ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter Seventeen: Pickman's Daughter

"So what do we know?" Said Captain Smith.

About a dozen of us stood on a raised section at the stern of the cruise ship. It was still night, but we were all illuminated by an eerie, flickering light. In the distance a purple monolith of intense light reached up into the clouds disappearing into a vortex of black clouds that billowed outward and had been slowly expanding. I could feel the eldritch energy pouring out over everything around me, thicker and more wild than any I had encountered so far.

I gripped the railing as my head leaned out over the side of the ship. Heavy wind tugged at my jacket and swept through my hair as I peered into the distance. Beneath the vortex of black clouds, a thin violet mist spread out from the light and had crept slowly towards us, already covering half the distance.

"We've called back most of our outposts, and reinforcements have been sent out to support the bridge team," said Pat. "All scavengers and scout teams have been recalled and the patrol along the wall has been doubled."

"I don't like the idea of calling back all of our eyes," Tiller added. "We don't know what is out there."

"It's too dangerous," said pat. "We've had reports of increased monster aggression, and the bridge team has been under attack by a constant flood of low-level monsters. We believe they are fleeing. From what, is the question that terrifies me."

"We could blow the bridge," said a man with a British accent. He walked to the center of the crowd, pausing to look around making eye contact. He was a short middle-aged man, bald on top with a thick beard and an even thicker stomach.

"We get rid of the bridge and we move, get as far away as possible," he continued.

"That is not a good idea," said Catayla jumping into the conversation for the first time. "I need a team to go across with me. We make contact with the Peacekeepers, we find out what went wrong, and we retreat back to a safe staging area."

"You still haven't had any luck contacting your people?" Captain Smith asked.

"No," she said slowly shaking her head. "My com disk should be able to contact any Peacekeepers on the planet, and can even receive messages from off-world. We've been completely cutoff."

"Can't we take the ship..." said a slender woman with brown hair.

"Think no one tried that?" Said the captain. "Something big is out there, it'll smash us to pieces as soon as we leave the harbor. Seen it happen and it ain't pretty."

The crowd began arguing, most favoring that we destroy the bridge. Many were already calling for us to retreat and settle in a new area further to the west. I still planned to leave eventually as I needed to find Liv and Troy, but I wasn't ready to give up on Charleston just yet.

"I'll go," I said. A few eyes turned towards me in surprise, but it didn't take long before someone tried to argue.

"That's brave, but hardly relevant," said the British man with the thick beard. "Should we put our lives at risk while you galivant around on some merry chase? It's suicide out there."

"Shut up for a minute, Thurber," said the captain. "Catayla, can you get through that fog? How many men would you need?"

"The fog will likely be dangerous for anyone without a high vitality and willpower. If it is concentrated eldritch energy, as I suspect, then it will corrupt both the mind and body. I'll take six with me, no more, and they'll have to be able to keep up."

"I think I can protect us from the mist," I said. "But I'll need help. I can manipulate eldritch energy to a small extent, but my range and control hasn't progressed very far yet."