The sea calls
Greetings most honored matriarch,
The voyage to this point has proven interesting. It is taking some time to get adjusted to a ship of this size. It is nimbler than I would expect, but it requires the deck crew to work swiftly as an integrated whole. I’m spending time learning as many of the tasks as I can, it might be necessary for me to pilot this massive beast, the sooner I know all the working parts the better.
We did have some excitement the first full day out of port. Four rather large creatures, fish or shark men is the best I can do to describe them, complete with four arms, and wicked blades and thick shields. As I described in my earlier letter, the steel-clad Nicolos waded in immediately, laying about with a staff of some sort. When he struck the fishman, he seemed to wither like a week old, beached fish. The lady Alex, I mentioned also, wrought some sort of arcane hand from the ether and pummeled another of the creatures. The two phalanx of Athenian hoplites each engaged one of the creatures. Lady Thalia was isolated at the prow, but far from helpless. She conjured some shining blade which set to attack the one nearest to her. Rather than let that one run free, I ran up that way to force it to focus on me instead.
As you might imagine this was far from a lopsided engagement, the fishmen were servants of Oceanus (apparently a titan of some repute) and very skilled with their massive blades. Alex continued to battle with one fishman with her conjured hand, it squeezed locking it in place. Nicolos scattered a plethora of various smithing tools and caused them to beat on his chosen target. One of the poor phalanxes held off one of the creatures on its own but suffered casualties as a result. With some help from Thalia, I was able to dispatch one and move to aid that phalanx and provide them some support, but it was too late. It was a brief assault but costly. Not long after I moved to support them, the tide turned and the remaining fishmen were dispatched. All in all, it left us with one severely injured soldier and three dead. Of my new companions, none save Thalia was spared injury.
Many of the companions and soldiers celebrated the victory and lamented the dead. Nicolos would spend much of the next day tending to the injured and preparing the dead. It seemed to take much of his time and attention. I’m not sure what Alex or the other companions got up to, mostly I was on deck learning about the ship and trying to distract the crew and lighten the mood (mast races and some cups and balls games). I did see Thalia some, wandering around and talking with some of the soldiers, they all seem bolstered, which is good. I got a chance to pilot some on our third day. It was a good day to learn, fair skies and light winds. I’ll need more practice; Theos was kind in not over correcting me. Thalia did some sort of lengthy in-depth review of the hoplites. One seemed to come out of that process with a promotion of some sort. I’m not a soldier and don’t understand how that works, she must as a noble of some sort. Her new aide de camp is Eirix. I honestly don’t fully understand how some of these Grecian names are spelled, the pronunciation is tough enough.
Early on the fourth day, we were approached by an impressive trireme half a beam wider than it should be with a strongly reinforced hull. No one recognized the symbology, but they struck their oars and we approached with caution. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The vessel was a floating bazaar. It belonged to the Smythsong clan, and apparently traveled all over. There were many and wonderous sights to behold, most of them as expected far exceeded my purse. Not long after some of the companions and I returned to our ship. We should be approaching Sparta’s harbor port in a few hours. I’ll write more once we get settled.