For the few that knew him, it was hard to explain. He just took. Anything, everything. He took anything he could at any opportunity, seized each moment that could turn any sort of fortune.
He wore a long mustache always, and bore his hair long as well; dark and black, it matched well with his sea-tanned skin. He been a scoundrel, a rake, a shadowy lamprey clutching at the underbelly of society for so long that he’d forgotten any other identity he’d once possessed. Now he saw the world only in terms of the riches it could bring him. Friendship, loyalty, right and wrong- all were set aside in his single minded pursuit of wealth and power.
So it took no great leap of social skill for the pirate Brolgen to connect up with the world’s greatest thief. If anything, it was amazing that the universe had taken so long to bind together a man with the moral ambiguity of a drunk amoeba with the pilfering perfection that was Tubunculus Rex.
The unfortunately named thief was the scourge of every law abiding officer from here to there and around the corner. He was from a rarely seen race of men that had the appearance of dogs in many ways; his head seemed to be that of a dog, while his body was covered in fur, like a dog. However, he stood on two feet, upright, like a man, and his hands bore thumbs, and fingers, though each digit bore a small claw. He also wore clothes, like a human would, thought he stood no more than two feet high.
The worst part of Tubunculus, the component that made him simply unstoppable perhaps even more than his lightning speed and sniper accurate fingers, was his infernal cuteness. He was simply too adorable. No one could stop him, in any way, from doing anything he wanted. He plundered and pillaged at will, and the most hardened battle-weary guard could do nothing to stop him.
The two of them formed the stars of a crew of a shadowy caravel that now glided smoothly across ancient waters. The ship was stolen, of course; Brolgen and Tubunculus had acquired it with ease, and even “obtained” a full crew to run the ship. They sailed south past the furthest frontiers of the Serphep, and were leaving the crew thoroughly confused.
The waters they traveled were rarely seen by ships; there was a an easy route by land around this harbor, and it was beyond rare for a vessel to be there. The bay was long said to be haunted, for one; for another, no city existed further south, so there was no reason for a large ship to be there. The lands farther south were given over to the land of the dead; the living turned back long before this point.
So the crew was surprised indeed to see two small figures in a canoe, paddling furiously away from an island that showed on no one’s maps. It was evident even at a distance that the figures were desperate beyond compare.
Brolgen alone expected this, and had come here for this very reason. He directed his crew to ram the tiny canoe, which they did without question- quite under his spell. The two people in the canoe were plunged into the tepid waters, but it was already done; Tubunculus had done his work as asked, with the same remarkable speed and agility that he always displayed.
While the two figures that had rowed the canoe floundered for the surface, Brolgen sailed away clutching the Charm of Hrath, his mind bent on dreams of the fortunes that awaited.