The Search for Capt. Laymen and the Treasure of Pelegosto

==Summary==
Captain Howard Shields and his faithful crew go aboard the HMS Waverling, a Brig type ship, to search for an old Navy Captain who has been missing for four years! He was ordered by Cutler Beckett to find and return a valuable treasure from the treacherous island of Isle de Pelegostos. But he and his crew went missing three days into the journey!
But Pelegosto is an island full of cannibalistic tribes. Another problem is, is that Laymen, the Navy Captain that went in search of the treasure, set sail with four ships: the flag ship, a Brig, the HMS Falter, two Frigates, and one Galleon. But it is unknown if they even made it to Pelegosto...
==Prologue==
British Royal Navy Captain Ronnie Laymen walked with his First Mate/Lieutenant/Best Friend, Logan Marsh.
"Well? What dose he want?" Marsh asked as they walked down the hall towards an office.
"I don't know. The messenger wouldn't say. It's probably a new mission." Laymen replied.
They were in Port Royal, Jamaica. The two walked up to the office, where an accountant greeted them.
"He will see you now." She said with a pleasant smile. They walked into the office and saw a man in a black chair writing something down on paper.
"Ah. Captain Laymen of the HMS Falter, and his First Mate, Mr. Marsh." Said the man not even looking up.
"You wanted to see us, Mr. Beckett?" Laymen asked rolling his eyes.
"Yes. I did." He gestured them in."The EITC is in need of your services. Tea?"
"Ay- yessir. What kind of mission, sir?"
One of Beckett's servants gave them their tea and crumpets.
"Please, sit." They sat down in front of his desk."I need you to do you and your country a favor. Their have been rumors of an old, legendary treasure on the Isle de Pelegostos. What do you know of it?"
The two friends looked at each other with clueless expressions on their faces.
"Iv never heard such a thing, sir. Nor do I know of such an island." Answered Laymen.
"Me nether, sir."
"Ah. Well: their is this legend that some Spaniards landed on this island that is said to filled with cannibals, and buried their treasure in a cave where, it is said that they were killed by one of the tribes. Only one made it off the island, only to die five days of being rescued. He died from an illness he got while on the island. But he was still able to tell most of his tale."
"So, sir, you want us to go explore the island?"
"Indeed."
Laymen got the crews together for the four ships that were ordered to sail with him. There was his ship, a Lexington Brig, the HMS Falter, two Frigates, the HMS Value and HMS Dodge, and one Galleon, the HMS Holland. They set sail towards Pelegosto, but where never seen or heard from again...
==Chapter 1==
Captain Howard Shields was on his ship, the HMS Waverling. The HMS Waverling was a twenty-eight gunned, blue hulled, dark gold trimmed, Brig. It had a large crew of one-hundred-fifty men, and had ten broadside on each side, with four deck guns on each side; also on deck they had six swivel guns on each side. They had just left Port Royal two days ago with orders to find Captain Laymen who had gone missing four years ago. Shields was in his cabin hunched over some charts. There were also other officers in the cabin.
"So Beckett wants us to find a captain who has been missing for four years?! And he's only sending one ship when he sent them out with four!?" Demanded Sgt. Barns, third in command of the ship and second in command of the Marines that were stationed aboard the ship.
"Aye. We must find them. Whether they are dead or alive, those are our orders. But Beckett also wants us to find some treasure on that island." Said Lt. Sam Cooper.
"But sir, with all do respect, he said we must follow the same exact route as the others did before!"
"Aye. But orders are orders." Capt. Shields replied.
"Also sir, tomorrow is our third day into the voyage. They disappeared on their third day!"
"Now, tell me, Mr. Barns, who says that will happen to us?" Said a Sergeant.
"I-I don't know, sir." He lowered his head."Forgive me, sir"
"Ok. Your forgiven. Now gentlemen, were do you suppose we should look first?" Shields said in a hurry.
"Well sir, I think we should just follow the original course that they had." Suggested Lt. Cooper.
"Aye. Tomorrow there's going to be storm." Said an officer.
"Mhmm. There was a storm the that same day Laymen and his men went missing!" Said Barns. Shields rolled his eyes.
 ****
It was the next day and storming bad. The waves threw the ship five to seven feet up in the air several times! Barns was worried they might crash because they couldn't see anything, it was so dark and foggy.
"Mr. Boomer! Secure the rigging!" Yelled Lt. Cooper over the thunder and crashing waves.
"Sir! I am not about to go up there!" Yelled Dell Boomer.
After a few more shouts back and fourth, Dell finally went up to secure the rigging. He harried back down. Every crewmen that was on the main deck were holding on to what ever they could.
 ****
The next day they, supposedly, got blown off course. It was a shiny day and it hardly looked as if it stormed. Shields was up by the helm; but he wasn't steering.
"Sir! Sir! Cap'n!" Yelled the ship's navigator, Greg Bell, as he came running up to Shields.
"What?! What is it!?"
"Sir!" He said panting with excitement."Good news! We are not blown off course!"
"How-how do you know?"
"Sir, I was studying the original course, and, Laymen didn't get lost three days in! And I did even more studying and found out they should have been lost three months into the voyage!"
"Well that's good news! Mr. Cooper, an extra ration of rum for Mr. Bell and whoever else helped him find this information."
"Aye Cap'n!"
They sailed on. Sgt. Barns was a lot less superstitious now that he knew that they were heading in the right direction.
"That storm didn't seem natural. Aye Coop?" Shields asked Cooper.
"Aye sir. Very strange. It's like it never happened."
"Hmm." He sighed."Wait.... what is that?!" He took out his spyglass out.
"Land Ho!! Or... a bunch of rocks?"
There appeared to be a bunch of rocks, sharp rocks at that. And stuck on one of those rocks was a ship; a broken and destroyed one...
==Chapter 2==
As they got closer to the rocks they could see that the rocks were big, black, and very sharp. There where about seven medium rocks, several little rocks, and three big rocks, one of which the ship was stuck. The ship stretched from the big rock to a small island with a cave in it. The middle island-or only island- was black with a square shaped top and a cave in the middle. Shields ordered some men to get in a dinghy, he rowed to shore also, leaving Lt. Cooper in charge. They rowed close to the ship but could not read the name because the ship looked burnt
"Sir, what is the name? I can't read it." Said a Marine with a Scottish accent, Pvt. Matthew Shuck.
"No one can. Just keep rowing."
"Yes Cap'n."
They landed on the island, which was extremely small. It only had a beach and a cave. On the beach were boxes, barrels, crates, weapons, and bodies.... skeleton bodies.... lots of them. Shields went over to one of them that looked to be the Third Mate of the ship. He looked in is shirt and found his log book. In the log book the first few pages were ripped, wet, or to crumbled to read. But he found one in their that really surprised him:
Log Book of Third Mate Richard Gould, 1737:
It has been a few years since I have seen my beautiful wife, Samantha. I miss her dearly. But there's no time for that now; we where low on supplies so we all docked on this island.... I don't remember the name, but it looked like Rumrunners from a distance but when we landed there, pirates, I think, attacked us! I'm too tired to wright any more. We still have along way ahead of us.
Capt. Shields looked through more pages and found out that they passed this rock before, but Capt. Laymen must have back tracked and that's when this ship crashed. He also found the ship was the HMS Dodge and that in the book their was a map that Richard drew, so now Shields had something to go by.
Shields looked at the cave to his right, in front of it where skeletons with swords, daggers, or bullet holes in them. It was pitch black. He ordered three of his men to check it. They walked up to the entrance; the one in the middle bent down to examine a skeleton. But all the sudden a shot came from in side the cave and shot the sailor's hat off! He aimed in the darkness and fired. The other two did the same.
After they reloaded, about fifty skeletons charged out at them! The sailors fired with fear in their eyes. They started to fight with hand to hand combat; the other Navy Men ran to help their comrades. One of the first three men went down."Fire! Bayonets out! Charge!" Ordered Shields.
As they were fighting, Shields saw a skeleton voodoo master casting a spell. He pulled out a pistol but didn't have a good shot. When the spell was complete, all the skeletons on the beach that had been stabbed or shot, stood up and attacked the Navy from behind! Shields shot at a skeleton and killed it, but then he turned around and saw the others sneaking up behind them. He quickly stabbed one with his rapier but it didn't die! The skeleton he stabbed was the captain of the HMS Dodge. He also pulled out a rapier and they dueled. Some of the English turned around to fight off the flanking enemy. One man shot a skeleton but it didn't die, so he rushed at it and thrusted his bayonet into him, pulled it out and saw it still wouldn't die! So he hit it with the butt of his gun and knocked it down. He then lifted up his boot and stepped on its skull. It didn't move after that.
The fighting continued. Pvt. Shuck was ordered to guard the dinghy, but instead, he grabbed his sword and an ore. He charged in and nailed the skeleton captain in the head. The skeleton kicked away Shields and jabbed at Shuck. Shuck parried the stab and cut off the Skeleton's arm. He pulled out his pistol and shot him in the head, killing it. "Thanks Shuck." Shields managed to say.
"No problem, Cap'n!" He responded in his Scottish accent.
Shields pulled out his pistol and shot the Witchdoctor. The Skeleton pulled out a sword, but dropped it. In fact, all the skeletons dropped their weapons. The ones that where lying on the beach, fell dead. The ones that came out of the cave, retreated back inside. The navy-men ran to the entrance and pointed their guns and swords on the inside. The Witchdoctor walked up.
"Please, don't! I'm sorry, we only get this way every two hours. It's a curse!" He bellowed with his hands in front of him,"In case your wondering: the reason these ones attacked you was because of the weapons we killed them with. Please, kill us and shoot them, and your people we killed in the head! Please!?"
"How do we kill-" Shields got an idea. He ordered men to throw some grenades in the cave.
"Thank you, Captain Howard Shields of the HMS Waverling!" The Skeleton said just before the grenades blew up.
"How on Earth did he know my name?" Shields asked as they got back to the Waverling.
"I don't know, Cap'n." A Marine answered.
"Ah. Oh well. We must continue," he looked at his map,"three miles due East! To that island that's mentioned in this log book."
"Aye, Cap'n!" Said the Helmsman, Fred Mckenzie.
They sailed on, on until they saw this island. The island looked a lot like the infamous Rumrunners. The ship grew closer to the island.
"According to this Log Book, they were attacked by pirates on this island. Men get ready!" Shields gave orders for his men to get in the longboats, which had small swivel guns on them. They rowed until they got to the beach. Where the sand met the grass there were bushes and trees.
"Well sir, it looks like no ones home. Can we get back to the ship now?" Asked Sgt. Barns.
"No. We must get answers! Get ready to split up!" Shields looked at the bushes."Wait! Guns at the ready!" He wasn't about to get ambushed again. "Mr. Maxford! Get the swivel cannon ready!"
"Aye sir!"
The men, with their guns ready, peered out into the bushes in front of them. When, all the sudden, a man came out. He was about twenty-two and a pair of pistols in his hands.
"Excuse me, sir, but where exactly are we?" yelled out Cooper.
The man, obviously drunk off his head, replied, "Ha! Don't ye know when ye are on a pirate island?"
"Well yes, but what is the name?!" Shields yelled cocking is pistol.
"Imma have to kill ye now, right after I-" The pirate fell over, dead. He was shot by Shuck.
Then, 50 armed pirates came out of the bushes. The Marines aimed their guns.
"I'm sorry gentleman, but your out numbered." A middle aged looking man stepped forward with a clipboard in his hand; he seemed to be the leader.
"Who are you, pirate scum?!" Yelled a crew member.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I am General Lawrence Daggerpaine of the Gen. Of Peace. And this my island slash headquarters, Peace Island. Now, what are your names, and how on Earth did you find us?" Law said cocking a smile and extending his hand to Shields. Shields took Lawrence's hand and with a tight shake and nob with a hint of glare said, "Captain Howard Shields of the HMS Waverling. We are here following a course of another navy captain whom went missing 4 years ago. A log book said they came here. Is this true?"
Lawrence looked puzzled but blinked as the memory came back to him. "Yes, they came here. But what were they looking for?" The pirate leader demanded.
"A- a treasure. On Pelegosto." Shields looked as some of the pirates winced at 'Pelegosto' but got wide eyed on the word 'treasure'.
"Captain, come with me. You may bring one of your men with you. The rest go back to your ship. Now blind him." Two pirates came and blindfolded Sheilds and Shuck. The other British soldiers returned to the Waverling.
 ****
Shields' blindfold was removed and he was in an office. He looked around and saw Matthew Shuck next him still with his musket. "Sir, what are we doing here?" Pvt. Shuck asked, his Scottish accent shaky.
"I honestly don't know." the Captain replied. Just than Lawrence Daggerpaine walked in, alone.
"We you wanted to know about that naval captain?" The pirate asked. Shields nodded slowly. "Well then, yes. Yes, Laymen came here with his small fleet. They headed out due west. Knowing they came to the wrong place."
"That's it? How many ships did they have?"
"Four."
"Well thanks for your time, sir. We'll be going now." Shields and Shuck rose and turned to the door.
"Wait, Captain Shields, you will find out that the path they took was a dangerous one. We will give you extra provisions just in case. Beware of the pirate, Dog McHound. He is a rouge pirate with a small armada."
"Thank you." With that, the Navy men were escorted out and back to their ship.
==Chapter 3==
Category:Daggerpaine Industries
Category:General Of Peace Guild Members
Category:POTCO
Category:POTCO Stories