• Chapter 7: Journey to Emerald Kavala Shipyard

    The four heroes soon emerged from the Temple of Demeter to meet a cheering crowd.
    “Thank you, everyone,” said Duke Urbanis. “You have restored our sacred temple. It means much to the people.”
    “You know we had to do it, father,” said Rouvin.
    “But now we need to head off to the islands,” said Valerius. “We have heard from Demeter herself that Erebus is going there to find the items needed for the Forbidden Ritual.”
    The people hushed in fear when Valerius spoke of the Forbidden Ritual.
    Silvanos then spoke, “I myself know of these items. And as you mentioned, most of them are out in the sea, though one of them is on the mainland.
    “The items he needs for this foul rite are an Indigo Crystal, the Crown of the Tyrant, a Glowing Lodestone, a Blue Crystal Dragon Heart, a Black Steel Dagger, and the blood of a pure-hearted healing woman.”
    The last part, “the blood of a pure-hearted healing woman”, filled Valerius with fear—this meant that Delphinia is in grave danger.
    “We must now double our efforts more than ever!” Valerius said.
    Nauplius understood his fear.
    “I recall there is a port somewhere nearby,” said the Dwarf.
    “Yes,” answered Rouvin. “Emerald Kavala Port is a fair distance from here.”
    “I will let the people in charge of the harbor know you are coming,” said Urbanis. “The gods protect you always.”
    The crowd then gave their well-wishes as the four left Emerald Kavala City.

    Rouvin then led the party on the trails that provided the most direct route to Emerald Kavala Port. Even then, it was still a few hours. The travel took even longer due to the fact that some Dark Dryads—the results of Erebus’ magic—emerged to attack. These Dark Dryads were beautiful tree women like their light counterparts, but their corrupted nature made them dangerous enemies, as they threw at them leaves that were sharp as knives, acorns that exploded and gave off noxious clouds of smoke, or sometimes had sharpened branches with which they attempted to impale the heroes.
    Fortunately, there were Dryads that were not polluted by the warlock’s evil. Some of them emerged to stop the Dark Dryads.
    “We’ll take care of these troublemakers,” said one of the Dryads. “You just keep on going.”
    “Thank you, friends,” said Zanthe. She then said to the boys, “You heard her—they’ll be fine.” She wanted to avoid saying “okay”, for fear it would be turned into a foolish pun involving the oak trees.
    Halfway through the trek to the port, however, a new threat in the form of a Shale Golem emerged. Since shale was a stone made from hardened mud, this stone man would conjure up fists of earth to try to punch them from below. Other times, hands made of mud would grab their legs, so the golem could try to crush the captured with its own fists.
    But when Valerius was grabbed by one mud hand, he used his plasma saber to destroy it—being careful not to injure himself. After dodging a punch, he then slashed the golem’s arm—its left arm in this case.
    Rouvin soon began shooting arrows at the stone giant. Though doing so did little damage overall, it did disorient the beast—long enough for Nauplius to swing his battle hammer at its left leg, crippling it.
    Zanthe then stepped forward and cast a rain spell. It was not a serious tempest, but was enough to make the monster wet. And the water had some extra magic to make the shale soften.
    The rain soon stopped.
    “Strike now, Nauplius!” said Zanthe.
    “Right!” replied the Dwarf. And with a mighty swing of his hammer, he smashed the golem large pieces of shale.
    “This would make great building materials for some furniture,” said Nauplius with a chuckle.
    Everyone else seemed to laugh with him.
    Soon, after a bit of a breather, the party continued on. Soon, Emerald Kavala Port came into view.

    When they arrived at Emerald Kavala Port, the four were shocked to see all the ships there scuttled.
    “What happened here?” Valerius said in shock.
    The owner of the harbor emerged, saddened.
    “That jerk,” the harbor owner began. “Erebus, that jerk, used a strong storm spell to scuttle our ships earlier!”
    “I didn’t notice any storms,” said Nauplius.
    “The storms might have happened while were cleaning up the Temple of Demeter,” replied Zanthe.
    “Erebus probably knew we were after him, so he destroyed the ships to slow us down,” Rouvin suggested.
    “Allow me to provide a way,” giggled Zanthe. She then pointed her staff out toward the sea, and said a chant in koine Greek.
    The waters swirled strongly, and a ship, freshly repaired, emerged from the depths. Some mermaids were singing as they seemingly “escorted the ship to the heroes.”
    One such mermaid said, “Here’s a ship for you to go on your journey.”
    “Thank you,” said Zanthe. “Give Poseidon our thanks, please.”
    “Sure thing!” the mermaid giggled as she and her other mermaid friends dove back into the depths.

    The docking board soon lowered, and the party got on.
    “I think it’s time to sail off!” said Valerius.
    The sails soon lowered, and a good wind drifted them off towards the sea.
    “Safe journey, friends,” said the harbor owner as he waved farewell.
    Valerius stood at the bow of the ship, looking afar. The sun was starting to set that day.
    “Hmm,” said Valerius. “We should have a safe sailing. I don’t think we’ll land till the morning, so we can let the ship sail the night—I doubt we’ll drift off course as we sleep.”
    Soon, he heard Rouvin moaning. His normally Navajo white skin started to look slightly greenish.
    “Rouvin,” said Zanthe, “I didn’t know you got seasick.”
    “Yeah,” moaned Rouvin. “I… urp… hardly leave the land. Most of the time, I… ugh… go to the port to welcome coming ships and… urp… fish off the pier. But I seldom go sailing myself.”
    “Here, let’s get you below deck,” said Zanthe. “I’ll prepare a seasick remedy for you.”
    Rouvin and Zanthe soon went below deck, where some state-of-the-art equipment was kept. Zanthe prepared a special ginger tea with other ingredients.
    “Thank you,” Rouvin whispered as he took the tea. After a few minutes, Rouvin got his sea legs, and then both returned to the ship.
    A beautiful starry night welcomed the two elves as their two partners looked afar.
    “How about we dance a jig a bit?” offered Nauplius. He got out a harmonica and started playing a Dwarven dancing song. Rouvin and Zanthe danced a bit, and Valerius clapped his hands to help them keep tempo.
    The night soon wore on, and the party went to their hammocks to sleep. But Valerius’ sleep was a rather shaky one, as he feared for Delphinia’s life.