Spelunking 41 the END

This is the last page! Turns out Drake is susceptible to fear inducing illusions. Curiosity is a dangerous thing, I guess.

Any way, last bit of info: the shit I made up for Drake, who belongs to , is the final installment of backstory, right on time for the last page.

Drake Legend
Age: 24 physically, 1319 including years spent as a statue
Physical: Blond, blue eyes, dark olive skin, tall, athletic build
Privateer and Pirate, officially disowned by family for career choices, not that
that matters any more.

Family: Royal and dead.

Father: Duke Pickford Legend, 4th in line for the throne and major believer in
Primogenitor despite its unfashionability. Kind of a jerk. Could set
head on fire, kind of lame for a Legend but then blood quality had
been slipping for some time.

Mother: Lady Lillian Leboth Legend, the scion of a major trade family in
Telenum. Most considered their marriage political because of the
Leboth family’s wealth and influence over foreign trade, but there
was some love involved too.

Sister: Giacinta Legend, older than Drake by 3 years and heir to her father’s
title and fortune. Able to light both arms on fire, therefore twice as
awesome as Drake according to Legend judgment of such things.

Sister: Phoenix Legend, younger by 4 years. Strongest of the three in pyromancy
able to light her arms and entire head and torso, which was very
impressive even to the main branch of royals.
She and Drake were quite close despite his being disowned by the family.
They corresponded often and their letters were saved by the Royal Library
of Telemun before being shipped, along with most of the contents of the
RLT, to the Library in Aschryo when the 59th king began showing signs of
mental instability.

Drake was the third cousin to the 37th king of Pattiona and 28th in line for the throne at the time of his being cursed to stone. As a royal and true blooded member of the Legend family he is able to summon fire, though his pyromantic abilities were considered limited by the standards of succession. As a second child he had no inheritance to expect and so turned to privateering at his non-royal uncle Jacob Leboth’s suggestion to gain his fortune. He sailed with that same uncle, starting at age twelve, for eight years before using his status as royalty to gain his own ship at age twenty. He was officially disowned by his family when he accidentally captured the wrong vessel at age 21.

Short tempered but fair, he was known by his small but skilled and loyal crew as all bark and no bite. His royal status did not impress his crew, composed mostly of Aschryans and Cordics as it was. He was also known to have a lover in every port, but did not sleep with any of the women in his crew to avoid conflict. His pyromancy was considered weak by royal standards but it worked for what he used it for; intimidation and setting the rigging of enemy vessels on fire from a distance of 100 yards or less.

Circumstances of Stone Curse: Drake accepted a secret commission from the King of Pattiona to assassinate an important noble of the Ipipsian Alliance, known as the Witch Queen of Plaid. A powerful weather witch, she was disrupting trade in the Kaslenian sea by enabling Ipipsian pirates to raid with impunity. She was also known to be well versed in arcanics, so Drake came up with a plan to infiltrate her coastal fortress, dispatch her guards, disrupt the protective circles and snipe her from a distance while she was distracted by arcane weather manipulations (which generally involve an open area like a wide court yard, lots of magic circles and a great deal of concentrated mental effort, hence guards to keep her from being distracted). However, he miscalculated on the timing and she had not yet started her incantations, and so had her faculties about her when they attempted to strike. His chosen team, consisting of four others, each with some magic or aquamantic skills, were able to take out the guards while he engaged the witch, but her magic kept him at bay and the circles kept any projectiles from reaching her. By the time his quartermaster was able to get close enough to strike with a knife, the witch had gained enough time to cast her coup de gras and turned Drake to stone right before her throat was slit. At the time stone curse was thought to be effectively permanent despite its known 500 year duration, which allows the person to return to life if undamaged enough, but despite that the crew would not allow his family to take possession of the statue or place it in the great hall of the royal palace the way the king wanted. Instead the crew, fearing possible damage in such a public area, sailed to the coast of Aschryo and sealed their captain away in a heavily warded cave to keep him safe from disaster, and kept the location of the cave secret until their deaths. They were able to pay for the incantations and runes needed to keep the cave stable through the aid of the current queen of Aschryo, as repayment by her for a favor rendered by Drake some years ago when he was still allowed at court in Pattiona.

Their actions were both fortuitous and disastrous for Drake. It saved his life, because several coups and earthquakes through out the millennium did indeed heavily damage the Pattionan royal palace, any of which could have easily damaged Drake beyond the point of revivification. However, their wardings, consisting entirely of runes as was the style of the time, also prevented him from awakening at the stone curse’s appointed time, keeping him statuefied for 800 years longer than necessary. And when awakened, upon finding every possible circumstance in his life irrevocably changed beyond recognition, his family, friends, crew, lovers, ship, even his Kingdom all long dead and forgotten, even magic working on different rules because of a gaping hole in the fabric of reality, and forced to rely on the guidance and knowledge of complete utter strangers, and despite his generally optimistic nature, he might occasionally find himself wishing that the Witch Queen had just gone ahead and killed him. Especially on Tuesdays.

So now you know.

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