From roof top
to roof top the Halflings were stretching ladders
and coming down through peoples roofs with fresh food and news.
They said the elves had discovered a mist of madness was in the
streets and for every one to make mud and seal the cracks of their
homes while they collected energy to dispell it. They said the
food every one was eating had been poisoned with the bile of
futility, that it should be thrown out and only fresh or salted food
eaten. And that the only door that was safe to open was one
that had been splashed by Christian holy water, been prayed through
by a Muslim praying east to Mecca, or that had been communed with by
a Buddhist in deep meditation.
In the
middle of November no one could remember what was wrong, and people
began to get so bold that a town guard was established. Jails
had to be installed to keep the peace amongst the rowdy.
Everyone took an assessment of themselves and found that the only
people left under the dark cloud were the best of the best, the
strongest of the strong, the smartest of the smart, and the fastest
of the fast. To be a hero back home was to be a corporal here,
and super heroes were just seargents. The officers had to be
heroes, and powerful wizards or worshipers combined.
All of a sudden something threatened the life of every one of them. The cisterns and water supplies were running dry. In all the time the cloud had been growing it had not rained once. This was proving to be more of a threat than all of the forces of hell combined. So great enchantments were wrought, and magical gates were established that allowed nothing to pass through save fresh water, and the gates were tied to fellow gates in fresh mountain lakes on the homelands. So now the city island of Branya had magic wells that were only one meter deep but would never be exhausted of fresh water. That would have concluded Christmas except for one thing that no one expected. In hindsight, all of the orcs and worshipers said it was inevitable, that it had been growing all along, that it was obviously the side effect of some plan of hell for collecting power, but at that time it surprised everyone.