I've spent much of this last cycle shut away in the guildhall, scrawling words on parchment. Time has passed sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, while the pile of parchment grows - but only slowly!
In between those times there have been many occasions when zombies have forced their way into these lands of ours. And every time they have been targetting Life Monuments. It is good to say that so far the doughty adventurers of Valorn have been able to contain the incursions before any damage was done. One more odd thing about these raids has been the absence of Abayde. There has been no sign of him so far as I have been able to discover. The good side of that is we have had no portals or relics to deal with - just waves of his undead horde, often attacking more than one area at the same time.
I've been musing whether we should be glad he hasn't been around to make the defence more difficult, or if we should be worrying about what he is doing in the time he has not been seen.
There was a strange occurence at the beginning of the cycle. Fierce, strong creatures known as Reapers appeared, dealing out death to all who tried to attack them. I watched in dismay as comrades fell, often in the most twisted and painful ways. But eventually, as ever, we prevailed. And amidst it all, one of the enchanted Crowns of Valorn found its way to me. It is still with me as I write, though doubtless it will soon be off on its travels once again.