Strait of Oceania Coral Reef
by David KeyserLocation: A few miles off the southeastern coast of Oceania, and northwest of Everfeed.
A beautiful sprawling coral reef resides just below the water, a hazard for the rare ship passing the Strait of Oceania. As with most coral reefs, it has stood for millennia, and because of the great evil that lies on Oceania it has not been seen by sapient eyes.
But should a sailor or flyer ever take a close look as they pass nearby, on a day when the sun shines bright revealing the color and beauty of this underwater structure, they will see this particular reef tells a story unlike any other.
For someone, or something has carved the calcium carbonate into a series of images, and the one who did it had the sculpting skills of a master. The reef carving stretches for a quarter of a mile, and reveals a set of scenes which describe a tragedy.
The initial scenes, set where one can walk on the reef and only get one’s feet wet, depict an advanced builder society. But as the scenes progress, they show this society threatened by foul winged horrors, and eventually they flee their land on ships. Woven into some of the scenes is a particular individual who can be seen consulting books of lore, both before and after the attacks begin. The last scenes, should they be discerned, make clear that this individual was the last to leave his land after all others were gone.
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An Oceanian wizard, who was also a passionate sculptor, lived at the time the Night Dragons arrived and invaded the island. His magical research was partially at fault for their arrival, and he was aware of this grievous error. He sought to atone for this first by leading the fight against the dragons, and then by helping the Oceanians to abandon their homeland. He was the last one to depart and this coral reef was as far as he went.
His ship was wrecked against this reef as they fought a diverting action, and he was the sole survivor in the subsequent attack by a force sent after him. He waited for the dragons to strike again, and occupied his time by using magic and hand tools to sculpt the reef to tell the story of his people’s tragedy. The dragons feared him, and so his work continued and continued, day after day he worked the reef to express his sorrow and regret. He decided his fate would not be to try and find the rest of his kind, but instead to inscribe the history and then face his end. Hidden in the final sculpture is a waterproof secret compartment containing his notes and some arcana which are particularly effective against Night Dragons. He then returned to the island one last time, where he was overwhelmed and slain. Polonius, the Immortal triton, blessed the preservation magic so the sculpture would remain, unaffected by erosion. It waits for discovery to this day.