It’s a bit difff difficult to wwr write today. I’m honestly still pros processing what happened.

I couldn’t bring myself to write any more yesterday. I was just shaking too badly to hold the pen right, and I lost track of where I was in the words and-

Anyways, so I should probably put down my recon recounting of events. Though chances are, if you’re reading this, you already know what happened from the date alone.

When I woke up in my quarters on Shorerider, I was quickly told that we were heading to the Oasis Skerry to deal with an Abberation Aberration class eldritch monstrosity. Last I checked, the Inner Islands haven’t seen an Aberration class monstrosity for nearly fifty years. Nobody was prepared, and apparently the thing had been wreaking havoc on Fortania for three days straight. The local militia had been unable to take the thing down, and had suffered heavy casualties. Apparently a ship from the Oasis Skerry happened to bump into Shorerider while I was asleep, and it’s crew informed the captain.

Not wanting to risk further civilian casualties (of which we learned later that there were an estimated five hundred), and because we had two Titiantopplers, our captain decided it was our duty to go in and take care of it. We set full sail, and arrived at in the docks just past dawn. The city was quiet—something I knew from experience never happened.

Everyone was gearing up. The two who were wielding the Titiantopplers were Jeremiah Fau-watskin Fau-wasenkin—the son of an Iron Admiral— and Ivakina Jiehow. Given their strength and endurance, the two were the ideal picks from among the crew. I realized I should take a musket from the armory instead of just carrying my usual flintlock pistol, so I went down to grab one and then…

It came on board the ship.

I heard screaming and yelling from the deck, and went back up to see that Thing. I didn’t get a good look at it. All I remember was swirling tentacles, waving in an almost hypnotic manor, and a massive culle collection of eyes at the center of the mass, all blinking in such a way as to form the appearance of enclosing rings.

You know… being in the navy, and having studied the eldritch before… I thought I’d be able to handle seeing one.

But I couldn’t.

I ran.

I hid.

As screams of terror and pain echod echoed around me, I ducked back into the inside of the ship and cowered behind some wooden supply crates. I don’t know how long I stayed there. Looking back, it was probably less than five thousandthdays, but at the time, it felt like I laid there for an entire day. The entire time, I was absolutely terrified, more so than I have ever been in my life. Finally, when the screaming stopped, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Marines rapidly carried wounded down. Feeling terrible for my cowardice, I came out and em immediately began to help them with the injured and dying.

Then they brought down Ivakina, who wielded a Titiantoper Titiantoppler alongside Jeremiah. She was… horrr horribel horribly maimed. Her left arm was gone, torn off just above the ellbow elbow, the bone visibly protruding out. And her ente entire torso was rent open, the damage was too terrible to describe. And the smell, oh my gods the smell. I wanted to break my own nose just to stop it. I threw up several times, though you can't really blame me—about a third of the surviving crew did the same.

I ended up hell helping the doctors, who told me to leave Ivakina, saying she was a lost cause, doomed to die in agony. When I asked about Jeremiah, they told me he was dead. They spent thirty minutes recovering what was left of him. I ended up helping some of the other injured marines. Not everyone made it.

But strangely enough, Ivakina did. More on her in a bit.

As I write this, we sail back to Port Brimsey. The mood is moot—the captain will almost certainly be dishonorably discharged, especially considering he got an Iron Admiral’s son killed. I don’t want to stick around for that conversation, Jeremiah’s father really cared about him, and seeing the pain of losing his son in his eyes… As for me, I’m not sure. I may be kicked out from cowardice. I’d be lying to say I wouldn’t deserve it.