THE FIRST LAND HERALD

427-08-26.

As you may recall from previous issues, the Anduwen Watch recently called for a raid into the Fortress of Maelshyve, even as the powerful demon stirred and attempted to break into our Plane. Maelshyve chose to try to make her incursion by possessing an innocent woman, Ciriasa. During the raid, the Watch and a contingent of brave warriors defeated Maelshyve by driving her out of this avatar, but, unfortunately, during the process Ciriasa was killed. Her body was kidnapped by Osven the Necromancer, only to reappear mysteriously a few minutes later. I noticed the corpse was mutilated, the torso destroyed and right eye missing, and though we begged for the gods to offer favor, none was given. Shortly after, the corpse was mysteriously dragged away again by a person invisible. Although we searched high and low, we could not find it.

In recent andaen, the Anduwen Watch again put out a call, this time to hold a Vigil to Eluned. They hoped that, by making offerings to the goddess of knowledge, She may grant them some hint as to the location of Ciriasa's body. It is the Watch's belief that the innocent woman should, if possible, be found and laid to rest. There also poses a danger that a body so closely linked to the demonic might be of aid to the foul practitioners of Necromancy.

At the appointed time, Mother Whiteburn gathered a number of participants at the silvery pool along the Northern Trade Route, the entrance to Eluned's Shrine. There she opened in prayer, and we meditated on the nature of Knowledge and the great Ocean Mother. By Divine will, we were all transformed into fish and allowed into the Shrine, whereupon we resumed our natural forms. (As a public service announcement, this transformation is typical and all participants in such events should refrain from eating the other attendees.) With Mother Whiteburn leading the prayers, we each in turn touched the statue of the graceful dolphin, and we began to offer what we had brought to Eluned: carved dolphin effigies, dolphin imagery, and bits and pieces of our own knowledge.

The first to offer such a piece was Mazrian, who spoke of his memory of the women who died in the fortress -- for many were corrupted by the demon's attempt at possession. Amazingly, in response an elegant script formed in a whorl of radiant light above him, making the theological symbol for corruption. The light descended in a spiraling tendril from head to toe, as if searching for something. After a brief time, it dissipated. At the same time, Mother Whiteburn received a vision:

A miserable looking sailor clung to the shattered wreckage of a raft, a lone point in a vast windswept ocean seascape. A group of graceful dolphins playfully leapt through the choppy waves, heading towards the sailor who greeted them hopefully. A triangular fin followed the pod of dolphins from a distance, leaving the barest of ripples as it sliced through the water.

Suddenly, the sky darkened and the waters formed turbulent eddies, and countless figures became visible from the depths, glowing with a blue iridescence as they began to reach upward. The dolphins hesitated, twisting about in fear, and the shark began to circle the raft in menacingly tighter and tighter circles, one dead eye always on the sailor. The glowing blue forms reached ever closer, and the sailor appeared enthralled, reaching into the waters.

Lightning split the sky, startling the pod into action. The dolphins quickly dashed to the sailor, knocking him from the raft and pulling him to safety, away from the forms, away from the shark. The shark turned to follow the pod and sailor as the vision faded.

As others prayed and made their offerings, they too were surrounded briefly by a whorl of light, which quickly dispersed, and many received the same or a similar vision. However, when it was Ruea's turn, the light behaved in a different way. As it searched, it began to emit a high-pitched whistling tone. Ruea would tell me later that this was accompanied by both a vision and a searing heat, as well as the goddess denouncing her as unclean. I saw the script flare as the symbol pulsed rhythmically, a voice crying out, "It betrays!" Then the spiraling tendril erupted in a small explosion! Ruea would later also say that she was struck twice with bleeding wounds.

Mazrian suggested she carried something that offended Eluned, so she searched her purse, all the while feeling increasing heat. What she eventually withdrew was one of the vials used during the fortress raid. At near the same time, Saragos suffered the same fate of the whistling light, though he says he felt no burning or wounds. He immediately raised his vials up one by one and disintegrated them, burning them to ash. Meanwhile, Ruea exited the chamber and felt the urge to discard her vial into the pool above. She did so and it was swallowed by the depths. She then returned peacefully, and at this point the light revisited both Ruea and Saragos and dissipated harmlessly as it had with the others.

They both told me that they experienced a similar vision to Mother Whiteburn's, but with a different ending:

Red and green lightning split the sky, causing the iridescent forms to recoil and the dolphins to startle and flee. The sailor scowled, and, hefting an oar, began to slowly row the raft in the direction of the wind. The forms receded into the depths as the shark continued to follow the sailor from a distance.

We continued to pray for some time after the vials were destroyed, but we received no further visions from Eluned. What the visions mean remains a mystery, though one clearly tied to Eluned and Her role. Why She was displeased at the presence of the vials is another mystery, especially given that they were used to purge the demonic from our world, under the eye of Hodierna's own Unicorn.

Keep watching for further updates in case the Watch decides to pursue this matter.

With humility,

Navesi Daerthon
Zoluren's Herald
Editor in Chief of the First Land Herald