Massive Fire at Wizards' College Finally Extinguished
Dateline: Khazigur, Wizard's College, Barrenyke District, 7 Tzadkiel's Month 12090:
A fire that began late on 25 Mdnothiel's Month in the back of the Wizard's College Senior Dormitory, and which spread an aggressive, debilitating and often fatal poison in the smoke has finally been extinguished. Most of the rear of the building is completely destroyed down to the stone lower floor, the wood and tile upper structure of the building having burnt and collapsed into itself. Likewise the section of campus downwind of the fire has been sickened down to the grass and soil, and a swath of homes, businesses, children's schools, government offices and entertainment venues in Barrenyke have been contaminated. Many of these continue to burn in controlled, restricted blazes to destroy the dangerous contagions therein.
Upwards of six hundred people have fallen ill, and over forty of these have died, mostly children or the elderly with limited abilities to fight the mysterious and obviously magical sickness characterized by rapidly shifting, interlocking squares of material made from the infected creature's own flesh and bone. Most troubling, those who were killed by the sickness only seemed all the more consumed by it, to the point that their bodies were left as unrecognizable reconfigurations of some unknown but obviously arcane nature, changed from intelligent person into some unholy component in a machine of unimaginable intent.
The Wizard's College finds itself in an existential crisis, with the Autarch clearly favoring dismissal and disbandment of the organization and the severe punishment or even execution of its higher-ups who seem to have done nothing while a series of scandals and threats to public health and well-being emerged. Stories of abusive practices towards underclass students have been rampant and growing in the past few years, as well as the exposure of a highly inappropriate connection between some of the college faculty and unsavory monsters including an Elder Brain and a Red Dragon directly on campus grounds. Though under threat of censure from those and similar activities, it seems clear that censure alone is not enough of a response to forty confirmed deaths and possibly hundreds more, as even the magic of the clergy is in large part ineffective against this sickness.
The greater threat of contamination of the entire city through the water supply seems to have been averted at this time, however, which is a major success and victory for the Varangian Guard under Director Taron Carver, whose offices have struggled to stay ahead of the contagion and to destroy it and prevent its further spread. Mister Carver was unavailable for direct comment, but he did tell the Archivist's office that the food and water of Khazigur are safe but our people need to remain ever vigilant for threats that seek to harm or even destroy our way of life in favor of the ignorant, degenerate past or to suit the whims of our enemies abroad in Kylma and elsewhere.
Seventeen citizens remain missing or unaccounted for after the fire, all but one of them students - the unfortunate underclassmen who evidently suffer far more than they could possibly gain as students of the college. The Autarch is set to give his edict on the future of the College at the end of the week; while the Varangians have requested hard evidence from all sides of the discussion, the Autarch has made clear that he has no interest in hearing from the Wizard School's executives or administrators in open court, and that any such pronouncements or speech in any official or unofficial capacity will be punishable by 30 strokes for the first offense and 60 for the second; as 50 strokes is the benchmark for fatality, no punishment is needed on the books for more than two offenses. The Archivists expect that the Autarch will assume direct control over the college, with the dismissal of its own administrators and directors, as has happened in the past for grave breaches of public trust by the college, most recently the Transmutation experiments and the embezzling scandal that accompanied it, 68 years ago.
For their part the college is attempting to operate as normal in the meantime, to remind the citizenry that while a handful of mages may indeed have too much power and not enough civil controls, the vast majority are friendly, hardworking, and important to the success of the empire. Having completed their mid-term exams, Students will soon be on break for three weeks to coincide with the summer solstice and Aphelion in 8 days, on the 15th of Tzadkiel's Month.
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