At the open summons of Clytemnestra, Queen of Arcadia, a crowd had
swarmed within the royal audience chambers of the Arcadian palace. Queen
Clytemnestra reclined regally upon her throne, her pristine beauty
shadowed by the menacing form of Chenubis, the Cloud-Dragon, who had
wound his serpentine body around her seat in a protective stance. His
tiger-like upper body rested itself at the top of the throne's back, the
feline head gazing balefully through brilliant blue eyes at the gathered
throng. Arcadian nobles, merchants, and commoners alike formed the
crowd, commingled with allies from outside the great city.

Queen Clytemnestra called out sharply for silence in the chambers, then
gestured to her guards. A triton, surprisingly unshackled, was escorted
in. As the Arcadians hissed and gasped at the sight of one of their
sworn enemies, Queen Clytemnestra bid him tell his tale.

The triton, named Brasidos, revealed himself as a citizen of the triton
kingdom Lothos. He described Lothos as a kingdom of slavers and
torturers, where the slaves and downtrodden underclass, of which he had
been a part, were exploited and abused at the hands of the greedy and
corrupt nobles. The Arcadians listened with both horror and satisfaction
to his story, their long-held beliefs about tritonic society affirmed by
his words. He had escaped to reveal the truth of Lothos to the world,
Brasidos said, and if Arcadia was willing to spare the tritonic
civilians, he would lead them back to Lothos to bring down its evil
ruling class.

Rising to her feet, Queen Clytemnestra pledged the army of Arcadia to
this mission, rallying for allies to join the strike. Removing a blue
crystal pendant from around her neck, she handed it to the triton
defector and asked him to lead those adventurer allies who would travel
by sea to Lothos there, then to signal her as had been arranged.
Instructing adventurers to meet him at dawn at the dock of Tasur'ke,
Brasidos was lifted away by a squadron of Arcadian legionnaires, flying
towards that eastern port. Though Clytemnestra offered to give passage
to any adventurers who wished to travel with the Arcadians by sky rather
than by ship, only one named Kurei Lucoster, a Warlock of Ashtan, took
her up on this offer.

When dawn rose, the crew of the ships TLS Herald of Perdition, The Iron
Fist, Storm Dancer, Golden Kris, and Able Rogers met Brasidos at
Tasur'ke as instructed. Unbeknownst to Brasidos however, one of these
ships was manned by followers of Neraeos, the Sea God, who distrusted
the story of Brasidos and hoped to affect the outcome of the coming
battle. Leaping astride his mount, a ruby-red sea serpent, Brasidos
began leading the ships northward towards the Bay of Dardanos. Despite
an encounter with the Pirates of Meropis, Brasidos and his fleet
manoeuvred through dangerous chops and arrived at long last upon a tiny,
nondescript island within the Bay. The TLS Herald of Perdition was the
first to arrive, and Gorlasintan the first adventurer to step foot upon
the island.

Upon landing, Brasidos took the crystal he had been given and uttered an
incantation. A blindingly bright blue ray shot up from the crystal into
the skies, exploding at its apex in a dazzling display to signal to
Arcadia their location. All across Sapience gazed up at the sky in
wonder as the island of Erymanthus, upon the face of which the city of
Arcadia was set like a shining jewel, appeared out of the clouds above
the Southern Vashnars and sped across the firmament towards the Eusian
Sea. Ceasing its flight above the island where Brasidos and the
adventurers awaited, the island hovered there, casting an ominous shadow
down upon the ocean.

Then, the outline of the island seemed to blur hazily, the edges
expanding then shifting like mist. The optical illusion resolved itself
into the forms of hundreds, perhaps thousands of atavian legionnaires
hovering in the sky beneath Erymanthus, celestial light glinting off
their polished armour. At some unseen and unheard signal, the legions
began to descend in waves of strict formation, resembling countless
flurries of arrows shot by a disciplined line of archers. Arcing through
the air at a dizzying trajectory, the first wave of legionnaires sliced
smoothly into the surface of the ocean, followed swiftly by the rest of
the Arcadian army, scything into the ocean depths with grim and deadly
purpose.

Penned by My hand on the 15th of Mayan, in the year 508 AF.