The Wondermark Gazette

VOL. I: DISPATCHES FROM WONDERMARK MANOR

Resident of an extravagant manor in the town of Easthillshireborough-upon-Flats, I lived a life dedicated to luxury and wanton behaviour in all its myriad forms. The appointment of the lovely and principled Head Inspector Lara to the Police Bureau threatened to disrupt my hedonistic life-style, but I was well on my way to winning her heart until a shocking betrayal by the vile dandy Peapoddy left Lara injured and sent me on the run for my life.

With the aid of a hunch-back, I escaped through a network of tunnels as rampaging bat-creatures laid my manor to flaming ash. Having no-where to turn, I fell in with a gang of street ruffians representing the Ancestral Brother-hood of the Kippers, and fought my way to the Hospital where Lara lay en-comatosed and clinging to life — only to find that a scarred Peapoddy had survived the blaze at the Manor and eagerly sought my destruction. I narrowly escaped to a ship bound for distant shores, in search of the lost Tome of the Precious Lore — a volume which I prayed held the key to Lara’s recovery.

VOL. II: VOYAGE FROM WONDERMARK MANOR

After killing the crew of the ship on a whim, I found myself alone and adrift at sea, until I discovered an old man named Grenadon hidden away in a salt-barrel. Impossibly ancient, Grenadon was long absent from his old home on the Isle of Yam-Runners, and a bit of murder-deceit on my part landed me on the Isle itself, impersonating its patriarch.

Heralded as a returning hero and revered as a healer, I was led by the beautiful Rikah to an air-ship where the decrepit and ailing Peapoddy demanded that I, as Grenadon, rescue him from death’s door-step. I took this opportunity to finish the hateful creature, but not before learning that his equally-wretched mother, the Countess Peapoddy, still lurked the Earth. My act roused the ire of the Peapoddy-allied Yam-Runners, who lived deep within the island — and their own Ursula promised me the Tome of the Precious Lore if I would aid them with a simple task. I watched in horror as my subsequent actions — aided by the Countess Peapoddy’s air-armada — destroyed Rikah’s entire village with jade fire.

After foiling my escape attempt, the Yam-Runners’ chief forced me to choose between Rikah’s life, and the Tome itself, which held the hope of saving my love Lara, back at home. I chose the Tome. Paired with Ursula, I rode the undersea-train back towards civilisation, only then learning that the Tome is in fact a fraud, and that Ursula and the Countess intend to conquer and rule Easthillshireborough-upon-Flats.

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