The Town Criers (IceBob – GM)

The streets of Blackwash are filled with tales of the unease spreading across the country. Already the city of Deepwell sleeps uneasy, it’s lord raging over the schemes of Duke Reece Murra. Now, frightening news of dragon attacks far up the Black River and well-organized banditry spreading on the eastern plains is setting the whole of Archos on edge.

Little has been heard from the King.

Birthday Bash (BrieCS)

In the week following the announcement of the dragon and bandit attacks, Ursula went to the University of the Archmage to speak to a dragon expert to find out some simple things about the dragons in question, based on her suspicions that the Duke of Blackwash had somehow enticed the dragons from the mountains to cause a distraction from his attempts on Duke Deepwell’s life.

Throughout the month of January, Vizegraf Mannpurtz has been preparing for her 22nd birthday celebration (with extensive planning done by Maurissen Blacktooth) and meeting with suitors from all over the land. On January 31st, she held a large ball to celebrate her birthday and announced her engagement to Damien Ortra, known as the Black Judge. The following day was a tournament in her honor, and there were some wonderful prizes awarded.

She invited Liam Rothspar, the sage she spoke with, to her birthday party. At Ursula’s birthday, she witnessed the Earl of Murra and Liam Rothspar having an aside during the festivities, and she sent her valet to listen in. Her valet reported that he could not hear much, but did hear the words “human sacrifice”. While Vizegraf Mannpurtz was very occupied with the events at hand, she did take note of it – and the Duke’s absence to the event – and intended to bring it up at a later date.

Through the next weeks, Ursula will be getting ready for her brother’s wedding and planning her own, and is very pleased to soon be the wife of Damien.

Since her birthday, Ursula Mannpurtz has been preparing for her brothers’ wedding, attempting to make the most of an event that is certainly worrisome. A joyous occasion, indeed, but not with the presence of the Duke. Why? The man is mad, and most assuredly evil.

Matters of Business (Liam Rothspar)

Ah, the weddings. Liam was looking forward to each, but for very different reasons. He’d been approached by, among all things, a medusa by the name of Maurissen Blacktooth, and Visegraf Ursula Mannpurtz, about issues of dragons. The medusa had been allowed to roam freely, so by pure reason, that meant she was allowed to… after all, why would a medusa risk capture and death to visit a simple sage? The young Ursula, however, dallied longer than a single question, and seemingly as compensation for the help that Liam was able to give her, invited the elder man to her birthday celebration.

Just a few weeks prior, Earl Stavron Murra had approached him with a confidential matter about some spirit beneath the palace, a lich potion, and an unfortunate plot by Duke Blackwash to use the same to meld with the spirit. The Earl had wanted to know just what else was needed for the Duke to bind with the spirit, and had set Liam on that heavy task.

Through weeks of searching, Liam had slowly uncovered the decidedly obscure information that anyone wishing to bind with and control the Caller in the Dark spirit would need more than to just become a lich… he would need a very particular ritual involving the sacrifice of an innocent, and such a ritual was not to be found in the University’s archives. At least the research did touch on the spirit’s nature… an undead beast of chaos that devours souls and is, in fact, made of them. Something that would have to be contained, lest it simply move through the entire city of Blackwash and consume its fill. Liam knew the basic ways to contain such a spirit… and to destroy it, beyond divine matters, direct sunlight was the spirit’s bane. All of interest to the Earl, Liam concluded.

By coincidence, Liam’s final conclusions about the necessary elements of such a ritual came but mere hours before Ursula’s birthday celebrations, and conveying the information to the rather busy Earl had to be done just prior to the celebrations, instead of behind closed doors. And, as the fates would have it, discussing dire material in public, even hushed, is much like putting wine in an unsealed cask: it leaks.