— The 22nd of the 5th Year of the New Era
It has been a few years since the Gods placed the Seal on Oxaren and we have begun to make observations of it from our ships. However on the northside of the continent, something seems to be stirring. I've directed Captain Misthammer to sail us up there so I may investigate. As always, all my observations will be documented within.
Hell's Scar is the most famous of the two chasms of Oxaren. Part of this is that it is the easiest for us to observe, even at such great distances so as to avoid the demonic energies that emanate. Allow me to detail where I make my observations. Where Oxaren once was a whole continent, now a huge gash runs into the northwest side. The ocean must have rushed to fill this gap much the same as high tide seems to flood in. This chasm seems to run deeper than a mere void in what once was solid land. It is hard for me to truly make much in the way of observations as a result. I can make this guess however. It is deep, much deeper than anything we have known. When I peer over the bow at the depths below my blood runs cold. It is darker than anything I know and I daresay it may be more unknowable than the heavens. We have clerics and priests that can pray to the ones above. No prayer could reach those depths...
I've spoken with some of the deckhands and others on this ship. Apparently rumors have begun to circulate amongst them while we hold here. That the gods themselves fear what is below. Or that monsters and demons lurk beneath us, held back only by the unfathomable depths. A few fools have even speculated that the Gods' Seal was insufficient, and that a portal exists down there, just waiting to be discovered and invaded. 'Tis hogwash, all of it. The Gods sacrificed much to preserve our world, and to doubt them is a sin. I have heard that
Wandering Dwarves are more nescient than most and it unnerves me to see it. Nevertheless, one of these ruffians did make a useful interjection. A wandering dwarf by the name Yufrel Seascorn. He often takes the night guard citing a proclivity for star-watching and he claims to have seen things below the surface. Mr. Seascorn is loathe to give up much information, claiming that he doesn't want to give bad information to my research, but I was able to coax this out of him. It is massive, with tentacles longer than the brig, and he swears that once he even saw a pale glow like an eye staring into his soul. He has promised to keep me abridged of any new discoveries but I suspect I won't hear much from him. While this is the most information I've taken down yet, unless I have seen it with mine own eyes, it is little but an amusing tale.
— The 27th of the 5th Year of the New Era
I saw it. By the Divine Heavens I saw it, what Mr. Seascorn spoke of. It is huge, massive, unfathomably large. Gods preserve us. Captain Misthammer has charted a course home and I cannot find it within myself to disagree with this action. We get whales by on occasion. A result of us dumping out fish guts and other things we cannot or will not eat. Just this past night I heard one come up for air near us. I of course rushed to witness it, they are a rare and beautiful sight. I had scarcely straightened my lenses before it was gone. Not just gone though. I saw many slimy appendages wrapped around it before it was dragged below. It wasn't until the others on the night guard started shouting that I realized I had truly seen it. The fellow up the mast, the crow's nest I believe it to be called, said he saw the pale glow and ripple of the waves before the whale was snatched. I've no choice to believe him. Perhaps it is a massive tentacled creature like the skwids I've heard of before only much much larger. Or perhaps a whole new beast. I could not say. I desire that my scholarly mind could win out over my cowardly heart, yet it shall not. Fleeing is the safest option by far. For what if it comes for us next? That whale it took was less, much less than a league away. It could have been us. It nearly was. I shall compile my meager research when we make it back to port. I do not know if I will publish. I do not wish to return.
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