Post date: Sep 25, 2014 1:56:24 AM
The Shipping News -- May 3rd, Year 2005
Violence in Bloodsalt Throws Pall Over Swagfest!
Once again, the simmering hatreds between the savage races of Bloodsalt have erupted into violence in the streets.
Torya Irontooth, the beautiful halfbreed who once the darling of high society but is now leader of the orcish Irontooth Enclave, persuaded her orc followers to hold their own Swagfest celebrations apart from the rest of the city's population on May 1. Her proposal proved popular among the other orc-blooded residents of Bloodsalt as well. Many citizens in other districts applauded this surprising announcement--and sighed secret relief at not having to mingle with her people during our city's favorite holiday.
As many expected, the orcs' revelry soon grew rowdy in the extreme, and more than a few of them spewed drunken (and often lewd) rants about the Captain's Council, the Reclamation Project (the largest employer in Bloodsalt), and the hobgoblin militia tasked with policing the district. By midday, Redblade's soldiers were patrolling the streets of Bloodsalt in force. By evening, the orcs' resentment of the goblinoids had ignited into a full-scale riot. The fighting spilled into the neighboring Eastern District, where the Freeport Watch quickly contained the trouble (with help from Finn's enforcers, according to anonymous sources), and Scurvytown, where a number of townsfolk were injured and killed, and shops looted. Our sources could provide no reliable estimate of the dead and wounded, but saw dozens of hung-over orcs working to clear their fallen from the streets the next morning, with bloodied but victorious hobgoblins patrolling the district without resistance.
Naturally, many citizens are concerned that this violence could be repeated during Drac's Fall at the end of this month. Civic leaders who are organizing that holiday's events are already petitioning the Sea Lord for assistance in avoiding more trouble.
Drac's Fall Festivities!
The 5th anniversary of the death of the unlamented Sea Lord Milton Drac is swiftly approaching!
As usual, the festivities will start two days before the traitor's death date of May 26. Expect more of the popular "cultist chases," where locals dress animals in yellow cloaks and release them to be hunted down in the streets for that evening's feast.
In addition to the usual proliferation of temple pageants, parades, and mummer shows, this year's holiday will feature a new play performed at the Freeport Opera House. "Milton's Folly" dramatizes the story of Drac's downfall and death at the hands of the celebrated adventurers who saved our fair city from his sinister plots. Our chief arts critic assures us that home-town hero Thaddeus will attend the performance, which he helped to commission, but she has doubts whether even that silver-tongued rogue can persuade his one-time adventuring companion, the wizard-priestess Amanashaya, to join him. (Sadly, we have had no recent word about the whereabouts of our other saviors, Ellywyn, Zafir, and Ivellios, who left Freeport soon after Drac's death.)