Third Passage of the Harvest Moon

Jeddan searchers found the object of their quest – the Kaelen princess who was captured by the pirate Jaradin.

The pirate apparently surrendered her, and reports suggest that she is uninjured. The Jeddan fleet is returning to Irutoka.

"This was a wise move on Jaradin’s part," said Marcus, a sage specializing on the mind-set of different social classes. "As a pirate, Jaradin was no doubt thriving on the attention this entire drama afforded him. It is also possible that he fell in love with the princess – or rather, fell in love with the drama he associated her with.

"But pirates everywhere were dying by the hands of the Jeddan fleet, and it was well known what and who they were after. So in effect, other pirates were beginning to blame Jaradin for the slaughters. In short, Jaradin was making a lot of enemies."

Marcus went on to suggest that Jaradin will never recover from the incident, and will be reduced to a common, and rather disliked, pirate. Still, others suggest that we’ll see more of Jaradin, due to his obvious ability to rally people to his cause.

For now, however, the princess is safely returned, and there is once again relative peace upon the seas.

Tirian

A large beast, whom some think was the root cause of the recent lycanthropy problem in Masalla, was killed last An Tir. The legendary huntsman Karus A’Laan was summoned to a remote area of villages to explore rumors of a ‘beast of terrible size’ that was killing both people and livestock.

He returned, less than a passage later, to Mina’s Quay. He had only a single claw, as well as numerous sketches, of the creature, which he and his men burned to thwart any threat of lycanthropic transmission.

The beast, he reported, was over four paces long and weighed perhaps 1600 stone. He described it as ‘bear-like’, but swift and sharp of attitude and movement, in the manner of a cat.

While Masalla is often perceived as a small province, it has many remote areas, and its mountains are hostile enough to remain largely unexplored.

There is no direct evidence, however, that the creature was linked to the lycanthropy problem – indeed, the area in question had no verified reports of infected people.

The lycanthropy problem seems to remain under control, with only scattered reports from the countryside being investigated by the royal guard.

Lord Kieran

The University of Jalpa, a private institution that had hoped to ‘standardize knowledge’ and create a sort of licensing for sages, has largely been a failure. It gained only a small number of students, and those who worked their way through the reportedly boring curriculum were rewarded with diplomas that went largely unrecognized.

Last moon a small group of merchants purchased the building from the owners and began a new venture – to make the university a learning institution for the average citizen.

Every moon this year, a different expert will come and host various programs and presentations at the institution. This moon they will host Lady Shard, an expert in dragons of all kinds. Her presentations will range from the display of an actual, tamed jungle dragon to talks about dragon behavior. At the end of the moon, adventurous souls can join her for a three-passage wilderness adventure into the territory of a dragon, in hopes of seeing the creature in the wilds.

Some of the presentations will be free, while others will require entrance fees. All are invited to attend.

Tania

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