Blackwood Gazette

Blackwood Gazette #220- Djidann Expresses Wishes for Military Dominance in Sarnwain; Pharassus Laughs

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By Chester Seaton, News

20/2/282-The Sarnwainian territory of Djidann continues to grow ever bolder this week in the wake of their new technological strides. During an address of the nation, King Torifin Djida expressed the belief that Djidann would grow into the dominant military power in the Sarnwainian Empire.

“With our ability to stockpile and refine the deep mineral riches coursing like blood under our land, Djidann has been given the potential for unlimited power and wealth,” King Djida said. “We shall build an industry around our new refining techniques, and foster growth in industries that rely on our fuel. The Djidan military will grow, with engines beating like steel hearts deep within iron clad war machines that will command the respect of all who witness them. The world will tremble before our might, and those who do not bow down will be crushed.”

The Primarch of Pharassus, the ruling nation of the Sarnwainian Empire, issued a statement shortly thereafter.

“Isn’t it adorable?” the Primarch said. “King Djida has a new toy. And like any child with a new toy he believes his new toy is better than all the other children’s toys. And like any child who declares himself the biggest in the schoolyard while having only the potential (very tenuous potential, in this case), he’s only made himself a target. He’s declared himself to be something he isn’t yet. His statement won’t incite fear or respect, but anger and ridicule. I’ll let the child have his moment on top of the hill. But should he grow too impudent I have no doubt that we can knock him down.”

Meanwhile, Triumvirate military leaders are wary.

“Within the borders of the Sarnwainian Empire, Pharassus is the reigning military power and I believe the Primarch when he says he can suppress King Djida,” said Crowndon Lord General Johnathan Gorsky. “What worries me is what happens when the Primarch controls that oil. He isn’t exactly a friend to the Triumvirate.

“The Primarch is shrewd; he wouldn’t attack right away. He’d build up first. Chances are, we wouldn’t even see such an invasion in our lifetimes. But the Primarchs have a practice known as the Last Order: before they die, they issue an order that must be carried out. It doesn’t matter how long ago that order was issued, though they are typically enforced right away. A few, however, can fester for years on the pages of the Pharesian Book of Royal Decrees. And rumor has it, those that do are particularly nasty.”

Blackwood Gazette #220- Djidann Expresses Wishes for Military Dominance in Sarnwain; Pharassus Laughs

Blackwood Gazette #219- Cargo Ships Raided Off Newland Coast; Evidence Suggests Return of Von Grimm

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By Chester Seaton, News

17/2/282- A series of recent pirate attacks off the coast of the Newland colonies have left the Colonial Navy scratching their heads recently. However, evidence found at aboard a recent vessel attacked two weeks ago suggests the return of an old threat.

“In most of these recent incidents, most of the crew have been murdered,” said Captain Benjamin Nestle, the colonial liaison to the Triumvirate Authority. “With this most recent pirate raid, however, we have an eye witness.”

Details surrounding the eyewitness’s identity are be kept secret, for obvious reasons, though Captain Nestle did say that the individual was a stowaway.

“The witness told us that the attack happened quickly in the early morning hours, during a thick fog,” the captain said. “From this individual’s hiding place, they were able to watch as the pirates moved through the ship, killing the crew, robbing their bodies and breaking open cargo.”

All of this seems fairly standard for a pirate raid, but one detail in the witness’s report caught the Captain’s attention.

“The pirates all had missing limbs replaced with mechanical facsimiles. This is a well-known trait of the Von Grimm gang.”

Doctor Argyle Von Grimm, aka the Mad Mechanist of Mosaille, is believed to require members of his gang to sacrifice a limb that he then replaces with highly intricate prostheses that contain a number of deadly devices. Last year, Von Grimm led the colonial authorities on a wild goose chase across the frontier, nearly causing a war with the indigenous territories. By the time the authorities sorted out the mess, Von Grimm had escaped.

“Von Grimm had gone quiet in recent months,” Captain Nestle said. “A selfish part of me had hoped that he’d quit himself of the colonies and was harrying some other poor lot. It seems he’s returned, however, such is our luck. Rest assured, the Colonial Navy is making the apprehension of Von Grimm’s new pirate endeavour a priority.”

The eye witness found aboard the ship was taken into custody, Nestle also told us, and will face charges for stowing away aboard the vessel.

Blackwood Gazette #219- Cargo Ships Raided Off Newland Coast; Evidence Suggests Return of Von Grimm

Blackwood Gazette #218- Rescued Explorer Reportedly Rambled on About ‘Living City’

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By Chester Seaton, News

16/2/282-Rumors and speculation continue to swirl around the recent recovery of the famous explorer Uriah Farringdon Oke, who disappeared during an expedition into the Deadlands of the western continent. The Colonial Marshals who took Oke into their custody have been reluctant to share details on Oke’s condition, but new reports are shedding some light on what happened during his ill fated expedition.

Sources close to the personnel of Fort Faulkner tell us that the Professor exhibited signs of madness when he was brought in. During his waking hours they say he is prone to babbling on about various mysterious things.

“Most of it is incoherent raving,” said a doctor who claims to have performed the initial examination of Oke. “However, he became particularly lucid when he would describe ‘The Living City.’”

According to the doctor, who wished to remain unnamed (and whose references check out, we can assure you), Oke and his team had stumbled upon a ‘great, mechanical city’ in the heart of the Deadlands. At the center of this city lay, ‘a monumental forest of gargantuan trees, blackened and burned by some unimaginable inferno.’

Experts in both archaeology and anthropology have begun requesting transcripts of the doctor’s report. So far, however, the doctor has only sent a copy to Veronica Trenum.
Trenum, an expert in Pre-Alchemical Rift culture, was reluctant to discuss her thoughts on the doctor’s report. She did offer one, mysterious statement on the matter.

“If the lost city described in Oke’s rambling are the result of an actual experience and not some tragic devolution into insanity, and if the city is what I think it is, it could very well change everything we think we know about Pre-Rift history and the practice of Alchemy. If it exists and we could get to it, the knowledge contained within would completely alter the course of our world.”

While Trenum would offer no further insights into what she believed this lost city might be, former colleagues were more than willing to offer their theories.

“There exists, in certain interpretations of translated Pre-Rift writings, the myth of a colossal city in the sky,” said Professor Alex Congate. “This city was believed to be the Capitol of a nation of ancient alchemists whose hubris led them to take to the skies and rule the world below, only to eventually be toppled and come crashing back down to earth. A ridiculous notion, to be sure, but one with a lesson to be taught. That’s why we call it a myth.”

It is perhaps prudent to note that Professor Congate is a well-known rival of Doctor Trenum’s, and came under investigation for a fire that consumed most of her notes during an expedition several years ago.

Blackwood Gazette #218- Rescued Explorer Reportedly Rambled on About ‘Living City’

Ex-Humanor 002- Dead or Alive? Examining the La Pierre Construct

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Have you heard the news, dear reader? That a few weeks ago, the wreckage of the ship belonging to the notorious air pirate Roderick La Pierre was found floating in the Barrier Ocean? You did?!

Good job! Here is a crumpet!

But hold on…I’m not going to give it to you just yet, dear reader. Did you find the willingness of the Crowndonian military and the Triumvirate Authority to believe this story and write off La Pierre for dead to be a little bit odd? Or did you say to yourself, ‘Good riddance’, and go about your day? You didn’t, and you did, you say? You didn’t question a single line of this news? Hm. I guess I’ll just eat this crumpet myself, because none of you deserve it.

‘But, Mister Oculus, wait!’ you say. ‘They presented evidence!’ you say. Did they now? You’re speaking of, I assume, the ledgers found in the remains of the Captain’s cabin?

‘Why, yes, Mister Oculus! La Pierre’s name was in each and every one!’

No! I protest, as I whack you on the nose with a rolled up, chip stained copy of the Blackwood Gazette. Bad Sheep!

Did you not notice the evidence to the contrary? That the pictures released of the wreck match the profile not of a CAF Frigate 264 class, the same class that the Pernicious Platitude is a modified version of, but of a CAF Frigate 278, introduced into service following La Pierre’s exile because it was believed his loss at the Divide had forever tarnished the legacy of the 264?

And what of the unceremonious discharge of Admiral Winston Johannes, pressed out of the Crowndon Air Fleet for casting doubts on the story? A man whose doubts, given his record, should have been treated with the utmost consideration?

This is all dependent upon whether you actually believe in the idea of Roderick La Pierre as the terror of the Imperial Skyways, of course. I, for one, posit the idea that La Pierre post exile was nothing more than a myth, a piece of propaganda and scapegoat trotted out by the Crown to serve as a flogging post whenever things go wrong. Now, I’m not saying La Pierre never existed…I’m sure he did. I’m also sure he died at the Divide, along with the other four thousand men who fell under the guns of Rinkenbach’s Firefly attack planes. The idea that he was somehow able to escape the carnage when so many others did not and somehow claw himself back to Crowndon a difficult pill to swallow.

The question now, ever as always, is why? Why has Crowndon chosen now to retire their mythical stooge? Perhaps the answers lie in darker corners…darker corners where Men in Blue Coats reside. I entertain the possibility that the La Pierre boogie man wasn’t a Crowndonian construct, but a Cartographer one, a cog in their nefarious plans that had served its purpose after the attack on the Arms Summit. After all, why should they bother to sustain such a farce to cover up their existence when our collective bias towards ignorance allows the Cartographers to exist in secret EVEN AFTER THEY’VE SO BOLDLY WALKED INTO THE LIGHT FOR ALL OF US TO SEE?

I have another crumpet here. It’s yours, if you can tell me one thing. Are you asking questions, now?

Stay Awake, dear readers.

OCULUS.

Ex-Humanor 002- Dead or Alive? Examining the La Pierre Construct

Blackwood Gazette #217- Courting Disaster: Yolanda Desantana Seen Meeting with Djidanni Prince

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By Alex Grosset, Arts and Entertainment

12/2/282- You might want to sit down for this one readers. Rumor has it that there’s a new power couple in town, and this time the word ‘power’ isn’t just a metaphor.

According to gossip mongers in the Djidanni capital of Teras Madai, Prince Alarasant Djida was seen personally escorting Blackwood magnate Yolanda Desantana along a private beach earlier this week. As a result, rumors about what the two may have been discussing spread like wildfire.

This wildfire was perhaps fanned by the fact that neither Desantana nor the Djidanni royal family denied the meeting. They did, however, offer a clarification.

“It was completely business related,” a Desantana rep said. “The five Royals of Monteddor have long standing relationships with Djidann, going all the way back to before the founding of the triumvirate. Prince Alarasant extended an invitation to Miss Desantana to share with her the recent developments involving the refining of oil and development of diesel engines.”

Even if what the Desantana rep claims is true, the meeting of the most powerful holder of Blackwood interests meeting with the Prince of the country developing a competing fuel source is cause for…I’m not sure exactly. Excitement? Concern? Whatever the emotion should be, one can rest assured it will have widespread economic ramifications.

Despite the statement of Desantana’s rep and a similar one given by the Djidanni royal family, the imaginations of gossip hounds around the continent have been captured. Prince Alarasant has a reputation for being quite charming, and Desantana isn’t famous for being chaste. Both are known for knowing what they want and how to get it. Whether or not they want each other is anyone’s guess, and lots of people are guessing. One needs just stroll to the nearest peddlers of Penny Dreadfuls to see that the pens of smut writers have been running hot since the rumors first started.

Blackwood Gazette #217- Courting Disaster: Yolanda Desantana Seen Meeting with Djidanni Prince

Blackwood Gazette #216- Crowndonian Military Conducts Raid on Mysterious Island Stronghold; Finds Evidence of Sir Rigel Rinkenbach

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By Chester Seaton, News

10/2/282- Triumvirate Authority Officials report that a task force following leads in the Pyrossi Ocean region raided an island stronghold this weekend. While no evidence of the mysterious attackers who raided the Arms Summit last year was found, they did find evidence that Rigel Rinkenbach had been kept there, recently.

“There is an abundance of evidence,” said Captain Michel Dufresne, the lead investigator in charge of the task force. “Including but not limited to discarded lab notes referring to something called BW-19, all of which is encoded in some unbreakable cipher. A tell-tale Rinkenbach trait.

“Also found at the site: 21 discarded bottles of absinthe, a half-starved owlet, and a faded pictograph of a woman believed to be Pixie Sinclaire, stained with tea rings. On the back of the picture was another string of encoded equations none of us have been able to decipher.”

The Captain went on to say that they are attempting to contact Pixie Sinclaire and bring her into the investigation. However, the Nor Eastern government has proven difficult in this regard, saying only that she is occupied with other matters of Imperial importance.

More baffling, however, is the lack of evidence that any of the shadowy Men In Blue were present at the stronghold.

“Other than Rinkenbach’s lab, the only other presence we can find traces of are those of pirates,” Captain Dufresne said. “It is likely this location was used as a hideout for one of the smaller bands, or possibly even a lookout station for Seylene Plamondon herself. In any case, this development is most troubling. It was not pirates that kidnapped Sir Rigel Rinkenbach late last year. Somewhere along the line, custody of our wayward scientist was transferred from one group to another. We have theories, but none of them are worth sharing at this point in time.”

Was any evidence found pointing to Rinkenbach’s current whereabouts?

“None whatsoever. Whoever was here left in a hurry. It’s possible they struck out without a plan. It’s also possible they decided Rinkenbach was too much trouble and dumped his body in the ocean. We have search parties combing the coast line and trawling the nearby shallows.”

Blackwood Gazette #216- Crowndonian Military Conducts Raid on Mysterious Island Stronghold; Finds Evidence of Sir Rigel Rinkenbach

Blackwood Gazette # 215- Explorer that Went Missing in Deadlands Rescued by Colonial Marshals

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By Chester Seaton

9/2/282- The Deadlands of the great western continent remain to this day the crown jewel of world exploration, and with good reason. None who have entered the region have ever returned, until recently.

According to Colonial Marshals stationed at Fort Faulkner, Professor Uriah Farringdon Oke has been found. The Marshals offered no details about what Oke saw and did over the course of the last half decade, but did report that the Professor was extremely malnourished and psychologically impaired.

Six years ago, the renowned explorer led the largest expedition to date into the Deadlands. Correspondence with the team lasted for two months, and according to a letter written by Professor Oke himself, the expedition had been charting a river leading to what they believed was the region’s center-most point. Contact dropped off after that, and it was believed that Oke’s expedition had met the same mysterious fate as those who came before.

Johnathan DePlante, Professor of Archaeology at the Empress University in Oeil de Fleur, spoke to us of the unique dangers inherent in exploring the Deadlands.

“The biggest obstacle is how little we know of it,” said Professor DePlante. “And what we do know isn’t pretty. First, one must cross over a treacherous mountain range that runs in a ring around the region. The peaks of these mountains are concealed by horrible cloud cover and tumultuous winds whip through them at speeds that even our most advanced air ships would have trouble getting through. The only way through, until recently, with the Julianos expeditions (who aren’t being forthcoming), is a narrow pass that can only be traversed during a specific, two week window. Even then, a freak storm or rock slide or avalanche often proves fatal.

“Once through the mountains, out of the freezing winds and ice, a team would descend into a basin thick with rain forests. The climate would be oppressively humid. The flora and fauna would be an unknown (Professor Oke’s own correspondence was tragically bereft of any such details; he was more enamored with emotions caused by the natural beauty of the place…man should have been a poet, not a scientist), but we speculate one would expect to find an abundance of large reptiles, insects, territorial primates and large predatory cats that can be found in similar environments around the world, along with the typical spectrum of diseases they carry.”

Blackwood Gazette # 215- Explorer that Went Missing in Deadlands Rescued by Colonial Marshals

Blackwood Gazette # 214- Djidann Conducts Test Flight of Diesel Aircraft; “Well, I guess it is real,” says Famous Engineer

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By Ada Hershel, Technology and Science

6/2/282- Hot on the heels of news that Djidann has perfected the process of refining oil for use in industrial machinery, comes a new report that the Djidanni military has conducted the test flight of a diesel powered aircraft.

“Well, I guess it’s real,” said Lucius Carver, who was invited to Djidann to witness the test flight. Carver, an engineer with Crowndon University, was an outspoken skeptic of the endeavour who recently stated that such a thing was years, if not decades, away.

“I hardly believe it,” Carver continued. “But I witnessed the flight with my own eyes. The engine started, the aircraft taxied, and it managed to get off the ground. It flew around the airstrip for five minutes and landed without any complications.”

Despite the reality of the aircraft, Carver remains hesitant to withdraw his claims that Blackwood remains the primary choice for industry.

“The engine was nearly bone dry when I inspected it after the flight,” Carver said. “Like I said before, a pool in a desert. Still, I must give credit where credit is due: the Djidanni accomplished what they set out to do, and I have no doubt they will continue to improve on their design.”

The Djidanni engineer responsible for the aircraft, Derjaja Bosmun, begrudgingly accepted the lukewarm praise.

“I feel Mister Carver still under estimates Djidanni ingenuity,” Bosmun said. “But any praise from a Crowndonian, not matter how slight, is an improvement. It is my hope that one day Djidann will be known as the top player in the world of not only industrial engines, but commercial engines, as well.”

With the recent reports of a critical Blackwood shortage looming, perhaps Bosmun’s claims aren’t entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Blackwood Gazette # 214- Djidann Conducts Test Flight of Diesel Aircraft; “Well, I guess it is real,” says Famous Engineer

Blackwood Gazette #213- Inmates Go Missing From Three Maximum Security Prisons Across Crowndon

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By Chester Seaton, News

3/2/282- The families of twenty inmates incarcerated in three of Crowndon’s most notorious maximum security prisons descended upon the Old Crowndon Court of Justice this week. Their grievance? They wanted to know where their imprisoned loved ones have gone.

According to Hattie Buckflower, the sister of the notorious Toring gang enforcer Howard Buckflower, better known to Crowndonian citizens by the colorful sobriquet of “The Dog Feeder”, told press members outside of the courthouse that correspondence with her brother had ceased last month.

“He wrote me every day,” Ms. Buckflower said. “Never failed. He’d tell tale of sittin in his cell, starin outta the window he’d drawn on the wall, dreamin of the day he could get back out there and feed the dogs. Said he was tryna be real good, like, so they’d let him out early, but they was always badgerin im, makin him do bad things so it would probably never happen. Then one day, nothin. He just stops writin letters and no matter how hard I try I can never get a straight answer from these people bout what happened to im.”

A more disturbing story was told by the mother of Isabelle “Izzy the Dizzy Pryromissy” Dunchart, who claims she received a letter that her daughter was killed after setting herself on fire by accident.

“I know that is a lie,” Mrs. Dunchart said. “My Izzy would never have set herself on fire. She was afraid of fire, you see. And she never would have done it by accident. My little girl never burned anything down she didn’t mean to. She is very careful like that.”

The Gazette’s own investigations turned up little to nothing as to the fate of these missing criminals, as the Wardens of the prisons as well as the District Justices refused to grant interviews on the matter except to say, “It is a truth that the prison environment is a dangerous one. Prisoners die every day. Sometimes they even go missing, only to be discovered years later having died in some foolish escape attempt. There is no story here. Go away.”

The Gazette, rest assured, will not go away. More on this story as it develops.

Blackwood Gazette #213- Inmates Go Missing From Three Maximum Security Prisons Across Crowndon

Blackwood Gazette #212- Seylene Plamondon Hits Blackwood Refineries on Monteddor’s Eastern Coast

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Chester Seaton, News

1/2/282-With the Triumvirate Authority and Julianos military bodies otherwise occupied with matters of building new fleets and searching for signs of an unseen enemy, the pirates that roam the Imperial Skyways have grown ever bolder.

The raids had been fairly small; a nuisance to be sure, but nothing that the provincial militias of Monteddor haven’t been able to hold off. However, it would seem that the most notorious of these pirates, the self-proclaimed “Pirate Queen” Seylene Plamondon, has joined the fray.

Plamondon, who controls a massive fleet of over one hundred air-ships, reportedly hit five east coastal villages simultaneously this weekend. Two of the attacks are believed to have been diversionary, calling the attention of Salasan Territory militia in the area and dividing the force. The remaining three attacks hit a military armory, a Blackwood distribution center, and a coastal resort famous among Triumvirate socialites.

The fleets bombarded the areas around the towns before landing parties took to shore, rampaging through the streets and stealing everything of value. It is estimated that between all five attacks, nearly 200 were killed, almost a quarter of which were civilians. Property damage is estimated to be within the millions.

The attacks drew harsh words from Salasan Admiral Raul Cinturios: “This never would have happened if the Triumvirate didn’t have their heads up their [expletive removed], digging around for phantoms. And Julianos…he is supposed to be the High Protector of Monteddor, but now he spends all his days [explicit descriptions of various carnal acts with Nor Eastern government officials removed] trying to gain more power than he already has. Just what is he trying to do? Save the whole [expletive removed] world? The Triumvirate doesn’t need him; Monteddor needs him.”

Fleet Admiral Alejandro Julianos has yet to respond to Cinturios’ statement, though a statement released by Governor Salasan would seem to indicate that he, and the rest of the militia, are distancing themselves from Cinturios in preparation for the expected blow back.

Blackwood Gazette #212- Seylene Plamondon Hits Blackwood Refineries on Monteddor’s Eastern Coast