10 month 1101YAC
Dedite Dragonstrikes have continued with attacks on Ulgarth, Cestus, the Sky Federation bastion of the Sandsweep Mountains, and Edge City.
Edge City took heavy damage in its outlying "Rubble" district and in the tenderloin. Further damage was averted when the city's super-team, the Edge, and the city's resident Steel Dragon (great-uncle to our own Lord Rock), attacked the Black Dragon dragonstrikers. None of the attacking Dragons were killed, but the city was also spared further damage. Missing in the city's bombed areas was the King of Haranlarche, who was visiting previous Dedite victims taking shelter in the city's temples when the attack began. He was later found unharmed and is now a guest of Lady Talia, Countess of the Westshire and Wise Lawgiver of the Western Marches.
Ulgarth took severe casualties in its merchant city of Orcshield. The city is still on fire, with thousands of residents fleeing by boat only to be attacked at sea by three Dragon Turtles.
Cestus has been set aflame, with all the nests of the island's Sea Dragons destroyed, the island's resident Witch killed, and the Citadel of the Republic atomised by spells. Also lost was the Collegium, a unique library of rare "service" spells considered indispensably useful for nonhostile magic users.
The Sandsweep Mountains launched rays of burning light at the attacking Yellow Dragons, killing all fifteen of them. Wind Dhows and Sandracers then finished off the Dragoons dropped by the attacking Dragons. There were no recorded casualties amongst the Federation forces in the mountains. Witnesses in Edge City claim that the rays that struck down the Dragons were "like something from the tales of the Long Ago", "coloured light and a false dawn".
The University of Whitemere has collated over a year of data from the Bards of the Realm and have issued a warning.
OIDROKULUS of WHITEMERE (Sage of Human & Related Species Culture, Great Lyceum of Whitemere):
"It seems that the Dedites and particularly their priesthood and god-king have been running a "Jawed God" style gambit involving the youth of the realms of the East and West. This involves offering an apparent alternative to lifestyle to youngsters who have recently undergone the Shearing Ceremony, promising them a life of peace and ease in a paradise beyond the Black Mountains. Recruiters for the armies of the Free Realms have noticed a decline in available youth. This is due, I believe, to the insidious effect of disguised Gorgon Priests, as well as the mind-altering drugs used by another group, a group of shadowy spellcasters using spells at once unfamiliar and familiar... We must be on our guard lest a war of the generations be waged on behalf of Gorgo."
Dedites may hold fabled crown. Sources inside the government of Rockport have revealed that the long-lost Dragonking's Crown may be held by the Dedites. The nature of the dragonstrikes tend to indicate that this artefact is indeed in Dedite hands. So it would seem the Dedite tyrant has two crowns - the Dragonking Crown and the Crown of Skolis.
The Dragonking’s Crown is able to be used to increase the morale of the evil dragons serving the Dedite tyrant to the point where they ignore the good judgement and wisdom so famed of dragons of any alignment and attack as fanatics. The crown is what enables the Dedite tyrant to send dragons as suicide fanatics to attacker the Free Realms and the Sky Federation. Were the Dedite tyrant to lose his access to this crown he would no longer be able to use the evil dragons in his current manner - as disposable fodder, an act doubtless disapproved of by the Council of Wyrms itself.
10 month 1101YAC
The High Council of Chivalry is formed on 13 10month 1101.
It is based in a floating castle that will float three miles north of Rockport and 2400 feet in the air. The council was formed by decision of the heads of existing orders of chivalry. Current council members have been drawn from all over the world of Mystery. The Council is largely served in matters clerical by the Sohei of the Monkfish School temple.
The Eastern Empire has released news of its Eastern Highlands campaign. The news is interpreted by Eregorian, Bard of Rockport.
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."
Dragon Flight hits Port Cuidad.
Port Cuidad has been attacked by a force 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 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.
Jihad vs the Dedites.
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 heading east across the Haunted Lands towards Dedite lands. The army will first have to deal with the Haunted Lands tribes and monsters as well as successfully climb over or find passes through the Wyrmsteeth Mountains, which are infested with evil Dragons and their spawn.
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.
Blood is running on the streets of Rockport!
Several evil-aligned rogues guilds have been discovered in Rockport. Despite all efforts to peacefully remove these cancers from the realm of Rockport, street-battles have erupted between the rogue guilds and units of the Rock Legion.
These genuine article evil gangsters have burnt buildings, employed spell-fire against militia units, and even attempted to assassinate Lord Rock who took to the streets with his troops in an effort to curb the rioting and end the civil violence.
Depsite the violent attempts to resist arrest on charges of sedition, including a very short-lived attack by Coffer Corpses (dreadlocked undead axe-wielding psychopaths), the rogue guilds are being rounded up by the militia, ably led by Vix the Valorous and Lord Rock. Those who have committed sedition will be executed under Rockport law. Those who have committed sexual crimes will be tried by the Love Cult as well, and can look forward to being gelded and then stoned to death.
Lord Rock’s comment on the rogue guilds was to quote his former team-mate White Owl: “There’s always some mutha-@*%ker trying to ice-skate up hill.”