The Red wolf conspiracy

The Etherhorde Mariner

6th Umbrin 941

IMS CHATHRAND VANISHES AT SEA

Many fear a Tragic End for the Great Ship and her 800 souls

The Imperial merchant ship Chathrand {aka "The Great Ship," "Wind-Palace," "His Supremacy's First Fancy," etc.} has disappeared on the high seas and is feared lost with all hands. His Supremacy the Emperor wept at the news, calling the ship an irreplaceable treasure. Her owner, the Lady Lapadolma Yelig, spoke of nightfall on twenty centuries of shipbuilding art.

Months of hope are drawing to a close as shore fishermen on Talturi report the discovery of the wreck of the Chathrand's longboat and numerous bodies drowned in the surf. Of Captain Nilus Rose, her peculiar but long-standing commander, there is no word. Rescue efforts yielded no more than spars, rigging and other floating debris.

Last harbored in Simja, Chathrand set sail twelve weeks ago in the mildest of summer squalls, bound for her home port of Etherhorde with a company of 600 sailors, 100 Imperial marines, 60 tarboys and sundry passengers from the lowborn to the exalted. Letters deposited at Simja describe a calm ship and a voyage of surpassing ease.

Yet confusion persists as no actual wreck has been discovered. Nor can abundant rumors quell the public clamor to know.

What Doomed This Ship of Ships?

Six centuries of war and piracy could not sink her! Six centuries of typhoonery never flooded her hold! Are we then to believe that a most survivable squall overpowered Chathrand and her legendary Captain? The Lord Admiral does not believe it. No more do the sailing men of Arqual, and speculation of foul play is to be heard in every tavern of the capital.

Some few already look West for the culprit, and not infrequently pronounce a word politely shunned since the last war: Revenge. It is beneath the Mariner's dignity to fuel this fire by propagating (as other circulars do not hesitate to do) such hearsay as the presence of unusual riches aboard Chathrand, marks of violence on the recovered bodies, great musterings of our enemies' fleets, etc., but we must-in all fairness-note the lack of a competing theory…