The checklist
by Arwin
Sun, 4 Jun 2000, at 3:42 p.m. CST

Bitz had mentioned he was going on another exploration sometime soon. "The Fire Isle" he said, "just like last time".

Arwin had been thinking. Fire Isle was good, but it had already been explored a few times.

Arwin proposed an exploration of the Lost Lands. Either the Ice Lands, or the Southern area. The Ice Lands sounded interesting, but they had already been there quite a few times, and explored nearly all of it (if not all). The southern region, however, doesn't attract that many travellers. Few people ever go there, due to the lack of monsters to battle. There are, however, many dangerous creatures there. Although Arwin wasn't too fond of hot areas, especially jungles, he asked Bitz, and Bitz thought it was a good idea.

So it was decided, an exploration of the Southern Region of the Lost Lands. They would sail there, using the Serpent Pillars and then south towards Papua. The route already formed in Arwin's head. There were no maps of the Lost Lands, which made it even more exciting. After the recent events he felt like he could use a break.

He ran through a list in his head what they would need. Bitz was going to make arrows and such, while Arwin went off to buy food and water (and ale). We need light, ofcourse, he thought as he purchased several torches in Vesper. Bedrolls, to lie down on. He didn't know how many people would join Bitz and him, but he had better bring a few bedrolls to be sure. Some dried meat. They would probably hunt for food in the Lost Lands, but until there, the journey over water was quite long. Water. Lots and lots of water. In a hot area such as the Southern Jungles, they would definately need water. He wasn't sure wether there were many rivers, and if one could drink from them. He filled two big barrels with water and placed them on his new ship, the Winds of Dawn.

Off he went to the Carthographer. Maybe Bitz already had maps, but one can never be sure enough. He bought maps for Yew, Britain and Trinsic. He wasn't sure where the Serpent Pillars were, but he knew they were somewhere around Trinsic and Britain. He also brought a spyglass. Strangely, the carthographer didn't sell any sextants. He already had one, so that was alright.

He also brought fruit. He wasn't much of an expert, but he knew one could get scurvy and Fruit was a good way to counter that.

Tomorrow, he would plot a course for the ships. It wasn't that he didn't want to follow the other ship, the TsaBitz, but he knew from experience that Tsalagi and Bitz never were very good sailors. They already lost a lot of ships. They would sail past Buccanneer's Den. Hopefully the local Pirates would leave them alone. His biggest problem was the lack of a map of the Southern Jungles. He wasn't sure where exactly they would go into the Southern Jungles, but a map would prevent them from getting lost.

He pondered that thought. Can one get lost when he does not know where he is heading?