Dire Bow of the Old Ones
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The Dire Bow of the Old Ones is always dropped should a Wendigo be killed. It is considered a cursed item capable of felling any animal in a single shot. If it is used against another person, the hunting skill is used rather than the fighting skill. Like hunting an animal, using it to attack a person will cause and immediate state of near death.
Using this item brings on and immediate change in the weather. Depending on the location and state of weather at the time, the new condition will resemble with winter-like (i.e. "too cold for harvest") or drought conditions (i.e. "not enough rain") for ten days after each use. Each use of the bow will add another ten days, cumulatively.
The aura of the weapon is so powerful, it acts upon any would-be attacker like a defense item. It doesn't actively defend the bearer, but renders the attack less effective as a result. The bow also has the ability to grant the wielder with the ability to see 150 pixels and lists all of the characters on the People page. However, unlike the Wendigo, for some reason the bearer of the bow cannot cannot attack, communicate with or interact with those characters.
The Lost Expedition
These notes were found as part of a large shipwreck that washed up on the shore. There was also the body of a woman that showed clear signs of starvation.
Day 1: We have finally arrived at the Archipelago after three years from port. The crew is eager to start our exploration and bring back its fabled resources to Pacifica. Although we prepared enough food for the journey, I decided to limit it in an effort to maintain our speed. Unfortunately, we've arrived in winter and the ground is frozen, so only our most expert farmers are able to find and forage the bit of grain to be found. I was hoping we would be able to hunt game once there, or perhaps tame a few birds for poultry, but I'm sorry to write that the region lacks many animals. In a number of towns, we've found great piles of bones, hide, sinew and feathers, but the number of actual animals is barely a pittance. I've recovered a few old notes from the earliest explorers listing great cats, bears, canines, bovines and ungulates, and numbers of birds. Apparently, great reptiles used to ply these beaches. But so far we've found maybe a handful of tiny pigeons or a couple of beetles. Obviously, these islands have been over-hunted by either natives or, more likely, visitors. It is quite sad.
Day 3: We have yet to find any inhabited towns. There is plenty of evidence of activity. Buildings, machines, and tools are everywhere. But no people. It's rather unnerving. Johan (my first mate) has likewise shared my consternation. We've found piles of clothing or tools just lying outside and used weapons. We've been to five locations so far, and it is the same scene in each. No food, though. Not a scrap of meat, fruit, grain, or even a single vegetable. Copper took down a buzzard, but it was one of the last pair. Johan chewed him out since now that species was on the brink of extinction and gave him latrine duty.
Day 4: Today we came upon a horrific sight. The HMS Beagle and the Four Winds docked to a harbor on Second Island. Johan, English Kelly, Abraham and Kiga-shi entered the town while Copper and the others remained on the ships. To our horror, we found the place littered with bodies, all killed by some manner of weapon. As in the other locations, tools, weapons and clothing were scattered among the dead, but nothing edible and no resources that could be made such. Notes were scattered around, but all were in a language unfamiliar to us, even Kiga-shi who speaks four languages (and is an excellent trader).
We searched every building until we came to a large marble one near the edge of the town. Inside, we were astonished to find a woman on the brink of death! Her injuries were substantial. I knew not if we could heal her, but we attempted regardless. Eventually she came around, but as soon as consciousness returned, she cried out! "wîhtikow! tâniwâ!" she screamed in a delirium. She stared at us and trembled. "môniyâwiw..."
I knelt down beside her, and Kiga-shi did likewise in an attempt to communicate. "Que s'est-il passé à cet endroit?" he asked. "Co się wydarzyło w tym miejscu?" And then he repeated in english. "What happened in this place?"
"ahcâpiy!" she screamed. She grabbing me by my collar. Immediately, Johan and Abraham unsheathed their weapons and lurched at the woman. I barked an order to cease their attack, but it was too late. They dealt another blow, this one fatal and beyond our medicine. But before she expired, she managed to utter a few more words: "ahcâpiy. manâ-maskamêw. nôhtêpaýihêw..."
Frustrated and angry, I muttered for Jos to have mercy on the poor woman's soul. Abraham scoffed at my prayer as a waste of breath on a godless heathen. Johan punched him straight in the mouth. Knocked his eye-patch clean off.
Day 7: I am back out in the longboat today, fishing. Johan had organized the great undertaking (no pun intended) of burying all of the bodies in the village that we could find. But yesterday, I could no longer take the smell and felt myself swoon. Johan's strong arms kept me from falling, perhaps with more haste than I would have liked--not that I minded his arms around me. But for the captain and her first mate to be seen exhibiting such public affection is not only unprofessional, but I believe will make the crew doubt my decisions and accuse me of nepotism. We've been discrete thus far, and I'm not about to jeopardize this expedition for which I've worked so hard to organize.
It is only by small fortune that there are several drying racks in the village. Being the best angler, Johan suggested that I go out and catch a good quantity for drying. We've also access to salting barrels, so some salted cod sounds like another viable alternative. The crew is already quite tired of fish, but in these dire circumstances, I see little alternative. I believe Maja, who is an expert at farming, is attempting to get some grain now that spring has come. And I think English Kelly has some capability with cooking (one of her few usable skills besides burying, as she is primarily a fighter).
Day 8: I was almost finished with a good haul of fish when I heard the most ungodly sound. It was a horrible wail, and it scared the dung right out of me! I nearly leapt into the water because I thought whatever it was had gotten into the longboat. But when I came to my senses, I realized that it was in fact coming from a location 'right next to' me in the direction south-southeast--In other words, from the village where I had left my crew. I started docking immediately only to see the Four Winds bursting from the coaster harbor heading directly south, full sail. By the time I got to the village, I saw Johan cradling a very injured English Kelly. I rushed to them, demanding to know what had happened and if it had anything to do with the horrible keening I had heard earlier. What Johan told me turned my veins to ice.
Apparently, several days ago, English Kelly had discovered among the ruins an exquisite re-curve bow, made of a wood so dark that it appeared almost blue. She didn't tell anyone, but finally showed it to Johan. He tells me that he warned her that he had a very bad feeling about it. She was very eager to try hunting with it in an attempt to boost her barely average expertise in that skill. There were a few well-armored reptiles plying the beach, so Johan relented. To everyone's amazement, her blow landed an immediate kill! And the creatures yielded a great amount of meat and eggs, which the crew began to cook right away. The next day, she hunted again, and despite the formidable armor that not even Abraham could penetrate with his claymore, she felled another beast. The same with every bird still clinging to existence in the village shrubs. It was then that Maja had discovered that the ground had become like ice despite the bright spring sun. Johan urged English Kelly to give up her newfound bow, but she only scoffed at his superstition.
What Johan told me next, I can hardly believe except I know him enough to know that he would never lie to me. Apparently, this morning English Kelly felled another reptile and every bird left in the village. No sooner had she picked up her haul of animal products that a blinding flash of unholy light sucked the air up. Some-- thing --appeared in the middle of the village. Huge, but gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. Its complexion was the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. It gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption. What lips it had were tattered and bloody, and from them issued a wail so frightful and piercing that everyone fell to their knees and soiled themselves.
As soon as it materialized, it moved with speed to English Kelly and lashed out at her with unerring speed and precision using something that looked to be made of bone. Yet despite its crude matter, the blade seemed to cut right through her. With a great fountain of blood, she fell, teetering on the brink of death. Johan tells me that everyone struck at the intruder. Everyone's best blades slashed at it, and being so emaciated, bits of flesh flew from it until its severed arm flew to the ground. But it simply laughed. Laughed! It strode over to the arm, picked it up and then... (I can still remember Johan trembling as he told me) ...the creature (by this time, they knew it to not be any man) ate its own arm! That's when that stupid one-eyed coward, Abraham, fled to the coaster harbor and simply left. (That was who had taken the Four Winds .) Johan says that the creature returned to the spot from whence it appeared and then vanished. ...into thin air.
Day 12: We buried English Kelly yesterday. And Maja today; a naval burial-at-sea. Kiga-shi is quite injured, but he is helping us as best as he can. Every day, that thing returns and attacks. It finished off English Kelly and started in on Maja, then Kiga-shi just today. Sean is still asleep on the HMS Beagle. I'm assuming Copper is on the Four Winds.
I don't know how, but it follows us. Every village we've been in, it appears. I don't know how. It has no vehicle. I think it is watching us. It can see were we go. We've attempted to find other villages or people to help us destroy the abomination hunting us, but like every other town, they are abandoned. Some still have bodies in them. Others are devoid of all life. Even animals. Everywhere the ground is frozen or bone dry despite the spring sun and rain. Even the wind has stopped blowing. I haven't slept for days.
Day 13: We found the Four Winds. It was just floating there. When we boarded it, we found Abraham's body. For some reason it was locked in the brig. We also found Copper's body. He was still clutching the brig key. Abraham's body was killed using a crossbow, likely the same one in Copper's other hand.
We discovered that it makes no difference being at sea. I don't know how. I just don't know how it follows us. No ship approaches. It just attacks. Kiga-shi is barely able to ingest enough healing liquid. Those of use remaining have decided to flee. Forget the Archipelago and its stupid riches. We abandoned the galleon for the speed of the raker. I pray to Jos that we can escape this thing.
Day 15: Sean woke up today and stumbled out of his cabin. He took up a saber and started slashing at us. He screamed, but not from rage. He kept yelling, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" as he hacked at Kiga-shi, Johan and myself. "I'm not doing this. I can't understand how I'm attacking you guys! Help me, somebody!" We locked him up again and took away his weapons. Johan gathered up the rest of our weapons and locked them in a trunk in the hold. And it was good that he did because I, myself, struck my beloved Johan later that day. One moment I was trying to salt cod, and the next, I struck him.
Another thing. Sean is starving. He tells us that he had a full belly days ago. He never vomited, and he even had food on him that he would automatically eat on a daily basis. But when he attacked us, he was starving as if he'd not had a morsel in nearly a half-year. But what's worse is that somehow our food is disappearing. It's like when you leave something like a pile of potatoes sitting outside in the hot sun. They start to rot. Well, despite our cooked food being secure it a container, every day we find less of it. Johan and I have watched. Nobody has taken from the food container. But it depletes.
Dear Jos in heaven, please, please, please, save us! The creature will be upon us soon. We are almost out of anything for healing.
Day 18: It has been two days. That evil spirit has not attacked us. And our food stores no longer deplete by themselves. On a whim I checked my sextant for a reading and found that we are now at a distance of 158 from the sight of that thing's first appearance. I think we might have escaped the monster's wrath. I praise Jos for His enduring and almighty mercy. May He never leave His children to the ravages of monsters. We are speeding as fast as possible back to Pacifica. And for good reason. I've discovered we've just enough food to make it. Actually, it's even worse than that. We will run out of food before we reach any land. By the time we get to the first outpost of Pacifica, we will all be starved to the point of expiration. I've rationed our food precisely. I think we may have a day or two to spare, but we should be able to just make it. But it's going to be close.
Day 20: I haven't the heart to tell Johan or Kiga-shi. But I suspect Johan already knows. It turns out that we have not completely escaped. It is true that we are no longer attacked by the wiindigoo (or whatever that woman called it), but it has left its curse upon us. I've discovered that we are left with a ravenous appetite. Normal rations no longer satisfy us daily. I have to consume twice as much fish as normal. We're not going to make it back to Pacifica. I spent this morning crying in the cabin Johan and I now share without shame.
There is no hope. Jos has abandoned us.
I am so hungry.
