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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1251183" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #1: The Laughing Ogre24th of March, 2002Issue #1 The Laughing OgreVangalot is the month of disasters. For the caravan from Lave, disaster struck in the middle of the night. Ratmen poured into the camp, killing most of the caravan and capturing all of the wagons. A few survivors escaped into the night, led by a Vigilant named Steve.For three nightmare days and nights, the survivors fled, harried ever eastward, towards the ocean, and south, into the dreaded Mourning Marsh. Every time they tried to move north, or west, they were attacked by the ratmen. With each encounter with the ratmen, fewer and fewer of the survivors escaped. Steve was killed at the border of the swamp, buying time for the others with his life.Finally, finding a spot of dry land, on the border of the swamp, they made a desperate last stand. And, one by one, they fell to the ratman horde. Miriel was the last one standing. At the end, she prayed to her goddess, Madriel, Goddess of the Sun, to save them all.  As though in response to her words, she saw the first rays of the dawn reach her. Then the ratmen overwhelmed her.  As the world faded to blackness, her last conscious thought was that she heard the thunder of hooves approaching.Miriel awakens to find the light of the sun shining in her face, and a divine female form standing over her.“Madriel?” she asks.A woman’s voice laughs, and answers, “No, I’m Verenia. Welcome back to the land of the living.”“Where am I?” asks the young half-elven priestess, sitting up in her bed. The linens are white, and feel clean beneath her. The daughter of innkeepers, she recognizes the private rooms of a good inn from their smell and layout.She takes a closer look at Verenia, and recognizes her as a high priestess of Madriel.“We’re in the Laughing Ogre Inn,” Verenia tells her. “You were rescued, by the cavalry of a local militia.”Miriel leans back against the bed. She looks very pale.“Don’t try to get up yet,” Verenia warns her. “You’ll be weak for a few days yet.  It’s the last week of Vangalot – you’ve been unconscious for several days.”Miriel is tired, but hunger overcomes sleep on her short list of desires. “Is there breakfast?” she asks.“I’ll call your host, Fox,” Verenia tells her, but by the time breakfast arrives, Miriel has fallen asleep again.When next Miriel awakens, she is feeling much better. She is very hungry. It is dark outside.Paks is sitting in a chair next to her bed. Paks is a tall young woman, well-muscled, with a quiet, earnest demeanor. “How are you feeling?” she inquires.“Well,” Miriel says. “Better.” She sits up, and Paks helps her arrange some pillows into a back support, so that Miriel can sit up. “Did anyone else …?” Miriel’s question trails off, and she looks anxiously at Paks.“Only six of us survived,” Paks tells her. “You, me, Fergus, Stone, Goldpetal, and Chuck.”Miriel bows her head, in a silent prayer for the souls of the departed. Paks sits with her in silence.When the priestess looks up, Paks says, “All six of us were wounded. You can ask Verenia when she comes back – she’s the priestess here – but most of the wounds were infected with several sorts of diseases. Only you and I escaped those poisons, so we were the first to recover.”When Miriel adds nothing, Paks asks, “Can I get you anything? There’s water next to the bed.”“No, but I’m very hungry,” Miriel answers.Paks smiles. “I’ll go get you dinner. Verenia says you should be up and about tomorrow.”</blockquote>

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