A compo...

Dicing with death
It was a wild, blustery morning. However, I and my crew were standing proud and tall upon the harbour, with full knowledge that we were about to set out for the greatest voyage of our lives. The renowned Lord of the Palatine Empire had hired us to set out for unchartered waters in the East, rumoured to contain the savage beasts such as manticores, hydras and dragons. Of course, being seasoned explorers with hundreds of expeditions under our belts, these tales did not unfazed us and we promised the Lord that we would find new lands and name them in his great name. Today was the great day and the time for our setting off had finally arrived. In retrospect, the unusually bad weather should have served as an omen for the trip ahead but we thought nothing of it. Rakdos slashed off the mooring lines and we set off into the downpour…
Once we left the harbour, everybody on board started playing their role on the ship like a well-oiled machine. Everyone knew his place and all were working hard at it, even in the lashings of the weather. I was indeed very proud to be the captain of the crew and my ship, the Ravnica. She was a magnificent frigate and had lasted many decades with us on the high seas, serving our needs as a home, transport and weapon. Thirty years on, she still responded flawlessly to our commands, and I praised myself on my shrewdness on selecting such a loyal crew and wonderful transport. It was after we had sailed for quite a few hours that we began to wonder at the relentlessness of the tempest. Its continued ferociousness puzzled us as we had never seen such a powerful storm last so long without blowing itself out eventually. Night fell and some of the man had started to show tiredness at having to battle its terrible onslaught. Through experience, I had to admit that further progress would not do much good except exhaust us. We retired to our cabins and I doubled the men’s grog rations.
Fortunately, daybreak brought us respite from the tempest of last night, and all of us were glad to see Sol again. Further good news was brought by Gorro at the crow’s nest, who had sighted land. Uplifted at the chance of being able to replenish food and water, not to mention repairing the ship, we rowed at full speed towards it. After casting anchor, we went inland, and were surprised to find some natives. Ascertaining that they were not hostile, we gladly accepted their offer to join them for a meal. However, I realized that I had to get gifts in return for their hospitable meal, and returned to bring it. To my shock, I saw a few men not unlike the natives of the island boarding it from afar. When I got closer, I had difficulty understanding their language, but understood a line saying that survivors of the night’s sacrifice would not be able to escape the island now. Enraged, I leapt upon my ship. With my cutlass and revolver, I shot and hacked the scheming natives, and blood from their bodies scattered upon the beach.
Making my way back to my men, I saw that they were just about to begin a feast, but I when exposed one of the dead natives’ head, and my crew saw the shocked expressions of the natives and understood the conspiracy. Being no match for our weapons and our better fighting skills, the natives were massacred. None of us showed regret at killing such devious beings, which was just as well. After gathering what we could from the surprisingly plentiful island, we loaded many grains and wild beasts on board, and then left the island before anymore of the cannibals could spot us and decide to make a meal of us. Dimir, our navigator set our course back on East and we sailed ahead.
Some weeks passed without event, and all of us amused ourselves by playing music or card games. Reference to my log book showed me that we had travelled almost a third of our journey, the storm blowing us further than we could have predicted. Unfortunately for us, this meant that we had to face one of the greater challenges earlier than we had expected. We were told by some of the Palatine advisors that there was a narrow, treacherous strait that we had to pass in order to reach the unchartered lands. It was treacherous as though it appeared calm from afar, there existed a powerful maelstrom within the strait that had the ability to tear apart any boat that dared venture within its reach. Still, we faced the would-be danger bravely, trusting our innate ability and the toughness of the boat.
The time had come as we moved forward towards the strait. Orzhov, with the sharpest eyes on board, stood upon the crow’s nest and tried to catch sight of the whirlpool. Luck was to be ours as he soon gave notice that there was indeed an opening small enough for Ravnica to pass through. The deck was soon covered with my working crew, all trying hard in order to ensure our collective safety, as everyone knew that if the ship went down, they would too. As Orzhov shouted directions from the nest, we swung and reeled upon the increasingly raging waves. Soon, we heard the roaring of the maelstrom, eager to suck us into its icy depths. Of course, we would not let it achieve that so easily. At a loud command from Orzhov, we keeled sharply to port and swiftly evaded the gaping maw of the watery beast. Cheers erupted from the crew as we proved, once again, that our experience had saved the day.
Just as we were caught up at swept further upon our course by the strong eastern current past the straits, we saw that another storm, almost of the same intensity as the one that had hit us as we had exited the port. It sent shivers through my men and me, as we recalled with horrifying clarity the events that nearly befell us following such a storm. I ordered my crew to take night watch in shifts, in case of any danger that may erupt upon the seas.
Alas, trouble was to strike us once again. Upon my watch, as day break was soon approaching, the ship rocked hard all of a sudden and threw me upon my feet. The crew in the cabins was awakened as well, and all rushed upon the deck, rifles and sabers at the ready. All of us peered past the sides of Ravnica to try and seek what had been the cause of the rocking. Our question did not go unanswered for long, but in the hard way, as we heard the shocked cry of Nivix as he went overboard, in the tight grasp of some thing eerily like a huge tentacle. Other crew members came to me shouting about two great eyes, bigger than Dinner plates, shining out form the dark water. Terror struck my heart as I recognized these to be the signs of the Kraken, a legendary but extremely dangerous sea monster. My suspicions were soon confirmed as it raised its bulk of the water. Though we had read and heard about the description of these beasts many times over in our expeditions, nothing could prepare me for the sight that now loomed before me. It was a massive creature with tentacles each no less than 100 meters long, and I caught sight of its enormous head that must have been 10 metres across and 30 metres long. Its large, luminous eyes glared at me hungrily. Recovering from the shock, the crew snapped to attention at my command, “We shall do battle with this abomination!”
Knowing that the main weapon of the Kraken was its tentacles, I bade all the gunners rush down to our 30 cannons and fire hard at them. Our coordinated attack evidently shocked the beast, who, with some of its large appendages smoking and oozing black fluid, retreated swiftly back in to the ocean depths. We thought, at first, that it had decided to give up attacking us, but we were proven rather wrong. Seeming to have learnt form its previous mistake, with its good tentacles it smashed our cannons, wetting the gunpowder and rendering them useless. Shocked at this turn of events, we had everyone take out their weapons, and hack as hard as they could against those monstrosities leashing across our deck, endeavoring to drag us down. Our combined effort managed to cut one of the tentacles into half. Thrashing and groaning in pain, it went down under again.
Knowing that it would not be long before it returned to assault us again, we tried frantically to come up with a plan. We all turned to Azorius, the smartest on board, and he soon envisioned a risky way to kill to great beast once and for all. The entire crew scoured the ship in order to gather materials, and we soon returned, not one with his hands empty. Stuffing all the remaining combustibles in to a huge barrel, we awaited the Kraken’s return. It did so with great aplomb, and to our delight raised its gaping maw, as if to scare us. Unfazed by the bloody sight, Gruul, the strongest on board threw the barrel into the mouth with all his might and without missing a beat, I fired a series of shots through the same place.
A huge explosion resulted as fire met gunpowder. The monster’s head was blown into smithereens and we all yelled in delight. We cheered yet again as the tentacles, without a mind of their own, fell limp into the water. Once more, we had overcome the great unknown. With this in mind, we set off with a new heart and moved ever closer to our destination…
Medieval, for once...