Ryan Reynolds here for I guess my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no mutual audio network, fiction from our future. The following audio drama is rated G for general audience. The morning after a night's long storm. The sky breaks open upon the ocean waves and the morning sun peeks through the overcast clouds, flotsam and jetsam wash up upon the rocky beaches along the shores near the city state of Roton. And to this rex-strewn shoreline comes the wreckers, a tight knot of shady local folk who use deception and false hope to prey upon those caught on the sea's dangerous storm. Now it is time for the harvest of their nefarious efforts, and in the parlions of these scavenger people, first come, first served. "Hey there, Marna, good crop tonight, who's working the big light on the crest." "Tilden." "Ah, she's tilden, it's a wonder we caught anything tonight." "Well, Jurgens, keep in mind he gets to choose from your best." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you pay the paper, huh?" "Why does Tilden get to choose from our taking?" "Because, Barrett, he's up on the hill and worked the light, he can't come down in salivage. Oh, he takes from us!" If it weren't for him working the light to make our cove look like a safe harbor, we wouldn't have a ship out on the rocks like we do. "Still, don't seem right." We all take turns, work in the light on stormy nights, ships think we're signal in a safe harbor and head for the cove, but there's a rocks between us and the open sea, and the ships get caught on them. We wouldn't have anything to salivage if it worked for the light. But if you're up on the crest running the light, you can't come down on the cliff to the shore to do any salivaging. So he gets to pick from what we get. "He can take all our best, then." "No, we choose one thing that's off limits, our best, and then he can choose from the rest." "Seems like it's best to be the one on the light, then." It takes some skill to drown a ship in the dark. Some have the skill, then some don't. "Tilden is one gone, so it was great luck we got something with him man in it. Tell you what's best, he's being the wreckmaster." "Wreckmaster?" "First one to reach the wreck gets to claim it. They get first pick and the largest share of the goods. Then they has to take on help to salivage. That's us. But first, they have to make sure it's clean." "Clean?" "Oh, survivors. If even one person is still alive with the wreck, the law would hang us as robbers with them as witness. So, wreckmaster has to deal with the survivors." "By deal with, you mean?" "Make sure there are no survivors aboard." "What about survivors that swim to shore?" "That's us to worry about. Like this and over here. She's not in the waves, hasn't got strength to swim anymore. They're terrible tired when they come ashore. Exhausted." "And we help them?" "We've got our beach lights to show them the way to the shore. Don't want them floating down to the next cove or further down the coast. That wouldn't do at all." "And we help them?" "We help them out in his life. Like this one here, coming in on the last wave." "Help me, please. Please, touch me that rock over there." "This one?" "No, the big one." "Please, help me." "Now, if they don't have much wiggle to them, you can usually just plant them face down into the tide pool and let the sea finish the work. But this one, please, for mercy's sake, and this one won't shut up. He still got spark in her." "Please." "So, you take the rock?" "Please, help me." "And I want no one to bear witness against us in his lordship's court law." "Now, here. Keep this rock. It's a good one. Next one's yours." "Why the rock?" "Well, it's handy for one. Plus, it looks more natural she died by the surf hitting her head on the rock." "Why's it got to look natural?" "If the barrensmen come out here, we scatter and make ourselves scouse so we don't be seen. The bodies look like part of the sea junk of the wreck. It all looks natural. They'll come into town asking questions if they find someone's throat cut by knife." "Jurgens, has got his knife out?" "What? That's slow brain." "Hey! Jurgens! No blades! Use that timber-flot next to you." "I get the corset ring off the corset finger!" "No cotton! That's the way!" "Those two say something bad and fish didn't clip the finger of her or a lobster-pincer or a crab!" "No cotton! Can't leave nothing to be seen!" "No! Don't do it! No, it's Jurgens!" "We can do over after Jurgens is done and smash up the cuffed finger with that rock." "No, aren't you a smart one. You'll go far out here. Okay, now, let's gather up what looks good, but she can only take what she can carry." "That's why you brought me for extra hands." "You got to learn the wrecking tray. And yeah, extra hands help, too." "How do we know what to take?" "Usually, it's first come first served. Others will be coming and soon they'll surely crawl in with scavengers, so we want to look for the best first." "You mean, like golden silver?" "Well, now, think. What's the chances of old floating out this way?" "Not much. Gold sinks!" "There you go, unless it's on a body, so you need an eye for something that's floating. Like a wood chest." "Wood chest?" "Something that's important enough for someone to put into a chest. And wood floats." "How about a box?" "Jory boxes is best. Long as there's not too much inside to wear it down to the bottom." "Like that box there!" "Where?" "There! Bobbin down, just there!" "Jory boxes usually flatter, but it doesn't look good to get. Here, wait out with me. You go up that way, I'll walk it down here and make sure it doesn't get away from us." "I almost said, but just barely!" "Here, let me help." "It's slippery!" "It's waterlogged, so water's in the wood. Come on. Let's get it short." "Hey, Marna. What you got there?" "You're just never you're buying, Jurgens. You and your cut-noy can stay away." "Do people rob others for what they find?" "Not supposed to, but it happens. Why swim out and get something when you can relieve them of it after they've done all the work?" "I left my brock back there to get the box!" "Never you mind. Just keep an eye on Jurgens while we look this over." "It's not great, heavy. Is that why I'd floated all out of it?" "There may be air still trapped inside here. Look at how the scenes have been stopped up with wax. Looks like they didn't want no one to get inside." And that wants me to get inside all the much more. I can pry it open, though. "I thought you wasn't supposed to have knives?" "That's only for you, son-survivors. Nothing wrong with keeping a blade for prying open things." "And to keep the likes of Jurgens away." "Well, it don't hurt if he sees we got a blade in use, that's for certain." "Look at the funny carving on the lid and all around." "Someone took a lot of care to decorate this box, and that's always a good sign." "Let's see what's inside." "We've set it on this rock here, so we can get to good leveraging." "Now, you hold it here, and I'll try to slip the blade through the wax and into the crease." "Like that?" "Move your arm around here. In case it slips, you'll be safe." "Hey, Marna, you got that open yet." "You just mowing your own self, Jurgens, and keep away." "Oh, I thought I'd saw the dragon's headbow, figure floating out your way? Did you see it?" "Er, what?" "It was floating, twing them two rocks sticking out there, just threatening to get broke on one." "Let me go see, it's mine." "You'll go very far out here." "Alright, now help me pry this up." "Well, now." "Ah, that's a very fancy-looking bottle." "It's metal." "What are them designs on it?" "Fensier than the box, it is." "What do you suppose is inside?" "Don't know, shake it." "Can't tell, it must be full." "Follow what?" "Expensive spices?" "Perfume?" "Fire lecker." "Gotta be something expensive, open it." "Not now, not here." "You got to know how valuable it is to keep it from getting taken by Tilton." "Suppose you're right. There'd be a bus, too, and everything spoiled inside, and I wasted saving it for best." "It's got more of that wax around the top." "Give me the knife again, let me cut it round the top." "There, now, clear back some, this might smell awful if it's spoiled." "What's that?" "I don't like this." "It's pouring out up in the sky." "Boiling up from the Stoppert flask comes a cold black mist, which swirls around Mardna, who stands frozen still, unable to move." "It's, it's, it's curled, it makes makes me shiver, it's all Mardna, Mardna." "There's no ships, dragons, heads out by no rocks there." "What's you doing here? Cooking?" "Cherikens, what's wrong with Mardna?" "The greasy, dark smoke coalesces into a floating black form, with glowing red eyes and speaking words of triumph out of its black, black maw." "I am free, at last, I am free." "What it blazes is that fake?" "I hunger." "From the whirling center of the dark creature, a black tendril reaches out, flailing like a tentacle, and wraps itself around the middle of the hapless man, and pulls him closer into his unfortunate fate." "It, it, it, it, it, it, it gots me!" "Mardna! Talk to me!" "Aha, baby, so cold, run, no, barely, run for your life!" "Ah, ah, ah, ah, I don't know!" Epilogue. For these folks who preyed upon the misfortune of happenstance seafarers, the tables had been turned. In the ruin of their making from which they plotted to profit, they found themselves the victim of a greater predator, and to whom it may be said, that of those prey it finds upon the beach that day, first come, first served. You've been listening to The Wreckers of Rotan, a sidequest adventure short story from the Dungeons and Damsell series by Unchained Productions as a recorded live performance for Scary Home Companion October 29, 2022. Cast includes Chelseaa Jensen, Sam A. Maori, Laura Myers, Aaron Summonsby, and Joshua Winter, live fully effects by Ellie Maitlin, additional sound effects by Zach Stinnett and David Ian, one engineering by Dino D. Elfweld, music by Mark Rokes, theme by Ron Parvich. Wreckers of Rotan is a sidequest short story of the Dungeons and Damsell series by Unchained Productions. (upbeat music)
