Ynxian Growlers

Along the eastern border of the Ynxian archipelago resides a populace of some thousand unruly freemen. The dotted islands between the lower jaw of the Felmaw and Boldur's mountainside are staked by Growlers, a sustained cooperation of rough and tumble sailors and journeymen that have abandoned the systems of civil society. These territorial outlaws make their living either by supporting the collective as laborers or craftsmen, or strapping on a pair of briny boots to scour the eastern shallows with a seaworthy crew. Most anyone else views them as pirates in the most traditional sense, but a shared sense of pride and kinship refutes that label. Growlers prefer to be seen as free will patriots.

The most diplomatic and exploratory of these motley folk are the patrolmen, drifting back and forth between eastern beaches to intercept unwarranted vessels or skim kegs of skael for future use. Equipped with caravels designed with speed in mind, these unassuming ships are allowed a maximum of two mobile cannons and typically run crews of twenty to thirty. A trip from shore to shore between the speckled islands can take between twelve hours and five days. Keen crewmen and a narrow hull allow the Growlers to cut through waters at remarkable speeds, aiding in their preference to board and parley should they find any passersby. Negotiations of this manner tend to lean in favor of the higher crew count and patrolmen have been known to take measures to ensure their majority.

Should a passing craft not be able to pay tariffs imposed by the patrols their vessel is neutralized and commandeered as payment instead. Most of these inferior merchant or trade boats are then relegated to topwater fishers or stripped for materials. Citizens subject to their taxation have returned with claims that not all the crewmen aboard a Growlers’ vessel originated from civil society. One story recounts negotiations with a captain of sunburned skin that wore a pair of rigid horns wedged through his cap. Indeed, with such a persistent risk at play most explorers are forced into travelling north around the isle of the Yawning Felmaw if they wish to travel beyond the archipelago.