Crow's Bay

Levels 14–18

Built by Aelyn, Kextra

Set between large cliffs, and heavily forested headlands, for a long time crows bay was a quiet place. Named both for the abundant bird life, and the crowmag tribe of humans who made a hard but peaceful living here, the waters seemed too dangerous with rocks, sharks and shallow shoals to make it worth settling by any civilized people. Pirates however are far from civilized. It's said that almost two centuries ago, a disreputable fisherman by the name of Captain Vid Trogan, had managed to carve out safe anchorage in the bay for himself. Rumour had it he also used it to store the gains from various petty thefts as well. One day; as bad luck would have it, a large merchant vessel ran aground in the bay. Trogan was able to not only strip the vessel of it's cargo and wealth (throwing many of its crew to the sharks), but also capture the young son of a count, fleeing his father in a foolish act of youthful rebellion. Under threat of having his son meet the same fate as the vessel's crew, the count paid Trogan a king's ransom, with which Trogan commissioned a warship and embarked on a life of piracy. He was so successful, people said he kept a mermaid in a barrel of salt on the bay's cliff, forcing her to cast him spells of fair winds and calm seas whilst delivering the opposite to his enemies. To prevent attack, he ordered a large chain be drawn across the bay, so only vessels friendly to his pirate cause could drop anchor there. By the time Trogan died, a thriving, but disreputable community had grown up in the centre of the bay, not only pirates, but even farmers, shipbuilders and lumberjacks. Unfortunately, this lead the local Crowmag tribe; never numerous, to withdraw to a few caves in the cliffs, and made their already difficult lives all the harder. It's said that Trogan eventually died, not at the sword of an irate merchant captain, nor a just adventurer, but by choking on a fishbone (though some claim this was the mermaid's revenge). Yet, his community lives on, though perhaps a little less brutal than in Trogan's day, still Crows bay is somewhere most right thinking people give a wide birth. Indeed, it's often said that nobody is sure who will pick your bones faster, the sharks of the sea, the crows of the air, or the bay's cutthroats.