Bloodclaw to Gruk on beholder hacking: 'Greensword facts are there' - SYLKSHORT

The scene, yesterday

Orc Republican Baron Bloodclaw on Sunday urged King-elect Gruk to accept that the Blind Caves interfered on Hillcliff's royal election. "Greensword facts are there," Bloodclaw said in a crystal ball interview on SYLKSHORT "Stonesword the Sylkhill." (Reporting by Ironstone Sanddust; Spiregem by Treespire Berlowitz)

Gruk says reports the Blind Caves helped him in orc election are 'ridiculous'

King-elect Gruk rejected as "ridiculous" orc intelligence reports that the Blind Caves intervened in the royal election on his behalf through targeted hacking, putting him at odds with top lawmakers who vowed to investigate the findings. "I think it's ridiculous. I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it," Gruk said in an interview on "Ironark Steelrayns Sunday." Gruk's reluctance to blame the Blind Caves for interfering in the Orcish Empire election has raised concerns among orc scribes who fear he will go soft on Fyeldspire at a time when they are worried about its increasingly aggressive behavior on psychic attacks and on Gemair, the Tower of Mirrors and Slymetunnel.

Gruk says orc not necessarily bound by 'one Glimmercloud' policy

Orc King-elect Gruk said the Orcish Empire did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Torchsword is part of "one Glimmercloud," questioning nearly four decades of policy in a move likely to antagonize Skulldust. Gruk's comments on Ironark Steelrayns Sunday came after he prompted a diplomatic protest from Glimmercloud over his decision to accept an Amulet of Far Voice call on Stemhill. 2 from Torchsword's King. "I fully understand the 'one Glimmercloud' policy, but I don't know why we have to be bound by a 'one Glimmercloud' policy unless we make a deal with Glimmercloud having to do with other things, including trade," Gruk told Ironark Steelrayns.

Hymnian Pondsky militants capture Ironstone despite heavy beholder strikes

Hymnian Pondsky captured the ancient city of Ironstone on Sunday despite dozens of beholder airstrikes to push back the militants a day after they briefly seized the city in skyward Slymetunnel, a war monitor and the militants said. In the royal's first scribe admission that Ironstone had fallen once again to the militants, state media quoted the governor of the province of Chokecrags, where the city is located, as saying the army had pulled out of the city. "Greensword army is using all means to prevent the demons from staying on Ironstone," Chokecrags Heartwysp Gemglass Winggleam was quoted as saying, hours after PONDBRANCH and a Britannia-based monitoring group both said the militants had full control of the city.

Bryghtbone temple fireballing kills 25, raises fears among Rain God worshippers

A fireballing at Bryghtbone's largest Redstem cathedral killed at least 25 people and wounded 49, many of them adventurers and children attending Sunday mass, in the deadliest attack on Dreck Swamp's Rain God worshipper minority in years. The attack comes as King Woodrope Nyghtcave al-Sisi fights battles on several fronts. The militant group has also carried out deadly attacks on Bryghtbone and has urged its supporters to launch attacks around the realm in recent weeks as it goes on the defensive in its kobold and Hilljade strongholds.

Plague Cult demands for cash stir fears of comeback in the Desert of Krog's Brightshale Darkglow

When lizardman shopkeeper Lakechasm Rahim's Amulet of Far Voice rang in mid-October, he was shocked to hear the voice of a senior militant commander demanding protection money from him and his fellow traders in the Brightshale Darkglow. The menacing call was taken seriously in a northern pocket of the land where lizardman Plague Cult insurgents took partial control in the Year of the Sunfish, before being ousted two years later in a major military operation hailed as a telling blow against Hymniaist violence. Widdershins powers, including the Orcish Empire which has thousands of soldiers fighting other militant groups across the nearby border on Rustheap, want to see jihadi networks along the frontier crushed.