Letters from a Small Town Wizard

Remove the following letters from general correspondence and forward them to the Department of Mystery for future investigation: J2-116A, J2-116B, and J2-116C. In addition, package J2-116D is to be held in an antimagic containment vault. Label them as low priority as the situation appears to have solved itself.

Of note, letters J2-116A and J2-116B contain comments of a former employee of the guild, Wizard Overfield. While some of their notes may prove useful, much of it may be ignored. Letter J2-116C contains brief comments by his replacement, Wizard Flora Zadeh.

Archwizard Ludomir Beneš

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J2-116A

This letter arrived by courier on the twenty-eighth of June. The courier had not been paid and the guild was forced to expend four p. The letter is addressed to general council. The letter is from a wizard assigned to the small city of Acodence, Ms. Yalda. -W.O.

Sirs and Madams, I apologize that this will be my first correspondence with you since I was appointed here. This is untrue. I conducted a search through the archive and found three letters from Ms. Yalda. All three are requests for transfer from Acodence to a larger city. Perhaps she merely means this is her first official report? -W.O. Till now I have not considered any of my dealing of sufficient magical interest to bother the council. Obviously, this has changed.

On the Sixteenth of June, a cook under the employ of a wealthy merchant of the city came to me with an odd problem. Three days prior she had baked a chocolate cake for her employer. She could recall no oddities occurring during the bake. Nor did she receive complaints about the flavor of the cake from the merchant or any of his guests.

The following afternoon she found a chocolate cake whole, uneaten, and unsliced on the counter. She crafted various explanations for the appearance of this cake and dismissed the event. The next afternoon there were three cakes on the counter. On the evening she sought me out six cakes appeared.

The cakes had no magical auras nor any evidence of traditional glamours, hexes, or conjurations. My next course of action was to observe the kitchen throughout the day. In the evening somewhere between two and three o’clock, ten chocolate cakes formed before my eyes. They were arranged in a triangular pattern though there was not room on the counter for all of them so a few ended up upon the floor.

Before this, I was convinced this was a prank by one of the fae. Unfortunately, I now feel this is unlikely. I could neither see, nor sense any fae either before, during, or after the event. While powerful fae could have alluded me I struggle to believe such a fae would use their time forming chocolate cakes.

I have run out of ideas for how this may be occurring and how I might stop it. I require advice as soon as this letter may be circulated among senior members. In response, inform Ms. Yalda that this is only done in the case of serious magical cases, not in cases of duplicating cakes. -W.O.

With great regard, your obedient servant, Wizard Pegh Yalda.

Send Yalda a copy of the pamphlet ‘It Appeared, Thwarting Unwanted Conjurations.’ While she may not have sensed any magical auras on the cakes this is not uncommon in cases of rebounding conjurations. What we have here is a third-rate sorceress, with an ego larger than her skill, sent to a backwater village, asking for help after the first mildly magical occurrence. Also, remind Ms. Yalda that the guild will not pay for couriers and she will have four p added to her guild dues for the month. -W.O.

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J2-116B

This letter arrived by standard courier, on the ninth of July. Addressed to the general council. From the council’s wizard assigned to the backwater town of Acodence, ‘Wizard’ Yalda.

For reference to any, unlikely, future readers of this correspondence: This letter provides little to no context about its subject. It can be inferred that the author is continuing upon the subject of her previous letter. See previous correspondence J2-116A -W.O.

Sirs and Madams, while I appreciate the addition of another copy of your pamphlet to my collection I assure you that I have, indeed, followed the advice contained within well before I contacted you. Ms. Yalda is clearly taking on a passive aggressive attitude toward an official guild representative. Recommend disciplinary actions. -W.O.

I appreciate that, from a distance, my issue may not appear to be a serious magical occurrence. I hope you will appreciate that here it is very much an issue. Today the former house of the merchant was filled with over a hundred and fifty cakes. We will likely be well over five hundred by the time I receive another letter from you if I can not find a solution before then.

Despite W. O.’s lack of assistance I have managed to make some progress in isolating the issue. After crafting a magical prism I have finally isolated the magical energies and this phenomenon is the result of chronomancy of some variety. Unlikely. The crafting of a magical prism is advanced work. A nothing ‘Wizard’ like Yarda could have fouled up the spells and thus it is providing useless information. -W.O.

My own study into chronomancy was limited and so I require the advice of Archwizard Mojmír Moravec. Under section three of guild code, I am allowed to seek advice or teaching from an Archwizard once a year.

Finally, I would like to remind W. O. or any other wizard that receives this letter, that I too have earned my title as Wizard Pegh Yalda or simply Wizard Yalda. I am not Ms. Yalda.

With limited regard, the servant of the guild, Wizard Pegh Yalda.

Send ‘Wizard’ Yalda confirmation of receiving her letter. Send Archwizard Moravec the request of a guild wizard for his contact information. Complaints against ‘Wizard’ Yalda are to be sent to Wizard Arten on the disciplinary committee.

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J2-116C

This letter arrived by courier, on the twenty-third of July. Addressed to the general council. From the council’s wizard assigned to Acodence, Wizard Yalda. Courier was paid four p from guild funds. Alongside the letter was a package. Additional fifteen p paid from guild funds. - Wizard Zedah

Archwizard Moravec has requested that I send a written account of the events to the guild for future records. I have also been informed by the Archwizard that, contrary to W. O.’s previous notices, that payment for my couriers is a guild responsibility. I would like to request eight p be subtracted from my guild dues for the month.

The duplication of the cakes has, finally, been halted. The damage done to the city was severe. In the final days, an area that included eight homes was being bombarded by cakes every day at two-sixteen in the afternoon.

It is still unclear what caused this event but Archwizard Moravec and I were able to make a few educated guesses on the nature of the event. At some point after the cake was baked something occurred that sent it into, as Archwizard Moravec put it, some sort of chronomatic fractal cascade. The prime version of the cake was held in this cascade and was existing upon multiple time streams.

So the solution was clearly to reach into this chronomatic event and remove the cake. It took a great deal of study and help from the Archwizard but I did succeed in this. Per the Archwizard’s instruction, I have sent the cake. You will find it to be held in temporal stasis. While it may be later proven that this was all some odd by-product of a wizard elsewhere on the planet messing with time I felt safer knowing the cake was locked in time.

With regard, apprentice to Archwizard Moravec, Wizard Pegh Yalda.