“The Black Bilge sits beneath a swaying set of black sails drooping across its windows; salt-slick boards and the smell of burnt sugar and seaweed hang heavy. Edrik Rotwater Cale is gruff, one-eared (a scarf hides a long scar), and suspicious of uniforms. He keeps a battered parrot that only speaks in curse words and nautical directions. He will barter fiercely for rum, a ship's compass, or rare sea creature parts; sometimes he offers a 'free shot' of Bilgebrew if you sing a shanty worse than his. He labels stock with chalk on old planks and insists on testing a new potion on a rat before selling it (or, if you're lucky, on his parrot). Edrik refuses service to naval officers at sight, but he'll slip a desperate 'friend' a secret vial if you can tell him the name of his long-lost cutter.”