Arrival: Victorian Progress

Field Report: 17 Laundum

Guardsmare Stone Wall

Guardsmare Shimmering Steel and I have just finished informing the townsfolk of the Response. As per the criteria set by command, we have surveyed the town for any signs of foreign or malignant physical presences. While I cannot report for the arcane matters, nothing of any note was found in any house. Everything in the village was well within expected deviations. A small survey of the immediate countryside shows an odd set of tracks. While an obvious attempt was made to conceal the owner of said tracks, the path itself is easily visible. In case of hostilities, we will wait for nightfall and follow the trail.

Guardsmare Shimmering Steel

As an addendum to Stone Wall’s missive, I did a bit of preliminary work on the trail. It leads out further into the Gap, which is worrisome on its own. If this Response was caused by the Preußen Confederation... such thoughts are for the politician and statesponies to think of.

On a similar note, the tracks are incredibly muddied, but there are some striking signs that completely confuse me. The markings come in pairs. Minotaurs are not known to be kept by either the griffons or us, but one could have escaped from some source. I have informed my compatriots of a bipedal possibility.

Archmagi Ley Line

The thaumic energies of the region seem to be stabilizing into a distinct pattern. If anything, the magical grid feels fractured. To use a drastically simplified simile, this fracture is to the fracture of a Great Spell as a bowling ball is to a levin-bolt. Its a giant, ragged hole. The oddest part of the fracture is not the gap itself, its the texture of the breakage. Its shocking. Literally. There is a tinge of electrical energy, unlike any I have seen before. If this is present in any text contained by ponykind, I do not know of it. I warn the College, and Equestria, to be on guard. If any living thing has this sort of fracturing power, we may have to worry about our magical abilities.

Scribe Calligraphy Pen

Ponies catalogued. No one out of place and no new ponies.

Tasks successfully completed. Local nobility informed and powers duly delegated, with help of Guardsmare Steel.

Local supplies in full and complete stock. Grounds set for military contingent yet to arrive.

House commandeered for civilian Response infrastructure.

Missives collected, headed with sender.

Personal Note: Archmage Ley Line was kind enough to teach me a low-energy recoding spell. If all goes well, I should be able to have a narrative journal of our expedition after the tracks. If the spell works properly.