Valkor

Valkor:

"...after the battle we searched our new captives. For a bunch of bandits, they were surprisingly well equipped. Their camp was close by, and we proceeded to search it. We found a few trinkets, but more importantly, we found some maps. One was a rough diagram of the island. It warned of a tribe of lizardfolk, and also marked a lighthouse. The other map was much more strange and difficult to decipher. The following morning, I cast a spell that allowed me to understand almost all languages, contemporary and ancient, written and spoken. Yet still, I could not make heads or tails of the map. I knew that only a wise sage would be able to help me here."

"That morning, the rest of the pirates returned, paddling in. The other brutes that I was with opened fire without hesitation. What happened to things like dialogue and diplomacy? The bandits were obviously not in a position to fight back, and we could have easily forced their surrender. I guess the subtle aspects of negotiation and discourse are lost upon my less civilized friends. The pirates surrendered after the archers slain two of them."

"Afterwards we headed to the lighthouse, in hopes of warning or rescuing the occupants, and perhaps reactivating the lighthouse. There wasn't much to be found there, except a letter that bore the same symbol as a pendant we found in the camp. We also found the corpses of the lighthouse keepers. Those fiends must have killed them all, including the two children we found."

"I wasn't in much of a mood to do more afterwards. I just wanted to head to town and turn the pirates in to the proper authorities. Leshrac wanted to immediately execute them, though I think it wasn't because he wanted justice, but instead expedience, as watching after these captives was quite draining. I reminded myself again that I would really have to watch him. Just how much control did the demonic blood flowing inside him have?"

"In any case, we negotiated with one of our captives, and in exchange for his eventual release, he took us to the pirates' ship, which was anchored and abandoned when we found it. I just hoped he didn't have anything to do with those murders. We decided that the best course of action would be to load everyone on the ship, and sail it into the port on the other side of the island. We spent the next day waiting for the winds to be just right..."