In all my traveling my favorites stories are ones that no one believes because more than likely those are the ones that true. You see a good legend and better yet good treasure is always at the end of 90% smoke mirrors, 5% misinterpretations via spoken traditions, 5% failed geography (nothing is where is should be) and 50% rum (Yes, that is 150% but I do always like to give a little extra.

You see in this life of mine, I’ve noticed a few things and the most important thing is, the common man knows more than you give him credit for (he just doesn’t know it) and the exceptional man walks past the point of pointlessness and stupidity into legend. I’ve gotten leads on some of the most important findings of my life from some of the most unlikely sources. Case in point:

The Golden Fleet is known by some as the most terrifying ships the world has ever seen. Possibly built by the ancients (The good folks that fled into the Wyld after the gods fell) or from the spawn of the depths of Britannia past the bright bridge under the city where vessels that swim like fish are spawned (stories that turn you blood cold and yada yada yada). Well… The first ship of the golden fleet, Ataris, is said the carry something special, Eternus Volator Oculus, or for the plain folks, The Immortal Falcons Eye. Now the Falcons Eye is a sexton. However, it unlike any other sexton in two regards. One, it doesn’t have you normal long. & lat. markings, It has runes and constellations. Two, it is the first sexton handed down from the old ones, specifically, ERUS. (Or so I’m told)

See, Erus, was the son of Hathor and left the gods to seek out the worlds. He is an ancient Egyptian sky god who took the form of a falcon. His right eye is represented by a peregrine falcon’s eye and the markings around it, including the “teardrop” marking sometimes found below the eye. The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Thoth.

Anyway… flying over the world as a falcon and seeing what’s been tamed by the old ones and what’s still the never ending, Wyld. He passed over the land of sand and stops for a moment to drink at an oasis. But in his falcon form he is left somewhat vulnerable and as he drinks, a skilled hunter strikes him in the eye with an arrow. He tumbles and begins to change into his more formidable and godly form. Well, the hunter runs to his aid and in doings reveals himself to be a HERSELF (gasp). This begins the torrid affair and eventual children (100 to be exact… busy little buggers). After a long life together he has to leave but begs her to return to him, she refuses to watch over their brood (until no more that shares his blood walks the land). And as a symbol of his love he rips out his eye and vows that only when they are reunited will he ever be whole (See this bothers me… your eye? Maybe a toe… the Egyptians are a passionate people, overdramatic but passionate). He leaves, she cries and her tear form an oasis, she lives until the last great, great, great, great whatever grandchild passes. A Great Story or so you would think…

Well there be a part two to the tale (argh argh)… one of the golden fleet takes a man of magic out with a sexton whose lenses is supposedly, the Eye of Erus, he then sets the sexton in the front of the ship and begins to navigate accordingly. In a flash the ship disappears and is never heard of again. UNTIL…. Yours truly heard a legend of a ship that cuts through the sands as if it was water and disappears like Shangri-La and reappears just as suddenly.

Well how could I not investigate it? I’m out in the sand (with Raethe… so you know the conversation was witty and quick) and after I’ve spent more pieces of eight than I care to remember, I finally greased the palm of a boy about 8 who told me he saw the ship and could draw me a map. Have you ever seen the maps of an 8 year old? Well, they look like a 4 year old did it. No sense of scale and mountains of sand are not good markers in a desert… but through my own formidable tracking skills and a smidge of luck (and a lot of killing… sand people. Like rats, seriously, they swarm, they yell their little “alalalalal”, and if they had the sense to sneak up on you they could be dangerous)

We found a broken down but massive ship, The Ataris. I have to say I was amazed at the awe you felt when you saw it. It was massive and considering it had been sitting in the sands for 100 years (at least) it really was in tremendous shape. We clamored aboard the ship and found some odd things, bleached skeletons that were ripped in two and flung around the ship. Their bony hands still holding rusted sabers. Cannons flowered from overuse and in the galley 3 grown men huddled together rusty daggers still laying on bony wrists. Massive claw marks and perfectly clean holes in the ship… too big and clean for cannons and two small for shot. After a search and some more killing…(a few things had moved in.) we found the Sexton and something else… a box about the some size as a cigar box with 3 goldish (I don’t know what it is) coins (gears?) the likes I’ve never seen (an inch thick and 5 inches wide) and a vial of liquid that looks like mercury except that it has something in it that glitters and it has a bit of a glow. (I know, I know rule number 1… glow is bad. BUT it is tempting and I have a very low threshold for that type of stuff.)

So now we have the Falcons Eye and with it a step closer to something big…. I’m not sure what it is but I can feel it in my bones.