To: Weena Perault & Family
Hi Mom. Hi Dad. Hi Gr'da. (and Tasa & Janu and everyone else...)
I'll start with the bad news. I have dishonored the family name, and have been obliged to become known by a new name since Moreau Perault is a wanted criminal in Eire. The crime he's wanted for is refusing to be press ganged by the Ramsgate Chapter of The King of Eire's Battle Mages, but that's neither here nor there, they took my refusal very poorly, and after being imprisoned for a week while they tried to change my mind, some friends of mine broke me out of prison. So I'm an escaped criminal and since I have quite a bit of important business in Eaglereach, which pays rents to the King of Eire, Moreau Perault can't stay there. So I have become "Murrin Vashti Igillawarthen Zadabaruk Thangadrim". Murrin is how the Dwarves kept mis-pronouncing Moreau (it means stone in dwarvish) so it isn't that big of a change for me, and I wanted to keep the family ties so I used Gram's name - which is also a dwarvish sort of custom, since their Matriarchs run the family, though the ones I've met remind me more of Grandma Perault, than Gram. Igillawarthen is something my Tumbrel friends call me, and Thangadrim is the dwarven clan that's adopted me because of some legal technicalities. It's a long name, but it was almost longer. It almost had "DragonSlayer" in there, but I didn't really, I just hurt it real bad and the Church Knight (you remember Sir Alain yes?) finished it off. So Dragonslayer would not have been truthful, and "DragonWounder" just isn't the sort of name that impresses the Dwarves, esp since it was just a baby green dragon. And it needs to be a long name that impresses dwarves, because that legal technicality thing I mentioned is that technically speaking I'm legally kind of some sort of minor dwarven noble. Of course this is that sort of minor noble that has no lands and no money (but I do get to keep this really nice magic axe) but that's ok because everybody is eager to do me "favors" that they'll be expecting to collect on sometime in the future, with Dwarven interest applied, and I should be so lucky as to be able to pay them back in something as trifling as gold. [sigh] "How can you be a dwarven noble, you're not a dwarf," you might ask. Oh yea, when I found this axe, it completed a magical transformation that started when I drank the blood of the mountain (drinking that seemed like the thing to do at the time since otherwise I was pretty sure there'd be a dragon out there calling himself "MageSlayer"), so now I am a dwarf.
Not at all what I'd expected when I left home to wander and find magical marvels.
The good news is I'm alive and well, have won and lost several small fortunes since leaving home, (cut purses and other thieves abound, so I'm currently on the 'lost' side of the ledger sheet), met the Prince of Wundt, was present at the miracle in Kesh-Nicht, have learned ancient elvish, magically bound and entombed an immortal servant of a dark god of the south, have eaten far too much hobbit cooking (it is all exceptionally tasty, but too many things are too spicy, and after a while you begin to miss eggs & bangers or flapjacks, but dwarven oatmeal is good especially after spending three hours having people beat you with sticks in hopes you might suddenly figure out how to fight with an axe - like that's gonna happen, you remember how Gram just gave up on teaching me even the "Tumbrel Drop". I'm a klutz and that at least seems unlikely to change), had my hand cut off and restored when I was resurrected, spoke with Elihu in several visions, had part of my mind eaten by an intellect devourer, spoke with "Father" one of the patron gods of Eire, closed off a portal where undead were invading from the Necropolis, spoke with an out-of-work ex-god of secrets (you know ... there have been an extraordinary number of "gods" involved in this quest thing). Oh yes, one of my travelling companions married a dwarven noble (not me, a real-born-that-way dwarf) - we do seem to have our destiny tied up with the dwarves pretty heavily, which strikes me as odd, since in all the sagas it's the elves who have all the secret knowledge of times long past, and mysterious questings in far off lands and hidden agendas and vendettas and all that rigamarole, but we've got the dwarves who while often secretive, are plain spoken and direct, and are just down the river, or over the hills to the north, practically home really. Dang, I'm still not in a real saga after all, I guess I'll have to just keep looking.
Which brings us to the unofficial news and reports from afar.
Here's the biggie - we as a family and "class" don't really get involved much in either politics or religion, but there's a lot at stake right now. About 1000 years ago when Epimetreus and all liberated the seven kingdoms and all that, they put some BIG magic into place. Unfortunately it had a limited life, and when it burns out like a lamp about 3 years from now, the southern serpent god and his armies will be invading.
They are setting up for this now. One part is they are sponsoring Fraubard's rebellion. It isn't clear that he knows exactly who they are, and he might think he's in charge, but he is taking their coin to buy troops and accepting their help, even when that help involves attacking Landsruetowne with zombies. Even if Fraubard doesn't win and ends up just turning the kingdom over to them, the longer his rebellion lasts the more fighting there will be and the less able we'll all be to raise the army that will be needed to drive back the Stygians. The other part of it is the weakness of the Church. Fraubard is helping that directly, imprisoning and slaying priests, but more has been going on for years behind the scenes. In addition to the decline of the priests' magic, the church has been infiltrated by agents of the Python. There is no way to tell which are true and which are not (if they still had their divine magic, it would be easy, since the impure could not call upon the powers of the Light) but diguised though they may be, they cannot stand against the Light. To whatever extent you can render aid to the Church, do so, because when those Stygian armies march, they will be armies of undead. Even as near as Kesh-Nicht, Sir Alain, the others and I lost a friend to a zombie, and destroyed at least a score more when we drove the Necromancer out of the city. We failed to kill him, and believe he still works his evil from Ramsgate, where we can not go since that lawless place has twisted the law around to demand my enslavement, and Sir Alain's banishment. Where it up to my will none would trade with anyone from Ramsgate, and let them choke for lack of goods and food.
To prevail we need the Church's strength, and your prayers morning, noon and night, add to that strength in ways mystical and divine. Those mighty lamps put in place by Epimetreus burn the oil of our devotion. The weakness of those protections, the weakness of Mithras that denies his priests their healing and sanctifications, are caused in no small part by the lack of observances by the people he protects. So I say again, if you remember your prayers, say them, and if you don't you can use these to remind you. [Moreau encloses a copy of the morning, noon and night devotions from the Sagronian prayer book] Hopefully this will reach you before First Teachings, because we need the holy days celebrated aggressively. Support for the Church on a more practical level is difficult for me to predict, at present the only Churchmen I know can be trusted (apart from Alain) are The Abbess of Ancaster, and the Monseigneur of The Church Of the Cliffs and their assistants, knights and laymen. I do not know who of the Church in P'eiml still walk in The Light.
On a more secular level: Alain's father is Fortinbras de Groce. He is not to be "trusted" except to serve his own best interests, which per Alain's analysis is at present to support the Prince against Fraubard. I hope Sir Alain is not being swayed by wishful thinking, because based on what he says about the size of the Duke's levys the truth appears to be that which ever side he joins will prevail (which is probably why as of yet he seems uncommitted, he's waiting for the bidding to get out-of-hand). What we need to do is provide motivation. If he is made to understand that support and cooperation from the mercantile guilds (and my mage friends from the Bibliotecha and dwarven troops et al) is dependent on his support of the prince, or to be more accurate, the Church, then he should understand which side of the toast is buttered and follow through accordingly. Use what influence you can in this matter, without bringing ruin on yourselves.
I'm already in enough legal trouble for the whole family, so if it takes more direct actions that will earn Fraubard's (or Fortinbras' for that matter) enmity and vengeance, let me know what must be done. He can surely have me killed, but otherwise I am beyond his reach, and if he's wasting his troops trying to hunt me down, then that's fewer troops laying the foundations of Stygian rule.
Gr'da, we were told today that the Dwarven God Klangadin has spoken to his priests, and they are now ready to ally with Mithras against the coming threat. As part of this new support Dwarven Troops will be coming south from their Great Halls in the North. The fastest way to get to the important bits of Landsrue to face down Fraubard is by ship. Those ships coming mentioned in my other letter will have as their primary cargo dwarven soldiers and weapons. For obvious reasons I couldn't come out and say that there.
But it will need your unique knowledge of the costal areas to have them disembark with as little fanfare and notoriety as possible. Likewise whatever guidance you can provide so that the ships have plausible cargo so that their comings and goings are unremarkable will be of value. Obviously you need to pick warehouses and porters for these contracts carefully, trying to ensure they are trustworthy and closed lipped.
Da, the dwarven soldiers will need to travel over land too. I'm fairly certain that Fraubard's route (if he makes it past Dunedain, I've heard that his campaign has not done so well, I can only hope) will take him pretty much North headed straight to Kessel. If the dwarven troops disembark in P'eiml, they will almost certainly want to head almost directly to Kessel, which will end up marching them straight through Panther Hollow and Weeping Creek. Da, if you have room to spare, they will be able to travel all the faster if they have a proper baggage train and pack mules. Plus having a local guiding them will help minimize any trouble that might otherwise come from having strangers in the backwoods. Though I'd love to see his face the first time a Dwarf gets called a flatlander.
These Dwarves are helping the hand of Mithras, so please don't gouge them, but everyone knows this kind of force commitment will cost money, so don't be afraid to charge a fair price, for a fair profit.
With regard to the horse trade. If I can find someone to care for them while I'm gone (I'm leaving Eaglesreach for a while, we have a clue as to where to find another unspendable fortune) I will endeavor to purchase a pair of Kazads and a New Forest. The New Forest is blown, and has been severely burned, but is/was a fully trained warhorse. It seems unlikely he will be useful as a knight's mount again, but still has good stud potential. Right now the war in Landsrue and the wars in Eire means all horse flesh is exorbitantly priced, but to be honest, I think war in one form or the other will be with us for the next several years. I am hoping that if you can put together a train of plausible goods, and travel a somewhat circuitous route then the mules and ponies you bring could become the seed of a breeding farm here in Eaglesreach which could turn a strong profit. Things to keep in mind: since the river is so close most traffic goes by the river, there is not much call for riding horses. The dwarves favor kazads and small mules and ponies for working in the mines, and there is a hobbit town a small ways south as well who also favor ponies due to their size. The area surrounding Eaglesreach is marsh closer to the river, not as hilly as Panther Hollow, but further out is scrub forest, probably not as much use for timber as it imight be for charcoaling. From the best reports I have been able to garner locally (I haven't had much time for business research), much of the land is under the domain of the King of Eire, but pretty much in name only. A leasehold or purchase should be fairly easy to arrange. A bit harder will be concealing the purpose sufficiently to prevent having the crown lay claim to your toils, but such is almost surely the case in Landsrue as well so I trust you are well versed in avoiding that pitfall. You could judge best who to send, but you can tell Tasa that they treat pretty much all women as queens here, and that if all goes as planned I hope to be establishing a informal sort of a Mages Colloquium for research and training.
The other letters should provide a plausible explanation for some of the things I've asked you, though I think they are mostly legitimate operations in their own right, and I hope that we all profit from the ventures.
Mum, & Grandma Perault - be prepared for the dwarves, I expect they are coming. I'm not talking about the soldiers, I'm anticipating the craftsmen & merchants. In all things if you're doing business with a dwarf be careful, they'll skin you alive and have you paying them for the priviledge. They're not dishonest, not the least bit, but business is the only thing they love as much as digging and working the forge, so they just get really really good at it. My friend Mariam as I said married into a dwarven clan, and now she is getting letters from her mother telling her about all the wonderful things the dwarves have come to do for their Lord's mother-in-law. You see there aren't a lot of dwarven women, so they can get very worshipful about the matriarchal line, and are eager to honor Mariam and her family. Which is all well and good because, being married, the debts being incurred are still all in the family. Debts, because as I mentioned above the dwarves look to trading favors the same way they do any other business. Asked or not a dwarf that does you a good turn will remember it, and more than likely will ask for something in return someday. This means there's a lot of 'favors' being traded around all the time because no one wants to get too far into the debtors column, because it would be hard to catch up. Now thanks to this axe, combined with the fact that I'm a newly minted dwarf, come onto the scene a a minor noble with no pre-existing obligations you can see why everyone wants to get their hooks on me. Favors done you because you're kin to the "Zadabaruk" are favors I will have to pay back, so be very cautious about what and who you allow to assist you - try to insist on paying fair price for the work. At present the Dwarves I feel comfortable trusting are limited to Keri Indrafang & his wife Matriarch Mariam Raoun, Lord Aresham, and Sylvester the Leatherworker from Ramsgate and his people, and Dayona Urtholt. She is the matron through whom I've located my factotum to handle matters in Eaglesreach, his name is Tilliam Goldfellow, a Hobbit, if you need to reach me letters sent through him should reach me the quickest. These people have already been of much help to me, and have already earned more than I can repay, and to some extent the obligations fall both ways. On the other hand this trust & favor game goes both ways; if you find yourselves in the position, do a good turn for the Dwarven clan Noldi, & please feel free to let them know it was because Murrin asked, they have knowledge I will need to complete this quest, and at this point it appears I'm going to have a heck of a time prying it out of them.
I love you very much, and miss you, miss you all. The road I see before me means that I don't think I'll see any of you for at least the next three years. Gr'da needs to keep that stone by the gate clear and in one piece, I think I've figured out how it works, if I'm right it may someday be my only way home.
Ps. I will endeavor to write more often, so the letters won't need to be quite so long, the candles are very short and I still have three more letters to write tonight.