Serpent Siren Sighted near Stygian Mining Platform 02/02/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
TRASCIO-The mining port city of Trascio, located on the southern edge of the Stygia
province, was abuzz this morning with another sighting of the elusive serpentine
sirens, who legends say led many of Towne’s early offshore copper miners to watery
graves. Vaguely resembling the mermaids of Terran legend, but with long, snake-like
tails rather than aquatic fins, the so-called “serpent sirens” have been largely
denounced as myth by most Towne residents, even as sightings continue to this day.
Over fifteen men and women were aboard Platform C110, a mining rig owned and
operated by Tauranian-Hyborian Metals, when yesterday’s sighting took place.
“It was beautiful, in a scaly, alien kind of way,” said Harold Weasley, shift supervisor
of Platform C110. “There was only the one, and she swam around kind of quick, but
there was no mistaking the torso and the arms.”
“There was this blur of green in the water,” said Lorraine Hamilton, another employee
on C110. “At first I thought it was just a large eel, but then I thought, ‘We’re too far
offshore for one of those, aren't we?’”
Skeptics still dispute that what the miners saw really was one of the fabled serpent
sirens. Noting a lack of concrete evidence after literally hundreds of “sightings” since
Towne was first settled, including the current mass sighting, some refused to be
convinced of the sirens’ existence.
“I can’t believe a bunch of grown men and women would cook up something so
daft,” said Herman Gardner, a resident of Trascio. “First, you’d think that any other
sentient species inhabiting this world would make its presence known in the umpteen-
hundred years we've been here, but save for a few poor-quality pictures and grainy
holographs, nobody can produce a shred of evidence there’s anything other than
seafood in those waters.”
In 3035, a much-publicized expedition was led into the waters off Stygian shores to
put the debate to rest once and for all, but after several months at sea, none of the
scientists and oceanographers could locate either a single serpent siren or their
undersea cities, which legend maintains are located just 500 kilometers from the
shores of Hyboria. Despite this failure, however, professors across Towne remain
intrigued by the debate. At the University of Towne in Port Howard, for example, D r.
Timothy Krandal, professor of astrology and astronomy, expressed his own wish to
one day encounter a serpent siren.
“In over eleven centuries of space travel, we humans have never found an intelligent
species, despite worlds upon worlds capable of supporting our kind of life,” said
Krandal. “And with so much of this world’s deep oceans still largely unknown to us,
and the mathematical improbability of ours being the only intelligent life in the galaxy .
. . I think the chances of finding another civilization on Towne are worth exploring.”
INN - Interstellar News Network
TRASCIO-The mining port city of Trascio, located on the southern edge of the Stygia
province, was abuzz this morning with another sighting of the elusive serpentine
sirens, who legends say led many of Towne’s early offshore copper miners to watery
graves. Vaguely resembling the mermaids of Terran legend, but with long, snake-like
tails rather than aquatic fins, the so-called “serpent sirens” have been largely
denounced as myth by most Towne residents, even as sightings continue to this day.
Over fifteen men and women were aboard Platform C110, a mining rig owned and
operated by Tauranian-Hyborian Metals, when yesterday’s sighting took place.
“It was beautiful, in a scaly, alien kind of way,” said Harold Weasley, shift supervisor
of Platform C110. “There was only the one, and she swam around kind of quick, but
there was no mistaking the torso and the arms.”
“There was this blur of green in the water,” said Lorraine Hamilton, another employee
on C110. “At first I thought it was just a large eel, but then I thought, ‘We’re too far
offshore for one of those, aren't we?’”
Skeptics still dispute that what the miners saw really was one of the fabled serpent
sirens. Noting a lack of concrete evidence after literally hundreds of “sightings” since
Towne was first settled, including the current mass sighting, some refused to be
convinced of the sirens’ existence.
“I can’t believe a bunch of grown men and women would cook up something so
daft,” said Herman Gardner, a resident of Trascio. “First, you’d think that any other
sentient species inhabiting this world would make its presence known in the umpteen-
hundred years we've been here, but save for a few poor-quality pictures and grainy
holographs, nobody can produce a shred of evidence there’s anything other than
seafood in those waters.”
In 3035, a much-publicized expedition was led into the waters off Stygian shores to
put the debate to rest once and for all, but after several months at sea, none of the
scientists and oceanographers could locate either a single serpent siren or their
undersea cities, which legend maintains are located just 500 kilometers from the
shores of Hyboria. Despite this failure, however, professors across Towne remain
intrigued by the debate. At the University of Towne in Port Howard, for example, D r.
Timothy Krandal, professor of astrology and astronomy, expressed his own wish to
one day encounter a serpent siren.
“In over eleven centuries of space travel, we humans have never found an intelligent
species, despite worlds upon worlds capable of supporting our kind of life,” said
Krandal. “And with so much of this world’s deep oceans still largely unknown to us,
and the mathematical improbability of ours being the only intelligent life in the galaxy .
. . I think the chances of finding another civilization on Towne are worth exploring.”
| February 2, 3133 |