The Gyrnae

When the dwarves say that their Crawling Mountain is more of a myth than a fact—one could say that the Crawling Mountain is a fact compared to how mythological the Gyrnae is.
The Gyrnae is said to take on the form of a gigantic sea turtle around the size of a small island (around four kilometres in length and three kilometres in width). Its back was said to be covered in a small forest of strange-looking trees, and sandy beaches clung to the edges of its shell where it stuck up out of the water. At first glance, it appeared as nothing more than a simple deserted island.
It was discovered purely by chance by the crew of the Dazuvelline Cargo Ship (DCS) Sashonnûng. They were sailing across the waters that eventually leads to Bikkalis Bay, on the way east along the coast towards a remote Dazuvelline town cut off from the rest of the kingdom by tall, steep-sided mountains.
A day into the journey, a nail-biting storm roars into being and towering waves are kicked up by the relentless winds. Rain pounded against the ship and lightning threatened to strike the masts. They lost all sense of direction as the storm blocked the sun and stars from view.
The storm raged for two endless days, and when it finally died, the crew was so exhausted that they let the boat drift and slept until evening.
When they awoke and went out on deck, they were amazed when they found that the ship had come to rest on an island. The captain and his crew are stunned and it takes them a while to digest what they had just gone through. They broke fast and discussed what happened, and by the time they finished they decided to leave the ship and explore the island.
Some are excited at the prospect of having discovered new land. They weren’t quite sure where they were and they wouldn’t know until the stars came out, but they were sure that this island was undiscovered. Unclaimed.
Taking lanterns and tinderboxes with them, they disembarked from the Sashonnûng, planning to explore a bit before the sun fell below the horizon and it got too dark.
They examined the strange plants and observed the gulls that circled overhead. They note that the birds refused to land, but they assume that it is simply because they don’t see anything interesting to eat.
The most eye-catching of what they manage to see before it got too dark was the trees. Up close the crew realized that these were not trees—but coral. The green coral is gorgeous, towering and branching in ways that mimics trees perfectly. The coral glitters in the setting sun, and some of the ‘branches’ rub together in the gentle sea-breeze, clinking together like eerie wind chimes.
The ship’s resident artist sat down and quickly began to sketch, while others began to pick up pieces of the coral in order to give to the captain as a souvenir.
As the sun began to slip below the horizon, something occurs to the captain. There is grass and sand… but no trees? Why is there coral instead of trees? He then noticed the lack of underbrush and he thought of the seagulls, wondering why they wouldn’t land. Never had he seen birds seem so… wary.
An answer to his questions comes as the sun disappears below the horizon. The ground trembles and a low moan reverberates through everyone and everything.
He didn’t quite understand what he was feeling and hearing, but everything within him screamed at him to get his crew back onto the ship. Thankfully, some of his crew members got the same idea, and within moments everyone is running back to the ship.
The ground continued to shake and the waters just offshore begin to churn and thrash. As they climbed back onto the ship and the last of the crew got to safety, something impossibly large lifted from the water, as dark as the sky and shaped like a paddle. In the distance, under the light of the seven moons, another massive shape lifts out of the water, and the captain realizes with horror that it is a head. A massive beaked mouth opens and lets out a bellow.
“It’s a turtle!… It—It’s a turtle!” the captain gasped before the massive fin, which was the first shape that lifted from the water, crashed back down into the water.
Waves rushed towards the ship, kicked up by the fin. They picked up the Sashonnûng and shoved the ship back out to sea.
The gargantuan creature let out one more bellow before it lurched forward. The coral trees on its back shuddered and danced… and then it was gone, diving down into the fathomless depths and leaving the surface empty.
The captain wrote of the encounter in his captain’s log, but no one ever believed him. Ever after he was remembered as the captain that went a little odd—but he knew what he saw.