by Tok'Mona, Survivor
When you told me a week ago that I would be able to write these words, I wouldn't have believed you, for I was trapped on Ishtor, home of the Nagas, about to be sacrificed to their dark god.
I was abord the Fairwind Breeze, a trade ship, on course towards Galdor's Haven. We sailed from Kitharay through the usually quiet waters west of Aggim Dral, when suddenly a mighty storm arose and sent us south. It is there that we arrived on the shores of this acursed Isle, our ship broken by the sharp rocks.
I could not believe my eyes when they beheld the Naga - creatures half woman, half snake and only the stuff of myth and legend - until now.
They were tall, about two meters in height. Their scaly skin was colored green or grey, their swaying breasts bare, for they wore no clothes besides ornaments of bone. They carried with them long, crude speers, but no less deadly. Worse however were their shining, poisonous green eyes which enthralled me and the other survivors of my crew.
We were taken deeper into the Isle of Ishtor, which was overgrown by a jungle akin to those at home in Aggim Dral, but it was inhabited by beasts I had never seen before: giant, two-legged lizards, centipedes as large my leg and mosquitos the size of my head. To my surprise none of them attacked. In fact their minds seem to bow to the Naga.
As we went deeper into the jungle I started to see ruins of stone, carved with images of Naga and their god, Ney'Nerzhuul, Lord of Death. The jungle started to grow thinner as the ruins grew and soon they were no longer ruins, but the inhabited buildings of a giant city, which made up most of Ishtor's interior. It was here that we beheld the horrors of the Naga:
The streets were littered with bones and puddles of blood as Naga devoured their victims alive, some people like me, some were Nagas themselves. Cages, chains and ropes were an ordinary sight, many imprisoning unfortunate souls. Small altars were placed around the city, but none were as impressive or important as the Altar of Zhûl at the Citadel of Enesheya in the center of the city.
Enesheya is the immortal Empress of the Naga, her body the vessel of Ney'Nerzhuul's will, fueled by the endless stream of sacrifices, a fate that most certainly awaited me and my comrades. Now I knew why old sailors warned me of the southern seas so many times, now I knew why people sometimes vanish in the southern regions of Aggim Dral, now I knew what happened to the people of Kintor, a fishing village, emptied overnight. The Naga had taken them.
I was put into a cage and hanged from a balcony, forcing me to observe the terrors below. I learned many things about the Naga in those couple of days. Not only were they necromancers, they had mastered the art more than any wizard I have heard of. They could raise the dead as effortlessly as I could swim and they did it a lot. Being devoured by a Naga seemed to be the best end, for the alternative would be a dozen, painful sacrifices ere you are nothing more than a husk of your former self, a mindless slave-soldier to the Naga, yet still you could feel pain. Finding sleep was difficult at first, for the screams were endless, but you drown them out after a while.
The Naga left me in this cage for a full 3 days. No food was I given and the only drink I got was the water of rain pouring down on my head. When I was finally taken out, my body stiff and exhausted, they took me to one of the smaller altars. The sacrifice that followed was painfull beyond my imagination, for the Naga are a sadistic bunch. A full hour did the sacrifice take. Countless, small wounds were inflicted upon me, my blood collected in a large bowl made from skin. I don't know what happened after, for I blacked out, but I awoke some time later, my body weak. Over the next couple of weeks I was sacrificed so many times that I lost count.
How I escaped, you ask? Honestly, I don't remember. My body grew weaker, my will lessened with every day, but I guess I must've gathered what strength remained in my battered body and escaped. I arrived Galdor's Haven on a makeshift raft. Must've build that from the remains of the Fairwind Breeze or some other unfortunate ship. Why does it matter how I escaped anyway? I made it and that's all I care about. My body seems to slowly recover as well. When they found me they thought me a corpse. Now my wounds have almost closed. Soon I can go back out onto the sea and serve again.