Baris Karnnin

UP : Near Nujel'm (Pacific)

    The burning wreckage of another vessel was found today off the southwestern coast of Nujel'm, wedged upon an atoll of rocks which prevented it’s further sinking. The ship was the H.M.S. Opal, a vessel in service of Kahns Imports of Nu’Jelm. The discovering ship quickly searched the wreckage, upon which a lone sailor found, near a great rent in the side of the hull, a pale rounded white object, as sharp as steel on the curved edge, but smooth as bone on the other. It was identified as a sea serpent’s scale.

    Only one such beast has such coloring, the dreaded Ivory Serpent.

    The Ivory Serpent’s history starts thirty years ago, with the mage Omane. Omane was an albino, his hair and skin a pure white, his eyes pink. He always wore a cowl and robe, to protect himself from the sun, and often worked alone in dark laboratories on the isle of Moonglow. He was famous as a master of transmutation, the arcane art of altering objects into other objects. However, the Mage Council discovered that he was using criminals and slaves to experiment with, transforming parts of them into animals, as they writhed and screamed on tables, unable to escape. Horrified, the Mage Council ordered his capture, but Omane eluded the guards long enough to reach the docks, where he took a strange potion from his robe and drank it down. Before the approaching guard’s eyes, he screamed and transformed into a huge sea monster, with white scales, which slithered into the water and was lost from sight.

    For several weeks afterwards the Ivory Serpent was spotted frequently, destroying ships in the madness of his transformation. His mastery of magic traveled with him in his new form, making him a far more formidable sea serpent than any before seen. Just before a massive hunt for him could be organized by the Royal Navy, though, he disappeared… presumably and hopefully for good.

    Why has he surfaced now, after nearly three decades of peace? No one knows… perhaps the liches Lathiari and Kyrnia summoned him from the depths to wreck havoc, or maybe the Zog Cabal is involved… Whatever the case, the seas of Britannia are far from safe until the Ivory Serpent is slain.

From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online, Sunday, April 19th 1998