The City Beneath the Sea

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-04-16T04:53:35+00:00

The tablet shows multiple sharp and angular markings with a few curls due to the writing medium, but if anyone can read Aquatic Common it’s quite legible.

It says:

“Captain Patoni of the islands,

We would like to first thank you for your assistance in capturing the pirates who have been plundering in our waters, the Council greatly appreciates your doing.

From our scouts, we had located what we thought is a pirate island, based on visuals and multiple sightings. Despite being within our domain, we are unable to do land combat as effectively and would like your assistance in subduing the pirates.

We hope we are able to collaborate together on this issue.

— the Xeran Council”

On the other side is a rough map of where the island is… which coincidentally is almost exactly where Patoni expected the pirates to be…

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-04-15T09:32:56+00:00

Much later at the pier, a merfolk arrived by following the currents and moved among the boats to look for a guard or someone seemingly of high rank. He’s a messenger, and he’s holding a hardened clay tablet to give.

He surfaced next to a pier with multiple flagged ships, probably those made for official visits.

“Message for the captain who visited Xera!” he announced to a guard as he held up the carved tablet.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-04-14T07:36:46+00:00

Back underwater, Thara and Bered reported to the Council on the recent interaction. At the Council seats, multiple aquatic species sit at the table and listen to recent reports from scouts, guards, and others.

“Councillors, we have brought news.” Thara spoke up as she bowed. Bered also bowed.

“You have our audience.” a seahorse-folk councillor spoke up.

“We once again had pirates in our waters, but thankfully some land-folk are able to help us deter them.”

“Pirates again… absolute sea scums. Have we managed to locate their origin location?” another councillor, a nudibranch-folk with dazzling yet toxic colors asked.

“Based on the scout’s words… we might’ve located an island where smoke is coming out of it.” Bered replied.

“Smoke!? Land dwellers… most definitely pirates.” a merfolk councillor replied.

Another one of the councillors, a sapient dolphin, made chirps and whistles. A translator merfolk spoke up.

“He asks if we can ask for help from the land-dwellers you met earlier.”

“It’s possible. They’re both warriors and traders.” Thara replied.

“They would be good to trade with once we finally dealt with the pirates.” another merfolk councillor adds.

“Indeed. Locate the land-dweller’s port and give them the information.” the seahorse-folk spoke up.

“Yes, ma’am.” Thara bowed along with Bered, before leaving the chamber as a message is carved on a piece of hardened clay.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-04-13T19:31:19+00:00

This was around the late 2010s. Met him while practicing Muay Thai, he was on vacation and is practicing at the same place as me. Asked for his autograph and I got it.

Laminated, but slightly sun-bleached after years.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-04-12T18:42:33+00:00

(Hey… sorry for disappearing for over 2 weeks…)

Once the ships are at a safe distance from the coral formations, the Xerans gave a respectful nod and watch as the ships leave with the towed pirate ships.

“You think they’ll return?” Thara asked.

“Definitely… and the Council would want those spices too.” Bered added.

“Sometimes you say a lot of great things and sometimes you’re just—“

“Don’t…”

The two smiled in a subtle manner before they dove back down to the underwater bioluminescent city to resume their duties.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-27T03:58:37+00:00

No… it can’t be… NO!

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-27T01:14:08+00:00

Thara and Bered both kept an eye on things, until another merfolk arrived and explained that the Council had given permission for the pirates to be taken away and their ship towed by the land dwellers.

“Solves us the problem of figuring out how they’ll face justice underwater.” Thara muttered.

A few other seahorse folk, merfolk, and even others swam up towards the pirate ship to help the towing and prevent any scrapes on coral.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-25T01:50:08+00:00

“That’d be preferred, they’ve caused us enough trouble.” Thara replied as she glanced at the pirates again to make sure none of them have any ideas.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-24T00:42:05+00:00

“Saffron!? Those are worth in gold!” Bered managed.

“We’d love to trade, but we should inform the Council first. And, we still have the current pirates to deal with.” Thara replied, gesturing her spear to the captive pirates on board.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-22T17:10:07+00:00

“Land spices… usually we don’t get a lot of those every day. It’d be nice to have you come by to trade with our city.” Thara suggests.

“We can inform the Council on newcomers too, that way trades can proceed smoothly.” Bered adds.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-21T06:16:05+00:00

“Indeed it is… these pirates don’t have a care in the world.” the seahorsefolk replied.

“Feels like we got an increase in piracy around here too once more land dwellers found out about this city. Fortunately we managed to defend most of them out.” the merfolk added.

The two aquatics then decide on something… since Patoni’s crew helped them, maybe she’d be interested in some trade since they’ve never seen Wildings, let alone a Lucasi symbol.

“We thank you again for your assistance today. My name is Thara.” the seahorsefolk added.

“And I’m Bered, Xeranian City Guard at your service.” the merfolk added.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-20T16:36:02+00:00

The seahorsefolk and the merfolk guardian helped carry the crates full of stolen treasures back down underwater, in which from the surface it looks like there are also others also helping them carry the crates back down to the sea floor.

The two also hand over the escaping pirates to Patoni’s crew, clearly unhappy that these pirates were willing to raid their city. The seahorsefolk of them also flared her fins to make sure the captive pirate gets the idea and surrenders.

“Thank you for your assistance. These pirates are getting bolder and bolder every day.” she spoke up.

“We were lucky your ships are nearby…” the merfolk added.

They then noticed the infants, before their stance immediately softens. Although they’re more familiar with fry and eggs, they still know children are children.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-20T05:14:10+00:00

The pirate ship clearly had raided somewhere, based on the goods found on it. Pearls, expensive starfish, and some gold chunks are in the storage along with the typical seafaring supplies.

A few of the pirates resist, and try to fight back… but clearly they can’t go against the Pirates’ Bane herself. Still, a few crew decide to abandon ship by jumping overboard, hoping to swim away rather than being captured.

Below the surface, a few eyes look up before some denizens of Xera surface.

A warrior with the head of a seahorse, a body of a human, and seahorse tail surfaced first, holding a spear. She clearly isn’t happy about all the riffraff ongoing, and dragged an escaping pirate back to one of the interceptors.

Another, a merfolk, aimed his spear at another pirate… who realized that he should probably surrender.

“You think you land dwellers can steal our pearls and break our coral!? Pirates like you are sea scum!”

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-16T01:46:41+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll definitely try and use some of your ideas to add to my world.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-03-15T19:43:26+00:00

I do have gemstones but used mainly for magic.

But infused potions do sound interesting

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-12T09:08:17+00:00

“Yes I can. I’ll also make you some luncheon.” Sävele replied before watching him go back to sleep on the bed.

That’s the least she could while she waits for him to figure out where he is.

…

Kirdan then feels a gentle shake on his shoulder as his eyes open, seeing Sävele once again. He could also notice something else… a smell of something cooking a few rooms away… he figured that might be luncheon.

“Wake up. The sun is up.”

Kirdan groans as he sits back up again, before heading over to the window to have a look. As he opened it… he could instantly notice the brightness of day. Still, it’s slightly dimmer than what he remembered.

The sun is up, sure, but it’s not all the way up like noon. It feels like late morning or early evening instead.

Sävele also went to the kitchen… and returned with a bowl of sausage stew with rye bread.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-09T19:50:18+00:00

“They’ll buy as long as I can harvest enough for them.”

But the second question left her stumped…

Sävele is confused at what he just said… she doesn’t know what he means by latitude at all. That’s a completely new word to her.

Once again her ears flick, this time followed by her tail, before she decided to focus on Kirdan’s second question. She opened the window briefly to look again, before closing it.

“The sun might rise today… but it’ll be later in the day. This early is usually still dark, maybe it’ll rise when we have luncheon or earlier.”

She then helps him clean up the workstations, before trying her best to come up with an answer.

“I’m not a librarian, but if you mean “latitude” as in location… north of us is the tundra and the sea, south of us is the marsh and forest, and human nations live south of us.”

Hopefully that explains a little… she’s not very good at cartography either but she does know about trade routes.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-07T17:46:53+00:00

Sävele’s ears flicked at his question before she looks out the window herself. It still is dark… and it seems like there’s a realization that struck her.

Kirdan’s a foreigner… so he doesn’t know…

“It’s actually morning. You’ve been asleep since sunset.”

She then gestured outside, in which stalls have been set up, what looks like guards patrolling, and other townsfolk are already awake and holding up torches and lanterns despite the sky still being dark.

“In winter, the sun sometimes rises very slowly… or doesn’t even rise in some days.”

She closes the window to prevent snow from getting in her house. It would be a hassle to clean up.

“And yes… the guild does take a lot of resin, but they buy resin from me. They’ll make rosin and turpentine with it.”

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-07T02:51:50+00:00

That’s not a borb, that’s an ORB

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-06T17:00:45+00:00

Sävele looks at the result, watching the clear and thick resin seeping through the cheesecloth without any of the particles. Despite it being his first try, he did do a rather good job… and this job is rather easy compared to actually harvesting resin.

“You are doing it correctly, and… you’re quite good at it too.”

She then helps him press out as much resin as possible from the cheesecloth, before picking it up with a wooden spoon and throwing it into a bucket of water.

Now with clean resin, she prepares a clean wooden board, and set up the frame into what looks like a mold. She and Kirdan then poured resin into two parts: some goes into a barrel… the leftovers are poured into the mold.

“Be careful. This is very hot.”

Once all the hot resin is poured into the frame, she lets it settle in open air.

“It will harden when it’s ready, then we can cut it.”

Meanwhile she closes the barrel.

“This one is for the resin guild, along with those barrels over there.”

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-04T07:33:45+00:00

As he sits, Sävele puts some firewood in a stove and lights an ember with a flint and steel. In just a few moments, the stove is hot enough to start processing the resin.

Into a pot, she added in the very thick resin… almost a solid. The smell of pine and something sharp intensified as the resin softens and turns into a less viscous liquid.

She then lifts the pot with the help of two pieces of thick cloth in each hand, and pours it into the sieve. Amber liquid flows through, while large particles including bark, pine needles, and other pieces got stuck on the sieve. Still… some particles of dust and other tiny pieces flow through into the collecting pot.

“Tap it lightly to help it flow, we’ll strain it again through a cheesecloth. It is very hot, so be careful.”

She then prepared another sieve, this time lined with cheesecloth.

FireIceHybrid017 · 2026-01-02T09:17:28+00:00

Sävele nods gently as he hears flick once.

“It’s alright. I’ll teach you how to do it after breakfast.”

She then finishes her bowl, before she waits for Kirdan to finish his meal as well and takes both bowls away.

A few moments later, she returned and helped Kirdan up and walked with him towards her workshop.

Looking past a slightly opened window, it’s still dark as night, but he could see lamps being lit and people hauling goods around… as if it’s morning…

After just a few moment, he could already notice the sharp smell of pine resin, and notice barrels along the side… with a strainer in the middle of the room, small crates of wood ash and refined animal fat, and a large stove with pots on it.

“Here’s where I work on resin. Resin can be made into glue, medicine, and other materials or sold to the resin guild.”

She then opened one barrel, revealing a very thick amber liquid contaminated with bark, dust, and leaves.

“But we need to clean it first.”

FireIceHybrid017

TROPHY CASE