News and Rumors

[ I'm sorry to the regular players for my tardiness in updating much of the game. This year has been a bit of a challenge, between changing jobs, trying to write more (outside D&D), and ushering in a new family member. Life has presented a number of challenges to me in my maintenance of the game and its chronicles. Thanks to y'all for your patience--I really enjoy playing with everyone! 

With the birth of a new baby, I may not be able to game as regularly as once was, but I will try to have a game at least every couple weeks to keep things moving. ]

For everyone who has been in Cothon-Gadeed during the past few months, here is a list of news and rumors going about the cities. It is not exhaustive, but it is representative of the things that our barbarian heroes of the chronicle have been either engaged in directly, or poking around the edges.

The Scribes are hoping to expand the scope of the described world soon--not expansively, but with more information about the Ten Cities League and the Hanse at large, to allow for a wider perspective on things. It would also make overseas merchanting or adventuring easier.

News and Rumors

• new Souffets have been elected, namely Bayzadis al Othmani and Urodas al Arasquiy. They'll be replacing the old Souffets over the course of the next month, and will essentially rule the cities of Cothon and Gadeed, as well as the Ten Cities League for the next three lunar years
• concurrently, there is another set of Games to be held at the end of this month, before the new solar year begins--the Xoldasoteri Games, which will echo the Games of the past two years (Coreguyi and Tsamri-Hane)--it will be a time for those who like to gamble to see if they can bet on better gladiators
• the new solar year is about to begin, after a brief intercalary month at the end of December--this will be another time for feast and festival, much like the lunar new years, but on a different scale; the populace of the cities looks forward to this time, especially as it marks the beginning of the end of winter (remember, winter will last until about June 2023)
• the menace of the restless dead in Tsurr al Qadeem continues to grow. There are now reports of the winged undead vorodla leading contingents of mrur, as well as reports of stranger things, all per the Poor Brothers of the Dead and various mourner-societies brave enough to still traverse the road to the Necropolis.
• Telman of Tsipa has returned to Cothon! A "brightening star" of the Hanse, he has been away for most of the last two lunar years prosecuting a campaign against the Luwian pirates.
• ... and yet there are certain rumors that the return of Telman is seen as a kind of opportunity, an opportunity to be rid of one whose stardom is seen as threatening
• the Kzin warlord, the Red Cloud, continues gathering a force of extraordinary magnitude to be wielded against Cothon-Gadeed in a final victory of Kzinti over Men
• pursuant to this threat, the two new Souffets are rumored to be readying an army to field against the Red Cloud and his bands; this is a new development compared to the more hands-off approach of the last two Souffets (which seems to have facilitated the Red Cloud's meteoric rise--why were the Souffets so reluctant to move against the Kzinti??)
• other than his investigations into the Barcidae (which are not really as public as the chronicle might suggest), Durham is known to have been throwing himself into some great project at the Ringing Anvil, with the clamor of smithing and much activity constantly sounding around in the neighborhood
• Bartholomew Pettibone and his cohorts are apparently engaged in developing some kind of wondrous entertainment routine, including performance with the musician Anataynus and the dancing girls of the Kantor Kabljauhof
• bands of robbers from the undercity (Medina al Taht) have grown bolder in recent weeks, even to the point of openly robbing passersby on the street and breaking into shops and warehouses; meanwhile, the Bani Dawr have taken interest below, sending servitors of their house into the undercity, and Najm claims to have been approached by a messenger from the undercity asking for help for his mistress below--perhaps in relation to this increased banditry?
• The Banit Dawr are also said to be making money hand-over-fist by engaging with merchants that seem to be able to avoid the troubles of both winter weather and the roving bands of the Red Cloud; for those in the know, they are apparently able to get goods for low summer prices! Have the Bani Dawr made some deal with the demons of the Fortress Moon, or used some other magic to effect this wonder?
• the Attine Klackons, disturbed by the recent excesses of violence from Kzinti warbands, have opened negotiations with the Souffets and the Xolda Klackons of the cities, a move unprecedented in recent history, as they Attines have traditionally been isolationist