there is no justice

We waited a while on the ship but the winds failed to shift in the direction we needed. I studied the clouds and the water, from which I determined that we would have no luck for at least three days. We had adequate food and water and in hindsight should have waited for the weather to change but we thought we would be clever and travel overland to the nearest town, Seawell.

The path we had previously followed to the lighthouse had a fork leading south which we knew would take us to the river. What we would do when we got there I don’t know as it would be running through a deep gorge.

Before we reached the river we saw a cave of to the side. There was really no reason to explore it but there was always the hope that it would somehow result in a tunnel running under the river. We worked our way into the cave and just as it was narrowing to the point we would have to squeeze through I noticed some abnormally large centipedes and realised there must be a nest of some sort further in. I warned the others that we should withdraw but some of them thought they could fight through. They soon changed their minds when the centipedes started swarming in reaction to our presence.

We beat a hasty retreat and continued our trek along the path, arriving at a gorge about 20 feet across. Remembering that we had taken some potions of Jump from the pirates we sent one person across with the end of a couple of ropes to set up a makeshift bridge that everyone else was then able to use to cross the gorge. Looking down at the river it looked like it had seen better days—the level was lower than it probably should have been, and certainly lower than it had been.

As we continued on we came to farmland which let us know we were almost at the town. We spoke to a farmer and collected some information about the town, but in reality we didn’t learn much that we wouldn’t have either guessed or learned very quickly. Had we learned anything useful we probably would have turned around right there.

Instead we continued to Seawell and as we reached the edge of town a guard approached us, and escorted us to the mayor’s office. I probably should have been suspicious already—officials don’t take an interest in anyone unless they think they can either profit from it, or they’re afraid.

We decided to let Leshrac do the talking, and that was another mistake. It turns out he’s some sort of royal bureaucrat, so perhaps it was deliberate sabotage to get us all imprisoned—I’ll be keeping a closer eye on him in future. He told a credible tale of the shipwreck, but for some reason decided to keep quiet about the pirates and the lighthouse. I don’t know why, there was no reason. And of course it went horribly wrong because somebody else made reference to the lighthouse and that was all it took.

The mayor ordered us locked up and having tasted “justice” already I wasn’t ready to subject myself to its vagaries again so soon. I drew my weapons and said I would defend myself if needed, offering that if they didn’t want us around I would happily leave town, but pointing out that they had no right to lock us up. I have come to think that the less fair the legal system, the more formidable the guards are. Certainly when my father died Percy put a lot of effort into both beefing up the guards and adding many new laws. Here it was no different—the guards were able to flick my weapons out of my hands with ease while I was unable to make any impression. A couple of the others just sat down like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. At least one of them was smart enough to make a run for it (though apparently not smart enough to avoid giving himself away by taking a room in the inn wwhen there are no other strangers in town).

I finished up having the crap beaten out of me almost ot the point of death but better that than volunteering for “justice.” When I came to we were all crammed into a cell that should not have held more than one or two people. We were there for days before being summoned into their court.

The mayor was after something, and I wonder whether the ink was even dry on the page for the laws we’d supposwedly broken. Sure, I’d attacked a guard, but I’d given fair warning that I would defend myself. Maybe I should have taken care of the mayor instead when he was hiding under his desk. He made a big fuss about not being sure what to do about us, and not being sure who were the pirates and who were the victims. Blah, blah, blah. Eventually he claimed that he would forget he’d ever seen us if we helped them out—the water supply was drying up and they wanted us to restore it.

He didn’t leave us much choice so we agreed to do it. For my part, I just wanted to get free. Sure I’ll see if I can find their problem, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back here in a hurry. I’d rather head back to our ship and sail to another island—I don’t trust these people to keep their word no matter what we do for them. I wonder if I can work out some way to drive that nest of centipedes this way?

We tried to equip in the marketplace and despite our mission to help them the traders were completely uncooperative. The only way we could get anything was by trading water.

We headed back to the river, and then started following it inland looking for its source. The light was starting to fade so we pulled back a bit and established a camp. As we were getting ready to settle down to sleep a group of dire bats flew into our camp and attacked us. I wasn’t fully recovered from my fight with the guards and was once more rendeder unconscious. By the time I was healed the fight was over. Apparently Valkor had been casting spells to put the bats to sleep or knock them out, and then it was a comparitively simple matter to dispatch them.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully and now it’s time to find out what is affecting the town’s water supply.