text: Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, is gone and his bodyguard is dead.
  
  Only three guards - and yourself - survived his treachery and the goblin attack. All agree that Master Brownhand had been probably in league with the goblins, but why he would attack the trek himself, noone knows.
  
  The situation looks grim, reports Kor, the scarred and blackbearded bear of a man who led the charge against the emissary. He is a seasoned veteran, and you can see in his eyes the disgust for this treachery.
  
  The horses drawing the coach are all either dead or have fled. Night is coming soon, and the road through the hills is known to be a dangerous way even in daylight. Bandits and bands goblins roam the area, as you were forced to experience yourself.
  
  The plains are not much better. Any camp made on the way would be like a beacon to anyone searching for them, and neither Kor nor you have no doubts that Farhan will likely return - with or without help - to finish what the goblins had begun.
  
  As a Magus, even a rather inexperienced one, the duty of leadership is on you, but Kor is ready with advice.
  
  Basically, you have only few options. You might attempt to travel back to the Acadamy and report of Farhan's treachery.
  Or, you might attempt to find him before he finds you. Teleport weaves, as Farhan has used to escape, are tricky: They are dangerous to pull off, because inexperienced adepts attempting to move their essence to somewhere else usually unravel themselves and get no second try. Also, the further away the destination is, the more difficult the spell becomes, and you know that even a master magician like Farhan Brownhand must have been tired after the spells he crafted during the battle.
  Your guess is, that he fled to somewhere in the hills, and Kor agrees with you on this, for in the plains, there is nowhere to hide for several miles around, not even a light wood or a small village.
  
  The only thing you know for certain is, that it would be wise to leave this place as soon as possible, as long as the enemy Magus is still weakened from his spellcasting.
  > are specialized in the powers of Ice, and will attempt to divine the target of the emissary's teleportation spell.
  It should be not difficult to find such a powerful weave as a teleportation spell.
  
  You close your eyes and enhance your trained mental senses to a point where you can feel the pattern of the world around you.
  
  But although you search the point where Farhan has disappeared, you do not find any traces of the weave. You ponder this fact, and come to the conclusion that Master Brownhand must have masked the weave. This is a very difficult to achieve while casting or maintaining a spell, and your respect for the other Magus grows, whatever he might have done.
  
  Yet your insight does not help you, and you are unsure of how to go on - a state which you, as an Ice Magus deeply dislike.
  > it is only logical that someone should report the treason, but such a powerful Magus must be stopped. Thus you venture alone into the hills, and send the men back to the Academy to report.
  Kor expresses worry about your shape, but you assure him that you do not intend to face down Farhan Brownhand in hand to hand battle right now, but it is important that you find out what Farhan is up to, and eventually, the warrior agrees.
  
  You are handed a flask of some of the strong smelling brew with healing powers, and set up with light gear into the hills, with the best wishes of the guards and a short sword from one of the fallen - you usally carry no weapons with you, but your mental exhaustion is too great to be certain that you are able to defend yourself if attacked.
  
  Keeping slightly away from the main road, you travel crosscountry, following the trail of the fled goblins from the foiled ambush as best as you can.
  
  Wearily, you walk on, although twilight slowly gives way to the starfilled darkness. Suddenly, you notive some movement in the distance... a goblin patrol!
  
  Confidence that you are still on the right track gives away to fear as they appear to have seen you.
  > are a Magus of Air, and an illusion will certainly divert them.
  Gathering your last mental resources, you conjure the image of a powerful warrior.
  
  Once finished, it looks indeed a bit like Kor, the scarred leader of the guards, and you wonder if you have overdone it a bit when it charges the goblins with deadly silence.
  
  The goblins however break at the sight of the charging giant of a man, and dropping their assorted weaponry, they cry something in their own gutural language and flee.
  > will pursue them, hoping they will lead you to their hideout.
  The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves!
  
  Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds.
  
  A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power.
  
  The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade.
  
  Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air.
  
  Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance.
  
  Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast.
  > are a Magus of Ice.
  As you concentrate your magical powers, you suddenly realize what the creature is, as you notice its goblin resemblance.
  
  You have heared of this long forgotten lore of magically melding one being into another, and clearly the creature is a meld between a goblin and a troll. Since it obviously obeys Farhan's commands, he must be its master... and that makes him an abomination to any Magi: a nethermancer, trained in the arts of the Dark Empire of Lôrn, someone who does not weave with the Patterns of the world, but rather against them, destroying, not creating, feeding of the world's natural order like a vampire feeds of blood.
  
  So this is why you found no traces of the teleportation weave that Farhan used to flee, and obvious if you think about it now, though it must have been at great risk for Master Brownhand to reveal himself like that.
  
  You snap yourself out of following your thoughts in that direction, and with uncharacteristic determination launch a devastating attack against the troll-goblin, or goblin-troll, knowing that before you can harm Farhan, who is likely feeding of its life energy, you must destroy his creature first.
  
  A column of pure elemental ice erupts from the earth below the twisted being, and spiked upon the sharp crystals, it twists in agony and emits a horrifying scream of death before it is finally still.
  
  Farhan curses madly at the death of his creature.
  > continue...
  With the creature destroyed, Farhan's fighting prowess also seems to have suffered. You now see sweat on his face as he attempts to fight through the wolves, who now take the upper hand, to reach you.
  
  His blade still seems to be thirsty for wolfblood, and whenever he strikes one, it remains still. You grip your blade as he appears to make his way through the now encircling wolves which attack him with all their fury, now that most of the goblins are slain, but then his way is bared by the giant black wolf.
  
  It growls, and Farhan takes a step back, for the first time emitting fear. The wolf's growl seems to stop the others attack, and they circle Farhan, forcing him against the wall of the steep hill, next to the cave.
  
  The wolf, apparently content to have trapped the emissary, appears to wait for something. Unsure what is expected from you, you approach Farhan.
  
  When he sees that the wolf seems to wait for you, fear is somewhat replaced with a mixture of grudging respect and hope.
  
  "This is a nice pet you have there", he speaks in that pleasant voice of his, straining to keep it straight. "It won't do me any harm, will it? I can explain..."
  
  But you interrupt him. "It is not my pet, and I have no command over it."
  
  "But... but...", he begins...
  > are a Magus of Air.
  "But", you interrupt him in your smoothest voice, "I might convince it not to harm you, if you tell me enough to satisfy my curiousity."
  
  You wonder for a moment if he calls your bluff, but either your social skills are too developed or, as you rather suspect, he is too frightened.
  
  "It wasn't my idea, you see", he begins flustered, always nervously eyeing the black wolf, "It wasn't my plan. It just had to look like an accident. You know, the princess... I mean, when the masters said... but..."
  
  You have no idea what he is talking about, but you made the experience that its best to let madmen and drunk talk, as they get to the point in their own time.
  
  "The masters... the blood, all the blood, and... it was their idea! I am just a tool, and you... you won't hold a tool responsible, will you?", he begs, and pleads to you in his mad ravings.
  
  Then, the hunted, mad look in his eyes clears. He calmly salutes with the blade, speaks calmly: "My masters will save me."
  
  Farhan is obviously about to plunge the evil looking blade into his heart, as the black wolf growls and leaps.
  
  You turn away in disgust, but the screams of the dying and the sickening sound of teeth tearing at the flesh of the dying man will haunt your nightmares for quite some time to come.
  > continue...
  It takes you the better part of to two weeks to reach the city of Alzur again. When you arrive at the gates, the first thing you notice is that obviously, the patrols have increased. The guards at first turn you away, but then you show the documents you found searching the cave you faced Farhan and his goblins, and they, recognizing the seal of the High Council, immediatley call upon the High Magi.
  
  While you wait in the antechamber, you reflect your voyage so far. When the wolves finished with Farhan's body, there was not much left of it. After they had done this, the wolves, completely ignoring you, slunk away, many with a bloodied snout.
  
  The large black wolf only raised his head to meet your eyes once, and it appeared as if it winked at you from the depth of those golden eyes. You do not know what kind of animal this creature was, but you were happy enough that it, too, ignored you and vanished with the rest of the pack.
  
  Feeling obliged to them, for some reasons, you spent a few hours piling the dead bodies of the wolves and burn them, leaving the goblins' corpses to rot.
  
  Then, you searched the cave. It appeared as if Farhan had quite a comfortable living hole there, filled with the goblins' plunder. You have also secured the documents Farhan was to bring to Khalar, as well as a note in a writing you were unable to decipher.
  
  Despite the risks, you decided to sleep the night there - exhaustion and the excitement of the last hours finally taking its toll. Undisturbed, you woke the next morning, and hurried to leave this place of carnage.
  
  Then, you hurried to catch up with Kor and his men, but you have not found them. Instead, the journey took much longer than you anticipated, and more than once you wished that this would remain your last adventure forever. Perhaps a life of devoted study and teachings in the Academy was not as bad a choice at that. At least the beds there consisted more than heaps of hay, if you could find any at all.
  
  Before admitted before the Council, you are bathed and clothed new, and for the first time in two weeks, you feel moderately human again, though it will take some more time for the bruises to heal. You make plans to sleep through the whole next week.
  
  Then, finally, you are, accompanied by two guards, led into the Council chambers.
  > continue...
  You are led into a rather gloomy room, and face the five most powerful Magi of the Academy.
  
  Ancient Tharain Oakweave is the one to stand and greet you, and you have to recount your tale in full before he continues to speak.
  
  "These are dire news indeed, but then, these are dire times. The Khalifat of Khalar has declared war upon us, for an assassination attempt was made on princess Jessamin during her wedding night."
  
  Ah, so this must be the princess Farhan spoke about... but who are the "masters"?
  
  "Unfortunately", Tharain continues, "evidence was apparently found that points to our emissary as the assassin, and the princess has been seen neither dead nor alive since then."
  
  You try to interrupt and explain that this could hardly be, for Farhan has barely left Alzur, but you are silenced by a gesture of the old High Magus.
  
  "We know, but we have no way to dismiss their evidences, which, to our own surprise, appear to be real."
  
  You wonder what a war between the two most powerful states in Thyr would mean to your plans of living in comfort for the rest of your life, and you do not like the results you come to.
  
  Then, with a smile, you remember something, and produce the documents you found in the goblin cave.
  
  Tharain takes them, and reads through them briefly. Then he inspects the strange note you found, and his bushy eyebrows rise.
  
  "This, indeed, is a hint we might take into consideration." Without saying more, he looks at you, and smiles. "Welcome back, young Magus Uriel. You might have done more than your share to reveal a dark plot indeed. Now, if only the princess could be found..."
  
  Congratulations! You have beaten the part one of "Tides Of War". Part two will feature the story of Princess Jessamin, so stay tuned. :)