Xorus Shares More Details Relating to Landing Current Events

STORYLINE-WL: Xorus pens a letter with clarification and lots more information about Praxopius’ Krolvin poison for the Mayor, Town Council, Marshal, and Guard Captain. This will illuminate matters from both the past and current events going on in the Landing.

To the Mayor, Town Council, Marshal and Guard Captain:

Regarding this matter of “the Wyvern” — the Krolvin warlord Tyrrax — it is no secret that Praxopius Fortney asserted he would send me the formula for this “blue suffer” poison. We witnessed its effects on krolvin and half-krol captives, when Praxopius was experimenting on them inside his warship “The Titan”. It was a wasting illness where the afflicted lacked the will or coherence to move under their own power. The full blooded krolvin suffered from scratches and small wounds, at least some of which were likely self-inflicted. There was also a dead half-krol who remarkably had no external injuries. These were not necessarily indicative of the final form of the poison. It was some two weeks before the Glaoveln offensive, and a week before Rysus fell under a closely related weaponized toxin.

That said, I will clarify a few matters. This is not merely a poison. In his own words it is a “contagion.” It was designed so that it would eventually kill the warlord Kragnack, even if we could only manage to injure his blood relations with it. It is not speculation to think this could be modified into a form more akin to the blackblood curse and eventually kill all of the krolvin. In its maximal effect it would most likely transform their very blood into more of the oily black ichor and make them collapse into ash. Indeed. If we wish more samples of the poison than already exist on coated daggers, we may only need to harvest blood from the afflicted. Though I will concede it is not yet clear that this form of it bears the self-transformation property on more distant relatives.

The krolvin that were abducted to Praxopius’ ship were all suspected to be blood relations of Kragnack. The scope of his work was limited in this way. Praxopius intended on delivering this formula to myself, as he believed it could be modified to eradicate the whole krolvin bloodline, but not within his own life span. Unless he was terminally ill in some fashion we are unaware of, he could have reasonably expected to live another several decades. As such, the poison in its present formulation should be of very little threat outside of Glaoveln, and poses no imminent threat to the krolvin in their entirety. But since I will in all likelihood survive natural causes for many centuries yet, and for various other reasons, I was the obvious choice for continuing this work.

What may not be fully understood by many is that this poison is ultimately only a tinkering of Raznel’s blood magic. That it is closely related to all the other varieties of her blood curses, and I do not, strictly speaking, require Praxopius’ formula to eventually reconstruct his work on it. I would simply prefer to not reinvent a wheel that is rolling my way.

Praxopius pointlessly delayed the matter by two years, and the formula is now more than a year overdue. It is entirely possible he wished me to wait, looking in the wrong direction, so as to misdirect me from having this very knowledge because of its dangerous potential. But he has issued the threat and left us without the ability to execute it. Regardless of what this Falzcrow Son of Kragnack says, I have no reason to secretly possess the formula without admitting it. On the contrary. Possessing it with the threat of widely distributing it would have enhanced my own security as a deterrent. But I am not now in a position to have this bluff called. There is no proving a negative, as the former Mayor Lylia Rashere so aptly noted, no way to prove the absence of it. But there is no self-interest in hiding it when I am the obvious target regardless, and if they lay siege to the town, they will see none of our weapons are coated with it. Which they would be if we were able to make more of it.

Presuming Praxopius did intend on holding up his end of our arrangement, which by now is not obvious, it would follow that this formula should have been directed toward myself. This would be either by courier or magic. I very much doubt it was by courier. It was far more likely blipped out of time, so as to reappear later in my possession directly. This was the nature of the magic he was working on Thrayzar. Either way, it would most likely be enruned, so that only I am able to open its container safely. It is most likely written in a fashion that would be almost useless to someone without our shared knowledge of Larsya’s blood. We might expect it to include compounds he was aware I could make, without spelling out how to make them from prior components.

Moreover, you may well not even be able to recognize what it is, without my looking at it. Say you discover some scrap of paper that was actually concerned with some other aspect of Larsya’s blood. Her cure or another weapon. He was investigating multiple forms of it. How would you know the difference? There is simply no other choice than to have me authenticate it.

In terms of what we are looking for, it depends on how much has sent. If it is only a few pages, it might be a small metal vessel. If it was his whole tome of notes on all the matters related to the epochxin, it may be in the brass-edged case he was carrying on his person, when he made his promise to give me the formula in two years. This may either be in the secret laboratory on The Titan, or was in some chest with his other belongings. Some number of imperial warships were destroyed in the offensive and wreckage is known to have made its way to shore.

On this point I would advise that you question Casiphia. Her “Rone” gauntlets must have come from possessions of Praxopius. It is possible (however unlikely) she has the case, or even the book I am speaking of, without having recognized its significance. Whether this formula was ripped from a tome, or the tome (or tomes) were sent whole, I must insist on recovering his notes on this subject in their entirety. They are of minimal harm in my possession, but of tremendous hazard in the hands of others. In fact, it is quite possible he made a public show of promising the formula to me, here, in this place, so that the krolvin would come here rather than Idolone. Where he may well have placed his eggs in other baskets. He undoubtedly acquired that plinite from sources in the Hall of Mages, for example, and recall The Titan had sketches of airships with pylons. We should have every reason to suspect that was Octaven. After all, ask yourself. Why would he not tell me in private, and say nothing in public?

Lastly, I must dispute this recent conspiracy that Amos may have intercepted the formula, in order to develop it himself in secret. It makes no sense for Amos to develop such a weapon without my involvement. I represented his interests at the Manticore auction, and the matter is far too arcane and specialized. Praxopius spent several months getting as far as he did, and even then only with the base of my insight into Raznel. I would advise you all to not allow the krolvin to abduct me against my will. But I will also warn you that if they acquire the knowledge to make that poison, or adapt it to other races from their sick, you will be hard pressed to devise an antidote without my assistance. Whatever this Falzcrow may think of destroying the possessors of know

Newsby

Newsby is the main anchor for the TownCrier channel over ESP and Lich. She does not adventure, she is a townsperson and completed her apprenticeship for the news desk in 2017.