The Coral Folk

Those fellows don't get enough credit in my mind, they've been around longer than any of us and they aint caused half the trouble we have. Don't be fooled by their small size, they've got some proper powerful mages and great fighters. Not brawlers mind you but archers and ambushers who you'll never see coming. People call em savages. Pah. idiots they have paint and don't wear to much but that just makes them blend in all the better with the Coral. See I got to know better than most, I had to escort some high and might missionary out there once, she wanted to spread the word of Desna.   Well we get led deep into the Coral, like took a three days of travel through these tunnels of coral. At night we camped I was loving the dreams mind you, I have a lot of nightmares and being a fish even one that gets eaten is much better than my usual fare. The whole way we chatted, they knew a lot of common tongue, not perfect but enough. I got along much better with them than the missionary. She had too much education by half. Loved having the flying fish watching us the whole time, bet many had never seen a fellow as big as myself. We finally get to a village on the fourth day and it was magnificent. See we were on actual stone, got all the way down to the rocks, above like some long tunnel the sky opened above us, must've been some few hundred feet down and lined with the most beautiful colours. Their village was a marvel all their homes were built into these huge coral pillars or under the lips of great undulating flowers of coral   I'd never seen anything like it, still dream of it all these years later, every night I find myself going there. I make lots of actual trips back though, but never just for coin. See missionary didn't last too long, her whole spiel was about how the gods would help with hardships, the folk had none, the gods would protect them from enemies, folk didn't need no help there, and finally she messed up see got desperate and tried to explain the afterlife. Didn't seem to take, they didn't get it. She even tried to rope me in to and I said no, the folk had a feel when she spoke about death. It was like when some ones freaking out before a big battle and spreading it around, like you do your best to tolerate it a while before some one clobbers them. Well she pushed a bit too far and the hammer came down. Explained how souls would be in the afterlife forever, eternal punishment or salvation. Their big witch, head honcho of the village she was having none of it, pointed her finger at the missionary and turned her into a flying fish. Caught her in a net gave her to me and then flew us out of there. It didn't wear off see, I had to take her back to her order in that net to get her fixed. The head witch held no grief though, let me know I could bring others but to be a bit more picky next time.   Reena - Senior Coral Ranger

    The Coral Folk are a collection of halflings, gnomes and goblins who live deep in The Moon Coral Atoll. They are rarely seen, victimised and enslaved by the Dragon Mage Empire they hold this millennia-long grudge against those from the Isle of Rasht. In recent years success has been made in speaking with them by the people of Caspi, though this is mostly by scholars and religious evangelists who seek to learn more about this unique culture. The powers that be have little interest in them as they control little of value and the Coral is uninhabitable to others. Though some small trade and exchanges have been made between them and more significant institutions, often this is being guided through the depths of the coral, but they also have sold unique examples of fauna and relics.