A Letter to Admiral Tarath Longinus

To Admiral Tarath Longinus,

     Per your request, I have located a member of one of the many zang clans that is willing to speak with a surfacer. Finding one was much more difficult than I originally anticipated, and I am now writing to you from a mostly sunken city called, assuming that the translation potions are working correctly, Akkardon. From what I can tell it serves a similar role as Argoport, a hub of trade for the whole region. I’ve even seen two sea gnome ships meeting and exchanging goods.

      Akkardon houses the largest number of zang outside of the clans, or so I’m told. Because of this I was able to find a mercenary company with zang that originated from the fleet’s preferred waters. The zang that I spoke to didn’t have the control to speak above water, so we compromised: I still have that enchanted ring you gave loaned me so I could breathe underwater, so we split the costs for the kelp bulb/potion things that would let me speak while underwater.

     From what my main "drinking buddy", Indus-Bolindu, told me, there are more than a dozen clans that roam up and down the stretch of the Green Coast, but they tend to avoid the regions where we favor: river mouths and close to shore being the predominant ones. He told me that the water from river mouths makes their gills itch and the shallows don't have the depth that they enjoy. Occasionally they'll hunt for shallow water fish, but mostly they prefer prey from deeper waters.

     This will be a large boon for us, so long as we stick to fish close to the surface we won't be intruding on their hunting grounds, so to speak. From what I've been told, the biggest clan has roughly seven hundred to seven hundred fifty members, all of whom have been in battle and have the scars to prove it. The smallest still has over a hundred warriors among their ranks. If a ship were to anger them, then I fear that we will lose the ship and all its hands.

     Fortunately I was able to learn enough to possibly avoid loosing ships by angering the zang. Should the zang attack, the captain should raise a weapon and bellow loud enough to get their attention. In effect, the captain is issuing the leader of the attacking zang a challenge: face me in single combat. When done between zang clans then there is a period of back and forth to determine the spoils of victory, but in our case the spoils would be that the zang take their dead and leave. Should the captain lose, then the zang will take our dead and leave.

     I'm assured that our dead won't be eaten, apparently surfacers have too many bones and taste horrible. Instead they will be given a zang burial, their feet will be tied to boulders with kelp and left at the bottom of the sea in a weird, floating graveyard. Before you say anything about this being disrespectful, it is an honor given only to warriors.

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