Edge of the World

OUTLINE: Issue 1: After his brother’s ship gets taken down by pirates, Captain Ruckman is tasked by the London Merchant Trading Company to find an alternate way around the world to avoid pirate attacks. Ruckman is a young, no-nonsense Captain who cares for his men more than money. His journey takes him down to South America to join a Spanish crew, led by Captain Hernandez, a swashbuckling woman who is a “Scourge Of The Seven Seas.” Hernandez is a live-in-the-moment adventurer who loves the pleasures of the world to numb the pain of her father’s memory. Ruckman and Hernandez's merchant ships are attacked by pirates, which split them up on two voyages, Ruckman into the Arctic sea and Hernandez veering into the Falklands. Issue 2: Captain Ruckman continues sailing the long way into the Arctic to avoid rumors of a Kraken, but his ships freeze in the arctic ice. Ruckman's crew ice-pick their way through the icebergs and glaciers, struggling to stay warm. Ahead they see a ghostship coming through the ice, crewed by a skeleton army (Captained by his brother William). The ghostship collects the souls of those damned at sea, but Ruckman sees what has become of his brother. Ruckman must fight his brother and the skeletons to cannon their way out of the ice. His brother tells him of the secrets of the London Trading Company and he was secretly tasked with aiding the slave trade. Issue 3: Captain Hernandez loses one of her supply ships and has to port the Spanish vessels to the nearest island. Hernandez finds herself in mermaid-infested waters and steers out to Dragon Island, where her father was last seen. Hernandez journeys ashore for supplies to discover the tropical island is home to a dragon nest. They escape, but the dragon awakens and burns several of the ships into the sea. With cannon and harpoon fire, she kills one of the dragons. She finds her father but he has chosen a life apart from her. Hernandez chooses to leave him behind and finds her way around the ice through the Kraken shortcut. Her crew becomes scared and thus awakens a deadly Kracken sea monster that pulls her ships into the ocean. Issue 4: Captain Ruckman breaks out of the ice caps and finds Hernandez's broken ships, and her aboard a rowboat. She climbs aboard. They notice the water on the horizon stops, leading to a drop off the earth. They try to sail back but are caught in the sea current. Ruckman and Hernandez all abandon ship and watch their supplies over the edge of flat earth while they struggle to row against the tide. End of Part 1. POTENTIAL FOR MORE: The saga is very flexible and the four issues of part one can also be expanded into five or six issues by adding more adventures for the crew to encounter, such as a zombie island (Island of Lost Souls) or the creature inhabitants of the Arctic. Part two includes more of the mystic underworld, where the crew explores Davy Jones’ Locker and fights to escape Hell. Once they escape, they learn they were put on a sacrificial mission to die and turn back to the homeland to destroy the capitalistic institution. Part three sums up the saga by facing Ruckman and his crew against England and the slave trade in the American Colonies.