They're Just Waiting for You to Resurface

Resuming (at long last) my latest attempt at Stormslayer, I head for the docks. As yet, Sturm's device has had little or no effect around here, so it's business as usual. Consequently, I pay a quick visit to the market before starting to look for a ship that can take me where I need to go. A rope and grapple will almost certainly come in handy, and I'm a little intrigued by the Wyrmskin cloak: it's a kind of armour, but not quite as effective as the chainmail that's available here for a lower price, which suggests that it may have other benefits that are less obvious. Well, there's only one way to find out if there is more to it than meets the description, and that's to buy it.

Proceeding to seek a ship, I find that my character was a little hasty in assuming Chalannabrad to have been unaffected by Sturm's shenanigans. The harbour is packed with ships, and there's not a vessel to be seen actually at sea. An old sailor with a wooden leg explains that the Captains are reluctant to set sail owing to the increased frequency and ferocity of storms and Great Eel attacks, and I spend most of the rest of the day searching for one who's insane courageous enough to go out to sea anyway. Eventually I find the renowned Captain Katarina, who agrees to take me in return for half of the loot I recover on my dive. The last time I attempted this book, I didn't find much in the way of treasure down below, so I suspect that she may be in for something of a disappointment.

We set off in her ship, the not remotely inadvisably-named Tempest, and the following day a thick yellow fog comes out of nowhere. Captain Katarina suspects that there's something sorcerous about it, and my sword becomes restless in its scabbard, which suggests that it agrees with her.

On all my previous attempts at this book, I picked a Hunting Horn as part of my starting equipment, and it came in useful here. This time I went with a different selection, leaving me with no choice but to draw Wyrmbiter and see if this fog is thick enough to cut with a magic sword. A face appears, and tendrils of fog lash out at me, but I defeat the Fog Elemental without difficulty.

The night passes without incident, and I wake to find that the Tempest has reached its destination. Down below is the Devilfish Rift, said to be the location of the Sunken Temple of Hydana, Titan's equivalent of Poseidon. Owing to the inadequate waterproofing of my backpack, I can't take all of my belongings with me when I go looking for the Temple, but I can keep my sword and two other non-food items. Not sure the rope or cloak will be of much use down there, so I'll hang on to the rest of my starting equipment.

After downing the Potion of Water Breathing, I step overboard and start to sink. The potion works, and I descend to the seabed unharmed. To my right is a wrecked galleon, and on the left is the rift. If there's any treasure on the wreck, I have yet to figure out how to get it, and on this occasion I'm not even going to bother trying. Instead I head straight for the rift. And then I make the same mistake I've made every time I've played this book so far, and investigate a cave. The assorted aquatic fauna that attack me are not the problem - I deal with them as easily as I did the Fog Elemental. No, the problem is that Jonathan Green remembers The Empire Strikes Back, and this is no cave. I narrowly succeed at the roll to get out of the leviathan's mouth before its jaws slam shut, but acquire a codeword that is sure to lead to unpleasantness on the way back up.

Further down the rift, I find what the scavengers have left of a dead Bullwhale, a creature so big that it could potentially have swallowed a ship. I might as well check it out, as doing so can't make things much worse than the error I've already made. Entering through a wound in the corpse's chest, I disturb a giant fluke worm, which attacks me. Talking of flukes, despite having a lower Skill than every other opponent I've fought on this voyage, this is the first one to actually harm me. I do kill it, though, and find a shield with a Red Dragon emblem in the whale's stomach contents.

Further down, I catch sight of what could be the Sunken Temple. And then up from the depths rises an aquatic horror like something Lovecraft might have dreamed after overdoing it at a seafood buffet. The fight is a tough one, and three times I get grabbed by a tentacle, which does only minor damage but also inflicts an Attack Strength penalty for the next round of combat. Nevertheless, I prevail, and swim on towards the Sunken Temple.

Inside, I find a huge jade statue of Hydana, depicted as a fishman and wielding a golden trident. On a plinth in front of it is a sea shell. The trident is probably there to distract the greedy from the real prize (I'd call it sucker bait, only it seems not to have attracted the attention of any of the octopoid denizens of the rift), so I go for the shell. As I take it, three female figures made of seawater manifest in front of the statue, accusing me of profanation and defilement. I explain why I need the shell, pointing out that Sturm's actions will eventually cause harm even down here, and the Naiads decide that I can have the Shell of the Seas after all.

This part of my mission accomplished, I start swimming back up to the Tempest, at which point that codeword comes back to bite me. Or rather, the Leviathan I disturbed earlier does. Skill-wise we're evenly matched, but my Stamina was lower even before I got wounded by the fluke worm and the Abyssal Horror, and as I wasn't able to bring any Provisions down with me, I'm still in a pretty beaten-up state. Consequently, even though I manage to win more Attack Rounds than the Leviathan, I still wind up becoming fish food. Just like on my first attempt at this book.

Maybe next time I'll remember not to go swimming into that 'cave'.