Chapter 7: Search for The Salty Mermaid

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

After the excitement of our visit to the lizard people and our encounter with “Thousand Teeth, The Devourer”, it was pleasant to get back into the routine of daily life. Each morning I swam with Wrack. He is helping me to improve my swimming and I can see some improvement already. Then I work at the mine, helping with the administration and occasionally providing my healing skills to an injured miner. Then in the afternoon, I walked back to the old house and spent an hour or so working in the garden before returning home.

I have come to suspect that there are people in the town who are aligned with the smugglers and I have decided to try to identify them and expose them – hopefully, drive them out of town. To do so, I am taking the form of one of the wild dogs that roamed the plains where I came from. The first time I showed this form to you, you suggested we call him Busig which means prankster in the Dwarven tongue, but then we decided Scruffy was a better name. I have taken to going out about the town late at night as Scruffy. He tends to be either un-noticed or ignored by the people as he slinks through the shadows. Maybe in this way, I can spot something that is normally hidden from general observation.

In the meantime, the Town Council provided the people and equipment to repaint the ship we had captured. We have renamed it “Spirit of Procan” after a short discussion of suitable names. I like the name, as Procan is one of the Great Ones who oppose the dark forces in the world. Since so many here in this place perform rites in his name, it seems proper to reflect that in the name of our ship.

At a meeting of our group one evening, I told my colleagues about my suspicions concerning the slavers and their connection to the town. That provoked some discussion about the history of Saltmarsh. I listened intently as there was much I had not known.

Apparently, there is a community of pirates who call themselves Sea Princes living in a string of islands quite a distance to the south of us. Some among them are slavers and they are most likely the ones behind the raid that killed your father and captured you. They are quite strong in their home territory and few would dare oppose them there. They are known to have connections and contacts in Korvosa and many other towns along the coast so it would not be surprising if they had contacts here in Saltmarsh.

In the old days, Saltmarsh was a more lawless place and operated beyond the reach of Korvosan rule. Many people in the town would prefer things to go back to the way they were with no “interference” from Korvosa. That probably means they want to go back to doing things that are now illegal. These people are called traditionalists. Such people tend to oppose the mine and the presence of the dwarves in the town, partly because it’s new and different, and partly because it was supported and implemented by Korvosa.

Opposing them are the loyalists who align themselves with Korvosa and welcome the oversight they provide. And then there are those who hold no opinion either way. They like the way that links to Korvosa have increased business opportunities but at the same time, they grumble that Kovosoa has imposed tariffs that have to be paid.

After a bit over a week of Scruffy prowling the streets at night, I did overhear one conversation between two people – one was a member of the town watch and the other was not but I could not identify who the other person was without revealing my presence. They said words to the effect of “We can’t get to him now. he’s too well guarded by loyalists.” “We’ll have to get him out of there.” “Once he’s out, we can get him.”

I was unable to identify who they were and couldn’t get into a position to see them clearly. Once they were gone I went to where they had been standing and had a good sniff around. Hopefully, I will be able to recognise their scent if Scruffy should come across either of them again.

I could only assume they were talking about one of the prisoners, so I went and spoke to Eliander, the captain of the guard, who I know to be an ardent loyalist having served in the Korvosan royal army. I didn’t say how I came across the information, just that I was concerned that an attempt would be made by some of the more extreme traditionalists within the town to extract one or more of the prisoners from their care. Eliander undertook to ensure that those guarding the prisoners were all loyal to Korvosa.

About two weeks after we had returned from the lizard people, Riellian came to us and told us she had been working on some new music and she wanted to perform for us. It was interesting but I think her instrument was faulty or something because it did not sound very good at all. I have heard Riellian play and her music is usually very pleasant to listen to. Or perhaps she was experimenting with a different way of making music that was simply not to my taste. When she finished, there was some clapping and I joined in out of politeness but Kelshann sat there and called out “You suck!” so I guess the music wasn’t much to Kelshann’s taste either. Perhaps once she has worked on it a bit more the music will be better.

It was the next day that I received a request to come to the council chambers. When I got there, I saw the others arriving as well. There we were met by Anders Solmor alone rather than the entire council. Anders is neutral when it comes to the politics in the town. His family have done good business with Krovosa. He acknowledged that this was a personal request rather than something on behalf of the town.

Anders explained that his family, the Solmor family, have owned many ships, both for fishing and for trading. Sometimes a ship can be lost at sea and that has a big impact on the fortunes of such a business. Four years ago a trading ship of theirs called The Salty Mermaid was lost. They have no idea what happened to it as no survivors were rescued nor was any wreckage sighted. The Salty Mermaid had left Korvosa with a cargo (he wasn’t sure what) and was not heard from again.

He had just received some information that a ship matching the description of The Salty Mermaid had been seen foundering out at sea within the last few days. He wanted us to go and investigate the wrecked ship and see if anything was salvageable, either from the cargo or possibly in the magically locked boxes that would be aboard. He could supply a map with a fairly precise location of where the wrecked ship had been spotted and when. Then some predictions could be made based on wind and currents and so forth as to where we might find it. His family were willing to fund our expedition and supply provisions etc and pay us 200 gold plus a respectable salvage fee.

We agreed to do this for him and started making preparations immediately.

I made sure I brought my potted plant on board with me as we were going to be at sea for several days. We left Saltmarsh in the morning and the weather was very good. I gather from the comments I heard, that Spirit Of Procan handles very well, which I guess means that it’s a good ship. The crew seemed to be cheerful and good-natured and Captain Duthrem kept them in check with his calm and capable leadership.