Tomletote



Greetings in the name of health, wealth, and liberty. You are now in a land where the sun frowns, stars hum, and dragons will eat you lunch if you don't watch it.

Settle back in your chair and attend to me, for I am getting ready to tell you a story. This story has been passed down through the generations of Tarbells, who were all seafairers. Valori told me this story herself, she said her step-father, Captain Drakke Charlton Tarbell told her to her as a child. Ever the skeptic, he believes that the tradition of throwing swords overboard was started by the makers of the swords, and insisted that this be added as footnote to the legend. Skeptic or not, he does still abide by the tradition. And I hope you will accept for the legend that it is.

The Legend of the Coveted Sword

Long, long ago, when Captain Demitone Fluone Tarbell sailed the three seas as Tarbell's
Tea Company, there was a small but dangerious group of pirates called the Buwhats. Because of these small threatening vagrents, crewmen had to be fighters as well.
The ships of Captain D.F. Tarbell, the Nightwatch, The Lady in Black, and
the Delightful Teapot, (The captain had a strange sense of humor.) sometimes ran into the Buwhats off
the shores of Caperwill. According to an old Tarbell family adage, after defeating your enemies, it was only proper
for the captain of the ship to toss his sword in the ocean to mark the place, and suposedly it pleased the mermaids as well.
Now Captain D.F. Tarbell had just had a brand new sword manufactured for his personal use. It was crafted by dwarves, making it a masterpiece of work. The hilt
was twisted cords of gold, brass, silver, and quartz. The whole weapon itself had a very masculine and
prestegious air to it, which appealed to the captain. One especially long voyage, they met up with 4 Buwhat ships coming around the port side of Spittle. A battle was fought, and the sensitive waters turned pink with blood, then
black. It ended in a victory for Captain Tarbell, and all the crew went aft to watch their leader fling his new sword into the black waters.
"Men," Bellowed their leader "Today I begin a new tradition by NOT throwing my sword in the waters. I do not wish to let my sword mingle with those bilgerat's blood."
The men turned and walked away, some muttering that it was no good
breaking traditions as old as that one, others glad that they would no longer have to waste swords like that.
Meanwhile, The captain turned and faced the sea, thinking that THIS sword he would save for his son, Fluone, and Flu could give it to his son and so forth.
But the next morning, The Captain was missing. After searching the ship from starboard to port, the men concluded that
the Captain had thrown himself overboard, and the ships were turned over to Fluone Harr Tarbell, who was 16.
So, Captain F.H. Tarbell commanded the ships for 4 years and added
another, The Harr, when his son Harr Landy Tarbell was born. Then he fought a battle with a sizable band of
Buwhats, and lost the Delightful Teapot, and crippled the NightWatch so that she had to be retired. Still, it was a victory, and Captain Fluone kept the new
tradition and did NOT throw his father's sword in. But the next day, The young fearless Captain was nowhere to be found. The crew could only conclude that he had met his end as his father had.
Harr Langly Tarbell became Captain at 14, and a fine one he was. He made round trips steadfastly for 8 years, undisturbed. The reason for this was that the land and the sea were getting civilized, and hardly any Buwhats remained. What ones did,
however, were VERY dangerious. Sure enough, when Captain H.L.Tarbell was 24 years old, their fleet,
(Including the repaired Nightwatch) was attacked be bloodthirsty Buwhats. After a ferocious battle, the Captain pulled off a victory, and clutched the coveted sword
to his chest. Some of the men passed by him, standing tall and proud on the deck, with the sword in hand.
That, was the last time they saw him. Like his father and Grandfather, Harr Landy Tarbell disappeared.
Leaving the ships and the sword to a two-year-old named Landy Plytonly Tarbell.
When the child was 14, he took over the ships as his father had done, adding the ship The
Cursebreaker. Captain L.P. Tarbell proved himself to be a great captain
and leader, and in due time, his mettle was to be tested in a battle with the remaining
Buwhats.
The Nightwatch and The Harr  were smashed, and The Lady in Black was injured badly.
For twenty days and nights they fought, each grappling for the slightest upper hand. Then,
the morning of the twentith day arrived, and Captain Landy Plytonly Tarbell watched the
sun rise on his first victory. He turned to go below, when suddenly a
voice cried out "The sword! The sword! It was the sword!"
It was Piky, the oldest of the crew. He was 1st mate because of his knowlege of the sea,
but his limbs were old and rickity, just barely holding him up. The captain turned and said
"What do you mean by this?"
"I remember now!" gasped Piky "He wanted to keep his sword, his special sword that the
dwarves made, dwarves who hoard their treasure in a cleft of the mountain! So he
hoarded the sword! It's cursed! The sword is cursed!" Piky pointed his finger at the captain.
"Your father died because he didn't break the curse, as did his
father! Break the curse! Throw that coveted sword into the sea!"
And Captain Tarbell believed him, and he flung the coveted sword into the midst of  the
Buwhat wreckage. The sea instantly turned wild, beautiful colors, and it spouted up like
fountains! Yellow and pink waves kissed the ship's side, and on the largest spout of
colored water, sat a mermaid. A beautiful mermaid with pristine white hair that reflected
the color in the sea. She was singing in a loud, beautiful voice, and in her hand, she
clutched....The Coveted Sword.

And that is how the Curse was broken and the Buwhats defeated in one day, by one man,
who had the sense to fling away that which is perishable, and to not cling to things that
will pass away.

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