DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Dawn of Revolution

The Seeker

Four years before the coalition war began...

Alesso Maximus, the respected town judge, knew that this was a risky, foolish, and selfish mission. He didn't care. He had to do it.

"This is the last one," a burly dwarf man grunted as he stepped up the creaky boarding ramp onto Alesso's personal ship, the Seeker. "By the gods, it's heavy."

Alesso scowled. "Don't you dare drop that. And once you're on board, get ready for our journey to begin. We have not a moment to waste."

"Aye aye, captain," the dwarf said half-sarcastically.

Meanwhile, everyone else was finishing up their jobs as well, getting the Seeker ready to sail to the map's frightening edge. Even Alesso, who had spent years and countless coin preparing for this journey, felt his stomach clench with sudden fear. This was really happening. He was going to the boundary of doom, as many Trassian sailors called it, to discover his beloved nephew Lanto's fate.

Alesso turned and gave his hometown, Ragusa, one last look before boarding the Seeker for his personal mission. He was just a few years away from retiring as the town's court judge, but he didn't dare get cozy just yet. The mystery of Lanto's fate ate away at him, compelling him to recruit condemned criminals to serve as his crew and go into debt to challenge the unforgiving sea.

Better get to it.

No one showed up to wish Alesso Maximus and his misfit crew a safe voyage, partly because everyone knew it was a nonsensical quest, and this expedition didn't promise any profit for Ragusa or the Trassus Kingdom at all. This was Alesso's mission. His own obsession. His own unresolved grief.

"At your stations!" Alesso barked as he boarded the Seeker, and the ramp was retracted at once. "Riggers, get the sails ready! Sailing master, you'd better have a course prepared for me! The rest of you, stand by."

"Aye aye, captain," another condemned crewmate, a cheerful half-orc woman, saluted. Despite her brutal past crimes, she had proven the friendliest and most reliable crewmate for this dark mission. She even dressed for the part with a red bandanna, a sleeveless white shirt, brown pants with a buckled belt, and slick black leather shoes. Alesso couldn't recall her name, though.

A brisk wind picked up, sweeping in from the north and filling the unfurled white sails to get the Seeker moving. Ragusa steadily withdrew into the distance as Alesso's ship bravely charged into the endless waters, with Alesso's criminal crewmates taunting one another and cracking crude jokes. Only the promise of freedom and payment after the mission kept them from tearing out each other's throats out here... or Alesso's.

Alesso stood on the Seeker's bow, almost exasperating himself as he realized that "the seeker" described both his ship and himself. But he couldn't help it. His nephew's exploration ship had vanished years ago in the distant sea, probing the fabled boundary of doom while searching for new islands to settle. Countless ships had vanished out there, but with Lanto aboard the latest one, well... that made it personal.

The trip was a smooth and uneventful one at first, with a scowling, impatient Alesso watching the Seeker's progress from the bow, shielding his eyes from the hot summer sun, watching as dolphins and whales swam this way and that. Far overhead, a sapphire dragon glided on the hot winds, and a few of Alesso's crewmates stopped to admire it until Alesso barked at them to resume their duties. And after six days on the open seas...

"Land ahead! There lays Tratti," the sailing master declared, checking the horizon with his collapsible telescope. He handed it to Alesso, who confirmed the landmass ahead: Tratti, the largest and closest island not too far from the continent of kingdoms. Just in time, too.

"I wasn't expecting a ship here this week," the provisions officer in Tratti's main settlement commented as Alesso's crew traded for fresh supplies. He folded his arms over his chest and gave the Seeker a curious look. "What's all this about, if I may ask?"

"Checking for lost wreckage," Alesso said evasively. "To recover anything of value." Such as the answer about Lanto's fate.

The provisions officer, a tough old water genasi man with a white beard, cracked a smile and clapped an irritated Alesso on the shoulder. "A worthy cause, good sir. From where did you set sail? From Valee?"

"Ragusa. My hometown."

"Do tell! I don't get any ships from Ragula," the provisions officer said. He watched Alesso's crew finish restocking the Seeker for the journey ahead. "Plenty from Valee, to be sure, and Pressa and Dalmetto, too. Such fine towns they are. This must be an unusual mission."

"It... is, yes."

"Hmmmm! Well, I wish you a safe journey, Alesso Maximus," the provisions officer said genially. "Shame you aren't staying on Tratti longer. It's more hospitable than you'd think. We even have a gambling hall and music venue here!"

"Thank you, but this coastal town is of no interest to me," Alesso said coldly. There wasn't much to do on Tratti except mine for silver or chop down trees for high-quality lumber, after all. "My crew and I must return to the waves."

"As you say. Good sailing!"

Alesso departed Tratti for good, watching the island drift away behind him as the Seeker pressed onward. Two more islands to go...

A nasty thunderstorm moved in that evening, but the sailing master and one of the riggers saw it coming from miles away, and the Seeker's crew took shelter in the ship's musty, cramped interior as the thunderous waves and merciless winds rocked the ship all through the night. Thunder crackled and boomed outside and the wind howled outside the hull as Alesso lay in his hammock, arms folded over his chest for warmth as he stared morosely at the lantern-lit wall. Time seemed to crawl by. But a week later, right on schedule...

"We shall not stay long. Just trade for supplies," Alesso ordered his criminal crew as they descended the boarding ramp and set foot on Salenca, another forested island far from the continent. Its coastal colony town was even smaller than Tratti's, and much shadier, but Alesso's tough crew kept the locals cowed with sharp looks and a few grunted warnings. Once the Seeker was stocked, Alesso got his crew moving yet again, and this time, the real mission began.

"Fuma approaches, captain," the sail master declared, looking through his telescope. "The bleakest rock I ever saw. Gods protect us."

"Then get the crew ready," Alesso said, hands clamped on the Seeker's railing, eyes fixed on Fuma. "We shall scour the very edges of the earth to find that ship's wreck. We shall not return without it."

"Aye aye, captain," the sail master said, and Alesso clearly heard the man's reluctance. He wasn't surprised. At first, this journey had been great fun for the misfit crew, a chance to leave Ragusa's jail and find freedom in the open seas. But now the reality would hit the crew: that this would likely be a one-way trip. Out here, the Seeker might sink itself on some sharp rocks, or get capsized by a wave, or get dragged to the inky ocean depths by a kraken's hungry tentacles. And would Lanto's ship be out here? Who knew? Yet Alesso felt his familial bonds compelling him, seizing his very soul. He had to look.

"Ha. What a sad little rock," the half-orc crewmate commented, her green arms folded over her chest as she watched Fuma, the third and final island, approach.

"The sail master thought much the same," Alesso put in. "I agree: it's a wretched thing."

Fuma was a tiny island of lifeless black rock, its only feature being a cluster of ever-erupting volcanoes that ooze glowing lava everywhere, columns of noxious smoke and ash drifting on the endless winds. No dragon would bother roosting here, and not even a Khanate devil would visit such a place. Fuma was named for its volcanic fumes and intense heat, a grim marker of the end of the world. Not one Trassian ship that sailed beyond Fuma ever returned. But Lanto's ship had ventured this far, and Alesso would make history by finding it. He had to.

Surely, at least one of the 500 gods would bless this mission and give Alesso the closure he sought as a heartbroken uncle.

Alesso's crew searched... and searched... and searched. The ocean refused to yield, stubbornly giving the Seeker's crew nothing but empty waves as the Seeker sailed across the currents around Fuma. No drifting wood, no dead bodies, not even a hungry whale shark that might have attacked and destroyed Lanto's ship. The Seeker's supplies quickly thinned out as Alesso's crew pressed on, and the crew's tempers and patience dwindled even faster.

"Damn fool's mission," Alesso heard one rigger mutter as he and his crewmates adjusted the Seeker's saild to catch a favorable wind one afternoon. Alesso didn't bother reprimanding the man. He kept himself busy on the ship's bow, eyes desperately sweeping the frustratingly empty ocean for any sign of his nephew's fate.

"Nothing but maggot bread and mold cheese left!" a crewmate roared one slow morning, throwing his admittedly disgusting rations onto the deck. He stomped a foot. "Captain, this is your fault! Promising me freedom but giving me hunger and desolation!" he jabbed an accusing finger at Alesso, his eyes spitting fire. "I never should've signed up for this!"

"Your nephew's bones are being picked clean by crabs. Get over it!" another crewmate, a slender but mean fire genasi woman, added to her captain. She was once a serial arsonist and robber all over the Trassian coast.

"Silence, all of you!" Alesso roared. "My mission is not yet complete. We are a crew blessed by the gods! Trassians fear no ocean wave or monster. The sea shall yield to us eventually. Now back to your duties!"

He glared them all down, and to his relief, the criminal crewmates reluctantly resumed their duties as ordered, moldy cheese or not. Three more days passed. Then...

"It's over, you bastard! Over!" one of the riggers shouted. He and his crewmates assembled on the Seeker's deck, cornering Alesso at the bow. "All that's left is to lay down and starve if a kraken doesn't take us first. You sent us here to die!"

"All for your stupid nephew," the same fire genasi woman snarled. She made a crude gesture.

"I say we throw him overboard!" the sail master cried. "Let's get some rope and tie him up! See what the ocean sends to kill him!"

"My money's on an aboleth!" a crewmate cried. "I bet there's lots of 'em out here!"

"I hope they suck the captain's brain out and eat it," another crewmate hooted.

Alesso quickly backed up and found himself truly cornered this time, with only the ocean below him. He finally realized what he had really done: trapped himself aboard a ship with a dozen dangerous people who hated him, out here where no one could intervene. These criminals had been judged and sent to jail for a reason, and Alesso had been a blasted fool to trust them with this mission! It was over. Surely, they would all die out here. But...

"Hey, you. Nado, right?" Alesso said out of desperation, pointing at the lone dwarf on the crew. "You're hungry, aren't you? Well, I know I saw Indar here steal the last piece of your bread this morning!" He pointed at a grizzled tabaxi man, who had indeed swiped the last of Nado's provisions at first light this morning.

Nado rounded on his crewmate. "Thieving fleabag! I'll have you dead!" He raised his fists.

"We're all hungry!" Indar snapped. "I know you stole from Marcia yesterday afternoon when she was busy! Took the last of her jerky!"

The half-orc woman with the bandanna, evidently Marcia, narrowed her eyes. "Nado, is this true? Better fess up!"

"Back off, brute!" Nado barked at her. "I'm tougher than I look!"

"We'll see!" Marcia took a swing, and she sent Nado sprawling with a vicious right hook.

All hell broke loose.

Alesso watched in mingled relief and horror as his crew tore into each other, several of them getting thrown overboard with no hope for rescue. One of the crewmates actually went after Alesso himself, but with a surge of adrenaline, seized the man and wrestled with him, forcing him over the ship's edge and into the unforgiving waters below with a sudden splash. The brutal melee finally ended when Marcia let out a roar and seized Indar's head and twisted his neck, cracking his spine to kill him with one merciful stroke.

Alesso slowly picked himself up, warily watching Marcia, who had nasty slashes across her chest from Indar's claws. She was panting for breath, bruised on her arms and face, and watched Alesso with equal caution. Then she broke out into a smile.

"Just you and me left, huh, captain?"

Alesso nodded slowly. Everything felt so surreal, like a cruel dream. "Yes. Just us." What else was there to say?

Nadia wiped her brow. "Whew. Do we have any bandages left on this ship, captain? Don't wanna bleed out."

"Y... yes. right this way." Alesso wandered into the Seeker to retrieve what remained of their supplies, and helped Marcia wrap her muscular green chest with clean gauze. The two of them sat side by side against the ship's railing, helplessly watching the fluffy white clouds pass them by.

They were silent for what felt like hours. Then, finally, Marcia spoke up. "I'm sorry about your nephew. You must have loved him dearly."

"He was like a son to me," Alesso said quietly, hands folded in his lap. "My sister and her husband died when the boy was only four, so I took him in and raised him as though he were my own. I was so proud when he bravely volunteered to join that expedition beyond Fuma."

Alesso was silent for another moment. Then: "He's dead, isn't he? My Lanto is gone. And now I'll join him."

Marcia reached over and held Alesso's shoulders. "I'm so sorry, captain."

"Alesso Maximus. I'm no captain."

"Mr. Maximus, my heart goes out to you," Marcia told him gently. "You know, I had a favorite niece years ago, before she died in a raid. And I joined a bandit crew after that to earn enough for food. Then your town's guards caught us, and you sentenced me to a life behind bars."

"It was only my duty as Ragusa's court judge."

"I know. I don't blame you for a single thing, then or now."

Alesso sighed. "Thank you, Marcia."

"Don't mention it... captain."

"Mr. Maximus."

"Oh, whatever."

Alesso kept trying to hold it in. Then he broke down, letting the sobbing tears flow, and Marcia kept quiet the whole time. Alesso clapped his hands over his face, years of anguish released in just a few cathartic moments. Good thing the townsfolk of Ragusa weren't around to see this. He was countless miles away from civilization; who would ever know? It was the first time he had ever cried. And it would be the last, too.

It was almost evening by the time Alesso hobbled to his feet and helped Marcia up. "If it's just us, we must work that much harder to turn this ship around and head back to the continent. We have a long journey ahead of us, don't we?" He managed a reassuring smile.

Marcia saluted. "We sure do! I'll get the sails ready. We'll see the Trassian coast again before we know it."

"I look forward to it."

The Seeker sailed on with the last of its strength, and Ragusa and the Trassian coast never arrived. The Seeker was lost to the ocean, swallowed up in the watery depths like every other ship that ever dared venture past Fuma, picked clean by the crabs.