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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 9579768" data-attributes="member: 7737">68Thayne explains that after Beldon bit it, everyone hoped that Haslum would take over the academy — Haslum being the Keeper of Scrolls and archivist.[No, you're not senile: there is nothing in book 1 about Haslum as a character nor about Keeper of Scrolls as a bureaucratic position within the College Arcane.]Unfortunately Haslum "vanished mysteriously nearly a year ago", and according to Thayne’s "sources" inside the academy, that may be because Haslum used a Gate spell to summon a demon. (Cool!) A demon would also explain the "great evil" that has befallen us in recent months.We object that caution was Haslum’s middle name and he would never do something so risky. And besides, we’ve seen "very little mention" in dad’s spellbooks about demon summoning, and as we all know, if Landor didn’t write extensively about it in his books, it can’t exist and can’t hurt us, la la la we're not listening.Then we ask about what we should’ve been informed of LAST YEAR, which is what is the "great evil" that Perth and Thayne apparently just started referring to today. Thayne wants to know if we remember a "slight, very dark student. Beldon’s senior novice.""Arno!" we shout. Well do we remember the "somber and malicious" student from our "brief stay" at College Arcane, who somehow became our "greatest rival" in that short timespan. We ask Thayne what Arno has to do with anything.Before he answers, Thayne drains his tankard and signals for more mead.Once the servant has left, Thayne whispers that things are worse than we know [which could mean any level of badness, because we don't know squat]."The paladins have left their guard posts in the marshes, thus freeing the monsters they were guarding. Those evil creatures now control all of Seagate's ports, including Freeton. I had to sneak through their barricades to leave the island."OK, that's pretty bad. Our interior monologue informs us that Seagate Island's strategic position in the strait known as Pirate's Alley "could" allow the eeeeevil monsters like gnolls and orcs to blockade the main Tikandian port of Saven. And the news that the paladins left their strategic positions in the swamps is shocking because the "Knights of Blessed Dyan" would never surrender those positions willingly.We reiterate our question about what Arno has to do with any of this.Thayne "believes" that Arno has found a source of eeeeevil magical power that rivals that of the Sceptre of Bhukod. With it, he can somehow control the paladin guards. And "even now" Arno is at the cathedral in Saven where he agitates for the archcleric to use the Holy Guard against the Kandia tribes.Dalris jumps into the conversation to ask how that can be, because the Knights of Blessed Dyan derive their paladin mojo from being lawful good.Thayne says that is the reason he's come to get us, because "the evil that Arno has summoned" to Seagate is stronger than Archcleric Oram's gods. According to Thayne, Haslum tried to combat Arno but "vanished in the attempt." Thayne wants us to use the Sceptre of Bhukod against Arno.Perth asks why go to Seagate when the eeeevil has already spread to the mainland. Perth wants us to go to Saven to confront Arno there.We contemplate for a while, and not just the paradox of how Arno can be in two places at once. [About which more below.] No, what we contemplate is something we have discovered about the Sceptre of Bhukod that no-one else knows -- something we have to reveal now, at the most dramatically cliff-hanger-y time!Grab the edge of your seat before you turn to (103).</blockquote>

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