May 02, 2012

The Treasure of Far Thallai

The Wormwood Mutiny, part one of Pathfinder’s latest adventure path series, “Skull and Shackles,” has now dropped piratical anchor. With it comes the first installment of my new serialized novella, “The Treasure of Far Thallai.”

Challys Argent was once a cloistered scholar, pledged by family tradition to the pursuit of knowledge. But when her order’s seaside eyrie was razed and looted by pirates, her fellow pedants put to the sword, she swore to avenge her brethren and recover the precious artifacts the ravagers stole.

Now, years later, hardened, implacable, calculating, she plies the seas, pirate captain and venture-captain. She sails a captured galleon, the Aspidochelone. At her side fight four unwillingly champions—Golarion’s  notorious pirates all, bound to serve her by the magic of a mighty named weapon, the cutlass Siren Call. They are:

  • the cannibal ogre Otondo

  • the depraved noble Adalbert Aspodell

  • the rum-guzzling, mutton-chomping, avaricious Seagrave

  • and the vindictive, deposed pirate queen Rira, her face permanently hidden by a metal mask

In Chapter One, “Hell Come Ashore”, Challys and crew land in the village of Moonplum, as it is plundered by a rival pirate band. There they seek her latest quarry—the sadistic captain Kered Firsk.