New beginnings

Most everyone left for Mota, leaving just Valkor and myself in Seawell. I don’t know where I want to go, but it certainly isn’t Mota!

We still have a ship and I thought everyone was keen on going to find Miranda but I guess they just couldn’t be trusted. Is it any surprise I don’t like people? You don’t get this sort of crap from animals...

Seawell is already feeling claustrophobic, so I slept there at night but was usually out at first light. I tried to check out whether the locals had put anyone new in the lighthouse but our ropes over the gorge had been cut or otherwise wasted away and I didn’t care enough to risk my neck trying to jump the gorge or scale it down this side and up the other. And of course I’d have to get back again... How do the people in the lighthouse keep supplied? They have to be able to get to Seawell occasionally, and it’s not like you can just row around with the tides and reefs at this part of the island.

The next day I went the other direction. There was some forest on the coast West of Seawell that I thought might be interesting. If the rumours of Miranda being some sort of aquatic are accurate this is also the place she most likely lived while she was here. Sure, there are dangerous things on this island but I passed some woodsmen on the way so help wasn’t too far off if I found something I couldn’t handle.

I heard something dropping from the trees behind me and got my weapons out just in time. I was distracted by the bizarre appearance of whatever it was and the fight took longer than it should have but a couple of good strikes finished it off just as Valkor and some other guy showed up. The other guy looked like a bigger, pudgier, um “simpler“ version of Ren and it turned out it was his younger brother Stimpy. Okay... So we were talking about what this freak was when some girl jumps out of the bushes and joins in the conversation like she belongs there. Says her name’s “Kat” or some such and that she knows all about the island. What is she—some sort of freaking genie???

Well apparently “all about the island” doesn’t include the freakshow lying dead at my feet. I cast about and eventually find a trail leading back to the shore. No surprise, while the thing didn’t look like any sort of sea creature I’ve seen before the fur looked kind of matted as if it’s used to being wet and the eyes were kind of deepset and looked like they weren’t very strong. As if it spent a long, long time deep in the water where it’s dark and eyes don’t help you much.

At this point Valkor perks up and says he recalls reading sometime about intelligent sea creatures doing the nasty with land animals, giving rise to “things” that have no place in nature. Hard to tell if he really read this somewhere or was just making up a story to impress the newcomers but the truth is it makes no real difference either way.

We headed back to town and these new people just kept hanging around talking as if they were my new best friends. Well, if they really were then they should know I don’t like people.

Not only that, but some other loser in purple sharkskin armour shows up and starts hanging around as well. Oh come on! Why doesn’t he just carry a sign around saying “Hey everybody, look at me!!!” Which also means everybody else was staring at the rest of us as well. It made me feel very uncomfortable, and I don’t like that. Apart from anything if Percy sends anybody to track me down this guy is going to ensure everybody remembers I was here.

Yeah, it’s definitely time to get off this island. Anywhere else we go I’m going to play it extra low key and hope that nobody notices me amongst the bright, shiny baubles that have hung themselves on our group.

I don’t trust any of these new people. Not sure I trust Valkor either, but at least he’s proved himself to me. As we head for bed I slap 10 gold on the counter and tell the innkeeper to find me some information on these new people. He greedil;y scoops it up and says he’ll have something by the end of the next day. I figure that should be fine—we have plenty to do before we leave Seawell.

The next day everything moves very quickly. We purchase a boat in no time and load it up. The others want to leave around the middle of the day but I don’t have my information so I’m not going anywhere. I can’t even recall what excuse I gave—it was a lie and I assume they know it’s a lie. I want them to understand that I have no intention of answering to them and prying won’t get them squat.

The innkeeper’s report didn’t tell me much, but at least there was nothing obvious to make me worry so next morning we left. I can’t remember what these dingleberries call themselves... Hah—while I’m trying to remember it seems that if you mix up their names slightly you get Gimpy Cat Skin. Yes, that will help me remember. Well, at least as close as I care about.

So the safe route is to row almost all the way around the island. We put in at Able for the night, where the people seem preoccupied with working out how to profit most from the fact that they have water and the other towns don’t. Yes, that’s a clever attitude. They’ve clearly never seen the guards from Seawell fighting...

We head off the next day and even though we try to stay a safe distance from shore we start getting some arrows as we pass the lizardman area. I’m busy rowing and trying to get us out of there before me get mobbed. Skin, I mean Glynn, is on the other oar but then just drops it to go do something to attack the lizardmen. I yell for someone else to grab it and, um, Stimpy jumps in. There’s a bit of a scuffle but nothing too bad and before long we’re out of there.

Eventually we draw up to the ship and climb aboard. Some of the others go exploring and run into a small group of lizardmen. After we deal with them we find that everything we left aboard has been raided. Damn lizardmen! Fortunately the wind is with us and we can at least sail around to Seawell to resupply. We were going to have to go there anywaqy to pick up the rest of our crew, but this just means it will cost us more. A lot more. The new guys don’t have much money (of course) so Valkor coovers our costs. I could cover it too but damned if I’m covering these new guys. Let Valkor worry about them sticking around long enough to make good what they owe him. I’ll happily pay him my share. When he asks.

We set sail and the girl starts talking about how she can navigate. Fine. Let her do it. Of course she doesn’t have any charts so I watch as she uses mine. She seems to have a reasonably good idea of what she’s doing. I’m pretty sure I could do better, but if she wants to do it then let her.

Sharkskin’s a pain in the butt. First he wanted to be paid to join us. Sure I’ll pay you—how’d you like a warhammer? Between the eyes? Now we’re on the ship he wants to be the captain. Hahahahaha! He can’t navigate, and he doesn’t strike me as that impressive a sailor. Oh sure, he’s better than me, but that isn’t saying much. The other sailors give him lip service, but if we get in trouble I don’t think they’ll be listening to him. However, I don’t know who they will be listening to, and that could be a problem. I should have a talk with Valkor, and maybe fat-stupid-Ren.. Stimpy, yeah, Stimpy and decide amongst us who should really be in charge and get the word to the crew.

Crap. I didn’t pay enough attention to what the girl was doing and now we’re lost. Now they want me to take over and dig us out of this. I have no idea where we are, so I don’t know how they expect me to get us anywhere else. I try to take us back to Raora but it’s no good. We’re still lost. We sail around a bit and eventually see some gulls overhead and Stimpy somehow manages to communicate with them and they head off and we follow them. Sure enough we find an island. A very, very small island. It’s almost certainly not on my charts and probably won’t have a town but we have to look. If nothing else there might be some game we can hunt for fresh meat.

Well what do you know—there’s a lizardman! He got exiled from Raora for some reason he won’t tell us, which the others don’t seem adequately concerned about. Says his tribe of 500 lizardmen have a new shaman and if we help him get rid of the new shaman we’ll get to Raora in the process and then we’ll know where we are and can decide what we want to do about trying to get to Bellatune again.

We agree to help him. Lizardmen are close enough to people that I don’t trust him, but all I really want is to get back to somewhere I know and then take care of the navigation myself instead of trusting someone I don’t know.

Oh yeah, get this—shark boy and the girl want to draw on my charts to mark in this island that wouldn’t even be more than a speck. Over my dead body—buy your own bloody charts if you want to draw all over them. The girl tries to tell me that amongst all the other stuff she’s done she’s also been a cartographer’s assistant. Like I care one way or the other! One time I peeled onions in the kitchen too, but I’m not pretending I’m a cook!

The lizardman won’t speak Common, though he clearly understands it. So he has to get Scat to help him navigate, and mine are the only charts. I make sure there are no drawing materials in the room and I keep an eye on them any time they’re consulting my charts. If I see her trying to mark them in some way she’ll never see them again and I don’t care of that means we all rot at sea.

I don’t like people.