Aura Cathartes

Ay Queen Fir

5/10/2026 10:32pm

"Wow, you guys did great. Hardly anybody's made it back from Ice 9, and fewer yet with anything to show for it. You must have made a fortune."

It's Ignis Cervus, quartermaster at Point Astrum. It's where we dropped of the cargo. @Ferus Equid gave us 24 hours of R&R.

"A fortune? We're just crew. Nobody's mentioned anything about bonuses. And there's a lot less crew to pay after what happened on Ice 9. Torn apart..." I'm still shuddering whenever I close my eyes.

"Well, hazard pay then?"

"Not part of the contract."

Ignis signals the bartender and she brings us another round.

"Well..." Ignis takes a quick look around. "I have a proposition you might find lucrative..."

Ay Queen Fir

1/8/2026 10:46pm

So it's our first big job. It's all snowy and blowy and they send like 20 of us over to pick it up with a coupe of forklifts. The cargo is on pallets, wrapped in black canvas with white straps holding it down, under floodlights in the dark. Then suddenly I don't know what happens but we're attacked by these giant furry Ice Worms, or tentacles or something. They're bigger than trees but fast as snakes, coming down on us from all over. "Save the cargo!" the supervisor's screaming while sailors are getting grabbed and eaten, parts of them thrown around. The chomping sound, the smell of blood. It felt safer in the forklift so I just kept on driving as fast as it could right back into the hold and they close the doors, ship thrashing, and we take off. I don't know how many crewmen we lost but WTF I ain't going out there again. We need off of this ship, but someplace where there aren't any Ice Worms.

Ay Queen Fir

5/20/2025 6:06pm

I heard you might be looking for some crew?

A mayday is a heck of a way to put out a want ad.

@Ferus Equid