Although Jacob knew he was a kind of monster himself, he was still Jacob, at heart a good man. As the 18th century grew to a close he heard of the travels of the pioneers across the new western world, bringing civilization to a savage land. He heard of a legendary madman who wore a metal pot on his head and traveled the land planting apple seeds.
And so Jacob decided that he would travel to America and go West, planting fruit and nut trees and hemp and bushes that would bear berries. He would be a wandering farmer and feed a nation. And when the monthly time of his Hunger came upon him he would prey on that lands Savages.
Today we would see that the new country's peaceful tribal peoples were the victims in this land-grab and the invading settlers were the monsters, but people were not so enlightened in that time so perhaps we can forgive Jacob for his views, even if he cannot forgive himself.
Jacob booked passage in a private room in the storage of a vessel called The Black Rock which sailed under the Spanish flag captained by one Richard Alpert. Jacob did not know that Alpert was a pirate. Because of a skin condition caused by the wampyr blood that flowed in his veins, Jacob stayed in a dark cabin under decks and took little notice of the activities of The Black Rock as it overtook and plundered and sank other vessels.
Many people traveled to the New World for many reasons - one of the most common was to evade religious persecution and one such ship sailed out of Great Britain manned by Irish and Brits and carrying passengers who included a group of Scots Druids and a coven of Welsh Wiccans among the usual celtic pagans and heathens.
The Black Rock overtook their ship and plundered them and took their gems and crystals and talismans and glass globes and trinkets. And the Witches and the Druid Warlocks cast spells and curses with their dying breathes and swore that the pirates would never sail to within a hundred miles of seeing dry land again if they sailed a thousand years. And since the Pirates knew of one way to kill witches, they fired burning arrows into their sails and left their ship ablaze like a viking funereal pyre.
The Black Rock sailed towards the sunset for a hundred days and a hundred more but the New World never came into sight. In time when they did find another ship their priorities were now to take any by but the most valuable of treasures; precious gems and fine art. Ordinary metal coins they merely threw into the sea. Instead they filled their holds with stolen supplies - flour and seeds and any foodstuffs they could find. And eventually, prisoners, who were also taken to serve as food.
The Pirates of The Black Rock traveled for decades, never aging, cursed to travel a thousand years and never see dry land. In time they abandoned all pretense of trying to steer any known course and simply followed the wind and the tides. It was in the Sea of Bermuda that they entered one of the vile vortices and were swallowed whole by an undertow - and spit back up in the hot Pacific sea. And they sailed for decades more and their victims were different - Pacific islanders and Asian sailers with skiffs and junks laden with oriental treasures - but the horror that thier lives had become went on and on and all that time Jacob hid in the dark hold by day and strolled the decks by night taking a drink of blood or a taste of flesh when and where he could get it.
Inexorable fate drove The Black Rock towards the Island.
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