30 Teayu, 1506 TH

Dear Thistle,

Having come to a location where messengers are easily available, I am taking time to remember my promise to you and am writing to tell you all about my adventures.

I suppose I should begin my story with the inn I stayed in located a few days flight from your home. I had been there for a few days, sleeping on the mantlepiece, enjoying the new audience and the stories of the travelers who passed through. Then, early one morning I was awakened by a group of men and dwarves who were up early to get their breakfast. I was quite surprised to see these three men and two dwarves up so early since they had arrived way after dark the night before. I said good morning to them, but only one returned the greeting. He came over and introduced himself as Krell Tann of Urupa. He explained that Darin, the dwarf who had hired the rest of them, was on important business and I should not be offended by the lack of a greeting. I was offended, but put it aside for the moment. We talked for a few minutes then Krell rejoined his group. Other than that group, the only person in the room was a troll skyraider by the Name of John. He had also arrived the night before, and so far all I knew of him was his name.

Breakfast had just been served when we heard a disturbance in the kitchen. No sooner had we turned our heads toward the sound than four orks broke through the front window and door. I drew my blow gun and fired a few shots at them, but little damage was done, even though the darts hit. The four hired swords of Darin took up the fight to protect Darin. Soon the dwarf and one man went down. At that point, John managed to get involved in the fight and an archer came halfway down the stairs and added his barbs to the fray.

Soon the fight was over, three orks and the dwarf were dead. The downed human was badly injured but still breathing. Krell Tann ended his suffering with a blade across the throat. The noise from the kitchen was the attack of two other orks who were slain by Argen, a dwarven warrior, and Kavros, the ugliest elven weaponsmith ever. Those two just happened to be eating breakfast in the kitchen when the orks attacked.

As we sorted everything out, Darin thanked us for the aid. He observed that his party was now smaller than it had been and offered to pay us to accompany him the rest of the way to Lindendale. He gave us time to think it over and everyone who chose to go was to meet him in the grove outside town in one hour. I knew I wanted to go immediately. So I gathered my fallen darts and went straight to the grove.

When I arrived, they were digging graves for the fallen dwarf and man. I sung a dirge over the graves and soon all of us had gathered to begin our journey.

The first two days of travel were pleasant and nothing disturbed us the first night. I spent lots of time talking to the other members of the group. John told me of how he had come to this part of Barsaive. (I wrote a song based on his story.) However, I spent most of my time listening to Krell Tann's stories about Urupa and the rest of Barsaive. He was being the most charming member of the group and was willing to talk with me for hours on end. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that what you see is not always what you get, and did not realize what lay hidden beneath the charm and handsome face.

The second night we all settled in for a rest, Gorian and Elias were on watch when Krell Tann woke me. He said that there was trouble. I hopped up immediately with Berrybriar drawn, only to have Krell Tann grab me and stuff me in a leather bag. He tied the bag shut and put it on a rock as he headed out of the camp. I got a stab or two in on his hand as he carried the bag. Eventually, I cut myself free and found out that Krell Tann was a traitor. He had stolen the long lost family treasure (a magical medallion) which Darin had just recovered and was carrying back to the familial stronghold.

Gorian had been attacked by a few orks who were covering Krell's escape. However, he and Kavros had defeated them. The others weren't in quite as good shape. John was fit enough to act, but Elias had been knocked unconscious and was suffering from a concussion. Darin was a bit bruised, but other than the loss of the medallion he had suffered no major injury. Argen had not been as fortunate. Krell Tann had stabbed Argen in the gut on his way out of the camp and left his short sword imbedded in Argen as a testament to his treachery.

Quickly a plan was formed. Kavros was determined to save Argen so he went out to try and find a healer of some sort in one of the nearby villages. (When I think back on this I find this point very telling. In an inn with people all around, the handsome faced and black-hearted Krell Tann granted "mercy" to his companion who had a fatal gut wound. In contrast, the incomparably ugly but noble Kavros went searching for help in the middle of a forest when his companion took a fatal gut wound. When I wrote my song, The Cover of a Book, about these events I did try to use the structure of the song to emphasize the parallels here.) Darin stood guard over Argen and Elias while Gorian, John, and I went to find the traitor's trail.

Gorian, John, and I followed Krell's path to a stream. The marks at the bank seemed to indicate that he had started walking in the stream at that point to not leave a trail. So we went looking for the signs of where he came out of the river. John and I headed up stream while Gorian headed downstream. I found a scrap of thread and a few broken branches that seemed to indicate Krell's exit. John confirmed my opinion by spotting a footprint. It was just about then that we heard Gorian scream.

It seems that Gorian had been heading downstream when he heard a bit of a rustling in the bush. He assumed that the noise must be Krell hiding in the bushes. So he crawled in to investigate. The large lizard he disturbed was not pleased. It hissed at him, so Gorian started backing away (a good move) and shooting at it (not a wise decision). Naturally it became upset and decided that elf for dinner sounded like a good plan. Gorian did a minor bit of superficial damage to the lizard with his arrows. The lizard "spit" at Gorian hitting him twice. This was a problem because the creature was actually spitting a paralyzing poison. Thus, Gorian was wounded, nearly paralyzed, and lying in the river when John and I came to the rescue. When we arrived, John went to slay the creature. Deciding that John could handle one poor dumb lizard without assistance, I checked on Gorian. Quickly I revised my opinion. The lizard spat at John as well. However, while the poison covered his pants, none touched his skin. Then John got in one good strike removing the creatures right front leg. The creature was not pleased and attempted to return the favor by removing John's hope of progeny. Fortunately for John, the lizard's aim was off by two inches to the left. (That was a very nasty wound and I'm sure it has left an interesting scar.) At this point Berrybriar and I stepped in. The lizard had a frill that was raised while he was attacking John. I swooped in behind the frill and stabbed it the soft unarmored spot under the frill. Berrybriar slipped under the edge of the skull and into it's brain. Naturally, the creature was displeased by this and it used it's last breathe to flip itself into the air. When it landed I got caught under the creature. We had to rest a while. John and Gorian had wounds to recover from and I was pretty dented myself. When I recovered I flew back to the camp to see if anyone was available to join us in hunting down the traitor and to gather a few additional supplies.

Meanwhile, Kavros had run all the way to a nearby village - well, I'm not sure if I should call it a village, from the description, I believe it was just a few farmhouses built near each other. Naturally, the old farmer who seemed to be the patriarch of the group was a bit distrustful of Kavros given his face. However, as Kavros pleaded his cause and asked for help for Argen, a young woman answered his pleas. She was a questor of Galen and responded to the cry for help. Kavros pushed himself to run all the way back so that they might be in time. When she arrived, she managed to save Argen through the use of a Last Chance Salve. We were very lucky. I arrived just in time to see Argen wake up. Kavros, however, was still unwilling to rest. After I gathered the additional supplies we needed, he helped me carry them back to the others, to continue our pursuit of the traitor and our attempt to retrieve the stolen treasure.

The four of us went on for a while, but we lost the trail in the darkness. At that point we stopped to rest for the remainder of the night. The next morning we resumed the chase and soon spotted the traitor ahead of us. With that sighting, the chase's urgency was renewed. We finally cornered him at the top of a hill which was cut in half by a swift river of rapids.

Gorian took the left flank and used his arrows to keep Krell Tann from escaping us. His arrows helped equalize the battle by causing several injuries to the rest of us. (One of his arrows actually went through my right wing!) Kavros took the far right with his sword while John took the center. I flew about the traitor's head, trying to give him a taste of Berrybriar's sting. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing very well. However, neither were the others. Soon I changed my tactics, and Berrybriar and I cut the stolen medallion from the traitor's belt and flew away with it. Just then, John delivered a nearly fatal blow and Krell Tann opted to attempt escape by throwing himself off of the cliff behind him. I flew down after him and found a blood smear on the cliff wall were he apparently hit on the way down, but was unable to locate the body due to the swiftly moving river.

We returned the medallion to Darin and the rest of our journey to Lindendale was uneventful. Once there, Darin was met by warriors from his house. John left us to continue his journey home, and the rest of us settled down for a few days rest in the inn.

In Lindendale, Gorian had a very hard time with the concept of resting. He kept trying to find some way of making money while there. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough skills to succeed. I wrote a song about his efforts (The Apprentice Archer) a copy of which is enclosed. I enjoyed Lindendale very much. A pleasant woman there sold me paper for my songs very cheaply saying that she would be honored to have her paper bear my words. In addition, a merchant named Silvers, well respected in these parts, was passing through Lindendale then and praised my songs and gave me a handsome tip. I found him to be quite well cultured, and a true gentleman. That is why I am so greatly grieved by his fate.

Two days after Silvers and his caravan departed, an elven woman stumbled into the inn during a fierce storm. She headed straight for the bar. She was moving with exaggerated care, her cloak fell back to expose her face and I recognized her as one of the caravan guards that had left with the merchant Silvers. Gorian recognized her as a beautiful woman and went over to see if he could be of any assistance. Gorian reached the bar at the same time the woman did, thus, he was there to catch her when she fainted.

He lowered her gently to the floor and as her cloak opened he saw the spreading blood and realized how gravely she was injured. I applied pressure to the wound until trained help arrived. Gorian carried the woman to his room and placed her on his bed. Kavros went outside to find out if anyone else had come in with her. The others fetched medical supplies and the innkeeper's wife who was the only person in town with knowledge of healing. Gorian and Argen held her down while the arrowhead in her side was removed. The design of the arrowhead was an unusual one according to Gorian, and we could all see that the rust on the arrow head was going to be a problem.

We got some sleep that night. Mostly, however, we waited for news of the girl and what had happened. Before dawn the innkeeper's wife said the girl had woken briefly and she sent me to fetch her husband. When the innkeeper emerged from the room he cleared everyone from the common area and called for the council of men. We were planning on riding out and finding what had happened, so I stayed up in that rafters to make sure we didn't go without any information that could be of use. As usually, having that many people in the same room significantly lowered the average intelligence of each. They were quite upset, not only because the caravan had ben attacked, but also because that caravan had been carrying the town's funds with which Silvers was going to buy their winter supplies. The innkeeper's wife had to stop them from waking the girl up in order to question her and a few calmer heads eventually persuaded the others that this news was not a death sentence. By the time they finally calmed down and decided to ask us to investigate on their behalf, we were already packed and had a list of the supplies we needed to acquire before leaving town. Lindendale provided us with the supplies and we went on our way.

The first days travel was easy and there was no sign of trouble on the road. We stopped at the usually first overnighting spot of caravans. Other than some evidence of recent normal use, we found nothing there, even though Gorian spent hours searching around the campsite.

We were barely an hour on the road when we first noticed the smell. Soon after that we came to the site of the attack. The horses lay just off the road, rotting. The carts and much of the goods lay with them. Silvers and his brother were still with the caravan, tortured and killed by the ambushers. A search of the area turned up the body of a dwarf. Apparently, he was gravely wounded in the fight and had hid under a bush. There he bled to death. We buried the three dead. I sung for them. (I had discovered that I was doing a lot of singing at funerals. As a result I wrote a new dirge, "Still Air", which is enclosed, so my repitore would have a bit more variety.) We took the time to gather the salvageable goods and load them on one of the carts so that they could be recovered in a useful condition later. Then we started after the villains.

We did not know what had happened to the others who were with the caravan. It was our hope that they were taken prisoner and could be freed. The trail was easy to follow, as they had been dragging one or more heavy items (loot?) behind them.

We followed until midafternoon. Then we reached a river and our trail split in two. Gorian used his direction arrow talent and I soared above the tree line to see if I could spot their location. Above the treeline, I could clearly see the dome roof of a ancient temple nearby. I volunteered to serve as our aerial scout.

I approached the dome from the rear. Sneaking along the roof line, I first looked inside the dome through a smokehole cut in the center of the roof. Inside were a number of dwarves, one of which rested on a dias. Immediately below me was a fire with a pot of some liquid cooking over it. I saw one larger figure, probably an orc lying a bit apart from the others.

Next I crawled to the front of the dome to look for guards. A single sentry sat in the doorway of the dome. A wide green courtyard stretched in front of the dome. On the left was another building which apparently used to be the stables. To the right were the ruins of a third structure.

I returned to the others and made my report. We decided to attack as soon as possible in the hopes of catching the dwarves still asleep. Gorian gave me his two bottles of oil and I left the rest of the party as they started around the complex to conceal themselves in the ruins of that third structure. When the others were in position, I waved to them from my spot on the roof top letting them know that I was in place as well.

The plan depended on taking down the single guard quickly and quietly. Between Kavros' spear, Elias' knife and Argen and Gorian's arrows, that was accomplished. After the first dwarf fell without a sound, the four males made their dash across the courtyard. They reached the door and I poured the flasks of oil down the smokehole into the fire. They waited for a second outside while the resulting fireball blinded those inside the dome. Then the four men attacked.

As soon as I had seen the fireball have its effect (One dwarf got caught in the fire), I hurried for the second building. It was our hope that I would find the missing people there and could free them or protect them during the battle. The missing name-givers were there, but dead. Looking around, I quickly realized that I had not entered a prison, but a larder. Those dwarves ate name-givers and were laying in their supplies for winter. Angry and with tears burning unshed in my eyes I returned to the dome to help annihilate the perpetrators of this atrocity.

When I returned the others had the fight well in hand. Kavros was fighting the one orc and the others were all engaged by dwarves. I noticed that the one dwarf who had been siting on the dias was standing there now, starting to gesture at Kavros. Sensing the evil magic of the nethermancer, I attacked. With two blows I killed him. As he fell to the ground, so did the other dwarves. We barely had time to smile and ascertain the fact that no one was seriously injured when the nethermancer rose again, apparently animated by death. He chanted "I am death, free Death." Berrybriar and I attacked again, this time when I killed the nethermancer we quickly burned his corpse.

Looking about we found Lindendale's money as well as additional treasure taken from other unfortunates. It appeared that the dwarves had been living here from quite some time. The ork, however, was a mystery. He was obviously not born into this group, but was treated with a great deal of deference by the nethermancer. His armor and weapons were much better than that belonging to the others.

We burned the larder and the bodies of the poor name-givers within. We returned to where we had left the salvaged cart. Gorian and Elias went back to Lindendale a collected a few volunteers and some pack animals to help us retrieve the salvaged goods. The people of Lindendale were pleased by the return of their funds, and when they sent out a expedition to Breetown to purchase supplies with the money, we accompanied them there providing a bit of protection.

We stayed in Breetown for an extended period of time. Most of us were training in our disciplines. Argen and Elias were just killing time. I was working with a T'skrang Troubadour named S'Vassan. Kavros found a dwarven weaponsmith named Tam and Gorian trained with Larren, the human Sergeant of Archers for the Breetown guard. Other than training nothing much happened during the first week.

During the second week Elias and I happened to be sitting in the Inn's common room one day when and young woman came running in. (The song about all this is called "False Jade") She was obviously frightened and had tears in her eyes. I went over and asked her what was a matter. she was very upset and not very coherent. Elias came over to offer his services to the young woman as well. A moment later a loud mouthed bully of a human wearing the uniform of the city guard came into the room demanding that the girl come with him. He said something about the girl being his and obligated to obey him. I was offended that anyone would presume to own another. Elias was not particularly pleased either and he spoke for us both when he said that the young lady did not seem to wish to leave with the bully and that he had already offered his services to the lady and she would not be leaving until she wanted to. The bully attacked Elias and the girl and I got out of the way.

I didn't interfere at first, since Elias's slashing sword and sharper wit were enough to defeat this clod. But when two more men rushed in and grabbed weapons to try and ambush Elias I stepped in. One of the two newcomers grabbed a chair. I responded with appropriate force and dumped a mug of Ale on him. The second drew a sword and was coming around to stab Elias from the back. Berrybriar and I leapt in to help Elias, but we only caused one small wound before Elias decided that things were getting unfriendly. With that realization, he turned serious and killed both men attacking him in a single motion. That is when the buffoon covered in beer and the guard's brother standing in the door started yelling that Elias was a murderer. Elias was not pleased to see the mob gathering to take his blood so he dived out the back window. About twenty people went after him and started beating him to death. I went to fetch the guards and found Tam who started pulling people off Elias.

Eventually, Jaris, the Day Sergeant of the Breetown guard had Elias taken to the jail and brought each "witness" in for questioning. Jorim, the guard's brother and the beer drenched buffoon claimed that Elias had simply attacked the guardsman and his friend for no reason and killed them. Makim, another brother of the guardsman also claimed to be there, but his story was so bad that Jorim quickly threw him out as a false witness. I told him what really happened, but he didn't believe me and told me that I would have to stay in town until the next day when the magistrate would hear Elias's case. The girl, whose name is Alara, was not questioned because of "the trauma of seeing her beloved fiance murdered". (It turns out that the girl's parents had offered her in marriage without consulting her and she couldn't stand the bullying creep they had picked.)

That night there were lots of highjinxs. Kavros saw someone break into the girl's home. Apparently he threatened the girl and her parents, then Kavros followed him back to the inn. There the deliverer of the threat met up with the guardsman's father and all of the brothers and some additional hired henchmen. They started going on about making sure that Elias paid for Jade's (the guardsman's) life. Eventually three of them came out to take care of the other witness - me.

I was asleep in a tree near the inn. I had started off the afternoon by taking a nap in an oak. But when darkness fell and an owl left for the night, I chose to move into his nest in another nearby tree for the rest of the night.

The three would be assassins approached the oak I no longer occupied. Two of them set at it with axes while a third stood by with a net. Even if the commotion in the Inn hadn't waken me, the sound of their cutting down that tree would have, even though I wasn't sleeping in it as they thought. I watched in amazement for a while wondering if they thought wings were merely ornamental. Then I went a fetched a guard. The guard was reluctant to follow me. He didn't believe that someone was trying to kill me. I finally got him back near the inn just in time to watch the tree fall over and hit a nearby house. He tried to give chase to the villains but they escaped. I found a third tree to use for the rest of the night. (Right as the tree went over Kavros, who was also watching in amazement uttered the line "Don't you know that windlings can fly?" The line was so good I had to turn it into a song.)

Anyway, the next day we all appeared before the magistrate, and obsidiman named Andrim Torras. Jade's brother told his lies, I told the truth, Elias swore he was telling the truth, Kavros told what he saw during the night and then it was the girl's turn. She stood with her parents to either side and slightly behind her. The father spoke in her stead saying the girl was too traumatized to speak for herself and that all was as Jade's brother said. I saw the girl start to move, to speak, when her mother grabbed her shoulders hard and got her to keep still. I tried to interrupt to tell what I saw, but the magistrate wouldn't let me. Then S'Vassan saw what I did and asked the magistrate to talk with him in private. The magistrate did so. While S'Vassan and Torras were gone, the father made a big deal about returning to his son's grave to continue mourning "confidant that justice will be done." When the magistrate emerged he called the girl to come up to him by herself. There he showed her the weapons and asked her to tell which one had killed Jade. Alone, without her parent's influence, the girl should her true nature and told the truth. When she finished the magistrate ordered Elias freed and sent the guard to round up Jade's family and their hired henchmen. Each man was given the choice of swearing a blood peace oath to the town or being banished. The father, his lying sons and one of their henchmen were thus exiled.

I was still unsure about remaining in this town. It did not seem like a good place to be to me. But I liked S'Vassan, and Tam was cool, and there was the training to finish, and Elias needed to heal, so we decided to stay for another week of two. Which is a good thing because about two days later, who should come wandering into town but John, lost again.

Elias and Alara started hanging out together. Which was good. I think those two could make quite a nice pair.

Gorian started hanging out with a woman named Mierin. He believed her story about being a simple farm girl living nearby with elderly relatives (yeah, right), and spent an afternoon with her getting grass stains on the back of his cloak. I know better. I can't prove it, but I KNOW she is the evil nethermancer who was poisoning food in the Breetown Inn and causing people to explode. (When you are old enough and start wandering in the world you might want to consider putting a small piece of each item you are thinking about eating at a meal into the same pile so that if the food is going to explode it will do so outside your body.)

Anyway, while Gorian was with the nethermancer, John, Kavros, and I were approached by Torras. He asked us to check out the mansion that had been forfeited by Janarn (the evil guardsman's father) when he was cast out. The mansion was outside of town and was supposed to be unoccupied, but he had some reports which made him think someone had slipped back in.

Indeed when we got to the mansion we discovered two intruders, and, although I was wounded in the fight, we defeated them. One of them was the henchman who had sworn the blood peace oath. I must admit that by violating his oath he caused a fair amount of the damage to himself.

We went back to town, and soon afterwards the guard's stables were set on fire. We (Elias, Kavros, Argen, John, Gorian, and I) went to help get the horses out. However, we were quickly distracted by the attacking orks and nethermancer. It was our first opportunity to take the fight to those who were causing so much chaos in Breetown - we took it. We got squashed. We took care of the orks and other henchmen O.K., and injured the nethermancer. Then the nethermancer threw a couple of spells and we went down. The nethermancer and one henchman got away, but a funeral pyre was found half a day's walk away that might have contained said nethermancer's remains. (Somehow, I don't think it was her body, however.)

In any case, when we left, it looked like everything was well in Breetown and that the town would soon recover from its troubles. In Denlikiyan, where I am now, the trouble was all John's fault. I was peacefully enjoying the town. I found a small apothecary shop run by a delightful windling named Winterhearth. The gentleman was charming, with the most beautiful blue wings. He had two adopted dwarven sons and a wonderful sense of grace and gentility. We shared much wine together and it is he whom I have entrusted this letter to in order to hire a messenger.

Elias spent his time with the T'skrang as he had friends among them. Kavros was busy in the forge. Gorian bought himself chain mail which had to be fitted. John busied himself with having blood pebbles installed (fuchsia and black) and avoiding assassins.

I suppose I should explain that a bit more - especially since it is the reason we are now headed to Urupa. At first it didn't make much sense. Several times, John would be sitting in an inn or bar minding his own business when assassins would pop out of nowhere with poisoned blades and attack him. I am sure John could have handled things himself were it not for the poison, but as it was we all got involved with saving him (except Elias who was off drinking elsewhere). I myself saved John twice by felling his attackers. Gorian was pleased to find that one of the attackers I killed had an Espagra cloak which he claimed. In any case we could not figure out what was going on. As far as I could tell there was no reason for all these T'skrang and Humans to be attacking John - he hadn't even been as offensive as he usually is. Then, while John was under attack by four assassins at once someone walked in the door of the inn and everything started making sense. It was another Troll with red and black blood pebbles and bright red hair. As soon as the assassins saw him they became confused and started attacking both trolls. Eventually we eliminated the attackers and went to a safe place to heal and talk things over. (on the way to the safe place we met up with Elias.)

It turned out that the second troll, named Raven Farstrider, was the intended target of the assassins. He had an important message to get to Urupa and was too badly injured in the fight to continue the journey right now. He called on John's honor and got John to promise to deliver the message safely to Urupa.

Thus, your great-grandmother and her party are heading to Urupa. I will leave this message with Winterhearth to be sent on to you, since our ship, the River Squall, will depart in but a few hours. Take care and enjoy the new songs.

Windy