War Breaks Out Between Free Realms and the Dedites
Temple of Elemental Evil Destroyed by Heirs
Zakhara Declares Jihad on Dedites
Dedites Suffer Setback in Great Waste
Eastern Empire and Dedites Battle in Eastern Highlands
Skysweep Federation Poses New Diplomatic Quandry For Eastern Empire
Editorial: Good News As Free Realms Band Together In Rockport
Captain Vaadhi of Sandsweep, captain of the good windship Viserie discovered the location of the infamous vampire pirate base of Bloodport and reported same to his duchess, Damma. She promptly relayed this information to Rockport, site of the next Free Realms meeting and proposed site of the Free Realms Truce Palace, spiritual "capital" of the Free Realms alliance.
Supreme Free Realms commander, Count Liviticus of Karameikos, readied an attack force of marines, legionaries, ships and skyships and destroyed Bloodport completely, rescuing as many of the vampires' bloodslaves as he was able.
Port Cuidad, on the Savage Coast, has been attacked by Dedite forces. The attack force consisted of 13 Red, 14 Black and three Blue Dragons, supporting a ground invasion force of 3,450 humanoids. These forces are all veteran Dedite Sapper regulars, and they have already overrun the mine region of Port Cuidad and linked up with the existing Dedite puppet state of Rossoverdea. Port Cuidad has lost its territory and now only the city itself is left free. The siege of the city by the Dedite humanoid army has been intense. Daily and nightly assaults of every description have destroyed the suburbs of the city. With the ruler of the realm outside the city missing in the hinterlands rulership has passed to Count Leigiuraan, who has organised everyone in the city into a defence force. The harbour of the city is free but outside its mouth Dedite warships are at war with Free Realms fleet vessels. Currently the outnumbered Dedites are giving excellent returns, especially as they are supported by evil Dragons.
Port Cuidad reports that Dedite agents also established a portal in the abandoned warehouse directly behind Asla Binlaslaba's Fencing School. In the resulting swashbuckling street battle both the fencing school and the portal were destroyed. The realm's five stone golems have been called out to keep peace in the streets of the eponymous capital of Port Cuidad. Thousands have been injured and hundreds killed as Port Cuidadians flee by boat to Cliff City or further west into the savage and jungle coasts.
It is believed that the semi-secret organisation of good-aligned swordsmen, Gemini, is now active in the war against the Dedites in Port Cuidad. It is believed by most bards and heralds that know of the organisation that a major Gemini base is somewhere in the Crimson Jungle, possibly in the area overrun by the Dedites.
The newly awakened Temple of Elemental Evil has been destroyed by a party comprising members of the Heirs of Skull Craig. The young adventurers fought their way through the dweagar infested mines around Burnfield to destroy the evil that resided within.
The recent disappearance of the Silver Knot, as well as several other adventurers, was due to kidnapping by agents of the evil cult responsible for reawakening the Temple. Ironically, it was the Silver Knot who had prevented the Temple from being brought to life by cultists recently. The prisoners, who were due to be sacrificed in a blood ritual designed to summon an evil blight to devour the world, were freed by the Silver Knot's Watchdog in a display of cunning and bravery. Using his powers to escape the bonds he found himself trapped in, he freed his fellow prisoners who went on to destroy the evil fane they were to be sacrificed to.
Meanwhile, the Heirs and their companions, having fought their way through a serie of deathtraps, freed good elemental altars at the bottom of the mine. These altars, which were also to be sacrificed by having an evil monolith known as the 'Spike' dropped onto them, departed the mine. The Heirs and their allies then destroyed the remaining evil fanes. Leaving the mine, the adventurers then attacked the Mansion wherein dwelled the cultists, eager to awaken their dark god. After a short battle, the cultists and their terrible machinery were destroyed.
During the course of the many battles faced by the Heirs of Skull Craig, their adventuring companion Hector DuSabot, noted mystic and convicted pirate, succumbed to battle. By all accounts he died a noble death, sacrificing himself for his companions. A memorial service for this contradictory figure will be held in his home village of Treekeep.
The Grand Sultan of Humanity and the Lord and Defender of Life, ruler of Zakhara's theocratic hegemony, has called for jihad against the Dedites. In immediate response, Gorgo, ruler of the Dedites, has declared an indijk against the Westerners of Zakhara. Both huge realms are now in a state of total war with respect to each other; there is to be no mercy, surrender or treaty until one or the other have fallen.
Traders report that a massive Zakharan army is headed east across the Haunted Lands towards Dedite lands was stopped by a force of sandrippers, dune men, sand runner clan lizard folk led by Melters. This was after the army dealt with the Haunted Lands tribes and monsters as well as successfully passing through the Wyrmsteeth Mountains, which are infested with evil Dragons and their spawn.
The reappearance of Melters into the World of Mystery has given many observers pause. The fearsome might of the Melters was last seen in the war against Mogador, and these fell beasts were responsible for the defeat of many armies of the forces allied against the Opposition.
The Sky Federation has received word of an amazing series of adventures on the border between the Dedite Empire and the northern Great Waste. This news was released in Skyreach, capital of the Federation, then relayed by Orson Bargleson of Whitemere to the other bards and heralds of the world.
A pair of unlikely freeswords, later teamed with a local merchant from the Sky Federation Merchants' Guild, have restored the oasis of Koh-Serapis, destroyed a nest of evil within a ruined fortress at the foot of the Black Mountains, and destroyed a horrific Bog Mummy with its leathery zombie servants. After their adventures ended, the trio of adventurers have left behind a restored well, bubbling over with healing waters, at the Koh-Serapsis Oasis. Apparently as a result of the same restoration of flowing waters in the region, a secret Dedite tunnel under the mountains has been permanently flooded. This flooding destroyed a Dedite army, leaving 9 "rogue" Dedite juggernauts wandering the northern wastes. Each of these juggernauts has now been attacked and destroyed by other adventurers.
So not only did these three companions of the road restore the fertility of part of the wild lands, but also they have single-handedly won the first real battle of the Dedite Wars!
The three heroic freeswords are the draconic and laconic scaley beanpole Keef "Snow White" al-Hag, the grim and dangerous pit fighter Skut, and a young Lady Merchant of Desert Edge.
The Eastern Empire has released news of its Eastern Highlands campaign.
In the high country of the Eastern Highlands, snow has now covered the grounds like white icing on a cake. One whole legion sent to the eastern high country has disappeared, believed destroyed by Dedites and finished off by local monsters.
Both Dedites and Eastern Imperials have struggled to try and make peace with the local savages and barbarians, but the locals resent the presence of both sides of the war. This was accentuated by an Eastern Empire archaeological team that flew in to try and steal one of the large red-orange stone statues found in the central Eastern Highlands.
Ghyr, Korenzea and the Eastern Empire have fallen out also. Both Ghyr and Korenzea have protested strongly to the Eastern Empire, which seemed more interested in building legionary bases with accompanying small settlements rather than driving out the Dedites.
All is not well for the Dedites, however. They have lost all of their normal sky vessels in the east, and must now fly over 2,000 miles to support their forces from the air. Also, the attempt by the Dedites to fight their way through the Monster Duchies on the ground to give support to their Eastern Highland army has failed miserably, with a group of freeswords flooding the Great Eastern Tunnel and turning the Dedite city of Oogah into an island surrounded by a deep lake of fresh water. Currently this lake is choked with the bodies of the dead army from the tunnel, and disease is annihilating the population of Oogah.
Rather than deal sensibly with its many military problems, the Eastern Empire, has started to agitate amongst the ranks of the Free Realms, antagonising peace-loving neighbours with schemes to create a tax monopoly and pushing for votes of condemnation against incredibly strong and valuable neutral realms like the Sky Federation and Chlorodar. The Eastern Empire is also pushing ahead with its decision to split into northern and southern half-empires, a plan that has left most other regents stunned at the audacity and unbelieving as to its success.
Eregorian sought comment from the Eastern Empire. The response: "She who laughs last laughs longest."
Mistress Damma of the Grand Duchy of Sandsweep has added to her holdings, acquiring the rulership of Floating Ar. Like her own realm of Sandsweep, Ar is a skyfaring nation, building its own skyships and until recently sending its swashbuckling Sky Corsairs to help other Alphan realms such as Belissaria.
Now, after the depredations of the Mogador War, Floating Ar found itself on the wrong side of dispute with the Eastern Empire, which cast covetous eyes at its floating islands and shipyards. It was seeming likely that the Eastern Empire would carry a Free Realms vote and then occupy all of the 114 floating sky islands of Ar. Ar therefore enlisted the aid of the friendly Prince Granklin Gore, dwarven ruler of Belissaria on the Western (Flame) Coast of Sekuthar. Prince Granklin prepared a list of potential Regents, and after due consideration and some covert observation of Damma in action, Ar placed its fate in the hands of a newly-elected ruler, Damma of Sandsweep. Like their own leaders, she rules a realm that is both clan and guild; the fit between her and Ar is a natural one. The final deciding point was her heroism and nobility, as she was elevated to peerage and regent status at the end of the Mogador War.
Skyreach, the 25,000-strong capital city of Ar, is now Damma's winter capital. Other than that she will remain in the hidden settlement of Vilhoon, administrative home of her sky-spanning empire in the air. Floating Ar's population are also the worldwide head of the College of Air Magics, and skilled inventors and ship designers.
The Empress of the East has already sent diplomats to Sandsweep in response as well as calling for an emergency council meeting of the Free Realms in Rockport as part of the 10month meeting of the Free Realms.
The Eastern Empire's diplomats find themselves unable to reach Sandsweep; they are forced to bear the embarrassment of being guested by Lady Talia, Countess of the Westshire of Haranlarche. Westshire's capital of Edge City is quite close to the mountain duchy of Sandsweep, but Damma has no Court as such, as she rules a closed community of clansmen and guild masters. The Eastern Empire is therefore sending diplomats to Floating Ar, to the city of Skyreach. They are likely to be kept waiting a fair while, as Damma is questing and no-one else has authority to deal with them in her absence; also the Ari are no friends to the Eastern Empire and will happily humiliate the Easterners at every turn.
Floating Ar brings with it a powerful dowry of golem war machines, wind dhows and larger sky vessels as well as a Treaty of Cooperation with O-Kai-Lia, where Damma has already received an invitation to observe the Sakura festival with the boy emperor Is-Fhe of O-Kai-Lia.
O-Kai-Lia is now a member of the Free Realms, but Ar is not, and Damma's grand duchy of Sandsweep is quite defiantly and proudly not a Free Realm member. Thus Damma now enjoys a privileged and almost unique status as an ally of a Free Realm (O-Kai-Lia) as well as controlling a major College of Wizardry - Air Magic. Some now think she will move to embrace other Alphan survivor states like Belissaria, who she purchased Ar from, and Aquatica, home of the Sea Magic College as well as a colossal naval power.
The other major power in the Free Realms is the Utter Western Theocracy (the Zaks). The Zaks are "delighted to see Floating Ar receive a ruler worthy of its splendrous magics and merry corsairs". This implies that the Eastern Empire will be defeated in any Free Realms vote it calls for to authorise occupation of Floating Ar.
Like it or not, the Free Realms must now deal with Damma and her emerging Sky Federation.
It is often the case that out of the darkest of evils a great good can arise. This would seem to be the case with the creation of the Free Realms Truce Palace in Rockport. That a temporary alliance of realms created to fight a singular evil is taking the tentative steps to becoming a pemananent joining of nation states bodes well for the future peace of our world.
As can be demonstrated by the alliance against the voracious Dedites, such an alliance is also a powerful statement that these realms stand by their name - these are Free Realms and they will not stand by while the freedom of their citizens is in jeopardy. These are allies who will stand united against external aggression. And united, they will prevail, as has been demonstrated against Mogador, and as will be demonstrated against the Dedites.
Certainly in the time ahead, these realms will not get everything right. They will struggle with internal politicking, and external disputes, and all manner of trivial setbacks that will appear out of nowhere but seem obvious in hindsight - in other words they will fall prey to the frailties of all mortal endeavour. But while there is will and determination, this is a bold venture that can succeed, and that every citizen of a Free Realm should encourage and nurture.
