As Maiden's gaze grew ever the more excited and curious, Penn chuckled. "Nice to see yer all excited to hear how a man lost a piece of his own flesh a'n blood lass." he quipped, merely teasing the woman.Hearing the all too familiar<span style="font-style: italic">clink</span>of class on wood, he eyed the bottle for only a moment before grabbing the concoction and taking a drink himself. He didn't ask, but most of the crew new better than to have opened beverages such as that laying around and NOT expect the Quartermaster to sample it a few times.<br/><br/>"Ye intentions be good, Maiden, but there are... things around that place that ye simply can't prepare for." Penn began. He settled back into his seet, getting comfortable. Penn wasn't old, maybe a little older than the average crew member, but in the eyes of many he was still a young, healthy man. The only difference was experience... and Penn's eye had seen much... too much some might say.<br/><br/>"When I was in her Majesty's navy, I at one time served as first mate under a man called Captain Kroon. Tall, lanky fellow he was... a bit shady too. Couldn't stomach drink though, and he acted rather odd about the ship too. I was constantly reminding him where things were and all that, things that any seaworthy captain should know, which puzzled me. About halfway through our voyage, we learned we'd been duped. This man wasn't from her Majesty's navy at all, hadn't even ever been on a ship, working at least. We were set to toss him overboard, when he brought something to our attention: Atlantis." Penn paused for a moment just before the final word, for dramatic effect. With a glance at Maiden, he went on. "He had all sorts of tales about the place... but he had a way with words you have to understand.. probably one of those studied lads from a university somewhere. The crew, including me, bought into it. Who knows, his tales might o' been true, but we never got far enough to see for ourselves. The 'Captain' had gotten a map of sorts, probably from some old hag, that led us in Atlantis' direction. Funny enough the map proved true, and we arrived in the vicinity right on scheduel. You know what we found? Islands at first, so small you could barely fit ten men on them But you couldn't do that either, because there were ruins upon them. Bits 'n pieces of buildings: half collapsed walls and the like. The water was so clear too, ye could look lover the side of the ship and see so far down. And what'd we see when we looked down? More of them ruins, but we saw pockets of dark sea too, an' hat made us think we weren't seein' all of the sunken city either. We was hangin' around the ship, gazin' overboard without so much as a clue what to do next, when it happened..."<br/><br/>Penn leaned forward, fixing his eyes on Maiden's. His expression and voice suddenly got hauntingly serious. "You ever had a feeling fo pure terror, Maiden? Mixed in with astonishment, anxiety, and uncertainty? All in one? That does not even come close to what we crew felt when it rose out of the water. A giant serpent, no way to measure how tall. It came slowly at first, but as it 'cauht sight of us aboard the ship it got all the more eager to come out 'o the sea. It spun and it writhed.. god's know how long it was or if we were even seeing half of how large the creature really was. It's scales were blue and it's eyes... they were black as the void I tell ye, and hypnotizing. It looked at us for only a moment, before it opened it's maw. The beast had teeth three times as big as any sword on this ship, or any other ship, and I had no way nor time to count just how many hundreds of teeth there were altogether. Then the beast struck, it tore out the mast in one swipe. Then it was after the crew, taking five to ten in one bite. Nobody knew what to do, most of us were running around, screaming for our mothers to be honest. I tried to man a canon, maybe fight back at the beast, but my actions didn't go unnoticed. it struck out at me, but I got away..."<br/><br/>Penn now lifted his prosthetic.<br/><br/>"...mostly."<br/><br/>Penn relaxed back into his chair. "It destroyed the ship, and I don't know how long I floated, kept outta the water by what remained of the mast. It t'was a passing trade galleon that finally found me. I resigned from her Majesty's navy as soon as my feet touched soil in England."<br/><br/>He grasped the bottle of vodka quickly, and drank once more. Then, in a surprisingly cheery voice, he continued on.<br/><br/>"But! It's not all bad really, beautiful place, Atlantis."