Seeking the Maddened Dog

Joshua, Atriarch of the belated Mystaran forests and current ruler of the mystfolk made an unprecedented visit to the fishing village several days ago. The elusive monarch had caught word of troubles being perpetrated by one of his own. Not a mystfolk, as one might suspect, but a lycan who goes by as simply Mal. This lycan has spent the past couple weeks blustering through the village either casting wild threats at the entire populace or wreaking general havoc, assault and property damage.

This fellow arrived with the original group of settlers from The Mound. As a former Mystaran myself, I can relate that Mal was known to be problematic back in Mystara as well. Many a full moon had folk running for refuge from his pack of wolfkin as they raced across the land; killing indiscriminately of anyone luckless to cross paths with them. I was a victim of one such attack and barely survived it. Many fellow Mystarans can share similar tales. Mal, as is all lycan, is incredibly dangerous due to the nature of the blood curse. To compound the situation, Mal is a known necromancer. If the curse hasn’t entirely destroyed the man’s mind, clearly his necromancy has finished the job.

He and his pack had all but disappeared into the jungle when they first arrived at Eyr. A month or so ago, Mal made his first appearance in the fishing village since and he was oddly alone. I suspect his pack are either all dead or have cast him out. In the beginning, he spent most of his days in the tavern grimly talking to himself and being petulantly morose.

His miserable attitude is what sparked the first of what would be several episodes with the lycan’s madness. A disagreement in the tavern spurred Mal to invoke his necromantic powers to unleash a swarm of locusts – from his very mouth! I saw it with my own eyes. As far as I could tell, he did it purely for petty theatrics. Fortunately, the folk within the Salty Swallow were able to kill and squash all of the conjured insects before they were allowed to be set loose to devour the jungle’s plantlife.

The second episode, Mal decided in a fit of deranged wisdom to showcase his mastery over the elements. He channeled black lightning within himself, setting himself on fire in the process. There are still scorch marks on the floor of the tavern where he stood to perform the feat. No one else was harmed, thankfully, save for a tree he threw the bolt of energy into. You can find the blackened stump of where it once was along the riverbank. That example of magic play should have killed the lycan, but some fellow spellcasters were there on hand to attend to his immediate life-threatening injuries.

Once he was healed from lambasting himself, the lycan instigated a brawl in the tavern. A pair of tigers came within a hair’s breath of snapping his neck and I hear that one of his hands was lopped off and tossed to the sharks. This all would be well and good, but Mal was left to live – and worse – incensed when one of his attackers stole off with his staff.

This has led to the present standoff between Eyr and lycan. Mal now storms randomly through the village and makes brazen threats to raise the undead and inviting murder and mayhem around the Kuvari river. That is UNLESS he has his staff returned to him.

Mal is under Joshua’s protection, so by political necessity, the Atriarch is now spending most of his energy tracking the wolf down. Joshua was incapacitated and unable to prevent the mystfolk from descending into petty tribal warfare while he recuperated from relocating The Mound. A war, I’ll remind you all, that nearly destroyed the island in the process. So one can easily imagine that the myst king is feeling particularly compelled to settle this issue quickly with His werewolf, less the latter causes another tribal pogrom.

Now that he is actively being hunted, Mal is proving to be most elusive. Joshua asks that anyone with knowledge of the lycan’s whereabouts to bring word back to him, The Mound, or his people as fast as they possibly can.

-Rumour Mill Correspondent, Gideon

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Commentary and imagery written and designed by Farah Hannu.

A Wild Man Revealed!

Newest Mill Correspondent, Gideon, has an update regarding the previously mentioned “Wild Man” who has been stalking, attacking and intimidating the Eyranese village folk. The mystery has finally unraveled itself. The Wild Man has been identified as none other than Dareth of Falconer, one of the refugees of the belated Mystara. A full report is detailed below:

Nearly a week had passed since the angry cry roared forth from the Medica and bounced it’s way about the fishing village and along the path of the river. One that took us time to find out more of this tale. Apparently the cry was from no other than the rumoured ‘Wild Man’, finally brought to justice. And by none other than the Naga Mizu and Lady Blanche Greyling. The unlikely pair of vigilantes led a surge into the jungle one night to capture the Wild Man to end the spying and purported extortion the man had been bringing against Lady Greyling. A skillfully drawn arrow and subsequent tackle brought the three crashing down to the Crafter’s docks from the hill above, knocking the man unconscious with an arrow protruding from his backside. Mizu and Blanche suffered no more than bruises and a few abrasions, though all were dizzy from the fall. The Wandering Wizard, Elendil Olorin, spotted the fracas and came to lend his assistance. He cast a curious suspension spell which allowed the group to transport the unconscious man to the Medica, where he was treated and subsequently bound for interrogation for when he awoke.

Dareth of Falconer is the man identified as the Wild Man and apparently he has been calling Eyr his home for the last several years. Though from what we were told, he was not aware of it being Eyr until his prior capture of the Lady Blanche Greyling weeks before. It took several hours of interrogation for this information to come forth and even rumors of further injuries to his person. Blanche herself lead the questioning, accompanied by her siren friend, Alithia. Screams, shouting and the sound of gritty male laughter was heard coming from the Medica. The man may have been able to hold out against them but in the course of the interrogation, they finally got out who he was. More was believed said of his ordeals here in Eyr but no one would speak further on the matter.

At the moment all we know is that somehow this man survived the wild jungle on his own for a number of unknown years. Far from the village we call home and lost in a pit of survival against the natives of this land, only recently finding the village before kidnapping the Lady Blanche for questioning.

A truce has been declared between Dareth and the Lady Greyling. There will be no more spying or extortion for safe passage (again – purported). She even agreed to return his shield and spear which had been lost in the altercation. Blanche did, however, take return of her arrow.

When questioned after the interrogation, Blanche would not admit to any wrongdoing or inhumane practices. Only that,
“Dareth and I have a truce. We have an agreement. If he had used a bar of soap this all might have been avoided as I might have recognized him sooner. But that is water under the bridge now. He is a man of his word and now that I have it I will trust him on that. I hope there will be no further problems between us.”

So there you have it. Hopefully an arrow to the rear will serve as a proper ending to the short reign of terror Dareth subjected our sleepy village to.

-Gideon, Rumour Mill Correspondant

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Commentary and imagery written and designed by Farah Hannu.
Report co-written by Blanche Fralto and Dom MacArthur with permission of Angeloflifelight Resident, Keirebu Resident, and Mizuze Resident.