Salutations, my friends, and welcome to our third installment of the Elanthian Times. We have been overwhelmed by the response in the form of kind words and even kinder submissions. It is through this response that we are able to keep functioning in the high quality fashion that we hope you are growing accustomed to.

It is the time of the Great Gathering where many of us join up to take a break from the day-to-day rigors of adventuring to share in the stories and tall tales over a few tankards of ale. It is wonderful to be able to crawl out from behind my desk and the seemingly unsurmountable stack of papers and visit in the light with my friends. I greatly enjoy meeting new friends as well as spending time in the company of old friends.

This brings me to the next issue. We'd like to have a section of the next edition dedicated to the Great Gathering consisting of your thoughts, your stories, and your information gleaned from the great lectures. I'd hope that you'd all take the time to send us a little something to share with our faithful readers who were unable to go this year and entice them into visiting with us in the years to come. We'd gladly welcome notes and comments of responsible lengths and print as many as we can possibly print. While I doubt that compensation could be doled out for comments and stories, I think we might be able to finagle a little something out of Faelynn for a good report on one of the great lectures. I'll leave it up to her good judgement on that end.

As always, if you've read something that really tickles your fancy or find something printed questionable, please, share your thoughts with me or with the author. Nothing congratulates you for your hard effort like having someone approach you on the street and say, "I really enjoyed your poem!". All of our contributors deserve this praise and I hope you support them and become a contributor yourself.

Safe travels to you all,

Stumbel Rumblebelly
Managing Editor