Ander walked into the room and examined the first shelf he came to. There were several sets of metallic armor. They didn’t look like iron or steel, having a darker color. Ander couldn’t identify what it actually was made of, but it was quite a bit lighter than he expected. When he pulled out one of the sets of armor, it had enough pieces to cover the entire body, though its construction left a fair amount of space between the plates. Of course, the armor wasn’t Ander’s size, but that didn’t matter because the whole room was filled with shelves like these. It felt more like a department store than an armory.
Ander made his way between the shelves, trawling through the armor until he found a set that fit and put it on. He then moved to another section of the armory he had noticed that contained a large number of weapons in racks. There were swords, maces, halberds, bows and a dozen other types of weapons, and each was nearly identical to every other of it’s type. Ander went to a rack of shortswords. Each one had a plain leather hilt, metal pommel, and unadorned straight blade. However each one varied slightly in their length, allowing Ander to find one perfect to his liking. He repeated this process for a longsword and shield. He reluctantly left the other weapons alone, vowing to come back if he ever got the chance.
Newly equipped with weapons that were not dulled to uselessness, and with some protection, Ander moved on. He still wanted to open that vault. He suspected he might find something there worth trying to carry away. And while he had avoided the place before, Ander figured that his best bet would be to go to the super fancy section at the back of the ship. He had already been searching for hours, but the ship was extremely bare. Most of it was furnished, but aside from the weapons and armor he found there was very little of note. He supposed he could try to take a cannon with him, but he would have a hard time getting it off it’s base much less up the mast and out the hole in the ceiling. No. If there was worthwhile loot it would either be in the fancy section, or the vault. And so with that in mind, he started to look for a way to the deck.
It was much harder than he thought it should be, and he ended up wandering for another hour. During that time he found a couple of large maps with large dots labeled YOU ARE HERE. These didn’t help much. What they depicted was a large construction of loosely associated rooms in a vague cross shape, nothing that looked like a ship. Still, he managed to stumble out of a staircase farther toward the bow that he hadn’t seen before. From there he made the long hike back towards the rear of the ship.
The multi story construction at the rear of the ship seemed to loom as he got closer, giving off a distinct unwelcoming feeling that he hadn’t felt before. Ander realized that going there was far too premature. There were likely a ton more mariners and other threats. Besides, wasn’t it more likely he would find loot in the lower sections? It wasn’t until Ander retreated several dozen yards that he realized what was happening.
Somehow, the entire building conveyed a sense that he did not belong there. It was insidious. It only pushed a feeling at Ander, and then his thoughts had fought to justify what the damn building wanted him to feel. Ander was baffled at what to do for a moment before coming to the conclusion that he just had to push through it. Luckily, once he knew it was there, it was simple to ignore. It just became one more thing nagging at him from the back of his mind.
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Resolute this time, Ander marched forward until he stood before the door to the bottom level, and threw it open. It led into an open lounge and dining area that was as richly appointed as the outside of the vessel. The detail that stood out to him however, was that everything was too big. Just like the fancy section in the factory. The scale of everything made him feel like he was 10 again. Still, he could see over the tops of the tables, some of which had real silverware set out on top of them. Nice, but Ander refrained from snatching the silverware just yet. He expected to find much better things farther in.
Just like down below, the inside of the fancy section was larger than it had any right to be, and it took time just to navigate through the place. He found residential sections, common areas, as well as a large theater, a fighting ring, and several other areas that looked like they might be sports arenas of some kind. Ander was nearly ready to give up when he finally found one more staircase. As he ascended, he started to hear noises, which was a first given the silence of the abandoned ship. He could hear movement, as though there were multiple people moving around, as well as the quiet hum of voices.
Ander carefully snuck up the stairs to find a small group of mariners, the first he had seen within the ship, milling about what seemed to be a large common area. There was a large door on one side which led to a balcony overlooking the deck of the ship. On the other three sides there were grand hallways leading to various doors. Most of the mariners clumped up in front of one of the hallways to the back of this large room. Instead of tangling with the mariners immediately, Ander decided to slink off to one of the side passageways, and glance into one of the rooms there. Inside he found a large suite with half a dozen bedrooms, a living room, an office, a set of smal;ler rooms that were quite obviously servants quarters, and several other empty rooms.
The entire configuration was baffling to Ander. Who needed that many rooms in a single suite? At first ander thought that the extra rooms were for servants, but that was before he found the servants rooms. All of the main bedrooms also had furniture that was the same oversized nature as everything else in this part of the ship. That was when Ander remembered High Lord Torden and his wives. All six of them. He supposed that people like them were who this room was made for.
Ander shook his head. Six wives. He couldn’t imagine having even one. Ander figured that it was finally time to move back to the large room with the collection of Mutated Mariners. Without preamble, Ander lunged in their direction, only to find out his wind’s sprint significantly curtailed by his choice of armor. Still, there was no option to retreat as the group of mariners screeched and lunged back at him in turn. It was interesting, fighting with armor now. His attacks had much more force than they ever had before, but his movement techniques were far less effective. It was still good enough for this group, but Ander had to switch up his fighting style in order to accommodate the armor. Quick thrusts and dashing cuts gave way to slower, more flowing movements.
Without his armor his fighting style was as quick and harsh as a lightning bolt. Now it was more like a slow moving storm front. Weather analogies aside, Ander wasn’t sure if he liked the changes. He certainly got hurt less, which was a welcome change. However the relative lack of movement options forced him into far more head to head bouts than he was really comfortable with. Still he wouldn’t complain, not when he could leave at any time.
With the group of mariners dead, Ander noticed for the first time that they were wearing clothes. The clothes were old and ragged, little more than scraps of cloth hanging off their bodies, but the creatures below didn’t even have that.