They Fought Their Fight, and We Watched Ours (*^▽^*)

The evil curse fog, black as ink, that had rolled and spread from the depths of the southeastern sea finally began to shroud the entire free port city of Bilgewater Bay. It gradually enveloped the sky, the mountainside streets, the bridges, houses, and sea docks of the most populous city in the southern Serpent Isles in a dark, chilly haze.

Then...

It did not take long before the black fog, which had initially been rather thin, bizarrely grew denser and denser!

If anyone looked into the distance from their home now, they would find that the scattered lights of the harbor city, which had usually blended into the sea, had vanished without a trace. Between heaven and earth, aside from the pitch-black silence, only endless cold remained, along with the faint wails, howls, and shrieks of the cursed evil spirits and twisted souls hidden within the black fog.

The Water Graveyard...

In Bilgewater City, people with some status or standing were not directly buried after dying, whether naturally or otherwise. Instead, they were distinctively sunk deep beneath the seawater in this section of the harbor designated as the Water Graveyard, protected and hidden by seawater and aggressive, carrion-eating fish, before ultimately returning to the embrace of the Lady of Beards.

Of course, they were not simply tossed into the sea. Bilgewater's people would tie a buoy that could float forever on the surface above the location of the sunken corpse. A wooden epitaph would be written on it with the deceased's name, cause of death, date of death, and so on. Naturally, epitaphs could also take the form of a captain's hat, bounty plaque, sword or firearm, little lighthouse, bell, or flag representing the deceased's name...

But the Water Graveyard was not something every Bilgewater resident could enjoy. Even without