The crack of a gavel, like a gunshot, rings in your ears. Everything’s a blur and images seem to rush past you. Your insides drop and you feel as though you are watching events unfold in front of you, like actors on a stage. You’re shackled and bound, presented in front of a crowd and thrown into a cage before you can put up much of a fight. Deserving or otherwise you are packed shoulder to shoulder with others deemed criminals like yourself and loaded onto a massive ship destined for the labor camps of the Black Keep.
Nights on the ship are never pleasant, but some in the pitched black vastness of the ocean are downright maddening. The siren songs of unknown creatures fill the night, whispering unintelligible threats in hollow mournful tones. The winds whipping and churning the waves causing the ship to lurch and dip, retching the stomachs of most on board. The pungent sour smell of unwashed bodies lingering throughout it all.
In your darkest moment, when madness and starvation are your closest neighbors a sudden flash of lightning splits the night. A light so blinding even those crammed in the cells below deck see it, like an unholy sun that fills every crevice of the ship with light and then is followed by a sharp unnatural and disorienting boom. Just as sudden as it came, the light flees, leaving those aboard bathed in darkness, their ears ringing angrily in their heads.
Angry clouds swirl overhead contorting into an impossible spiral and the sky opens sending torrents of rain upon the ship. Violent gails push the ship into a spin pulling sailors from their posts and tossing them into the waves. Another crack of unnatural lightning cuts through the sky and strikes the ship, tearing the mast in half and setting the sails ablaze. The whole body of the ship creaks and moans as it strains against the crashing water threatening to give way.
For the briefest of moments a sense of relief passes through you as the worst of it seems to pass. A collective sigh from those aboard is cut short as sharp snaps begin to echo inside the hull of the ship. Boards over stressed by the storm finally give way as squall once again begins its assault. Pieces of the deck break off and fall into the sea, filling the belly of the vessel with freezing water. Those that are brave enough to look witness nature’s wrath given a form, a massive whirling wall of raging waves and lightning cracking overhead as though ancient and long forgotten gods are at war.
The sound is a near deafening roar interspersed with a menacing crackle. With one final groan the force of the vortex finally finishes the job and pulls the ship apart, sucking whoever was unfortunate enough to get caught into its core. The torrent seems to swell as it approaches, pulling more and more of the ship into it until all are swallowed in its tumultuous waves. The sea closes around you like the lid of a coffin and all is suddenly silent and black.
In the aftermath of the event the few people that counted themselves as survivors collected on whatever debris they could, holding on for their lives. A fortunate few gathered on a sizable piece of wreckage and floated on calmed seas. After a time, the survivors began to swap stories.
One person claimed to be the first to regain consciousness and professed that even after several hours of pulling survivors from the waves they had not come across a single dead body. It was almost as if the dead simply vanished or were claimed by whatever beasts lived below the depths.
Some swore they saw a woman, draped in tattered linens dancing along the waves as the monstrous hurricane destroyed the ship. Others claimed to have seen the night sky turn to morning moments before they blacked out. Stories continued to be swapped among the survivors. Stories were told of how they came to get here or what they planned to do now. In the distance an island had come over the horizon and the buoyant wreckage the survivors were clinging to seemed to be leading them towards it.