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Lohtaid
Updated: Sept. 07, 7:24 p.m.
This island is a canonical part of the DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting. You can still edit it, but aware that the admins may revert your changes if they don't align with the overall vision of the setting.
Summary
This island appears once per year at the lowest tide; the rest of the year, it is a hazard onto which many ships have run aground.
Size: 15 square miles
Population: unknown
Main cities: none
Except at the lowest tide of the year, this island is nothing more than dangerous shallows, a mix of submerged, dead coral, obsidian outcroppings and enormous coarse sand bars. It is surrounded by the remnants of wrecks that have run aground on it and, sometimes, makeshift stilted dwellings of wood from broken caravels made by mariners awaiting rescue.
Few have visited the island at low tide and no two stories of the isle have ever been the same, except for the universal attestation to huge shallow tidal pools and enormous asphyxiating eels wriggling for the coast.
Here are some of the accounts of the island:
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“After traversing the treacherously thin sands covering the razor-sharp obsidian, I was able to reach a small outcropping and see the lake in the center. This lake is deep green, opaque in color but not filled with seaweed. And there seems to be some spring in the center, almost like a fountain… I told Clareau not to dive but he was curious and gave no mind to the foreboding feeling I had. And as soon as he did, the fountain shot up a hundred feet or more. I waited for him until the tide washed across the island and the fountain stopped. These scars are from the coral — I ran back to the ship as I knew they would leave without me, just as I left Clareau.”
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“What is needed is a spade and a bit of courage, lad. Pay no attention to the foolishness you hear about the isle. Find where the sands are deep and there is no coral or basalt and dig there — make sure to bring at least five strong men and strong shovels. A few swords won’t hurt — a man-sized clam is perilous in many ways and I have seen them slay many in my years and the giant molting shrimp are all the more formidable. But that’s where I got this.
See that? It was one of six. You can see now why I’m a satisfied old man, despite the peg leg and missing arm. You find the oysters my boy and you’ll get a pearl larger than this, big as your head. Find a black one and you’ll be able to buy yourself an island of your own.”
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“People don’t think to look for the city. After all, where is it the rest of the year? But there it is. That’s where I got this. Of course, when it dies I the fur will be worth a fraction of what it would have fetched if I killed it at the time — see how the water just beads on it? But these land-eels are loyal. Better furs and stronger bite than an otter and you can train them like dogs.
I could tell you more about the city but you wouldn’t believe me anyway. I’ve seen the looks people get when I tell them that the fattest man on the island is always made chief and that the women try to bed all the strangers or that they have an ice mine. How could I prove any of that? Rezzo here would back me up if he could talk but my shipmates died in a hurricane the year we visited so now I’m just the crazy old man with the land eel.”
