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29
Tarsakh, 1371
Dear Master Zorthaster,
I have such exciting news. It is of a rather
sensitive nature however, so I may need to hold this letter until
such time as I can be assured of its safe delivery to you. I may
also need to wait until sharing this news with you will not breach
the trust I have promised to keep our mission secret. The sensitive
news is that we are on a mission for Lord Randal Morn himself. The
Lord of Daggerdale has sent us south to contact a man named Artur
Grossman and convince him to return with us to Daggerfalls. We are
to escort him and his people to Daggerfalls despite the fact that
he is the head of the Tilverton thieves guild!
Before I begin that tale, let me first report
that after we accounted for all the treasure we recovered from our
foray into Curst, paid our taxes and divided the loot, I came out
with quite a tidy sum. My share from the treasure gave me enough
gold to buy materials for copying two new and powerful spells into
my spell book. I had been working on Haste and Fly,
and can now reliably cast those spells, but I'm pleased to report
that I was able to get both Lightning Bolt and Fireball
out of the Red Wizard's book and copy them over to my own. I also
took a potion of Clairvoyance, a vial of acid and a dull
gray Ioun Stone as part of my share. Later, Primula cast
a permanent flame upon the stone so I have an everburning torch
to hover round my head when I need it. I also took a potion of Detect
Thoughts which I gave to the bard, along with enough gold to
repay his loan to me. I spent an entire ride working on new spells
for my spell book. My studies went well and in that time I was even
able to add a Feather Fall spell to my list.
During the time I was engaged in this work Peraus
Wands had contacted my companions to enlist our aid. By the time
we were ready to meet with him to discuss it he had become a little
impatient, but was pleased that we agreed to help. He immediately
made arrangements to take us to the Merrydale Delvers Guild. The
usual doorguard was not at his post and instead, the big burly man
we had come to know as either 'Slash' or 'Burn' had taken his place.
Master Wands escorted us through the door into a very impressive
structure. It was decorated in dark wood and smelled strongly of
old leather and Maztican tobacco smoke. It reminded me of the hall
of the Society of Stalwart Adventurers in Suzail. You may recall
that you had me deliver a package of herbs to an extremely old mage
there several years ago. This hall did not have the elaborate, ancient
feel of the hall in the capitol, but the feel of the place was much
the same.
At any rate, we were led to a small room where
we were introduced to Lord Morn himself. Feris, the guild’s door
guard accompanied him, as did members of the company "Rangers
Three" (Sharantyr, Belkram, and Itharr), an asimar Paladin
named Alheric and his companion Tiberius, a human necromancer. Master
Wands led the introductions and Lord Morn told us that he wanted
us to accept a mission from him. He nodded to Feris to explain but
the half-elf deferred to Sharantyr. She began to explain that her
company patrolled the dale and that they were running into several
areas where there were problems. There was goblinoid unrest in the
Desertsmouth Mountains, unrest in the Dagger Hills and something
in the Spiderhaunt Woods. Alheric the Paladin stepped forward and
in a clear, shining voice described how he and Tiberius came across
the planes from another world looking for adventures. They encountered
a goblinoid force led by a creature that was half dragon and half
ogre. The two planewalkers destroyed the force but discovered some
information that put them on the trail of the adventuring company
that disappeared about the time the top blew off of the Flaming
Fortress. They found and destroyed a mage that was using the skeleton
of one of the heroes as an animated warrior. This fighter, Troy,
was raised from the dead and left to join his friends on a quest
given them by the Gods themselves. They would return to the Dale
with time and luck, but no one here knew how much longer they would
be gone.
Lord Morn brought the tale back around to concerns
close to us as he explained that the Delvers Guild was exempted
from paying taxes because of the good they do for the Dale. Lord
Morn was here today to hear a petition from Feris who wished to
sponsor us for membership in the Guild. He described our role in
the events surrounding the death of Korgul the Reaver while the
Rangers Three and Master Wands nodded in agreement. Lord Morn accepted
the petition and explained that in addition to a sponsor, we needed
to complete a quest for the Guild and Randal Morn. He went on to
describe a series of bad dreams he has had recently about a friend
of his from Tilverton. He told us of the life of his friend Artur
whose parents were killed by Zhents. He was taken as a slave but
eventually escaped to settle in Tilverton. Artur Grossman helped
Randal Morn when he was deposed from his rightful place as Lord
of Daggerdale and further, the man has been responsible for keeping
Zhents out of Tilverton. Because of the dreams of impending doom,
and the continued mysterious attacks on dale folk, Randal Morn wants
Artur Grossman to come to Daggerfalls to set up shop. The most shocking
part of all this is that Grossman is the leader of the Tilverton
Thieves guild. Lord Morn explained that a criminal underground was
bound to develop in Daggerfalls whatever he did. He couldn't stop
that. What he could do was influence who would run the operation.
He wanted someone he knew and that meant Artur Grossman.
Our mission (which we accepted without hesitation)
was to travel to Tilverton, show a pendant given to us by Lord Morn
at a Tavern called Grimwald's Revenge, and thereby gain an audience
with Artur Grossman. We would then need to convince him that the
time was right to move to Daggerfalls. If he would have us provide
an escort, we were to provide that service as well. Feris would
accompany us as the Merrydale Delvers Guild observer to evaluate
the way we accomplished the mission and determine if we were worthy
of Guild membership. How exciting! I would, of course, have agreed
to the mission even without the added incentive of the guild membership.
As it was, this mission seemed like a dream come true. Though if
truth be told, I suppose my dream mission would have involved rescuing
innocent maidens and slaying dangerous beasts rather than convincing
a master thief to come home with us. But, if that was what Lord
Morn wanted, I was ready to be of service.
We equipped ourselves and set out southward
in the morning of the 25th. First to Tethyamirside to
buy horses and then to a little halfling village just past the Serpents
Bridge where Shane was able to purchase a fine looking riding dog.
Further south, where we encountered the North
Trail, we came on a terrible sight. An entire caravan had been destroyed.
It was burned and looted and the dead bodies were scattered everywhere.
There were only the dead of the caravaners, no attackers were found,
nor were any tracks. I did spot the telltale scorch marks of fireballs,
lightning bolts and other destructive battle magics, but was unable
to figure out any more. We did discover that the little trailside
shrine, once sacred to Chauntea, Silvanus, Lathander and Selûne,
a place where travelers often rested, had been defiled and now stunk
of evil. A more recent symbol, that of a spider on a crossed sword
and mace, now scarred the stone that once marked a holy place.
Searching the wagons we discovered that valuables
had been taken but enough shovels and picks remained for us to dig
graves for the hapless caravaners. Before they were all finally
buried, Primula cast a magic that allowed her to speak with a dead
guard. We learned that these were merchant families and performers
headed from Arabel to Shadowdale. They died from wicked blades,
flitting shadows and darkness that overwhelmed their torches.
The Spider Haunt Woods was an ominous companion
to a full day of our journey. That night, instead of camping on
the roadside where it hugged the edge of the forest, we traveled
a good distance from the road, well away from the forest before
establishing our camp. Our sentries were very alert but nothing
attacked our camp in the night. Xan reported that his little boreal
Owl had seen strange spider creatures prowling the road during the
night, but they returned to their dark woods when they found no
ready victims camped along the trail.
Finally, today, after climbing the hills leading
to the gap, we arrived at the Shadow Gap Inn to spend a night in
real beds in a real inn. I would have enjoyed it a lot more however,
if we had not encountered a Thayvian magic hawker lurking at the
inn. He ensnared my companions into telling him far too much about
Daggerdale, sufficiently piquing the peddler's interest so that
he decided to investigate and perhaps set up one of those damnable
enclaves. When I first heard rumors that the Thayvians had changed
their tactics and were insinuating themselves as peddler's of magic
across the countryside I thought that no one could so quickly forget
the evil ways of the Red Wizards. Seeing this huckster in action
explained much. He was so subtle, so suave. He had such a reasonable
answer for all the horrible evils perpetrated by Thay over the course
of history. Even so, I did not think people's memories would be
so short. What I had not thought to consider was how much folks
who had no other way of working magic might desire the potions and
magical trinkets the man was selling.
This is all the news and more for now. I will
write more when I can.
Your Student,
 Cedar
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