Chapter One Hundred ay-One - Casting a Shadow Over Insmouth

  Insmouth, from above, didn’t look like much.

  If Needleford was a small city, then Insmouth couldn’t be much more than a rge vilge. It sprawled out a bit, most of the homes and buildings ling around the end of a bay, with docks running out over the water.

  The docks seemed too small to deserve the name ‘port.’ The biggest ship moored there was a small caravel. Mostly, it was fishing boats that were bobbing away in the clear waters.

  “Foresails stowed!” I called. Clive, standio me by the wheel, nodded.

  The crew pulled in the foresails, vas snapped, and with a slight lurch the Beaver Cleaver started to slow down.

  “Grav to half!” I said.

  Clive unlocked the lever trolling the gravity engine and dragged it gently down to the halfway mark before log it once more. We started to dip soon after.

  I eyed the vilge in the distand bit the tip of my tongue as I trated. I didn’t want us to overshoot it. Or crash into it for that matter. “Engines, ter-rotate. Quarter-speed.”

  Clive pulled the appropriate levers and soon the big propeller behiarted to spin in the opposite dire as before. I had to cmp onto my hat with my ears as wind bsted past me from behind. I ughed and spun the wheel a bit. With the prop spinning ter to its usual motion the wheel would o be turned in the opposite dire as usual. It was a bit hard to keep track of.

  “Captain!” Steve called from his positioo the figurehead. He was tugging up a coil of rope. “We’re a quarter league up!”

  I hen worked really hard to vert that to metric. That was... pretty high up, but not that high for an airship. We were also still dropping a little, even if it felt like the drop was slowing down. I certainly felt heavier as the Beaver moved down slower.

  “Clive, set grav up a notch,” I said.

  “Aye.”

  I turhe wheel a little more, adjusting course not for Insmouth or its docks, but for ay field right o the vilge’s wall. I hoped whomever the field beloo didn’t mind us stopping above it.

  When we had slowed down to a crawl I had Clive set the eo ral and we coasted in over Insmouth, the tops of the tallest houses only a dozeers below. I could see people staring up, some of them pointing, others running towards us.

  I imagihat the local kids didn’t see ships as cool as the Beaver every day.

  “Should we deploy more sail to stop?” I asked Clive.

  The old harpy looked about, then raised an arm so that his feathers caught in the wind. “No, there’s a light crosswind from the south. Best to face away from it and push bato it.”

  I nodded and spun the wheel around. “Quarter astern, Clive.”

  Soon enough we were... more or less over the field I was aiming for. I was happy that I didn’t tell ahat I was aiming for the field, or else that would have been embarrassing. “Anchors down!” Clive called. He turowards me. “Now, usually this is when you’d turn off the grav geor and allow the ship to float down on its balloon alone. But we’re not over a proper dock.”

  “ the eay on forever?” I asked.

  “On a low idle? It run for plenty long. We ought to keep it going in case we o leave in a hurry.”

  I hat was really clever. Insmouth looked like a own, and I bet that they never kidnapped anyone, but it was best to stay safe. Maybe we’d notice Golden Roger’s ship over the horizon one day and we’d o bolt. “Are you staying aboard?” I asked.

  “My days of being part of an aarty are long behind me, Captain,” Clive said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll make sure everything is settled, then I’ll find a er to rest in while you iate for supplies.”

  I gave him a thumbs-up. “Sure thing.”

  When I came down the quarterdeck I found Awen shrugging on a backpack while Amaryllis tugged on her leather coat. “Should we lower the dder right away?” Amaryllis asked.

  “You’re both ing down too?” I asked.

  “I o be there to iate. You’d see one orphan kid and give away the ship. And Awen here knows what the engine room needs most,” Amaryllis said.

  Bastion moved over to us, looking really cool in his armour and with his sword sheathed by his side. “May I e as well? I would feel rather poor if one of you was injured while I stayed aboard.”

  I nodded. More people was more fun as far as I was ed. “Should we get the Scallywags to e too?”

  Amaryllis shook her head. “We’ll head out first. Make sure things are safe. Those three aren’t fit fhting. If they want to stay here after all, that’s on them.”

  I rubbed my , but there wasn’t much I could say against that. “Fine! We’ll make sure it’s a nice safe pce, then I guess we give everyone a day of shore leave.”

  “As long as we get what we need,” Amaryllis said. “Food, more water. A few odds and ends. Awen has a list that’s a little more important.”

  “Ah, yes,” Awen said. “We’re down to half a bunker of fuel. It’s enough to get to the Grey Wall, I think, but not to our destination. So we should refuel here if we . And I need some things. Oil, some things to tinker with. Things like that.”

  “Let’s see what we find then,” I said. A gnce over the side showed a small group gathering not too far from the Beaver. From up in the air I could make out a couple of guys with spears, but for the most part they just looked like normal vilgers.

  We dropped the dder and Bastion started down first while I ran off to grab my gear. I wouldn’t be caught without any equipment in a spot of trouble a sed time.

  I came down st, nding with a heavy ‘omph’ o Awen. “Ladder up!” I called to the Beaver. Steve’s head poked over the edge, and soon the dder was rolling ba pce.

  “Alright Broccoli,” Amaryllis said. “Go be yourself at them.”

  I snorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  The harpy gestured to the vilgers. “Go be a clumsy idiot. That way they’ll assume that we’re harmless.”

  “Mean,” I said before making sure that my outfit was nid proper. I had all of my armour on of course, and my ade. I probably cut a very fearsome figure as I flounced over to the vilgers.

  Ohing stuck out to me right away about the group. They all had very wide, wet eyes, and their skin looked a bit blue-ish. That’s when I noticed the gills around their throats and the ck of hair on a lot of them. They had little fins though, and some of the older ones had human ears and hair.

  From the air I’d assumed that they were human, what with the two legs and arms, but I had been way off. “Hello!” I greeted them as I stopped a few meters away. “My name’s Broccoli. Broccoli Bunch, captain of the Beaver Cleaver. Do you have a leader? A mayor?”

  One of the fishpeople stepped up and bowed a little while removing the formless fisherman’s cap that sat on his bald head. “Greeting captain. I’m Hohilppers. There’s no mayor in Insmouth, but I know everyone who’s anyone here. If you need anything I’m always willing to help a stranger.”

  I grinned aended a hand. The other fishfolk seemed a little nervous, but the spears were lowered and they seemed to be ing around to the idea that there wouldn’t be any fighting.

  I shook Howard’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” I said. “We didn’t really io stop here, but I’m gd we did, you seem to have a very cute vilge.”

  “Why thank you,” Howard said. “Insmouth has been a kind pce to us all. We don’t ofte guests, but I’m sure we brush off the old hospitality and make sure you and your lot are fortable. Are you traders?”

  “Us? No, we’re explorers! On our way to Sylphfree. We wao circle around the Tres, but we may have circled too far down.”

  “Explorers, huh?” Howard said. He blinked his big eyes. “That’s mighty iing. Do you do dungeons? Fight monsters?”

  “Yup! We go on adventures.”

  Howard nodded. “Well, if you io stay around the town for any amount of time, we might have something that you could help us with. I think that would make the lot of us a lot more weling than before.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “What’s that? Have you been having trouble?”

  “A little,” Howard said. “But I ought not talk about it so openly. I’ll speak to a few townsfolk, see if there’s any i in hiring some tough young folk to help.”

  I shrugged. It wouldn’t do not to at least see if we could help. “Sure. We should be around for a little over a day. We need a few essentials.”

  Howard smiled, seeming pretty pleased with that. “I work over at the Inn. You ’t miss it. I’ll ask around right away, so if you e over ter I’ll have an answer for you.”

  “Brilliant!” I said. “And it’s okay that we shop here?”

  Howard nodded. “Sure thing. Gold spends as well here as anywhere else. We might o weigh your s though, we’re not part of any fancy-big govers you know?”

  “That’s fair,” I said. “So, is everyone here a fish... person? Ah, I don’t know the name of your race, I’m sorry!”

  Hhed. “No need for that. We don’t rightly have a name for what we are. Just normal folk. The local dungeon’s pretty easy, and if you do things right by it, you bee like us. My family’s been here for five geions now, and we all end up looking like this.”

  “That’s !” I said. “I guess I’ll give the town a tour while we grab some supplies.”

  “Sure thing, Captain. If you run into any trouble, you just ask me and I’ll help you as much as I . Oh, but word of cautio back to your ship before the fog sets in. It’s safer that way.”

  “The fog’s dangerous, got it,” I said. I waved to Howard and ran back over to my friends. “They seem nice,” I announced.

  “Strange looking folk,” Amaryllis said. “They might be bigger bumpkins than you.”

  “That’s a rather on thing with towns like this,” Bastion said.

  “What is?” I asked.

  “The town’s detached and separate from the rest of the world. So they develop their own little ideas and culture. These folk look like they might have been humans, or maybe their aors were. Now they’re not just separate from the rest of the world on at of their ideas and culture, but physically too.”

  “They don’t seem mean,” I said.

  Bastion shook his head. “I don’t doubt that they’re just as kind as anyone else. That might be the problem.”

  That was a weird way of thinking. “Whelp, they’re heading ba,” I said as I noticed the group dispersing. A few still looked up at the Beaver but it was with i, not maliciousness. “We should see about getting our supplies too. Oh, and we o stay out of the fog. It’s dangerous.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Amaryllis said.

  ***

  AnnouHey everyone,I’m sorry for this, but I finally have some time and I thought I might as well use it. If this es off as a bit ramble-y, I get wordy when I’m a little stressed.

  I guess I start at the beginning?

  2019 was a rough year. My traded where I worked, and I inteo take a couple of months off to mess around before I started job hunting in ear. You know, time to chill and write a little, and maybe catch up on some games and stuff.

  Then my mother had a heart attack, and my father started behaviically. My mom got better. A pair of quick operations and even though there were some plications, she’s really tough. Plus I was at home, so I could look out for her while dipping into my savings a little.

  My dad tio behave a bit strangely, but I figured it was just stress. There was a lot of that going around.

  Then my dad got worse. If you take ohing away from this, let it be that you should alay attention to the way your loved ones act. He had sudden surges of anger, bits of dizziness. Sometimes I thought he was drunk, but he didn’t drink anything. It wasn’t all bad, some of it was subtle. I ended up dragging him to the hospital one night whearted shaking and wasn’t able to trol it.

  As it turns out, he has gliobstoma, a nasty (though there isn’t any that isn’t nasty) form of brain cer.

  More operations, more time spent running around. Chemo and treatments and daily trips to hospitals hours away.

  I got a lot of writing done in waiting rooms. It’s always been a great distra, and the few hundred I made via patreon at the time was some of the only ine I had.

  Anyway, 2020 was... 2020. Great for my writing because I stayed at home most of the time, and as my mom recuperated and my dad’s dition ged, I didn’t have much of a choice but to stay close. You ’t imagine how blessed I am to be able to write for a living now, it means that my work was never more than a room away.

  Things have been good in 2021 though. Genuinely alright. My mother returo work te st year, removing some of the pressure, and things have bee stable.

  I wish things could stay this way, but, well.

  Last week--the week before?--my dad had a small stroke and it lost him his trol over his left side. We had to help him go to the washroom and up and all that, but that wasn’t ued. It started taking a toll, especially as his dition got a bit worse every day.

  Last friday we had to send him to a palliative care tre. Both my mom and I injured our backs trying to lift my dad wrong, and... we just ’t take care of him on our own. We don’t knoe don’t have the equipment, we don’t have the ability.

  We really wanted him to be home in the end, it’s what he wanted, but yeah.

  So, I’m basically spending a lot of time away from home again. The tre’s about half an hour away, and because of Covid restris, we ’t bring anything but ourselves into his room. No writing from a bedside this time.

  I know this has been a bit rant-y, and I’m sorry. I used to make a point of keeping people informed about stuff with my ANs but at some point I just stopped. I never really had good o give and I don’t want to spread that kind of thing around.

  Anyway.

  Chapters will be deyed. I’ll try to make one post a week or so. I’m sorry.

  I’ll try to keep everyone posted, but I don’t think the rest of April will be very productive.

  So yeah, thanks for listening to my rant, and thanks for reading my stories. Your ents and such have been really nients for me every time I see them.

  I’ll be back!

  Keep warm,

  Raven