On Stranger Tides
Fifteenth Day of Ashinu-ezna (Ashinu Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
At first nothing seemed to happen, the sails pale and bright against the field of shards, the lines dancing in the breeze.... but then slowly as the eyes fixed upon any one thing, be it strand or rope or canvas sail, it seemed to be more and less than it had been. Sails of tattered gossamer woven and strands of rope that seemed covered in slick tar wiggling like worms under the hand.
It'll be gone by morning... one sailor, father of two and soon to be a grandfather, for he had lived a long life and sailed almost all of it, said to himself. He was no stranger to strange happenings upon the waves, but each time his faith had seen him though. And so be prayed to Ikomi and by the light of day all seemed well again, just rope and sail, wood and knot-work. Then a slip, born not of carelessness but age whose due had not been met.
Ropes snapped out like the tendrils of some colossal octopus to grasp him... like in the web of a spider he was snared.
SaFe
It took the old man a long time to stop screaming at the eyes that starred back at him from the knots in the mast, though the healer saw to him as soon a he was set down. He did not emerge for three days... never again did he climb.
***
Climbing through the rigging of a great ship was usually the task of the young and light of foot among the people of the inner seas in one world as much as in the other, so it was the nimble and the bold had been tasked with it even now. Some were bolder than others. The cook noticed one man missing at dinner, then again the next morning.
"Where did you go.... Marco! Marco! Do you hear me?! Please in the name of Christ, do you hear me?!"
The last word awoke something in the man, some recollection of his youth where the greatest transgression one could commit was to be late for a mass. "I'm here..." The voice sounded strange in his own ears.
How long had it been since he had spoken? Did it matter? "The stars are beautiful tonight, they sing to me."
In spite of the fact that he had somehow lost not one day but two climbing the main mast somehow Marco felt no pangs of hunger nor thirst and when asked what he had done up there all he could describe was the beauty of the stars, shinning in colors he had no name for, as many as grains of sand upon the shore.
SoRry Forgive?
Forgiving was the Christian thing to do... and he had truly liked those stars.
***
Osoro was not sure why the outlanders had hired him, maybe they had believed his tale of having sailed in the north before, maybe they had just needed another warm body at the oars, no matter which he needed to get out of the city before the knee-knockers found him, men with hammers, men with ropes, men with strong arms to shatter knees and joints to leave you crippled if you had debts to the wrong clan. He owed a lot of money and he had been at sea before, never so far, never a raider, but he was sure it could not be so hard.
I will find the money, or else I will ask to be left off at another port...
He dreamed of the knee knockers every night, following him in the dark, and then he dreamed of something else following them in the dark, something worse, something that hunted the hunters, something that would do far worse than break their knees. Eyes, eyes in the dark shone, a spiral path twisting forever in their depths.... and then he saw it, saw them, the mark upon the sails.
"There! There! It is looking at us, it is looking at us!"
None of the others could see, none of the others knew it was a monster, they claimed the priestess had done something to the ship, but this was no blessing of the Dark Mother, this was the monster in the dark, the thing that hunted even his worst fears. Osoro had to do something, he had to... He jumped down the sail with the eyes knife in hand.
paIn
***
"Why the devil did the bastard try to tear up perfectly good sails?" Antonio was trying not to shout, alas that trying could very well describe the happenings of the last few days.
"He was having night terrors, the spirit was trying to reassure him that he was safe onboard, but it managed to make him more terrified of it than he was of the men he was fleeing," the sorceress replied. "I did warn you there might be a bit of teething..."
"Hah! The teeth they are in the mouth of a shark," the man snapped. After a moment he added. "She does sail fast though." Awkwardly he patted the wall, trying not to think too hard of how warm and slick it had felt for a moment.
How should rigging duty on the Marcella be handled?
[] Leave it to those few who seem to enjoy contact with the ship
[] Enforce a rotation, watching carefully for odd reactions
OOC: Well the ship is trying to help... or maybe halp would be the better term, but it is very hit and miss and no you cannot ask it to stop as communication is rather rudimentary and the mental effects are linked to the increased speed and material improvements. 
