The Darklord Pan
Ship's Log,
Date – I know not.
Location – Hell.
What did I do to deserve this fate?
What gods have I offended?
The mists grow thick around The Jolly Roger, and I sense that, whatever gods or demons have chosen me for this torment now laugh at my suffering.
Was I too harsh with my crew?
Did I not give the sea the respect she deserves?
At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that HE is damned as well. He can not touch a single sliver of wood from The Jolly Roger without intense agony, even as I can not set foot upon his accursed isle, or even leave my ship.
I am alone.
My crew, dead, butchered by him, and their bodies vanished as the mists enveloped my ship, his island and the sea itself.
I first noticed
Tick Tock.
She is at it again.
The siren.
Not a beautiful maiden with fair skin and perfect proportion, but a hideous parody of a mermaid, bloated, rotting, yet still trying to seduce me with her feminine wiles.
Does the wretched thing even realize that she is dead?
The sea crawls with unearthly abominations, ungodly things that should never have existed in the first place.
Tick Tock.
But I digress.
It began when I took Pan's girl...
Her name escapes me. I had hoped to lure him here to put an end to his unholy existence but he was too cunning. He and his pack of brats boarded The Jolly Roger under cover of darkness. Then Pan struck down my gunner, poor Bill Jukes, with a dagger to the back. A cowardly assassination from a miserable cur.
That was when I first noticed a thick blanket of fog that stretched as far as the eye could see.
We fought, pirates and Lost Boys fell together as the mists grew thicker and thicker.
I slew several of the whelps myself... Lest you judge me too harshly I must...
Tick Tock.
I must explain. They attacked me, I had to defend myself, my crew...
Then Pan himself gave me the courtesy he did not give Mr. Jukes and faced me, blade in hand.
His child's face was taunting and his eyes were colder than those of even the most brutal Sea Wolves or Buccaneers I have ever met.
And he was laughing.
With the blood of my men staining his blade he laughed in my face...
Peter Pan is no child. He is a demon in human form.
I fought the little fiend, fending off his childish yet wicked attacks.
Then I heard the ticking.
Tick Tock.
Tick Tock.
Even as I hear it now.
Even as I have heard it every day since I arrived in this hell.
I know not what happened next.
When I awoke, my crew was gone, the Lost Boys were gone. But the ticking remained.
Tick Tock.
Tick Tock.
I fear I am going mad.
Some time later Pan appeared, demanding to know what I had done to his comrades. The arrogant brat! He murdered my men, good men, and blamed me for his misfortunes! I saw that with him was a fairy, but it was not his Tinkerbell. It was larger, with a wide, Cheshire grin revealing broken, rotten teeth. I have since learned from the fiend itself that it is called a Powrie, the most sadistic and wicked of the Elvish races.
When Pan set foot upon The Jolly Roger he let out a howl as if he had stepped into a blazing inferno. He fled as if Death itself were on his heels, taking his demonic fey with him.
I rejoiced over this turn of events.
Until I tried to pursue the imp.
A terrible fear seized me as I moved to lower the longboat.
For She was waiting.
The crocodile was waiting for me.
Tick Tock.
I am bound to this ship.
Tick Tock.
Tick Tock.
Tick Tock.
Once, a ship appeared from the infernal Mists.
A lovely caravel, the Mercy. Her captain, Ridg Baykur, had his cabin boy stolen away by Pan. I thought him an ally, but I soon learned the awful truth. Captain Baykur and his crew were vampires. Long Tom sent the Mercy and her cursed crew to Davy Jones' Locker.
It was an act of mercy, no pun intended.
I never did find what became of Young Colin. I had hoped that the little beast would slay Pan, but apparently he either failed or Pan slew him first.
I think I might have preferred the vampire to Pan.
Am I already mad?
Dear God! What could I have done to deserve this fate?!
Captain Jas Hook
...
Peter Pan was bored and lonely.
The Lost Boys had vanished. All of the pirates, save Hook himself, were dead or had vanished as mysteriously as The Lost Boys. Even Tinkerbell was gone, replaced by a leering monster that mocked his pain and misery. Lorell was not a companion, but a torturer . . .
This was not Neverland.
Not his Neverland, anyway.
Lorell (had he not lied, he loved to lie) had told him that was where everyone was, (everyone that had survived, as he put it), the other Neverland, the Neverland that he knew. The Lost Boys, Tinkerbell, the Indians, what pirates had survived the attack...
Wendy.
That hurt him most of all. He had wanted Wendy to be with him forever.
She was like a mother to him.
And perhaps something more, with time.
This Neverland was a dark shadow of his happy home.
It was a place of evil.
Everything that had been good was gone, aside from his home, his bed, Neverland was filled with evil
The island still responded to his moods, his desires, but in the wrong way. The things he wanted vanished, and the nightmares came in their places. And there were things, horrible creatures. Rotting mermaids, hideous fish-men with razor sharp claws that attacked anything that came near, twisted spirits of the dark and haunted woods.
He was alone on an island of terror.
And he was trapped.
He could no longer travel to the other world, the human world, to find boys to bring back to Neverland. He could go no further than The Mists that ringed the island.
He couldn't even set foot on The Jolly Roger without terrible pain.
Part of his 'curse', Lorell had said.
A ship had come, once. A caravel.
Mercy.
There had been a boy aboard, Colin. When he'd approached Colin, he had been eager to leave the ship and his cruel captain. He did not, however, inform Peter that he, and indeed the entire crew, were vampires. Strange vampires, too. Colin had sank his fangs, not in Peter's throat, but in the back of his neck. Peter had fought him off, and the mists had taken the young vampire away before he could take his revenge.
He almost wished that Colin had not run away. Even the company of a crazy vampire was better than being so utterly alone.
Why?
Why was he being punished?
Lorell claimed that he had sent the Lost Boys to their deaths against Captain Hook. That he had been wrong to stab Billy Jukes in the back, and that these 'wicked' deeds had attracted the attention of . . . Something.
Something that had chosen to punish him.
But he was Peter Pan!
He was never wrong.
Jukes had been a pirate, he'd deserved to die, so what if he'd stabbed him in the back?! What was he supposed to do, stand in front of Long Tom and challenge the gunner to a fair duel? Like he wouldn't have have hidden in the darkness, waiting for Peter, and drove his dagger in Peter's back...
The Lost Boys.
True, some of them had died on Hook's blade. It was painful to watch, but that was life, and death. So what if he led the attack, did that make him responsible for their deaths?
Hook, not Pan had slain those boys.
He had nothing to repent, nothing to feel guilty for!
Hook.
It should have ended when Hook fell into the jaws of the crocodile. But the next day Hook was alive and everyone else, friend and foe, had vanished.
Since then it had been a ceaseless battle. Peter had killed Hook again, and the next day he had returned, alive and well. Peter had tried to burn The Jolly Roger, but it would not alight. And, then . . .
Old Hook had killed Peter.
Ran him through with a rapier.
He awoke in his bed, alive, physically unharmed, mentally devastated.
He'd nearly gone as mad as Colin, then.
Hook died again.
Peter died again.
An endless cycle. One would die, then return to life to kill the other. There seemed no escape.
It wasn't fair!
If only he had someone to talk to . . . Other boys to play with.
And Lorell...
But no friends.
Not one.
Only Hook.
It was all Hook's fault! And Hook would pay!
He picked up his dagger and balanced it in his hand.
Let's see who dies today . . .
The End.
Notes:
Neverland is most definitely an Island of Terror. Peter Pan is its Darklord (Demilord), while Captain Hook is Darklord (Lord) of The Jolly Roger.
Colin is a pitiful, insane Cerebral Vampire boy. Cerebral Vampires drain cerebral fluids, not blood, from their victims, hence his odd attack on Peter. He has two personalities, one an evil vampire, the other a terrified, abused child existing in fear of his brutal captain Ridg Baykur, who beats him frequently.
Colin, Captain Ridg Baykur and the caravel Mercy appear in the Ravenloft Bleak House adventures.
...
Peter Pan
Demilord of Neverland
Alignment-Chaotic Evil
Class-Druid
Race-Fey-touched Human
Crimes – Murdering Billy Jukes in cold blood. Sacrificing his Lost Boys to gain Wendy for himself. Tormenting the pirates.
Curse – To be alone forever, a child with no one to play with. To be surrounded by evil and undead fey. To remember the happiness of the past. To never set foot upon The Jolly Roger.
...
Captain James Hook
Lord of The Jolly Roger
Alignment-Lawful Evil
Class-Pirate
Race-Human
Crimes – Spending years trying to kill Peter and dragging his crew with him, kidnapping Wendy, killing Lost Boys.
Curse – To be tormented by Peter Pan. To never leave The Jolly Roger. To hear the crocodile's clock every waking moment of his eternal life.
Neither lord can truly die, though they can feel pain. They are doomed to battle forever, to die and die and die again.
...
Lorell
Alignment-Chaotic Evil
Race-Powrie/Shadow Fey
Peter's personal demon, sent by The Dark Powers to mock and torment him.
...
Colin
Class-Apprentice Sailor/Cabin Boy
Alignment/Race-Lawful Neutral Human/Chaotic Evil Cerebral Vampire
Currently in Saulbridge Sanitarium in Mordentshire, undergoing treatment for multiple personality disorder. They still haven't realized he really is a vampire. Further examined in my story The Patient.
...
Billy Jukes
Alignment dependent upon version (Chaotic Good/Chaotic Neutral/Lawful Evil)
Class dependent upon version-Pirate/Gunner/Cabin Boy
Race-Human
Billy has been portrayed as anything from a tattooed thug to a scrawny good-natured teenager. Take your pick...
The first pirate to be killed in the battle, Billy was stabbed in the back by Peter Pan, starting the curse upon his murderer.
...
Lorell is my creation, everything Ravenloft/D&D belongs to TSR and Wizards of The Coast.
I don't know who holds the copyright on Peter Pan, probably Disney.