Maran 13-15, 653 DR. Upon the river. Galleron’s timely escape and meeting. Island of children. Guests from the deep.

Continued from Dangerous Turns.

Virínor, 13 Maran 653

The ruckus on the passing ship was too much to ignore. The lateen river boat tipped back and forth in the water as blades were drawn and the crew raced toward a lashed branch-cage on the near side of the deck. Inside the cage stood a rough looking man, his arms braced against the cage walls as he rocked his prison back and forth, and closer to the boat’s edge. A crewman from either side grabbed the cage to pull it back but with a final rocking motion, the cage, it’s prisoner, and two of the crew plunged into the river Sulūð. Above the sailors watched in a mix of anticipation and horror as their crewmates thrashed about, screaming in the water. The prisoner disappeared quickly under the river’s surface wresting the cage open and swimming out and to the surface. Reaching for one of his flailing captors he snatch the sword from his hand and pushed off the man, who went under, as he yelled for help from the spectators of a passing barge. As he treaded closer to the rope thrown to him a froth rose around the flailing sailors and one after another they were pulled bloodily under the river waves. Those on the barge pulled the man swiftly to the boat side. Shapes circled tighter below the river’s surface. With a group heave the prisoner was pulled onto the barge moving slowly in the other direction. As they pulled the man’s body between the large anchored crates they saw the crew of the lateen boat watching as the wind pulled them farther and farther away.

Palìnor, 14 Maran 653

By morning the stranger was awake and upright, watching the trees move slowly by on the river’s shores. Heading westward he thought to himself. Galleron felt he was returning into some danger again, but could not remember what it might have been. He couldn’t remember much for that matter, including how he’d ended up in the cage on a boat. His clothes were still wet so he guessed that the dream about the river was true. He thought about looking back under the canvas where the pale man had lain not far from him, but thought better of it. Something about that man spoke of dangers far greater than he had escaped, than the ones he was returning to; if only he could remember what they were, and why this boat was taking him back there. When the others saw that he was awake they stopped by to introduce themselves. There was Zuroolly, the bent man with the gravelly voice and Ferveo, the young man who may have been a manservant to the darker Zuroolly. The man under the canvas was Vorén it was explained, and the silent swordswoman with the golden hair and fair skin was Silda. He knew that Silda’s kind came from the far north, but he did not know why he knew that, or where he would have seen her kind before. The people gave him water and fruit and he discovered that he was famished. After introductions, they explained that they were going to Marádaç and he now was too. The day passed uneventfully on the barge as it pushed effortlessly down the river’s center.

Long after night had fallen along the river, the barge timbers groaned as the ship changed course toward a long wooded islet. Moving slower along the tree-lined shore, the craggy ruins of an ancient stone wall rose out of the night ahead. As the barge slowed to enter a crumbled gap in the stone wall, torches could be seen on the shores within. Moving into the eddying pool enclosed within the tower walls the torches could be seen to be skulls mounted on sharpened posts along the shore. The bargemaster explained that the stop here would be short and warned that no-one should step off the barge. As the ship came to rest by the root crossed shore, distant drums could be heard from the trees. Soon, figures emerged along a path to the enclosed harbor, but as they drew nearer the crew saw them for the children they were. Each slender and dark-skinned, the children were painted with white tribal designs and clad in bone jewelry and the skins of small animals and birds. The bargemaster, standing on the ship’s edge, spoke to them in a strange language and they responded eagerly. Soon there was an exchange of packages from the barge house and then the children-people hurried away as quickly as they’d come. As the bargemaster returned to the little house, the timbers of the raft groaned and the barge lurched back across the torchlit pool, through the break in the ancient wall, and back into the river’s westward current.

Aldor, 15 Maran 653

Missing notes. Water anthropoids attacked the barge. People banged on the barge house but there was no response from within. The monsters were fended off.

Continued in Strangers in a Strange Land

• Ferveo Cælestis
• Galleron
• Talôr Dal-Vorenen
• Silda of Wurm
• Zuroolly Hicubaba
• Bargemaster
• Bargemaster’s Wife

Played: 06 Dec 2001