And then there was one

Mary Celeste was found alone
The fate of her crew is still unknown
****, fraud, or acts bizarre
No one can say but chances are
They’re down, downed and drowned
Downed and drowned and never found…

You smile softly as you watch the fish swim away from Neptune’s Fury, having been satisfied by their feast of an adventurer. Time to go see whatever remained, if anything was left. Who knows? Maybe he dropped that fancy knife of his before he died and it got left behind. You had lost a sword once that way, though you did manage to find a replacement after your respawn. You slowly swim into the ship, taking care to not bother the fish as they swim away with blood still staining their teeth.

As you look over the carnage that was left behind, you actually feel a bit surprised. There was something left. Not just something, but an actual skeleton and a mysterious bag. The bag made sense, as it was a bag you had seen your fellow drowned drop upon their deaths. It would have small bits of loot inside, usually gold or random crap that you never understood the purpose of. But the corpse… That usually didn’t happen. Whenever you or your fellow drowned died, your body would usually vaporize after a few moments, turning into the bag of loot. But his remains were still there, a dark tinted skeleton with bits of cloth and… other such decorating him. The snapjaws picked him almost clean with surprising efficiency, although what did remain did turn your stomach just a bit.

Just because you were dead doesn’t mean you liked the gorier stuff.

You quickly divert your attention from the remains and look to the loot bag, but upon touching it, a pop-up appears in your view.

Loot Bag
12 sp, 19 cp
3 Tattered strips of cloth
Claimant Crystal
Take some / Take all

Well it was mostly what you expected. Some money, some random strips of cloth. But what in H’tes’ name was a Claimant Crystal? You had never heard of such a thing nor had you ever heard…

Wait…

The update this morning! There was that line about Claimant Crystals having different behavior and no longer dropping from bosses. There was also something else… but you honestly couldn’t quite remember. Still, this had to be significant in some regard or another, right? I mean the gods themselves apparently decided to change things in the world to make them have a different behavior so… there had to be something behind this.

You quickly hit “take all'' and instantly both the pop-up and bag disappear from view. You can feel the slight weight of the items in your pockets, though vastly downsized. Anything that entered your inventory could be pulled from your pockets as long as you thought of it while reaching into your pockets. That's where you kept the pearl and any coins you managed to find on the ocean floor, and now, the Claimant Crystal.

Speaking of, you reach into your pocket, thinking about the mysterious object and feel your fingers curl around it before pulling it out. It was… smaller than you expected, only about the size of two of your fingers. It was a deep red color, like the blood of dying men, and the surface of the crystal thrummed with deep magical energy. But not magic like the pearl, no. This magic felt… older. More defined. Like the ship after weathering 1000 storms, and showing no damage in the slightest.

You quickly slide the crystal back into your pocket, feeling the weight almost vanish entirely. There would be time to ponder the magics and purpose of the crystal later, for now you still had a maiden adventurer to deal with.

Perhaps she would be a bit more agreeable than the remains you leave behind in Neptune’s Fury.

As you swim closer to where you last left the mage in question, the first thing you see is all of your fellow drowned still surrounding her, though at a reasonable distance to stay out of range of any quick-fire magic attacks. She is still hidden to you, due to the positioning of the wrecks, but the glow of her magic tells you that she hasn’t moved very far from where you left her.

One of the drowned, a lad wearing a weathered tricorn, takes a quick glance back in your direction before having a double take upon seeing you. Though as you do get closer, you can see a wide grin overcome his features and he swims up to meet you.

“Well, slap me in irons and hang me whole crew, didn’t expect to see you comin’ back before that adventurer. You give him th’ slip?”

You shake your head while grinning from ear to ear. “No need. I made him food for the snappers.”

The drowned’s eyes go wide and his mouth opens in shock. “No… you… you managed to kill an adventurer? Like… he actually died?”

You nod. “Dropped a loot bag and everythin’. I even leveled up, though I figured I’d check more on that when we don’t have anymore of these adventures down here.”

The drowned shakes his head, laughing a bit with a smile. “I can’t believe it. You know, when the others hear about this you’ll be a bit of a legend. Ain’t no one ever manage to kill one of them adventures. That's like… boss shit.”

You give him a hearty slap on the back and swim a bit ahead, with him hot on your heels. “Let’s talk legends after we deal with her. She move at all or attack anyone?”

Again, the drowned shakes his head. “Ain’t moved an inch since you left. She’s been keeping eyes on us, and has kept one arm up for her magic bubble thing, but other than that she hasn’t done a thing.”

You give a grunt of acknowledgement. “She’s probably waiting then for her… well, not her friend. Her adventuring partner ta come back.”

“They weren’t mates?” The drowned asked, to which you shake your head no.

“Not from what I overheard. Sounds like she was right pissed at him for not telling her what she signed up for coming down here. He planned on farming us all day for treasure, and she didn’t want to waste her whole day killing us over and over.”

“She might be glad you killed him then.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” you reply. “Here’s the plan. I’m gonna swim closer and talk with her. You have the others come in a bit closer too, but still far enough that it doesn’t look like we are all about to jump her. Just close enough that she can see all of us if she does get any ideas.”

“And close enough that if she tries anything, we can kill her.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to come to blows. She is a magic user, so any attempt to dodge is a quick trip to the respawner.” You say, rubbing your chin in thought.

“We’ll manage. There’s two dozen of us here and one of her.”

“Still… be careful if it comes to blows.”

He gives you a short nod before you swim closer to the mage in question… Anna. That was her name. Or at least that's what the other guy called her, might be a nickname or something. You know that some adventures had multiple names that they responded to, which considering you didn’t even have a single name to call your own, was a bit funny.

As she comes into view, you take a long look at her to see if there is anything you could work with in terms of surface knowledge. She is clad black and silver robes, cut low to show off a lot of cleavage along with a small diamond shaped hole to show off her midriff. She has quite the collection of silver jewelry, all fashioned with soft curves that betrayed their elven origin. Which made sense, since the girl was clearly an elf or at least had elven blood. Be it her pointed ears, graceful posture, silvery blonde hair, or the gold in her irises she was very clearly an elf of some kind. One of her hands was lifted up high, palm open, with yellow magic swirling around it and feeding the air bubble that she was currently surrounded by. The other hand was a bit more relaxed at her side, but the tension in her arm showed she was still nervous and ready to start slinging spells with her free hand if need be.

As you look her over, a feeling that you had thought long since forgotten stirred within you. You knew that your… parts still functioned fine. A lot changed about you when you became an undead, such as not needing to sleep anymore or not needing to breathe. But one thing that you discovered was that you could still pop wood and lust over women, though the endless amount of killings honestly killed any feelings of lust that still labored inside of you. But looking at Anna, this gorgeous elf with curves that could stop a galleon… those feelings were starting to return.

‘Focus. Deal with her now, think about how sexy she is later.’

You steel your thoughts and swim down towards her, and before you can get too close her gaze snaps to you and she raises her hand, ready to cast… something.

“Back the fuck up! I can and won’t hesitate to send you back to whatever hell you came from!”

“I doubt that.” You say, but do respect her wishes slightly by ceasing your forward momentum. “You and I both know that if you start slinging spells, the rest of my drowned friends will swarm over you like the snapjaws did on your friend.”

She blinks, and her expression shifts from fury to surprise. “Snapjaws… those little… wait, does that mean that Darren… you killed him?”

You nod and give a cruel smile. “Cut him to ribbons and let the snapjaws eat him alive. He died screaming for mercy, but snapjaws don’t know the meaning of mercy.”

She looks down for a moment, before a small laugh escapes her almost like a breath. “Good. Dude fucking deserved it.”

“ I take it you and he weren’t… true allies?”

“No. Not in the slightest.” She says, her arm lowering down from her attack-ready position. “He’s a friend of a friend of a friend. He asked for some help with a quest, saying he needed a spellcaster and I figured I could give him a hand. I figured it would be, at most, an hour of fighting and spellcasting. I did NOT agree to spend my whole fucking Saturday walking to the bottom of the ocean acting as his stupid air tank.” She then looks over at you with an expression of curious intrigue. “Though I am surprised you managed to kill him. The way he was talking, he was super overleveled for this quest. You say you managed to… “cut him to ribbons?”

You shrug. “He was distracted by the swarm while I was giving him the business. Plus my spectral form makes me slippery. Not to mention he wasn’t exactly the… smartest of fighters.”

To that statement she lets out a short laugh. “Got him there. Not to mention unsubtle. He thought he was sooooo smooth, constantly checking out my ass by walking behind me. I’m not a fucking idiot, I knew what he was doing.”

“Smart one, aren’t ya? Paired with your beauty, it's clear why he had his eyes sent on ya.” you say with a smile. She blushes a bit at the compliment, but nods in agreement. “Well, I take it someone as smart as you can tell you’re in a not winning situation here. If we want you dead, we could swarm you fast enough that you would eventually fall to one of us.”

“But you drowned are weak to magic.” She says, the fingers in her free hand starting to tingle with magic sparks. “I can take you all down with a few blasts.”

“But can you take us out before we get in close? Because once we get in melee range, you’ll be too busy defending yourself from our strikes to even bother hitting back.”

She takes a slow look around, noticing the various drowned that have moved in a bit closer with weapons drawn. You smile as you can see the realization set in.

“Fine. You have me surrounded. So why haven’t you gone ahead and killed me?” She smiles and cocks her hip to the side. “Too busy checking out the goods, or something?”

“Not quite, though I do appreciate the view.” You say with a smile. “What I was hoping was that I, and my fellowed drowned, could cut a bit of a deal with you-”

“I’m not a whore. So if that's the deal you’re trying to cut, just get it out of your mind right now.”

You shake your head. “No no, you have it all wrong. What I want from you is a bit of… information.”

Upon saying that, Anna’s expression goes from one of defiance to one of confusion and intrigue. “Information? On… on what?”

You give her a grin before reaching into your pocket and pulling out the small red crystal you looted from Darren’s corpse. “These Claimant Crystals. I know there were things in the update that altered how they are found and taken, and I’ve never seen them in monster hands before. So I want you to tell me all you know about these…” You think for a moment before continuing. “And also give me yours. The update says everyone has one after level 3, so I am assuming you have one as well, correct?”

She nods. “Well, then in exchange for your information and crystal, I will swear on H’tes himself that none of my drowned will harm you. Sound good?”

Anna looks away from you for a moment, contemplating your offer. Then without a word, she holds out her free hand and, with a small wrist motion, causes a small red crystal to materialize in the air above her open palm. “Deal.” She says before tossing the crystal towards you, which thankfully you manage to catch even with the slowing due to the shift from air to water. “What do you want to know about them?”