Gathering in the Depth’s Despair.

Within the bowels of the ever changing labyrinth of The Depth’s Despair, the small pearlescent blue crab, known as Snitch™, scuttled about the twisting coral maze that made up the ship’s frame. He made soft, irritated, clicking sounds with each jerk and bump made by the crashing sea water. It was Snitch’s opinion that the captain clearly had no idea where they were, or where they were headed, but he’d learned long ago that his opinion was rarely taken into account and it was best to let the angry and melancholic “prince of the sea” have his way.

That’s what he referred to himself as anyway. Snitch found this self imposed title for the captain odious at best, as Karibdus™ was quite ugly for a prince. Snitch had been found by Crustaceous™ within the caverns of the Dreadtide Reef, and had latched onto the hulking crab monster out of the sheer desire to survive their oppressive and seemingly endless prison.

It was clear to him that Karibdus merely tolerated their dynamic, and saw very little value in the small creature’s presence. This suited Snitch just fine, as it allowed him to come and go as he pleased, with almost no notice as his significance had been relegated to that of the ship’s pet.

Snitch was no pet, but he was hungry, and was making his way back from raiding Angler-Saxus’™ post, where rations were being collected.

The surface of the Tide-Realms had changed since Karibdus’ banishment, and the selection of nourishment had increased drastically. Angler Saxus seemed to be developing a taste for what the natives referred to themselves as… “humans.” Snitch found these creatures to be gangly, loud, and oddly shaped and he had no interest in finding out how they tasted.

Conveniently enough, Saxus seemed to also be hoarding all the good stuff, too. Snitch had made off with a sack full of clams, left over fish heads, and other oddities, and he intended to enjoy himself in the corner of Karibdus’ quarters, in which he had since found a way of reappropriating one of the captain’s boots into a temporary hiding spot.

Snitch knew he would be discovered at one point, but relished the idea of his captain placing his clawed foot within the boot first to give him a good pinch, before escaping to the safety of Crustaceous… Then, in search of a new place to feed. In all his searching and pilfering, Snitch had also amassed a small following of smaller crabs who, docile and dense as they were, seemed to revere him as some form of guide. And so, he caught the all clear from one of his companions, and made his way to the warmer side of the captain’s quarters where Karibdus was nowhere to be seen… For the moment…

Carkarious™ shambled out from the lower decks, having prepared the brig at his captain’s behest.

His haphazardly attached peg leg scraped against the barnacle encrusted decks as he shouldered another length of chain to add to the anchor. The first mate ground his multiple rows of teeth as he looked for someone to assign this task to. Nephropsis™ would do. He approached the lobster-like creature and tossed the heavy chain in his direction, without warning. Nephropsis caught it… But with his face. He shook it off in fury as Carkarious rounded the corner towards the next set of stairs. “Weigh anchor!" The shark monster hissed as he left.

Nephropsis grumbled to himself his displeasure surrounding the current status of the hierarchy on The Depth’s Despair. Despite being a bottom feeder, he had always seen himself as the superior warrior, and despised Carkarious’ newfound piety as first mate.

Carkarious clawed his way through the next corridor of the ship, intent on establishing perfect order above decks before his captain issued their next heading. Unlike the rest of his skeptical crewmates, Carkarious had no doubt of Karibdus’ intentions as captain, and did not waste time analyzing the particulars.

Despite his disinterest in dissecting their current route, the shark-being did find himself rather unnerved by a presence within the depths surrounding their ship. Karibdus seemed aware of it, too, but he did not bring it up with the rest of the crew. Upon occasion, the mass of twisted coral and deep sea crust that made up their vessel, would shift and convulse, letting out a strange and almost mournful sound. It was what followed after these strange noises that kept Carkarious awake at night.

A vast and tangled mass of ... what he could only describe as living reef, would sometimes blot out any signs of light from the surface one could see through the sea glass windows on the ship, and all would turn black for a moment. Carkarious was more instinct than brain, but he did not get the feeling any attack was imminent. Something more profound seemed to guild this strange being. It was like they were being followed…

As though reading his thoughts, this very same thing happened again before he could reach the hatch to the upper decks. A deep, low, melancholic sound travelled through the halls of the ship, and reached the ears of the crew. It even sounded…familiar to the first mate. Like he might have known the thoughts of this beast at one point in his life, but had stopped listening to its call. The ship jerked and he saw it. Very faintly, in the murky depths outside the ship…was a throbbing, red eye of vast proportion. It vanished again before he had time to process.

The silence he was left in didn’t last long as Violacious,™ the ship’s lookout, came hurtling through the hallway, at breakneck speed, in a complete hysterical fit. The cephalopod pirate was known for irrational paranoia, and was a hair-trigger by nature. In panic, he began firing his pistol at the walls in some unnecessary attempt at self preservation. Carkarious had absolutely no patience for his antics, and grabbed him by his tentacled face and slammed him to the floor.

“Cease your pointless writhing you mollusk!” Violacious let out a muffled, and unintelligible, accusation through Carkarious’ grip. He took out a small knife and stabbed at the first mate’s hand to get loose. Wrenching himself free, he spat in Carkarious’ direction. “I told you it was watching!”

With that, he shoved past Carkarious and sped up the stairs out of reach. Carkarious rolled his solid black eyes and rubbed at the wound on his hand. He’d hardly felt it, but it gave him more ammunition to his already strong resolve to eat Violacious… at some point in the future.

Dragging himself the rest of the way to the upper decks, Carkarious limped along towards the captain’s quarters to inform Karibdus that they were ready to descend.

He caught sight of Angler-Saxus lumbering about the decks, clearly in search of something. He was absentmindedly sharpening his weapon while conducting this hunt. Looking within barrels and checking the nets in the rigging. Saxus was mostly a weapon with teeth, and rarely came out of the hull unless provoked. “Why have you left your post, bottom dweller?”

Drooling on the deck as he turned to meet the first mate, Saxus spat out something, through his maze of pointed teeth, regarding some missing rations. Carkarious advised him to return to the lower decks, and that he would handle it. Angler-Saxus resentfully obliged, and vanished the same way the first mate had come.

Carkarious turned with accusation in his eyes… He knew exactly what had occurred.

That little “Snitch” of Crustaceous’ had been raiding the storeroom again, and had likely bunked down in Karibdus’ chambers once more. With no thought to tact, Carkarious burst into the quarters and zeroed in on the furthest corner of the room. There, he could hear small clicking sounds of delight as fish bones were quietly being tossed onto the floor, from within a currently out of use boot.

The small, crab culprit paused, as he could hear aggressive thumping headed in his direction… Followed by his masterful hiding place being picked up, and he, unceremoniously, was pulled out of the bottom of the boot, snack completely interrupted. Snitch let out an offended shriek, before processing who it was that had ruined his moment of victory… He wilted when he realized the circumstances he now found himself in.

Carkarious glared at Snitch before his expression changed to a toothy, self satisfied grin.

Snitch winced, as it didn’t take Gelatinous’ intelligence to figure out what the first mate had on his mind. “You have pilfered the ship’s rations for the last time, little appetizer! I don’t care what your lumbering bodyguard does to me, YOU’RE FISH FOOD!”

It was at this point that the aforementioned "bodyguard," known as Crustaceous, lumbered past the open door of the captain’s quarters, and caught sight of Carkarious beginning to gnaw at the outer shell of Snitch’s helpless form. He let out a small squeak and Crustaceous, not known to breach the boundary of his captain’s chambers, burst into the room. The hulking, crab monster grabbed Carkarious by the neck, hoisting him into the air, so his finned head hit the ceiling and wrenched Snitch out of his mouth. Snitch scuttled around Crustaceous’ body, before settling on top of his shoulder, so he could get a good view of what atrocity was about to be inflicted upon the first mate.

Grabbing Carkarious by either end, it was clear from his posture that Crustaceous meant to snap the first mate in two like a wish bone. He did not get the chance as the gurgling voice of Gelatinous™ came from the now broken doorway. “They’re in here, Captain!”

Upon spotting the see-through form of the ship’s interrogator step aside, with the Captain in plain view, Crustaceous dropped the first mate, headfirst, on the deck. Hard. Carkarious let out an “Arrrgh!!” before scrambling upright and facing Karibdus, whose eyes moved from one shipmate to another as though searching for a culprit.

His deep, orange, glowing eyes landed on the small, and self satisfied, form of Snitch, who was still atop the hulking crab monster’s body. Mildly irritated, but dismissing the altercation as another waste of time provoked by the tiny thief’s antics, his eyes then landed back on Carkarious, who snapped to attention.

“We’re ready to descend, Captain…” He said, still eyeing Snitch with malice. Karibdus stepped into his quarters, surveying the damage. “It seems we already have… It's as though we never left Dreadtide…” The crew members looked to one another, as it was clear this was addressed to everyone. Even Gelatinous stood to attention as Karibdus’ low, and ancient, tone fell upon their ears.

“Return to your posts. This world is to be washed clean.”

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Pilferus “Snitch”

Karibdus and a few members of The Tideborne Crew.

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The Pirate’s Codex. Official lore of The Tide-Realm Corsairs.