News of Avaria

796

Azara

Stealing from Bandits

It's common knowledge that the Sharizaar Road, like most routes through the desert wilds, has its share of perils and problems. The bandit camps scattered through the difficult upper reaches of the Sharizaar Massif constitute one of the more notorious hazards and seem to defy all efforts of the provincial Lion Guard to eradicate them. But recently word has trickled back to Omrazir of one of those robber camps being robbed itself! Rumors being what they are, the story isn't very clear, and depending on the teller involves everything from bloodthirsty hordes of Angrosh raiders to the infiltration of agents of the distant Augur of Endings. Surely the story that it was just a raggletaggle band of Omrazi street performers can't be true, and must just be something made up by the locals to embarrass the Lion Guard. Regardless, it doesn't seem to have any lasting impact on bandit depredations, but it's still an interesting tale to tell around the city for a while.

Jinniyyah-Lemnis

Stormy Summer

For a place that doesn't normally see much rain in the summer, it's been an unusually stormy season in Omrazir. For a few weeks it seemed like a resounding thunderstorm would come up nearly every afternoon, pounding the normally dusty streets with torrents of rain and shaking even thick adobe buildings with thunder. Local pagans wonder if Nirzali is showering the city with her favor, or if she's thundering with displeasure. Just to be on the safe side, the High Priestess of the Temple of Storms conducts a propitiatory ritual to reassure the exiled goddess that she isn't forgotten.

Perhaps more worryingly, there are rumblings of trouble from the Adelantean as well. A few Yehani, returned to both St. Loomis and Omrazir from their customary hazardous pilgrimage to the vicinity of sunken Yashalen, tell of treacherous currents and dangerous storms beyond even the ordinary.. not to mention the ominous bubbles and foam skating and surging across the waves. It's all troubling, to say the least, but what can it mean?

Jinniyah

Poet Woes

The Poets' Guild is one of the most revered institutions in the Sirdabi Caliphate, and the exceptional Omrazir chapter is a source of great pride for the residents of the city. Lately, however, it seems to be going through a rough patch...

Everyone who follows local Poet affairs at all knows of the different factions within the guild, each maneuvering against the others to achieve the greatest influence. Many also know that the leader of the most prestigious faction, Arezou Rufsahni, recently saw his most talented pupil split off to form a brand-new faction of his own -- one which is not only vocally critical of his former mentor, but which has formed an alliance with the other leading faction. Perhaps in an attempt to shore up his legacy, or to spite the traitorous Yugerten, Rufsahni took on two new apprentices in quick succession, one of them an outlandish foreigner. But tongues are now wagging over how both apprentices swiftly disgraced themselves and the guild by becoming involved in some messy personal vendetta that went so far as to bring the Omrazir Customs Authority onto the scene. They've both since been booted from the guild, but what a scandal!

.. at least, that is, among those who follow the politics of Poets.

795

Pavana

A Bright New Year

A new year has arrived, and with the close of the holy weeks of Solitary, the formerly silent streets of Omrazir are now filled with lively talk about the resoundingly stormy end to the old year...

A Hungry New Year

Spring and a new year have come to Ensor, but in St. Loomis the slow ripening of winter-sown crops has done nothing to relieve the hunger stemming from the poor harvest of the autumn past...