Far beneath the Sea of Screamed Prayers in the Notic Ocean, a lone
triton stood on the edge of an immense chasm. He gazed down into the
black waters of the abyss, knowing that somewhere, deep within the
trench, lurked a leviathan of unfathomable size, imprisoned for years by
ancient magic.

Now the guardians of the abyss lay dead at his feet, and the Caspiite
smiled, a crazed gleam in his eyes. With growing passion he began the
ritual, dispelling the barriers upon the trench and summoning the
creature below.

At last the murky waters in the chasm swirled, and a monstrous creature
emerged, terrifying to behold. The Caspiite trembled in fear and
excitement, calling out to the creature, "Arise from your prison, O
cursed one, and swallow the sea!"

Opening its maw, the ancient beast drew great quantities of the briny
water into its gullet, forming new currents that circled the beast to
create a massive whirlpool. The ocean raged in protest, and the dark
clouds above began to turn in response, becoming a spiraling tempest
that flashed with lightning.

From within the churning seas rose the ominous forms of terrifying sea
creatures, from serpents to septaceans, and those ships unlucky enough
to be caught upon the Notic Ocean faced certain peril.

One by one, a handful of ships began to set sail from their home
harbours, some courageous, others simply curious. Into the whirlpool
sailed the Mere Nature, crewed by Soopay Winterhawk, Favonius
Stormcrow-Xanatov, and Lucine Longshanks, who narrowly escaped death as
the turbulent sea claimed the windcutter.

Shipwrecks piled up on the ocean floor, and the cultist continued his
sonorous supplications in vain, not to Neraeos, God of the Sea, but to
his long-dead father Caspian. As his body began to tire from the effort,
he let himself be dragged by the swift ocean currents into the centre of
the whirlpool, crying out: "I sacrifice myself to this leviathan for
you, my Lord! For the waves! For the Eternal Sea!"

Moments later, he was swallowed whole by the monstrous leviathan, who
thrashed within the sea. The currents shifted, allowing an unlikely
ensemble of four ships to draw within range of the monster. From Eleusis
sailed La Primavera, from Ashtan came Death's Tariff, from Shallam was
La Tortue Pourpre, and The Black Dragon from Hashan. Tirelessly they
bombarded the creature with chain-shot and wardiscs as their sails
caught and tore upon the wreckage of other ships. Massive waves rocked
the vessels, and their hulls slammed into the surrounding ships, but at
last the creature was slain, staining the seas crimson with its blood,
and a surge of red foam began to roll toward the coast of Sapience.

~ ~ ~

Perched upon the overturned hull of a wrecked ship where the leviathan
once raged, two ferrywomen shaded their eyes with their hands and peered
southward across the sea. "Looks like an island out there," Dione
commented to the tall woman at her side, who nodded in agreement.
Meropis was somewhere in that direction, they knew, but their duties
left little room for exploration. The first load of passengers to the
shipwrecks had already disembarked, and there would soon be more waiting
to be ferried out to the shoals.

Briefly clasping Dione's hands in farewell, Maira warned her to be wary
of sharks and climbed aboard a small boat, rowing out to the windcutter
that was anchored a short distance away. As the ship made its return
voyage to the mainland, Dione looked over the wreckage around her and
murmured a solemn prayer to the God of the Sea, wondering at the fate of
the many sailors who had drowned in the depths below.

Penned by My hand on the 15th of Chronos, in the year 578 AF.