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Journal Entry 1

This is all Captain Stark's fault.

For the first time since I joined his airship crew, we were on an adventure! After years of drudgery, hauling cargo back and forth to the same places, I was finally involved in something exciting. I had imagined flying on an airship would always be that way, but they are expensive vessels. Only the rich can afford to fly them purely for pleasure. People like the captain and myself have to work so hard we can barely enjoy it - but even he answered the call to service. Even he couldn't resist the thought of seeing an Old God with his own eyes.

So we set off, our cargo hold stuffed with food, arms, and many items uniquely suited to this once in a lifetime mission. I thought I was ready to face whatever dangers came our way, overcome all odds, and enter the pantheon of Gaian heroes. I never expected that the most dangerous enemy I would face would be my own Captain.

We all knew Captain Stark was a little...eccentric. He was prone to babbling incoherent nonsense from time to time, or swearing he saw things that weren't there. It was harmless enough, something to joke about in the galley maybe, certainly nothing of serious concern. He had gotten us through trip after trip, through high winds, lightening storms, and even a pirate attack. I thought he was as sound a man as could be.

Maybe it was the stress. There were reports of vampires taking down ships, killing entire crews. Very shortly into the journey we began to see wrecks smoldering in the forest below. Food supplies were always in danger of dwindling away. We were all accustomed to journeys that lasted a week at the most, and always through populated areas where food and supplies were never far away. Now here we were, off into the unknown. For the crew it was exciting, but for the Captain, the one who held himself responsible for our safety, the ship, and the success of the mission, perhaps it was too much.

I heard it from the crew before I heard it from Stark himself. Apparently, he was convinced that I had become a zombie. How he came to this conclusion is beyond me, but this is the same man who swore that the marmalade was out to get him, and tossed it overboard in a fit of paranoia. Again, we were used to this sort of thing from him. I just chalked it up to more of the same, and moved on.

Until he tried to smother me with a pillow in the middle of the night.

He was serious! The fact that he came after a Dark Elf at night goes to show he had taken complete leave of his senses. There is no time that I am more alert than in the middle of the night, and he knew this, but attacked me anyway. I fought him off, but he was determined. He wouldn't listen to a word I said. We battled our way out onto the deck, and the man on watch duty sounded the alarm to wake the other crew members - to help me I assumed, because I had my hands full. Captain Stark was not a small man, and while that would have made little difference if I'd been trying to kill him, it made subduing him nearly impossible for me alone.

We grappled and he forced me backwards against the railing of the ship. I remember feeling myself beginning to bend backward, out over the abyss, straining against the captain's formidable strength. I locked eyes with him, pleading one last time for him to listen to reason, and saw his face twisted with demented rage. He couldn't hear me. There was only one thing to do.

I threw him overboard. I can still hear his scream echoing into the night sky as he disappeared from view.

By this time the entire crew had gathered, and they had all witnessed the gruesome end of the fight. I was sick about what I had done, but it was out of desperation alone. I thought that they would understand, but perhaps the trip had worn down their senses as well. The newly appointed Captain Jacobs used his first official order to have me thrown in the gallows as a mutinous murderer. How's that for sympathy? They dropped me off to be imprisoned at a small fort in the forest, and we parted ways without so much as a goodbye.

The guards at the fort were even less inclined to listen to my story than my former friends had been. They locked me up and made it very clear that my days were likely to end before a firing squad. They stripped away everything I had, dressed me in prison stripes and left me shackled like some kind of monster. At this point, I was resigned to my fate. For the first time in a long time I thought back to my childhood. My grandmother used to tell stories of Dark Elves using magic, performing incredible feats. Maybe there was some truth to it. Maybe if I concentrated hard enough...yeah, right. Even if there is something to it, what claim would someone like me have to it? I'd left home to fly on airships. I don't remember the last time I even visited...

Unsurprisingly, my thoughts at the time were just as depressing. I had many regrets in my life, for sure, but I had always thought in the back of my mind that my life would change for the better. I'd go on adventures, find treasures, and return home with exciting stories and gifts for everyone. Instead I was going to die a criminal. What a way for it all to end.

That night, an airship crashed into the fort. I don't know all the details. I just remember being flung from my cot by an incredible force, and looking up to see the entire wall of my cell was demolished. There was nothing between me and escape into the forest - and I wasn't the only detainee with that idea. They were all rushing off into the night as fast as they could go with a ball and chain shackled to their legs. When I'd shaken off my shock, I ran along with them, never stopping to look back at the flaming wreckage. In fact I didn't stop until I couldn't hear the alarms blaring, or the shouting of the guards giving chase, or the constant cracking and rustling of other escapees rushing through the trees nearby. No, I didn't stop until I was sure I'd gotten away.

I couldn't believe it. I'd escaped! Sure, they'll come looking for me, but I have the advantage of being a dark elf in the woods at night. Though it won't mean much until I'm able to get these shackles off...