By Basilio Mura, Nor Easter Correspondent

11/6- World renowned industrialist and master alchemist Sir Rigel Rinkenbach may have come within a hairs breadth of starting a civil war this weekend.

While meeting with the Mayor of the town of Greenlille in the nation of Sau Anoit, Rinkenbach reportedly partook in more than his fair share of the Mayor’s personal wine cellar. Sources tell us that over the course of a social dinner, Rinkenbach imbibed five bottles single handedly and went on a drunken tear throughout the estate.

“We knew something was wrong when he rode through the courtyard with his shirt open, that damned owl of his flying behind him,” said one person in attendance. “He rode into the mayor’s fountain, leapt from the horse’s back with what I assume was meant to be a flourish, and fell face first into the water.”

Rinkenbach then reportedly made his way through the crowd, ranting about the scarcity of Blackwood and how if he wasn’t the one to do something about it, the world was doomed.

“A classic case of self-destructive heroic narcissism,” said doctor Antonez Dupleur, a respected psychologist from Sau Anoit who witnessed the event. “As I am led to believe, Rinkenbach has never acted this way before. I fear we may be witnessing the beginnings of a nervous breakdown, brought on by stress, presumably from working on a solution to the Blackwood Dilemma.”

It has been rumored for some time that Rinkenbach, and several alchemists, are working to solve the puzzle of how Blackwood, the fuel that keeps our boilers stoked, our homes warm, and our airships in the sky, is created. If what doctor Dupleur says is true, it wouldn’t be the first time an alchemist has been driven mad by his pursuit of the Blackwood formulae.

Rinkenbach’s antics continued throughout the night, causing thousands of imperions worth of damage, and culminating in Rinkenbach being discovered engaged in romantic congress with the Mayor’s twin daughters and his house keeper. Rinkenbach is said to have fled the scene, hand in hand with said house keeper. The Mayor has issued a bounty on Rinkenbach’s head, though that bounty has been pardoned by the Empress herself.

“Rinkenbach is our most treasured mind,” Her Imperial Majesty said. “He is a brilliant, but obviously tortured soul. We should seek to understand and heal him, rather than admonish. If what he says about the Blackwood Dilemma is true, he may be our society’s only hope to continue on its current course.”