Captain Sayar the Short

All great captains of the seas crave a kind of immortality, whether through fame or infamy. Some are great explorers, some notorious blackguards, and some are famous for the treasures or mysteries they leave behind. So it is with the strange case of Sayar the Short, a bombastic and eccentric maritime man in miniature who always claimed he was “half-halfling” and “a quarter copper,” claiming his marvelous mother and glorious gran had the blood of copper dragons running in their veins. Quirky in the extreme, Sayar became a source of jokes and tall tales, many spread by Sayar himself. Any oddball story about a crazy captain might be attributed to him, but rather than being the butt of jokes more often than not through luck, pluck, cleverness, and impeccable timing he always came out ahead, both in tales and in reality. By the time of his mysterious disappearance, he had amassed a considerable fortune that he hid away on a deserted isle in The Stygian Blue after making a deal with his dragon sires, though for decades no one could ever figure out what he meant or where it was.

A few years ago, a drunken sailor staggered into a wharfside tavern buying drinks for everyone and boasting of having found a great treasure. He mysteriously died that very night sitting at the bar (some say poisoned), and in his bag was found a corroded copper tube marked with the sigil of Sayar the Short, and within a map of a semicircular island resembling a sleeping dragon. Here at last was a clue to the lost trove of gold and jewels. A massive brawl erupted for possession of the map, with a number of people present that night claiming to have escaped with it and now with several copies existing, though which is the real map and which are counterfeits drawn from memory after a quick glance are hard to say.

One story tells of an expedition that found the island, shrouded in strange mirages of phantom shoals and wandering whirlpools. The reefs and lagoons around the island are thick with rare golden sea turtles, each gleaming like polished metal. The streams and marshes of the island are likewise thick with immense tortoises and savage snapping turtles. These massive reptiles are tended by a circle of wyrmtouched druids who have dwelt here for ages tending this island as a sanctuary.

Another tells that the map was followed to an isle dominated by a large, dormant volcano. Compasses and sextants became unreliable near the island, and it is said that only by trusting to luck can a captain get through to make landfall. The isle was filled with horrible monstrosities that attacked visitors in order to preserve the privacy of the copper dragon that lived within the volcano. Savar and the dragon had been gambling for all of these years, each betting their fortunes against the other in a dice game in which neither could get the upper hand.