Editing Journey of the Strange (section)

==The Northern Land and the North East==

The North East, beyond the Bay of Suns (and who knows where that leads to?) is a contrast to the few settlers , explorers and merchants that have dared its shorelines.
Great, warm southerly currents wash the coast, meeting the northern Ocean in a sea of seasonally changing fogs. The coast beyond these fogs is unexplored, for good reason.
The few local legends claim the northern seas and fog shrouded coasts are home to many monsters and abominations - and this would seem to be true. The Pherencian fleet of a decade ago, which set out to find the Lost city of the Mists, lost a three master to a giant squid or kraken and another ship to a Water Dragon - both creatures assumed to be extinct or Mythical.
Similarly, the ashore parties that departed up the river Woebegone were never seen again, despite the presence of Divine 'shepherds' and arcane 'magicians'.

Further South, where the coast pulls away from the low, jumbled mountain chains that line it in the North, the land is abundant with trees and wildlife, mostly of types unusual to the explorers. The land is heavily wooded, broken only by rivers, mountains and the grasslands that border the southern coastal deserts.

Familiar species run to similar but, in general, larger forms than seen in the old worlds. Two obvious trends noticed in the more unusual animals are the presence of warm blooded, reptilian types as key territiorial predators, and the larger number of nocturnal species.

Two fishing and whaling camps have been made on the Islands off the southern coast, and one is even showing signs of becoming a settlement. At least part of this success has been attributed to the seemingly endless supply of new plants and animals - and things more monstrous - that these camps have captured in the off seasons. Phrenecia has established a number of lucrative trades to the Mari Imperium in the south for it's Arena festivals, and several species of plant are adapting well to the Old World.

What actually lies beyond the coastal islands and a few explorers camps, no one is sure. That there are intelligent folk about, there is no doubt - there are signs, paths, fires...but they are never seen and have made no attempt to contact any so far. What is known is that they have no coastal villages and leave small tracks, smaller than a man...

The philosopher/sage Arrentuis, commisioned to lead the Phrenacian mission, has opined that the makeup of the land between the mountains and the sea on this Eastern coast show all the signs of being ancient sea-floor, from the ages before the seas shrank. If so, he has reasoned, then it may be like the great Karstlands of the Middle Sea, riddled with caverns, caves, mighty rivers and great Valleys, hidden from the sun.

Already, in less than ten years, rumors have spread of the Underground cities filled with the riches of the Earth, and the tiny people who toil and work there, leaving no trace of the world above. Several independent expeditions have been sent - none have returned from more than two days travel upriver. The massive and unusual beasts that inhabit the land may have accounted for some, but rumor persists of a hidden culture.

One of the creatures captured for sale by a hunting expedition has shed the only clue...In the ear of a pantherish beast with six legs and tentacles was a bronze medallion, green with age. On it were inscribed some form of writing, and a creature best described as a walking octopus. While this could mean anything, rumor now has it that there is a race of tiny octopus men who inhabit the forests...