Stopcluster is a coastal town at 7-8 o'clock on the map
Apap Narrowspiraled was a tough little penguin-man fisherwoker that for 25 years lived in Stopcluster, the capital of the island nation of The Realm of Courtesies. Apap worked as a fisherworker, providing for the city, with the help of his hunting bear Sino Throwermaw. This penguin-man was a dour and a bashful person, but he was also a very bored person and, craving for some leisure time, one day he took an unpaid leave to have a ride around the island. In his life he's visited some of the places (checked it by scrolling through his knowledge of wildlife and aboriginal animal-people, etc.), but he never climbed the central peaks from where you could see the whole island. The plan was to cross the southern side from west to east, making a little swing by the lake near the mountains, reach the south-eastern town Talklemon, spend some time there, and then turn north and go all the way up. Before heading out, Apap snuck into the city hall to take a look at and, if lucky, to speak with the ruler of the island Nani Firetattoo, a very old, weird and, as rumors had it, dangerous man. The place was tightly packed with nobles, it was very hard to move through that sea of people and locate the right human. The short penguin-man got knocked down a couple of times, but managed to identify and have a short chat with Nani Firetattoo. That resulted in Apap being given an errand to run in precisely the town he was planning to end up in. So that went well, even if the arrogant law-giver looked dangerously annoyed at the end (the errand was to find a certain book, but Apap had never learned to read, so the law-giver had to describe the look of the thing)
The first day on the road went pretty well, it was spent relaxing and visiting the little settlements of farmers, plus some small forts. During one of the short stays the bear Sino was told to sit and wait outside. Being a well-trained girl, Sino sat there and waited, even when her penguin-man emerged from the building and headed for the mountains. There he had a wonderful time, jumping into the lake from high rocks and swimming with the otters. He almost forgot about his trusty grizzly bear, had to backtrack a little bit to find her still sitting at the same spot and waiting.
The first half of the next day was spent in Talklemon, searching for the elusive tavern "The Nut of Depressions''; and just taking in the unique atmosphere of the place. This town was one of the favorites of the equally feared and worshipped local duo of a dragon and a roc bird. Some buildings were ruined by them paying a visit to steal or re-steal an artifact or two. This coastal favela-like place went up and down, the buildings overlapped each other, no space was wasted. If you were there for the first time, it was going to be a nightmare for you to find what you were looking for, even if given directions. (The first stream ended in futile attempts at finding the tavern to stay at, had to do several attempts off-stream to make it happen) After circling around the block a few times and trying in vain to follow a tavern-keeper, spotted during his break (the guy vanished out of sight both times like he never was there), hungry and thirsty Apap finally managed to find the desired door. This fine establishment, "The Nut of Depressions", was filled with all kinds of people. Bards, monks, children, elves and goblins. Some of these must have been from other islands far away. Apap didn't care for their stories, however, as he was here to drink and witness the local entertainers, so he was heading toward a tavern-keeper-looking person. There was a monk reciting a poem, he noticed. It was a terrible recitation of a bad poem and it was just...wrong somehow. Not many things made Apap feel much. In his life he was annoyed by two things, mainly: lack of variety in food and bad performers. The drinks had to wait. The penguin man waited, listening intently, until the monk was booed off his spot, then Apap climbed up a table and proceeded to one-up the previous performer, reciting the same poem that he only just heard once, in a superior fashion. That's how it's done! That's how you recite bad ribald poetry!
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Receiving many cheers, Apap jumped off the table and waddled in the direction of a tavern keeper that, after a brief chat appeared to be a keeper of another tavern, just hanging around. The man pointed at another human that was petting Sino, and Apap waddled over there and had his drinks. The city hall was visited for the sake of just taking a look at another sea of nobles. These people never had to catch a fish in their life, Apap thought. With his flask full with river spirits, he and Sino rode north. (Also, we stole an artefact large sandal in a monastery dedicated to a god of death to use it as a weapon if ever the need arises, but shhhh)
Half of the road had been covered, when Apap put his hand to his forehead ("facepalm", the cool kids called it in the capital) in acknowledgement of his carelessness. He forgot to get some food for the road... The last serving of prepared giant slug intestines had been eaten back in the tavern. So he and his bear had to do another swing off the road toward the lake to hunt for some meat. It took some time to discover the favorite place of the local otter population where they bask in the sun. Riding atop the fast-charging bear, battle sandal at the ready, Apap swung clumsily, but had almost no success at hitting one of the poor startled otters. Most of the bloody work was left to Sino. She took her sweet time, playing with her prey. While doing so, she got a nasty bite from the otter right in her tail and ran away panicking, the silly thing. Apap had a chuckle and jumped off the uncontrollable bear, to get to butchering the mangled otter. "She'd be fine", he said to the bloody mess while making a fire near the lake to have a snack and spend the night.
The next day was going to conclude the first half of the journey, the second half being the return home. Crewedhound, one of the three big towns on the island, was in sight. Apap and Sino had a fine time in this place, although not a very long one. They crossed it to reach the farthest northern spot of the island to gaze at the vastness of the sea there; and then returned to spend some time in a tavern watching people, and telling a tale about distant kobold settlements and their struggles. Just some stories that Apap heard from a traveler once. Apap had great memory and knew many tales and poems, and he could get used to the warm reception that he was getting for performing in a tavern, despite his bashfulness. He still had an errand to run and then head back to the capital, back to his job as a fisherworker. So he and Sino travelled back south into the hamlet where they aimed to acquire a certain codex.
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There were many better ways to approach this, but Apap chose intimidation. He rode on his bear's back right inside the village hall to demand the book by the decree of Nani Firetattoo himself. But nobody paid much attention to his antics, and the book in question just lied there on the floor right next to the entrance. It was of the right appearance, precisely as described by the law-giver, and contained pictures of the sad slug man dancer. It was the one, and in the backpack it went.
The ride home was uneventful, the codex was handed over and Apap received a royal thank you, and, upsettingly, nothing else. He pondered if slapping the law-giver with a legendary sandal might help the man come to his senses, but ultimately decided against it. Life was good and he still had the rest of the day to himself, which was enough for a climb up one of the central peaks, where many bobcats lived. He got to see the whole island from up there.
This adventure was a welcome change of pace from the usual murdery way of things and the fortress mode, and is probably to be continued in a similar manner. I was thinking of making Apap go build himself a cabin, spend his time fishing, trading and going to a tavern in the evenings.
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