– My friends and fellow Elmertonians:
Soon we will venturing into the unknown, and on behalf of the Town Guard, I’d like to remind everyone that since we’re going to a new place I’d like to suggest that we all try to stick to a buddy system. It may not be needed, and you’re certainly allowed to roam by yourself, but your safety is important.
Thank you for your time,
Linarien Steiner, Captain of the Guard
Battleday, the 5th Day of Newgreen and of the Year 127 of this Age of Fortune
Heroes of Elmerton,
It is my pleasure to wish you a prosperous new year and to thank you once again for your help in proving the innocence, honor, and integrity of the Noble House Lav’Endros before the Noble Conclave during the month of Boneharvest last year. Our success means that we have been elevated to the status of Major Noble House and have been awarded roughly one third of House Windlock’s land and assets. While House Windlock was able to maintain jurisdiction over the City of Eddinberg and the massive expanse that is the East Farthings, Lav’Endros has gained jurisdiction of the former Windlock land that borders our land in the South Farthings, as well as an additional larger tract in the eastern Icewind Mountains and western Great Frostwood.
Most of my winter has been spent working to assimilate the acquired Winlock assets and records into our own while giving that house’s subjects the time they need to vacate the areas we have taken stewardship of. As some of you already know, House Lav’Endros had been preparing formal invitations to several of our allies, including you Heroes of Elmerton, to join a number of House officials in mapping out the northern land and giving some assurance to the locals that we will use every tool at our disposal to protect them from the War King, whose troops have been allowed by Windlock to move into the area and establish many military forts and supply routes. However, due to a very recent development, we are going to instead entreat King Adamar to lend us Irvanshirian soldiers for this purpose. Something more pressing requires the skilled and specialized attention of the reader.
Just yesterday, both the Elmerton Manor House and one of the Banta Kinswae encampments were attacked by truly strange, vicious beings, the likes of which I have never seen before. They had the faces of giant spiders but their bodies were humanoid. They carried an energy about them that seemed astral in nature, but strangely so. They were very quick and their attacks were efficient and deadly. My soldiers and wolfkin were largely ineffectual against them. The attack was only a warning, though, and after the spider creatures had made their point and returned from where they came, we discovered a ransom letter had been left behind. The letter stated that assaults such as these would continue unless House Lav’Endros began paying an immense amount of gold as a continuing “protection fee” since we had been responsible for the former “clients” halting their payments. The price was high enough that, even if we intended on paying, we would be unable to.
My wolfkin managed to track the strange creatures back to an area known as Marshall’s Landing: as the crow flies, twenty-two miles southwest of Elmerton. While this was one of the areas ceded to us by House Windlock, it was not something we had considered worth investigating until today.
Based on what I have witnessed, I can say honestly that this is not a thing that House Lav’Endros nor the Banta Kinswae can handle on their own. Therefore I am appealing to you, Heroes of Elmerton, to help us investigate and bring to justice those who would threaten our House, Pack, and Territory. Unfortunately, I know very little of what to expect from this area, save that there were many small structures built there, possibly to house soldiers, though they have been abandoned for many years. Our investigation of Marshall’s Landing should begin as soon as possible.
Calling You Back Into Service,
-Baroness Lobea Lav’Endros
Reports have been coming in about the violence that has ravaged Terl Ayre for years.
Francine Libre, the self-styled leader of a group calling themselves the Terl Ayre slave resistance was killed in combat in the small town of Quiltshire, which was a sort of home base they where using.
Francine and her rag tag band of fighters and escaped criminals where soundly defeated by a mercenary army paid for by local nobility in the hopes that the violence against them and the local common folk would finally come to an end. One of these Nobles a man by name of Linmar O’ Rourke was quoted as saying this:
“Finally the good people of Terl Ayre have nothing to fear. Francine Libre and her band of Rogues will never again be able to hurt anyone. The long nightmare is now over and things can finally return back to normal for our country. We owe the brave men and women who fought these vicious thugs a huge debt of gratitude that coin cannot even provide. My fellow nobles and I spared no expense to ensure the defeat of this so called resistance and now all across our great land can sleep soundly.”
In the weeks following the defeat at Quiltshire it seems that the violence is finally quelled. Exports from the countryside have exploded as of late and the economy is in a giant upswing not seen since the start of the violence. Residents have noticed a sweet if not strange quiet and all seems well.
Purifinia Lightright
International Traveling Scribe.
It was an unseasonably warm day, a welcome change from the bleak winter, so I decided on a walk that took me to the small town of Elmerton. As I was coming upon a crossroads on the outskirts of the town, there was a large explosion and a flash of fire shot out of the ground in front of me! Startled, I hid behind a tree peeking around cautiously so I could see what was going on. What I saw next completely rattled my mind.
A strange man with a large, strange device on his back climbed out of a new, still smoking hole in the ground. He was pulling a litter behind him on which was tied a shorter, stout man’s body. He dragged the litter off to the side of the crossroads and, laying it down gently, he went back into the hole he had made. He resurfaced a few moments later with a large stone pillar on his shoulder and planted it vertically at the crossroad. He reached down and untied the other man (from the rigidity of the body, I could only assume he was dead and likely had been for days) and lifted the corpse, propping it against the pillar.
The strange man then took the thing off his back and placed it at the dead man’s feet. From my vantage point it looked like he was messing with some kind of black vines that were sticking out of a pair of red cylinders. After a few minutes, the man stood up and looked at the dead man, a deep sadness crossing his features. It was then I began to hear a faint humming sound that slowly and steadily grew louder and louder, eventually reaching a level that made me think my eardrums were going burst! It stopped for a brief second before a powerful pulse of force emanated from the pack and I saw a pillar of blinding white light shot into the skies. A secondary ring of energy pulsed out from the white light and stretched as far as I could see in all directions before disappearing completely.
In the dancing shadow impressions the dazzling light left on my eyes, I could see that the strange man was still standing there looking at the dead man, but something was different. The stone pillar had disappeared and the dead man was standing along, unsupported, holding a gleaming sword, as if he had been a statue of a knight in a tomb. The strange man spoke softly to the statue, “ Now uncle, you can watch over all this area, and protect it all forever.”
With a final glance, the strange man walked back into the hole he made, and it seemed to seal up behind him, like it was never there. After a few moments, I walked over to inspect the sword of the dead man- logic dictates that one shouldn’t leave a good sword for someone else to steal- and as I got close, I could see that the dead man was made of stone. It looked as though he had become a statue, though, oddly, his stony hair seemed to move in the breeze. Undaunted, I reached for the sword, but as I did, the statues eyes opened up, bright and clear. At that point, my wits had had enough and I ran for it leaving sword and statue-man for the next traveler to deal with.