Headlines || Archive Index || Letters || Funny Page || Horoscope || Quiz || About the Bugle || Search || Madhouse
DAY OF JUDGEMENT LOOMS FOR ROGUE VAMPIRES
Dateline: 08-
What is the role of Ronan, the Black Tower’s ‘Keeper of the Dead’ in the incident?
(Picture credit: Eregon)
The White Tower has announced that it intends to make good on its threats against Thirsty and Nightlock, the two vampires accused of using entropic powers from the Land of the Dead to induce a dragon to attack Crownheart, and that from tomorrow morning it will take steps to ‘terminate their existence’.
The announcement came after King Dirk released a statement which was widely interpreted as giving tacit permission for the White Tower’s actions. He acknowledged that the dragon Alrakedeem had been the victim of a magical attack, but declined to outlaw the two vampires on the grounds that the evidence against them was circumstantial. However he also explicitly stated that they had no legal rights whatsoever. “They are allowed to exist within Bereny solely by the goodwill of its adventurers and people”, the King said. “I shall leave the matter entirely to the discretion of those in the area to intervene or not as they see fit.”
Within hours of the King’s announcement, a proclamation from Duke Stryker addressed to the vampires was made in Tredach Square, the central marketplace of Crownheart. “You are hereby notified that at sunrise on the morrow elements of the White Tower will take aggressive action against you with the stated aim of terminating your existence,” the announcemeent said. “All in the area are warned to stand clear and not to interfere. Please make your way to a safe distance from the likely point of conflict.”
The warning against interference is taken to be directed specifically against three individuals who have at times been seen in the vicinity of the two vampires, and who like them bear the disfigurements associated with exposure to the entropic powers of the Land of the Dead. One of these is a centaur, of whom an onlooker said “Mottled brown and green is not, I think, normal coloration for a centaur.” Another is a female so disfigured that it isn’t even possible to say with certainty if she is human or not. The third however has been identified as the necromancer Ronan, a senior official in the guild known as the Black Tower, where he has the title ‘Keeper of the Dead’. He is also Bereny’s accredited ambassador to Derwent.
All this attention caused one onlooker to observe that Ronan was wearing a red linen sash very similar to an item worn as a symbol of membership of the Antithetical Church, the wearing of which is banned by royal edict. Ronan himself angrily denied that the sash was a proscribed item. “Wearing a sash that is red is not in contravention of the Kings edict”, he declared, but did not volunteer to allow his sash to be inspected to see if it had any inscriptions praising the Gods of the Antithesis woven into it.
Meanwhile King Dirk has rewarded the dragon Alrakedeem for its heroic restraint in
not attacking Crownheart under the influence of the entropic magic by granting it
the Order of Chivalry, a medal created at the time of the defeat of the Reaper to
reward acts of exceptional gallantry. It is the first time that the Order has been
awarded to a non-
SEE ALSO
21-
06-
14-
