Abbas' Fortunes

Off on the west coast of Chenravo, near where the Obsidian Strip meets the river lands, is a port of some repute. There was a successful merchant there, once, of Tiefling heritage named Abbas. He made his money by sailing the coast in a small trading ship. He sailed mostly from the Obsidian Strip in the west to the start of the Hammershard mountains in the west, a very small portion of the coast. He mostly served communities that had no warpstones. What set Abbas apart, however, was his generosity to the sea. After every voyage, Abbas took half of his share of the profits, and dropped them into the sea. He was consistent in his donations, and for his devotion was well protected from sea monsters, storms, and other nautical troubles.   One of his trips turned out extremely profitable, when the stone he was carrying was bought by a town to build a wall to prevent a landslide like the one a nearby town had just endured. They were desperate to get the slabs of rock, and paid handsomely to outbid all other comers. It was more money than Abbas had ever seen in one place before, let alone owned. Nevertheless, when he had his share of the money, he separated out half, and dropped it off the stern of his ship. That night, there was a terrible storm, and no matter how the crew tried to get to land and a safe port, the winds and the waves kept conspiring to push them further out to sea. Strangely, the boat took on no water, from the rain or the waves.   When the storm subsided, they found themselves in unfamiliar waters. Checking their position against the last stars of the night, they found that they were about a hundred miles due south of their normal route. They decided to start sailing back home with their remaining cargo, but found that they were doing so at a tremendous speed. The storm had blown them out onto a current that more than doubled their rate of travel.   With this discovery, Abbas became well known for his speed and reliability. He soon found himself drowning in trade requests. He was soon able to afford a second, better, ship, and then a third. By the time he died and became Shaold’s patron saint of generosity, he was admiral of a trade fleet twenty ships strong, with routes stretching from the northernmost villages of the Goldengrass plains to the southern Dwarven port city of Edibican.