Captain Marc Williams
A ghost pirate bound by a three-hundred-year-old bargain, his black storm-worn coat and pale hair unmistakable in any century. Ancestor, guardian and guide to the boy who must finish what he started.
Lore
Scardungeon is an ancient, magical world hidden beyond the Pirates' Playground, ruled by bargains older than memory.
Key figures
A ghost pirate bound by a three-hundred-year-old bargain, his black storm-worn coat and pale hair unmistakable in any century. Ancestor, guardian and guide to the boy who must finish what he started.
Emerald, sapphire and gold feathers catch the lantern light, but there's nothing ordinary about this parrot. Older than she looks, sharper than she sounds, and bound to the Williams family in ways Samuel is only beginning to understand.
The being who struck the very first bargain on a quiet English beach, and holds the fate of both Scardungeon and Earth in his hands. Not cruel. Not kind. Simply certain.
A figure who has learned to cross between Earth and Scardungeon, carrying a stolen time stone that opens the way. Three hundred years on, he has not made the crossing to make peace — he has come to avenge Captain Marc Williams. He commands a small fleet of ships, and sails one himself — when it flies black, it means only one thing: he is aboard.
A stern, watchful presence who runs the campsite on the Dorset coast, never straying far from the sea — though his bearing is oddly formal for a campsite warden, and something about the set of his shoulders looks more suited to a ship's deck than a reception desk. There is more to Mr Higgins than meets the eye, and not everyone who crosses his path walks away unchanged.
Spoken of throughout Scardungeon, rarely seen by anyone — and, some now whisper, missing altogether.
The Fleet of Commodore Germane

The Treasure Map
A hand-drawn map of Scardungeon, passed down through the Williams family for three hundred years.

Charts & bearings
Two charts for the curious traveller — one of the lanes and coastline where the story begins, and one of the wider world beyond.
Beyond the known chart
Every shore on the map has a story. Here are eight whispers from the places Samuel has yet to reach.
Isvangard — They say the Northern Lights above Ravnfjord are the ships that never came home, still searching for their harbour.
Vaelmoor — The old road maps all show a fork near Greywick that leads nowhere — yet merchants still swear by it, and no two travellers ever agree on what they saw at the end.
Emberveld — Duskgate's market only opens after sundown, and trades in stranger things than spice. Rumour has it Captain Marc once bartered there for three days that were never really his.
Coppervale — Once a year, the river past Ashford Landing runs backwards for a single night — the same night old harbour logs say a ship with no flag was last seen leaving port.
Frostpine Dominion — The forests beyond Long Pine Hold are so vast that three expeditions have vanished trying to map their far edge. All three compasses were later found — each one pointing straight at Scardungeon.
Silkspire — High above Loomgate hangs a bell that hasn't rung in three hundred years. The old story goes: the day it rings again is the day the doors of Scardungeon open for good.
Suncoral Reach — The carvings at Temple of Wardock are said to shift position every hundred and fifty years — sailors who've charted it twice swear it's never quite the same shape.
Cloudroot — A stairway is carved into the cliffs above Mossgate that climbs above the clouds and simply stops. No one has found where the last step leads, or who carved it.
Illustrations
Six moments from the story, brought to life.
Genealogy

Every branch of this tree holds a story. A few are worth pausing on.
Key places
The quiet village that once gave Sineford its name still exists, half-hidden, deep within Scardungeon itself. Some journeys end exactly where they began.
Hidden beyond an ancient archway on the Dorset coast, where new rules apply and a guardian is made, tested, or unmade.
A wooden sign creaks above a doorway with a very strange name. Nobody Samuel meets can quite explain why.
The afterworld reserved for sailors who kept their word. Not every pirate earns a place there — but every pirate hopes for one.
Endless grasslands stretching beyond the known edges of Scardungeon's map, glimpsed from a distance but not yet explored.
For readers
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