An Odd Wind Blows in the Direlands

June 1, 2000

Jena leaned heavily on a table in The Smoking Axe. The soothing, sea-blue light of the floor lamps utterly failed to improve her mood. "Stout,"she called to Berkholt, the barkeep. "Lots of it. Keep it coming until I disappear under the table."Across from her, Hendac looked up from a watery bowl of what passed for stew in Ayan Baqur, and quirked an eyebrow at her.

"It's bloody out there,"Jena grumbled. "There are bodies everywhere. If one more vitae-addled youngster begs me to cast a portal back to Arwic . . ."They had heard that sheets of portal-energy had rippled through the Direlands, bringing tougher Banderlings, possibly a new Shreth, and ripping open paths to long-hidden dungeons. Travelers from Osteth said that at the same time, some Shadow Spires began to drift across the landscape.

"I ran into skeletons today, Hendac; powerful types I've not seen before. They erupted from the sand and began marching northeast, as if summoned. The mage with me even claimed he'd seen new Drudges in the company of Virindi."She shook her head. "He cast a spectacular new fire spell. He said something about a voice from the darkness whispering the formula when he camped one night in the south. These days, being able to kill from a distance must be nice. I tell you, I'm tempted to make one of those new bows and start fighting from a treetop somewhere. But somehow that seems . . . less rewarding."

"It's those meatheads in Arwic,"Ulgrim slurred from the bar. He pointed in their general direction, squinting blearily across the room. "Mark my words . . . All those portal storms -- they're destabilizing portalspace!" Over Ulgrim's shoulder, Berkholt smiled wryly, and twirled a finger at his temple.

June 6, 2000

Reports are flooding into the new Direlands outpost of Ayan Baqur about the tide of portal energy that has flowed across the Direlands, depositing powerful new creatures on the landscape and opening portals to new dungeons. Heroes meeting new species of Drudge and Banderling have been at first surprised and then outright dismayed at their amazing speed and ferocity. Even more deadly, huge new skeletons -- perhaps the remains of ancient heroes -- rise towering from the plain and strike with a vitality that only the most potent spells of undeath could render. Lately, an unconfirmed rumor has it that a glittering monstrosity stalks the Obsidian Plain, a construct of sorcery so powerful that it can cleave a legion of heroes like a scythe on wheat.

Undismayed, Dereth's fearless adventurers make wider and wider sorties into the wilderness to explore the new catacombs, and some have returned carrying a remarkable new kind of bow that appears to be of surpassing quality.

So what has triggered these events? The Direlands have long been known as a region of unstable magic, but it appears that the wave of portal energy may be far more than a random flux. Travelers from Osteth report that the mysterious Shadow Spires, twisted floating citadels somehow connected with the Shadow invasions, have begun to drift across the land once more, and itinerant mages have learned new spell formulae at the whispering direction of an unseen force. Perhaps the entity responsible for the Shadow attack has returned -- inciting some dark new mischief even as it plays the role of a mysterious benefactor dispensing secrets and opening paths to wonderful new treasures.