With Odd Guidance
Day Five, Year Unknown
Ripper... you turn the word around in your head. It is probably not going to help with the fear of the sailors, or your own men-at-arms for that matter, but then you do not think any name could even were you to name it 'Lamb', so you might as well go with one that fits. "So let's see what you are about big fellow..."
You know enough about cats from back home in Verley to have no expectation that it will listen to you in any but the broadest of terms, some only coming when there is food to be had. Just the thought of what one of the mousers from back home would do if they got this large was enough to make your blood run cold. They would think you are the mice like as not. Maybe mixing in fish made it less hot-blooded, or maybe you are 'flapping your mouth to cool your gums' as the saying goes, but if there is one thing you do know... your hand reaches out carefully towards the back Ripper's head over the smooth warm scales... it's that cats love to be scratched behind the ears. He does not purr, more a kind of low growl that that you can practically feel running up your shoulder.
Over the remainder of the day you discover the many places your new friend likes to be petted and some it does not like, though thankfully no transgression is great enough to elicit more than a few discontent slaps of the heavy muscular tail. Antonio even makes a toy for him, a few old dented tin bracelets tied together with a bit of rope.
As evening comes you briefly consider trying to swim with him for a bit, but in the end caution prevails. Ripper might see things in the water or that come from the water as food and things on land as not so. After all, according to Tom who had been there to see the disposal of the bodies, Ripper had not tried to eat any of the dead mutineers while they were on deck, but he had looked rather agitated to seem them all weighted to the bottom with pieces of stone ballast. Finally you try reaching for the collar. Unlike Zaia you do not draw back a bloody hand, but instead a strip of white leather crudely fastened... and a pouch wrapped in the same material which had been fitted snugly behind Ripper's frill.
Something hard clinks on the deck, a crystal flashing grey-green in the light of fading evening, and then under your amazed eyes it turns as though some unseen hands are upon it to point the longer thinner part of itself points aft. Gingerly you pick it up and still it turns in your hand to point in the same direction.
Sorcery, you are holding sorcery in your hand plain as daylight and you feel... you should be feeling horror, or fear maybe at the work of the Devil, but you cannot quite muster either emotion. You have seen devil's work in Damietta and in Dover done with the hands of good Christian men for tools, besides that what is a strange stone?
It is in that state, pondering what you are feeling and what you aught to feel, that Zaia finds you. The doctor does not look shocked, interested yes, but not shocked. "Magnitis!" he exclaims, to your utter bewilderment. Then he collects himself. "Best put that away, the... er. low-small folk will think it is magic."
You are not about to admit that you thought that as well. "Well what is it then?"
He considers the answer for a moment then shakes his head. "I get Antonio, many words to tell, complicated."
***
Antonio himself is no less amazed by the crystal, though he does look like he is weighting it up for a sale rather than considering the state of his soul. He does turn to the doctor when the man produces another polished stone, this one glistening black, and a piece of iron that he moves around the table, causing the stone moves as though by an unseen force following his hand.
"He says it is not magic, just a stone you dig out of the ground like this," the Captain recalls. "He says Greeks have always known about it." He shrugs. "Wouldn't surprise me really, they can be proud as sin, still calling themselves the heirs of Rome and all, but not wholly without cause."
"The green stone is not pointing at the iron," you note quietly. "It is not the same."
"Not the same, but like brothers, yes, alike..." the doctor says excitedly. He changes again to Greek and Antoio finishes for him.
"He says he does not have a second stone like his with him, but they are drawn to each other even more than to iron. If it is the same with this green stuff than there must be a very big chunk of it out there and..." he picks up the strange stone and drops it in his wine cup with a soft splash. "It sinks, so that piece has to be on dry land, wherever it is."
Sorcery or not you have to admit he does have a point, if nothing else the fact that the stone points always in one direction means he can hold a straight course and not get turned around, but still you have not settled in your mind how you feel about the stone floating innocently in the captain's glass.
[] It is sorcery, tread warily lest if cost you more than any mortal battle could
[] It is just as the doctor says, an odd mineral
[] Write in
OOC: I thought about having a vote on if you should counsel following the stone, but let's face it, that would be the landslide to end all landslides, so instead here is a vote on what Roland thinks of the stone. 
