There were a lot of things to do when landing on an unknown island, and sadly naming it wasn't even close to the top. Not only was it better to actually explore the island to find distinguishing features, but there were other matters to attend to first.
“Alright,” Captain Sebastian Bluerose exclaimed, as he jumped on top of the crate he placed himself on the deck to stand on: “This is a new island, unexplored by us, but that doesn't mean it's uninhabited. In fact, it's very likely that there are monsters here, those who have never seen the outside of their home nor humans. Unless humans live her as well, then they know us, but that's beside the point. As there is this gap around the island, it's been closed off the rest of the world, even more than the rest of the Mist Sea—well, the rest that we have discovered thus far at least. What I want to say is, this is a very exciting point in the life of an explorer, and you are here to share it with us!
“So you may ask yourself 'What is there to do?' and I can assure you, that each and every one of you have important tasks. We will split the crew up into four groups, because I hate waiting around!” There was groaning among the senior crewmembers, who already had their share of this side of the captain.
He continued as if he hadn't heard anything: “The first group is the most important one. We leave a minimum crew at the Reverence to protect it and to make sure that at least some of us make it back. This group will be led by First Mate Scarlet. Any volunteers?” A lot of hands rose, almost everyone of the senior crew, followed by several new crewmembers, who quickly picked up the signs: “Scarlet, make your pick.”
Of course the most experienced sailors were picked, much to the dismay and dread of the ones who weren't chosen. What would the captain ask of the rest? That would be answered soon: “The second group starts with cartographic the surrounding area. We are here to make maps, and before the two other groups will set out, we'll make sure that this area is save. The cartographers will be led by Ocher.” As a mage who had some affinity to earth and could even find minerals underground, this was a task which would easily come to her.
Captain Sebastian Bluerose went on with his explanation after Ocher chose her helpers among a lot of volunteers, as most of the crew already saw the trend, that each task would become increasingly difficult and dangerous: “The third group will be led by Quartermaster Greggor and will look for food, water, and shelter. Until the map is done and copied, we will stay on this island, and this one is big. So we better provide sustenance to ourselves and spare our provisions.” Heavy swallowing sounds and tense forehead furrowing breezed through those who weren't assigned a task yet, as the others sighed in relief. The big question was: Would this still be safer than what the captain would do? While the crew more or less knew their captain a little bit by now, it was very unlikely, but would they be better to volunteer to explore the undiscovered island to find sustenance—which was at least a certain task—or follow the whims of Captain Sebastian Bluerose?
In the end, most tried to get into that group and Greggor had to make his pick. “Splendid,” the captain said in a cheery voice, which was scarier than Scarlet's yells and curses for those who were left: “The rest comes with me! We'll just take a look what adventures this island has to offer!”
It was hard to read what those who would follow the captain thought, but there was a single whisper, which was like a chant: “Please be boring, please be boring.”
Of course, just taking a look was unconventional and simply not smart, but every single one of these people knew that accompanying this expedition would be dangerous and that several of them wouldn't return. Yet, if they were able to, their lives would improve immensely, instead of wasting their lives away in debt or imprisonment, they could take that one chance to turn everything around, a gamble of their live. For most, even a loss would be preferable for the lives they would have lived. So instead of panicking, a grim determination began to grab them, as many of them wasted their lives away anyway, and now they could earn all of it back.
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For those who volunteered because they thought of their lives as boring and lost themselves in their dreams of adventurers and self-glorification, this became a rude realization that they actually did a leap of faith and that escaping this island on their own would be impossible and if they died here, they wouldn't only proven their folks back home right with their laughs and thoughts about this expedition, but also that they won't even properly buried.
To call it a rude awakening would be an understatement.
Scarlet's group thought they would be all relaxed, but the first mate was relentless: “Hands out of your pants and on deck! We will check every nook and cranny of the ship! We need to have her in top condition, and we will do some drills so that we can return to sea in less than a minute, in case the captain comes running, followed by tribesmen that didn't appreciate him sticking his fingers into their dark-cult shenanigans.”
Strangely enough, there was that one fellow who spoke up, maybe encouraged of having solid ground under his feet and some experience with magic: “Let us rest, we were busy-”
Scarlet didn't even bother, she quickly weaved a water bubble, caught him and slowly levitated him close to the water where the current would shoot him out into the open sea. Scarlet turned him upside down and then opened the bubble to release his head: “Any questions?”
“No, no, Ma'am!” She threw him roughly back on the beach. The positive aspect of this short exchange was to boost the morale of the group... or rather their fear of Scarlet, which would be much better in the long term. At least according to her.
In the meantime, Ocher was busy unloading their surveyor's equipment. While she could use her magic to get a feel of the surrounding land, it would be like trying to measure a distance with your eyes. With some experience you would get close, but never exact. Yet this was the expected standard if they want to draw a map of this island, and depending on how big it was, it might take months to get every bit of data they needed.
That was the sad truth of the matter, this expedition won't be that much seafaring and much more staying on an island, measure every bit they needed of the shoreline and of important landmarks, and if everything went well, it was boring beyond imagination.
However, for Ocher the worst part was to teach the new members about the surveying work, as they tended to be less detailed than desirable. “Please, the string has to be at the same level for both posts, please lace it a level higher on this one, then taut it, and then make the knot. You see the two colors of the string? Each of these stripes is a set exact distance, so we only need to measure the last bit as long everything has been made properly. Ah, that post needs to be driven deeper, until this mark. Not higher, not lower.” It wasn't an exact science however, as these tools were more of a help to get decently enough exact numbers, which annoyed the inner Ocher a lot, which is why she wanted to be as precise as possible while setting their equipment up.
These two teams were working close or on the ship, which was why most of the people thought to be rather safe here, but they were still in the Mist Sea and close to the shore, where the mist rising from the water was as thick as on the open sea.
This had the upside of staying hidden against many of the island's predators, who had much more pronounced eyesight than the sea-dwellers, who adapted to an environment with little to no sight. However, it also had the downside of not being able to see any danger coming for them, especially those adept to stealth and subterfuge.
While the other two teams would challenge the danger themselves by exploring an unknown island.