Mission:
When the rats first started seeing the ships, the ones that floated over the water with giant shrews on board, I didn't believe them. The watch-rats were simply seeing things, as Fortunata put it. Then one night as I was walking along the harbor, I noticed the taverns empty and a few of the rats again gazing out into the sea. I decided that I should take a look, being the Commander of a few of them. Casually looking to where a trembling claw pointed I saw nothing but fog around an outlying rock. I dismissed the rats and took watch myself, letting them get their hard-earned rest. Besides, I haven't been on watch for a good long while. Fotunata claimed that the rats wanted to steal grog, but as the trembling rats fled for their bunks I noticed not one even look at the taverns. Nothing happened for a long time, and then a fox came and relieved me of my post. I decided to check the taverns to see what was scaring the rats away from them. Peering inside, I saw a large message written in blood on the wall. It read, "ThEy wIll CoMe aT MIdniGHt!!!" Just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. I decided to take one last look out at sea, and there it was. Three large vessels hovering just above the water with giant shrews as their crews! Taken aback, I then noticed the fox looking at me strange. He didn't see them! I looked back into the water and they were gone. I decided I needed sleep, too, and went to my bunk and slept. The next day, I went to Ublaz himself and told him that I too had seen the phantom ghosts. Ublaz, obviousley not interested, merely said that I should take a small crew and see for myself that there was no such thing. I took the rats, a couple companions, and Fortunata, for she didn't believe anything that I said, and I promised her a keg of grog if she came to see for herself. We sailed out into the ocean at midnight (for the writing had said that the ships would be back then) and waited. At precisely midnight, the three ships encircled us. EVERYBODY saw them that night. Even Fortunata. Perplexed, I grabbed my sling and shot a stone off at the nearest ship. Surprisingly, it bounced off a few feet from the ship itself and a small split-almost like a crack-appeared in the air. I let loose another stone. It hit the air and another crack appeared. Then I realized it. The ships had been outfitted with a large, concave piece of glass in fron of the ship, making it appear much larger than it actually was. Steam made the effect of phantoms, and the shrews were merely normal sized. I called the alarm, and soon six full crews of vermin appeared on the cliff tops (I always have a backup plan). Soon every kind of missile was raining down on the ships, and the shrews were basically massacred. My crew got back to land, and since then no phantom ships have appeared on out horizon.