The Vile Sails

Excerpt from "Interviews with a Bard" starring Orlan, Bard on the Run

Say what you will about him, but Ol’ Horace has been around. If you need to know anything about Jalbroth, just find him while he’s in a lucid mood and ply his tongue with a few stribe yams. I mean, this one time I was hired by an agent of some Iam to rescue some a few minor dignitaries from the Vile Sail Pirates. Ol’ Horace was my first stop for information, since I recalled hearing that at one point they held him for ransom. I recall that because I was part of the band which rescued him.

Horace had been kidnapped by the Vile Sails after some debacle involving his defeat of the captain’s land-based war party in the Wasted Lands. They had taken him to their secret island lair in the Boundless Ocean to await the proper date for some foul Lithoni ritual. Describing the lair’s specifics wouldn’t be very helpful, as the island sunk soon after Horace and I escaped. A few things are interesting, however. It seems that the Vile Sails have a fondness for water-timer traps and descending metal grates. The last time that I had seen anything like that was when I had to flush the Mechanists of Zooch from a stolen iron mine in Matratut. Maybe there’s a connection. Also, the forteress was much too small to hold even a fraction of the Sails at one time. This leads me to believe that they have similar bases spread out around around the ocean.

These days, my sources tell me that the Vile Sails are involved in a much more lucrative trade than revenge. They’ve bought themselves an office in Undar and a noble title for Jarboe. They haven’t stopped plundering ships or kidnapping, but the targets seem a lot more selective these days. You know what? You should probably omit that last part.