With the arrival of summer in Avechary, a lone merian maiden set out for
the city of Celest in hopes of buying food for her three children. With
the rising population of Nyalia, food was becoming increasingly scarce
for the merians. She eventually found the heart of the city and was
greeted by several Celestians who offered her aid, leading her to a shop
selling an assortment of food. Before leaving, the maiden assured those
who had helped her that the Archmage Marinus Shervalian had a project in
mind to help alleviate the lack of food on the Isle of Nyalia and that
all would be well.

Seeking to do more for the maiden, a pair of young Celestians sought out
the Archmage on Nyalia, offering their assistance with the project. The
Archmage explained that he had approved the rebuilding of the old farm
on Vesucia and suggested that they seek out Nurit Sinenth, who had been
placed in charge of the construction. The pair quickly found their way
to Vesucia and discovered Nurit, surrounded by supplies and tools.
Telling him they had been sent to help him in his project, they were
quickly put to work collecting the necessary supplies to construct the
farm. With the help of those from Celest, Nurit soon had the supplies he
needed and disappeared to gather his brothers and complete the
construction.

Almost a month later, the Basin was disturbed by a horrified scream
emanating from the Isle of Vesucia. Those from Serenwilde and Celest
soon found Nurit and his brothers, Ledile and Glotin, with the completed
farm. Attacked by strange new creatures that had appeared on the island,
they asked those gathered to bring word to the Archmage of Nyalia of
what had befallen them. After listening to a description of the events,
the Archmage was joined by Sidalt Sinenth, the brothers' aunt. Together
they examined the corpse of the creature brought to them by the
Serenwilders.

They explained that the creatures, called scrumhogs, were an early
attempt at making living aether probes as part of the experiments of
Project Outreach during the time of the Old Celestine Empire. Made
primarily from the energies of elemental earth, they were little more
intelligent than the pigs that they were patterned after. The scrumhogs
were then confined to Vesucia. With the appearance of the Taint, they
became violent and were thought destroyed along with the last merians on
Vesucia. Now the scrumhogs have returned, perhaps roused by the recent
construction on the island.

Sidalt soon proposed creating a construct from the small crystals found
within the scrumhogs, which contained earth elemental energies. The
construct could then be used to create a resonance field that would
prevent the scrumhogs from burrowing into the farm. A merian bravo was
dispatched to build and then bring the finished constructs to the farm.
As the required crystals were harvested from the scrumhogs for each
construct, Rika Talnara patiently aided Sidalt in focusing the
constructs in the farm's three fields. With the last construct focused,
the resonance from each of the three constructs harmonized, sending a
brilliant flash across the isle and leaving the farm safe.

Penned by My hand on the 24th of Tzarin, in the year 217 CE.