Cartographers, Pirates, and Vindication

[kishijo]

"Ahh, lovely. Just what I needed. More turtle soup."

"Nuttin' like tortuga's in da mornin,' hot scaly gristle an' lovely thick tail 'ta put hair on yer chest." I swung one leg over the chair and sat down at the oak table, young Dahdros just behind me shuffling in his robes.

I dipped the wooden ladle into the heavy iron pot of steaming stew and poured out a hot bowl for myself. The white-haired one-eyed veteran slurped noisily across from me, gruel stains down his beard and tunic. He had a jug of grog cradled in his lap, as well.

"Turtles and grog: such is the staple of life at the Sea Dog's Rest, aye?"

"Harr!" he saluted me and took a deep swallow, then offered it to me.

"Oh no thank you, it is still a bit early for me." Indeed the sun's rays were just now creeping over the horizon and casting long shadows across the barren landscape. "But I'm sure the lad could use some," I volunteered Dahdros. The pale boy turned green before me.

"Yarrr," the old one voiced his disappointment in my ward's stomach for the 'good stuff.'

Grimacing at the horrid taste, I motioned for him to grab a bowl and seat himself. "Pull out those latest notes and maps we took on that island, Dahdros, I want to look those over. Vandenoch I think those locals called it."

"Vander's Doooom!" the grizzled old man said.

[kishijo]

Spreading the maps on the table we looked at my last sketches of the terrain. Greensward Pyre, and a place they called the Doomplain. "Why is it called Vander's Doom, old one?"

"'Dat's where Vander met his doom!"

"I suppose that makes sense. Let me try another way -- who was Vander?"

"Ethyrian man, always had a love fer da northernlands, like his grand uncle had a taste fer da northern women," he chuckled at himself.

Dahdros chimed in, "Vander, founder of Vanderlund. He's the king who fought the brutal wars with the Invorri when the Ethyrians were carving out a land of their own here in the north (http://www.shadowbania.com/Shadowbane/Lexicon/Library/ageofkings.shtml). That was back early in the Age of Kings."

"What would I do without you, my cyclopedic boy."

"Aye, he beat back the barbarians, but he died on the battlefield. His son and grandson lived on in constant war with the Invorri. 'Dey all died eventually, too."

"As do all the All-Father's children," Dahdros solemnly traced the three rings of the Holy Church on his chest.

"Not these days," I said while sipping at my soup.

"Nae, not these days! Har!" He took another swig in celebration of the jest. "Don't Vander's grand uncle know it, though!"

I looked at Dahdros quizzically, then back to the decrepit old sailor. "Wait, are you telling me Vander's grand uncle still lives?"

"Yar, 'dat he do. All four leg o'him, too."

"He must be.... 1200 years old now? And with four legs? Wait wait, Vander was of a line of centaur?"

"I see ya don' be knowin' the tale of Arnander, southron: the saltiest o' the Shipwrecked Pirates!"

"Sounds like a good tale. Pass me some grog and go on, then. Dahdros," I motioned for him to write this down, and he pulled out his notebooks, quills, and ink.

We'd compiled a great deal of excellent information for the Cardinals back in Dalgoth about this Fragment they called Vindication already, but I enjoyed the tall tales and stories more than the maps and references, in truth. And so we heard about Arnie, grand uncle to Vander, hero of Vodiranon and the War of the Scourge, brother to Phaedra of the Amazons, the one who was nearly King, ill-fated seducer of Lashava, and sailor and Captain of the Shipwrecked Pirates.

I had Dahdros read his edited version back to me later as we headed for the runegate.

[kishijo]

"Back when Beregund returned with the blade Shadowbane and used it to defeat the Dark Lord Veshteroth at the Battle of Vodiranon (http://www.shadowbania.com/Shadowbane/Lexicon/TheLegend/theageofdays.shtml), Arnander was the eldest son of a petty Ethyrian household. He fought bravely with his many brothers and earned his family's early reputation as great war generals as they beat back the dark lords, but his blood was not noble or royal. They were elevated in station after the battles to noble stock, but the stigma of his lower birth always remained with him.

"When the Chaos Gate had been sealed, the elves returned to their Hidden Court, the centaurs returned to the Hunt, and the sons of men began to band together and settle down, looking for a way of life and a land to call their own. A power struggle ensued between the nobles who would crown their leaders King of all men, and many other races of men dispersed throughout the world looking for their own kingdoms, their slavery to the elves still fresh in their memories. Arnander's victories on the battlefield and his family's ascension in status had assured his father a likely position as the new King, but the squabbles between the older Houses would have none of it. They cast their support behind Ivard, who was crowned the First King of Ethyria in Melissar.

"But the popular support behind Arnander's family remained strong, and a plot hatched by an early ancestor of the shrewd and manipulative House Daenyr clan proposed a marriage of their eldest daughter to Ivard that their lines might be intertwined. This girl was Phaedra (http://www.aerynth.com/phpnuke/modules.php?name=Encyclopedia&op=content&tid=229&query=Phaedra), Arnander's younger sister and a great warrior in her own right. She is said to have planted an arrow in Veshteroth's right eye when Beregund fought him. She grew tired and disillusioned with these grand schemes of power and political machinations of the world of men and ran off with a tribe of like-minded women to the south, swearing off the corrupt influences of the Ethyrians forever. Wounded in his heart and in his pride, their father died soon after. Left with a dishonored house, the other nobles now turned on Arnander, hoping to manipulate him and his military prowess in their own ambitious designs to rule the Kingdom of Ethyria someday. His family was named outlaws by the paranoid advisors to Ivard who feared the handsome and popular Arnie. The armies of the King invaded his lands, burned his castle, killed his brothers, and sullied his name forever.

[kishijo]

"He took his surviving relatives to the sea, where they sailed to nearby islands and lived as nomads among the grottoes, hidden beaches, and limestone coves carved by the emerald waves. They raided the coastal towns of the Ethyrians, remaining always a thorn in the side of the King who could never collect his taxes from the merchants of the Taripontor or the Irydnu to the south because Arnie's corsairs always managed to steal the booty. When asked by a crewman why they never planned to take over the kingdom for their own, Arnie had famously replied, 'Why would I rule over those scum from a throne when I can do it from the top of a wave?'

"But there was good reason why Arnander's pirating ventures were so successful. Lashava, Mistress of the Waves (http://www.shadowbania.com/Shadowbane/Lexicon/Encyclopedia/lashava.shtml), the estranged bride of Torvald, had taken more than a passing fancy in this swashbuckling, daring, handsome, and brave young soldier-turned-hero-turned-outcast-turned-pirate. She watched over his voyages, always granting good winds and kind waters. And once, taking the shape of a beautiful Horwathi princess secreted away on a lonely and secluded isle where Arnander and his crew set anchor, she seduced the captain and fed his crew with wines tainted with poppies from the opium flowers. The virile corsairs were sedated into a state of blissful lethargy while Lashava kept Arnie for her very own concubine.

"Some years later, after Arnander's sister Phaedra had found her kingdom to the south, she desperately missed her brother even though she had sworn off the evil practices of men in power who had caused her family's downfall. She sent some of her huntresses to find him and take him word. They found the sailors and their captain after years of searching, and freed them from their drugged existence. The spurned Titan Lashava was filled with rage and terrible anger, and she caught the sailors just as the huntresses tried to make off with them in their ships. Tortured by her love for Arnie, but furious that he would leave her, she vowed that Arnander would never again sail on the waters of her seas, and would turn them all into the most unseaworthy creatures of all. All of the pirates and even their huntress saviors suddenly sprouted tails and two more sets of legs, and hooves and long equine bodies: she had turned them into centaurs that they might never be able to pilot a picaroon again. She also whispered a curse of immortal life which they bear to this day, and so for a thousand years after escaping the island of Lashava's fury, the Pirates were Shipwrecked forever more.

"Locked into the shape of centaurs but bearing the hearts and lifestyle of pirates, they have always sought a way to lift the envious and spiteful curse. Some of the former friars and pageboys of Arnander's old family church who sailed with him as pirates have returned to worship of Pandarrion. They don the garb and prayers of prelates and crusaders hoping that he might take mercy on them and return them to their former shapes. Others maintain the rough and rugged lifestyle they enjoyed on the high seas, only their oceans are the grassy plains now rather than choppy waves. Some say that Lashava will lift the curse if Arnie requites her love, but Arnie seems more bent on gathering gold and booty in hopes of paying his way out of the curse somehow."

"A tale almost as interesting as Silkë's story of Torvald and Ardan (http://ubbforums.ubi.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=goldenlion&Number=2036057&Forum=goldenlion&Words=Cartographers&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=1year&Main=2036057&Search=true#Post2036057), eh?" I asked Dahdros after he recited his latest version.

"I wonder why, if Lashava wanted him to be 'the most unseaworthy creature of all,' she didn't turn him into a dwarf?" the youth asked me.

"I can only suppose it was because something about him reminded her of a horse."