Chapter 19: Saltmarsh

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

We returned to Saltmarsh to find it full of new energy. A contingent of soldiers and marines had arrived from Korvosa. A group of the lizardfolk had set up camp on the clear ground just outside the old wall. Rumours rippled through the town of merfolk having taken up residence among the kelp fields just beyond the port, and even some of the fish-like locartha had been seen out to sea, riding giant sea-eels as if they were horses.

The reason for all this activity was the issue of the Sahuagin. A town meeting was scheduled to be held at the town hall in three days to inform the people of some of the details of what was happening. I felt proud that our little group were, in some small way, involved in the formation of this alliance.

We were delighted to learn that Jenny had returned to Saltmarsh and we had a happy reunion. She seemed more confident and self-assured after her training in Korvosa and seemed perhaps a little more comfortable with the changes to her life that had resulted from her emerging powers and her involvement with our group and our various escapades.

I was also delighted to be reunited with you and your mother and grandfather. That meal your mother cooked for us and that we shared on that first evening was delightful. You and your family have made that little house feel like a genuine home to me ñ the first such home I have ever had ñ and it was wonderful to return to the safety and warmth and welcome of that home after such a long time away.

Our group (I still think we should form some type of company, with a name and so on, but my suggestion seems to have been forgotten) met up the next morning and we had some various things to sort out. We had to pay upkeep on our house and pay the housekeeper her wages. We had developed a small collection of loot from our adventures, and we visited Xanthos to see what she was willing to buy from us. Xanthos became very excited when she saw the giantís bracelet which had been turned into a circlet for a human-sized person to wear. She told us it was worth a great deal and offered a choice of getting in the required amount of cash for us, or simply setting up a line of credit at the store. We chose that option. I discussed with Xanthos some armour made from boiled hide and then enchanted in some way to increase its effectiveness. She told me that she could get in something suitable and that it would take a couple of days to come down from Korvosa by ship. That took a large chunk out of my credit with her but there is still some left.

We had a pair of enchanted gloves that were supposed to help defend against incoming arrows and other such missiles. We gave those to Jenny to wear as they needed a free hand to be useful and she was the only one of us who often had a spare hand during combat.

During all of this time, Iíd been looking around the bustling town and I thought about the upcoming conflict with the Sahuargian and the Sea Princes. The Sahuagin are creatures of the sea and the Sea Princes are marauding pirates. Iíve noticed that Saltmarsh relies a great deal on the fishing industry ñ both for food and for income. If our coming battles went poorly, that source of food and wealth could be severely limited or even cut off. Iíve known what it is to be short of food and I did not want that for my adopted home.

Saltmarsh has a large strip of farms on the inland side of the town. I was thinking that perhaps we needed to boost the output from the farms to counterbalance a possible reduction in fish coming from the sea. Iíd spent the last few weeks in the outskirts of the Dreadwood. The profusion of life there had taught me much about how profusely plants could grow in a way that I hadnít seen in my youth ñ or around the windswept plains of Saltmarsh.

I came to understand how one of the Great Songs that my first teacher had taught me could be sung to help the situation. By taking the time to sing it properly and spreading out my power softly over the land, I could reach far enough for all of the farms to benefit. The Great Song would enrich the soil and help the plants to grow strong and true and produce more of their fruits and grains than they would in a normal season. This was the first Great Song my first teacher had taught me as so many parts of it could be used for lesser things.

I was nervous because, while my first teacher had taught me the song, Iíd never sung the whole thing alone before and it was a big undertaking. I spoke to my friends and asked them to be with me to ensure I wasnít interrupted. Riellian has skills in music so I started teaching her the rhythms to beat on a drum that would support the Song and carry me through. When I started teaching this to Riellian, Kelshann brightened up and told me she had played the drums many times with her tribe. So now I had two drummers to beat out the rhythms.

Late in the afternoon, on our second evening after returning to Saltmarsh, we set ourselves up on an open piece of land about midway between the two sections of the farmland that supplies Saltmarsh. Jenny had brought a basket of food to share. My colleagues made themselves comfortable in their own way and we were ready to start. Riellian and Kelshann began to beat the drums and I launched into the beginning of the Great Song of Growth. I call it a Great Song, but it is as much a dance and a chant and a walking of patterns on the land as it is singing, though there is a great deal of song.

So, with the beating of the drums to time my steps, I danced out the patterns and sang out the refrains as the sun slowly lowered in the sky. When the sun dipped to touch the horizon, I turned to face the setting sun and sang a familiar stanza. My ritual farewell to the sun is just a single section of the Great Song and I often only do a small section of that. I sang the full version now, letting my power emerge and spread softly out to feel the earth around me and the small things that live and burrow in the earth. Then I found the roots of the plants and followed them up until they burst out above the ground, and I could feel the feet of the small things that scurry among the plants. Then I followed the plants up as they reached into the air, and I felt the breeze flow across the branches and through the leaves and I felt the brush of the wings of the small things that fly in the air. Then I leaned back and opened myself up to the sky above my head where the stars now blazed in their glory and echoed my song back to me. For ultimately, the Great Song is the song of the stars in the sky that gaze down upon us and all living things and feed us their power.

I am told that my body began to glow softly with the light of the stars, and that the path of my dance left behind traces of constellations of stars upon the grass and the beaten earth. I was not aware of this at the time for I was completely engrossed in the song. The next section required no voice, I simply danced along the line of the constellations and listened to the songs of the stars as they circled slowly above my head, drawing in the power of the Great Song and letting it build within me. Then I opened my throat once more and sang the power out as soft as a trace of spider web, spreading out and out and out. Then the song changed again, and the web settled gently on the land, renewing and enriching and encouraging growth and health. On and on and on I sang, turning and turning as the stars turn, feeding the power out through that gentle web until it was all gone and I was just an empty vessel standing under the stars.

It was done.

I blinked and looked around and saw my colleagues standing or sitting in the area. Riellian and Kelshann had stopped drumming and now they were helping themselves to what was left of the food that Jenny had brought. I was both exhausted and energised by my performance and also very hungry.

Then I noticed that at my feet, some fluorescent moss had sprung from the ground at some point during the Song. It was formed into letters and those letters read ìF•©k You!î I blinked at this in confusion and wondered what that was about. It shouldnít have happened as the result of the Great Song. Apart from anything else, I was singing in the language of the fey and this was in the common trade tongue.

Then my colleagues told me that the halfling druid, Ferrin Kastilar, had come stomping up at some point in the evening. Heíd been angry about something and wanted to know what was going on. My friends had explained about how I was helping improve the harvest and heíd gone stomping away, muttering under his breath.

When I first arrived in Saltmarsh and was getting to know the people, Ferrin Kastilar was listed as one of the significant people in the town. Iíd been told he was a druid and lived in the Seagrove which is a small section of forest just outside of the town. I didnít know what a druid was, so I asked and was told that druids are like priests but speaking for the Old Gods and for the animals.

I seem to have made this druid angry for some reason. I donít know what I did to make him angry. I havenít even talked to him. But apparently, druids can also make moss grow in the shape of letters to make writing. So, I learned something new today.

By this time it was very late, so we all split up and went to our various homes to sleep.

The next day was the day of the town meeting. The main meeting hall of the town hall was crowded with people, including a few of our new visitors. The table from the council room had been moved into the main hall and stood on a low dais at one end. The council members were all there, as well as other senior representatives of the town and some of the lizardfolk. A representative of the merfolk was carried in on a litter, and there was a locartha as well.

Eda Oweland was the current head of the council, so she started the meeting. She thanked everyone for coming and introduced the representatives of the visiting species. The introductions went very quickly and I had the miller sitting behind me explaining what was happening to his wife who is a little deaf, so I missed some of it. I think the representative of the merfolk was called Arun and the representative of the locartha was Sakeeth, but either I had that backwards or the miller did. Two of the lizardfolk were introduced. One was called Karuth and I completely missed the name of the second one because the miller had to explain to his wife that Karuth could be a boyís name or a girlís name and that he didnít know if Karuth was a boy or a girl on account of him looking like a giant lizard.

Eda then ran through a brief summary of what the Sahuagin had been up to recently, including the fact that they had invaded and taken over the home of our new friends, the lizardfolk. The intention is to strike a blow against the Sahuagin and support our lizardfolk friends by conducting a direct assault on the lair of the Sahuagin, which they had taken from the lizardfolk. This attack is to take place in 14 days.

Then Eliander Fireborn, captain of the town guard, stood up and said that before the attack took place, they needed to find something out about the current state of the lair. He said a small group would be needed to do this and then he looked directly at us. It was pretty obvious that he wanted us to volunteer. Wrack stood up and said that he would go, and then the rest of us stood up and said we would go.

Behind me, the millerís wife started complaining about not being able to see, so I sat down again. The others sat down too and the meeting continued. Two of the lizardfolk stepped forward with a large scroll which they unrolled on the table. It represented a sketch map of their former home. It was an island in the estuary of the Javann river, some 50 miles to the southwest along the coast from Saltmarsh. There was a coastal headland and the lizardfolk had built a causeway of stone out to the island. The island itself had three layers of caves that they had lived in. The lizardfolk told us that the Sahuargin had taken slaves and have been doing work inside ñ shaping stone and carving ñ but that they didnít know exactly what that work involved.