Ghost Archipelago: The Tiger and the Damned

A Dynasty in Peril...

   Generations ago, my great grandfather Sangha was little more than a slave in the service of a great expedition. My people were once cherished as servant warriors due to our natural grace and strength, though many of my ancestors chose death rather than the ignominy of forced service. Through great danger he fought with a great expedition made up of many races through the fetid swamps and thick jungles of the fabled Ghost Archipelago... and survived to see the great font of power. Better yet, he drank deep of its waters and found himself energized like none of our kind ever before. At the end of the great journey, there were no slaves- only equals, and so Sangha was given his freedom.

   Returning home, the one who would become known as 'The Conqueror' leveraged his new power to smash his rivals and unify our people from a squabbling, infighting band of city states into a true and powerful kingdom. His power kept the peace, and placed the crown of the Majaraja on his brow- and continued to do so to his children and heirs. Alas, it seems, no power is permanent. I, Kanunakar, am the last of his great line to hold even a spark of his gift. Already there are rumblings from enemies within and without- vultures waiting to pick apart everything we've built. So it is my duty to sail away from home and find the fountain once again and revitalize my grandfather's gift.

   Sailing aboard the 'Pride of the Sun' has been an educational experience, as not all of my crew are my nation's best or most loyal- but they are what I have at my disposal. My Warden, Vaneet, is a constant guiding light for our journey and it was through her wisdom that we made landfall on the misty isles that were the target of our long journey. Following ancient maps, we landed near a small outlying settlement that my grandfather described in his journals from over a century previously. Inhabited by the mysterious black feathered Kenku, we made successful contact and friendship with the locals. After explaining my intentions, an Elder by the name of Daranibo offered to guide our expedition through the jungle and islands ahead of us. It won't be easy, but my hopes of rekindling the strength of my dynasty have lifted! Soon, I hope, I will drink from the fountain- if the Gods will it.

The Crew of the 'Pride of the Sun'.

Prince Kanunakar in the center, with his Beast Warden Vaneet Omenspeaker
on his right and the foppish merchant scion Vasco the Keen (an Archer) on the
extreme right. 

Kanunakar's Kenku allies. In the center is the wise guide Daranibo, with his
son Ajari (tomb robber) on the right and the stern Saburo (an Infantryman)
on the left. 

Gold and Blood

   Most heritors returning to the isles did not set foot there themselves, instead being the progeny or distant blood relative who heard the call. Still, tale says that one of the original members still lives- in a way. Sailors whisper of a spectral ship, rotting and creaking behind a veil of perpetual mist that has been preying upon the open seas around where the Archipelago disappeared all those many years ago. 

   They speak of a pirate crew of the damned who did not leave the island chain in time, too wrapped up in their own greed and hubris looting temples and the ship's to realize their peril- and when the realized too late the danger that they were caught in the edge of the Archipelago and cursed with wretched half-lives. Unnatural and twisted, they continue to amass wealth and prey upon any that they can...

... and now the islands are back, and slowly flooding with expeditions from the outside. Do the dead hope to break their curse? Or do they only hope to mindlessly continue their futile quest for gold and their thirst for rich, living blood?

The undead crew of the Crimson Cutlass. 

On the right is the heritor, Captain Errol "Parrot-Charmer" Trebilcock, the Bloody
Hand of Coconut Bay. On the left is Brighton 'Mad Eyes' Lazarus, the Quartermaster
and Storm Warden of the Cutlass.

The first duelist,  Cedric ''Two Teeth' Thor.

The second duelist, Milburn 'No Knees' Stansfield