In late autumn of the year 496 A.F., a solitary fisherwoman was casting
her lines from the deck of her Windcutter, in the waters south of Mysia,
when a great shadow approached from the deeper oceans. As she gazed up
in shock, a monstrous serpentine mer-beast, larger than her ship, reared
out of the water and slashed at her sails with thousands of razor-sharp
teeth. Its next blow was with a whip of its tail, shattering the hull of
her ship. Calling out to her crew, the fisherwoman navigated the damaged
Windcutter swiftly to the west. To her dismay, the beast appeared to be
tailing her, roaring furiously. The ship made straight for the Mysian
harbour, its crew praying that the beast would not follow into the
shallower waters there. Fortunately for them, these prayers were
answered: as the ship docked at Mysia, the mer-serpent gave a final
chilling shriek and headed back out to sea.

In the taverns around Sapience and its outlying islands, more hushed
tales of this monstrous creature were whispered around the dockside
taverns. Though the sailors who told the stories ranged from the
greenest young recruit to the most grizzled and long of beard, they
shared one thing in common: their faces became white once more with
terror while recounting their encounters. A Nerai seer called upon
ancient texts, prophesying the reawakening of the great serpents of the
sea. Meanwhile, one adventurer, Asara Eslofe, a devout and high-ranked
worshipper of the Sea God, rallied her fellow sailors to a naval hunt,
the likes of which had never before been seen.

She had already encountered the beast once unexpectedly, near the
harbour of Tenwat Prison far to the north. Suffering damage, she had
fled south to the port of Tasur'ke, and there, gave an impassioned call
to rid the ocean of the threat. Upon the seastrider named 'Aeolos', a
brave cadre set forth: Asara, Mulinum, Skye, Lisbethae, Tynil, and their
ship's crew. Sailing back north to where Asara had last encountered the
beast, they sighted it once more in the waters south of Tenwat. The
enormous serpent attacked the ship mercilessly, then seemed stunned when
its prey struck back with fangs and claws: the iron shafts of its
ballista tore into the monster's side, eventually sending it fleeing
further north.

The Aeolos tracked the mer-beast further and further north, engaging
with it in countless battles and weakening it further while suffering
their own damage to the vessel and its crew. After weaving through a
veritable maze of dangerous chops, the hunting party cornered and slew the
serpent at last, sending its death screams reverberating across the
tides. They looked around then, to their surprise, finding themselves in
previously unexplored waters off the eastern coast of the continent's
very northern end, an isolated region known as the Valho Coast.

Penned by My hand on the 8th of Aeguary, in the year 497 AF.