"What?" the barkeep asked. He looked the vagrant up and down, careful to note that this wasn't the typical dog-tired patron he saw. Still, there was a haggard look to this one. The traveler's eyes were deep set, as though he hadn't slept in months, and his face was pale and thin. He looked half-dead to the barkeep. There were many men like this wandering around Dereth. But this was a little different.

"Ale...I've got a long journey home," the man said. He opened a hand and dropped a few pyreal coins onto the bar. Dust settled out of his hands and off his clothes.

"Been to the desert?" the barkeep asked, drawing a mug of ale from a spigot.

"Aye, just got back. On my way back to the Keep now." The man cleared his throat and looked around the bar. The barkeep thought he looked like a man with a load of guilt on his shoulders. But he wasn't going to press-he'd keep the conversation polite.

"I haven't been to the Keep yet. No need of it. Ale's still being delivered from all over and Lubziklan's delivered his latest batch of cider. Only person missing from the festival is Ulgrim." At that the barkeep rapped his knuckles on the bar top. His patron looked a little startled as he looked over the edge of his brew. "Yeah...word is that whoever betrayed the High Queen is still at large..." He clucked his tongue. His guest smiled and set his mug down on the bar, then stood to go.

"Thanks for the ale." The haggard man bowed shallowly.

"Any time, friend." The barkeep watched the man exit slowly through the tavern door. He shook his head and said aloud, to no one in particular, "Betrayal never pays."

The Ongoing Saga
Last month the heroes of Dereth fought a climactic battle against the broods and swarms of the Ancient Olthoi Queen. While High Queen Elysa Strathelar remained comatose and the Council sought to discover the identity of her assassin, Nuhmudira directed the counterattack.

It was a time of strange discoveries and stranger allies. Surprisingly, the Undead provided a key ingredient to victory-vials of poison that were used to contaminate the Olthoi food stores. While some heroes poisoned the food supplies and others battled the Ancient Queen directly, Nuhmudira cast a powerful spell that joined her mind to that of the enemy.

Faced with an alien presence in her mind, surrounded by Isparian weapons and spells, and sensing that her broods would be poisoned if they remained, the Ancient Queen fell back. She collapsed the tunnels behind her and fled from Dereth.

After months of battle, the Olthoi have been stopped! Those Olthoi remaining on Dereth are still a threat-and even now Sentinels have taken up residence in the Queen's chambers-but the immediate danger is past.

Questions remain, of course. What were the songs that Nuhmudira sang as she left the caverns? What did the Undead gain from this bargain? Whose voice was laughing on the wind?

Now it's time to think about what's happening this month. Here are three of the more interesting changes to the game being made in the November event:

Fort Tethana Renegade Raids
The Tumerok and Lugian Renegades who laid siege to Fort Tethana have pulled their forces back. The power levels of the three Generals have been adjusted to make them challenging to fight, without the time commitment that the quest previously demanded.

Quadruple-Bladed Axe
While making these changes to the Renegade Raids, we discovered that the Quadruple-Bladed Axe was not working as designed. It was intended to have a hidden quality similar to that of the Renegade Bow and Renegade Crossbow, but we discovered that this hidden quality was not working properly. Therefore, the Axe was considerably less powerful than we had intended. Starting today, the Axe is working as designed. Axe warriors may want to give this weapon another try!

Crippling Blow
After watching the dynamic carefully for some time, we decided that the Crippling Blow imbue was not quite as powerful as we had intended it to be. Therefore, we have increased its maximum critical hit multiplier on melee and missile weapons. Because war magic-based critical hits are handled very differently, no change was necessary to Crippling Blow imbues on wands, staffs, and orbs.

Those who will benefit most from this change are characters who were already getting the maximum effect from the imbue. However, all should see some benefit. Crippling Blow should now have approximately the same level of effectiveness as the Critical Strike imbue.