The Eight Pillars of Magic (The 8... of Magic Series 1)

The Bloody Medal

First Mate Gerion: „Dandelions symbolize everything I want to be in life."

Smutje Tylar: „Fluffy and dead with a gust of wind?"

Captain Baugreginn: „Unapologetic. Hard to kill. Feral, filled with sunlight, bright, beautiful in a way that the conventional and controlling hate but cannot ever fully destroy. Stubborn. Happy. Bastardous. Friends with bees. Highly disapproving of lawns. Full of wishes that will be carried far after I die."

Gerion: „edible..."

This was the first time of the day that he laughed at one of Gerion's jokes.

The „Sailor's Hook" was a fine vessel and Baugreginn was proud to be it's captain. It had survived great waves, harsh winds and the magical storms of the Silver Sea. There were some routes between Euboris and Cartosamon, but only a mad man or experienced captain would take on these routes. The „Sailor's Hook" had so far stood the test of time. Not this time. Thunderous waves crashed against the vessel, the night's dark as an ink pot, lightning strikes brightening the night for a few glimpses. Baugreginn shouted orders, twenty men had been under his command, twenty good men. In amidst the chaos, the pirates, not just pirates. Orcish pirates. Orcs were already a great danger on land and those who fared on sea were even madder.

After fighting off a band of pirates, Baugreginn's crew stranded on a remote island. Quickly after washing up on shore, they began searching for more resources while struggling to conserve food and water. On this first day they created a makeshift camp around the wreckage, searched for survivors and began evaluating their situation. The beach had marble sand, but littered with wreckage of multiple ships and the sky was in a bright unnatural blue.

"So many crashed ships. It is unlikely that we are the first here." Tylar's face made hard grimace, then he spotted something black laying in the water and ran to „it". As it turned out this „it" wasn't an it, but someone wrapped in a dark heavy cloak. A figure of blue skin, looked like a priest, garbed in roughspun wool robes dyed in the green, grey, and blue. His eyes were of a cold icy blue and his hair of a sunny golden shade. Afterwards he presented the unconscious man to his Captain. Baugreginn was in the middle of establishing what was to be done for the rest of the day.

„Who is this, Tylar?"

„I don't know. I found him front first in the shallow water. His cloak is well made but there is not a single coin on him."

„Coin seems to be our last problem Tylar and besides that we don't ferret through corpses or half-dead. I told you a thousand times."

„Yeah yeah." Tylar looked ashamed to the ground like a mangy dog. The two kept it up for a good minute and began laughing. Tylar was a gnome from, born and raised on the streets of Degernoth and still very much a thief. Captain Baugreginn valued him for his cooking skills and unmatched talents as a navigator, thus he forgave easily the thievish nature of him.

Further on day 2, they passed forgotten ruins and he lost Grumirash, Zusadark and Dororsh who all perished due to mosquito bites. Still Baugregrinn ordered to establish a back-up camp here at those ruins. The Stranger decided to stay at the ruins and investigate the ancient inscriptions.

It was surely an alarming terrain. Gravity was far stronger here and the whole group could feel how it pulled on every step they took. It was truly exhausting and not just physically but also mentally. The climate was hot and sticky, so hot that it seemed like even the plants were sweating.

Regardless of the horrible conditions his companion Gerion didn't feel a sense of dread or danger, the man was a jester and one of his oldest friends. There was an unspoken trust between him and the half-orc. When he returned on the next day to the ruins, there was no trace of the camp or his men. It seemed like the jungle fed on on them. At least everyone besides the Stranger, who stirred the campfire with dead eyes and did not speak of what had happened.