#thirdlevelsociety

1 September 1281

So I have started off the month returning back to Cabotton University on an urgent matter. Apparently, the notorious Ceri Mains, who escaped the Mount Carris Perimeter last month, is especially interested in a vulnerable prodigy named Mary Kormann, who currently is a Member of the Third Level Society. The current Dungeonmaster is Julian Mackwell of whom I know almost nothing save his name. I've been warned, however, that there is a certain amount of treachery this time.

Goodness! It's been years since I've been to the University. I'm sure there's all new faces and none of anyone I knew in the past. I think of anyone I knew there, Oscar Lehman held out the longest. He definitely thought he could not swing the Dungeonmaster position, but I told him to fake the confidence until he found true confidence. Honestly, that might not have been the best advice, but it did work, didn't it. He lasted four years in there, almost as long as Ivella. However, once he was ready to hand the Office to someone else, he left and never dealt with the Society again. I guess I was right in sensing that the Dungeonmaster position is very taxing.

It seems like yesterday that I was dealing with Cray Fenton and Oscar Lehman. That was twenty years ago. So much has changed, both on the outside and the inside. We parted ways that year, but Sari Frame and I went in the same direction, supporting a growing demographic within the ranks of the Third Level Society Caucus, a demographic who had long been voicing a long-ignored desire to create a medieval version of the Arturian Realm, set in parallel to life in Remikra during the age of John Dane and the advent of the hot air balloon. Such a proposal had been made in during the off-weeks Caucus meetings, and had been repeatedly for at least the last two decades; every single time, it never was taken seriously. The number of extra dymensional plane servers needed to be built for this simply put the cost beyond the Society's current budget. Our call was answered, however, by two unexpected individuals: Marcus Terrings and Jon Beyon. We met with them in the city of Cenofan across the Circlarian Ocean on the continent of Canticula. Marcus and Jon had a lot of Canticulan friends, many of whom willing to not only invest in our desired medieval dymensional plane, but to set it up across numerous expansive servers located in branches across the Midland River States. That started in 1261; and by 1267, we were at such a height that I began to believe my life to be defined in major part by this enterprise. Then came the Provans. Their small, tiny state in the far East of Canticula, apparently a republic, came under sway of some sort of a charismatic figure, who invaded her neighbors and then pushed Westward. Nothing could stop the Provans. They played politics, taking advantage of a rivalry existing between the Midland River States and the Chokian Republic by pushing both sides into war. And then, as conflict broke out, the Provans launched their offensive…against both sides. Neither side had the capability to match them. The Provans annihilated both sides in one fell swoop. I personally was not present in any of their grim battlefields, thankfully. But I did ride in an airship over one of the Midland River capitals, which was nothing but a blackened area. Apparently, Provan bombing and created a large inferno that raged there in days past. Rumor has it that the Provans destroyed that city with one large "device of mass destruction." Even today I hardly believe that. To conceive of a single bomb capable of setting an entire city ablaze is something I buy with difficulty. I believe it was most likely the work of a thorough raiding job. Regardless, we were forced to close up shop and locate back to Remikra. Some of us went back to try and retrieve the trecholators. We succeeded in retrieving two of them, but the rest were either destroyed or salvaged by the Provans. In some instances, some of our people were turned back and had to go home. So we were forced to start over.

Up to that point, though, we had become just as guilty as the Third Level Society, in that we never took the time to consider an idea voiced by a growing number of our people: setting up a dymensional plane of Remikra, itself, during the tenth century. Similar to Medieval Arturia back in the Third Level Society, the Remikra imitation idea was never taken seriously due to the ridiculous costs. But now that we were back from Canticula, having settled in West Terredon, Combria, the idea of Medieval Remikra, preferred now by a majority of our members thanks to Jon Beyon and Marcus Terrings having thrown support behind this, finally received the funding and opportunity for implementation that its original creators long asked for. Unfortunately, the idea of rebuilding Medieval Arturia was put in moratorium and has been largely forgotten. Also, the realism expectations of Medieval Remikra have called for extensive research into history, geography, and culture. And it's definitely proven to be as daunting of a task as we feared back in 1267. It is now fourteen years later, and we are still researching.

There have also been quite a lot of changes in my personal life, but I guess I will dwell on those later.

I will end with this, however. I am quite thankful for the Greycloak. Just in case this personal journal gets stolen, I won't disclose who Greycloak is or their specific role, but they are the ones who paid for everything: the whole Canticula agenda despite its downfall; the whole Medieval Remikra agenda which is still ongoing; and even my airship flight from West Terredon to North Kempton, my airship flight from North Kempton to Cabotton, and my extended stay in Guestroom 3 of 327 East Mason Street, where I am located now.

Am I strange to say that I am both excited and dreading the whole Ceri Mains and Mary Kormann thing?

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