From the UO Town Cryer Newspaper, 2/20/98

.....After the shrines had been defended it was discovered that a large force of creatures had waylaid a caravan that travels between Trinsic and Skara Brae. Normally this caravan travels under the protection of the guards, but their number had been drastically reduced due to the emergency. Left with a light escort, the caravan managed to escape into the caves west of Trinsic. Alas, these caves became the spot of their slaughter.

Although no official description of the caravan’s goods and purpose has been released, several sources within the Skara Brae council admitted that a large amount of weapons and other armaments were present.

The head of this caravan was one Tali Desryn, the wife of Finth Desryn. Finth spared no expense and wasted no time in dispatching as many people as he could to assist the caravan. Alas, when the goodly citizens returned a certain necklace to his possession he knew his wife and all other caravan members had been slain.

A lesson to thee I present this fine day. When thine eyes tell thee of a truth, question fast the reality thou hast witnessed.

Mine name has been besmirched by a subtle lot with an agenda I find deplorable. Betrayed by men close, and now even closer to thee.

With these tools thou hast kindly provided me I will not wreak havoc, nor shall I bring Chaos upon thee. I am most desirous of an Order. An order borne of service and dedication to the truth I shall enlighten all of Britannia with.

All of civilization shall be reborn under my firm hand. And birthing is a most bloody process, so grip tight the bit with thine teeth and steel thineselves for the shock.

For it will come without notice.

Will it not, Finth?

--Lord Juo’Nar

Captain Desryn was without comment, as he has been in mourning ever since the discovery of his wife’s death. The only sight people had of him were of him mourning at the sight near the Paladin Hall where he and his late wife exchanged vows.

With Juo’Nar’s latest statement, it seems that Britannia has more megalomaniacal ideologues presenting platitudes of domination than ever before. We are searching for a pattern, however these events have happened so quickly as to make judgement difficult.

We at UP [Ultima Press?] are concerned about these trends and will continue to provide the most up to date reporting of all that occurs. As soon as the forensic examiners have finished their study of the fallen creatures on the battlefield we hope to have some more information for thee.

Several things struck me as quite odd about the Crawworth resignation. first, no one saw
him leave or heard him mention personally any intention to do so. his only indication is a
short note left on his desk written in a "hasty scrawl"??? I think it's absurd that Crawworth
wouldn't confront someone face to face about this or at LEAST deliver the letter in person.

Unless, of course, the not wasn't written by crawworth. see, the whole thing sounds like baloney
to me. i think he's been "eliminated." perhaps the Zog Cabal WANTED this Finth Desryn guy
in charge. perhaps he's in on it or perhaps he's just a dupe. either way, SOMETHING is up.

The second one:

Everything is happening to the head of the guards with Finch's wife's death now...
The probable outcome is that one of the next leaders (I'm sure Finch will resign or
get killed off) will be associated with the Cabal. This is what i think will happen....

Yes, both very logical thoughts on recent developments. I have to concur that the focus on Trinsic's captain of the guards must have some serious meaning. Perhaps that position is one of real power among the guards of Britannia. Perhaps that position is used to train all of Lord British's guards. If so, infiltration of that position would give the Cabal the ability to do what Zog threatened to do (at least on ATL). On ATL, Zog questioned us all, asking if we could "defeat the guards". He then stated that, "He could."

With all that's gone on, I'm inclined to believe that indeed the Cabal ARE trying to infiltrate the guard structure via that method.