The month began inauspiciously enough. The pent-up tension of the previous month, the sense of threat, like a towering wave about to break, hovered still over the heads of all. The clouds still raced, the moons still loomed, and the figure of the Demon still appeared during storms . . . yet no Shadow activity broke the oppressive quiet. The biggest news was the murder of the Banderling thief known as Gertarh.

In the desert, Hamud ibn Rafik fought a personal battle with the forces of Darkness, and it did not go well with him. “We no longer fear our mortality,” he wrote his daughter Devana, “but there exist worse things than death.” Having given his loyalty to the forces of Bael'Zharon, he found himself less and less able to resist their commands. He told Devana of a portal in the South Direlands leading to a facility called the Nexus. He seemed to think that some key to defeating the Shadows could be found in that place. Unfortunately, those attempting to investigate the complex found the way blocked by strong doors. Some attempted to slip through by exploiting unpredictable forms of teleportation magic.

During the pause, explorers rediscovered the legendary Silifi of Crimson Stars -- an artifact many despaired of ever finding. The weapon had been lost after the death of the One Queen, when the warrior Wari al Sha'im had wandered into the A'mun Desert in search of new challenges. Apparently he met a violent end, for his weapon was broken into many pieces, none of which were easily found. It seemed that the blade had been utterly shattered. Only careful exploration of the desert lands allowed the bold to reconstruct the Silifi. Kayna bint Iswas, a recluse Walim scholar learned in the lore of the Silifi, was instrumental in forging this Isparian relic anew.

Then the Shadows launched their invasion. The first wave, lead by a Shadow Captain, hit Fort Tethana and the Direlands. After a sharp battle, the defenders of the Fort repulsed the dark warriors, slaying the Captain. Shouts of victory echoed from the walls, but the euphoria was short-lived. The Shadows advanced across the northern land bridge into Osteth, encamping themselves at Plateau. They were defeated there as well, and moved further east, into the Mount Esper area. Their last Captain moved to Stonehold to lead her forces, but was anticipated. A large force met her there, and she was cut down.

While the remnants of the Captains' forces could be found in the forests and on the slopes of Esper, the Shadow armies seemed to have gone underground once more. The illusion of peace was shattered a week later, as their armies poured into the Direlands once more, under the leadership of the dread general Black Ferah.

She first assaulted the religious retreat at Wei Jhou. The defenders were hard pressed, but once Ferah appeared to lead the attack personally, she was quickly surrounded and cut down. Again, the defenders rejoiced, but Ferah, as she fell, hissed, “A fine attempt, but this is but my shadow. I shall move on!” So she did, advancing across the southern land bridge into the Linvak Mountains. Ferah was perhaps too bold in stating her intentions, and was met in the hamlet of Kara by strong forces. She and her Lieutenant were smote down within seconds of appearing. Again, the Isparians rejoiced. After this easy victory, some of the more powerful defenders thought the battle no longer worth their time, and left the field.

This proved a mistake, as the general moved her command post into one of the howling Shadow Spires. The portals leading to this blasphemous construct appeared randomly on the landscape. Not a few adventurers wandered into these gateways, and were slain by Ferah and her bodyguard. In the end, the Isparians assembled at the portals to launch a cohesive assault on the Spire. Ferah again found herself overwhelmed. She fell, coldly stating, “A fine attempt . . . I see I must reformulate my plans.” Again, the Isparians celebrated a victory, and again it was but a temporary respite.

Eight days after the climactic fight in the Spire, Ler Rhan's forces flooded the wastes of the A'mun desert. Unlike Ferah, he elected to establish his headquarters in the Spires at the outset. However, the portals to the Spires proved unresponsive to powerful adventurers. Younger warriors, mages, and archers made sorties into the Spire and were beaten back by this fearsome apparition. Eventually, however, he was overcome, and moved on to the plains in the Aluvian-settled regions of Dereth. Again, he was tracked and defeated. Once more he moved, into the Spire found in the festering Blackmire Swamp. Once more he fell, and Black Ferah reappeared in the Direlands to give his troops time to regroup.

To assist her, she brought to life the spires that loomed close to the towns of Osteth. The Shadows of the Spires -- Shadow Children, for the most part -- were fought by the newest arrivals to Dereth, as the portals leading to their lairs refused to activate for the mighty. The town Spires, however, did field two new horrors: Shadow Sprites and Spire Shadows. Sprites appeared to be Zefir that had been absorbed by the darkness. Spire Shadows, possibly the most disgusting of Bael'Zharon's followers, appeared to have grown out of the floor of the Spires. The implications were troubling -- it now appeared that the Spires were bizarre, living fusions of multiple creatures, twisted and bent to the will of the Hopeslayer.

Each of the Shadow Spires, however, carried a secret treasure: a piece of a key. When these were combined in the proper fashion, the doors to the Nexus were opened. Massive parties flooded the facility. Legions of powerful Undead and Shadows resisted their advance, but the sheer numbers told on defenders. At the bottom of the Nexus hovered a floating crystal, similar to the Great Work of Frore. It was quickly swarmed by the vengeful Isparians, and fell. Tayway of Thistledown, Freeze of Frostfell, Al Neo of Morningthaw, Qua Badib of Leafcull, Hell Maker of Harvestgain, and Lop of Darktide made the killing blows, and were rewarded with chunks of the Crystal. At the fall of the Nexus, the Shadow-armies melted away into the Darkness, leaving behind only an echo of unsettling, strangely satisfied, laughter.

Many questions were left unanswered. Where was the third general, Isin Dule, and why had he not participated in the assault? What was the purpose of the invasion, and why, if the Shadows have limitless armies, did so few participate? What was the Nexus Crystal, why were the Shadows protecting it, and why did they melt away upon its destruction? Most importantly, what was to come? The generals, it seems, were pushed back, but not defeated, with what consequences for Bael'Zharon, no one knows.

• The stage is set for an unparalleled battle! Travelers, beware of Shadows, and look for heroes among you who can determine the fate of the lands of Dereth.
• "Detached characters" (which recently caused some characters to temporarily appear missing) should now be a thing of the past. All characters that were not truly deleted will now appear in your character list. Some long-past characters may show up in this way. In some rare cases, you may have more characters than can show up in your character list. If your character slots are filled and you still think a character is missing, delete an unwanted character and wait for the "temporarily unavailable" label to vanish. This will allow one "overflow" character to show up. If you still feel a character is missing, read the "State of the Code" article.
• "Infused" pyreal ingots (used for Atlan weapons) can no longer be given to others! Before, there was a loophole where a player with a high weapon skill could use a glyph to stamp (or "infuse") the ingot to yield higher quality, then give it to a not-so-skilled player, who could get a superior weapon. We had to tolerate this until we fixed a bug. Now, you can NOT give the infused ingot to anyone else -- the future owner of the Atlan weapon will have to use the glyph on it him- or herself. Note that you can still have a skilled Alchemist form the ingot to begin with, and give the ingot away. In other words, non-infused pyreal ingots still can be traded among players freely.
• Experience point distribution within fellowships is generally more fair and logical. Before, which member of the fellowship made the kill affected how much XP was generated. If the kill was made by a fellow who was much higher level than the victim, the whole group's XP was reduced. Now, just the XP for the higher-level members is reduced. However, the flipside is also true: if a low-level fellow makes the kill on a victim of equal level, that fellow will get a non-reduced share of XP, but fellows that are higher level will get reduced XP. In most fellowship adventuring, less XP will be lost than was lost with the old system.
• Fixed was a recently discovered (by us) bug that justified cries of "kill stealing." We didn't understand these protests before, since the system was designed to give loot rights to whoever did the most damage, and XP division was proportional to the amount of damage done. However, we recently realized that damage above and beyond the victim's remaining hit points were being fully counted! Therefore, player A could fight a monster with 100 hit points, gradually do 60 points of damage, then have player B swoop in, kill the monster with one 70-point blow, and find that player B got loot rights and the majority of the XP. But player B didn't really do 70 points of damage; the monster only had 40 ht points to lose. This is now fixed, and in this scenario, player B will get credit for just the 40 points of damage, while player A will get credit for 60 points, and therefore get loot rights and the majority of the XP. This is not done as a balancing measure: we honestly thought it was working this way all along. It was designed this way, therefore this is a bug that needed to be fixed.
• Due to a bug fix, Crystal creatures are now more likely to attack by using bludgeoning damage. Therefore, during melee combat, Crystal creatures may be a bit more damaging than before if you are not well protected against bludgeoning.
• New technology enables players to affect worldwide properties as part of major events. You thought events were good before? That was nothin' compared to this stuff. And this is just the beginning.
• New technology to enable announcement and log-recording of players who accomplish major tasks in worldwide event quests.
• Exitless room in Ancient Lighthouse dungeon -- added a lever to this room!
• Door facing wrong way in Mountain Fortress dungeon -- fixed.
• NPCs now will give items to you, even if your option is set not to take items from other players.
• There are rumors of a bloody assassination of a well-known master of his art . . . Surely this is not the end of this drama.
• PK players can't heal monsters with healkits anymore. This was an annoying loophole that allowed PKs to harass NPK players.
• Pyreal Motes, Slivers, Nuggets, Bars and Ingots now look like they should on the ground and in their icons. They didn't used to. They all looked like Twinkies. Now they all look different.
• Fixed the bug where locks always appraise as "trivial."
• Spring long past sprung; Bunnies not so busy.
• Night ambience is now brighter, by around 12%.
• Mana Stones now have icons that better reflect their power levels. This applies mostly to charged stones you buy from vendors. Instead of looking the same in their icons, making it harder to tell them apart in a bag of stones, they now have icons that reflect the power levels.
• Sho & Gharu'ndim bowyers buy fletching items. The bowyers in Al-Jalima, Stonehold, and Yaraq sold lockpicks as well as bowyer stuff. They will also buy lockpicks along with bowyer/fletching stuff.
• Now only you hear noise when you sell something to a vendor. You won't hear the sales of others.
• Rope bridge supports are no longer see-through in dungeons.
• Magma Golem light is brightened towards red more.
• Most Atlan Staff weapons were being held incorrectly. Too far towards the base. Fixed.
• Shoushi Grotto -- Reduced lighting in several rooms and most hallways. This dungeon was too bright.
• The undead Baron of Colier no longer leaves his Electric Long Sword on his corpse.
• Added missing acid pool to a pit in the Incunabula dungeon.
• Special vats, fonts, pools, fountains, and wells now cast their old spells on players when used. When a flask is used on these objects you will get a flask of water. Double the usage, double the fun!
• Casting portal recall spells now make you play some purple bubbly physics scripts for about two seconds before blipping you away.
• Target drudges in festival grounds don't give old cheese for loot now. Oops. Yes, the days of free cheese are sadly at an end. Blame the Shadows.
• Amullian coat no longer has humpback.
• Flowers have been thinned out Dereth-wide.