The Swords

One doubloon and a half.

That is how they are called by their friends. Their enemies call them by other names.

Rapier and Dirk.

The Swords.

Don’t call them that, though. Beware.

Adamastor and his cousin, Adamastor. Yes, they bear the same name. Adamastor (little) is First Mate on the river trader Red Drake, of which Adamastor (tall) is captain. They form a good pair. They wear the same clothes. They think alike. They act in concert. Don’t thwart their purposes, especially their commercial ones. They are deadly.

In the port city of Gancaloon they are famous. Famous for their business. Famous for their brawls in the taverns of the inner city. In between journeys up and down the great river, the Yann, they look for trade in busy Gancaloon. Goods from overseas perhaps, brought in by the sea traders from distant Hyperborea, or aromatic herbs from the marshy shores of Gorth. There is always something to trade in Gancaloon. There is always money to earn or to drink away. When they have done business and paid their dues, Adamastor (tall) and Adamastor (little) offer a noisy libation to the river gods in the dark taverns of the inner city. And when all is spent and all is said and wounds are dressed, they sail again the great river Yann.

The image is entirely built up from mesh2 objects, modelled in Silo2. Initially, I thought I would render the city of Lankhmar (see Fritz Leiber) and its most notable characters, the Grey Mouser and Fafhrd. However, I switched rapidly to my own creation of Gancaloon in the Iskander Series. The houses are as yet first generation models. Second generation has been started. The concrete texture of the city towers has been slightly modified from Sean Day’s excellent Old Royal Scot (IRTC, July-August 2006).

The cobbles of the street are placed with my own macro (see POV Objects).

The human figures and animal are Poser7 figures. Clothes are my own creations or modified by me in one instance. The flag above the city gate has been animated in Poser7. The palm trees originate from POV-tree.

The sky uses LightsysIV while the clouds are generated by Zeger Knaepen’s FastCloud macro. A discrete ground fog was used.

This is Iskander #2.