It began with the squirrels, and spread to all the other animals of Lake Narcisse like a plague.

Not long after the first sighting, the terrible pustules, the black ichor, the malformation of the respiratory track and the appearance of vestigial gills spread to all the animals of the Lake's environs.

In his cage in the Cerulean Spire of Cyrene, the Mad Mage of the Muurn stirred from his three-decade-long slumber. Ravaged in body by the passing of time, but with mind and malice both undimmed, he looked to the north and the east for signs of the terrible situation he knew would unfold in his absence.

Now, Lake Narcisse and its island are a blighted wasteland. Thick, oily exudate rises from his previously-hidden laboratory under its waters, and the inhabitants of that unlucky land suffer as cruelly as the animals do.

And from his perch in Cyrene, the Mad Mage grins, knowing what is to come, if he is not stopped.

Efforts are yet to yield any result, and time is ticking for the angai and the hanai of Lake Narcisse.

As he is so fond of saying: tick, tock.

~ ~ ~

Summary: Gaderian awoke after thirty-plus years of imprisonment, as a terrible blight spread across Lake Narcisse and into the animals of the Western Ithmia.

Penned by My hand on the 25th of Chronos, in the year 969 AF.