The chair sinks about half an inch with a slight groan of wood, unused to bearing the weight of a person and fullplate mail, but it is sturdily built and appears to be holding well.<strong>"You may call me Commander Chastley,"</strong>the man says simply, visibly disappointed to learn there is not a shipwreck anywhere near the shore. "<strong>Though I must say, swimming in that armour, it is a most impressive feat. I can now see what Denak saw in you, clearly the gods have a hand on your shoulder,"</strong><br/><br/>"<strong>I would not say the people of our Fort have lost all hope,"</strong>Chastley says with the slightly indignant air of a leader that allows himself the smallest amount of pride in overestimating his peoples' worth.<strong>"Merely that a recent change in our enemies' tactics is creating a sense of mourning. In any case our soldiers and honorary citizens are always ready to defend us. They have not given up,"</strong>He pauses for a moment and after considering the subject, hesitantly adding,<strong>"Now I will admit that if it came to a siege, the low morale in our normally non combatants could become a problem, but it does not seem that the drow wish to pursue this course of action. And even if they did, we would all unite against such a threat. Every man, woman and child here, every elf and halfling from the forest, and every dwarf and gnome from the island,"</strong>his tone becomes strong towards the end of his speech and he begins to emphasize his words with hand gestures.<br/><br/><strong>  "The floor etchings? Oh, that is the work of Captain Rosed, she possesses many talents apart from simple martial prowess. What you see are the things she brings back with herself from visiting her brother in the forest. The animals there, and the goats she see's at a farm on the way, I forget the name. The wood carving was here before I came to office. It is the founder of our Hill Fort, Acres the Unifier. He led many battles against the drow. It is on the battlefield where he fell, may the gods treat his soul kindly,"<br/><br/>   "The combat trial would be a way to show the people of our fort that we are still strong, and it can demonstrate to the other captains your abilities, allow them to best judge who to place you with. Assemble a team for you to use if you were to strike at the dark elves, you see? You can rest today, and then at tomorrow morning everyone could gather. You could choose your opponents from the honorary citizens...or even a captain if you were feeling ambitions, and battle until first blood. Denak could heal any wounds that occur during the fighting. What do you think? As for the maps, few dare to venture deeper inland, for that is where the stronger beasts of this island live. I have heard rumors of a large dragon living in the centre. I find it hard to believe anyone has ever gotten close enough to find that out,"</strong>