All through early spring those lights in loomed over us in the sky. It was a tense time, but as the spring equinox approached, this ill-starred conjunction of the Realms of Power faded.
I can finally breathe easily again. Gunthamund and I have headed south after leaving a squad of soulless at that pestilential brigand lair to make sure that nobody else takes it over and begins preying on my southern settlements again. We have discovered signs of the jungle savages and a farm that previously belonged to them is now in my hands. Gunthamund is moving toward the battlefield that Childerik's scrying revealed so long ago. He will take control of the village next to it, then defeat the undead on the field and reanimate some more troops for us.
At this rate, there will soon be enough hands of glory that I should be able to perform a ritual of mastery to increase my knowledge of the Necromantic Arts to entirely new heights.
Up north, Cernetu has been exploring the wilderness. There was a tense moment when he encountered a horde of goblins accompanied by two trolls that were looking for victims. A single troll would be a challenge to even a death knight, let alone two of them. Accompanied by more than a score of goblins? Cernetu took the wiser course of action and got out while the getting was good. Fortunately he seems to have found another battlefield, which will provide him with enough troops that if he should run into that horde again, he will be able to defeat it. Normally, I would send an apprentice to take care of the reanimation, but I only have Gunthamund and it's too far away in any case, so the death knight simply must bear the cost of reanimation himself.
(Note: Undead are NOT immune to insanity, apart from the lich)