Freehold

Coming upon the shore of the brown beaches of southern part of Tiragarde Sound, a place where many ships had been lured to the rocks by the sirens, these sirens were not like the naga, they would look more like a harpy with a snake's tail and leathery wings.

This place had been given the name of Castaway Point by the castaways from said wrecks, usually not many would survived after being wrecked and then charmed by the songs of the sirens and eaten by the lurkers, beasts full of legs that looked like crocodiles with a hammerhead head.

We were careful to not bring too much attention to the Kultirans around, they were good hunters both on the sea and on land, they had many falcon tamers, and even a organization called the Outriggers, they used heavy harpoons and personal trained just for killing large beasts.

As why I would avoid a team of monster hunters as a dragon, I bet one could guess... I would be convinced to not let anyone make me into boots everytime i looked at the axe Trag wielded, it was dragonbone.

'Here come the shivers again!'

The Castaway Point was a good place to come to shore because even if it was infested with hostile wildlife it was one of the less patrolled regions in Kultiras, to the point where other people had the idea of making a hidden pirate paradise on the region, called the Freehold.

For now that was our destination, to find ourselves some identities and to get information on the Thornspeakers and a ride all the way the other side of the the islands, and then find ourselves their leader, Ulfar.

----

After some siren and lurker killing, we came upon a region full of caves, one of them would lead us to the pirate hideout of Freehold, by using my eathen connection powers it became easy to find the place even if it was quite hidden it was still a big harbor, enough to be called a small city.

In this place you could find every race, trade and exotic thing one can imagine, as long as you had the gold or the strength to take it you had access to all kinds of things... be it explosives, pets, slaves, blueprints or weird artifacts, it had it all.

The reason why we came to this port is seeking information, be it about things I was not certain on our current time or simply because of things that were never on game in the first place, I wanted to know it all.

Thankfully with my silver tongue and a couple of gold and magic it should be quite simple to gain.

Pirates are the simple minded people, many ways to make them talk and money was the first in the list of effectiveness, they also had quite the contacts due to their trade, when it came to the underworld pirates were usually the rich bunch if they were good at it.

-----

The Freehold was quite shoddy looking, a bunch of piers mingled with each other one could say, but the sheer amount of rare and exotic things being sold would make it quite a unique sight, full of colour, sounds and a horrid stench.

Hygiene shouldn't be a priority to most sailors, even having more than a single set of clothes was luxurious for this bunch, which usually led to the smell of piss, sh*t and sweat, as a dragon I could even identify the stench of many different races, making it even more unbearable.

Selia also seemed to feel the same nausea I did to the point I swear seeing her trying to find a spell to block the stench.

I just decided to just bear with it as a type of traveling experience of sorts, it would afterall be a history to tell one day.

I also noticed that Emmarel seemed quick used to this place, her eyes and movements denoted her familiarity, so I probed her a bit.

"You know the information dealers around here? The trustworthy ones at the very least?" I asked while expecting her to atleast have a bit of a surprise.

"Well there's no such thing as trustworthy around here, just those who value their life more than gold, something that is more rate than you think..." she awnsered nonchalantly, while with her pinky in her ear trying to take water she could swear was still there.

"Sure, those should do, its hard to fool me anyway..."

The one she brought us too was a goblin with only one ear and one eye, his name was Greasy Rat, or atleast that was how anyone called him, he was getting almost fifty in this lifestyle meaning that he had the skills to get out of trouble and the mindset to avoid trouble, only this way one survives for this long in this type of job.

He was kinda sleazy looking and would always bow his head if anyone threatened him, but he wouldn't take insults for granted... somehow all those who ridiculed him ended with themselves being at the bottom of the ocean or sold as slaves when they were found to be stealing from their bosses or double timing for another gang.

We approached with our hoods on, making us look mysterious and powerful at the same time, giving us a intimidating look.

"Are you Greasy Rat?" I asked

"Ye, why do ye ask? Need somethin?" Said the goblin not knowing how to refer to me as sir, lad or customer, atleast thats what I read from his thoughts.

"We are looking for information on the Thornspeakers, how to talk with them and if there is something unusual happening in Drustvar lately..."

I soon could read in the mind of the goblin his thoughts about how much to charge and what information to give, all while not offending the hooded figures.

"Its gonna be some twenty gold per piece, you want three pieces, sixty gold then." He said while extending his hand while looking around as if afraid someone would see him receiving the money.