MYSTERIOUS FIGURE TROUBLES TRAVELERS
Travelers today reported a feeling of unease and worry mysterious figure loitering beside the Atlas City road.
"I was afraid he was a monster." Admitted a merchant from Zona "He had blue skin that looked like it had rocks in it, but he was shaped like a human." The stranger is further described, by all witnesses as dressed in light brown, with a cloak, a hood, and a mask, and armed with a sword.
Travelers reported the figure to authorities, who sent a guard patrol out to deal with him. When the guards approached the figure he told then he had no business with them. They asked him to take of the mask and a guard reports that the stranger replied "So you came all this way to gawk at my face?" before casting flare arrow and scattering the party.
The spell let the guards loose track of the man, but they promise to send reinforcements, tomorrow if the man causes a problem again.
SURVEY SHOWS EDUCATION COULD USE IMPROVEMENT
A startling study by the Serun Institute for Improving Education (SIIE) reports that pubic education on the continent seems to be failing.
The study consisted of random surveys of the population regarding things that should generally be common knowledge, such as how long ago the War of Dragons and Monsters was, whether dragons and thinking beings like ourselves, and, indeed, whether or not the race of ancient black dragons is extinct. Less than a third of participants who lived outside of Serun could correctly identify a picture of Prince Philionelle. One young man in particular, a mercenary, didn't even know who Shabernigdo was.
The SIIE blames the problem on a number of factors. They include: School destruction by monsters of various descriptions, a lack of emphasis placed on subjects other than swordplay and magic, magic-related fires destroying books and other written material and, most importantly a high rate of dropouts.
Part of the problem is young men and women quitting school to find jobs, but the more disturbing trend is that of teens who drop out of school to become adventurers or mercenaries.
It is estimated that around ten percent of the continent's youth quit school to wander around the continent fighting evil, or becoming evil themselves.
"We need to keep kids in school." The society's chairman told us. "If you are going to wield the kind of power magic offers you have to do it with an informed mind. A sorcerer who didn't understand completely the power of Shabernigdo could summon him for something petty and kill us all. That's the sort of risk you take letting kids drop out of school."