literature

32. Exploration

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Selva went to the helm.  Artemis was navigating brilliantly, reading one of his trashy paperback novels.

"Are we on course, helmsman?"

"Yes, Captain,"

"Good"

They were searching the planes for treasure, and it looked like they were about to find some.
A rival vessel approached.  Selva didn't recognize the banner.  She pulled out her book of emblems.  None of them matched.

"Hmm, call the crew,"

A large blue bell appeared beside them, and rang three times.  In a minute, the entire crew assembled.
Creatures, machines, spirits, all ready to do the bidding of their captain.

"We approach a vessel, crew.  Let's give 'em Hel,"

The other ship approached. They were headed roughly along the same course.  Selva gave the order to bring the ship alongside.

"Attention unidentified vessel.  Surrender your goods or pay with your lives.  By the charter of Malcriant, you have 5 minutes to negotiate,"

There was no reply.  The crew prepared to board.  The shifting engines readied, and a small sortie went aboard.  Selva led it herself, followed by Trent, Slick, and Ross.  Ross sensed the aether.
"Nothing alive, Captain, but I am detecting traces.. of undeath,"

"Shiv, I hate undead," Selva said.

She motioned them down into first floor.  Her tablet began to produce a map, using software that emulated extrasensory perception.
There were a number of skeletons, or rather, broken bones.  Nothing of use in undeath.

"Have Ruby ready. We'll have to purge the ship of the sorcery," she commed.

"Roger captain," Trent replied.

Ross began chanting a lock release spell.  Selva and the others stayed alert.
Right before he finished, the door unlocked and opened to darkness.  Selva tossed a globe into the room, but it gave no light.

"I think we're going to get to the bottom of this derelict quickly,"

she said.

They waited.. and waited. and waited.  It wanted them to come inside.

"If I may, Captain," Ross said.

"You may, owl," Selva.

"It's got to be a trap inside. I say we unload our artillery into the room and see if anything moves."

"And waste valuable energy or ammunition?" Selva replied, "Let's just go back.  No amount of treasure is worth losing our lives over," Selva said.

They did.  They went back out and got transported out.

She met with her crew, "It's too dangerous to sortie.  Let's just blow it apart and see what we can salvage,"

So they did. They fired on it, blasted it to pieces. The necromantic magic disappeared.  A modest amount of raw materials. There was a one bonus item, however.  A small humanoid figure, probably a child, untouched by dark magic.  An innocent to shadow the dreams of Selva du ChateauxBriand.
A brief writing exercise using the original 100 list of prompts. When I can't think of anything to write, I use that.

It's also in the vein of a campaign I'm working on for Trains of Thought. I'm torn between two different settings/ideas
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