The Winter of 504
The Winter of 504 would prove to be one of the harshest winters on record. Snow piled high in the streets, rendering them completely impassable, while vicious winds whipped any who dared to venture outside. Storm after storm battered the continent, and after various downpours of sleet and hail, trade ground to a stop. Even if there had no been a famine, these conditions would have been hard enough - many people froze to death. Others starved. Military action during the winter essentially had to be halted as Makria settled in for a deep freeze.
Hendal
Though no one was prepared to say that the winter was good for trade, Hendal actually saw an increase in tax revenue rather than a decrease as tax collectors managed to deliver some money that had been disrupted during the tax rebellion. It was a fortuitous development for the Hendal crown, which always hungry for more cash.
Queen Marie, in addition to granting a loan to the Blackburn family, orders the recruitment of 2,000 additional soldiers. This proves costly in the ferocious winter but the target is met easily enough. She also publishes a list of the various civil servants and employees of the Crown whose livlihoods (theoretically) depend on the tithe. Since most people cannot read, this doesn't assauge demands for the end of the tithe.
Years ago, an assassin tried to poison the late King of Hendal. Prince Henry finally takes note of this man and interrogates him, but he remains tight-lipped. He purchases a fair quantity of books and scrolls in the same season, especially ones pertaining to magic and dragons.
Peter Blackburn begins the reprehensible practice of slave trading in the Winter of 504. He gets some takers for offers of food and shelter during the intense winter and then sells them.
Anderson braves the winter to continue construction work on the wall. The winter slows his progress to a crawl.
Gregory Riddlemen brings the wand and the scroll together but this doesn't seem to do anything. When this fails, he buys the glowing stone for 25 ducats. This doesn't decrypt the scroll. However, in its glowing light, more mysterious writing becomes visible. Perhaps there is someone, somewhere, who knows how to read the ancient text?
Dalmira
Things weren't going very well in Dalmira. A Great Fire would break out in Halbstadht, probably caused by people trying to start indoor kindling for warmth. Much of the city would burn down one day, only to be battered by furious storms the next. For a city that had already suffered greatly, this was a poor outcome.
Duke Wiegraf's administrators, hungry for cash, would manage to wring an extra tithe out of the people in Victorsburg and Foldgart despite everything. While this helped to stabilize Wiegraf's finances, it did not exactly make his administration popular. Duke Wiegraf, meanwhile, puts his soldiers on half wages. Though he tries to lessen the workload on the soldiers to make up for this, it's not exactly a popular move.
Meddeland
Despite its troubles with the man who called himself William Briar, Meddeland would arguably have some good news in the winter of 504. Those people who might have been disloyal to the crown had fled north to join the rebellion, which left only those steadfastly loyal to King Rupert's line in the rest of the country. Additional uprisings, at least, seemed unlikely.
Lord Hantre makes robust progress on the Blóstmbóc in the Winter of 504 as the great snows give him much more time to write. His efforts to make a list of all the salt and alcohol producers in Meddeland is less effective. The salt is easy enough, but the church refuses to cooperate with his investigation.
Ardans
Ardans would have a wave of countryside avalanches in the winter of 504 as the extremely heavy snows destabilized ice packs on the mountains, sending rocks and huge waves of snow tumbling into fields and rural communities.
Though Morgan Bolingbrook's efforts to improve the roads are well intentioned, they prove fruitless in the winter of 504. He manages to keep the Ardans armed forces supplied despite the snow, which is good news for the army because it certainly would have been in trouble without him.
With the gates of Desrois barred against the Marcher, Ailexander and his men spend the winter preparing. Meanwhile, the marcher spends his winter in the shadow of the city's walls. The Marcher, strangely does not lay siege to the city or organize an assault, but instead tries to convince "the people of Desrois" to deal with their own problems and restore order. Ailexander is still very much at large by the end of the season, and getting more radical than ever.
Tavan Morin
The Tavan Morin would see additional armories looted in the former territory of Arevmarch, with the peasantry seizing weapons from what had once been the Ducal arsenals. Between pirates, bandits, infighting, looting, and arms flooding the local communities, Arevmarch was growing ever more anarchic.
Jo'chi Hasar reappears in the Winter of 504. He gathers a few dozen men and cracks down on raiding in the Tavan Morin Arevmarch territory, but he still doesn't have much of a warband to speak of.
The Dagch Morin, as usual, has a lot on his mind in the Winter of 504. He tries to lay siege to Stolgen, repair parts of the city, deal with raiding and execute criminals, and so on. Stolgen itself doesn't break in the Winter of 504 despite his best efforts at siege, and the frozen ground isn't conducive to underminig attempts. Attempts to use forced labor to rebuild the rest of the city go reasonably well.
Other
Cedric Rortzen escapes his from his captivity but he escapes alone - no other soldiers are able to find freedom with him. The memories of the people he left behind may haunt him for a long time...
Chryfallnioch finally manages to talk his way into some of Makria's old castles in the Winter of 504, but the missing page he sought is nowhere to be found.
Zaphyr Dragonight begins to seek quests and adventures with richer company. She gets some jobs escorting rich merchants, but their journeys slow to a crawl in the dense winter.
Reminder: The results of secret orders frequently do not appear in the general update.
((
Meddeland is now open.))
