ISD-II Magnus Kaerner
Farrin Xies' Quarters
Approaching Lyspair

Scion Tarentae sat ram-rod straight in the chair, his bearing practically screaming "military" to all but the most dense of observers. Something about these quarters - normally reserved for the Commander of the vessel, but "borrowed" by Tarentum's Consul - made him think back to his military career what felt now like ages ago. A sigh and the clinking of ice in a glass brought him out of his reverie to look again at the current occupant of the room. Scion was a few years older than Farrin Xies, but the signs of stress brought on by leading the Clan were still beginning to show faintly around the younger man's eyes. The most recent communique from the Grand Master certainly did nothing to help that fact.

After taking a long sip on the Corellian ale in his glass, Farrin finally looked back up at the Quaestor and resumed their earlier discussion. "Your House is in good hands; I know Zekk will be fine, and I know you think so too. I want someone I can trust on this mission."

The former naval officer cocked an eyebrow while sipping on his own drink. "What about Bloodfyre? or Frosty?"

Farrin shook his head. "I trust them both completely, but they have their own duties. I thought about Hades, but he's next to impossible to get off the Sheath nowadays." Both men chuckled lightly at the thought of their curmudgeonly Master leaving his base of operations on the Sword's Sheath to head to the Shadow Academy on what potentially could be either a dangerous trap or a fool's errand - or both.

Their mirth, however, was cut short at a loud chirp on Farrin's holoterminal. A couple of keystrokes later, Farrin's brow had furrowed in surprise. "I'm sorry my friend, but I'll need the room. It seems the Headmaster wishes to speak to me." He shook his head and snorted derisively. "I wonder if he cares more that we're teaming up some of his fellow Plagueians or that we're heading back into his Shadow Academy?"

After Scion left, Farrin sat still at his desk, idling stroking his beard as he always did when deep in thought.

_What have I gotten myself in to? _ the Tarentum Consul mused.

Buenos noches, senors y senoritas, and welcome to my fifth report as your Consul. This is an exciting time to be a Star Wars nerd (there's this movie coming out next week, have ya heard?) and definitely a wonderful time to be in the Brotherhood, so I hope you're all taking advantage of it as much as possible. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see Episode 7 when it comes out because, gosh darnit, I'll be at Disney World at the end of next week. I know, first world problems, amirite? I say all of that to say two things: first, if you spoil the movie for me I'll effing end you; and two, I'll be on leave from Thursday, 12/17 until Tuesday, 12/22. I'll have my phone on me and so I can check email and Telegram, but I doubt I'm super active on either until the evening of the 22nd.

DJB-Wide News

• The most recent MAA report outlined changes to how approvals will work on competitions with co-organizers. To quote Aabs: "Easy to grade competitions like flash games may only have a single co-organizer. Automatically graded competitions like CF based gaming ones may have no co-organizers unless the main organizer is the student of a master, who may be a co-organizer." Additionally, organizers and co-organizers can no longer place in their own competitions; you can compete, but you can't earn a Crescent.

• The Grand Master's Invitational ACC Tournament continues, but Tarentum will not be; Frosty timed out (by an order of minutes - let this be a lesson to always watch that clock and err on the side of caution!) and Scion came within inches of beating Halc. Scion's work was truly phenomenal, and to come as close as he did to beating Halc is truly a big deal - well done, Scion. There's some great ACC-ing going on over there, and I encourage you all to take a look!

• To coincide with Episode 7, the Dark Council is running a series of fun competitions that are awarding not only first level crescents but also some various and sundry dossier candy and titles. Lots of different options to appeal to you no matter what you enjoy, so take a look and go do some events! I want to especially point out the run-on... Scion and I are working with a couple of Plagueians and Aabs on ours, and it should be some fun - I'm really looking forward to it, at least!

• The Wiki Tribune is looking for a Wiki Assistant to join his team. This is a great position to really make a DJB-wide impact, something that's especially important for those Equites looking for promotions... You'll want to hurry on this one, as the deadline is the 18th of this month.

Tarentum News

• Our joint event with Plagueis ended a little bit less than two weeks ago, and I was fairly happy with the results overall (participation could have been just the tiniest bit better, but overall it wasn't bad). Special shout-outs to Scion for placing in three of the competitions, and Caesar and Solas for being hard-working members of the top scoring team overall. I enjoyed the more cooperative format of this event compared to a straight Clan vs. Clan feud. One last note on the joint event... I gave him a shout-out last month but I want to do so again: Teylas, thanks for being a rockstar throughout the entire process. I truly appreciate it.

• As a token of my appreciation for everything that they do with me behind the scenes to make Tarentum great, I'm happy that Beef recently received a Grand Cross and Frosty received a Steel Cross; if you want an idea of what kind of stuff it takes to really make a difference for your Clan, go read those recommendations and you'll see. Well done and thank you both.

---

We finished up the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things I remain thankful for every day is that I have the honor of leading this incredible collection of men and women. Tarentum welcomed me with open arms when I came back to the Brotherhood and I'm so glad for it; this is definitely my home and always will be. More importantly, I hope that we've created a place the rest of you can call home as well. The entire Clan Summit works for you, fellow Tarenti, so don't ever hesitate to reach out to us and let us know how we're doing or what we can do better!

-In Darkness,
Farrin Xies