After years (decades?) of construction, the Alliance Castle is finally open! Built on the old location of Baron Vonkessi’s Keep (which was burned down by the Fenix), the Castle is quite an impressive sight, with its collection of towers, gates, and battlements.

The building is quite sparse, though, consisting mostly of empty rooms and cavernous hallways. I’m not sure what the castle could be used for, though it could make a good place to hide out during the next Darshak invasion.

The security could use some work, though– currently the castle defenses consist of a shallow moat, a grumpy sylvan, and a lone archer. Cassia Allin’s probably going to want to hire more help, especially with all the suspicious figures running around.

View from above

Posing atop the Alliance Castle

A lot of things have changed in the lands while I’ve been hidden in the library, and I’ve been having fun exploring once familiar places which have grown and changed with time. There also seem to be new developments afoot. For example, I’ve been noticing a number of strange acolytes wandering around, conducting strange experiments. Who knows what they’re up to, but it will be fun trying to get to the bottom of this.

Cavern exploring

Mysterious Figures

Today I took a break from my lengthy stay in the library to find that there no longer was a library.

A rude awakening

Apparently the last Chaos Storm caused the loose rubble that Hawkthorn and Raldin dug up all those years ago to collapse, pretty much destroying the Mystic Academy. I managed to clamber over the wreckage to stable ground, and found a worker frantically trying to clear away the rubble. Of course, he didn’t seem to have any shovels, wheelbarrows, or any other tools to help with the job, so this could take a while.

Afterwards, I tagged along on an exploration party to Ash Island, led by Stinkfist. I learned that the Darshak have been increasing their activity as of late, and that new parts of their Island had been discovered. It was exciting exploring around once familiar ground, but unfortunately, the trip didn’t end too well.

The lazy barman refused to serve us drinks.

Down for the count.

Some Chaos Storms are more chaotic than others, and the latest Storm (v505) seems to have been rougher than usual. As soon as the Storm passed, a few of us started poking around to see if it had brought anything new, only to find that the Storm had blown all the locks off the Guild Halls! For a brief period of time, I had access to the fighter and healer halls. While the doormen were frantically running around to fix things, I was able to sneak in and take a look around the other Guild Halls for the first time, as well as the fighter and healer pubs.

Confused doorman

No training for us, unfortunately

Visiting the Menagerie

Fortunately, the Mystic Guild Hall uses tougher locks than the other Guilds, so outsiders were only able to gain access to the Apprentice wing, but none of the other rooms. The locks were fixed fairly quickly, and order was restored, but it was fun to poke around the other Guilds while it lasted.