Lyrandar Investigates Mysterious Lights
SHARN — House Lyrandar agents questioned several residents of the Mithral Tower district on Mol after mysterious lights approached airships departing from Lyrandar Tower.
A cluster of the translucent, glowing lights approached the Virtue's Price from Mithral Tower and floated around the hull before streaking back to the towers of Sharn.
Mol's encounter marks the third time this week that an airship crew has reported seeing the strange lights. Most eyewitnesses say the lights are spherical or ovoid, but some say they take a bipedal form when they cluster together.
"I didn't really see features, but it looked a bit like a glowing woman with arms outstretched," said Tinar Blugostra, a passenger that disembarked from the Virtue's Price just before it departed Sharn.
Blugostra said she watched the glowing lights flit across the deck and hull of the rising Virtue's Price. It floated near the observation dome on the lowest deck of the airship, she said — "almost like it was peering through the windows at the passengers."
House Lyrandar spokesman Korvik d'Lyrandar emphasized that passengers and cargo were unharmed by the light display. Most found it amusing, he said.
"What we're seeing is probably a natural magical phenomenon or the activity of a few arcane pranksters," he said. "Airship travel remains the safest, most luxurious way to travel across Khorvaire. All that happened is that our passengers got a free light show as they departed Sharn."
The House is reviewing its security procedures and will augment the magical and mundane protections around its ships, d'Lyrandar said.
House Lyrandar representatives, accompanied by Sharn Watch inquisitives, questioned "about a dozen" residents of Mithral Tower about the lights, chief inquisitive Yari Talanak said. None were considered suspects and no arrests were made, he said.
Moira Harnatri, arcane studies professor of Morgrave University, noted that illusion magic could create the glowing lights but surmised that the mysterious lights weren't merely a manifestation of dancing lights or another common spell.
"If eyewitness accounts are to be believed, the lights were too bright, too big, and too fast to be a simple evocation," she said. "And the lights persisted after the airships were more than a thousand feet above the skyline — beyond the range of a wizard on the ground."
Freak Windstorm Wreaks Havoc
Freak Windstorm Wreaks Havoc With Scions Sound Shipping
KORTH—A massive windstorm on Zor left eight ships aground on the Karrnathi coast and more than two dozen vessels severely damaged.
The storm, which began shortly after nightfall, also caused extensive damage to light structures in coastal communities on both sides of Scions Sound. Gale-force western winds and high seas pushed most shipping traffic dangerously near the cliffs of Karrnath, although a few vessels were able to find a measure of safety in natural harbors on the Aundairan side of the sound.
Two vessels, the Gleam in Her Eye and Saber’s Point, were abandoned by their crews and suffered heavy damage against the cliffs. More than forty sailors from the Saber’s Point are missing and believed drowned, and observers say it’s unlikely the ships will be salvageable.
A trio of Karrnathi war galleys—the Indefatigable, the Dauntless, and the Righteous Retribution—suffered extensive hull and rigging damage. They remain anchored just east of Rekkenmark, awaiting available docks for repair in Korth.
Karnnathi ambassador Randarr ir’Hothelech said the crown was summoning House Lyrandar leaders to the palace to “get some answers” about the house’s ongoing weather control efforts. Due to the presence of the House Lyrandar enclave of Stormhome at the mouth of the Scions Sound, storms of any kind are rare in the stretch of sound between the ocean and Thronehold.
No House Lyrandar vessels were damaged in the windstorm, but Lyrandar wind galleons were instrumental in rescue and recovery efforts in the storm’s aftermath.
Q’barran Settlements Under Siege
NEWTHRONE—The town of Whitecliff and surrounding villages are on the verge of being overrun by lizardfolk, said Whitecliff’s mayor in an urgent missive seeking aid from King Sebastes ir’Kesslan.
“We are a proud, hardy people, but make no mistake: We may not survive the month,” said a letter from Mayor Karala Thautram delivered by courier on Zol. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of lizardfolk are encamped among our communities, attacking on a nightly basis.”
Travel in the north has been rendered impossible, Thautram’s letter said. Outlying settlements have been destroyed or evacuated, with all able-bodied soldiers resisting the siege at Whitecliff or in a handful of villages that remain standing.
The lizardfolk belong to the Poison Dusk tribe, known for their diminutive stature and the potent toxins on their weapons, Thautram’s letter said. According to the letter, the tribe often clashes with settlers in the north, but large-scale raids are “unprecedented and puzzlingly uncharacteristic.”
Courtiers speaking on condition of anonymity said King Sebastes would issue a decree of support tomorrow morning and send a column of soldiers northward to break the siege of Whitecliff and force the lizardfolk back into the jungle.
Among the troops marching north will be a contingent of Riedran infantry, sent to Q’barra last year as a goodwill gesture from the Inspired leaders of that nation across the sea.
