I really wished I knew what manner of creature had claimed the Alayne. The prompt calling it a ‘creature’ in the first place made me think ‘animal’, but it said another creature like it was counting me. So another person could have claimed it.

This was the problem with knowledge granted by the world! Sometimes it was incredibly useful, miraculous even. Other times it was frustrating and misleading.

I decided that I wanted to make the most of the time I had. Whatever occupant normally inhabited the Alayne wasn’t here now, which gave me an opportunity. If the owner was a person who could turn the weapons of the galleon against me, I wanted to take away their advantage. I loved artillery when it was in my hands, because it was so good at causing damage regardless of rank. I did not want to see a broadside of it coming at me!

The second reason was I’d just diced up 123 drowners. The tidal forces might affect what creatures showed up, but that was definitely going to garner some interest. There was no sense waiting for the scavengers to arrive before enacting my plan.

My plan was simple. I retrieved my fishing boat and brought it alongside the Alayne. Then I pillaged the ammunition for all the weapons onboard. And boy, was there a lot! The ship didn’t have specialty equipment like runes or the multishot armor-piercing bolts the Raven had, but they were fully stocked on the bread-and-butter single enchantment items.

Enchanted Bolt of Flame

Upon contact, causes fire damage

Enchanted Bolt of Ice

Upon contact, causes ice damage

Enchanted Bolt of Poison

Upon contact, releases a cloud that causes poison damage

These three types of bolts were standard combat munitions. Fire was always an enemy aboard a ship. If you set a vessel aflame, you crippled their combat effectiveness because part of the crew had to put their attention on fighting the fire. It was easy to get out of hand, so it was preferred by navies but not pirates.

Ice bolts could warp the hull of lower-quality ships, causing damage and leaks. I’d shown that with enough of them in a concentrated area, you could freeze the hull and make it brittle enough to shatter. With the right application they could break a ship that had “gone turtle”.

Poison bolts always seemed the nastiest to me. They were designed to release a small cloud when they struck, and with enough of them landing on the deck of a ship you could get the poison to seep through the whole ship, killing everyone without causing any damage. Thankfully, the quantity of bolts needed to have that effect put the tactic beyond the price range of most pirates. This ship, however, was funded by Andros’s taxes, and I removed loads of bundled poison bolts from their storage.

Then there were the enchantments that a ship captain had to request or procure themselves:

Enchanted Sonic Bolt

Upon activation, causes sonic damage to surrounding area while in motion

Enchanted Shock Bolt

Upon contact, releases an electric charge

I was pretty sure those two bolts were designed to drive off aggressive sea creatures. The Alayne had no kraken-fighting arms or other means of sea combat, it was clearly specialized in surface warfare. There were not nearly as many of those bolts as the basic types. I expected it was much more difficult for an enchanter to produce.

Enchanted Explosive Bolt

Upon contact, releases explosive energy

The last type I found was something I hadn’t seen before. It seemed self-explanatory, but the simple fact that I only found a dozen of them told me they were powerful and expensive.

They had no dual-enchantments on their munitions, which was a bit disappointing. I enjoyed multishot bolts – they were a strong force multiplier. The Alayne wouldn’t have really needed to pay the cost for them because they had enough ballistae crammed onto the gun deck – and presumably enough artillery specialists to man them – that they could put out a withering barrage as it was.

The onagers had simple rounds, chain shot, and two types of enchanted rounds – poison and mass. Poison worked the same way as the ballista bolts, the only difference being it was more difficult to hit the deck of the ship but you got a larger volume of poison for each hit. The other type was unique:

Enchanted Round of Mass

Upon activation, increases the density of the round.

I was no expert, but it looked like whatever magic this enchantment used made the round suddenly heavier. That seemed to me like the enchantment would make it a nightmare for aiming properly, but if it was heavy enough to cause substantial damage on impact it could be worth it.

Sadly, the full-sized ballista on the forecastle had no enchanted bolts. Its bolts could be attached to a line so the Alayne could link itself to its prey and reel them in, but that wasn’t as interesting. It’s heavy-hitting range was cool, but even on a large ship it was a bulky, spacious thing.

I took several trips to ferry the munitions from the ship to the cavern. It seemed unlikely that anyone would drop by to explore, but I still took the time to cart them to the empty space above the waterline. My first goal was to deprive a potential enemy of their weapons. My second was to try and salvage these for my own use.

By the time I finished there were visitors starting to show up for the drowner feast. There was no one showing up to the Alayne, though. After a few minutes of twiddling my thumbs, I decided to disassemble some of the ballistae, too. Why not? Maybe it would help improve my artillery skill.

If my job had been to set them up, I’d have been hopeless. Thankfully, taking things apart was inherently easier. I tried to keep them in segments – I had no desire to mess with the dovetailed carpentry or reinforced metal sections. Using some tools I found, I broke down half a dozen of the contraptions – only causing them minimal damage in the process. I ferried these to my new hideout.

I decided that I didn’t want to tempt fate much more, and withdrew from the area. Larger critters were showing up at the buffet line, and it was getting late. I took my boat away from the area of interest and practiced my magic until I fell asleep.

The next day the waters grew more turbulent as a storm system moved in. I’d spent so much time underwater, oblivious to the weather patterns above, that seeing the storm’s approach surprised me. I wasn’t in any danger, but it was a good reminder to pay attention. The fair-weather season was drawing to a close.

I carefully scouted out the Alayne again, only to realize that its claimant still hadn’t shown up. What if they didn’t call the galleon home? What if they were off somewhere else, not sparing a second thought on the ship they’d once claimed? That would be a bummer for me, I really wanted to test this out.

After waiting in a nearby hiding place for several hours, I dismantled and stored more ballistae. I forced myself to stop and lie in wait just after midday. It wouldn’t do for something to pop in on me while I was ferrying its weapons off. I squirreled away the fishing boat about a quarter mile from the shipwreck and snuck back to hide myself again. If the owner of the vessel didn’t show up today, I’d leave the Alayne unclaimed.

My choice to hide was made just in time. Only a few minutes after I sequestered myself, I thought I saw something approaching from the ocean. Another scavenger, perhaps? A large one? When it swam from behind an outcropping into view my eyes went wide. It was a kraken!

I’d heard people compare krakens to octopus or squid. Sure, the many-limbed creature might be related. That didn’t change the fact the giant squid I’d recently taken down was a minnow compared to this thing. The kraken was a beefed-up boatswain’s mate to the squid’s cabin boy.

Name

Kraken

Level

Health

,400

Mana

Stamina

,000