Genn Wintord

UP: Catskills

    Several weeks ago, a large contingent of orcs and their allies stormed the fortified village of Cove apparently killing all the local guards and most of the civilians within the sturdy walls of the village. General Jetrin Valek was assigned by Sir Geoffrey to lead the force which was to retake the area. The orcish army which held the fort was obviously unprepared to deal with the arriving forces and was quickly dispatched. It became clear soon after the village was secure that the original defenders of the fort had been slaughtered in an ambush away from their assigned posts. Sure of the competence of the Cove guard, General Valek declared that only treason from within the walls could have resulted in such a slaughter. The gates of Cove remained closed for the next day and the village placed under marshal law while General Valek and his staff conducted and investigation. Strangely, when the gates were opened, no word was released on the who, what or why of this case—until now.

    Yesterday a member of General Valek’s staff released some of the particulars concerning this case as well as a description of the main suspect. Lieutenant Wendell statement follows

    “First I hope that you understand that we cannot release all the information about this case until such time as any charges have been heard in a court of law. With that said, let me explain a bit of what is known to have happened in Cove prior to the orc attack. Starting approximately an hour before the attack, several coordinated ambushes occurred. The bodies of the victims were then hidden in such a manner as to avoid immediate detection. These initial attacks removed half of the Cove guard. Following this, it appears that approximately one third of the remaining guard was killed in a manner which seems to indicate that they were led to the ambush area by someone they trusted. At this point, the alarm was raised, but the remaining guards did not have the numbers nor the defensible positions to defeat the attacking army.”

    “Upon a full accounting of the bodies recovered and those known to be stationed in Cove, we were very interested to find that only one man was unaccounted for—a Private Drepler. I cannot go into all the evidence concerning this man, but we have released a warrant for his arrest. The charges indicated on the warrant are theft, desertion and treason. This man is considered armed and dangerous. Should you see him, please contact the local authorities. Do not attempt to apprehend this man yourself.”

    The floor was then opened to questions where it was found that Private Drepler is known to be a young, light skinned man with short reddish brown hair. Authorities are concentrating their search in the Vesper area.

From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online, Wednesday, April 7th 1999