Letter Home: Vanera, Fall 451

My darling Mother,

I can not tell you how much your letter has grieved me. It has almost convinced me to return home. It pains me to think what you and others must suffer in my absence. But Mother, think of what it would mean if I were to discover a Tomb of the Stone-kings. The fame alone would secure me any position I wanted. Not to mention what it would do for the family name. What I do, I do for you and father as well as my sisters.

I will speak to Anaris about giving up her frivolous pursuits and coming home. I think having introductions made to this Neras Garini is an excellent idea. In fact, you should do everything in your power to make the match come about. You are so cunning that it will not prove difficult for you. I shall do everything in my power to persuade Anaris that a marriage with Neras Garini is most desirable. One would think she will have no objections when she hears that he is the heir to two large fortunes.

I pray you would hold off on making any arrangements as to my getting married. I believe it would only prove to be a distraction for me to be engaged. To know that there was some young woman hanging all her hopes on my returning would pain me. In fact, the thought sends a pang through my heart at this very moment. It is best I remain as I am. I am still young, and there is still plenty of time to marry and give you grandchildren.

As to what you have to say about Vitherai, I am glad to hear she will do her part to raise our house and carry on some young man’s line and help him spend his large fortune. She is a sweet girl and deserves all the best in life.

Anaris is doing well and seems to have improved in temperament for the moment. I on the other hand have not been well. I had a run in with a Nashbori arrow. I hesitate to tell you about it for fear it will only deepen your disapproval of my journey out North. I was shot in my back between my shoulder blades while fighting off a horde of Nashbori. My fellow adventurer, Tanurendal, stood there by my side fighting with all the courage of a lion. It is him who you have to thank for the life of your son, for there were at least four times I would have been cut down had it not been for his throwing himself in the way to stop the blow. I was able to return the favor though when he was hit by a poisonous arrow. I was able to, with my profound knowledge, make a spicy broth that brought him back from the brink of death.

It happened in this manner. In my last letter I told you of the adventure we had been sent on by a man who had lost four of his amber miners. Well, we set off to find them, and our first stop was in a village called Kor-Ikush. We had been told that some of the family of the lost miners lived there. Though we did not meet any we did meet some interesting people. One of which was a wash-woman whose eyes were set far apart, almost in the sides of her head. Her hands were altered as well, for they were webbed like frog feet. This woman seemed to know everything about all of us, which I found unnerving. She knew all about what we were doing there and where to find who we were looking for.

After long bargaining at the end of which Anaris made a deal with her that I had misgivings about, she told us where to find the lost miners. We set off at once and found everything just as the woman said. We arrived at a fort where we found all the belongings of the four miners, clothes and all, as well as signs of recent Nalshbori activity. But no miners. Oddly enough, there were four stone trees in the ruins of the fortress, and it’s been whispered among the group that those were the four miners turned to trees by some foul play. As we were searching the fort, I came across a bronze tablet that reads as follows:.

Ika-karhala Orrula, Weiksura anyalir ijilan kjanlases ika-amnoxam abla-serthatama abiyauv-inla.

Three of our group decided to go below the fortress and found a Nashbori alter. Anaris also found a silver bowl. Perhaps it will encourage her to set up house now that she has such a nice piece to be displayed.

Tanurendal and I stayed above to keep watch, and we employed our time in setting up a clever trap to alert us of any surprise attacks. Unfortunately, it did not work, for the Nalshbori attack came from the other side of the fortress. We both hid, but Tanurendal was spotted and instantly the object of their attacks. I tried to sneak off to alert the other that there was an attack up above but did not make it very far before I was spotted and shot in the back. I am afraid from that point on I was not much help in the fight. It is very painful to try and raise one’s sword when you have an arrow digging itself further in your back with every movement.

I will spare you the rest of the details of the affair. After the fight, Reiana - a Weixranbori leader, pulled the arrow from my back and did her best to tend to my wound. It was after that that I saved Tanurendal’s life by making the broth. After this, it was decided that the alter below the fortress needed to be destroyed and cleansed. Reiana and Tengelbur Sathneinor went below and disassembled the alter. Then they brought up all the burnable parts and set them ablaze while Tengelbur sang The Last of the Stone-kings. Once this had all been completed, we took the stones and ashes and set off with them to deposit them in a body of water. This was no easy task for me with my back wounded, especially once a Nalsbori warband started chasing us.

Through all that, we all managed to arrive safely at Galal-i-Yalir. There is not much to tell after this. Sir Ralus showed us great hospitality, and I had my wound tended to. The next day we returned to Karet Cheykor.

That is all I have to write for now. I do love you dearly, Mother. Know that I am trying very hard to keep safe and that the cloak you made me has kept me very warm. Do give my love to my three sisters and Father. Tell them I would welcome letters from them, as I am sure Anaris would as well.

Your ever-loving son,

Vanera

P.S. Do continue to send the latest gossip, for I am asked at least three times a day about what news I have from Sencankarr. But everyone here seems to be interested in particular about Neras Garini, so do send along a little more information on him.

[By Hope R.]

To Vanera, from his mother - Summer/Fall 451 TE

My Darling Vanera,

I do hope you are well and that you are not catching cold. They say it gets dreadful on the moors, even in the summer time. I must admit I still do not understand why you insisted on going off wandering through barbaric lands when there is a good position as a court scribe--and even an advantageous marriage, if I can arrange it--waiting for you back at home. But, if your sister is any indication, it's the purpose of one's children to disappoint one so, for they will go off and have their mad flings without any consideration to a mother's feelings. If you find Anaris a trial to bear, my darling son, you may know that it is but one tenth of the misery your absence has caused me. Won't you come home and marry?

There is certainly plenty to talk about. We went to stay at our house in Sencankarr this spring. Vitherai was danced with by many handsome young men at the king's fete, and I have every hope that when her time comes, she will be able to do our part to raise the fortunes of our house. Of course all of the great gossip was really around young Neras Garini, of whom you must assuredly have heard. He's the heir, mind you, not just of the Garini house, but also of the fabulous fortunes of the Amosbo family. I can still remember when the Amosbo line failed. I was still a young girl then, and it was only a few years after the War. Ralus Amosobo died young and without male heirs, and the fortune defaulted to the Garinis by right of two intermarriages with the Garini line which produced Tengelyan Garini, Ralus Amosbo's wife. There were rumors in those days that Tengelyan Garini denied her husband children so that the fortunes of their household would pass over to her father's estate. The Garinis were and are mad, it's said, though very beautiful, and there is a cunning streak that comes in from those perennial schemers the Eirukos. 

But all of this is, as we say in the Capitol, ancient history. Of great interest right now is the fate of Neras Garini. He is, as I have said, the heir to two fabulous fortunes, and is a great favorite of Onwae. I suspect that he will in time become one of the greatest men in the land. They say he has his eye on Talarja Sathneinor, though after her rogue of a brother killed her last suitor in a duel, I'm not sure how anyone can be expected to give that girl a second glance.

It would be greatly to your sister's advantage were she to set aside her frivolous pursuits and come to Sencankarr at once so that a proper introduction might be made. If not, Neras has three sisters who are all quite young and beautiful. I will speak to Engelyan Thianra, Neras' mother and the matriarch of the Garini clan, on your behalf should the opportunity arise. 

With love and many tears,

Your mother Ridenyan Kjavabo.

Session 10: The Battle in the Ruins

As the six Nalshbori scouts streamed into the ruins, Tanurendal rushed to meet them while Vanera attempted to quietly alert their comrades. In this he was not as stealthy as he would have liked to be, and one of the Nalshbori sharpshooters put an arrow between his shoulder-blades that hampered him throughout the rest of the fight, though the scholar managed to keep on his feet. Surrounded, the two companions fought off all six of the Nalshbori, Tanurendal standing in front of the wounded scholar and taking several heavy blows that would have surely killed anyone wearing less armor than himself. At last, Tanurendal fell unconscious, grazed by a poison arrow, though Vanera managed to cut one of the attackers down.

Such was the scene when Anaris, Tengelbur, and Reiana returned, hastening back from their exploration of the crypt: Vanera the scholar, with an arrow in his back, standing over the body of the fallen Tanurendal as three Nalshbori spearmen closed in around him and two Nalshbori archers kept up a steady rain of arrows on the companions. Between them, Anaris and Reiana cut down one of the spearmen -- the former hamstringing him with her spear, the latter severing his head from his shoulders -- as Tengelbur rushed the archers and cut them down. Reiana finished off another one of the spearmen as Tengelbur and Anaris rushed the last Nalshbo, Tengelbur slaying him with a heavy two-handed strike to the back as the Nalshbo was busily occupied trying to ward off Anaris' spear. 

In the aftermath of the battle, the party looked to their wounds:

• Reiana rather clumsily removed the arrow from Vanera's back, and though she did her best to dress the wound, it will need serious attention soon before it can begin to heal.
• Vanera had better luck awakening Tanurendal from his stupor by means of a hot, spicy broth. Either the poison on the arrow was not particularly virulent, or the beefy Cheibori's strong constitution was enough to shrug it off.

During the battle, Reiana had noticed (being well-versed in the lore of her ancestral enemies the Nalshbori) that the scouts they had fought came from two different tribes: The Blood-Hand and the Grayfox. 

Wound seen to, the Company purposed not to leave the place until the unholy altar had been broken down. This was no easy matter: to do so in such a way that would render it unfit for future sacrifice, the altar would have to be disassembled, all combustible parts burned in a bonfire, and then the ashes and the stones of the altar scattered in running water. Reiana and Tengelbur undertook to do this (the others were too daunted by the evil and corruption of the altar), and over the course of two hours they managed to disassemble the altar, haul its pieces up to the surface, build a bonfire, and collect the ashes and stones, which were divided among the company. As they did this, Tengelbur sang the lay which is known as The Last of the Stone-kings, which in the liturgy of the Sacred Well is often sung to accompany ceremonies of cleansing. 

As they finished this work, Reiana heard the sound of movement in the woods to the Southeast, and the Company guessed that the fire must have been seen, and that the Nalshbori warbands (whose scouts they had killed) were now upon them. Moving at a run through the withered wood, the party narrowly managed to escape the clutches of their enemies without losing their way in the maze of trees. 

With half the Company wounded or weary, they have arrived at last at Galal-i-Yalir, where Reiana has business with Sir Ralus himself...

Session 9: The Ruin in the Wood

After resting for the night in Karet Cheykor, the party made their way across the Cheyth--an easier crossing in the Summer--and followed the old King's road, here little more than a dusty track, to the mining settlement of Kor-Ikush.

Lying within sight of the battlements of Galal-i-Yalir, Kor-Ikush was built within an ancient cleft of the hills, with tall craggy spires of rock reaching skyward on either side like the two hands of some forgotten giant. Kor-Ikush is a small frontier settlement, its main street scarce more than a longish strip of packed earth meandering snake-like amid the rocks. The folk of Kor-Ikush are hardy folk, risking the clear danger of frequent Nalshbori raiding parties in order to be closer to the Amber Mines of the Serth Hatama.

Sparsely populated, Kor-Ikush was more of a shanty town than it was a proper settlement, with most of its denizens currently off working their claims or hauling their finds back to Karet Cheykor. In that sense, Kor-Ikush is more of a waypoint for the miners, having few permanent residents. The party managed, however to talk to at least two of them:

• Paraman One-Hand, the village headman. A sleazy, avaricious man, Paraman's left hand has been petrified due to long proximity to the Serth Hatama.
• Amartja the Washer-Woman. With large eyes set too far apart on her head and webbed hands, Amartja has clearly suffered corruptions of her own due to a lifetime on the edge of the withered wood.

Going to speak with Paraman, Tengelbur and Reiana managed (after a small outlay of coin) to glean information as to the direction that Onerama's amber-miners set out in. Paraman hinted that they had headed in the direction of one of the tombs of the Stone-Kings, indicating they may not have been looking for amber at all.

In the meantime, the twins (Vanera and Anaris) along with Tanurendal spoke with the deformed washer-woman. After trying to sell each other off to the washer-woman, she offered to tell them where were the men they sought--so long as they would agree to do a favor for her. At last and after much agonizing, Anaris agreed to the favor without knowing what it was, and she was given a small cloth bundle to bury beneath a certain tree she would find in the woods. The party was then instructed to travel straight Southeast, and that after they had gone as far as a swallow flies in an hour, they would find the men they sought. But the men would not be returning from the Serth Hatama, for they had apparently "read a book" which was forbidden them.

Following Amartja's instructions, the party stopped along the way to bury a package -- which Anaris opened against Amartja's command -- and revealed a small human toe. Without any knowledge of who the toe belonged to or why they were burying it, Anaris did the deed and the party continued on their way. They came at last to the ruins of an ancient fortress in the woods, build in the short and squat style common in the Second Eon. Searching the ruins, they found:

• A bronze tablet buried to commemorate the construction of the fortress, reading:
• Ika-karhala Orrula, Weiksura anyalir ijilan kjanlases ika-amnoxam abla-serthatama abiyauv-inla.
• Adverbial phrase: (In the fourth [year] of Orril [‘s kingship]) Main sentence: (Weiksura this fortress built) (For the Purpose of) To upon the plain before the Serth Hatama stand.
• Traces indicating that the ruined fortress has been habitually used by camps of Nalshbori, probably by multiple tribes.
• The personal effects of the miners they were seeking, though the miners themselves are gone (although there are a suspicious number of stone trees standing within the ring of the fortress...)
• An ancient staircase, rebuilt fairly recently with stone from the outside of the fortress, leading down into a chamber beneath the old tower. There they found a bloody altar, obviously consecrated (or rather desecrated) to the worship of the Bloody Vulture. Beneath the altar, after cringing beneath its dark shadow, the party found a chamber which appeared to be used for stores and loot by the Nalshbori who often camped here.

Up above, Tanurendal and Vanera (who had remained as lookouts) spend some time setting up traps to prevent surprise. These are apparently ineffectual, and Tanurendal is spotted by a half-dozen Nalshbori warriors who appear suddenly upon the scene...