★ When Mnemnosyne, the goddess of memory, was imprisoned it weakened the magic she used to make the Western Ocean impossible to navigate. More and more ships, 1 in 10 perhaps, were actually making it back to Barsella, the city at the edge of the world...
★ Among the riches celebrated throughout the streets along with the costly spices and exotic furs was a certain jeweled optical telescope. This scope was rumored to be on its way to High Geomancer Rothgazzi, but its path from Whore's Lot on the docks to the Citadel would be perilous, if a little halfling named Scramsax had anything to say about it.
★ With the exception of one detail, no one ever quite worked out how he pulled it off. From his telling, the heist is somewhat different every time: a diminuating potion reduced him to a 5 lbs bundle and he was carried to the carriage in the mouth of a trusty dog; a nest of exotic, ravenous termites from the southlands ate the hole through the bottom of the wagon; the telescope was concealed in a large subway sandwich; and other such questionable things.
★ The one detail was his escape route: 4th Avenue on Highgate. Every street urchin would remember that detail for years to come, for it was there the thief was thwarted by simple chance and the innocence and honesty of youth. A child, no more than 10 years, spotted Scramsax and was his prosecutor's sole testimony.
★ His punishment was exile from Barsella, until 'Algos turns to sand'. Algos being the major fortified castle built into the nearby mountains...
★ He made his way through the wastes with the Winged Lion Company, a Trilolo based shipping outfit on its way to Zobeck. Along the way, he acted fence for gemstones and other minor scores, eventually meeting up with Bentknee's caravan headed north.
★ He likes to trade stories about the Western Sea for tales of the Red Queen, and in his most drunken state has been heard saying 'Ill pluck the crown from her head'
★ With the recent success of Bentknee's forward scouts, Scramsax is eager to get out of his hammock and get a piece for himself.
Mnemosyne:
'Mnemosyne is a mask of the universe.'
'She is the universe in humanoid form.'
She controls memory and time but her control is weak since imprisoned.
Her appearance is a fey siren teenage girl.
Then there is a confusing plot where her husband Nethus (king of the sea) was kidnapped, and her memories of him were stolen. Somehow this developed to her being imprisoned with him (in Straboli), with her tears sustaining his heart (and being used by the captors, Kammaens, to make magic). Then finally, Nethus got out somehow and remarried Hecate the Moon goddess but meanwhile Mnemosyne is still trapped and forgotten.
