Rytiko

Yeah, I'm still here. I check in every now and then, but everything just completely died a couple months ago. What happened?

Yeah guys, what the heck? Everybody just simultaneously decided it was time to stop posting.

Lame, guys. Lame.

OOC: What's happening guys? I can see where Ravenglass might be waiting for me, but what about the rest of you?

Cheryll stood at the helm as the ship crashed against the ice. Shards of hail rained onto them with each crushing blow to the ship's hull. All the meanwhile, the doctor was making jokes. She wasn't paying much attention though... She had a nasty feeling that the iceberg pinball game wasn't the most deadly challenge for the party. Still, she had to do something. The crew was getting nervous. Ascerbus and Oren looked as if they were about to jump ship.

"We're not swimming. Or at least, I get the impression that you aren't. What have you got up your --" She was cut off as the bow smashed heavily into another iceberg, sending a crack through the entire deck. She saw Oren and Ascerbus leaping off of the rig onto the icebergs around them - they were trained for such agility, after all. More importantly though, she saw the mast falling in her direction, threatening to crush her...

Congratulations! I didn't think you were that young. But hey, just remember that it gets a lot better from here on out for you. Middle school is hell, High School is boring, but college is loads of laughs and good times, if you let it be.

OOC: Sorry about the time delay – at first I was going to leave time for everybody to give their character some type of orientation before this, but the last couple of days I honestly just haven't gotten to posting. Graduation, exam schedules, etc... Sorry!

It was as Oren had predicted. There was never any intention of the ship surviving their landing. Cheryll stood at the front of the ship, looking somehow different, with a fiery charge in her eyes set straight forward.

“No need to try and avoid the ice – it's a losing battle!” She shouted to the helmsman. “We'll go straight through. All decks, brace for impact! Get ready to abandon ship! When you hit the water, the current will take you to shore! We'll meet in the central valley!”

She was of course referring to the strange two-pronged claw formation made from the icy mountains on the shore. But a lot of good that did him! It was great to know what to do when he got to shore, it was the getting there that proved ever problematic. If they were headed straight through, they'd have at least six holes in the ship by the time they were still the great span of 500 feet away.

“You got that kid?” Oren said to Ascerbus after getting back to the deck and approaching the young shadow-wielder. He had abandoned the crow's nest – there was no point anymore. “We're going to stay on this ship for as long as possible. We'll ride it in until we can cross with the least amount of swimming... 'cause once we hit that water, there's no guarantee we'll be surviving the swim.”

Crash!

The ship jolted forward as the wooden starboard side ripped around the ice cap. From here on in, they were at the mercy of the tugging currents. Cheryll was right – there was no point in even trying to navigate through. The ship was pulled sideways straight into another ice cap, and the port side let out a strange scream as the hull was punctured.

Oren could see that the ship was getting lower and lower in the water already. He take a sip of whiskey and said, “Here's to hope!”