Faerun's Heroes and The Lost Wave Echo Caves

Ella Evenwood

The rain was pounding upon their ragged backs. Grey clouds choked the gap in between the sky and the land, squeezing the horizon into a shroud of miserable fog. Even docked at the innermost section of Neverwinter's large docks, where the water ought to be calmer, the salt water sprayed through the wooden slits of the hull and lulled the ship into a nauseating rock - back and forth, back and forth. This job wasn't for the light stomached.

The youngest girl on the current job, only but an orphaned half-elf teenager, was unfortunate to drop a box of crockery whilst climbing down the slippery ladder to the lower under-decks.

"Clumsy whore!" bellowed the Captain from his crowd of male crew-mates, who sniggered an evil laughter in echo.

The girl began to sob, though barely audible above the bustling sound of a busy dock and crashing distant waves of the powerful Sea of Swords.

"Don't laugh now, boys. Have some respect." Said Captain Scarface, a sly grin alight upon his grubby face. Everyone fell to silence. The man tucked his hands upon his belt and took deliberate steps upon board. Upon her hands and knees, Ella felt each jolt of metal-clad boot.

"Would you like a break, young girl?" He asked, looking down upon her at the bottom of the ladder, surrounded in a pile of broken plates and cups.

She hastily wiped away her tears and eagerly nodded.

"No half-elf scum is allowed a break, but perhaps a change of job, one far more pleasurable.... at least for me."

The crew members laughed, raised eyebrows and began to disperse. They knew what was coming, along with the likes of Ella who had been doing these laborious jobs and worked under the command of Captain Scarface before. He paid the best, you see. And hired females.

Ella grit her teeth, hauling another barrel of goods upon her back to carry on board as the ship men watched in mockery. She tasted a hint of blood in her mouth and could not tell whether the saltiness was from water of the earth or sweat from her forehead mixed in, trickling down her sunken face. She liked to think of it as the taste of determination and hope for better things to come. But, in this moment, even she struggled to have such imagination. 

The Captain disappeared down below and bolted the hatch door closed behind him.

"I'll take us out to dinner after this job, just you see. We are nearly done, they will pay us fair and we may have the rest of the day to eat," she whispered to a fellow young working lady whom she'd come to consider a friend. 

The girl paused for a brief second, mostly to catch her breath rather than reply, and signaled a weak smile. That's when the girl's crying screams started, and satisfied sighs and moans of pleasure grew louder.

Focus on other sounds. Say nothing. Keep working, attain coin and afford food.

Ella was never meant for a life of hardship. The plan had been prosperous rural town living in Thundertree, surrounded by woodland and adventure. Her mother grew up there, and her mother before. A happily married couple became Mr and Mrs Evenwood and inherited a quaint family home on the edge of town, where they would raise a few children into a loving world. Thundretree had magnificent views of forest and mountainous landscapes, overlooked by the almighty Mt Hotenow volcanic fossil to the North. A picturesque scene to thrive in peaceful creativity. It was a popular destination for the humans in North Faerun; the town steadily expanding.

That was until the ancient volcano was resurrected and the humans saw its devastating wrath for the first time.

First came the earth-trembling explosion - an earthly yell that shocked over the entire region. Most living creatures had been perished by the pyroclastic cloud hurtling down the mountain side like a burning black tsunami. Ella's parents were two of the few who escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs.  They managed to make it to Phandalin as the lava lakes poured into the river, bursting its banks. Red waves washed down to Neverwinter, roaring over the sound of warning bells. Ash rain suffocated the screaming.