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CONCERN GROWS OVER CROWN FINANCES

By Damon Clamp, Economics Correspondent

Dateline: 4-8-516

Reports have reached the Bereny Bugle of concern in the Royal Exchequer of a growing ‘black hole’ in the Crown’s finances, with some analysts even going as far as to wonder if the Crown is in danger of going bust.

“People have no idea of the expense the Goblin War has caused to the Crown coffers,” one Exchequer official, who has asked to remain anonymous, told the Bugle. “The cost of teleporting all those BAR members to Moonward was immense, and now they are all demanding to be teleported back again! His Grace the Regent may be a capable military leader but he can be lacking in fiscal prudence at times and he keeps committing the Crown to new expenditure without the slightest thought about where the gold is going to come from.”

“The size of the Royal Army has been expanded in response to the recent crises and there is serious concern that we aren’t going to have enough gold to pay all those soldiers. And don’t even get me started on the cost of opening the portal to the Daemonrift.”

The Goblin War has also hit Royal revenues by depriving the Exchequer of tax income from estates in Moonward that have been over-run by the Goblins; already one estate on Bereny’s borders has had to be permanently abandoned as unviable. However the biggest loss of revenue has been caused by the destruction of the once prosperous town of Meadowbrook. “Then there is the increasing number of citizens who are exploiting the loophole that lets licensed Adventurers live tax-free,” our source told us. “I’m sure many of them do kill monsters and all that, but as they don’t have to submit to any sort of performance review one can’t help but wonder how many of them are just a bunch of freeloaders.”

According to the information that has reached the Bugle, Exchequer officials are looking at a number of options to make up the shortfall. One is to increase the monthly taxation levied on the Kingdom’s estates. More controversially they are looking at ways of getting revenue from Adventurers, and one option is to start imposing taxes on official Guilds. “They all claim to be Crown-loyal,” our source told us, “so let them prove it how it counts, in gold.”

“The Regent has been issuing all sorts of edicts of late without any consultation with the Exchequer as to the fiscal implications - Relm symbols, Unicorns. Everyone at the Exchequer is terrified that he will make some sort of announcement committing the Crown to supporting the rebuilding of Meadowbrook. We just don’t have the gold for that.”

GRRR GATECRASHES DIPLOMATIC BANQUET WITH MYSTERIOUS NEW RACE

Dateline: 6-8-516

A diplomatic function between representatives of the Kingdom of Bereny and a previously unknown water-dwelling race called the Merinya has been disrupted by being gatecrashed by the notorious lizardman leader Grrr Snr.

Contact has recently been established between Bereny and the Merinya along the Kingdom’s new sea shore. However the Bugle understands that the Merinya originate not from the sea itself but from a realm of submerged underwater caverns, and that the same upheavals that lead to the inundation of SE Bereny has also allowed access to the new sea from their realm, and that the Merinya are a distinct race from the Merfolk inhabiting the Sea. Senior representatives from the Merinya have approached Bereny seeking trade and diplomatic contact, and a diplomatic dinner was arranged in a pavilion erected near the city of Joballah.

According to support staff from the event that the Bugle has spoken to, the Merinya delegates looked essentially human, though with blue-tinged skin and fish-like fins on their heads, and were dressed in Berenian-style garb. “They kept trying to give people dead fish,” one serving maid told us. The delegation included their senior political and military leaders and one individual whom they introduced as their ‘Senior matriarch’ and whom they appeared to hold in supreme regard.

Bereny was represented at the dinner by a delegation of citizens drawn from all around the kingdom, with Lady Jaycinthe Chaos representing the Crown as the personal envoy of Duchess Juliette of Torlia, Archmage Sylvester of The Assembly representing the Guilds, and Abbot Christian de Barbarac representing the Church.

Their negotiations were however rudely interrupted by the arrival outside the pavilion of a couple of hundred armed lizardmen lead by Grrr Snr, who forced his way into the pavilion and claimed to be covered by diplomatic immunity. Having made his entrance the lizardman attempted to be conciliatory however and offered gifts of chocolate-coated baked goods to the assembled delegates.

There seems to have been some difference of opinion among the Berenian delegation over whether the formal diplomatic truce in force at the negotiations covered Grrr or not, with Lady Chaos in particular urging that the monster be killed or at least apprehended, but in the end either diplomatic convention or the presence of so many lizard warriors persuaded the Berenian delegation not to take action. However according to one report Grrr attempted to engage in separate negotiations with the Merinya, who as a result forcibly removed one of their own delegates from the negotiations.

With the end of the banquet and thus of the formal diplomatic truce, and at the approach of Royal troops from nearby Joballah, Grrr evidently decided that he had outstayed his welcome and fled at high speed to the south on the back of a giant Iguana mount.

Shortly after Grrr’s departure Duke Raven of Poldoon arrived at the pavilion. He appears to have travelled there by magical means and warned bystanders that his stay had to be brief or he might implode at any minute, though most people assumed that he must be joking. He assured the Merinya delegates on behalf of the Berenian Trade Association that Bereny was keen to join with them in mutually beneficial trade, and the Merinya delegates departed with that assurance to take back to their watery home.

REGENT OFFICIALLY CLAIMS WHITE TOWER ISLAND FOR BERENY

Dateline: 9-8-516

The Kingdom of Bereny has for the first time formally laid claim to an area in the Underworld, the vast subterranean cavern that lies deep beneath the Kingdom’s surface.

In a statement from the Regent, he has announced that the island in the Underworld Sea known as White Tower Island has been officially made part of the Kingdom, and has appointed Baron Tycho M'Grue, Seneschal of the White Tower, to be the Military Governor of this new land.

The White Tower has lead the way in establishing this outpost in the Underworld and has been busy developing and fortifying the island, while trying to establishing friendly relations with surrounding tribes.

“If the Crown is able to cement alliances with the local human villages, and so increase our Underworld holdings, these lands will also fall under the Military Governor's control”, the Regent added in his statement.

“The settlement at White Tower Island is prospering beyond even the best hopes of the Guild when we established this forward base”, a White Tower spokesperson told the Bugle. “The town throngs with adventurers from many Guilds and still more are choosing to start their careers far from the sun. The opening of the docks and ship building facilities has brought even more choice and opportunity and a veritable fleet of vessels now throng the docks as well as merchant vessels from the City States of the Underworld tentatively beginning to make calls.”

However there are known to be large, powerful and well-organised realms in the Underworld, such as the goblin Lugosi Kingdom and the Necromantic Realm of Mor Kas Ah, who are not favourably disposed to the Berenian presence, and last year a message was received warning surface folk to leave the Underworld or face the wrath of the ‘Dark Legions’.

“There has been no more news or signs of the "Dark Legions" since then,” the WT’s spokesman told us, “but we are taking no chances and are maintaining a strong defensive force within the confines of the settlement as well as extending our exploration in all directions.”

It is also still not clear who is behind the attack on the Dwarven Realm of Caldor, the principle realm in the Underworld friendly to Bereny. Clearly the White Tower hopes that more adventurers from the surface will make the journey through the portal at Swinderlog to add to their strength at White Tower Island.

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