Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5320677-20140202210954/@comment-5583506-20140224004827

(Prepare for an eerie bedtime story...)

After the crew had cheered and raised their glasses, Maximilian clapped his hands together. "And now", he said, "I would like to tell my dear old friend, Luna Darkwater, a little story of why myself and my crew of deserters, misfits and outcasts have come to the skies of chilly Skyrim. A story we are all pretty familiar with aboard the Alexander, but a story yet to be told for our guests. A story that perhaps will even result in an alliance and a hefty booty to share among both of our parties?"

Maximilian kicked up a chair and stood up proudly on it for all to see. "A long time ago there was a skyship twice the size of the Alexander, perhaps even ten times as large as my ship. And the name of that ship was the Leviathan, a vessel of incredible power, might, magic, technology, knowledge and wealth, commanded by a captain who could only have been chosen by the Daedra princes herself in order to reign over such a gigantic monster of a ship.  Aye, I am talking about captain Andrachel!"

The crew mumbled nervously when they heard her name. Even Claire, who sat next to Luna, found that the name for some reason gave her the shivers. She never really liked ghost stories since her entire life had been one.

"A fearsome woman, horrible to gaze upon", continued Maximilian with his hands held strictly behind his back. "Some even said that she was a Daedra herself and neither Men nor Mer nor Beast. People believe that she did not come from Mundus at all and that she was spawned from someplace that was "not here". Anyhow, captain Andrachel and her accursed crew roamed the skies in the Leviathan setting entire Nirn ablaze with their guns. But then something happened. No one knows what exactly, but both the ship and its captain, along with the crew, disappeared among the clouds, never to be heard from again. Some say that the Daedra princes feared that they had given Andrachel too much power and had therefore struck her from the skies and some say that a plague had swept aboard the Leviathan killing everyone."

Maximilian fell silent for awhile. Focusing his gaze on Claire. "My late brother, Gregory, claimed weeks before his untimely death, that he had after one of his eternal chases after the mythical vessel spotted the gigantic wreck of a drifting ship soaring through the clouds right above Skyrim. Such a beast of a ship, he said, could not have been anything else than the Leviathan. He was about to tell me on his deathbed the last location in which he had seen the wreckage, but unfortunately the answer remained on his dying breath. He had just told me before he died though, that he had shared the secret with his wife, but she died just a few weeks later in childbirth before I had the time to ask her. Bless lady LaDucard's soul."

Claire's face grew pale. Had she heard it right? She gave Luna an anxious look. Lady LaDucard? Could it have been her mother? No, she shouldn't be ridicolous. She was an orphan. She never knew her parents. Carmilla had been the closest thing to a parent to her. But if lady LaDucard had been her mother and if this Gregory had been her father, then that would make her Maximilian's...

"And that's why we are here in Skyrim, lady Luna", said Maximilian and raised his glass, smiling all along. "I intend to find the Leviathan and fulfill the life work of my brother. The Alexander may be fast and she may be good for spotting things which are hidden from bare sight. But the fact remains that a hunt for a mythical ship will be a lot a faster with a union between two ships, am I right? So I ask you, lady Luna, if you would join us in our hunt? I agree to share whatever treasures we may come across when we find the damn monster. So what do you say, hmm? Partners?"