Spring 74th, 544

Much as it surprises me to have the material for an update so relatively soon after I had made the previous one, I do nonetheless.

I had (after some period of time) the opportunity to speak to Lord Tenebrion again. The main subject of our conversation was the Ether. Tenebrion said that our work in trying to understand the Ether had had a noticeable effect on the Ethereal Plane. He said that the underlying structures of the Ether were coalescing and might even be visible to us in the near future. It is unclear whether he meant visible to those of us who had studied the Ether, or all exiles. Time will tell I suppose.

Frequent readers will no doubt guess the question foremost in my mind at this particular meeting. My question of course was in regards whether or not further training in Ethereal subjects might be available. Tenebrion indicated he had created a servant who could instruct us further. It is not clear if the servant in question will teach the same subject as Leladar, Umbrion's slave did, or another, related subject. It was also clear from the conversation, that this servant, was one created by Tenebrion, and that rumored servant of Lugubrion's was someone different.

Tenebrion spoke of his work crews "excavating" the facility for this creation of his, which leads me to suspect that the servant might be found underground, possibly in his basement. I am somewhat skeptical about this, as Tenebrion's basement is one of the areas he considers private. I wonder if he would place a servant intended for our use in such a place....

If the servant is ensconced in the basement of Tenebrion's castle, then it will be a difficult endeavor to reach him, as the basement is usually kept locked. Acquiring the key to this location requires a team of exiles sufficiently strong enough as to make a reasonable attempt at navigating Kizmia's Island.

Tenebrion believed that the excavation work would be completed in a few days of the time I spoke to him, or just after the recent Chaos storm. Hmm... I wish to search the basement, though I am unsure whether what I seek will be there.

Spring 46th, 544

Ahhh, the passage of time.

I have had little time to write of late, I have begun a lengthy research project which will require me to spend much time looking through old books, and little time either walking the lands or writing here.

Many things have transpired of late, but I have been relatively uninvolved. Of events which I have had a chance to witness, or in some cases participate in, these would be the most important:

By far the most important event is the decision by the Council to advance Hawkthorn to the rank of Mystic. This is the first such decision by the Council in about two years. Several Apprentices have also been recognized by the Council and have been advanced to Journeying Mystic, including Elenia, Min'dra, and Wystii.

Foremost among my other concerns, remains the Ethereal Survey of Puddleby. I am sorry to say that I have done very little work on this of late, though others have been more diligent. Notably Wangah Rah who managed to locate a severe Ethereal disturbance in Marsh.

Sadly, his locating this problem seemed to have more to do with his being in the correct place at the correct time, rather than his ability to read Ethereal activity, and this is my primary reason for being discouraged regarding the project.

Our ability to survey the Ether is limited by our understanding. It is clear to me, that there is a problem, but the Amulets provided only the sketchiest details, our clumsy attempts to utilize them all too often resulting in the tools themselves being destroyed. Some exiles have spoken to Lord Tenebrion, and they say he speaks of deeper knowledge of the Ether than he and his brothers have yet allowed us.

The sketch to the right is one I made in the marsh as I took a tour of it following the incident reported by Wangah, you can clearly see the translucent bluish slug. This is an Ethereal creature, and not natural to the marsh, thus being indicative of the problem. I noted slugs of this type both in this section of the marsh, and in the Old Cemetery, which abuts it.

I visited the area regularly for a Zodiac afterwards, and frequently noted at least one or two slugs, but never again the concentrations originally discovered by Wangah. I took readings of the Ethereal activity of course, but I never found anything consistent, or even terribly significant. Unfortunately, this is most likely due to my own lack of training, as I mentioned above. In other news, Exiles have made extensive forays into the Foot Hills, uncovering what may be the remains of Trillbane's Library. There were several expeditions, each with various degrees of success.

Also, the last surviving member of the Kala Shana has visited Puddleby and given the keeping of the Separ over to Dr. Tessa Malthus, who has done much research into the nature of the infections which many exiles have contracted on Dal'Noth. These stories, and others can be found, variously, covered in detail in the diaries of Babajaga, Koric, Lundar and Jazz.

All contained herein, are the works of Callia the Mystic,
who is a character in the game Clan Lord by Delta Tao Software