The Shoal

The western counties of New Byzantium are a realm of surreality and strangeness, with anomalies tainting the very geography of the land. One is Mavronero Lake, lying in the immense shadow of Black Mountain. Old Rhomaioi settlers, fleeing the fall of Constantinople across the unforgiving Atlantic, soon discerned its dark, unforgiving nature and gave it a name: the 'Black Waters'.

With unfathomed depths that defy measurement and limnological oddities that confound modern science, the Mavronero still attracts plenty of attention and is nonetheless the prime vacation spot for many a tourist or local.

'The Nereid' carries one such group of individuals, college students from Blacklake Institute eager to spend an extended Fouth of July weekend on the still waters and perhaps catch a fish or two in-between beer and glasses of tsipouro.

Beneath the surface, however, dwells an abomination, something not of this world, not of this realm, not of this universe. It prowls the abyss beneath the waves, bending the very fabric of reality in its chilling wake. Its bulk is monstrous. Its motives inscrutable. Its mind alien and ineffable. And it's hungry...