On the horizon, just six days later, the crews of each ship could see the distinct shape of two islands, one much smaller than the other and only a mile from the coast of its larger neighbor. Athastar called back towards the main hatch, “Doc, is there a spyglass down there?”
“Burk, Nessa, is there a spyglass down here?” Doc asked, not taking her eyes off the women on the corner cots. Her hands were busy messing with a strange little machine Nessa had found in one of the crates. It was similar in shape to a crab, but it was made of brass and had a key. The dwarf had taken it apart and put it back together a dozen times in the past couple days and was fascinated by its craftsmanship and machinery. By this point she had learned its shape within and without and could toy with it even while keeping an eye on her prisoners.
“Yep!” Burk said, rummaging around in a large box near his bunk from which he pulled a rather small telescope. Nessa was actually nowhere to be seen below deck. She’d gotten up early once again and climbed the primary mast to admire the needlework on the flag, which was a triangular strip of white fabric with a blue wave and the off-white clumps meant to represent mashed potatoes, a flag that stood for the ship’s connection to Cooglara. Nessa thought the potatoes just looked like really weirdly placed clouds, but it was alright, she enjoyed looking at it and how it changed as the sun rose, the edge stitching reflecting the hue of the sky around it.
Athastar took the spyglass and extended it before placing the eyepiece against his eye.
“The large island has four peninsulas, and the little one off to the side has a lighthouse on it. Where should we dock?”
“Which peninsula has a port?” one of the former pirates, Daedra, responded.
“Oh, sorry, they all do,” Athastar clarified.
“Three is a good number, just pick the third from the right,” Burk suggested.
“Good enough reasoning as any,” The admiral said, shrugging. “Go let Nessa and Doc and everybody know.”
“I heard,” said the high elf, descending form the larger of the two masts.
“As did I,” added Doc, shouting up through the main hatch. “I’ll get the prisoners ready for transport.” By that she just meant she’d feed them one last time and wish them luck. She’d actually had a lot of fun chatting with them about how much of a bitch they all thought she was.
The little fishing vessel was following shortly behind and the trio on board had had a much less pleasant trip. Lucy was running Tom and Zib ragged, giving them tasks and putting them through intense training.
“Move your hairy, flat feet, tiny!” she shouted at Zib. “Can’t you see that the flagship is turning?”
“Yes, captain,” he yelped, his voice cracking slightly as he sprinted over to the rudder as fast as his short little legs could carry him. Tom had just drawn the sail so he grabed the line from him and set about turning the craft to follow the wake of the much larger vessel.
“We’re probably coming in to port,” Lucy explained. She couldn’t see the island as the ship that she once owned and ran was now blocking her view. “So, Tom, start getting us ready to dock,” she glared at him, giving him exactly half a second to react to her order before she started getting violent.
“Yes ma’am!” he ran to loosen the tie lines that he’d need to use to secure the boat. Lucy rolled her eyes at how inefficient he was at doing so, and as it rolled, her one uncovered eye landed on the island before them, now unobscured as the flagship had sufficiently moved aside.
“Oh no, it’s this island,” she practically snarled.
“Is there something wrong with this island?” Zib asked, straining to hold onto both the rudder and the mainsheet.
“Well, the towns are mostly normal, but the giant wall is annoying. They wouldn’t let us through, said we were “unworthy.”
Zib came up with a clever remark, but managed to restrain himself. He didn’t want to get punted again.
“Well, I guess I’ll just be staying onboard the boat. I don’t have a reason to check out this place any more than I already have,” she explained. Tom and Zib were both relieved to hear this but would never indicate such aloud.
The two-ship fleet pulled into the third port from the right and spent several minutes tying off. During this time, a tall, round man approached. Athastar and Lucy went to deal with him as the adventurers learned about knot-tying from the former pirates.
“Hey, it’s lovely to see so many new faces at our little port,” the portly fellow said jovially, “but I gotta let you know a few important rules, alright?” after seeing Athastar’s nod and Lucy’s glare, he continued. “Alright, great. First thing’s first, there’s a ten gold per ship per day fee for tying up here.”
“That’s not a rule, that’s a fee,” Lucy grumbled. The man’s grin wavered slightly.
“Alright, second thing, I’m the harbormaster, and what I say goes. Is that alright?” his grin suddenly took on an oddly sinister nature and he looked directly at Lucy. “Alright. Third, no murder. That’s a big no-no here. I don’t mean no murder unless it’s sanctioned. I mean no murder, alright? Alright. Lastly, don’t bother the guards, they’re busy people. Alright? Alright! As long as you all follow these rules everything should go just swell for all of us.”
Lucy went to speak, but Athastar held up a hand to stop her and said, “I don’t think that should be an issue, sir, we’re just passing through. I’ll get you our payment for the day right away.” He then turned and grabbed Lucy’s arm to pull her in and whisper, “don’t start anything, we just need to get some crew and go on our way.”
“Fine, whatever, I’ll stay on the fishing boat the entire time you idiots are recruiting.”
“You might want to stay on the Dragon of the Waves. You’d have more people to keep you company,” Athastar says, attempting to be some kind of friendly towards her.
“Alright, sure, doesn’t matter,” Lucy replied, waving him off and climbing up into the suhar. The paladin wasn’t quite sure what this woman thought of him, but he knew it wasn’t good. He gestured for the rest of the adventurers to follow him.
“So what are we doing here, again?” Zib asked, sounding slightly agitated.
“Well, we’re letting the rest of these lovely ladies go, and I’m not sure we want to run two ships with thirteen people, so we’re looking for new crew members,” Athastar explained. “I also wouldn’t mind if any of you find some adventure hiding somewhere around here, but I doubt it, this place looks pretty standard.”
“What about the giant wall?” Doc asked, pointing out the forty-foot high gray brick wall that seemed to extend forever in either direction, separating the small town down by the docks from the rest of the island.
“Uhhhhhh,” Athastar said, having somehow not noticed this earlier. “Let me get the gold for the harbormaster, then we can discus that.”
When the admiral had paid the wide fellow for two spots to leave their craft, he returned to his crew, who were discussing what they wanted to do in town in order to find new crew members.
“I’m just saying, it’s a good place to find people for hire,” Burk said defensively.
“Yes, but you’re just sixteen, they won’t let you in,” Zib said, “I should go.”
“You?” Carl asked, laughing slightly. “You’re going to find the cheapest, not the best. I think Burk would be better off in there than you.”
“Cooglara help us,” Doc said under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. “Come on, Nessa, let’s just go wander around town.”
“Oh, come on, it’s not that ludicrous to think that there’d be fellow adventurers there, right?” Burk asked.
“Okay, guys, you can stop with the ambiguity,” Athastar said as Doc and Nessa walked past him. “I know you’re just talking about asking around the tavern. Although there was some good structure to that innuendo, very funny.”
“Oh yeah!” Zib said, his eyebrows raising on his face dramatically. “A tavern would be a great place to find sailors, too! Burk, go check that out while Carl and I head to the brothel.”
“Damn it, Carl,” Athastar said, making a very similar gesture to Doc’s a moment earlier.
“Hey, just because you stayed holy doesn’t mean all us ex-Templars have to,” Carl said with a grin that Athastar might best describe as “grotesque.”
“Come on, Tom, let’s go check out the wall,” Athastar said in exasperation.
“Sure!” Athastar was pleasantly surprised by his enthusiasm. “I bet there’s some kind of conspiracy or monster or something involved there. It’ll be fun, for sure.” The paladin nearly shed a tear of pride in the lad. “The others can just catch up with us later.”
The two men in chainmail followed the rest of their friends as far as where the dock met the land, and then they branched off, Zib, Carl, and Burk heading towards the town and Athastar and Tom moving through the palm trees towards the wall.
Upon arrival, the two men saw a massive gate in the wall, guarded by two guards in heavy armor, their faces obscured. The gate seemed to lead to a thriving town, better-built and more densely packed than the much smaller settlement down by the docks.
“Hail, travelers!” One of the guards said, a happy yet professional expression on his face. His voice was deep and gravely. “Welcome to the Isle of Windless Refuge. What brings you here?”
“We seek adventure!” Tom said eagerly. Athastar approached the armorclad fellow and sized him up before speaking.
“What is the purpose of this wall, if I might ask?”
“Only the worthy may pass,” the other guard replied more rigidly and formally.
“I can tell just by looking at you that you two are certainly both worthy!” The first piped in. “You may pass through the door if you so please.”
“That sounds fascinating,” Athastar said, examining the hole in the wall. “I think we should go get our friends and show this to them before we, ourselves, pass through,” he mused, looking up at the cornerstone.
“Oops,” Tom mumbled. He had already taken the few extra steps into the doorway and into the town. “Sorry, Athastar, already went through,” the young man chuckled. “Alright, let’s go get the others,” he said, walking back towards his friend. Unfortunately this caused him to walk face-first into an invisible barrier. “Ow!”
“Tom, stop joking around, we have to go back to town and get the team together.”
“I’m not messing around, I think this is magic,” Tom explained, pressing his hands against the one-way wall.
“Hm…” Athastar said, seemingly unconcerned. “That sounds like more of a Carl problem. I’ll go get him. Stay put, okay, kid?”
“Okay, but hurry back, please,” Tom replied as he watched the admiral turn and walk down towards the town.
The guard that had been first to speak then turned to his friend and said, “Well that was rude.”
“How do you figure?”
“They didn’t even try to ask us what was going on.”
“What’s going on?” Tom asked.
“Oh, you’re still here,” the talkative one said as if surprised. “Don’t worry about it. It won’t matter in an hour or so.”
“What does that mean?” Tom asked, terrified of the implication.
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine,” the same one replied. Tom wasn’t entirely sure he was telling the truth. He frantically began looking around in town for something to climb on or someone to talk to. He walked up to another frantic-looking man.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Tom asked the tired-looking fellow.
“No, I just came in here from my ship and I haven’t seen my crew since.”
“Oh dear…”
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