"That is outrageous!" exclaimed Richmond.<br/>"Well tha's whot it costs," replied the warty merchant.<br/>Richmond had set out from the<span style="font-style: italic">Lady</span>in search of writing implaments. While the ship needed food, water and various other supplies, Richmond had taken it upon himself to procure journals for both his fiscal duties and the Captain's logbook. He concede to the merchant, counting out the coin.<br/>"Whot's a city boy like you doing in the towns, eh?"<br/>"I, good sir, am no city dweller, but a swashbuckling buccaneer." anounced Richmond, somewhat loudly. The merchant raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else.<br/><br/>Richmond hurried through the grimey streets with the writing materials underarm. To him it seem that even the townsfolk dressed in a layer of filth. "Surely Captain Bosweld never trudged through such filth when searching for the Emerald Eye," he muttered under his breath. But that was fiction, this was real life. The six months aboard the<span style="font-style: italic">Lady Adamo Skies</span>had quashed the noble image of pirates he had spent his childhood reading about. Storms were not where grizzled captain cried curses at the gods; it was where men were washed overboard and taken by them.  The icy winds whipped the tail of his gaudy red coat, and Richmond wished sorely he had worn something a little warmer. Focussed with fastening the coat tighter around his frame, he collided with one of the locals, scattering his newly bought goods onto the street. "Watch where yer goin'," bellowed the burly man, as Richmond scurried about to gather his bounty before it was trampled. Above the general din of the crowds, he heard a 'Thump Thump' that sounded much like the rowing drums of the<span style="font-style: italic">Lady</span>. THE ALARM! Richmond knew he had wandered quite a distance from the dock in search of materials. Hastily bundling the various ledgers, inkpots, and folds of paper into his arms, he broke into a clumsy run.