Broken Sword

I never knew his real name.  In all of the time that I was a member of the crew, I doubt that any of the others knew either.  I served aboard The King's Sorrow for well over nine months; having been shanghaied off the eastern coast after a night of drunkenness and carousing.  It was a common fate in those parts, and I should have kept wary of it.

Our captain was known only as Broken Sword.  He was a giant of a man, and pale as the foam that lingers off of the rocky death that line the many islands and coast lines of the sea.  In all of the time that I spent on The King's Sorrow, I have never heard him speak.  He never addressed us, or has he ever acknowledged us.  We were to do our duty, and that was that.

As I said before, we did not know his name.

I would hear stories about him from the other crew mates.  There were some who had sailed with Broken Sword for years.  They spoke of the most fearful adventures that they had the misfortune to experience while aboard The King's Sorrow.

It was said that the captain was now one who had interest in gold or gem of any kind.  It was said that he did not care for drink or plunder, for his interest was in other more supernatural goals.  Before long, I would learn that Broken Sword's obsession was to seek out a corsair.

It was said that a particular corsair, who was captain of a vessel named The Spectral Journey, had caught and plundered a ship named The Quoirel that was bound for a distant shore.  It was said that the captain's wife had been on that vessel, and that the corsair and his men had burned The Quoirel will all aboard.  Were it not for a crewman that had escaped in a dingy, and made his way to the coast, none would have learned of the fate of The Quoirel.

They say that on the deck of The King's Sorrow, during a heavy storm, and with all of the crew present, Broken Sword swore to find and destroy the corsair in vengeance.  The men said that he swore not to rest until he himself destroyed the corsair, and that if he could not do it, that he would curse himself never to rest until the end of the world, or when he engaged the corsair's ghost in battle.

Months after, Broken Sword would learn that the corsair had been killed by soldiers who had been hiding aboard a merchant vessel that he and his men had boarded.

So now, we serve on The King's Sorrow, and we follow him.  We follow him on his never ending journey in search of the cursed vessel The Spectral Journey.  I scoffed at the thought of such an adventure, and more so at the possibility of finding a phantom vessel, but the crew mates did not laugh.

They did not laugh with me, for they had seen The Spectral Journey, and they had seen the corsair himself.  They had seen him, and they knew that as ship mates aboard The King's Sorrow, they were also bound to the captain and to his curse.

The crew of The King's Sorrow sat in the dark, and I sat with them.  My fate had been sealed, and I too would remain aboard The King's Sorrow, until the end of the world, or until we and our captain, Broken Sword, finally engage the cursed corsair and the phantom vessel called The Spectral Journey.