When we last caught up with the Chronicle's resident investigative reporter, Charlton McVicar, he was out in the field digging up any and all information he could about the mysterious Agarans, sentient fungi spreading throughout the universe. Since then we've had little contact with McVicar, save for the transmission transcribed below-- intercepted by one of Thornwing's drones. Take a look for yourself, readers, and let us know if you have any information on McVicar's whereabouts.

- Transmission intercepted by ThornDrone 451...

- Word(s) flagged: Agaran, Floran, Hylotl

- Begin decoding and translation...

McVicar: ... stuck in some kind of subterranean cave system. Mushrooms are sprouting from the walls, the floor, all over. There are basic furnishings here; they seem Floran in origin. I don't think this is an old dwelling. It's... it's new.

- Voice analysis complete. Subject: Charlton McVicar, human investigative reporter.

Human 2: McVicar. Abort. It's not worth your life. Let us handle it.

- Voice analysis complete. Subject: General Cassidy Cale, human military leader.

McVicar: No can do. I can hear them up ahead. Two languages. Agaran and Floran. They're not... I can see them... oh my god, the Agarans haven't been attacking the Florans, they've -

*static*

McVicar: There are pods. Dozens and dozens of pods. They're twitching. I think they're about to... holy hell what is that, what in the name of Earth is that...

*a strange, low roar*

- Species analysis pending...

McVicar: I have to get out of here. There's a Hylotl too, and...

McVicar: The mushrooms, they're... they're giving off some kind of gas. The cave's filling with spores. The ground's...

McVicar: If anyone can hear me, anyone at all, I'm at co-ordinates [error in translation]. Bring guns. Bring armies. It's... it's just like on Earth... but... the Hylotl...

*a loud crash, followed by another roar, this time much louder*

- Species analysis failed.

- Transmission lost...

The universe is full of creative types and adventurers-- constantly inventing new gadgets and machines, breeding new creatures, discovering artifacts and even civilizations. In this column, we highlight just a few of the latest discoveries that have caught our eye.

Innovative bird breeders by the name of Dragonith and Crystan have managed to create a breed of giant, mountable fowl to carry travellers to and fro. They're not quite cars or spaceships, but some adventurers may find the quirky nature of Chocobos charming. There's certainly something to be said for riding across a desert planet on an overgrown bird. We can't shake the feeling that we've seen them somewhere before...

An adventurer by the name of RyuujinZERO has made an amazing discovery! In his travels, he's stumbled across a race of what he's described as "nomadic space raptors"-- pack hunters from an icy planet with a surprising grasp on technology and a cultural fixation on music. We're very much looking forward to learning more about their fascinating culture (and killer fashion sense) in the future.

Studies are showing that an increasing number of adventurers are traversing the universe with their kids in tow! There's even a growing community effort to get kids more involved in adventuring, convincing parents to start their young'uns out early. Talk about shaping young minds! This seems pretty dangerous to us, but maybe it's not all bad. In fact, there's even been a noted increase in reproduction in general-- the population of children ages 0-17 has increased universally since these efforts first began.

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