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Daily Prophet
Daily Prophet
Price One Knut
April 10th, 1888
Ophelia Prepares To Set Sail
Expedition To Avalon Departs This Month
The magical dock just east of London on the Thames is most commonly home to a myriad of shipping vessels, most prominently those belonging to the Lupin and Winkle nautical empires, but since January they have been abuzz with preparations for a voyage of a different sort. The Ophelia and the Voyager intend to set sail later this month in search of the long-lost (some would claim mythical) isle of Avalon, the traditional refuge of famed medieval witch Morgan le Fay and final resting place of the legendary King Arthur.
The expedition was originally conceived by Mr. J. Alfred Darrow, a member of the long dissolved 'consulting Navy' operated by the late James Erroll Peppersmith. Peppersmith perished during the course of his previous exploratory expedition, as did the majority of the crew onboard his flagship, the airborne Sycorax. The Sycorax voyage set sail in 1882 towards the Great South Sea, but ran afoul of a mountain range in South America, leaving its remaining crew shipwrecked and presumed dead. Mr. Darrow was one of only two survivors discovered this past year, but it seems this misfortune has not dissuaded him from a life at sea.
Mr. Darrow will captain the smaller of the two vessels, the Voyager, having ceded command of the expedition's flagship Ophelia to Commodore Shelton, one of the last remaining holdovers from the dissolved consulting Navy. The expedition is primarily funded by Mr. Roberto Devine, who christened the flagship in honor of his new bride, Mrs. Ophelia Devine. The two are currently honeymooning but should return in time to see the expedition off later this month.
The two ships intend to return in late June, although the exact timeline is highly flexible depending on what discoveries are made. Skeptics except the crews to return empty handed, given that the intended track of the expedition covers the much-traversed waters around the British Isles themselves, most of which has already been conclusively charted through Muggle means. The expedition's primary task will be retracing those grounds and searching out any isles hidden by magic, though it is unclear whether they would be able to detect them given the rather ambiguous clues handed down through legend.
The expedition departs April 22nd.
The expedition was originally conceived by Mr. J. Alfred Darrow, a member of the long dissolved 'consulting Navy' operated by the late James Erroll Peppersmith. Peppersmith perished during the course of his previous exploratory expedition, as did the majority of the crew onboard his flagship, the airborne Sycorax. The Sycorax voyage set sail in 1882 towards the Great South Sea, but ran afoul of a mountain range in South America, leaving its remaining crew shipwrecked and presumed dead. Mr. Darrow was one of only two survivors discovered this past year, but it seems this misfortune has not dissuaded him from a life at sea.
Mr. Darrow will captain the smaller of the two vessels, the Voyager, having ceded command of the expedition's flagship Ophelia to Commodore Shelton, one of the last remaining holdovers from the dissolved consulting Navy. The expedition is primarily funded by Mr. Roberto Devine, who christened the flagship in honor of his new bride, Mrs. Ophelia Devine. The two are currently honeymooning but should return in time to see the expedition off later this month.
The two ships intend to return in late June, although the exact timeline is highly flexible depending on what discoveries are made. Skeptics except the crews to return empty handed, given that the intended track of the expedition covers the much-traversed waters around the British Isles themselves, most of which has already been conclusively charted through Muggle means. The expedition's primary task will be retracing those grounds and searching out any isles hidden by magic, though it is unclear whether they would be able to detect them given the rather ambiguous clues handed down through legend.
The expedition departs April 22nd.
Gulliver Doran