Autumn 50th, 544

Already the time has of this conversation has passed, but often I must choose between walking the lands, or writing here, and I hope that readers will forgive me if I sometimes choose the former for my own peace of mind.

The exiles shown to the right were kind enough to escort me to speak with Lord Tenebrion recently. The primary focus of this conversation was on the subject of the Ether. Much of what was discussed was information that I had heard elsewhere, and wished to hear confirmed.

I did however learn some things I consider noteworthy.

Most important, Tenebrion informed me that each of his brothers has created a servant who can aid exiles in understanding the Flow of Ether. Of specific note is an entry in Koric's Journal, dated Autumn 77th. In this entry, Koric notes a mysterious figure in the Garden maze by the castle we believe belongs to Cimmbrion. The figure is named Leradla, and from this name, and the fact that the way in to visit him is blocked in the fashion the entrance to Lalerad is, I deduce that this is the teacher of Ethereal studies employed by Cimmbrion.

Summer 70th, 544

My time continues to be largely occupied by my library research, however, in such time as I can manage to get outside the library I have managed to do some things.

With the kind assistance of many exiles (pictured to the right) I was able to gain access to Lalerad, who teaches an understanding of Ethereal flow.

The party was primarily organized and led by Entil'zha, who agreed to do it at the request of Jo Ma'ril, despite her apparent dislike of mystics.

The group successfully battled its way to the top of Tenebrion's tower, and then down to the basement, the former being necessary component of such an endeavor, as the basement is locked.

This strikes me as a curious thing... Tenebrion is protective of his basement. It is locked, and has insisted that it is private. And yet.... It is in the basement that he has created a location for this new Sarir he has created for the purpose of teaching us exiles to better understand the Ether. This strikes me as a curious dichotomy, he claims his basement as a private space, and yet he offers us training there, so.. clearly he expects us to make the trip. This seems to me to be yet more evidence of his manipulation, sometimes subtle, sometimes less so, of exiles for his own ends. What he wants, in specific escapes me, though I suspect in general, he feels whatever he is doing will be beneficial for him and his brothers.

Our journey was successful, and ShadowEarth, Ezi, Algar, K'vynn and myself were all able to begin studying with Lalerad.

What results the course of study will bring remain to be seen. It is my personal suspicion, that Lalerad's training, like Leladar's is limited in scope. Hopefully it will be enough that we will be able to obtain more useful results from the Ethereal Amulets.

As yet, I do not feel that I have learned enough to make a difference. The training itself is curious, in substance it would seem to be similar to that offered by Leladar, however, Lalerad seemed unimpressed by the study I had already done with her. While that study was admittedly of limited scope, I nonetheless expected him to at least acknowledge it.

In other, more mystical news, the Council has again chosen to act. Luminary, one of the oldest members of the Guild has been advanced to the rank of Mystic. I'm sure that her keen intelligence, and her extensive astronomical knowledge will serve both the Guild and Puddleby well.

Summer 29th, 544

Among the most interesting things of note: This pen was located on Ash Island. There are similar skulls marking each wall. From the outside, the center is impossible to see to. When we looked at it, as you can see, there were a number of Night Wendies, and one or two Scarmis Foragers.

Unfortunatly, I had to leave, Lundar remained, and observed as the Scarmis numbers increased dramatically. Eventualy, they burrowed out of the enclosure, Lundar and a number of others were able to enter through the hole left by the Scarmis. In the center of the encloser, there is a castle. Could this be the Castle of Lugubrion? It seems a distinct possibility.

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.

Winter 12th, 544

A new year, full of new possibilities. Mystics always celebrate the new year, for us it is a time of rejoicing, as it marks the return of the Sun.

I have been busy of late attempting to conduct an Ethereal Survey of Puddleby. Ether is present everywhere, but the concentrations can be too high, or too low. Tenebrion and Umbrion have requested that we perform surveys to determine aberrant Ethereal activity. For more information on this, see Babajaga's Diary.

I have made several maps of my Ethereal readings, but I am growing somewhat discouraged, the Amulets are very unreliable. To date I have detected 11 separate reading, ranging from dangerously high, to dangerously low. However, Ethereal activity seems to fluctuate so rapidly that an area which reads as dangerously high one moment, might read as normal or even slightly below normal the next. Variance I have seen thus far can be as much as 6 points on the scale of readings. So, in effect, the amulets are capable of approximately 3 vague readings: High, medium, and low.

The possibilities are many, Ethereal activity may just be that fluid. However, I cannot help but wonder if more precise readings would be possible were I better trained. Leladar offers only limited training in the subject, does Umbrion know more than he has allowed Leladar to teach us? Or are there perhaps better tools available for understanding the Ether than have yet been offered to us? Perhaps both?

It would be helpful if we could speak to Umbrion on the subject. Or even Tenebrion, though I gather this is more Umbrion's field of knowledge than Tenebrions. If any reader has the chance to speak to any of the brothers on this subject and could remember to ask I would appreciate it. I doubt that Umbrion will respond favorably, and it would be best not to antagonize him unnecessarily. However, if presented politely with actual data he might we willing to be of some assistance.

On the more positive side, my surveying has given me reason to join many expeditions to varied portions of the lands which I might not normally frequent. To the right is a sketch of an expedition to the Tree Giant Breeding Ground, a fairly normal hunting ground, but honestly not a place I go often. My skills with the Rod of Akea, while modest in my own estimate, were nonetheless sufficient as to allow Kiriel and Mario to take down the Willow Giants blocking our way. Willows still pack quite a punch however, and with out Tater, Nyika and Allanon to absorb the damage, this one still would have been difficult to defeat.

My travels while surveying have taken me over a wide area thus far, I have made an extensive survey of the North Forest, the Tangle Wood, the Snaggle Wood, the South Forest, The East Forest, and the environs around town. Though as I've mentioned, I'm more than a little skeptical of how useful these will be. I think the greatest use my results thus far might be put to, is to convince Umbrion that we are seriously interested.

On my trip to the East Forest, Elise, Zyzyz and I stopped by the site of Sir West's grave. The Order of True and Gentle Knights maintains a strong presence in the lands, and there are many fine Knights among them. But of them all, it is Sir West I think of, he was the finest of them all. Even today, though he is dead these many years, I miss him still.

His exploits were many, his kindness and loyalty were legendary. But he was poisoned by Sendorian. The power of the Lok'Grotton Islands prevents most deaths, but not Sir West's, and we are all the poorer for it.

The other Knight I miss is of course Ser Zwei, who has returned to the mainland, or perhaps.. has sailed west, following the last known sightings of Znt, beloved of Zwei, and one of the greatest story tellers Puddleby has ever known.

In other news I have joined the Order of the Mini (suitably attired naturally). The Order of the Mini has languished in recent years, and only a handful of Mini's still walk the lands. The most notable of these is Elise, who has been making some efforts to revive the clan. The primary problem that she and recent recruit Zyzyz were having was lack of access to the clan accounts. The clan Treasurer, Barbie Girl was one of the inactive members.

Feeling that the active members of the clan should control the clans accounts, I joined in order to provide the quorum necessary to assume control. Elise and Zyzyz have made strong entreaties for me to stay in the clan, but I am unsure if I will remain. I appreciate their kindness, and I am glad to have had a chance to help the Mini's. They remind me of my friends, Maquiladora, who is gone from the lands, and of Solome. Solome still walks the lands, but she is now a member of the Red Quill and is seldom out of the library at the same time as I am, so I never see her. The Mini's to me, were always cheerful, outgoing, and funny, and I am more of the serious and reserved type.

The only other active Mini I know of is Ruby, an Apprentice of my own Guild. Sparrow, one of the founders, still walks the lands as well, but she no longer wears the clan emblem, and presumably does not wish to.

I would direct you to the scrolls of the Mini's, outdated though they might be. However, they were maintained by Maquiladora, and are no longer available. History lost, alas.

Older entries have been moved to the Archives.

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