Friday October 10, Madrigal

Soulblighter cannot be stopped. His armies foul the land south of us for half a thousand miles, and his search for The Summoner has left none alive within his reach.

The cities of Scales, Covenant and Tyr have all fallen to him in the last three weeks. It seems that too many years of peace have softened the once legendary armies of the West. Rabican, Murgen and Maeldun have been dead sixty years, and today only Alric remains of the great leaders who defeated the Fallen Lords.

Survivors reached us from the garrison at Tyr today, confirming the city's destruction. One among them told us of being captured and dragged before a woman so disfigured by injury and age that he turned from her, repulsed. In a rage, she gouged out his eyes and shrieked "Tell Alric his nightmare has just begun!" and released him to stumble out of the conquered city.

I believe something about the message has unsettled our king. Today he sent what is left of our army north to the city of Tandem. Their instructions were to gather as many able bodied men as they could along the way and wait for him in Tandem.

King Alric is staying in Madrigal with a mere handful of men in order to make sure that no one is left behind. Only then will he withdraw from the city.

With everything else that's happened in the last couple of months, snow this early in the year is hardly worthy of note. At the moment it isn't coming down hard enough to impede Soulblighter's advance on Madrigal, but there's always hope.