"Hey, if I am going to have to deal with an ocean of full of danger, I might as well enjoy it."

He shakes his head. “Well, good luck. Right. Onto some of the other dangers.”

”Simplest, but still plenty deadly, are storms. Cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes, whatever name you like. Those sorts of things are plenty likely to kill you, don’t discount nature’s wrath.”

”You’ll find these spots of ocean, sometimes, where the ocean’s been… contaminated, maybe. Thick black flammable stuff, bad-tastin’ orange foam… stay away from that stuff, it’s bad for yer health.”

”Next things are related, I suppose. Ghosts, or two varieties. First are the ghosts of crew - of you treat your folk bad, they can come back, and sometimes they think that others are their own poor captains. They’ll make a racket, cause bad luck, mess with supplies… they’ll generally go away if you give them a good offering and some rites, though. Sometimes entire ships come back as ghosts, with literal skeletal crew. They’re always faster than a ship they’re chasing, but they melt away at dawn. Plus, they might be dead, but you can smash the skeletons just fine.”

"Right. So being nice to your crew will keep Captain Barbossa away, most of the time." Aaron doesn't comment on the thing that sounds like oil spills and sewage waste.

"And be extra vigilant regarding the clouds on the horizon." Ezra adds, wondering if the pollution comes from their world in particular, also noticing that the man is speaking English for some reason. "Do the ghost ships have... I don't know, some sort of goal?"

The man shrugs. “If they have one aside from death, I don’t know it.”

"You know what? Fair enough. It's not like I was expecting fighting skeletons any time soon. And you have been really helpful.

A sort-of half grin. “Right. And now, onto the more interesting monsters: people. I’ll tell you the major groups I’m aware of - I’d be willing to write you a letter of introduction, even, which should get you on good terms to start off.”

”Buccaneers. Pirates, really, although most follow a code of sorts. If it gets broken, other’s’ll hunt you down, to keep others off their backs. The code’s simple - no scuttling a ship that can still sail, and no takin’ slaves. Most’ll accept surrender, seeing as they’re in it for the money.”

”The, ah, ‘Royal Navy’” (he puts that part in air quotes). “I suppose no matter where you are, some folks’ll don weird hats, claim they’re in charge, and tax folks ‘Peacekeeping Taxes’ in the name of the queen. A lot of people don’t like ‘em, although they do interfere if they seen anyone getting raided.”

”The Royal Navy’s best chums, the Endless Ocean Trading Company. Attack their ships and the Navy’ll come after you, ‘cause of all the friendly donations. They have a very expansive trading network, and you can get practically anything from them for a little more than a fair price.”

”The Guild of Explorers. Lots of fellow Seekers in it, they’re a bit of a laughingstock, since they’re dedicated to mapping the Endless Ocean. Still, they’ve discovered a lot of wonders, and they’re a good source of information, even if it does go out of date fast.”

”Carthago Nova, largest pontoon on the Ocean. Basically a city state, they claim the waters around them as their own, and have their own navy, merchant ships, and harbors. Can be a powerful ally or a dangerous foe.”

”The Servants of the Sea. Depending on who you ask, they’re a religion or a cult. They claim the ocean is alive, sentient, and able to communicate and potentially be influenced by humans. They’re friendly to outsiders, but I’ve never met anyone who’s left the organization, so be careful.”

"The Guild of Explorers!"

"Or, before we make a decision, which one of those sounds like the safest to get involved with? Or... err, actually, do we have any chance of getting on good terms without a letter of recommendation? I want to know how much weight we need to put in the decision. Though, I vote against Buccaneers and the Servants."

“Oh, absolutely. Nothing stopping you from making friends. I’ll just pull in some favors, get you known, is all.”

"Ah, alright." Ezra flips the ship logs, still not paying a lot of attention to the individual pages. He wonders how this person got friends in so wildly different places. But again, it might just be the sort of useful sort of thing one does at the ocean. "I guess I can't convince you of the sensibility of going for Carthago Nova? We could just... make a life there or something."

"Okay, I am definitely sure that if there is a secret way home, it won't be in a large city. Unless it's hidden, I don't know, but I think we can always, like, find some riches and then settle down later. And for all we know, maybe we won't like Cathargo. We can figure that out later. And I bet we will best suited for the explorers given our talents."

"Okay, but you own me one."

"I will own you a half."

Sigh. "Deal. So a letter of recommendation to the Guild of Explorers."

He nods, looks around for a moment, then calls over his shoulder, “Hey, Elia! Get me a pen and paper, please?”

He then turns around a grabs a stethoscope from the table.

”Every Seeker reacts differently to coming here. Give me a moment and I’ll figure out what you got.”

Ezra makes a questioning noise, looking at the stethoscope.

"We should be perfectly healthy?"

“Some are harder to notice than others, and it’s not like checking will do any harm. Err, the stethoscope’s enchanted to tell me what maladies someone has - including curses.”

"Ah, okay, go ahead? Should I remove my shirt or something?"

He shrugs. “No, no reason to.”

He listens to Aaron’s heartbeat for a few seconds, frowns slightly, and moves on to Ezra’s. Then he stands back up. 

“Well, Ezra, your blood’s delicious to the animals around here. I mean, disregardin’ their safety tasty. You’re gonna get singled out by predators, and I’d highly recommend staying out of the water.”

”Aaron. The Unstoppable Force is even worse on you than most Seekers, and that’s already pretty bad. You’ll have a constant desire to be on the move, and will only be able to stand being in the same place for half as long as most Seekers. As long as you keep moving you’ll be fine, but any crew might not be happy with the pace you set.”

"Uh, is there a cure for Ezra's condition? Or somewhere safe to keep him while I go around... seeking?"

"I am probably safer with Aaron," Ezra sighs. "Should we be thinking of having, like, a rotating crew or something then?"

The Harbormaster shrugs. “If there’s a cure, I don’t know it, but it would be a worthy goal to sail towards. How you handle any crew is your own choice.”

"Okay, I guess the sooner we get that figured out the less unstoppable the force will be at me."