WEIRD IN THE WATER
Story and art originally posted to Instagram in carousel form on September 10, 2025.
☾ Gillithor has worked the docks since your grandmother’s days, and will continue to long after your heirs have heirs, barring some unforeseen tragedy. If anyone knows the waters around these parts, it’s him.
His longevity and his prowess in the sea stem from some sordid story about a human and a selkie creating a new species with magic, resulting with him and a handful of others like him escaping from the human’s seaside lair and heading out to the ocean.
The ocean was freedom, and Gillithor swam it until he ended up here in Iteyll. It wasn’t long until the title of Dock Master was his. It helped that he could breathe under the water, and that he swam faster than he could run.
Unlike his evil origins, he turned out to be pretty nice. He likes to take care of others, too. That’s why people take him seriously when he has concerns. And today he’s concerned.
“There’s something weird in the water!” Gillithor paused his current task and ran out to the easternmost tip of the docks, chasing whatever he saw.
Then he shouted it again, loud enough to cause commotion, “There’s something weird in the water! Someone come see this now!”
You were having breakfast during all this, almost finished with your oysters and ale, a few yards from Gillithor. As you turned toward the water to see what he raised the alarm for, you saw it. Something terrifyingly large and dark in the water. The shape was inconsistent, like a shadow twisting upon itself in unpredictable ways.
Now, the shadow has started bumping into the galleons within sight, knocking some of them to shipwrecks before your eyes. The situation just turned into an emergency. The shape is so large that if it comes to land it would wipe Iteyll out within hours.
Gillithor runs back to his station to start calling in the ships he can. He pulls at you as he races by, gills flared out with determination, “You’re a warrior, yes? Come help us fight this thing now!
The question is, what is this undulating, writhing, town sized thing whipping through the water like this? Before you can respond, Gillithor chimes in. “It’s a Selkie King. Hundreds of selkies knotted and writing in the water. Iteyll is doomed unless we act now.”
☾ So, how will you proceed?
Help Gillithor.
Dive into the water and see what happens.
Hire a crew for your own boat, and do this your own way. [100 G]
Investigate Gillithor’s claims. [Requires Intelligence check]
Finish your oysters. Time, food, and thought will light the path forward.
Leave. Get out of Iteyll before the destruction starts.
Result: -