*A hurriedly written report is posted on the board.*It has been several days since I was captured by the gang calling themselves the Serpent Slavers. I was kept alone, in a dark room, chained to the wall, with nothing to do but plot my escape.
Today, that chance came. The slaver came in, and told me to get to my feet. In order to avoid another whipping, I complied, and he lead me outside into a larger room. Chaining me to a wall, he went into another cell, and quickly emerged, leading none other than Pickles! With this, my determination to escape grew tenfold.
The slaver announced that he was going to put us to work cutting logs. He asked which of us would cut the logs and which would carry them. I volunteered to carry them, since that would be harder, and I didn't want Pickles to have to put up with the strain. He gave her an axe, and inexplicably let us outside without supervision or chains. However, he told us if we didn't return in 25 minutes, he would kill Penny!
Quickly, we set about gathering herbs from the ground. This man had made one fatal error: underestimating arcanists. Gathering enough herbs for a few offensive spells, and some logs we returned. Holding the logs in my arms, and the herbs hidden in my hands, we went back into the courtyard where we waited, we gave eachother a small nod.
"How many logs did ye get?"
"Oh, let me count them," I said.
"One... two... THREE!"I dropped the logs, and taking my signal, Pickles launched a pillar of flame at his feet, while I sent a bolt of energy at his chest. Astoundingly, whether through strength or anger, the man managed to remain standing through this! He charged headlong... into my fist. I let out a whoop of triumph as he fell to the floor, and we immediately set about searching him for the key to the cells. Unfortunately, he did not have it on him, and claimed to have left it upstairs. Unwilling to let him go up to fetch it, as it required the use of a teleporter, we instead elected to steal his boat and sail it back to Cove!
Since neither of us could sail, his tillerman was instructed to sail us to Cove. South we headed... Eventually, as we neared a small outcropping of land... the tillerman steered the ship into the rocky coast! We were stranded! With a nasty blow to the head, Pickles dropped him, and we dragged him across the small island. I took a mental note of the name on the sign of a building there - "Angel Island Watchtower".
Through some stroke of astounding luck, when we reached the other side of the island, there was a docked boat! Putting aside moral issues temporarily, we merrily stole it, and with the slaver unconscious, began sailing
in a random direction towards home. When we reached the shoreline at the south of Cove, the slaver leapt up and off the boat, fleeing into the woods. Unable to catch him, we returned to the barracks, where I concentrated on writing this report, and ensuring that we could go rescue Penny as quickly as possible.
I have attached a map of her approximate location:
*Signed*
Thomas Aylmer, Guardsman Recruit
Author