The Chronicle

of the month of Jasmarill in the year 142

At the end of the voting during Springtide, it was revealed that the city now has a new overlord in the person of Lady Samantha Cox. The full voting was as follows:

Paston Courtney 7 (Courtney, Griffiths, Andrews, Dexter, Bowden, Anderson, Tasker)

Samantha Cox 15 (Cox, Warin, Shefford, Faithside, Isenbard, Barnett, Downe, Belcher, Maxil, Worton, Horl, Rimon, Perignon, Lansdowne, du Bolay)

Alan Griffiths 1 (Carter)

A disappointed Paston Courtney confirmed that he will now also be retiring from his post as Guildmaster of the Carpenters, and will no longer take part in civic affairs. He added that he intended to take advantage of his retirement and indulge a long standing ambition to travel to distant lands. After some prompting he allowed that it might also be pleasant to spend more time with his family.

At a recent surprise trial, the city has learned that Ferdinand Lansdowne, named heir to the vast Lansdowne fortunes, paid for the attacks upon the Dixon household which led to an assassination attempt on Cllr Matthew Dixon. The news dawned on the city at a trial before the then Sheriff Sam Cox, who revealed that Ferdinand, along with his brother Antoine and Sara Warfdon, had hired an assassin to kill Roland Dixon in retaliation for the death of Guimar Perignon. In her summing up Samantha Cox described how the three had been enticed by the assassin into paying £15 for the attack, and how the assassin had then gone on to kidnap Elizabeth Dixon, and perpetrate other crimes which led to the near death of Matthew Dixon. Samantha Cox told the court how the assassin had laid a careful and many layered plan to blame the Nyskildians for the crimes, and that she had been convinced that creating a conflict between the two cities had been the main objective of the scheme. She described Ferdinand and his accomplices as unfortunate dupes, paying for an attack which would have taken place anyway. She told the court how, to his credit, Ferdinand had co-operated fully with the investigation's attempts to track down the assassin and how he, along with Cllrs Dixon and Derwent, was injured in the fight which ensued. The assassin was eventually tracked down and killed following a late night chase along the Old Gavelkinden Road. In pronouncing the death sentence she made it clear that conspiracy to commit murder is as great an offence as the crime itself, and should receive the severest sentence. However, considering Ferdinand's assistance of the investigation she commuted the death sentence to exile and loss of citizenship. The assassin, one Carol Bardsdale, had been a resident of Castle Bard for the past two years. Any citizen with information regarding her is requested to contact the Witanmoot.

The Chair for the Treasury, George Rimon, caused uproar in the chamber with the announce­ment of the coming year's budget, which will be funded by an extra tax of 1s.2d off each householder, and an extra 2% tax off each guild. This, he assured the house, would be a special measure for one year only in order to cover the initial setting up costs of the Cascorach Emissary and an official city orphanage. Amid an increasingly noisy background of heckling he stated that he hoped the new emissary would stimulate trade and bring in­creased wealth to the city. The council was then adjourned until order was once again restored.