A watery grave

As Jay reached the next deck in the shipwreck, he got greeted by a lightning bolt himself.

Not that it mattered to him as his magic reflection did the job and nearly killed the Murloc with it's own attack, but it surprised him none the less.

After he tested the effect on the deck below and knew it wouldn't hinder his Job's progress, Jay decided to use lightning on the fish-like monsters as long as he was out of the water. Thanks to that he made quick progress through that part of the ship.

On the lower cannon deck he found the first corpses of the crew. Much more than skeletons or even only a few single bones wasn't left of them, but they all had one thing in common: They all wore the same uniforms with a lion embroidery on the chest.

Recognizing the sign, Jay knew it had been a ship from Arathor's marine that ended in a conflict.

Passing through the second cannon deck, Jay had a good look on the beach as most of the ships right side got shot open.

The cannons all had flown over to the other side, burying most of the cannoneers under them. He had reached the deck only through jumping up and climbing through the hatch leading up, so it was no wonder he no longer encountered Murlocs up there.

Arriving on the top deck, Jay had a good view over the whole shipwreck.

To the side he even saw the broken masts lying next to the ship.

The distance between the two parts of the ship were at least three yards at the shortest, but he still decided to take the tiny risk and jump. His reason partially was that he didn't see a single monster up there on the other side, while he heard and even saw some of them on the lower decks in the other part of the wreck.

Taking a few steps back just to make sure, Jay sped up and leaped over the cleft. What he hadn't calculated in was the force of his impact as the jump took him more then ten yards further, and the wooden planks under his feet gave in.

Crashing through the floor, Jay landed on the cannon deck below and looked around.

On this part of the ship the Murlocs seemed to reach everywhere, so he directly encountered two of them.

What followed was a simple checking on the whole ship, starting on the deck he was on, then up to the lower stern cabins where he encountered quite some monsters.

The last cabin there to check was the captains, where Jay found an order written on parchment to hunt down the pirates in the territory of the kingdom. It was signed by Admiral Nichols but held no date.

The upper cabins in the stern were empty, only a big nautical map on a table was to be found, as well as some weapon stands.

Taking all of it with him but noticing not one item was of worth, Jay left and went down through the ships rump.

He encountered more Murlocs but found nothing else of interest.

Jay only took one of the cannons with him where the name of the ship was engraved, then exited the wreck as none of the fish-like monsters remained alive.

All he found and looted on the shipwreck, other than some maps and papers, where the poor weapons and a few chests he found in the cabins or the crews quarters.

Opening them was for later, as he had his next goal withing sight.

Walking a couple of steps forward from where he was standing, the water got deeper.

Taking a leap, Jay began to swim but stopped after a few strokes and opened his eyes under water. His intuition had told him to watch out and it had been spot on again.

What he saw in the crystal clear water was a sandy slope leading deep down, with sharp rock formations reaching out of the sand. Aside from countless of those pointy rocks, some of them reaching close to the surface, big sharks swam between them.

With his diving still being miserable and the knowledge from his old world telling him the sharks might attack if he simply swam over, Jay tried to cross the not too big distance seeking cover at the sharp rocks.

It worked out well as the tidal current wasn't that strong at that time and Jay carefully approached the rocks.

Him still wearing his protective leather armor was a major point as well, so Jay managed to cover the about two hundred yards distance without cutting himself or getting noticed by the sharks.

Climbing up the wreck still proved difficult and as he saw no other option, Jay had to enter through a cannon hole slightly under the surface.

Glad he could slide along the ships shell, he somehow managed to enter.

Where he came out was the first cannon deck, directly under the top deck. The part under the stern was completely flooded as the ship had a heavy slant to the back. It seemed they had sailed full speed onto the rock what made absolutely no sense to Jay.

Not wanting to swim or dive through the shipwreck, he went towards the prow in search for stairs. But he only managed to get a few steps out of the water when he had to halt and look back.

Jay had heard steps behind him, so he threw a (lightning bolt) form his quick slots without wait.

Though it sounded different, his guess was that some Murlocs managed to claim this ship and lived here as well.

The spell had not that much effect on the creature that was wobbling towards him though…

What Jay was facing was a moving skeleton. And it was not any skeleton, but one of the dead pirates, going by the remaining clothes it wore.

It slowly closed in with its rusty saber at the ready, so Jay swiftly took out his set weapons and barely managed to intercept the first attack that came flying.

Blocking off the blade with his hammer, Jay stabbed his dagger into the monster but without much effect. Other then again a little reduced health, if one could name it that way, the skeleton started another attack.

After stepping back and a simple dodge, Jay waited for another chance.

This time he redirected the saber with his dagger and countered with the hammer.

The difference was daunting, as a single hit to the shoulder smashed it completely, breaking all adjoining bones.

With a singe swing of his hammer he defeated his opponent that his dagger nearly couldn't harm at all.

But if blunt damage was the thing that defeated those skeletons best, Jay was the wrong opponent to pick a fight with, was all he thought.

Dismissing his two weapons he took out a single other one. Though he thought about fighting the skeletons barehanded at first, his Yetimus Maximus was the better choice.

With this he didn't have to fear getting cut by broken bones and the space in the ship was vast enough for the giant weapon.

Checking on the skeleton one last time, Jay went on towards the prow. Again he only managed some steps before a creature moved towards him.

With a single swing of his trusted war-hammer, Jay had the skeleton flying towards the side, crashing onto one of the cannons and bursting.

This repeated some more times until Jay finally reached the stairs. The skeletons had all been of level 15 or 16, so none of them posed a threat.

As he reached the stairs, Jay decided to have a look at the decks below at first. The next was the second cannon deck where Jay encountered some more skeletons, again a few of them moved to attack.

The cannons on that ship looked bigger than on the one from Arathor, so Jay decided to store some away as well as some crates with cannonballs.

One deck below was where the crew had stayed, but more than half of it was flooded. Jay marched into the water but didn't find anything noteworthy.

Deciding not to drive into the back of the ship, or even at least try it, Jay went down to the next and last deck.

It was a storage deck how he found out and nearly completely under water. Still risking a peek, Jay jumped into the cold wet and looked around. Everywhere sharp rocks had pierced through the ships hull and ripped it open, as well as lots of the stored goods.

But some of the barrels and crates, as well as some chests had come through unscathed. Jay took a deep breath and slipped along the ceiling through the deck, touching and storing as many things as he could.

Glad he didn't encounter more monsters down there, Jay climbed the stairs up the decks with his sparse booty stored in his inventory. Looking through the hatch to the top deck, Jay saw those damned skeletons again.

After readying his Yetimus Maximus he jumped through the wooden hatch and went on the offense.

After a few moments the fight was over and the five skeletons that had been moving did the same as any other dead on that deck, and that was laying around, only in a far worse state.

Checking the deck for things of worth, Jay found nothing on the skeletons or elsewhere.

What he noted was, the skeletons had something in common, and that was the complete absence of military gear or clothing. It was clear to Jay by then that only the pirates were on that ship, whith some of them having turned into moving skeletons.

Walking towards the stern where he suspected the captains cabin and maybe some treasure, Jay had to cling to a handrail as the wreck tilted a bit. His previous actions had shifted the weight so it was no wonder the ship moved from it.

Passing through the door to the captains cabins carefully, Jay found himself in a small hallway. To his right the wall had broken down due to a cannon shot, and whatever had been behind it was completely gone. Even the floor was only the surface of the ocean.

Turning to the left, Jay found a door and opened it.

The room inside was still not flooded and it looked like a well equipped bedroom as Jay glanced over the furniture.

On the big bed he spotted another skeleton, but that one looked different. It was smaller and the fallen apart clothes seemed to be made of silk and other precious materials, other than the crews.

Even the saber placed next to the bed was in a totally different state than the other ones.

While it was far from perfect, It still wasn't rusty and looked usable to him after Jay pulled it out of its scabbard.

Putting it back and storing the whole thing, Jay searched the corpse for anything of worth and found a thing he was looking for.

The ring Liam had asked him for to find was still placed on the bony hand of the woman's skeleton.

Pulling it off and storing it as well, Jay went on with his check. All else he found in the room and on the corpse was a small bit of jewelry.

He left the room and went to the last one he had to check.

At the end of the small hallway was a double door and a small bit of water already leaked out from under it, telling Jay what he had to expect behind it.

Grabbing the doors knob and twisting it to open the door nothing happened. Even pushing or rattling at the door didn't change one thing.

Taking a step back he decided to kick open the door and with a loud bang it flew open.

The room behind the door was half flooded like Jay had anticipated from the water under the door.

While close to the door only the floor was covered, the back wall was mostly hidden under water.

Glancing through the room, Jay saw some shelves on the walls and to his left was a big crate. On his right, in a small alcove was a bed set up and in the middle of the room floated a desk and some debris.

Taking a careful step into the water to walk over there and have a look at the map placed there, he had to stop.

Something was moving the surface.

Taking two steps back while watching the place of movement, Jay touched the wall with his back. Then suddenly a pirate-hat broke through the surface, followed by a skull. The closer it got, the more the skeleton revealed of itself.

It was the captain himself as Jay soon saw from the clothes it wore.

The shabby black leather jacket and the dark pants, combined with a tattered shirt and a red sash, as well as a wooden leg completed the look. Wobbling towards Jay, the skeleton swung its saber wildly around.

Without his hammer at the ready, Jay took a few steps back. At least he wanted to but leaning against the wall he had to step to the side to what the skeleton changed its actions. Pulling out an old pistol, it aimed at him and pulled the trigger.

*clack*

It didn't go off. Glad at the one hand but cursing at his own stupidity at the other because the wet powder had no chance to function, Jay got surprised by his opponent again.

Without thinking about it, the skeleton threw the gun towards Jay who simply caught it.

Throwing it back with full force, the skeletons head got blown off its neck by the sheer force. Already dropping his guard, Jay had to dodge another slash of the headless skeletons saber.

Jay barely warded it off and countered with a heavy punch, breaking some of the skeletons ribs under the leather jacket.

With a low kick to each thigh and breaking them, the damage it had accumulated was too much and the skeleton got defeated.

Ignoring the skeleton and not even checking on the corroded weapon it had, Jay carefully walked over to the crate. His lock picking was barely good enough to open it though it took some time.

What he found inside was another treasure map looking similar to the one he already found, as well as some gold coins and cloth.

The crate had been nearly empty but the loot wasn't half bad for that. Letting the top fall down after he took everything into his inventory he noticed his mistake.

But it was too late.

The sudden movement hat tilted the wreck yet again and it began moving. The ship slid deeper into the water and Jay only grabbed the next shelve to get a hold.

As it floated towards him he took the nautical map from the table as well as a telescope and went towards the door.

While stemming with his arms against the walls he sprinted out of the stern and onto the deck. Only as he reached the prow did the wreck stop moving, but he was sure that the next one to enter it would make it his watery grave.

Looking over it one last time as he had climbed onto the railing, Jay jumped down the four yards into the water.

Under water he instantly checked for attacking sharks but saw them swimming along the ground like nothing happened.

Still careful and checking on them regularly, Jay swam towards the shore in a direct line. Nearly halfway the water got so shallow, he didn't have to fear the sharks any longer.

The moment he reached the beach, Jay summoned his horse and saddled up.

The sun was already beginning to set as he got on his way back towards the Lighthouse. Without a single break he rode until he finally saw the small island in some distance.

The sun had already set at that time and with the last rays of sunlight he pulled the small boat into the water and climbed in.

Rowing through the darkness, Jay was happy he had the [Night Vision] skill as he would have had no chance to land the rowing boat at the small pier otherwise.

Still managing to arrive dry and in one piece he climbed off the boat and walked up the slope to the Lighthouse.

Liam had spotted him setting over and was already waiting for him at the small yard in front of the building.

Welcoming Jay the moment he was within reach, the two of them entered the building and Liam served him a sparse dinner. As Jay ate the bread and dried fish, he recounted what he had seen and found while keeping the maps and his booty a secret.

Not even half an hour later he lay down in a small room in Liam's shag.

The bed was hard and not very comfortable, but the sea breeze through the open window was nice and made him fall asleep soon.