RotoRuner

An article from the “Glacial Gazette” Foth’s only newspaper.

After a hasty exit from our town three weeks prior, it appeared that Rexaminer reporter, Jack Procyon, had returned to Bob two days ago, apparently along with another worker from the same paper.  It was assumed that Mr. Procyon had came back to resume work on his articles concerning Foth, this time with added help tackle the daunting task.    However, it has been since yesterday that our visitors have been seen, leading some officials to worry that they have violated curfew as well as safety restrictions and ventured out of the city.

Both had on separate occasions approached the guards at the gates as to what one would have to do to gain access to the outside.  Mr. Procyon claimed he simply wanted to explore solo and would stay out of sight.  The other asserted that he had family staying on a farmstead just out of town. Unfortunately for them, even search parties were not being allowed out due to the extreme aggressiveness that the Dire Snowrangutans have been exhibiting.  Plus, all families residing in such outlying homes had already been moved to temporary housing within the town limits.  Though neither pressed the matter, such queries are a bit peculiar.

It is quite unlikely that they could be missing within our modestly-sized city yet citizens are still being asked to keep a watchful eye out for them.  If the two visitors were defiant enough to find a way past the walls and guards, pray for their safety and quick return.

Carmilla Cluvers
Glacial Gazette Correspondent

Attention citizens of Bob and surrounding areas!

-     Highly aggressive Dire Snowrangutans have been reported on the outskirts of the Bob city limits.  After several disappearances, a search party was dispatch to seek out the locations of the missing, with the remains of numerous subjects sadly being found near or in cave entrances known to lead into the catacombs deep underground.  Due to this fact, the current extend of the problem is not known.

-     In order to maintain security over the city, a curfew of nightfall has been instituted, with guards keeping close watch on the city walls.  Citizens with family living on outlying farmstead are asked to give them shelter for at least the next few days time to ensure their protection.

-     During daytime hours, the city council is asking all able-bodied volunteers to assist them in expelling the threat from our area.  Compensation will be rewarded to any willing to help secure our fair city.

These safety measures are being taken for your well-being, non-adherence to the curfew will result in immediate detention.

Be safe citizens,

Cloistero
Mayor of the City of Bob

Details on Forscythe Quidlen for past several days.

Monday:

- Subject paced nervously about home for most of the day, periodically checking his stoop-side mailbox for post and then to his home scryphone for possible missed activity.

- Subject never leaves the vicinity of his domicile as if bound there by fear.  What anticipated communication is keeping him so frightened in his own home?

Tuesday:

- Same as yesterday till midday when mailman arrives.  Subject darts out door to grab a single letter right out of the mailman’s hand before it can be placed in the mailbox.

- Shortly after reading letter, subject appears in distress yet stops pacing for the first time in two days.  Sits in window near chair and merely stares outside for some time.

- Nightfall comes without the subject leaving his residence again.

Wednesday:

- Early in the morning, subject finally leaves home with small pack of items and sets off in indeterminate direction out of Lolland Hills toward downtown Rando City.

- Never stops at any location as he walks through the streets for hours.  Only once does he tarry for a moment as he passes by the offices of “The Rambler” yet only for a second or two at most.

- Near dusk subject finally reaches the apparent end of his journey, the Hippopparoo Ferry Depot, where he buys at ticket to the oddest destination, the city of Bob in Foth.

- Though the ferry doesn’t leave till early morning, subject waits at the depot anyway and simply sits on a dock bench and stares out at the restless sea; perhaps feeling a kindred feeling with the ocean’s turmoil?

Thursday:

- Hippopparoo ferry boards early and Forscythe is one of the first to take his seat.

- For much of first hours of trip, subject removes a letter, most likely the one from two days ago, and reads the note over and over again, placing it gingerly in his breast pocket between each examination.

- With a better view in this light I notice that the paper upon which the communication is written is completely black and the text is nearly imperceptible. Not a letter which seems of good intentions.

Personal Note:

- Considering the hasty exit I had to make from Bob last time I visited, I can only hope that my luck isn’t being pressed too far by returning so quickly. In all honesty though, it wouldn’t stop me one way or another, Miss Ghostseer’s hapless assistant is almost surely up to something and that ends soon…

Jack Procyon

Sadly, today’s Wild Wonders! starts out on a somber note as we have recently been made aware that the outpost of Calderan in the Burning Sands region has been destroyed by an apparent DrrGnn attack.  With desert village problems in the form of this fiery force on the rise, our very own resident Xenozoologist Valentine Ghostseer dug into her archives to reveal some information on a little known trouble maker commonly found in areas after such disasters, Cinder Sprites.

“Imagine being driven from your home by a flaming vision from your nightmares made manifest as it lays waste to your town and all you know.  Clambering through the darkness on rocky slopes or even cold, desert sands, you assume relative safety when the ground behind your feet catches fire and miraculously attempts to intercept you at all costs.  No, you are not dead and paying for some misdeeds in a terrible underworld, you are simply an unlucky soul with the warmth that the Cinder Sprites are after.

Almost found exclusively after DrrGnn assaults, these little sprites are chaotic in their hunt for suitable warmth, making even the human circulatory system a target.  Cinder Sprites can hardly be considered animals either for the fact that they are made up of living flames with no tangible body besides their combustion, yet that is exactly what makes them as dangerous as the source they come from.  When a DrrGnn scrapes against a house or mountainside, small scales break free and soon come to life in the form of Cinder Sprites, hungry and desperate to feel heat akin to what it last remembered.  This all-consuming, heat-seeking desire puts anything warm-blooded or blocking the way in grave danger as they dutifully burn their path across the countryside like salmonanders swimming upstream to mate.

Volcanic rims seem to be Cinder Sprites ultimate destination and the only place where they can be seen socializing amongst others of their kind, with language being transmitted through crackling and specific flame patterns.  They have no real minds to speak of meaning their actions have no malicious intentions; they are simply performing the task written into their very existence.  You cannot blame a crawling creep vine for crawling and similarly you can’t blame a Cinder Sprite for burning for it knows nothing else.  If caught and kept in a lantern, they can be used as an ever burning light however for most, it’s wiser to keep a bucket of water close and hope for best if unlucky enough to find yourself in a situation with the possible danger of Cinder Sprites present.”

Valentine Ghostseer
Xenozoologist

All of us here at The Rexaminer would like to extend our condolences to the surviving citizens of Calderan whom we are currently setting up a relief effort for with the help of the Rememberists.  Next time, Valentine braves the windy mountaintops to tell us the story of the size-defying Blow Worm.  Be safe till then readers.

The Rexaminer