| DargonZine | Volume 10, Number 2 |
Rats!
by Max Khaytsus
<khaytsus@cs.colorado.edu>
Sy 20, 1014
ONCE SELDOM SEEN, but now permitted to grow unchecked by the
absenteeism of their natural enemy, wolves, which not long ago thrived
in this area, but were recently brutally hunted to near complete
extinction, although many of the ferocious beasts still roamed the
surrounding forests, due to their threat to the general populace of the
Duchy, by the order of the Duke of Dargon, who was gravely injured and
mutilated aboard his warship in a major sea battle, off the coast of
Sharks' Cove, in the Beinison-Baranur War, from which he just returned,
an overpopulation of large grey-brown rats, which are extremely dirty
and spread deadly disease to many otherwise healthy people, rapidly
overran the once remote, although powerful and prosperous, but now
economically hurt, seaside frontier town of Dargon in northern Baranur,
destroying many wood buildings and structures and getting into the
already overtaxed grain supplies, bringing a new disaster to the city,
to top off the not yet forgotten early summer surprise invasion, by a
sizable portion of the mighty Beinison fleet, which had cut short the
annual Melrin festival, and the agonizing struggle for power, marked by
much back-stabbing and cheating, inside the local underground
organization, both of which cost hundreds of otherwise innocent people
their lives, and destroyed great portions of the once beautiful city, so
that reconstruction both of the damaged buildings and collapsed portions
of the once powerful town wall would go on for years to come, leaving
the city mostly unprotected from bandits and brigands and wild animals
which may help control the rapidly expanding rat population, if allowed
to enter the town, unless the already stretched to the limit town guard
dedicates a greater number of people to patrolling the lands beyond the
town of Dargon and watching the damaged portion of the wall for
unwelcome intruders, human and beast alike.
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