Wesley told us that Miss Bailey Gladwell has urgent need of our services. Her father George has gone missing. To not hear from him for 6 months is concerning. He’s followed his passion of birdwatching in recent years. She suggested old guys all do it. I wonder if that’s what Wesley does while we put our lives on the line.
When Bailey last heard from him, he was couple of days from setting sail. He’d heard of a small cluster of islands out in the Samak Ocean from old men sailors in port Kalli. Flora and Fauna unlike anywhere in the world. She doesn’t know how he made his way there, but she should have heard something by now.
What happened to him? Bad weather? Pirates? She was unsure. She went through study and found no charts or maps. He’s become spontaneous in his retirement.
We are to find something concrete, proof of death or bring him home and we each get a gold bar worth 1,000 gold. This lady was disgustingly well to do. She probably thought a banana cost 1 platinum.
We arrived at Port Kalli and Cillian immediately gravitated toward food. He talked to the chef about cooking techniques. He made us very spicy dragon rolls, a nice sashimi sampling, and slightly stinky soup. Thordak and I had a really rough time. Then, and later... Cillian bought a significant amount of fish which he stored in his magic backpack. Cillain asked the chef if he had seen George Gladwell. Nope.
I looked around the port for obvious captains. A big blue burly orc captain knew Georgie. He was also familiar with the Paradise Islands and gave us directions.
He gave Cillian an axebeak curry recipe with a ridiculous quantities of spices. Why is this dude so fixated on food?
The Sister told him, “You look wise beyond your years. This is not a compliment.” He claimed to be twenty, but must have been in his fifties.
I asked if Georgie was friends with any other sailors and was told to look for Captain Stu. He’s a tall, lanky, hairy, bugbear that you can smell before you see him. Last this guy heard Stu was headed toward Teikoku. We found extra tall bugbear that absolutely reeked. Cillian confirmed that this was Captain Stu. He claimed to be a good friend of Georgie. Cillian asked if he knew the specific island George traveled to. Stu had dropped him off. His next trip to the islands he looped around the archipelago twice, but he didn’t see Georgie’s boat. He assumed George left on his own. He offered us some moist paper out of the waistband of his pants. No thanks, my dude. We already have directions.
Stu told us that Georgie had a tent, barrels of water, and food. He’d known he’d be there a few months. Stu’s description of Georgie was, “Sweet man, loves birds, won’t shut the fuck up about them.” No one else had seen Georgie after Stu.
We sailed to the islands and looped around them looking for the island with the most interesting birds. We found an ancient well on the island. The Sister communed with nature. She found out the toucans were the most prominent beast on the island. She also searched for different kinds of creatures and didn’t find anything else. We went down the well. A dragon burst through the wall. He was just a little guy, but Cillian thought there might be a bigger one around. We butchered it and continued into the cave where it had tunneled in. We found pools of corrosive liquid. Thordak ferried us all across after casting jump. Cluck was able to make some of the smaller jumps. Cillian did fall in, and boy did it hurt. The Sister transformed into a giant bat, and Cillian grew dragon wings. They scouted and came across more cave dragons. We fought the adults and two more young. Then we butchered them and weighed our bags down with their carcasses. We found nothing of interest in the caves.
We found George’s body on another island. His journal full of bird notes. He said that he did a terrible job mooring his boat and it drifted away, and he hopes that his family eventually learns of his fate. I shoved chunks of discomposed man into my bag along with his journal.
When we returned to Bailey she was really insistent that I not take the body out in front on her. Squeamish. Whatever, I took him to Moonbow.
I finally have the funds to open my business. Yay dead rich guys, I guess.
