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- YEAR 515

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‘SHADOW OF DEATH’ STALKS HOMEWARD ESTATE

Dateline: 5-1-518

The people of the Castle Thortun Estate, on the southern edge of Swinderlog Swamp, are tonight living in fear of a terrible curse that has been placed on their community - they are living beneath the Shadow of Death. Worse, one of those to fall victim has been the estate’s Baron.

Because of their proximity to the notoriously monster-haunted swamplands, the inhabitants of the estate are accustomed to facing the threat of monsters, but it appears that the estate has now become the haunt of something altogether more sinister, a creature of fairytale and legend - a Bimble.

To most Berenians, the Bimble is something they remember only as a well known nursery rhyme:

“Slipping through the window, running through the door,

dancing by the fireplace, hopping on the floor,

ears and nose of crimson, fur upon its head,

laughing at the children, who fall down dead."

Terrified villagers report seeing a dog-like creature dressed as a jester cavorting around their homes. In any other circumstance the apparition would seem ridiculous, even funny, but no-one on the estate is laughing now, as the appearance of the Bimble is a harbinger of death. Wherever it appears, within a few days, someone in the family inexplicably dies.

Baron Giblets of Castle Thortun, who only took over the barony last year, determined to put an end to this threat to his estate. He set out to hunt down and destroy the creature, but in the event the Shadow of Death claimed him as well.

Although the Crown has moved swiftly to replace Baron Giblets, his successor Baron Turniki seems to have no more idea how to combat this evil than his predecessor had. He is rumoured to have appealed for help from Bereny’s Druid community, who as servants of the Goddess Shanna have long experience of dealing with the various unnatural creatures spawned from the depths of the swamp.