Undoubtedly Agatha Wondmere has crisscrossed the paths of many of the coterie, and scholars of the paranoid arts are free to debate whether it's better to have spotted her than not at all. From her stories, shared liberally, it seems the eternal ingenue has been indulging the temptation to recreate her days of color. Agatha speaks of chandeliers and dancing, masques and exotic entertainments, and she casually name-drops a few of the more snootish mortal revelers. The glamour and gossip reveal very little in the end---and one is left to wonder whether there's any dashed meaning to it all. Much more quietly, the Waterdhavian transplant has been rebuilding her web of thralls and collaborators. There are the fences, crooks, and crooked guards, naturally, but Agatha has particularly sought out collectors of oddments, relics, and magical rarities. It's in their service that she's lent her nimble fingers on the winged promise of a favor owed.

Content Update: Bloom of the Mycelium The Twilight Below "I made pact long ago neath pale moon's light, to frith advents and departed like. 'Tis a recluse toil. Unless, of course, thou would'st join my emprise?" -- Rheya, the Gloaming Witch. Enter a fully fledged, themed, carefully designed and catered sub-region within the Province of Moonreach: the Mycelium, a subterranean network of saprophyte and remote magic, in symbiosis of fresh life and long dead. The sub-region brings new combat, exploration, and narrative content. Under the bioluminescent glow of a false sky, a mysterious new danger threatens new friends. An otherworldly incursion into once peaceful colonies brings peril to the Mycelium's inhabitants. This content is designed for levels 10-13, with a range of difficulty meant for flexibility between solo or duo play, small groups, and full parties. Fellowship & Foes "Easy, friend. Don't let happen to you, whatever happened to them." -- Bleddyn Wolvwayth. New environs, as well as two new dungeons have been added. The first is a full dungeon that includes multiple levels, bosses, and secrets, with new chests and tailored loot. The second is hidden, and contains its own secret boss. That is in addition to new and updated content throughout the province of Moonreach, including secret passages, adjacent combat and non-combat areas, and new and occasionally secret connections. Among other changes, level 7 of the primary dungeon spine below Moonreach Keep has received significant updates in terms of difficulty, enemies, and the boss fight. Itemization & Martial Balance "Surprising all, the squire withstood their acidous onslaught. By some secret he then took to his grave." -- Willard Brodrick. The Mycelium is home to artefacts of occult power. Some are tailored specifically to protect against its threats. Others grant mycelial strength to those who can find them. This update further adds items to help round out certain martial classes in the middling levels. It introduces new items for Rangers, Monks, Paladins, and Rogues. New combat encounters involve varied and diverse enemies with clear strengths and weaknesses, including those vulnerable to certain types of melee tactics as will become clear. That is in addition to other, more subtle enemies -- each of which will be more numerous in party dungeons, which are invitations to party play. Predetermined and random rewards scale with risk. Campaign & Plot Progression "Calm waters are the clearest of moonlight's vessels." -- Murrin, the Moongazer. As always, new and updated areas contain background lore and plot implications, its Keep, its denizens, as well as those of the new sub-region. Players will encounter new and updated NPCs. Those who explore and look closely will find reading materials and visuals, and uncover environmental narrative. More generally, the updated content also converges with, and accounts for, player backgrounds and player actions, including those characters and actions regarding The Waning Moon.

Events are transpiring concurrently to the Zhentarim occupation of Norwick. The Zhentarim are now besieging the Witch and Seer Inn. The next sequence of events will take place within the one week duration of that siege. At this point, the following is public knowledge at Moonreach Keep: The Cleimant Council has sent the vast majority of its forces, including its bannermen led by Jecken Stockley and Olivia Gor, and Lunar Knights led by May Celine to the Nars front against the Zhentarim, to support the current Peltarchian allies. Ava Brokenblade, Motley Grey, and Firnen Kaapo have remained behind to attend to matters at the Keep, which is now on a minimum-capacity basis, and to advise and keep Lord Caleb far away from the Zhentarim threat. Hidden Moon High Priest Elias Houl has commenced an inquisition into the dark forces that have afflicted the Keep, assuming a more direct hand in the ongoing investigations conducted by the Locus Operandi, which have so far revealed occult influences over the tiefling Zamo Palewind, the Lunar Knight Shane Mills, and the fiend-blood sympathizer Flamekeeper Ereda, each of which have been gaoled. The foregoing occult influences have resulted in possession leading to murders of Selunite faithful, including the high-profile murder of priest Jacob, of the Southern Chapel, as well as attacks upon and abductions those known to be affiliated with the faith, including the Lunar Knights as well as other, lower-profile victims. Under the hand of the high priest Houl, the Selunite inquiry into the ritualistic murders has grown to systematic inquisition. The High Priest Houl has instructed the priestesses Lealiel and Leonora to make use of the Clerical spell "Know Alignment," and instructed the Lunar Knight Dano Farsworn to use his innate ability to detect evil, to conduct sweeping verification and confirmation of evil members of the keep, beginning with those most suspected or known to being evil by their nature. As a result of the foregoing, two tieflings, a Duergar dwarf, and Derro halfling have been gaoled. The inquisition continues, with rumors that additional tieflings and at least one svirfneblin having been identified as next in line for verification. There are unconfirmed rumors that the present members of the Cleimant Council have ordered the High Priest to pause his inquisition until further notice (expected to be delivered following the the trial of the Flamekeeper, which is set to be held by the next sunset). The veracity of these rumors is unclear, considering that the inquisition remains ongoing. [DM Eternal / DM Xanatos Gambit]

Refractions of Silver Chapter excerpt from Heterodoxy of the Hidden Moon, by May Celine 1.0. Dispersions That there would be one exclusive understanding of any given faith is the most mortal conceit. This peril runs double for those powers that have existed the longest, among which is our Moonmother Selûne. It was ever ago, though I remember it clear. The night in which Lorenna Suaril, daughter to the High Priestess of Order of the High Moonlight, draped her attack in the cloak of a question. Her tone steeled with rhetoric certainty and skepticism. Certainty in her mother's orthodoxy. Skepticism in our then fledgling Order of the Hidden Moon. "Is the denial of Selûne's light not apostate? Our Moonmother is She is Who Guides -- and not, as it were, She Who Hides." So she spoke at the Waterdhavian House of the Moon, upon the eve of Selûne's Hallowing, during the Year of Winter's Chill. Before the whole of the church attendance, from the eldest priests to the youngest acolytes, traveled far and wide. To ask so publicly and opportunely was doubtlessly the plan. Borne, perhaps, in concern for her mother's position. "Ask not why she hides amidst clouds or brings forth tides to veil lands in crystal fog. Know instead that she guides even when unseen. Such is the difference between moonlight and nightgloom." So replied the late sage Mirabel Brokengulf, may she now peacefully rest, having laid bare our Order's foundation. Before the church, its leaders, and all those gathered for its most cherished holy day. Spurned by many of the attendants. Attendants who did not wish to displease the daughter of the revered and respected Naneatha Suaril. She who hesitated, and decided to contemplate rather than rebuke her daughter's insult. Many, but not all. [DM Xanatos Gambit]

Still shivering from the cold, Isolde leaves the following note at HQ before retreating to the Bardic College to warm up: "Ludwig Palehand is some manner of lich, his phylactory potentially in Geroldine's possession. At least half of the army marching towards us are undead, perhaps as much as 2/3rds. ~Isolde Garibaldi~"

[This may have been a bust again, sorry folks. I'll try to plan better in the future]

The latest news on the Red Kermis front, amicably forwarded by Isolde, is that the weaselly little frog-man did in fact make good on contacting Lain Laurent Dupont, who dropped by the Mermaid recently. While the rest of the fractal twins are gallivanting around planes unknown, Lain Laurent revealed that a member of Vortex, the wizard of the group, once tried to recruit him to their ranks. On Isolde's request, he'll set up a meeting with this wizard in the near future.

Isolde, mindful of the process in this stage of the investigation, has simply ordered the pages as they were found and where, clearly believing there are more to be found. However she has yet to return to the sewers, seeming to put it off to whenever someone 'sturdy' is available to clear a path for her in the muck below. She and Nate have been going over the findings to date and decided that the wayward physician's clothing ought be the best bet for a Legend Lore spell. Presumably Isolde invites herself along to the Cerulean lab when Nate sees fit to get this particular job done.

Windy Woodlands And so it comes into view, something bold, something new. What is there to show, past the wild things that grow, up and down, or where down is up, and up is down, it can be a bend, just to get around? For the wind blows, and it will, far away; after a venture, past that which glows, under, and bound, around and around, all week, month, and year. Oh, it can blow, that is, until, that which'll make the winds still, in the caverns, oh the caverns, so far, yet so near. -- Somewhere in Marigold, a new passage is open - into the Windy Woodlands. Ridges twist and turn, and moody gusts about - that is, unless, one looks the right way, in the right place. Newcomers to the vale have yet to walk these paths. Something hidden can be found, past temperamental gales. But what? -- [DM Xanatos Gambit]

Proximus Gradus The Golden Geese have reportedly been busy. According to rumor, they: staged a successful ambush against "the Unreal", a dread doppelganger. captured Barton Cade, the hooded trespasser who has been working in league with the doppelgangers. Barton Cade confirmed the location of the doppelganger headquarters. have successfully raided the doppelganger hive, and killed the 8 doppelgangers they found there. Following the raid on the doppelganger hive, they found memory crystals containing doppelganger studies on those individuals the hive intended to abduct, impersonate, and replace. Using these materials, the party has confirmed the identity of arcanist who has behind the curse spell that was cast upon King Thalaman Fisher. It appears to be that the King's brother, Prince Kasimir Fisher, hired the dark visage, imported the black knives weaponry, and cast the curse upon the King - apparently, it seems, as a step in a broader ritual requiring royal blood for the revivification of an ancient lich. Meanwhile, during the doppelganger raid, General Gom squared off against Prince Kasimir in City Hall. Upon further investigation of the battle site, George Longcloak found a speck of the Prince's blood, a necessary ingredient for the spell to reverse the curse cast upon the King. That is, the blood of the original caster. Salin Ashald, who correctly identified the spell, further intuited that a powerful Siamorphan's assistance would be the best way to minimize the risks of spell failure - considering the party only has one chance to use the current ingredients. During this time, Reyhenna Jorino beheaded Alaric Glades, a Siamorphan delegate, and then imprisoned the remainder of the Siamorphan clergy and diplomats in the city. Consequently, Temperance of Gulderhorn and her Silver Chalice battalion approach the Jewel of the Icelace. In view of the need for a powerful Siamorphan priest, Reyhenna Jorino, George Longcloak, and General Gom have agreed to offer Temperance an armistice and request her assistance. Gulderhorn's battalion is poised to siege the city as initially promised to purge it of its alleged military usurpers. Only time will tell whether she chooses to accept the offer of Peltarch's military. [DM Xanatos Gambit]

Rey interjects, perhaps with mild affront. "Screw Halbrook, he's political arsenic, I'll provide the paperwork."

As the party has learned from some of their contacts, the encroaching darkness coming from the south is spreading at alarming rate. A fair section of the Rawlins has now succumbed to it, and it does not appear to be stopping. On the bright side, the threat remains deep enough that it has not interacted with humans, at least for now. //I've set up a barrier in the Far Northeast section of the Rawlins - please don't trespass without letting me know! Do post in the forums or in PM if there is anything you want to do about it. There will be server-wide events related to it soon, too.

The War that Never Was For some time now, the brave fools risking it all to try and preserve the past have noticed one figure absent from their recent hikes through history; the Eastlander Archmage at the center of all this. Her terse, at times frantic, at times self-assured person was missing from the past and present alike, and in her absence the group had also noticed certain unwholesome developments in their present. Goblings, an horrific cross of Goblins and Halflings created in the darkest days of the Defiler Wars in ages past, were seen again, and in growing numbers, their cannibalistic fervour as unsettling as their presence in a time far removed from when they and their corrupting Master were defeated and destroyed. The strange arcane anomalies that hinted at temporal disturbances which previously had snapped themselves back to normality were now more inclined to linger. Finally, the group uncovered where the reckless arcanist had been sequestered; a particularly virulent timeline in which the servants of that ancient menace, the Defiler, had learned of the Archmage's strange powers, and were seeking to use them to defy their own historical fates - after all if some mere Eastlander could do so, why not the great Vinessa Redoran? The great adventurers of Narfell's past have perished in the Battle of Norwick, and now the Dark Enchantress Vinessa and her greatest ally Selron the Deceiver command the terrible forces of a corrupted Rawlinswood, and conduct gruesome and catastrophic experiments upon their prisoners and the Wild Magic of Norwick's Well. Norwick itself lies besieged by the Eastland Maurader Chief Garrick, as the Archmage is forced to fight a long and costly war to destroy Vinessa and the Defiler, lest their corruption escape to the future anew or worse yet, corrupt Time itself and potentially force the most severe of interventions from the Powers who protect such things.