Lore/Story Corvusio's Journal, Entry #2

I have spent way too much time looking for exceptional weapons, I'm done exploring for a while. I'm exhausted, it's not like I'm able to find anything interesting anymore, all the treasures I uncover just appear so "common".

Material rewards aren't my favourite, I would rather have great adventure without rewards with interesting people than a boring pile of emeralds (NB : depending of the said amount of emeralds of course)

Actually, this reminds me of an old adventure I had with a compass. One day I was uh ... minding my own business in Nemract when I met this human named Lexado near the bank. They were complaining about "not being able to sort their bank" I assumed it was because they lacked the space to reorganize their inventory.
I was depositing some stuff myself, I took the habit to keep all the mob drops I collected inside my bank ... this was a mistake but it took me a few years to realise that.

But back to Lexado, they ended up dropping most of what they had inside their chest on the ground. They were very loud and I was attracted by all the noise they were making. And perhaps it was just a good timing but, right as I was looking in their direction I saw a group of kids running in Lexado's direction like death was chasing them.

They took everything the poor guy had dropped on the ground, I was impressed by their dexterity but I also thought it was very funny that Lexado did not even notice that he had been robbed.

It was not my problem, but you know me, I love a good story. So I followed the kids- (DO NOT TAKE THIS OUT OF CONTEXT YOU MAD PEOPLE) further away from the bank. They installed their "hideout" (?) inside an abandoned house.

The children were having fun estimating the value of what they had just obtained, I don't really know what they hoped to do with a few unidentified weapons and armors but they could always sell it to a blacksmith and use the money to buy something nice like- ... boats ?

I do not remember exactly what they were saying but one of them showed a compass to their friends. He didn't know what it was, but another kid knew, they said their father taught them how to navigate with this tool, that it always pointed in a certain direction, however they noticed that the compass was apparently pointing in a wrong direction.

Another quickly suggested that the compass was magic and that it lead to a treasure, I almost laughed and revealed my position, but this idea caught my attention. Magic compass ? Treasures ? Adventure !

Now you will tell me that what I did next was cruel, but in the end what was really evil ? Stealing armors from a poor adventurer who appeared to be close from having a mental breakdown or stealing a compass from a bunch of kids ? (Oups spoiler)

Anyway I teleported right in the middle of their group, grabbed the compass from their hands, and quickly ran away to the port and bought a boat. Now I still don't know how to use a compass so I just go where the arrow is pointing.

I have a map of the ocean, most people have one, but some islands do not appear on it, I believe that either the map is uncompleted, or these islands are hidden in a way or another. No matter what is true I can only see two explanations, these islands are some kind of secret shared between sailors or they can only be found with special methods.

The compass kept pointing in different directions after a moment, if I went on for too long it would snap to another direction out of nowhere. This compass must have been magic for sure. I was in the middle of the ocean, the sun was vanishing over the horizon, I had no torches ... not that I needed one in the first place, I am physically equipped to see in the dark after all.

Suddendly the compass looked more stable, I was clueless about my position so the only thing I could do was to keep going. It wasn't simply getting dark, some sort of fog also appeared.

The waves were increasingly weaker, I knew I was getting close to something. The water was losing it's color, it was gray, just gray, not transparent. I took a short moment to stretch when my boat hit something.

I had found earth ... well if you could call that earth. A weird kind of stone, gray and yellow at the same time, it was night time so I couldn't discern the exact color, but it was a mix of the two for sure. I recovered my boat and began to explore this strange island.

It was silent, and empty, the ground was mostly flat as far as I was able to see through the ambient fog, eventually I arrived in front of what I assumed to be a cliff yet when I looked up I understood it was no cliff but a spire made out of the same stone that composed the rest of the island.

I walked around it, always further into the island, I knew I was going somewhere since I encountered more spires. I think anyone would have felt uncomfortable in this atmosphere but personally, I would say it was almost familiar and welcoming.
I was falling asleep, the landscape was a bit different at this point, I found a small plateau on which I slept for a while. When I woke up it was still night time, this scared me, because now I had the disturbing sensation that time was suspended and that my mind was somehow being reshaped.

And the silent wasn't helping me instead I was beginning to hear a imaginary sound in my ears, perhaps my mind was trying to keep my senses active ? Well thank you but I am not trading my sanity for the ability to hear things.

I had to leave now, I still had the compass on me, I immediately thought about going in the opposite direction of the arrow but when I took it out to figure our my orientation. The arrow was perfectly static and pointing behind me.

A single cave, in the middle of nowhere ... I was equipped, no one would bring Corvusio to his knees on that day. Of course I went inside the cave, if was small, seemingly inhabited, if it wasn't for the one chest standing at it's center.

It-

It was-

It was empty.

I never found that island again, I think it was literally removed from this world by some unknown forces. An island that could only be found with a special compass, sounds like the usual story any drunk sailor would tell at Nemract right ?

Well in the end I still got to be the one who lived it. But I can hardly remember how it looked like ... perhaps I should not.
Yes, some things are best left forgotten.