61 - The Arrival
Night had fallen by the time they’d reached Vanhoover.
That couldn’t be helped, since it had been midmorning when they’d left Tall Tale, but Lex still regarded the timing of their arrival as an error in judgment on his part. He’d assumed – foolishly, he realized now – that the two dozen or so miles separating the two cities could be nautically traversed in two or three hours. He had been quite chagrined when, speaking to some of the sailors after they’d cast off, he’d been told that it would actually take eleven to twelve hours to arrive.
Lex had briefly considered ordering them to drop anchor and wait, so that they could arrive in the city by daylight, but had decided not to bother. Even if they arrived at night, they’d be able to start unloading the ship and setting up a station from which to begin the relief efforts when the sun rose. That way they’d at least refrain from wasting any more time.
To his surprise, Nosey hadn’t bothered him once during the trip. Instead, she seemed to be interviewing everypony but him. It had been enough to make him suspicious, but he hadn’t wanted to press his good fortune, and so had left her alone in return. Unfortunately, that hadn’t meant that the trip was free of things that had tried his patience.
Specifically, Sonata had spent her free time perusing the ship and generally making a nuisance of herself, or at least that was how Lex would have characterized it. The sailors and passengers, on the other hand, were apparently quite entertained by her antics. First she had oohed and aahed over the various workings of the ship, quite taken with the minutiae of such a large sailing vessel. The crew had seemed to regard her interest with paternalistic amusement, taking the time to tell her what was what.
Then she had overheard some of the crew singing while they worked, and had launched into a musical performance of her own. That had turned into quite the spectacle, as her voice had served to draw more than a few of the passengers above-deck to enjoy her impromptu show. This, in turn, had served to encourage Sonata to launch a full-on one-mare concert, and she had proceeded to sing and dance for quite some time, often with the crowd joining in. It had been, by any measure, an excellent start to their voyage.
Lex, naturally enough, had hated it.
As much as he loved Sonata, particularly the melodious sound of her voice, being stuck in a crowd had strained his ability to mentally review his plans for what to do upon arriving in Vanhoover. He also suspected that more than a few of the stallions in the crowd were enjoying more than just Sonata’s singing, since her dancing tended to involve a lot of shaking and swaying that was, to Lex’s eyes, rather sensuous. However, he couldn’t end her show due to a fit of jealousy; that would only have made him seem petty, and most likely would have upset her to boot.
Instead, he’d simply retreated below deck, taking what refuge he could in the bowels of the ship. With little else to do, he’d settled for reviewing his plans once again and using Severance to prepare spells that seemed likely to be useful upon their arrival. That had eaten up several hours’ worth of time, during which Sonata’s performance had finally come to an end. Lex had emerged from his self-imposed seclusion at that time, and after soothing Sonata’s feelings about why he hadn’t watched her perform, he’d gone back to enjoying a relatively quiet journey.
Now, the trip was approaching its end. Vanhoover had come into sight just as the sun had been setting, and over the last few hours had grown closer even as it had gotten darker. They would be there very soon, now. Except…Lex frowned as he peered at the city, visible in the last vestiges of twilight, the sun having just recently sunk below the horizon.
Something was wrong.
“That’s not a good sign,” came a voice from his left, causing Lex to look over. Standing nearby was the ship’s captain, an earth pony mare with a long white mane, contrasting gently against her green coat. On her flank was a cutie mark depicting a sailing ship resting atop a cresting wave.
“Captain Shells,” acknowledged Lex. He’d met her briefly when he’d repaired the ship, back in Tall Tale’s dry dock. She had been grateful enough for what he’d done that she’d waived her usual fee for transporting them to Vanhoover, since his magic had saved her the money she’d have spent fixing it anyway.
“Just call me C. Shells,” she replied with a nod. “I never saw much point in ranks and titles for a ship’s crew. Everypony has to work together to sail it, after all.” She didn’t notice Lex’s frown of disapproval, looking back towards Vanhoover. “You noticed it too, huh?”
“Yes,” said Lex grimly, likewise returning his gaze to the city. Or rather, what he could see of the city.
Vanhoover was one of the largest towns on the western coast. It was home to tens of thousands of ponies, and was a major hub of nautical activity. Even with all of the damage that a large-scale flood had undoubtedly wrought, and that there had surely been large numbers of ponies that had abandoned the city in the wake of the disaster, there should still have been a sizable presence in the city. Enough so that the city should have been lit up brightly now that night had fallen.
But looking at Vanhoover now, only a scattering of lights were visible, spread thinly across the cityscape. Rather than pushing back the darkness, they seemed only to enhance the feeling of isolation, as though the few ponies who’d lit their lamps were huddled in small enclaves rather than being part of a larger shared environment.
“Drop anchor!” bellowed C. Shells, snapping Lex out of his thoughts. He was about to ask her why she was stopping when they’d barely entered the bay, only for her reasoning to immediately make itself obvious: none of the city’s few lights were at the harbor. Which in turn meant that she was going to need to stop the ship until a crew could go ashore and illuminate the docks.
She had just opened her mouth again when Lex cut her off. “I’ll take care of the lights.”
“Huh?” she started, clearly caught off-guard by his suddenly preempting her. Trying to adjust to the sudden announcement, she fumbled for a response. “I was going to send a few pegasi in with lanterns.”
“Don’t bother,” Lex had already started walking towards the rear of the ship. He’d need to inform Sonata before he left, so as not to worry her. “If law and order has broken down in the city, then it might be dangerous. In that case, it’s better that I go.”
“I should at least-”
“Don’t argue, just do as you’re told,” snapped Lex, not bothering to look at her as he did. Leaving her gaping at his blatant rudeness, he went below deck.
Picking his way between the passengers, he eventually found her sleeping in a hammock, a blanket strewn over her. Or rather, over them; Nosey was asleep next to her, apparently for lack of space elsewhere, and the two were cuddling together as they dozed. In another context it might have looked adorable, but the sight served only to irritate Lex. Bad enough Nosey’s presence had prevented him from being intimate with his girlfriend for days on end, now she was taking his place altogether!
“Sonata,” he whispered, shaking her lightly. His attempt at waking her had no effect save for gently rocking the hammock. Gritting his teeth, he considered just overturning it completely and dumping them on the floor, but then he likely would have had to talk to Nosey again, and that was something to be avoided if at all possible.
“Sonata!” This time his voice was more of a hiss, managing to earn an inquisitive grunt from her as she cracked her eyes open.
“We’re here. I’m going to go ashore and guide the boat in.”
“Mm…’kay,” she replied blearily, closing her eyes again. “Love you.”
They’d been saying those words to each other quite often lately, but hearing them from her still made Lex’s heart jump, dispelling his previous irritation. Instead, a small smile crossed his lips, and he leaned down to kiss her cheek softly. “I love you too.”
She didn’t respond, already asleep again, and he headed back above deck. At the ship’s prow, C. Shells had gathered a few lanterns together, and she gestured at them as she spotted him. “There should be lights at the docks already, but you should take these in case something’s happened to them. Place them so that they follow the general outline of the docks, and we should be able to guide the ship in. We’ve got a lifeboat ready-”
“I don’t need a lifeboat, nor lanterns,” interrupted Lex. “My magic is more than capable of handling such mundane concerns.”
C. Shells rolled her eyes. “Right, sorry. You go ahead. I’ll handle the rest of the ‘mundane concerns,’” she said, not hiding her disgust at his attitude.
Lex didn’t notice, moving towards the side of the ship. Without breaking his stride, he stepped off the edge of it, turning into shadows as he did. No longer bound by gravity, and with his vision enhanced in this form, he flew silently over the waves.
It took a little over a minute to reach the shore, and Lex paused to survey his surroundings as he finally entered Vanhoover proper. The results were disturbing. No matter how he further enhanced his senses, the docks were deserted, and apparently had been for some time. Garbage was everywhere, and he could see vermin running about with impunity. Windows on nearby warehouses were broken, and more than a few doors were broken, hanging from their hinges loosely or simply knocked in altogether.
It was as bad as he’d feared, and could still be much worse. Grimly, Lex invoked one of the simplest spells he knew, creating a quartet of free-floating lights, each the size of a torch. Setting them to hovering over one of the docks, he returned his attention to the buildings along the wharf.
Deciding that it would be wise to check the surrounding area before the ship arrived, Lex flitted towards the nearest warehouse, his insubstantial body passing through the walls without resistance. But the inside was just as barren, consisting of little more than overturned shelves with their contents strewn about, presumably by the flood. Judging by the amount of insects flitting about, Lex was glad that his current form didn’t have a sense of smell.
Widening the area of his search, Lex moved through a second warehouse that was no better than the first. Neither was a third. But it was the interior of the fourth warehouse, one whose door had been smashed in, that made Lex stop and stare at what he found, knowing that if he’d been corporeal at that moment, a shudder would have been working its way down his spine.
There were bloodstains on the floor.
Not just droplets or streaks, but massive patches that could only have come from multiple individuals. Worse, they broke off into trails that led further into the warehouse, which together with the broken door suggested that some sort of horrific battle had taken place here, rather than any sort of accident.
Lex eyed the scene for long moments. The stains were clearly dried, having no flies or rodents near them. Whatever carnage had happened here had obviously been some time ago. But it was just as obvious that this had happened after the flooding, otherwise the stains wouldn’t be there at all, or at least not so concentrated.
What had happened here? No matter how badly order had broken down, Lex couldn’t imagine that things would ever have degenerated to this level of violence. But the evidence was quite clear that violence had occurred. Worse, he had no spells that would let him peer into the past. The only way to learn more would be to investigate directly.
Steeling himself with the knowledge that he had faced more than his share of horrors, Lex ventured further into the warehouse, several attack spells at the ready. A murmur was all it took to bring Severance out as well, floating alongside him at the ready. But although he slowly drifted through the corridors, and found more evidence of bloodshed, along with what looked like discarded makeshift weapons, there were no further clues about who had been fighting or why. In fact, he realized uneasily, there weren’t even bodies to be found, despite the fact that the copious amounts of blood must have resulted in some fatalities.
This changes things, he realized as he moved back towards the entrance. We’ll need to wait until daylight before doing anything else. There was no way he was bringing the ponies from Tall Tale ashore now, not until the sun was up and he could make a better sweep of the surrounding area. Although this made Vanhoover’s need for help direr, Lex had no intention of putting anypony at risk in the process.
But as he exited the warehouse, Lex could see a small lifeboat berthing alongside the lights he’d set, two earth pony stallions jumping out of it as a pegasus fluttered down beside them. Lex cursed as he returned to corporeal form, running over to them. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
The trio looked up at him, surprised, though he couldn’t tell if it was from his sudden appearance, the sight of his scythe floating at his side, or his words. They glanced at each other for a moment before looking back to him. “We’re coming ashore. C. Shells said to start bringing the ship in, and that’s what we’re doing,” replied one of the earth ponies, pointing to a rope that was tied to the back of their lifeboat, which stretched back into the water, its other end obviously attached to the ship.
“Turn around and get back to the ship right now!” ordered Lex.
“But-”
“No buts! This place isn’t safe! Go back to the ship right now and tell the captain that we’re going to remain in the bay until daybreak!” The three sailors exchanged bewildered looks at the new orders, but nodded, the pegasus flying off as the two earth ponies started to climb back into their boat. Lex turned his back to them as they did, sweeping his gaze across the wharf, as though whatever had been in that warehouse would suddenly come charging out of the shadows.
He should have been watching the water.
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I'm gonna sing the doom song now.
Were gonna need a bigger frying pan.
Huh, I wonder what kind of monster it is. Water... My first two guesses would be monsterous crabs or drowned maidens (or regular drowned, but this is PF and not 3.5).
The scenario in itself kinda screams "Meenlock", but again, it's Pathfinder, and Vanhoover wouldn't be standing at all if that were to be the case. Especially in a sandbox scenario, that would escalate incredibly quickly.
An Incutilis Lord could be the case, but then Lex would probably have seen the black corals...
I'm not sure if it could be a Kelp Devil, because these wouldn't be easily visible.
Maybe it's a Kelpie?
7846378
My guess is water elementals
7846905 Oh... yeah, I totally forgot that elementals were a thing there XD
You are probably right about that, now that I think about it. The natural disasters were called the elemental bleeds (I think) after all...
7846378 Some good guesses there, but I'm not quite willing to show my cards yet as to whether you're right or not.
I should mention that I'm not quite as rigid about maintaining a strict division between what's Pathfinder and what's not for this fic; don't forget that I generated Lex and Sonata's stats using a d20-based sourcebook, after all. While I can understand the mindset of maintaining strict adherence to what's first-party - and, in fact, subscribed to it myself until a few years ago - I (now) find it to be overly restrictive. There are simply too many interesting ideas that can't be adequately expressed that way.
Looks like the situation in Vanhoover was worst than anyone had initially thought. Wonder if this is the work of some creature(s) summoned by the elemental bleeds or, Vanhoover's need for food and supplies have driven it's citizens to desperate tactics to obtain them. The latter would make the few bits of light even more sinister.
Regardless of which, Lex and the ponies aboard the ship are going to have difficult times ahead of them,
7853305 Difficult times indeed. As the story's synopsis says, Vanhoover's problems go far beyond simple disaster-relief.
Found some more, kill them!
They had and reached are both past-tense, you don't need both. I suggest removing the 'had'.
Same here, with 'hadn't meant'. I suggest 'didn't mean'.
You don't need this comma.
I read this with 'spells that seemed likely to be useful'.
Okay, let put it this way. Even if 'direr' is a word, it is very weird seeing it, much less pronouncing it, I suggest saying 'more dire'.
Of course he did. Silly stallion.
Warning, immaturity levels rising..........
He's in a load of shit!
Well, have fun Lex, fight that Kraken!
7857244
Again, there's more than one type of past tense. In this case, both verbs ("fallen" and "reached") are written in past perfect tense. That indicates that they've finished their action before a subsequent action can begin (e.g. night fell, after which they arrived, after which other things would happen).
I know you're down on the same word appearing too many times, and for the most part that's a good guideline to follow, but this falls under the same purview of switching between different past tenses. It isn't enough to indicate that this happened in the past; the tense here needs to indicate that it had happened, but has since ended.
I agree. It's been removed now.
Hm, that does flow better. Changed.
"Direr" is a word - I even checked just to be sure - but you're right that it's rather odd to see. However, that's on purpose. I like to slip in unusual terms when Lex is speaking, or when the narration is framed around his viewpoint. This serves to create a sense of his intelligence, but also his disconnect from the ponies around him. He uses terms, phrases, and words that are a hallmark of how smart he is, but which also highlight his difficulty in communicating meaningfully with the ponies he meets.
You painted a scene of fear and ramped the tension well.
8047228 Thanks! Hopefully the reveal will live up to the tense atmosphere!