Fourth Passage of the Harvest Moon

In an incident that drew huge crowds down to the banks of the Silver River last An Tir, a fisherman caught one of the oddest fish ever recorded.

He was fishing in the reeds near one of the River District Bridges when it took his bait.

"I had cast out into the reeds, hoping for a bass," he said. "And all of a sudden I saw this large, slimy hump near my bobcork. Then it took the bait."

Despite the thing’s ponderous size, it didn’t give much of a fight, and the fisherman described it as ‘heavy, slothful, and lazy’. When he got it to the shore, he pulled it up on the bank, and the crowd swiftly grew.

"It was a biggish sort of thing," he said. "Must have weighted fifty stone or more. Nearly as long as me, with grayish sort of skin that lay in odd folds, and no scales at all."

Bystanders described the creature as ‘eerily human looking’, with a ‘gaping maw’, ‘finger-like fins’, and ‘ribs visible just under its flesh’. A few swore that its eyes were also nearly human in appearance. More than one swore that they’d never swim in the Silver River again.

As the fisherman approached to club it, the creature gurgled a strange sound and bit through the line, then proceeded to flop about in the mud and lash out with its rows of teeth. Before anyone could act, it had managed to work its way back into the water, and the crowd watched as it slipped away into the current.

No official warnings have been posted by the city, but word on the street suggests that people should beware swimming in the Silver River, at least for a while.

Tirian

Seasonal rains are common this time of the year in Moraithe, but a storm of this potency hasn’t been seen for years.

"People are holed up," said Taren, a sailor who just returned from the province. "It’s bad. Ships are at risk on the docks, and some people are having the thatch rip right off their roofs when the winds pick up. Waves are damaging the docks, trees are blowing over – the whole deal."

Shipping has slowed as a result, and it’s possible that prices may go up on some Moraithian goods, though not considerably.

"They get storms every year like this," he said. "Just not this bad. All of us sailors are passing the word around – wait a passage or two before you head over there again – it’s just too messy right now. Still, this shouldn’t really affect the market, unless you’re looking for perishables, which simply won’t be available for at least a passage, possibly longer. Just be patient."

Tania

A Casaran Emissary to Aranor who landed in Selarum and was making an overland trip to Aranor was declared officially missing on An Sel.

"Lord Kaeloran," I was told by Storm, Regent of Aranor, "was coming on a visitation of relations. He wanted to see the lands of the Old World, and was traveling with a retinue of twenty Casaran warriors. He and his warriors have literally disappeared without a trace – they’ve been missing for over a moon now, and search parties have found no sign of a struggle along the roadways. With such a large party, evidence would surely have been found. At this point, we have no choice but to officially announce his disappearance and send word back to Casara."

Because the travel from Selarum to Aranor can take quite some time, worries did not manifest immediately. But now that he cannot be found along the intended route, only the worst can be assumed.

"Our only hope is that he might have been led astray or become lost on one of the side routes to a barony. But the chances of that are slight, as the roadway is well marked and well kept."

Lord Kaeloran has been described as very ‘ahead of his time’, and hopes were high that he might be able to arrange some understanding between Casara and Queen Lillian, since Casara and the Old World stand for vastly different principles. If Lord Kaeloran is truly lost, there is little hope of relations moving beyond where they are now – stagnant and unmoving.

Lord Kieran

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