-
Too Busy To Notice
At the as-yet-unnamed colony, diUmbria walked, somewhat dazed, among the buildings- down fresh dirt roads soon to be cobbled, past shops and homes being raised brick by brick, timber by timber. Newly painted windows and doors spoke of industrious hands forming a new life in this incredible landscape. The population was just shy of two hundred souls now. He had come to be the sole director of the affairs of the colony. All of the resources had been his own, and all of the buildings had been surveyed and approved by the Venetian captain. To the end that his bank account was running lower and lower, by the millions then…
-
A glimpse of Greenland
diumbria stood on deck a bit off-shore of Cayenne, after sailing south from the colony to tip of Florida, then west around the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. They passed seeing Veracruz, Merida, Maricaibo, Willemstad; all places that, in one way or another, he’d never even really conceived of. It was true, he knew, that Spain and Portugal, and even the Netherlands, had been colonizing the Caribbean and South America for years now; but the presence of it shocked him, to find European style buildings in so many parts of the new world. Still, the overall landscape was so wild. Everywhere he ventured in the wilderness, there was this…
-
Finding Newfoundland
On the third return trip after founding the colony, diUmbria sails with a massive haul of stone and lumber for building more permanent buildings. The decision is made to hire a navigator out of Las Palmas for this trip, but it proves to be a terrible miscalculation; the inexperienced fool tacks west too early, directly into the strong headwinds that run east across the north atlantic. The mistake puts them against the wind for weeks. Food begins running low, but thankfully supplies were not exhausted by the time they reached Boston. After sailing down to the colony to supervise initial construction of an organized market, sail back north, past Boston,…
-
To The New World
After the kraken hunt, diUmbria returns to London. He soon receives post from Juan Garrion to meet at Seville, as he is finally ready to sail for the New World. The older captain is anxious to find a place to begin an approved colony, the company having already grown to include 12 other fine captain’s and their exploits. He began to feel he was part of something greater than himself. Still, he was beginning to wonder about the kraken. Was it only a myth? He’d been at sea A LOT. No kraken. The only person ever, so far as he knew, to actually see one was Keplin, and his disappearance…
-
A Migration of Thoughts
A short while after returning from India, diUmbria set forth anew in the Emerald Hunter, a fine vessel paid for by profits from his first real trade run to the lands beyond Africa. The ship put out from London with fifty one days of food on board, as well as an assemblage of supplies from lumber to sail cloth. While in London awaiting the completion of the ship, he had visited the public archives in the city as well as researched some volumes at the University of Oxford. In the Norwegian folklore he found some clues. Many tales placed the great beast in the North Sea, just beyond Britain’s wildest isles.…
-
Return from India
Having reached India and spent some time gathering a fortune in goods from the markets along the western coast, it was from distant Pondicherry that diUmbria began his preparations to leave and return to Europe. For their last evening he planned a long visit to an open air restaurant where he ordered several rounds for his crew and a feast for himself of rum and daal, doogh and samosa, milk wine and mutton curry, finishing with a last serving of rosogolla. On their first venture out from port, headed to Ceylon, they are able to narrowly avoid five hostile xebecs. They did not escape without taking several rounds of cannon…
-
Foundation of the Society
One fine sailing season, not so long ago, the adventurer Captain diUmbria of Venice was gliding across the Mediterranean when something in the crystal waters below caught his eye. It was a fine longsword, by the looks of it not long cast-off- though to be sure, its edge was dull; and it bore a name, that of Vikus. It was a name of a man he’d seen around the docks of Seville more than once, though he did not know him. Was it the same man? How did the blade come to be here? He decided to keep it, and hope for clues to the weapon’s tale. Not long after…
-
The Edges of Africa
Africa hovered behind his eyes, a dream carried through the day. Its massive wildnerness called out to him, luring him with its uncharted mysteries. The Venetian Captain diUmbria had sailed to the wild continent many times of course. From when he was just starting out, south from the Adriatic; in those days he had feared the brutal pirates that roamed the waters around Tunis, Algiers, or Alexandria. When he had braved the Strait of Gibraltar he had soon turned south, like Hanno of old, and pushed his way as far as he dared. Little by little, to Arguin, to Sierra Leone, to Sao Tome- to the Cape itself, over…
-
Sailing out to the Sunrise
There came a day when several seasoned explorers were gathered in a tavern in Seville. It was late in the evening, the day’s work done, and the conversation began to tilt to selecting their next endeavor. It was never certain, afterward, exactly whose idea planted the seed; but most would agree that it was Captain Kosevo that first suggested a voyage to far distant Edo. Some of the rest of the group included a weathered pirate, Captain Cyril, as well as the interepid explorer diUmbria and the wealthy merchant Juan Garrion. Soon enough they all seemed caught in an inexorible tide sweeping them across the world to Japan. In just…
-
The Sight of Stonehenge
Stately ships lay moored quietly as dusk softly settled on the docks of London. The air was wet with the smell of the sea, the buildings slowly receeding into the shadows of the night. Interiors beckoned with cozy warmth, the orange yellow glow of welcoming taverns lined up to face the sailors coming in from the ocean. At one, a certain seasoned italian captain paused a moment to take in the view before plunging through a doorway to the welcoming farmiliarity of his favorite establishment. The man was known as diUmbria, the fabled Venetian sailor known far and wide as much for his bravery at sea and in battle as…