked off to find the porter to direct him to his cabin wich he was sharing with the sorceress.

The ship was remarkably large. about half of it's space was given over to passenger cabins and a large dining hall, that could seat about 50 people, for the passengers and officers. The crew dining hall was large enough for 100 men jammed in elbo to elbo. All of the passenger rooms openned right to the passenger dining hall, or to a hallway below the it which had stairs that lead right to it. Both dining halls and the hallway had doors to the deck.

The deck itself was multilevel. On the deck, there were a few small dingies, a freight hoist, and a 4 cannons to dissuade boarding parties. Very little of the freight was stoed on deck, only the peices that were too large to fit through the hold hatches, or the side hatch. On this voyage, there was a steam drawn carrage that was too tall for the hatches. It was well fastened down. Even the undercarrage was bolted to it's own skid. When investigating closer, the boiler seemed to still emit heat, even though there was no fire. It wasn't hot, just comfortably warm.

Most of the men worked on the deck or as their daily task, checked to make sure that the cargo was still secured. On the other hand, the passengers were a bit enigmatic. The wealthy man, would walk about the deck on the day, but never join anyone during the meals. The cloaked man would join us at the meals, but would never accept any food. He would join us in converation though, a very educated man. The young woman, as we found out was a rune mage. She would purify the food before eating, and volunteer to clean up after each meal. She was admant about maintaining cleanlyness. After she was finished with each meal, she would quickly dissapear in some place in the ship. We assumed it was her room, but we realy did not know.

This pattern was predictable for days. The only diffrence was that the non-office crew seemed less lively every day. The captain said that would happen sometimes before bad weather, but he has seen no edvidence of a storm brewing. This continued until the forth day, when a deckhand was found swinging from the center mast. In his own writing he scribed on the mast, that this was a cured voyage, and that all would be dead. His death was very gruesom. He placed a freight hook under his adams apple, and jumped, forcing the hook up though his throat, breaking his jaw, and embeding itself through the roof of his mouth.

When the body was given a proper funeral and given to the sea, Gevor noticed that floating at the aft of the ship was a single officer's rations of food. "Captain, is that part of your tradition for funerals too?" asked Grevor.

"No. Who would waste food on this trip? And why only a small portion?" the captain muttered.

Every day Grevor and the Captain checked for food floating, and right after each meal, the would find a single serving floating out.

Over the next several days, each of the ship's constructs started to fail. First it was minor things, like a loss of strength, then major problems, like a fluid canister breaking open and causing the construct to go lifeless.

By the eight day the crew was looking down right morbid, some were looking very pale. The captain was downright concerned about the passenger health and safety, so they were all confined to their rooms and the dining hall.

When night set, there was no moonlight this night, but rather the light glowed up from the deck, the hatches, and the bottom of the masts. The looked like rune marks.

The captain and Grevor went to the runemage's room, to find it unoccupied. There was no edvidence that it was ever occuplied.

The captain opened the door from to the deck, to find a riot on the deck. The officers were being attacked by the crew. Not like a mutany, but like the darkest of monstrocities had possed them all, and turned them into inhuman killers.

As the captain slammed the door to the dining hall, and baracaded it, Grevor ran to his room, grabbed the belt that held the five blades, and ran down the stares. Upon arriving at the bottom of the stares, he could see that these mindess husks, that once were the crew members, were raiding each room, and tearing everything to shreads.

Without thinking, Grevor grabbed two of his blades and charged into battle, rending arm from shoulder, and head from neck. His actions were so fast, that these zombies seemed to not be moving in comparison. Within seconds he had cleared out the lower hallway, and worked his way onto the deck.

The captain heard the violence on the deck had changed, and was moving away from the Dining hall door. He drew his rapier, and peared out the door.

What he saw was best described as monster on monster combat. Though Grevor only held two of his blades, all 5 were in motion. Three of them fought also as if they were being welded by Grevor. His motions and combat was like that of ten men fighting in perfect unison. Gevor even had the time to yell out for the captain to rebaracade the door, and guard the stairs.

Minutes later, when the fighting had ended, Grevor looked around at the carnage, and saw that the limbs, thought removed from the bodies were still moving. Also he noticed that the runes that were barely visible had now engulfed the whole ship.

When one of the body parts touched a rune, it shrivelled and broke down to flames. Even the jewelery and clothing brokedown to ashes in the flames. The whole ship was catching on fire.

When Grevor looked down, he saw that his boot was on one of the runes, and looked clean. At that point, he realized the runemage was purifying the ship, but had a nasty side effect.

The runes shifted and moved across the ship, in every direction thoughout the night, lighting more and more of the ship up as it travelled., until there was not a single undead thing left on or in it, nore was a single section of deck still not lit.

Grevor had to retreat to a cannon, and stepped over the deck rail, so that there were no flames under him.

Inside, the sorceress, looked at the initial hallway, and saw that it was lighting up too. the fire would kill them all shortly. The sorceress pulled a small book from a vest that she was wearing. Then opening the book, she opened it to the point where the covers met, and a loud crack resounded from the book. It was like the sound of a man's back breaking. She then tossed the book into the fire.

The book, once it was breifly touched by the fire, started to spin. The pages worked like a fan, but drew the fire in rather than pushed it out. The book continued to spin faster and faster until it was able to consume all of the flames. into a small column. Then a face appeared of an old man, who looked very tired.

The sorceres, citing an ancient Eptos tongue, commanded the flame elemental to continue to consume all of the raging fire on the ship.

Within an hour the ship was free of the fire, but the damage was done. Most of the deck could not be walked on.

By morning, the captain and passengers were all that were left. The runes had receaded except from the rudder, the mast, and the cabin door of the wealthy man. On the chared mast, a feignt spectral image of sails could be made out from the runes that seem to hover in mid-air.

Grevor found the runemage at the bottom of the hold, manipulating a giant rune pattern that looked like a compass and a map scribed into the floor. The young lady looked up and said, "Sorry I was so slow to react. I didn't know how this attack was going to take place before it was too late."

"Who are you?" asked Grevor.

"I am Elizzareth, agent of the House of Pounds. My employer is the insurer of that carrage which was on the deck. It was purchased by the Royal family of Tak'Na." she replied.

"But why did you come? If this was a simple insurance issue, your company could have written off the loss against the cost of business." At this point Grevor was not sure of her story.

Elizzareth replied, slightly cheerfully, since someone is actually interested in her line of business. "Oh. But I divined that this would happen, and that I could help to stop it. Also I wanted to get out of Troit in Nurexious for a vacation. Tak'Na seemed to ge a good of location as any."

Upon scribing her last rune in the pattern, Elizzareth stood up, and said, "There! That will keep us on corse to Tak'Na. Lets check on the cabin I sealed." Pausing for a moment, she then says, "I guess this will be the last thing I do for my employer before they terminate my contract. Oh well." She seemed almost happy about it. Truly she was hiding her pain.

Grevor and Elizzareth climb to the deck and make it to the dining hall. There they find the room that is sealed. The other passengers are looking on to see what is going on.

Elizzareth touches the door, and the pattern moves to the door frame, at which time the door colapses in decay. The innards of the room are all covered in slim, molds and funguses. The person who was staying in the room was slumped to the far side of the room. The small portal over seeing the sea was open. There were several bottles of perfume scattered around the floor, all were empty. The man's head was slumped forward, but his face clearly visible, as if it was falling off of his head.

The captain said "We need to pull him out of there and check on him."

Elizzareth stopped him and pointed out that the perfume bottles had runemarking on them. This may have been a toxic assassin. No living thing can enter that room and live. Even the runes that are protecting the ship from the rot within will fade and the whole ship will be contaminated.

The man in the tan cloak walked up, and said then it will have no effect on him. "I have no flesh or wood on me." He entered the room, and pushed all of the bottles out the portal, along with as much as he could of the room's contaminated belongings.

Once the bottles were out of the ship, the purification runes on the door frame started to scorch the rest.

Once the construct got to the body and lifted it, the face fell off, breakining when it hit the floor. It was a wax mask.

The body suddenly started to attack the contruct. futily tearing at his metal body.

The construct, turned the body and slammed it into the runes, which had grown to clean the room. The body burst into fire and dust.

"Well Elizzareth, you were right. You did need my help after all." said that construct. "Not often that one of us accountaint constructs are asked to do something other than checking the books." If his metal face could smile, it would have been the huge smile. "I don't know how you are going to justify my time off though. Clockwork Accountains don't qualify for time off, except for maintainance and short travels."

"Don't worry about that. They will take you back and write this off." replied Elizzareth. She had the most child like cheerful grin. A person couln't help but to be warmed by her grin.

Though the ship creaked and groaned for fifteen more days. Boards fell of into the ocean, burnt sections collapsed. The captain and Grevor rebound and braced the mast almost every day as the ship slowly died.

On the last day, the shoreline to Tak'na could be seen, and without warning, the mast broke. When it came crashing down, it smashed down on the stern of the ship, splitting the front in two. The ship was sinking fast. The Captain, Elizzareth, and the accountant construct all made it to the landing boat. Grevor and the sorceress  were cut off by the broken hull.

Before anyone could react, the sorceress commanded the water and the wood to provide them passege to land. The decking that Grevor and the sorceress were on broke away from the boat as the ship fell below the waves. Even though the decking took op water, it would not sink, and travelled quickly to the northern ports of Tak'na.

Grevor looked back to see if he could find the small landing boat, but besides the waves of the sinking ship and the sea spray from the raising bubbles, there was nothing to see.

(c) 2007 Brian P. Webb.
Original story was also written and copyrighted by Brian P. Webb, 1989