"My name be Mole, it be! Do not ask me how I came by it. 'Tis a long story."

"For years and years I roamed the seas, pillaging and raping and terrorizing. Now that I am past the age of fifty, I want to live the rest of my life in relative peace and quiet here on Buccaneer's Den."

"Thou dost really want to hear it? 'Tis very long."

"All right. I was born in a cave. So my mother named me Mole."

<> "I thought thou said it was a long story."

"Very well. How 'bout if I just say that I was born in a cave, so my mother named me Mole."

Mole shrugs. "I thought I would make a long story short."

"It is a good life. I grew weary of pirating. I grew weary of the salt water and the raw meat and the sewage on deck and the parrot droppings and the fact that every other word one heard was 'Har!'"

"I spend my time at the House of Games or the Fallen Virgin. I love the sound of the die as it bounces against the felt. I love the taste of warm ale as it splashes down my throat! And... I have The Fellowship."

"The group has given me a new lease on life. I thought I had mates when I was an active pirate, but they were nothing compared to my brothers in The Fellowship.

"Say, I see that thou art a member! Thou must be of sound character!

"Mine old mates, like my friend Blacktooth, have fallen by the wayside."

"Blacktooth lives here on the island. We used to be the same link on a chain, knowest what I mean? But since I joined The Fellowship, he does not give me the shadow of a sundial! He acts as though I had the plague or something. I do not understand it. Makes me want to cut something up into mincemeat!"

"Blacktooth was like my brother. Not like my brothers in The Fellowship, but a 'real' brother, knowest what I mean? We did 'everything' together. We would share booty! We would share wenches! We did it all!"

"Well, he is not a brother now! He hates me! If he wants nothing to do with me, so be it!" But Mole quickly adds, "He does not realize what I did for him. I made his life livable! Who was it that nursed him when he had scurvy? Me! Who was it that patched him up when he was sliced to bits by that butcher Silverbeard? Me!"

"Oh, he was some old pirate with a temper. He's probably dead now, if he knows what's good for him!"

"Yes, it was a different life in those days..." Mole reflects on some past memory as his eyes glaze over temporarily. Finally he says, "I may have dwelt too strongly on my Fellowship business. Perhaps I pushed him too hard. I am sorry. If he would give me another chance I would probably leave The Fellowship. They are not as wonderful as I made them sound. They are more crooked than the pirates I used to sail with!" Mole frowns. "Thou hast put me in a foul mood."

You tell Mole what Blacktooth said. A change comes over the salty pirate, as if you had just given him a bouquet of flowers.

"Thou must be kidding me! Blackie misses me? I thought he hated mine innards! I shall have to go for a little walk and maybe I will run across that old dog! I thank thee, stranger, for imparting this information to me."

With that, Mole turns away from you, doing a little jaunt. END

"Goodbye, stranger." END