Momento mori

There was movement ahead along the road. Something fluttering. Borys jerked on the reins and brought the cart to a halt. The drover knew better than to argue, and just looked scared.

"What's the problem," she asked, her voice a little unsteady and eyes wide. "Why have we stopped?"

Borys pressed one finger to his lips, shook his head. Stepped forward and shaded his eyes as he peered down toward the crossroads. The movement was a tent flap, caught in the wind. Now he looked properly he could see half a dozen tents, in the Dawnish style, pegged out in the clearing where the road split in three. He took another few steps closer, drawing his axe from his belt and unshouldering his shield. He heard mutters and whispers behind him as the news something was wrong spread quickly through the rest of the band, and to the other three wagons.

The tents had seen better days. They were battered, ragged, marked with water and mud. No true Dawnish knight would be seen dead in such a thing, thought Borys, and immediately regretted it. Garina and Volak moved up beside him, stopping a pace behind. Borys knew the rest of their band of sell-swords would be taking up defensive positions around the wagons, scouring the trees for threats.

"What is it?" asked Garina. They were whispering, out of habit.

"Trouble," said Borys shortly. He glanced back at the caravans, and knew they wouldn't be able to make a safe campsite by nightfall if they turned back. Time to put his faith in the road - and his trust in his heavy notch-bladed axe.

As the trio drew cautiously closer, a figure stepped out of the largest tent. Armoured from head to foot in Varushkan bands rather than Dawnish plates, it stood silently for a long moment, and then raised on arm with a crepitus crackling and popping noise. It let out a low, moaning groan, and with a stuttering motion drew its sword.

Borys and his companions were veterans of the roads, and knew better than to focus all their attention on the figure ahead. This was a trap, the tents and the lone knight intended to keep their eyes one way while... yes there they were. Moving with surprising speed through the trees, a dozen or more half-seen figures keeping to the growing shadows, flanking the caravan. Garina drew her bow and put an arrow into the figure ahead, expertly targeting the gap between thigh and groin. The creature went down, without making a sound. Behind them, echoing noises of bows and Revinak's crossbow being loosed.

A second figure emerged from the tent, stepping over the prone schlacta. Borys swore under his breath. This was no mere wolf but something else. Something bad. It wore ancient-looking armour, a style that was old when his grandfather had served under the Malinov Boyar. It had an axe and a shield, just like he did, but blackened and notched and stained with old blood. Garina loosed another arrow but the creature knocked it aside with its shield, almost contemptuously. Behind it, from out of the tent, a heavy dark mist began to flow like water, eddying around its armoured ankles and spilling out onto the road. The thing took a step forward, then another. Its eyes blazed with unnatural light as it stopped at the very edge of the Iron Road. It looked down.

"That's right," shouted Volak, his voice shaking in a way that made his bravado sound especially hollow. "We're on the road, and you can fuck off back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

Borys elbowed the new recruit hard in his metal-wrapped ribs, glanced quickly around. There were maybe twenty of them now, beginning to emerge from the trees. Some Varushkan, some Dawnish. Some in battered armour, others still in the torn and bloody clothes they had been wearing when they died. Their eyes gleamed in the gathering twilight.

"No," said the armoured figure ahead of them, its voice causing all the hair on Borys' neck and shoulder to stand up. "No, I don't think I will."

And with that, it stepped onto the road, and the ground fog surged forward around it, and with terrible moans and groans the warband of the unliving rushed down on the caravan, and Borys raised his axe for the fight of his life.

The creatures that fight beneath the tattered banners of their unliving liege are a foul mockery of the warrior traditions of Varushka and Dawn.

Overview

A powerful unliving captain has roused from slumber in the woods between Weirwater and Karow
The entity seems to be a servant of the Howling Queen or the master of the dubik
During the Summer Solstice imperial heroes responded to their call to challenge
Something has gone awry; the monster has begun a rampage in the haunted woods

During the Summer Solstice, an undying horror roused from slumber on the borders between Dawn and Varushka. The people of Karov call it the Schlacta of Rot, but it is also known as the Deadwood Knight by the people of Weirwater. It issued its traditional challenge, but something went awry and rather than returning to decades long slumber the beast has instead begun a rampage on either side of the border between the two nations.

It began with bandits and ne'er-do-wells living in the woods away from civilisation but following the Winter Solstice, the attacks began to target Imperial citizens. The dreadful armoured warrior and his growing horde of shambling, unliving knights began by attacking travellers, but have slowly escalated to the point where they are large enough to effectively attack small villages. After their attacks, assuming they are successful, there are no bodies left behind. Once their foes are defeated the Schlacta of Rot breathes out an abominable miasmic fog that fills the corpses and causes them to rise and join its murderous retinue. Over the last few months the Deadwood Knight is believed to have gathered a force of perhaps a hundred or more warriors and as more inhuman warriors are created, the large the targets they can attack, and the faster the warband grows.

A Growing Threat

It isn't clear what has prompted the rampage of the Schlacta of Rot
Historical research might uncover more information about the creature's weaknesses

At first the Schlacta of Rot's attacks are limited in scope, thanks to the small number of Dawnish knights and Varushkan soldiers protecting travellers from creatures such as this. As the threat has grown, some adventurers have included northern Weirwater in their adventures, but it is becoming clearer that their efforts alone are not doing much more than slowing the growth of the Schlacta of Rot's forces. Things come to a head a month before the Spring Equinox when the village of Woodbury in Wickmoor is destroyed. Nearly a hundred and fifty yeofolk are either slain and returned to unnatural life, or forced to seek sanctuary on the estates of the deCourcey and Seerkan noble houses. As the area becomes more dangerous to travel, the costs of providing enough guards to caravans bringing weirwood from the Weirwater Vales are beginning to creep inexorably upwards.

At the moment the Deadwood Knight is still focusing its attentions mostly in Wickmoor and Skoremujac. The presence of the Iron Helms, Northern Eagle, and Quiet Step in Duzekani have gone some way toward containing the threat but their focus is obviously on defeating the Blade of Skies rather than protecting travellers from unliving warriors. It is only a matter of time before the Schlacta of Rot feels emboldened enough to attempt a direct attack on a town such as Kolvy, or the Weirwater Vales.

The woods in this part of the Empire are wild and dense, and large tracts of them are untraveled and unmapped. The Deadwood Knight has a supernatural ability to move itself and its warband quickly through the tangled wilderness. An Imperial army might struggle to pin them down and force a confrontation - at least until the numbers have swollen to the point where they cannot continue to move stealthily. By that point, however, the warband will likely have grown to several thousand warriors and that will mean both significant casualties for the Imperial army, and that a lot of people from the woods west of the Semmerlak have been slain and "recruited". Unfortunately, worst-case predictions suggest that if it continues to grow at its current rate it will reach that point by the Summer Solstice - and apart from the increased threat that will also mean the tragic deaths of several thousand more Imperial citizens.

Roads and Crowns

The warriors of the Schlacta of Rot sometimes overcome the wards on Varushkan roads
The Schlacta of Rot has sent a message to the people of Varushka via a scattered handful of terrified survivors

Laying a road in Varushka is time-consuming and expensive, even beyond the problems posed by the terrain. It involves dozens of workers and the soldiers to protect them. Every hundredth stone is marked with a warding sigil, a hearth magic that grants the roads in Varushka powerful protection. The Wolves of the forest cannot step onto the stone of a properly constructed Varushkan road, and on rare occasions merely touching the road may harm them. This protection allows trade and communication between the valleys of Varushka.

Unfortunately, the roads do not seem to be providing as much protection against the servants of the Schlacta of Rot as they might. There are scattered, but verifiable, reports of the creatures overcoming the warding protection and attacking merchants and travellers with tragic consequence. It seems that as the power of the Deadwood Knight grows, so too does its servants' disdain for the warding sigils on the roads.

There's no certain explanation for this behaviour, but a lot of speculation among cabalists and wise ones. At the moment this phenomenon of the roads being less effective than expected seems limited to the servants of the Schlacta of Rot, and to south-western Karov. It remains a significant cause for concern and alarm, however, for obvious reasons.

One other interesting element emerges as the Spring Equinox draws closer. As the Schlacta of Rot's attacks become bolder and start to overwhelm small vales and isolated farmsteads, survivors are allowed to go free. Once the traveller reaches the safety of a nearby vale, or the cautious welcome of a well-armed band of merchants, has been carefully assessed to ensure they are not a vector for darkness, and given warm blankets and hot soup, they deliver a message. In each case the survivor has been given that message by the Schlacta of Rot itself, and it is always the same.

"Give me the crown," it runs. "And I swear by my heart and sword that I will build my demesne in Dawn, and leave Varushka to other powers."

Tourney of Ash and Bone

In addition to assaulting villages and murdering Varushkan and Dawnish folk, the Deadwood Knight has been acting a little peculiarly

There's one other weird story doing the rounds that speaks of a peculiar event barely a month before the Spring Equinox, at the estates of House Seerkan. The Wickmoor nobles, despite the gloomy situation, insisted on forging ahead with a tourney to celebrate the Grand Tour, along with an accompanying fair. The tourney has raised a few eyebrows, as it has been thrown a season early - apparently a move in the long-running feud with their neighbouring House deCourcey. The tourney was apparently not well attended, with most participants looking to complete the Grand Tour attending events in Semmerholm over the Winter.

Along with the knights and noble retinues, the guisers and troubadours, and the usual (albeit somewhat muted) festivities, a band of black knights attended that nobody recognised. Silent, never seen outside their armour and full-face helms, they fought viciously and with overwhelming force in every engagement. Nobody died, but several competitors were maimed or seriously injured. This was considered bad sport by some, but within the rules of the tourney, and after all this is why the Earl hosting such an affair is always wise to have a physick or two on hand. Earl Seerkan keep a close eye on these black knights, as suspicion grew that they were more than human.

On the last day of the tourney, during the grand melee (modelled after the tournaments at Anvil, with all participants fighting for the glory of themselves and their house), the knights confirmed the suspicions of the earl and many present. All pretence was abandoned, and they fought to kill as many of the knights taking part as possible, with the Deadwood Knight itself at their head. The fighting was vicious, but to the interest of those in a position to observe, it was apparent that only the knights that had attended the tourney took part. By this time the Deadwood Knight had a sizable retinue of unliving horrors, but only a score fought on the tourney field. Several knights were killed, and restored to horrible mockery of life to turn on their former allies. Eventually, the Deadwood Knight and his remaining "household" were driven off.

By some accounts this was a disaster. This being Dawn, however, there are also plenty of people already talking in awed tones about the Grand Tour, and the fact the call to glory is irresistible even to monstrous creatures like the Deadwood Knight. Not everyone present would agree, but there are plenty of knights who are quivering with jealousy that they missed the tourney where death himself turned up to fight.

More seriously, the participation of the knight has raised interesting questions in the minds of those who draw parallels between the tourney of House Seerkan and the traditional challenge the Deadwood Knight issues whenever it rises from the crypt. The creature and its warband, crucially, did not simply attack the guests but rather obeyed all the rules of conduct and behaviour. Even the final attempt to slaughter their opponents at the grand tourney was still to some degree within the bounds of hospitality - they didn't attack the audience only the other combatants in the grand melee. To the Varushkans who hear of it, this behaviour doesn't seem peculiar at all. The creature is clearly abiding by the accepted rules of hospitality, albeit the peculiar rules of Dawnish tourneys. It's possible this might suggest a way to get the Schlacta of Rot into a position to be destroyed... assuming that anyone can work out how to do it?

Knight or Schlacta?
The creature known as the Deadwood Knight in northern Weirwater is also known to the people of southern Karov as the Schlacta of Rot. Depending on who you ask, it was either a cruel schlacta who betrayed their boyar, or a questing knight consumed by hubris who fell foul of an unwise bargain. A few tales suggest that both stories are true in some fashion. Regardless of the truth, it is believed to be under a dire curse that makes it impossible for them to die. Clad in their decayed heavy plate, infused with the power of the twisted forest, they occasionally emerge from the deepest parts of the darkest woods to issue their challenge. Stories say that they either have the briar lineage, or they have been horribly transformed to take on the qualities of the trees where they hunt, perhaps by the master of the dubik. The challenge they issue seems to relate to a ban, geas, or binding. If the challenge is not met, it is free to prey on the folk on both sides of the border, slaughtering freely, and raising those it kills as shambling lackeys that hunger for living flesh. The more it kills, the more dangerous it becomes, and there are stories that on one tumultuous occasion, it was left alone long enough to "recruit" sufficient followers that it required an Imperial army to deal with it. The woods of southern Karov and northern Weirwater remain sparsely settled to this day as a consequence. This urge to create unliving horrors, coupled with the fact it seems impossible to kill, causes some to theorise that it is an unliving pawn of the Howling Queen, a product of the foul venom of her plaguewulfs. Others point to its association with the forest, and counter that it is clearly a creature infused with the dread power of the master of dubik.

Participation

Characters who took part in the Adventure in Varushka following the Winter Solstice may have faced warriors of the Schlacta of Rot
Characters who took part in the Grand Tourney adventure may have been present for the Tourney of Ash and Bone

Any captain of a military unit that has taken the Protect the Vales of Varushka special action during the previous downtime is free to roleplay that they have had a run-in with the Deadwood Knight or its servants. They might have been working as guards protecting a merchant caravan, or defending a village in northern Weirwater or a vale in southern Karov. It's equally fine to roleplay that you helped see off the attackers, or that your positions were overwhelmed and you were forced to retreat.

Likewise, any character whose military unit took the Grand Tour adventure can choose to have been at the Tourney of Ash and Bone and fought in the grand melee against the black knights led by the Schlacta of Rot. It's acceptable for other characters, especially troubadours and guisers, to have been present but they won't have faced the armoured unliving warriors in battle.

Anyone who took part in one of these adventures may request a traumatic wound card from a referee before going into play and receive either a ruined kneecap or fractured arm (or both if you wish) lingering wound, representing grievous injuries sustained while fighting the forces of the Deadwood Knight. Be aware that these wounds are permanent until treated by a physick.

The unliving warriors are hard to kill - they are tough and tenacious - and permanently defeating them often involves dismembering, burning, or magically destroying the body. Unlike encounters with many husks, the warriors of the Schlacta of Rot demonstrate varying degrees of intelligence and even self-awareness. The "fresher" the body the more likely it is to employ cunning tactics that are rarely seen with the more common ambulatory corpses. The worst creatures to encounter are warriors made from Dawnish knights or Varushkan Schlacta, still wearing their armour and in some cases blood-soaked surcoats displaying their former allegiance. These creatures are at least as intelligent as the average living Dawnish or Varushkan warrior, and are usually in leadership positions within the forces of the Deadwood Knight.

It's even appropriate to roleplay that you have personally seen or encountered the Deadwood Knight, who often participates in attacks on Imperial citizens. This figure is heavily armoured, and a remorseless and tenacious killer. They are an adept master of the sword, and strikes terrible blows. There are several stories of the Schlacta of Rot being driven off, or even garbled accounts of it being defeated or overwhelmed, but this doesn't seem to slow the creature down. There seems to be truth in the stories that the Deadwood Knight cannot be killed, and when it is slain its body dissolves into a black mist and reforms elsewhere.

It's likely that, as with the malicious volodny, there is some "trick" to killing it but that trick eludes those who have faced it to date. Dismemberment, burning, and ritual magic seem to have no effect, and it does not seem to be possible to exorcise - all have been tried and failed.

Tales and Poems

A group of Wise Ones plans to visit Varushka at around 8pm on Friday evening
A travelling party of Troubadours are on their way to Anvil and expected to arrive around 2pm on Saturday
Historical research remains a possibility

Any experienced volhov will tell you that everything has a weakness. Whatever lives - even things that are only alive in the most metaphorical sense - can be killed. As mentioned previously, it might be possible to deduce a weakness by engaging the services of the Department of Historical Research, but that takes time. Both Varushka and Dawn have robust traditions of recording history and hidden lore in tales, songs, and poems and it's not impossible that a clue to finally defeating the Deadwood Knight lies dusty and mouldering on the shelf of a stzena or troubadour. The creature has been driven back into quiescence before - although it's probably best not to dwell too long on the fact that it seems invariably to come back again. That implies that whatever the method of permanently killing it, nobody has yet been able to make it stick.

As the Spring Equinox draws closer, news filters into Anvil that some of those who might know a bit more about the Deadwood Knight are making their way to Anvil to share what they know.

A small party of Varushkans, including several wise ones from Kolvy and Korotny, have risked the threat of Dho'uala to take passage across the Semmerlak. Having weighed up the situation they have come to the conclusion that the risk of one of them being carried off by servants of the Queen of the Drowned offer better odds than being murdered in Weirwater or caught between the Imperial armies and the scions of Cold Sun. They have apparently made the crossing safely, and are on their way to Anvil. If nothing else goes wrong they are expected to visit the Varushkan camp around eight in the evening on Friday.

They aren't the only ones making the long journey south. A small party of Weirwater troubadours, including one of the changeling nobles of Spiral Castle are making their way south. Their trip has been delayed multiple times by the need to pause whenever they encounter a fair or tourney - something that is extremely common at the moment thanks to the Grand Tour - to share their stories and commemorate glorious deeds. They're reportedly a contentious bunch who disagree with each other on almost everything, but at their current rate they'll be arriving in Dawn at around two in the afternoon on Saturday.

How useful the stories these two groups are is hard to say; likely they'll bring their own traditional perspective to the matter of the Deadwood Knight/Schlacta of Rot. If any Varushkan or Dawnish knew the answer to the threat the creature posed, it would have been destroyed decades ago.

Call to Glory

Ekaterina de Casillon of Spiral Castle raises her voice in support of Reynard Forester
She asks the national assembly to amplify the call to arms, and ask the people of Weirwater to let them know who answers that call
If a statement of principle to this effect reaches a greater majority, the de Casillon will provide a golden apple to each Dawnish warrior who takes the Protect the Vales of Varushka action following the Spring Equinox

Up to now, the sell-swords and the knights (both errant and questing) have helped to reduce the threat of the monstrous commander mustering an army in the north-eastern Empire. The time when small groups of mercenaries and adventurers can contain the problem has passed, however. It will take more than a few scattered bands of glory-and-treasure-seekers to keep the growing forces from slaughtering larger and larger settlements, or setting their sites on vulnerable targets in Duzekani, Malimorz, Garthmoor, or Hawksmoor.

A statement of principle at the Winter Solstice by Reynard Forester called for the adventurers of Dawn to take up the fight with courage and end the husk menace, protecting the people of both Dawn and Varushka. The judgement failed to get a greater majority, but it hasn't gone unremarked. Ekaterina de Casillon, herself a troubadour of no mean repute, heard of the judgement from a correspondent that attends Anvil. She's laid out a simple proposal. Dawn has, after all, seen first-hand how dangerous army of the unliving can be. It has only been a few years since the dead rose in Weirwater and while they were ultimately defeated, it was by no means a bloodless victory. There's some speculation that the reason the Deadwood Knight is restricting its depredations to the living, rather than raising some of the many dead warriors who rest beneath the hills of Weirwater to its banner, is that most of them aren't there any more having been destroyed five years ago.

Ekaterina has responded to Reynard's suggestion by issuing a call of her own. Knights should come fight the unliving horrors in Weirwater, and help their Varushka neighbours to the north. Their reward will be glory, obviously, but also the recognition of their peers. With that in mind she asks the National Assembly of Dawn to amplify Reynard's call to arms, and to further ask the people of Dawn to celebrate the names of those who answer that call. If such a statement of principle receives a greater majority, then the de Casillon family will lead the way by offering a golden apple from their magical orchards to each such brave Dawnish soul. Furthermore, with a list of those who participate made public, she anticipates the assembly will use the judgement of rewarding to show the gratitude of the nation to those prepared to put aside the siren-call of tourney and banquet to fight abominable cadaver-knights in the wild woods of Weirwater.

Not everyone agrees that now is the right time to face the Deadwood Knight. Dawn is already engaged with one great quest - the Grand Tour. Obviously if the nation waits until the Tour is complete before turning their attention to the Knight then the problem will only get worse, but isn't that the very definition of glory? Ywain the troubadour of House Lionsgate suggests the Dawnish Assembly instead urge everyone to hold their nerve and complete the Grand Tour. That way the nation can come together as one and face the Deadwood Knight together. Somewhat reluctantly, Ekaterina, admits that the de Casillons would still support the efforts if Dawn chooses this path, but they stress that the longer this threat is left unchecked, the more dangerous it becomes.

Into the Deadwood (Conjunctions)

The Schlacta of Rot has sent warbands to recruit soldiers for its growing army
There are opportunities for Imperial heroes to intervene and stop them slaughtering Dawnish and Varushkan citizens

The Deadwood Knight is becoming bolder. Their attacks have escalated from slaughtering bandit camps to attacking travellers crossing the border between Dawn and Varushka, to all-out assaults on small villages and isolated vales. Each of the warbands the commander of the shambling legion has sent out is led by a champion, an unliving knight or schlacta that seems to be invested with the power of the Schlacta of Rot allowing them to expand their numbers with murderous husks.

Note that whatever the individual objectives, if the lieutenants of the Deadwood Knight are free to ravage the people of Varushka and Dawn this will strengthen the army the creature is raising. As such, whoever is organising one of these skirmishes may wish to seek the support of both Varushkan and Dawnish heroes, and the advice of the strategos of both nations.

Rumours (Karov)

The Festering Warden is leading a warband targeting the traders on the Westward Road in Karov
This skirmish is a combat highly likely encounter
The Overseer of the Westward Road is responsible for defeating the Festering Warden

The Festering Warden has been targeting the traders from across the territories in western Karov. The caravan guards who fight most fiercely are brought into the service of the Deadwood Knight, while the rest become unliving thralls and cannon-fodder.

The threat of the Festering warband, especially coming so soon on the heel of the scions threat to Delev, makes merchants and traders even more loathe to risk the roads of western Karov. If the Festering Warden is not defeated, then this fear will reduce the amount of green iron, orichalcum, weltsilver, and bladeroot that the Overseer of the Westward Road is able to purchase through their ministry.

Furthermore, as the strength of its warband swells, there is a serious risk that the Festering Warden will become strong enough to attack the vale of Kolvy. At the moment the defences there are strong enough to see off all but the most dangerous attacks, but a major assault from a significant force of wolves led by a powerful lieutenant will certainly cause significant loss of life before the schlacta or the soldiers of an Imperial army are able to drive them off.

Given that this involves keeping the trade flowing along the roads it is the responsibility of the Overseer of the Westward Road, Vlodikaz Ivarovich Vardovich to defeat the Festering Warden.

With the Dawn (Weirwater)

The Broken Errant is leading a warband targeting the remote houses of Weirwater
This skirmish is a combat highly likely encounter
The Castellan of Spiral Castle is responsible for defeating the Broken Errant

The warband of the Broken Errant has struck deeply into Weirmoor, striking at isolated forests and other smallholdings in the untamed primeval forest. Liege Roland de Casillon, a knight of the de Casillon house, journeyed out to try to deal with the threat but was gravely injured before being carried back to Spiral Castle on the verge of death. Ze has asked for the Castellan of Spiral Castle to slay the Broken Errant, lest the house be forced to call upon their eternal allies and perhaps even raise swirling mists once again.

At the moment, Liege Roland's call for the House to retreat into the mists again is being treated as the understandably extreme reaction of someone who has been seriously hurt - but if the threat continues to grow it is possible the earl of Spiral Castle will take steps to minimize the threat to her people. If the mists are raised again, it's anyone's guess how long they will remain in place. Obviously an Imperial army stationed at Spiral Castle will be more than enough to protect it - but the de Casillons are not so selfish as to care only about their own safety. Their changeling lineage leads many to see themselves as responsible for providing a good example to the people of Weirwater, and if they have to they will have their retainers re-prioritise their resources to the protection of Weirmoor.

Given that this involves protecting the inhabitants of Spiral Castle - and is a direct request - it is the responsibility of the Castellan of Spiral Castle, Mortarion Carver to defeat the Broken Errant.

Sharp Lessons (Karov)

The Iron Boyar is leading a warband targeting the traders on the road to Korotny
This skirmish is a combat highly likely encounter
The Boyar of the Iron Roads is responsible for defeating the Iron Boyar

The Iron Boyar is leading its warband along the border on the road to Korotny, eager to recruit more soldiers for the Schlacta of Rot's forces. The warband cannot hope to threaten the settlement of Korotny proper - not yet at any rate. The Iron Boyar leads less than a hundred unliving soldiers, but there are a number of isolated farmsteads, smaller vales, and travellers on the roads who are all prime candidates for "recruitment". Indeed, with the dangers of the Semmerlak, there are more travellers choosing to go by land rather than risk Dho'uala, exacerbating the problem.

If the Iron Boyar is not stopped then not only will the army of the Schlacta of Rot be expanded, but lead to an assault on the village of Korotny. While the attack will probably be repulsed it will lead to significant disruption. The Harbourmaster of the Semmerlak will see a significant increase to the cost of purchasing weirwood from the south, and the benefits provided by the Iron Roads to Karsk and Ossium will be halved for the coming season.

The threat to the prosperity and free trade of Karov, and potentially Karsk as well, means it is the responsibility of the Boyar of the Iron Roads, Borys Vardovich Straskovich to ensure the defeat of the Iron Boyar.