Fourth Passage of the Ice Moon

Lord Faol, protector of the city and said to be the most powerful mage alive today, was seen riding a unicorn last passage.

"He was breathtaking," said a girl. "Like a faerie tale." Personally, I'm not sure what all the excitement is. The young mage has been battling ill rumors since the founding of Aranor, beginning with reports that he, in the shape of a dragon, decimated most of the army of Selarum. Add to that the reports that he has stolen the maidenhood of many a noblegirl, is renowned as a rogue, and has been completely absent for almost a year now, and our 'protector of the city' is perhaps seen as little more than a woman-chasing conjuror who uses his spells to fascinate the girls.

A sage from the library told me that the description of his steed, described as a huge, black warhorse with a snowy white mane and a black unicorn's horn, represents no animal he has ever heard of. "Doubtless," the sage said, "the horn is an illusion, as is the overly white color of the horse's mane and tale." A magical fabrication made to capture the imaginations of young women.

Tirian

"It's the biggest damned balefire I've seen. . . ever," breathed an onlooker.

The Charm, a new restaurant that recently opened up offering food enhanced by illusion magic, burned to the ground last An Maad. No one was injured, but fire-slayers could not manage to put it out, and all that is left is a stone shell.

The fire began around midnight due to undisclosed causes, and quickly spread throughout the building.

"Will you re-open?" I asked Aliara, one of the co-owners.

"Probably not. We saved for a whole year to open up, and even though business had been going well, we hadn't even begun to recover our investment. Now all of that is lost."

The guards are checking into the matter, as there is some suspicion that the fire might have been deliberately started.

Tania

Do not be alarmed if you see thirty or forty ships sailing toward the docks of Aranor sometime this passage. Two passages ago the mage Cowan Faol went, by bidding of Queen Lillian, to magically raise and repair the ships sunk during the War of Aranor. In the famous strike, Queen Lillian had all of Selarum's warships sunk at their moorings just before they were to set sail for Aranor. How they were sunk remains a mystery, but now that the ships have been recovered, they are being distributed to Selarum, Jalpa, and Aranor so that the Old World will officially have a navy, adding mundane defense to the magical defenses Queen Lillian has been depending on.

When I spoke to Regent Storm asking if the raising of the ships was done to address a current threat, she told me this --

"There are no current external threats to the stability of the Old World. We are doing this for two reasons, Lord Kieran. First, to rescue these ships, which are quite valuable, from further degradation. It was easier for Cowan to fix them now than it would have been ten years from now. Secondly, we felt it wise to possess conventional weapons in addition to our magical ones. A narrow military is a weak military."

Aranor will be hiring sailors and soldiers to be trained to crew the ships, so once again the Old World will be home to professional soldiers.

Lord Kieran