Malorian Maiytlin

UP : Buccaneer's Den (Baja)

    More mischief was discovered in Buccaneer’s Den this week. This time a startling discovery was made outside of one of the Buccaneer’s Den homes thought long ago abandoned. The Town Cryer news staff was alerted early last week to increasing numbers of disappearing Buccaneer’s Den shopkeepers. See: Rotting Undead Roam The Streets Of Buc’s Den,  Monday, June 22. Now it appears that someone or something has splattered a circle of blood outside the supposedly abandoned home.

    The home was locked and no one appeared to be home when the Town Cryer staff knocked on the door. No explanation for the blood circle could be obtained from the Buccaneer’s Den shopkeepers, either.

    “I have no idea at all about that gruesome circle,” said Leah Partis, a thief who makes her home in Buccaneer’s Den, “It just appeared late one night while most of us were sleeping. My son said he heard some evil sounds one night, moans and chants, he said. I didn’t hear them myself, but he came and crawled into bed with me, his face white as a ghost. I didn’t think nothing of it at the time, you know how kids have nightmares, but he swears the sounds he heard were like nothing he’d ever heard before. Pure evil he says.”

    Shopkeepers in Buccaneer’s Den are still reporting alarming numbers of disappearances as well. “Aye, we are still missing a lot more people than I be comfortable with,” said Quayd Roth, one of the Buccaneer’s Den blacksmiths, “Last week the tanner across the street closed up shop, and said he would see me the next day. Seemed like he didn’t have a care in the world. The next day came, and he was nowhere to be found. He never returned.”

    “We have also had what seems like a great increase in the number of evil beasts around. Of course, everywhere there are orcs and ettins and whatnot, and Buc’s Den certainly has its share, but recently it seems like that our share has been quite high... and I don’t like that one bit.”

    Sailors that have passed by Buccaneer’s Den have also reported seeing strange sights in the forests. “Sorta looked like some kinda walking bones wandering around near the shore,” said one unidentified sailor, “but by the time I could get me spyglass out to take a look... they were gone.”

    The Town Cryer staff will continue to follow this story and will publish further articles as information becomes available.

From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online, Saturday, July 4th 1998