Scouting Reports April and May 1106

Cornwall

The winter has hit Cornwall hard. Even supported by the Empire and the food given to them by the State of Albion there are still many deaths in the provinces. With the Cornish Battalion stretched hard, civil unrest has meant that criminal gangs have taken to ceasing food and supplies. There have been many deaths over the winter and with food supplies not getting any better it
Since the peace talks with Albion, morale in the duchy has reached a high. There is a new feeling of hope, and looking to the Albion that they once deserted to make everything right again. This hope is tempered with common since – and the people see the starvation in the rest of the land and they feel a new kinship to the other duchies.
Followers of the Architect and Igraine have tried to support the people of the land – trying to distribute food to the people most in need and heal the ill. What little food there is, is a precious commodity although werewolf activity in the area has dramatically stopped over the month. With refugee’s returning to Cornwall and families reunited faith is strong and loyalty to the King and his new bride is as high as it’s ever been.

Gloucester

In the duchy of Gloucester, the mountains seem almost alive. To the west, the Dragon’s Spine has buckled and the land started to shift. While in the East, the Spine of Albion seems to have responded almost as if it is retaliating; shifting, like a great beast stirring in its sleep.
In Hereford, the Stretton circle is destroyed by a massive pulse of void energies. This magic released by the cataclysm has affected the Blackwood somehow. Scouts report that the forest has started growing at an increased rate. There are also stories that something has come out of this magical pulse and started living within the forest.
People who have left the city of Gloucester during hours of darkness have not returned and are now reported as missing. Numbers have reached double figures resulting in a curfew being placed on when people can enter and leave the city.
With no one returning from transports to the circle at Sherburn, travel in Gloucester is slow and travel to the south means walking from Winchester or all the way down from Edwinstowe. This had made information gathering in Gloucester incredibly hard.
There are rumours of people who died in the famine rising again. Several villages around Forest Glen have been badly hurt by these walking dead. The creatures seem to have some sort of animalistic cunning and have managed to avoid the patrols sent to deal with them.
Faith in the Trinity has been quickly established in Gloucester although it was here that worship of Nethras, Hunter and the Pendragon were strongest. Most villages and town have shrines to the Trinity and it is the wardens of these shrines, who are instrumental in making sure that the dead are laid to rest and their bodies burnt.

Keswick

As the most heavily hit duchy by the famine, the people of Keswick are sullen and morose. It seems like years since the Harts drove off the goblins to the West – and seem more interesting in helping the people of Cornwall instead of the loyal of Keswick.
As food shortages get worse people of Keswick try to leave the cities instead moving to what food they can get; praying to ancestors of the woods and wilds to help them survive. The cities of Keswick and Carlisle are almost ghost towns with bodies lying in the streets.
In Tewksbury, the building of a new guildhouse has meant emigration of people to this land. They are still low on food and attacks from people and elves claiming to follow the Green Man are regular, and the Keswick battalion struggle to fight them off and get food to the people in remote areas.

Winchester

Winchester is not a duchy used to hardship. With the reunification of Cornwall feelings are bitter towards them as they resent sharing what little food they have with the Cornish. The Winchester battalion and the Circle Guard spend their time protecting food caravans and stopping the regular food transports. With many minor nobles missing since October, gangs try to seize what power they can and give the battalions regular trouble.
The people of Winchester move towards the cities to better reach the food supplies leaving fields untended. Fishermen on the east coast have complained about odd tidal patterns and ships have been sunk.
Religious enclaves of Mother Worshippers have shut themselves off from other areas of land; fearful of attacks. Followers of the Architect and Nethras try to help the people of Winchester but faith is low and civil unrest is high.

York

In the majority of York morale is low. With so much time and effort invested into Cornwall and Winchester , it is thought that the young King has deserted their people. The Norhault and York Battalions spent much of their time stopping civil unrest, and trying to make sure that the food reaches the cities.
Like Keswick, many of the people have taken to worshipping wild ancestors to provide for them. Worship of the Mother is at it’s strongest in York, but her followers are often shunned by the people and several have been killed.
Like Winchester, people on the East Coast have noticed strange tidal patterns that have scared away fish and sunk several fishing boats.
In Bishop’s Aukland troops have ringed the perimeter of the land of Malhault’s area. People have defected to his banner in desperation for food and the rumour is that he has some way of getting food in the area. None of this has been seen and very few people who have entered the duchy have bothered returning.