Dec 1209 Chronicle

Travance Chronicle
December 1209
-- Collected by Portia Rom

Note: As I will be out of town spreading the word of Chronicler during the next feast, I welcome contributions, observations, and other additions to the January Chronicle, which will contain a few timeless pieces.

YULTIDE MIRACLES
Magnus back from the dead; Brick regains her voice.

The Fifth (?) Coming of Magnus

Yes, it’s true –  Squire Magnus Zero von Ritter is back from the dead in what the masses are calling a “yuletide miracle.”

No word on how it happened though. According to the Chronicle’s source, “all parties involved with the resurrection asked that their names and the process that took place remain anonymous for their protection.  What happened could potentially be used for evil purposes and is dangerous for anyone involved.”


Brick the Mute Becomes Brick the Chatty

After two years of silence, Brick Brockles miraculously regained her voice during the last feast. The details of this process are being withheld for the security of those involved.

Brockles originally lost the ability to speak after a hobgoblin named Septimus tortured her until she had no voice left. Septimus was seeking revenge against her for killing some of his guards as they came to collect her brother, Brak, for service in the army.

Brak eventually rescued Brockles, and together they escaped to Travance and hid for two years, until this moon, when Septimus reappeared. At first, he tried to take her by force, and Brockles said he would have taken her if not for the courageous action of Tari Zafirah and Barak Tellinghast. As Brockles put it, she was particularly surprised by Tellinghast’s action as, he “has no compelling reason to be so kind to a goblin and I found it all to be really remarkable once I had calmed down.”

Septimus also arrived with un-forged legal documents stating that Brockles was, in fact, his slave, but the Count refused to surrender her. Finally, Septimus told Brockles that her family – of 30-plus individuals -- had not died in battle, but rather lived as his slaves. He promised to kill them if she did not accede to his demand.

The details of how Septimus was finally driven away from Travance are also being withheld for the safety of those involved.

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Vestments as tough as your armor, yet as stylish as the feather in your cap.
The Seamstress at the Sign of the Crooked Pin
"Fashions for your days and knights."
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Wandering  Scholar Hornswoggles Town, But Is Defeated

A duplicitous scholar arrived in town during the last moon, warning of an impending attack on Travance. The scholar, who said he was Garic Ironwing, 28, of Loez, arrived in town on Friday evening, peddling a story about four brothers – one representing each element -- with the ability to transform into animals who had been trapped in between animal and human state by an evil dark elf druid.

Ironwing claimed that the brothers had been so corrupted that they attacked and slaughtered the members of any town thought to be harboring any sort of evil, even an evil unknown to the public at large.

In order to undo the enchantment on the brothers and to protect the town, Mother Quinn, Lady Rosa, Sorel Argentblade, and Oakroot led the citizens of Travance on questions to obtain sacred gems corresponding to the four elements. The gems resided in elemental realms reached by portals that Ironwing located. However, as Mother Quinn put it in an exclusive missive to the Chronicle:

“When he [Ironwing] wanted the four gem holders alone for a ritual to help the four brothers, it aroused suspicion and thusly his sneaky mannerisms unfolded until we attempted to apprehend him. He managed to get away long enough to gain composure, then proceeded to summon many elementals and attack the town.”

A mighty battle in the middle of a blizzard ensued, until, Mother Quinn charges, the town “managed to defeat him and free the brothers from their corruption.”

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Von Kreutzdorf Alkhemikal Kandies & Apothecarium
Whatever your need, be it herbal, alkhemikal, or confectionary, we have it.  Be sure to visit our booth at Market Faire!  Ask for Rudolf and remember, It's the Gummy that makes it Yummy!
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GET EDGE
Listen Blade!
By Blade

Weather cold.  It snow.  Still Cold.  Next Feast, me think still cold.
Me see you no gloves, you no smart! Me see you no thick clothes, you no smart.  Get smart, listen Blade, wear clothes, even if you Kamen woman.

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Blade’s Smokables
Buy cigar.  Make happy you!
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Dr. Maxwell Warns of Possible Plague

Dr. Maxwell believes that he has contained a plague that may have arrived in Travance during the November feast. According to Dr. Maxwell, a man arrived at the inn during that feast with others who said he was “acting abnormally.”

After that man tried to infect Dr. Maxwell, the doctor said, “I asked Solomon Darkheart to strike him down so I could treat him and learn more of the disease.” Although Dr. Maxwell swiftly figured out that the man was carrying an infectious worm, he said, “I’d advise others in the town, if they notice associates acting abnormally, to bring it to the attention of myself or another qualified physician.”

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Angry at the Chronicle? Got a correction? Send your complaint to Portia by messenger, and she'll respond to select letters in upcoming editions of the Chronicle.
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Opinion: Too Many Secrets in Travance

In recent months, the Chronicle has been condemned as “salacious gossip” full of  “half-truths.” I wish to respond to these charges. Each moon, I make a good faith effort to discover issues that are new and ongoing in Travance, and I collect these stories to inform the public, and occasionally, to entertain them. I am only as good as the information I am given. Sometimes, the pressures of time do not allow me to talk to every person involved in a situation. And when conducting an interview, if I am told half-truths, or mocked, not answered when I ask basic questions about issues that are new to me, the articles I produce will not be as accurate or as informative as they could be.

Let me be clear: for this reason, I welcome, and will publish, verifiable factual corrections and updates to stories that have appeared in the Chronicle.

I also wish to state that threats will not prevent me from publishing stories. If anything, threats against my person, or against the newsletter in general only serve to enhance my curiosity and my commitment to pursue a story to the bitter end.

By the same token, I do not publish everything I know. I wish to make this clear: I am willing to maintain the secrecy of certain facts when extremely good, honest reasons are presented to me in the context of the whole truth. But I also believe that the citizens of Travance deserve to know of major matters taking place in their own town in a timely way.

If conventional wisdom is to be believed, everything from the feast menu to the outcome of public battles should be veiled in the name of “the safety of the town.” This is hogwash. Not all information need be shrouded in secrecy – in fact, when information is publicly and freely given, when town members work together to pool their knowledge, great things can and will result, such as the future establishment of library by a collection of scholars, doctors, and priests.

Many members of town, both new and established, have been wonderful in terms of their honesty, openness, and willingness to provide information to me on or off the record and to them I owe the greatest debt of thanks a Chroniclerite can offer.

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Word of the Moon
Spatchcock: v. to remove the spine of a creature and open it up like a book and press it flat, as a bird for grilling.
Usage:  “Did you see Solomon Darkheart spatchcock that goblin?”

This word of the moon brought to you by the church of Chronicler. Win the right to choose next month's word by sending in the best usages you've overheard this moon.
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Dead Heroes Found in Forest

Last moon, a local peasant found the two dead bodies in the woods. According to the peasant, Sarah Warren, the bodies had multiple sword wounds and had been badly burnt.

“I was going to pay respects to my grandmother in the graveyard,” she said, “when I happened upon their sickly burnt and twisted bodies. It was just awful.”

Upon further investigation, the bodies were revealed to be Montaron “Montey” Dosryn and his wife Celeste, who had recently come to town looking to retire into a legendary life.

Radu Dragovic, Sir Barak Tellinghast, and Cinder brought the bodies back to town and were buried in the graveyard at Warren’s request. Any further information on these two or their untimely demise should be directed to Sir Tellinghast or any member of the town guard.

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Looking for love for yourself or someone else? Want to profess undying love for your sweetheart? Or declare your love (anonymously) for that svelte maiden the next town over? Your message could appear here. Contact Portia for details.
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ME KNOW
Advice By Blade

Dear Blade,

Are women good for anything else than being barefoot in the kitchen?

Chauvinist in Green Dell

Green Dell,

Woman good at barefoot many places! Shoes in snow good or you lose woman to snow.  Woman good for protect young, smash bad bear who want eat young.  Woman good for mother. You want good woman, you get goblinoid woman! She cook, She clean, she strike down enemies good! Me meet some nice other woman too. Maybe you like barefoot woman, you like hobbit girl. Hobbit girl also like cook in kitchen. Me think you like hobbit. Me like kitchen too, but you think outside of kitchen and woman good more!

Blade

Dear Blade,

Why does my father try to run my life through booze and dreams?  Why does he run off on crazy quests only he can see and leave our family home for days at a time?

Signed,
Worried Son in Kaladonia

Worried Son,

No easy being no father in life. Blade knows. Fathers leave, many reasons, some good, some no good. You grow up good. You learn make family. You learn stay, even if he go. You not father. No let father run life, you run life. Father maybe crazy, Father maybe secret stuff. No matter you! If Father love when here, let Father love. If Father no love, let Father go. You make own life. Booze a sometimes fun. Dreams good if you make true. Tell Father you love Father, tell Father you want him stay, but in end, father do as father do, and it not about you.

Blade

You buy father cigar, maybe he like cigar, then tell him you buy from Blade, then maybe father buy cigar.


Something Amiss with Focus?

Cecil is worried that something may be amiss with the focus. Due to complex disruptions in the spirit realm, glowing crystals of extraordinary healing power have appeared in Travance, crystals with the power to heal any injury almost instantaneously. However, Cecil explained, such items may draw power from the focus too quickly, possibly leading to a permanent depletion of that entity.

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Put some zip in your lip and pep in your step with Portia’s pickles, available at Market Faire.

This edition of the Travance Chronicle has been generously sponsored by Father Edwin Haroldson, of the church of Valos; Mallaidh McSweeny McKraegar, Lady Smith of Travance and proprietress of The Sign of the Crooked Pin; and Rudolf Von Kreutzdorf of Von Kreutzdorf Alkhemikal Kandies & Apothecarium.

Want to sponsor the Chronicle? Just ask Portia.