Costa de los Ahogados

My hand is shaking as I write this – I can scarcely believe it. We have been searching for a path to the Guardianes at the insistence of Isabella, but the isle has not been making it easy. Isabella – and strangely, the Heretic – have been accompanying us, as if they want to be the first to reach the Guardianes. I fear Isabella grows more and more frustrated as the isle blocks our progress. What happened the past day, however, has given me new fear of the isle. We were searching for a way south when the Heretic (who tripped on a rock) encountered a path concealed in the brush. We cleared it away, and found our way to a cove – unlike the shore we had departed, the cove had a chill about it, but we thought little of it. Night was approaching, and rather than risk a trek back in the dark, we decided to make camp. It was when night fell that we noticed the lights… at first, we thought them perhaps mist, but they had form and a shape about them that resembled that of men – ghosts. Terrified, we fled the camp and were scattered in the forest. I spent the night hidden in a cut in the rock, and when dawn struck, I tried to make out what landmarks I could to find our way back to the camp. Along the way, I ran into Captain Isabella and some of the patrol. Three were missing – I had been the fourth, and she lectured me quite angrily about running. I asked about the ghostly shapes we had seen in the dark. She insisted this was why we should remain together and avoid encountering others on the isle. She glanced at the Heretic, who said simply, “Sometimes those who die here do not come back in the flesh. Those are of the Santa María, but they did not claw to shore as we did – their spirits are now… adrift. The island is filled with such phantoms.” The men grew pale at this. Captain Isabella said we would avoid the area and continue south. The men secretly have given the place a name: Costa de los Ahogados, and they whispered prayers for the crew who had perished there and hoped they would find their way back to God. R. Velazquez