Strange Magic in Canolbarth
(Excerpted from a report submitted to the Darokin Diplomatic Corps (DDC); reprinted with permission.)
At the request of the exiled elves of Alfheim, I have accompanied them back into their former homes within the nation of Aengmor. Because of the presence of one of their most important Tree Keepers, Jorodrin Feadiel, and their distrust of the shadow elves, the Alfheimers prefer to have a neutral party act as mediators. Hence the involvement of the DDC. This is my first report.
The Alfheim exiles decided to give a peaceful attempt to work together a try. I believe that the main reason is that they cannot bear to see their beloved forest die. The elves would rather see it in the hands of the enemy that have it disappear altogether. Still, the presence of some of their sharpest military minds under false names in the party leaves me to believe that other events might have transpired within the forest as well. More than likely, it was merely reconnaissance, but perhaps we should take a deeper look into the plans of the Alfheim elves as well. I believe (CENSORED).
For the past three weeks, both races of elves have been trying desperately to save the Canolbarth forest from destruction by the lack of rain the area has been suffering the past several years. The blight oaks that are currently dominating the vegetation seem able to survive extended droughts so far, but the shadow elves fear that if this continues for a few more years, they will surely die as well.
Yet magical experimentations on both side always fail miserably. Just yesterday, there was an explosion which wounded two of our (DDC. Ed.) members and destroyed one of our wagons, exposing (CENSORED). Luckily, no one noticed thanks to the commotion caused by the wounded. Another way that the magic fails to work properly is that instead of summoning rain or water, monsters appear out of thin air and attack the elves. As of yet, I am amazed no one is dead from the wild surges.
While talking to Jorodrin about (CENSORED), the discussion soon turned to the failure of the magic. His assistant insinuated that the shadow elves were somehow behind it, but Jorodrin is positive that they are not. The senior elven Tree Keeper gave me the impression that not just the weather magic was behaving wrong, but so was all magic cast within the area. If this is indeed the case, perhaps we should re-examine our outposts along (CENSORED). Maybe this wild-magic zone is spreading and might soon enter the lands of Darokin as well.
My shadow elf contacts were less subtle and outright accused the Alfheim elves of treachery in an attempt to destroy their forest home that they have worked so hard to achieve. Guards were placed around the elven encampments, and no Alfheim elf was ever allowed to venture out of the sight of the guards. Needless to say, this caused various problems and arguments which I needed to mediate. Worse, such arguments delay the research to a point where only one day out of three or four were actually spent trying to save the forest while the others were wasted arguing.
Soon enough, however, it was indeed discovered that neither of the elven races seemed to be behind the wild magic and another truce was declared. Jorodrin deduced that before anyone could even attempt to save the forest with magic, they first had to discover what exactly was causing magic to be so unpredictable. With a surprisingly good group effort, they had managed to deduce that it wasn't even from their current position that the warping effects were coming from. This teamwork shows that the elven groups can indeed work together, and very effectively as well. An alliance between the two would make them a powerful force indeed, but with their distrust and hatred toward each other, I doubt this will happen during the current elven generation (i.e. this whole millennium).
The perturbation in the magical energies seemed to be originating from the Magic Points of the Canolbarth Forest (see Attachment A (CENSORED)). The entire research party moved closer to one of these Magic Points so they could get a better look at things.
The closer one got to these famous Magic Points, the more the forest appeared warped and twisted. Even nature had turned wild, as we witnessed no less than three trees uproot themselves and walk to another location. Jorodrin assured me they were not treants nor any other type of living tree; they were normal oaks which simply went for a walk. While there, night and day raced by several time in just a few hours, yet time itself remained unchanged; we did not get hungry or tired... just the sun and moon changed positions several times in the sky above.
It was also in that area that one of the Alfheim elves went insane. He cried out at the shadow elves, calling them orcs and dwarves, while his fellow Alfheim elves were apparently some type of ogre-halfling crossbreed (don't ask, I'm not sure myself...). Whatever affected magic and nature was apparently also capable of affecting the minds of those that went near. It is because of these properties that the elves have named these areas the Wild Lands. They have begun to try and analyse how these Wild Lands were created and if they are indeed growing to encompass all of Alfheim.
Of course, the younger Alfheim elves immediately accused the shadow elves for the mental state of their friend. Once more, the shadow elves denied any involvement. From the information I have gathered on shadow elves, I must say I believe them. As we know, the shadow elves are xenophobic, arrogant and do what they want but they are not the type to lie about it (see Attachment B (CENSORED)).
Jorodrin continues to tell his
entourage to wait a bit as they have several years to examine the
situation. But the other Alfheim elves seem rather impatient, and I
fear it is only a matter of time before they start another useless
argument. Once again, I will be forced to mediate, and frankly, I
thought it would be easier to get the dwarves to ally with the
elves than it has been working with these two elven races. U.B.