Third Passage of the Plowing Moon

Two thousand Casaran soldiers came upon an empty city of Vellun last passage. In retaliation against their major loss in an earlier battle, the Casaran military advanced upon their city with not only more troops, but a contingent of magicians. Expecting a bloody confrontation, they found only empty streets.

"It was very odd," said Corlus Aeraan, one of the generals of the Casaran army. "Our scouts had told us that the Sereg were still manning the walls, but when we arrived, there was only a looted city."

Sages are recounting the event as the most successful Sereg raid ever conducted.

"They escaped with minimal losses," explains Lady Emily of Illumination, "and a lot of gains. The entire city was looted, and hundreds of slaves taken. The earlier victory over nearly a thousand Casaran soldiers also earned the Sereg hundreds of suits of Rel Morde armor and weapons. Those Sereg in the Casaran mountains are now among the most organized and well armed Sereg the world has ever known."

Frightening indeed, at least for Casara.

Tirian

It seems that the stories of Eldritch ships plying the seas near Moraithe and Masalla might pass into memory. The Masallan government has at last acknowledged that the ships they sent against the Eldritch were lost, and has now reported that the Eldritch vessels have left their islands. In their wake there remains only a large excavation, much like the one left in Moraithe. We can only suppose that the events in Masalla closely paralleled what myself, Tirian, and Tania witnessed in Moraithe. Sages have been dispatched to both sites to do further research, but for the moment we are left with only a mystery, and very little in the way of clues.

We will, of course, keep careful watch for any happenings related to either the Eldritch or Great Wyrms,.  Until more information arrives, however, we will attempt to return to our usual style of reporting, which we know you’ve all missed.

Lord Kieran

The mage who has been causing so much misery in Aranor has finally been captured.

"He caused over two hundred thousand silver's worth of damage," says Cat, who was recently appointed as Assistant to the Captain of the City Guard under Captain Casandra. "Roads turned to mud, bridges toppled, and there were regular lock-ups of the various rivers and streams in the city due to magical freezing. It’s been awful."

Last An Tir the mercenary group Cage, who has been hunting the mage for over a moon, found him ‘mudding’ the cobblestones of Apricot Lane in the River District. They followed him back to his home, contacted the guard, and before dawn the mage was safely in the city prisons, held in the lower dungeons which have been enchanted by Cowan Faol so that no magic functions in their environs.

"He’s powerless there," Cat assured us.

His name is Saedrus, and the majae Lidellia’s prediction, voiced in the earlier Oracle when we first reported the mage’s crimes, was uncannily accurate.

"He belongs to a group known as the High Tower Wizards, an organization dedicated to keeping magic ‘out of the hands of the ignorant’. His plan was to create enough frustration that the city of Aranor would have no choice but to enact laws governing the use of magic."

Saedrus may have been foolish to use the tactics he did, but he is considered a radical within his group. We have received word that a contingent of six members from the High Tower Wizards is coming to Aranor to "use the law" – in other words, to gain an understanding of Aranor’s restrictions regarding magical practice, and then to practice magic within, or just beyond, those boundaries.

"This could be frustrating," Cat told us. "Aranor was designed with ‘guidelines’ instead of laws, the concept being that people would enjoy more freedom, but would also exercise restraint and consideration in their actions. These people intend to push our boundaries and tie up the energy of the guardhouse. It won’t be fun."

I, however, ran into Queen Lillian on the street, and when I queried her about it, she had a different response.

"I have no tolerance for these sorts of games this spring. We’ll just divine who the fools are and throw them in the nearest oubliette."

I guess the springtime isn’t exactly creating a feeling of relaxed benevolence in our Queen. Just as well, I suppose.

Cage, the mercenary group, will receive the 10,000 silver reward that was offered for the capture of Saedrus.

Tania

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