Post date: Sep 25, 2014 1:59:35 AM
The Shipping News -- June 11, Year 2005
Freeport Opera House Prepares for Delayed Anniversary Celebration
The new opera season will showcase the life's work of Fiarella Donadrien, the famous elven composer who was commissioned by Sea Lord Marquetta to write the Opera House's debut production. As local lovers of the fine arts will recall, Donadrien died soon after the first performance just over a century ago. Ever since then, all productions of her crowning achievement have been marred by deaths attributed to her ghost, so that "The Pallid Mask" has not been produced in over fifty years. Director Gorsky Glitterlights arranged to have Donadrien's ghost laid to rest so that her masterpiece could be performed on the Opera House's 100th anniversary. Soon after the exorcism, though, Glitterlights was killed during the Succession Riots, and the anniversary passed while the Opera House remained closed for months. It was finally reopened under a new director, the celebrated actor Rikard Burbage. Patrons of the Opera House have finally persuaded the reluctant Burbage to follow through with his predecessor's plans for the delayed anniversary celebration.
The anniversary production of "The Pallid Mask" on July 27 will be proceeded by the best of her other works, including the historical epics "Aregund Ascendant" and "The Werewolf King," the comedies "The Goblin Bard" and "Cannibal of Clovis," and the surreal (and controversial) tragedy "Rajko the Ghul."
Sea Lord to Appease the Turtle at Solstice
The pomp and spectacle of the solstice processionals from the Temple of Nodens to the sea are always a favorite among Freeport's citizens, who depend on the Sea God for their livelihoods. This summer [June 21], however, our city will be blessed with our beloved Sea Lord performing the sacrifice to appease the giant sea turtle that many claim dwells beneath the harbor. Performed every decade, the ritual was last overseen by the infamous Milton Drac. Given the many calamities that have befallen our city during that traitor's reign and after his death, some townsfolk have concluded that the turtle was insufficiently appeased ten years ago. In any case, many of our staff agree that the upcoming sacrifice will serve as a gesture that Lady Marilise loves her city and respects our traditions, and confirm her rule as one of relative peace and prosperity.
Great Hunt Announced!
Many of us thought that the ravages of the Great Green Fire three years ago had put an end to the triennial Great Hunt to clear the jungles of A'Val of dangerous predators. The fire destroyed over half the island's jungle (as well as large swaths of Freeport itself!), and the scorched waste left behind is only slowly being transformed into viable farmland by the Reclamation Project. However, the growing number of animal attacks on Reclamation Project laborers has prompted the Captains' Council to announce a new Great Hunt, scheduled to start September 2nd.
All hunters, from Freeport and abroad, are welcome to participate. As in past Great Hunts, a bounty will be paid for each beast slain, based on the creature's size and the threat it posed. Hunters able to capture unusual creatures alive may be able to sell them to Fang and Claw or to foreign dealers in exotic animals.
From Our Readers
When's the Captains' Council going to do something about finding out happened to the merfolk? They used to be a regular sight at the Seaside Market, selling exotic fish and little lost treasures and such. Them two traders, Ichibando and Marelei, they knew the waters around the Serpent's Teeth better than any air-breather. And they'd trade some of that lore for a pretty thing or two, if you knew their language. But no one's seen tress or scale of them, nor any of their kinfolk, in over two years. Why would the merfolk abandon our waters unless there was something dreadfully wrong down below? For Nodens' sake, this bears looking into, I say!
--"Mace" Magroth, Captain of the Bloody Wake