The Voyages of Magelos - Volume 1

'The Voyages Of Magelos - Volume 1' is a book written in the year 410 that details the early life and the beginnings of the the famed explorer, merchant and adventurer Vasco Magelos. It was stolen from Landon Mutt's library in his mansion on Sailor's Wyk by Gauner.

Volume 1

Dear reader, sit yourselves in quiet by your hearth and take a horn of your finest mead, and let the great Vasco Magelos regale you with the stories of his life and how he became the finest adventurer of the Thousand Islands.

I was born the only son of a merchant family on the island of Sweetsugar in the year 358, the final year of the reign of Myranda IV. For the first 15 years of my life, sugar was the only thing that mattered, for sugar meant riches, luxury. The rare sweetness of our island was a commodity that every trader on the seas wanted to fill their holds with. But while the life of luxury suited me, the life of idleness did not.

The ships of the traders that came to Sweetsugar fascinated me. The tabaxi traders out of Growing Shower and Rain in Summer, the pirates of the far north, even the orcs of Dhoribogh and Boghlow  had a taste for sugar and would visit the docks of Sweetsugar. I wanted to see these lands and more. I had spent much of my youth studying the techniques of navigation, and the intricacies of swordcraft, and I aimed to put these to work when I first began accompanying our own trading vessels in 373.

In these times Erryk IV ruled the islands through a period of peace, and times were good for trade. However, trade was slowed by the fact that most ships were still using the stars alone for navigation, and had little knowledge of the coastlines and tideways of the Islands. As I toured the islands local to me, I began to make maps on skins or vellum, aided by the crews of the ships. After several years I was able to sell these maps to local sailors for as much money as we were selling our sugar.

In 377, during a long and hot summer, I bought a ship worthy of my skills and station. The Great Santiago. My love from the day I first stood at her prow until today, in the summer of 410, as I depart Sailor’s Wyk with a full crew, to finally reach the destination of my life’s work. The Treasures of the Cuevo D’Oro.

But in 377 I had only heard of the Treasures through old pirate stories, a cave of incredible wealth, a pirate hoard of value beyond limit. It would take me years to undergo the trials needed to open the great cave, and even longer to locate its whereabouts, But it was on this first quest of mine, to map the Tabaxi islands, that I would learn of the existence of the Treasure…..

Aboard the Great Santiago, on our maiden voyage were a crew of 30. We departed at the end of the summer, hoping to return before years end. We had enough supplies to last us, and enough sugar that we could use for trading if we needed extra food while we stayed on the three main islands of the Tabaxi. We had also stored enough gold that we could make our way through the major obstacle between Sweetsugar and the Tabaxi Lands - Pirate’s Pass. I had travelled through the pass on a few occasions previously, and on these occasions a simple bribe would allow us safe passage through the pass. But it was soon clear that this would not be one of those occasions.

In 377, Pirates Pass was controlled by the Kraken’s Oarsmen, this of course was long before they were routed and sent fleeing north by the Guardians of Hogstone under our current King, Erryk V. At the time the oarsmen were led by Old Barbra’ Bones, and as it happened, she was ashore on the fortress they had built on the small island in the centre of the pass known as Last Chance Island. My First Mate Francisco Rigo made the attempt at the bribe at the toll house on the north side of the island, but whether to try to impress Old Barbra’, or out of a drunken need for a fight, the tollmaster demanded 10 times the usual fee, knowing we did not have the means to pay such a sum.

However what the tollmaster had not accounted for was the bravery and magnificence of Vasco Magelos. When Rigo returned with the news, and without a second thought, I leapt from my ship to the shore, cutting through three men and holding the point of my sword to the throat of the tollmaster. I questioned him about the raise in prices, but the tollmaster had lost confidence in his position, and tried to sell me the original price. With my cutlass I negotiated a new price, that on each visit from now until the end of his days, the tollmaster would pay 100 gold pieces to Vasco Magelos, for the honour of witnessing his magnificence.

We reached the Tabaxi island of Rain in Summer a day later. Although we were now in the early autumn, the island was true to its name. As the rains lashed down we arrived, tired from our travels, and found refuge in the largest trading village, a sprawling mass of wooden shelters, stalls and ramadas, named Coin for Wares. The village Elder, Knower of Tides, welcomed us warmly. During our stay of a fortnight we traded with the Tabaxi, we played dice and Pirates’ Craving, and feasted with them each night around the various campfires, sharing stories and boasting of our exploits. One fable came up again and again around the various clans, The Treasures of the Cuevo D’Oro.

The clans told of a treasure so vast that it could build a fleet and hire the men to sail it. The entire hoard of the ancient pirate clans defeated by Erryk I and the Guardians of Hogstone at the dawning of the Age of Steiner, sat dormant for almost 400 years. They told of The Trials, the journey that had to be undertaken to provide the materials needed to open the great cave. ‘A diamond taken from below the surface of a mine in the Burned Lands, bathed in the waters at the summit of Brightwater Peak and taken to the hidden location of the cave’. Everyone was sure on one point however, that the location of the cave had been lost to time. Many doubted whether the The Treasures of the Cuevo D’Oro was itself a myth, an old pirate story passed down and embellished over generations.

Vasco Magelos however was not a man to be put off by such trivialities. I would make the Treasures of the Cuevo D’Oro my own, and thanks to the Tabaxi tribes of Rain in Summer, I knew exactly where to start…..