Drift Fleet - Percy's Final gift for Escha

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It is a small box wrapped in pink paper with an envelope tied on top with ribbon. The envelope contains two folded pieces of paper, a letter--which is clean, and the other which is covered in varying degrees of gunpowder residue and singed in places. It contains the method with which Percy has made fireworks, including all crossouts of his trials to making the perfect combination of materials and chemicals, as well as suggestions for different combinations that work and don't work.

The letter itself: Front and Back

Transcript of the letter:

Escha,
I don't always seem it, but I am a man of many flowery words, should I choose to employ them, and now I must. Recent disappearances around the fleet ships has me concerned. I don't know if we're even allowed to say our good-byes or will the planes tear us away silently without so much as a whisper? Perhaps I'll find out, perhaps not. If you are reading this, then I have joined those vanished ranks. I don't even know if I'll even remember. Travel between planes is...tricky, to say the very least. I lost my memory once going to the Feywilds, a place I'd longed to go to since I was a small child. A friend restored my memory after the fact, but the mere transition was enough to rob me of the ability to keep them on my own. The experience has made me unsure if that can be done after what we've been through.

Perhaps, in the end, forgetting is easier. I can still hear those accursed trumpets in my sleep. I also know there is much heartache on the horizon for my family. If I change the future with the foreknowledge I possess, how do I know my actions will be any better? Likely it could be worse, and I've lost enough loved ones to last me the rest of my lifetime. I don't think I could bear to lose more.

Having time away has made me realize perhaps not all my inventions are terrible and only bring pain. I've lately remembered at one point in my life, I wanted to be a clock maker. Hopefully I'll remember that once again. I couldn't have arrived at that conclusion without your influence. It's only right that you keep the recipe (enclosed) for the fireworks I made back in Witchy Willows. They no longer can produce magical images--at least not here--but the bright colors should light up the night. In your hands, these could do many great things that I never could dream of.

I do have to apologize for not saying farewell in person, for not helping with your next concoctions and experiments, and for no longer being able to fight at your side. I will miss you, and I can't say that for everyone I've met. Continue bringing people joy. The worlds need more people like you with your skills and talents who can defy the things and dangers that lurk in the dark. I am not the kind of man who casually casts his beliefs at gods and deities; my faith is better placed in the hands of my dearest friends. In honor of that bond, I've additionally enclosed a symbol of my faith in you. May it always signal whether it is time for an apple tart breakfast or dinner. (I do hope I remember them so Vex can make them in her bakery, and so the castle chefs can as well.)

If anything is left in my quarters, I bequeath it to you. I kept some skins and furs that you may find useful. The people in my ship were an interesting bunch, as were the rest. I'd say I'd hope the trials and tribulations you'll face together will not lead you to harm, but I'm a pragmatist and therefore know better. I wish them all well and hope for the best for their survival.

My dear, dear friend, I wish the happiest of joys and the strength to get through the worst days. I hope you're able to see your own family again soon. Should you find yourself in Whitestone, find a gnome cleric named Pike, find me, and show us this letter--and this particular passage:

I, Lord Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klowssowski de Rolo III, Sophist of Native Ingenuity, have decreed this woman, Escha Malier, is an honored guest and a true friend of the city of Whitestone.

Remember you will always be in my heart, even if my head cannot.

Farewell for now, my friend.
-Percy

And then there is the contents of the box. It is a handcrafted silver and brass pocketwatch. (Or rather the materials appear to be silver and brass. Future silver and brass.) The top silver cover depicts an embossed apple blossom with "Alchemy ● Creativity ● Ingenuity" engraved around the bottom in Celestial.

On the inside is a ring of brass apples with numbers engraved on each for the hour, an inner circle of brass and silver gears and watch parts visible behind a thin piece of glass with fancy scrolling separating it and the clock hours. At the bottom is a night and day cycle indicator, half of which is a brass engraved design mimicking an apple tart. The time has been attuned to current ship time and is, as far as Percy knows, perfectly accurate.