The night skies cleared. Stars
flickered to life in the void. The glowering volcanic face of
Rez'arel and pale, mysterious Alb'arel rose again along their
courses.
Humanity began to rebuild after the violence of the previous
month, even as the Shadow Spires that had wrought the
destruction began to dig themselves back into the earth from
whence they'd come. In Arwic, the Environmental Defense League
respectfully buried the smoldering remains of the town's beloved
heifer, Sally. In Tufa, the residents stoically rebuilt their
shops on ledges round the rim of the crater.
Tufa's scribe left to join
Fazyad ibn Raymar's expedition into the cool grottos of
Xarabydun. Explorers had recently discovered this network of
caves under the sands between Al-Arqas and Khayyaban. The
facility was a former Empyrean archive, and the scholars of
Zaikhal carted thousands of books out of the lower caves for
study. The first fruits of their research were the so-called
“peas,” a Yalaini method of storing magic reagents in
compact form. Ibn Raymar's party colonized the upper caves,
though the lower regions remained dark and overrun by creatures.
Rumor held that a valuable aid to enchanters could be found in
the lower tunnels, but the entrance was magically forbidden to
the elite of Dereth.
While the Shadows remained
quiet, other races hostile to humanity were not. Explorers
venturing into the rugged Linvak Mountains were stunned to find
an enormous fortress under construction by the Lugians. Some
mages feared that its massive walls must be made of chorizite,
and began wailing to their respective gods that the structure be
struck down by one of the increasingly rare shooting stars.
Sir Candeth Martine, an explorer
of the Dereth Exploration Society, disappeared into the
Blackmire Swamp on a mission to study the habits of mosswarts.
Would-be rescuers discerned that a rival tribe of banderlings
had evicted Martine's band. The trail of the refugees was
followed as far west as Uziz. Unfortunately, Sir Martine seemed
to have been abducted by some other group at that point, for
only his journal was found among the mosswarts. By the end of
the month, no further clues to his location had been found.
In the Direlands, portals to a
“Floating City” began to appear and disappear at random.
This structure, constructed within the wilds of portalspace,
drifted wantonly through that strange violet-lit realm. Notes
dropped throughout the massive structure proved that at least
one Isparian, bombastic explorer Alatar Locke, had previously
wandered the dusty corridors. He opined that the city had been
built at the height of the Seaborne Empire of Yalain, when
portal magic was “in vogue.” In time, its enchantments lost
their potency. The city was cast adrift, fading in and out of
contact with the world of Auberean over the millennia.
Perhaps in response to the
disquieting news coming from all quarters of Dereth, a festive
atmosphere infected the towns. On Ispar, Harvestgain was,
naturally enough, the month of harvest. Perhaps because of the
abundance of scarecrows back home, some of the homely straw men
found their way through the vagaries of portalspace. Some people
reported animate scarecrows harassing travelers, but no reliable
witnesses could be found. These tales were dismissed as the work
of those kegs rolled out for the harvest festival.
There was unexpected benefit to
the arrival of the scarecrows, however. In their empty heads
were seeds allowing Isparian pumpkins to be grown in Dereth. The
traditional autumn foods of pumpkin soup and pie soon graced
dinner tables. In keeping with Aluvian custom, some of the pulpy
round fruits had demonic faces carved into them. Superstition
held that these faces would ward off evil. The Shadows did not
seem overly impressed.
After months of work, the
largely ignored tailors of Dereth began to sell exquisitely
designed dresses, ensuring that they would occasionally be able
to feed their families. One enterprising Aluvian leather crafter
decided to alter her Kireth gown to allow a bit more . . .
ventilation. She offered her skills as a seamstress to others at
no charge. To her considerable surprise, she found herself beset
both by conservatives, who claimed that the cut of the dress
would adversely affect the moral fortitude of Isparians, and
liberals, who claimed the cut of the dress denigrated the
Aluvian goddess-trinity and Queen Elysa Strathelar.
The master crafters Alexander
the Deft, Janda Sulifiya, and Tsua Kagemata offered to create
masks from the heads of banderlings, skeletons, drudges,
tuskers, and mosswarts. To the alarm of Ayan Baqur's residents,
a second Virindi, calling itself Leopold, floated into town one
afternoon. It drifted aimlessly around the town, closely
observing the passers-by and asking many questions. Leopold, as
it turned out, was also a mask-maker. . . of sorts.
Leopold was hardly the most
worrisome Virindi of the month. The underground redoubts of
Sotiris and Tumideon were discovered in the wastes of the
Obsidian Plain. In those inhospitable halls, the enigmatic
Virindi had created “Hollow Minions.” These artificial life
forms vaguely resembled scarecrows, but were animated with
malicious intent and partially constructed from chorizite ore.
They proved highly resistant to magic, and could punch through
magical armors with their hollow fists.
A final ill wind blew through
the Direlands during Harvestgain. In a small cave by the coast,
one of Dereth's most benign creatures acquired a hideous
strength, heretofore unseen in the world. The time of the white
rabbit (affectionate dubbed “Pookie,” by some) had come . .
. and the bodies began to pile up like cordwood.
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