After Sabrina walked away, I continued to explore the town, feeling a little disappointed, thinking that I’d probably never see her again. The sun was low in the sky, and I headed towards a bar. A moment after walking in, I saw someone that I wasn’t expecting. It was Captain Claw, the pirate I had mentioned while talking to Sabrina. I knew he came to this town to receive stolen goods occasionally, but I could not believe my insane luck running into him. Maybe it was fate. I sat down at a table and watched Claw. It looked like he had some of his crew members with him. “They’re probably posing as merchants just like me.” I thought. 

One of Claw’s cronies was a monster. I couldn’t tell exactly what his head was because his back was towards me, but it looked circular and bronze. He was a lot better dressed than the others. He must be the one pretending to be the merchant while the others are "working for him." Claw couldn’t fool a nearsighted fish into thinking he was a trustworthy merchant, I concluded.

The tall, well-dressed monster glanced over at the bar’s doorway. As if he was waiting for someone. I got a look at the front of his head. “A compass. That’s probably pretty handy at sea.” I thought. ”They must be waiting for a messenger to give them the location of the rendezvous point. Maybe I can intercept it…” For a moment I pondered, “Why am I helping a stranger capture one of my own kind?” Then I remembered I was no longer one of them, and decided I would do as I pleased. I never liked Claw anyway. He was a weak parasite who thought himself more important than he really was.

I stood up and left the bar, hoping no one would find it suspicious that I left without ordering. I waited near the front door of the bar, and It wasn’t long before I saw someone approaching. The man glanced around, looking worried that someone would disapprove of him walking into the bar. "It must be the messenger," I thought. "He’s not very good at acting. I’ll show him how it’s done, hah, maybe he’ll learn something.” I saw the man glance at me, so I waved him over.

”A-are you with…?”

“Yes, I’m with Claw. You got the location?” I adopted the briskness and swagger of a well-paid first mate in a pirate crew. If there was one thing I was good at, it was mimicry, I had been an actor playing a part nearly my whole life. Even now as I write these records I am still playing the part of a person who isn’t truly myself, even though I’ve left the life of a pirate behind. Acting and swordplay seem to be my only real skills.

“Oh- uh, yes sir…” The man fumbled with a piece of paper. I snatched it out of his hands and glanced at it. “Ahem.” The man cleared his throat. 

“Hm?” I looked up, “Oh, right.” I said as if I wished the man hadn’t reminded me. I fished a gold coin out of my pocket and tossed it over. The man stared at me, then ran away, clutching the gold coin gleefully.

“I probably overpaid him, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t think I have change anyway.” I walked back into the bar. This time when I walked in, the tall compass man was looking straight at me. I was very glad he didn’t notice me the first time I walked in. I marched confidently over to Claw’s table and pushed the small piece of paper over to him.

I waited, knowing I would be expected to expect payment. I clutched the hilt of my sword, in case anything drastic happened, but noticed that this had drawn the tall man’s attention to it, and quickly tucked my hand back to my side and let my cloak hide my sword once more, feeling rather foolish. Claw looked over the paper for a moment, then burned it in his pipe. Claw’s name wasn’t very subtle. He was a Crab-man, and where a human would have hands, he had crab claws instead. The one he used to hold his pipe was large and looked like it could crush a man’s skull. I doubted Claw had ever tried but was sure he often threatened his crew with it. His other claw was hidden in his pocket. It looked pretty small. His eyes were small, dark, and beady.

The Compass man tossed a copper penny over, and I caught it. “Off with you now. You’ve done what you came for.” He said. I nodded and walked back out the door. As I walked away, I felt the gaze of the well-dressed monster on my back.

Now I just needed to find Sabrina. The town wasn’t too large, but I was on a time limit. Sabrina probably hadn’t expected me to find anyone either, so I had no actual way of finding her. I had almost given up when I saw a flash of yellow through the crowd in the distance. Remembering Sabrina’s bright yellow skirt, I rushed in that direction.

 I ran up to her, out of breath, cursing my disguise’s short legs. “I found Claw…”.

Sabrina looked back at me, surprised. “What?”

I relayed the information I had gathered from the message to her, then began to wonder what possessed me to bother sprinting when I could have easily walked.

Sabrina gasped. “Really? Hold on-“ She ran into the nearby infirmary, leaving me outside, feeling confused.

She ran back out. “Alright, where is it?”

Gremlin's cool random facts

Monsters are a humanoid species that have objects for heads. They were originally created by a group of powerful sorcerers to be slaves. 😬 Eventually they gained human-like sentience and there was a big dramatic war thing about their freedom, but now that's over and the only things that remain from it are some prejudices among certain people, and relics from the war.

°Often taller than humans

°Good memories, and often talented musically

°Can't make enchantments like Elves and Sorcerers-(magically adept humans) but can sense them pretty well.