Percyl’s Account: Mawuna

Part of Percyl Far-Trader’s Travels

### Foreword:

I am not a chronicler by trade. I am a merchant, and a far-traveled one at that.

In the year 610 of the Joran Calendar, I was contracted by the Silver Seat, along with about 200 other merchants, to begin plying the seas and roads, to open back up trade between states and regions, following the Plague of 602.

It was under this charter, and with the funds granted along with it, that I began to trade far beyond the borders of my homeland.

Eventually I gained such renown to be known as “The Far Trader” in many lands, from the ports of Rumen to the inland regions of Fejuhn-Vechteya.

It was using the funds granted to me that I decided to follow the rumors of lands of great riches and wealthy in spices, silks, dyes and gold far to the east.

Thusly, I hired a kogge out of Tanderland, and filled its hold with such goods as wool, silver, gemstones, ironmongery, and honey, and set sail along the northern coast of Fejuhn-Vechteya.

I shall not bore you with the most radius of details, such as where I landed, what I bought and sold where and when, and with whom I spoke, though I passed through many alien lands, of which accounts could fill multiple times.

I did not make it to the So Called “Harmony Isles”, nor the lands of gold and tigers to its west and south. However, along my way, I called at a strange port in the north, inhabited by a people stranger still: the Mawun.

### Chapter One: Geography

The location where the Mawun reside is utterly alien, and I am certain there is no place akin to it, on this good world.

In a sea of churned ice, there lay a great archipelago. These islands are covered in snow and frost throughout the year, and is utterly unsuited to growing any produce, forcing the Mawun to live off fish alone.

These islands, however, are covered in magnificent, massive mushrooms. Like trees, they cover the landscape, and in some areas grow as thick as a forest. There are rumors from the inland areas, that there are great mushrooms, with caps as wide as cities, and stalks as high as castle towers.

Much like the flora, the fauna native to the isles is equally strange. All of the great land mammals seem to be affected by mycelia in some way, either sharing a symbiotic relationship with the fungi, or otherwise being a form of fungus themselves.

The waters in which the islands lay are treacherous, being filled with predatory sharks, and rumors of sea monsters abound. Added to this, the seas are highly unpredictable, and the weather can change from flat calm in the morning, to a raging storm at noon. The currents are also known to change rapidly, either dragging ships hundreds of leagues off course, throwing them up upon shoals and rocks that shift hourly, or creating a whirlpool which stalls the unsuspecting vessel entirely.

### Chapter Two: the People

The people of these desolate isles are called the Mawun. The Mawun are a strange folk. They stand at about half a man’s night, and have strange faces. Perhaps the strangest of all, they range in color from purple to grey to blue. Despite the strangeness of their appearance, they are an extremely hospitable people. Indeed, when I landed at the great city of Mawuna (which I shall describe in greater detail later), they welcomed me warmly, indeed, their leader, the Bahilik, as they call their elected Queen, welcomed us in person, and gifted us what supplies we would need on our voyage south.

The Mawun are exceedingly excellent seafarers, who can navigate their home islands land none other. Their ships and canoes are like no other, long and narrow, with shallow draft and high sides, adapted for traversing the shallow waters, though built to withstand the impacts of the great waves which pound their coasts and waterways. Each of their ships also has a large wheel, akin to that of a water-mill, on the port side. This is used in place of oars or sails, and is powered by some form of fire which I shall elaborate upon further in this chapter.

These powered wheels have enabled the Mawun to travel great distances, though they are unreliable at the best of times, prone to breaking, or on rare occasions, exploding with great force.

Indeed, while I was in the port of their great city, a fishing smack, put in the harbor, suffered a colossal detonation to the machinery which drive the wheel, resulting in the boat being reduced to matchwood, and damage being done to several nearby vessels, including my own. The explosion was massive. Indeed, it seemed as though a great store of powder had been. Lien, and it left my ears ringing for an hour, despite my standing about 600 paces from it.

ndeed, the Mawun are extremely advanced, technologically speaking. They are able to construct vast machines, as well as tiny, though extremely advanced pieces, such as the most accurate pocket watches I have had the pleasure of seeing. The greatest of their race’s achievements, however, is the  fire-engine, which drives the aforementioned wheels.

These great machines are found in almost every household kf the Mawun, and are able to produce such forces as to be able to power their ships, move great blocks of stone, and allow them to create a massive bulwark which crosses their harbor. It is made of iron, which is opened and closed as needed using these fire-engines. However, when I requested to know how they functioned, they outright refused. These engines, how they function and how they are constructed, are the most closely guarded secret of that northeastern people.

### Chapter Three: My Experiences

Mawuna is the greatest city of the Mawun. Located on the western coast of their island of A’bel, it is where they originally settled.

The great city rises high above the ash-colored snow which blankets the islands. The port is filled with wheeled ships and other watercraft.

As I departed my ship and walked the streets, a veritable giant among the short folks it struck me how beautiful the city was. Grand houses of white walls and red roofs towered overhead as I wandered through the crowded streets, where at each corner stood a great mushroom, talked than any outside the walls of the city. They are covered in candles which burn blue and green, and each had a tender, who lives in a small hut adjacent to the mushroom’s stalk. I was told by the Mawun that these mushrooms had been here since before the founding of the great city, and that they host the spirits of their ancestors, and are thus held in great reverence, and are tended to as other peoples might care for their own shrines.

In the corner of every square in the town there is a massive fire, which is kept aflame day and night. This is done to warm the denizens of the city, for without them, in the freezing north, the people would surely freeze to death in the cold.

Each household has one of the aforementioned engines, which drives machinery related to the trade the household plies, as well as keeps all hearths burning throughout the day and night, without the need for fuel.

Evidentially, the Mawun were not the only race on the archipelago. Just outside the walls of their city is a massive complex of ruins, made of some form of fungal brick, which refuses to deteriorate in any way. According to the Mawun, the people that used to inhabit the islands with them were much like the other fauna, being a race of fungal humanoids.

Throughout time the two people had clashed repeatedly, and eventually, some centuries ago, the Mawun defeated their fungal foes, driving them to extinction and claiming all the isles for themselves

However, much like the bricks their structures were built from, the mushroom-people refused to decompose for many years, especially when preserved among the snowy reaches. This, the Mawun wojld begin a tradition of crushing small pieces of the ancient bodies, placing the powder in their wines, and drinking it. This would put them in a number of different conditions, ranging from heavily drunk to near-catatonic, and wojld give them enjoyable visions and dreams.

I myself had some of this “fungus wine”, and to be quite honest, enjoyed it. I thus bought three bodies of the mushroom-folk, and stored them in my ship, for later use and sale at my next ports of fall.

There were many things to do within the city. From visiting the great ins and taverns of the city which dominate the waterfront, constructed to the size of the average man to cater to visitors, to the extensive network of fine brothels (which I did not partake in, though I cannot say the same for many of my crew), to visiting a local shaman for fortune telling, much like one would a Beldym in Juhnvechteya. I chose the latter.

Thus I found myself outside the city’s gate, at a small cottage where an old, (or so I presume, it is difficult to tell the ages with this race) Mawun male greeted me. I have him a handful of Groschen, and he told me a vision he had of me. Among several more personal matters, he told me of fighting a ship’s shroud to keep a last from falling in a storm, and me fighting with a group of men on a ship’s deck. In all it was the most accurate fortune I have ever received, and I look forward to the other parts coming true. This completed, I said goodbye, and made my way back to Mawuna.

As I was entering the city, I came upon one of the strangest sights I have yet seen. There, in the street, stood a man. Not one of my ship’s crew, or another in the bay, but rather, he seemed a local. He wore the same robes as the Mawun in the city, had similar golden tattoos on his face, and perhaps most strangely, he carried himself in an altogether different way, unlike any man I had yet seen. He was no foreigner, evidentially having been born here, or assimilated entirely into Mawun culture.

Seek this strange specimen, I decided to follow him to wherever he was going. This I trailed him throughout the city, through the markets, to a tavern, and thence to a large stately house, in the district where their burghers reside. Thereupon he knocked on the door, and a female Mawun opened it, and there out of the house dashed a child. This was no ordinary child, either Mawun or human, nay, the child was evidentially the offspring of the man and Mawun before me.

To say I was shocked was an understatement. I froze about a quarter of a moment, before regaining my composure at the sight of the happy trio, and returned to my accommodations at the inn I was staying.

There, I made inquiries about the man, and apparently there was a sizeable minority of humans who live in the city, entirely subscribing to the culture of the Mawun, and serving as a form of intermediary between the human peoples who visit the island, and their neighbors.

Apparently, most of these people had arrived about 50 years ago, when a large trading coalition was formed between the Mawun, the city of Duernhelm (which I passed while sailing here) and a number of other ports and fishing villages. The coalition saw much prosperity in the region, with the near eradication of piracy, an  an almost overwhelming amount of trading vessels passing through Mawuna, but following the collapse of Duernhelm, and the plague that ravaged Fejuhn-Vechteya a few short years ago, the trade was slowed. The death of the coalition happened when a great pirate king rose up, and mustered a great fleet, which annihilated the allied fleets sent against him. Apparently my ship was among the first to sail into Mawuna in many months, the pirates of word of plague on the isles warding off all others.

After recovering from my shock at the tale, and lounging about t inn for some time, I went to the docks, to oversee the cargo being removed from my kogge. While observing my crew and the longshoremen, the great breakwater-gate swung open, and a Mawun ship came into port.

Unlike any of their other vessels, this was long, and with a much lower freeboard amidships, raising toward the bow and stern. It was also bristling with what, from a distance, appeared to be a great amount of ballistae. What was most strange about it, however, was that it had 4 of the great wheels, two to a side, which propelled it at a swift clip through the harbor. On davits hanging above the stern were two smaller bits, of a similar style, with two wheels and a ballista on both ends.

As the ship came into the bay, I then took notice of the great mass behind it. Attached by many ropes and lines to the stern of the swift ship, there was a great sea-serpent, bristling with spears and javelins like the spines of a porcupine.

As I watched, the ship sailed onward, ignoring the warfs and docks, instead beaching itself directly upon the gravelly shale shores, and a group of boats then set about bringing the sea-monster ashore.

Once this laborious task was completed, a number of Mawun began to go at the Brady with chisels and hammers. Utterly confounded by what they were doing, I asked a dock-worker, and she replied they were “harvesting it”.

Evidentially, one of the chisels struck home, and the Mawun who did so was thrown back as a spout of pale-yellow liquid burst from the serpent’s body. Thereupon, two more Mawun came forward with a large copper cask, about the size of a luncheon, and began to fill it with the liquid. Simultaneously, other groups did the same at other locations, and after an hour, the creature was apparently drained. The large barrels were then rolled to a large tower at the end of the bay.

Following this, several other Mawun, apparently on the orders of the bahilik, the set upon the serpent with knives and axes, carving the meat from its bones.

That night a great feast was had, and all those in Mawuna, from the beggars to the burghers, to the foreigners such as myself, were invited to eat their fill of meat from the monster. The captain of the swift ship which brought it in, along with the ship’s company, were treated with great reverence, and were given a great many gifts, sitting even above the bahilik during the feast. Following, a short ritual was conducted, apparently to honor two crew who had died battling the beast, where a small jug was filled with the yellow liquid, before being lit ablaze and sent out in a small raft into the seas about the isle. The light burned so brightly and with so much heat it needed to be lit by way of a flaming arrow launched from the breakwater, and a Great heat could be felt even from a long distance, but if the monster I shall speak no more.

The final day before my departure for the south, rumors had begun to come in from the northeast, of a great blizzard forming. I was given new and accurate charts of the islands and surrounding seas by the bahilik’s steward, who gifted me, as well as my ship’s company, a number of trinkets, and gave me several of the scales of the beast which was slain. Graciously I accepted these gifts, and attempted to repay her with gemstones and coins from the south, but she refused me, rather requesting that I allow a number of Mawun, about a dozen, to join the ship’s company for the voyage, for these were young and restless of their peaceful lives in the north, and were seeking adventure with foreign merchants. Thus, I accepted and a number of Mawun, both male and female, joined my ship’s crew.

The following day, it had begun to snow fiercely, and the waves were beating down on the harbor. The great gate war opened, and my kogge set out to sea, with much celebration. I would estimate about half the city came to see us off, cheering and waving to us as we departed. I bid the fanciful city farewell, and we steered a course southward, toward the Harmony Isles.

### Afterword

We never did arrive there.

That great storm came, and less than an hour after leaving, we were forced west by the gale’s winds. Toward the southwest it beat us. We were unable to return to the city we had left behind, trapped in the ocean, with great waves hounding us. Three members of the ship’s company were swept overboard, and much as the shaman had predicted, a shroud came loose, and I held it back as the mast attempted to collapse.

Following that, there was an encounter with pirates off Duernhelm, and while we beat them back, our faithful kogge was heavily damaged, and we limped back to the port of Agansburg, where we recuperated from our wounds. Not having the heart to attempt a second try to reach the Isles, we went back west, heading for the more civilized ports.

As for the reason of my writing this account, it came to my attention that the great cape which forced us back, which nearly destroyed my ship, and nearly drowned me, had maintained its strength about the isles, and has sat stationary, immovable, over all the islands, sinking all ships which stray near, and forcing back those which it doesn’t.

Thus, I write my account, secure in the assumption that I am the last man to see a Mawun in their homeland. I write this account, as an attempt to permanently secure and spread tbe knowledge of this fantastical people, like whom there is none other.