Steves Basement - Aredel - Letters Home Archive

Gobius 3, Ril
Dear Pen,
t would appear that you are, in fact, missing. I'm not sure who has taken you or for what reason, but rest assured, when I find them, they will regret it to their dying day which means they'll do most of their regretting in the hell to which I send them. s you may recall, divination is not one of my favorite kinds or classes of spells, so it may take me a few days to find out exactly what's going on. I'll have to talk a few of my friends into helping me. Lord knows, I've done enough of their fool's errands. y friends and I have to finish up some business in Mesasis, then I should be able to turn my attention to your rescue. I know that seems cold, but truthfully, I have to put the needs of the world ahead of my own. en, you may not understand this, but I finally feel like I'm part of the group and that I'm important. It's a nice feeling and I can't afford to risk it because I fear I'd go all the way evil if I did. 'll be on the way to rescue you soon. It's strange that whoever has you hasn't issued any demands yet. That would have been the first thing I did, but I'm not one to leave things to chance. ince I'm not sure when (or even if) I'll hear from them, I might actually write a letter to our father to see if he knows anything more. Of course, he'll probably refuse to answer or help at all. He never has approved of my choices. is might help, but I doubt it. I don't think she's ever gotten over the social stigma of being Toad's sister. I doubt my recent activities have helped much. very time we do something I hear the stories. I've heard that I'm allied with Malik of the Fiery Fist, that I'm part of the Fist, that I eat babies and that I crap thunder. Okay, that last one was a lie, on one ever said that. They did say I smelled like crap, but I supposed that's different. Most of the rumors are false. I do travel with a guy named Malik, but he's an archer, not a wizard. on't worry though Pen, help is on the way. As soon as I find out what they want or where they are, you'll be spring
Your brother,
Toglard


Elus 3, Ril
Dear Pen
etter hear from you soon or I'll assume the wizard's council has done something stupid and respond in kind. The collector's don't really have a monopoly on wizard-hunting, only I never take prisoners. f course, anyone who knows even the least bit about me knows that and knows what would happen if I felt they had even so much as threatened a member of my family. I'm sure it'll turn out that I pissed you off someway or other. I hope you'll reply to this with at least a fuck off, just so I know it's really you. eally don't know what to tell you about our latest enterpriese. We're heading north towards Balna and Hikria to try and reinforce those countries and reclaim them from the Amazons. ven if we win, I'm not sure it's the right choice. We've been giving some thought to a field trip to the Amazon's home island, but there's a rumor that not even my spells will work there. I think if that was true when we got there, we'd be as good as dead. on't worry though, there are some more dead people. We made port at some stinky little Mesasis town. Looked around for a bit and found that all the temples of good gods were overun with evil. ot that I'm particularly religious, but that pissed me off. The Temple of Gramlock has been good to me and lately I've been thinking that Si might have it right, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. f course, my friends didn't want me to fight alone, so they joined me in my quest to cleanse the world of a few evil temples. e started with the biggest Gramlock temple in town. It had been taken over by some Daesious worshipping future corpses. My opening volley was a huge fireball through a broken window, then the boys attacked. Things were going pretty good so I was letting the boys have some fun until the head of the temple decided to flamestrike them. He pissed me off, so I hit him (and a few of his cronies) with a meteor swarm. I believe it's safe to say those Daesians won't be bothering another temple of Gramlock
Your brother,
Tog
PS: At least not those particular Deasians. PSS: QxR: Check!

Elus 5, Ril
Dear Pen,
on't take this as me getting a big head, but damn am I good. I laid waste to so many Amazons during our last adventure that even I was scared. ager to continue the work of the council, we used magic to locate the leader of the invasion force (it's best you not know exactly what we did). So we could get to her quickly. ssassination was our objective and we achieved it admirably. One minute she was standing around barking order, then she was a smoldering arrow-encrusted splotch on the ground. he Amazons didn't take kindly to our treatment of their leader (who'd have thunk it?) and they decided to counterattack with their own dimensional fold. They opened four doors and fired rays from two of them to little effect and had craft enter the field from the other. ow they thought this tactic would work I'll never know. Olowniuk put a wall of ice in front of one craft which promptly crashed. Ulrich shot a lightning bolt^{Powered by Toglard} at the other and it was just about over. watched our backs as the others closed in and began the beat down. Amazon chicks are tough but they're no match for Ulrich and his boys, especially if the boys are angry. Believe me, they were angry that day. o there we were standing there killing Amazons when the bitches did the fold thing again. This time they tossed through some weird looking bombs. They seeemd to be made out of several different colors of their crystals and they looked dangerous. hinking quickly, I covered one with a force wall and Morduke had the other sucked down into the earth by the elementals. I lost my cool and teleported to the Amazon camp to take the battle to them. ow I made that decision I may never know. It proved wise as the exploding bomb did a great deal of damage to the countryside and to my friends. They were trying to send two more through when I arrived, but a quick blast from a Meteor Swarm set them off right in the middle of Amazonville. xactly as I had hoped, the swarm killed most of the women in the area outright and left them unable to deliver their bombs to my friends. f course, I wasn't through then, not by half. I teleported to a new spot and shot a new spell killing even more. ow the Amazons were on the run and it was fun to watch. Even as they ran I continued the attack hoping to decimate their forces. obbing spell after spell at them I took a heavy toll on their numbers. They began running in all directions but they couldn't run fast enough to outrun all my spells. ou're probably wondering about my friends. Well, it took them a little longer to get there, but they dimensional-folded in and began lambasting as well. e surveyed the carnage and could come to only one conclusion: we are badasses. We estimated that we had killed between half and two-thirds of the Amazons in less than ten minutes. fter the battle we scoured the area searching for gold and other treasure, but we had little luck. The only downside with all this magic is that most of the normal items wind up getting destroyed in the conflagration. ou should know though that I'm still aware of our deal. I'm working to get some gold together to find you a new place to live and to create you a new identity, far from the thumb of our parents. f course, it won't happen overnight and the plan isn't foolproof. I'll keep working at it. hm, there is one thing that bothers me. Ever since you sent this tablet you haven't written back. Is there some problem? hat's why I've written this letter on both the tablet and on paper. Hopefully you can write me soon and let me know what's going on
Your brother,
Toglard


Elus 5, Ril
Dear Sirs
efore I begin, let me again express my sincere admiration for your work with the Council. Were it not for magicians like you who knows what might become of our world. lowniuk and I have both been improving our skills. I know you're not happy about the sorceror, but he has been most helpful. His magics, combined with mine and those of Morduke, are what make Ulrich's Bravos such a powerful force. hen last we spoke I had just mastered the magiks which allowed me to reverse gravity. Since then I have done well in my studies, aided primarily by the experience I've gained killing those who dared oppose my cause. he most recent magic I've learned to use is the Meteor Swarm. It is not the most powerful spell in the world I know, but I am very happy with it and have used it to devastating effect against the Amazons. ur most recent encounter found the Amazons using their version of dimensional folding to attack us from a great distance. First they opened four large doors and sent troops and rays against us. When that didn't work they tried to destroy us with a pair of large bombs. agic did a fine job of containing one of them as my Force Wall held the blast in check. For the second we weren't as lucky and a huge crater was blown in the ground. arth rained down all around us and most of my friends were injured. I'm afraid I lost my patience and teleported to the Amazons camp (scrying by Morduke had found it for us) and lay waste to them with as many spells as I could make work in the region of their damnable orbs. When my friends joined me and I at last calmed enough to look upon the destruction I understood what it was about me you feared
Your Former Student,
Toglard


Elus 3, Ril
Dear Penrath,
ll of us went with Ulrich to a fancy meal and negotiation with his enemies. The food was decent, but not great, which wasn't much of a surprise given we were in the midst of a giant army encampment. eally the only surprise came at the end when we were suddenly attacked. Poison darts leapt across the room at Ulrich and Farroll was barely able to bat them from the air with his trusty stick. The ones aimed at his back bounced harmlessly off his shield, which seemed to move of its own accord. orduke, Farrol and Shane Lee made short work of the enemy while Ulrich and I looked for more intruders. There didn't appear to be any survivors after Olownuik used an ice storm to cool everyone's temper. was watching the front door when we heard it get barred from the outside. A minute later Xavier, Ulrich's cousin appeared and bandied a few threats about. Luckily, we were clued in that our spells wouldn't work very well so I didn't launch anything too powerful at him. ven though he had done something to limit our magic, the rings of the elements still worked and Morduke set the earth elementals to digging while Shane set a fire elemental or two loose in their camp. Once the whole was big enough I dropped in it and found my powers returned to me following a wish to that effect. under missile blew wide the doors of the now shrinking room and was quickly followed with Cloud Kill, Ice Storms and fireballs. Many men died before they even knew they were under attack. arrol and the others searched out leaders while I contended myself with killing any soldier stupid enough to show his face while I waited for Xavier to return, for I knew he would. ven as I began to fear he had run off, he attacked me with an incendiary cloud, wounding me and killing even more of his associates. I teleported closer to him so I could unleash a short-range but devastating spell. moment later a giant hand appeared and began bitch slapping him. Soon it was joined by another, then a third, then a series of magic missiles. All that left him badly wounded but still fighting. I hit him with Malray's Lightning, which proved very effective. eeling from the onslaught, the bolt sent him flying back and he dropped his staff. Needless to say I picked up his precious stick and rejoined my companions. orduke spotted the approaching caravan first and we waited (some invisible) while it approached. Somehow Olowniuk was again selected as spokesperson and he was so rude even I was proud of him. ven though he was treated with no respect, King Yukroon offered weregild and he and Ulrich came to terms. It looks like we'll be going to Falgarra next, hopefully in time to repel the Amazon invasion
Yours,
Toglard
PS: I've reached an "understanding" with the council so you should be okay for a few days.

Midvest 5
Dear Pen,
amn these Kryllians are weird (and stupid). We got down here only to find out that Ulrich's cousin, the usurper, had siezed control and was claiming that Ulrich wasn't his father's son, but rather the bastard son of some other noble. llegitimacy is apparently a big deal down here and if Ulrich was proved not to be his father's son, then his claims would be null and void before they even started. verywhere we went though it was clear that his cousin was an asshole. He had oppressive taxes, stupid friends in places of power and he was slowly disbanding the army (at least many of the more experienced guys). y guess is he was hoping for someone to invade the joint, but I don't know why. Maybe he'd already cut a deal with the new king, maybe he thought he'd be a hero when he mopped up, I really don't get it. He turned out to have the brain power of a day old fig, so whatever his plans were they couldn't have been too complicated or they'd have failed for sure. or a week we pored over documents and letters searching for the proof we needed. The biggest problem was that everything pointed to the cousin being right. It did appear that he had forged versions of real letters. Ulrich was the son of some northern noble and he was adopted by his father. Luckily, there was a Royal Decree that he be treated as a Von Klipstein and that's really what won the day when we ended up at trial. ven though he had tried to get Ulrich killed, Ulrich showed mercy by allowing his cousin to live in exile. Things were pretty tense for a minute after the trial. Apparently he thinks he's a badass magician and he was planning to kill me to prove it. Guess he changed his mind though because we're both still here. umor has it we're going to be here awhile, but I'm not sure. I'm kind of hoping to end this ring business soon but that's not all that's going on. The collectors are still on my tail and I think and maybe more. eems like my letter to Kordova did some good. He showed up down here to talk to me. Not sure if he's going to tell me I'm wrong or offer me protection from the Council yet. Sure hope it's not the former, because that's not going to happen
Sincerely
Toglard.
PS I just can't seem to focus on chess these days.

Prevest 23
Dear Minister Kordova
s you know, I have been working closely with one of the faithful, Lord Morduke in working to overcome the power of the Amazons and put down their rebellion. o far, we have had the blessings of Gramlock and with a bit of luck and a great deal of effort we have repelled the invasion in Bistal, dealing them a setback. ince then, we have been working to find the parts of the Ring of the Elements so that we might reach the Tower of the Elements and protect it from them. owever recent events have conspired against us and things are not going as well as we would like. ur leader, Cutter Tubal decided to remain in Bistal with his people. We have had some difficulty with enemies here and abroad working against us. ately, we've had a new problem. The Mages of Ambroe Isle have determined that I am too powerful and need to be "collected" by their agents. very apprentice at the College hears rumors of these collectors, but they are always denied by official sources and it is said that no one sees a collector and lives to the tell the tail. adly, we saw four collectors on our trip to Kryll and two of them were slain by our hands. At the time, we didn't know who they were working for or why they were pursuing us and they chose not to identify themselves. oubtless they will send more after us and we will be forced to battle them as well. I do not know if we will win or lose those battles, but I don't actually care. ur enemies are the Amazons not the collectors, but if the collectors dog our footsteps then they will delay us on our true mission: the defeat of the Amazons. ictory can only be ours through diligence and the will of Gramlock. These collectors will distract us from our mission and may even cause us to fail. ven though it pains me to bother you with such a trivial mission I must ask if you can intercede with the Wizards on my behalf. anthous stripes are not my color, but I fear for the mission if the Wizards continue their attacks. y friends and I will repel them to the best of our ability, but I believe the Wizard's will send stronger and stronger collectors until either they capture or kill me and one or more of the members of the team. This can not happen, because I believe it will lead to failure. xtreme times call for extreme measures and right now I am begging you the boon of intercession. If you can not help I understand
Sincerely,
Toglard.


Prevest 22
Most August Council Members,
efore I begin, let me pause for a moment to express my deepest admiration for your works. Without your efforts, and the efforts of the Councillors before you, Magic would never be what it is today. I thank you, as do all the members of my company, for your work in shaping both magic and my own career in it. write you today because I am concerned and a little confused. As an apprentice I heard tales of the "collectors", men sent after mages who were out of control. Like most apprentices, I tried to convince myself those tales weren't true, but deep in my heart I feared they were. oday I write to you in the sure knowledge that they exist. Yesterday, my friends and I were attacked by four collectors. They didn't identify themselves as such and so I'm afraid things didn't go very well for them. Two are dead and two have fled. ven so, I am greatly concerned. I know of no deed, no act, which I have performed which should have earned me the reputation for being out of control. True, I have killed using magic in the past, sometimes I have even killed large numbers of people. Never have I used my magic gratuitously though - I use it to protect myself, my companions and our mission. y friends and I have been charged by the Council of Kingdoms to find a way to thwart the evil plots of the Amazons and to defeat them. This issue should be of paramount importance to us all because the Amazons destroy magic and magicians to power their strange weapons. If I have been overzealous in my use of magic it has only been in service to the Council of Kingdoms and in hopes of putting the threat of the Amazons to rest. xactly what I have I done to earn the attention of the collectors? I would like to know the charges and specifications against me so that I might address and explain them. Once the Amazon threat has been destroyed then, if my explanation of my actions is insufficient, I will gladly surrender myself to the collectors of your choice
Respectfully,
Toglard
PS: I am enclosing 1000 gold with this message as weregild for the two collectors my friends and I took. I realize this is not much, but our mission has left me with little time to accumulate wealth. Even this meager sum leaves me penniless.

Prevest 22
Dear Pen,
ad news I'm afraid. You were right. Just yesterday we were attacked at sea by a group of bounty hunters which included four collectors. ll these years I'd thought they were a myth. A bogey man invented to keep the power of young wizards in check and now they come for me. It has me wondering what I did to earn their wrath. ure, I've killed a few people (okay, a few hundred people), but I've never killed anyone who didn't deserve it. It's not like I've just wandered around killing people for looking at me funny or anything. Nearly everyone I've killed attacked me (or my friends) first. Is it my fault I'm better at it than most? he truth is, I was thinking I was getting better. I can't help but try to live up to the words of the elf, even if I don't want to. It's almost like he's laid some compulsion on me. nyhow, here's the story - we left the halflings place headed for some Dinasian port town where a ship would take us to Kryll to put things back in order for Ulrich and his kin. On the way we met up with Ulrich's errand boy who told us about a bounty on his head. ather than blunder into a trap, we sent Olowniuk ahead to investigate. He found out there were people there looking for me and Ulrich. They had already stowed aboard our ship, so he arranged a new ship and off we went. ays later, we spotted them on the horizon, closing with us. We decided to let them catch up so we could face them alone on the sea instead of finding out what other allies they might have. ailing and reverse-gravity turn out to be a dangerous mix and one of the ships sank before the battle was even joined. The other was set ablaze with fireballs and pillars of flame. The collectors were on the sinking ship. Two escaped completely, even though I used a wall of ice to keep the crew trapped in the water. Two appeared on our decks and attacked only to be struck down a few minutes later. All in all, it wasn't a good day to be a collector
Your brother,
Toglard
PS You should probably lay low for a few days. I don't know what the collectors will do when they find out what's happened.

Hismer 23
Dear Pen,
ound out a lot more about my robes today from some elf that showed up in my dreams. if they can even do half of what he says they can, and I have no reason to doubt him, then I'm one seriously badass wizard. lrich has taken over the lead of the group with Cutter gone. There was some talk about me taking charge, but then they remembered who and what I was and decided against it. Kind of funny, since I'm pretty sure I'm the smartest one in the bunch (of course, I'm always pretty sure of that). hoosing our way carefully, we backtracked those wierd cat things to their home. It was kind of weird, walking through a narrow defile, just waiting for their attack. I didn't like it much. We eventually made our way out of the path to a clearing where there was a whole herd of those things. illing them didn't seem very sporting, so we send Olowniuk to scout. Oonce again he surprised us by doing a good job. We moved over to the cave mouth silently and invisibly. Luckily I'd taken a bath because those things seemed to be pretty sharp. We wandered around a bit in the cave and found some evil ancient race digging for a great beast. ou can probably guess what happened next. We killed the whole cave worth of 'em with poison gas (some natural, some cloudkill), pyrotechnics and a few arrows. The only prisoner we took didn't cooperate much, but we let him go anyhow. ut of nowhere this guy who's been travelling with Solvay tells Ulrich that his father was made a duke, then killed and now his evil cousin is in charge. We still had a job to do, so we sent the guy off to get us passage to Kryll. Looks like we've got another rebellion to put down. lrich turned out to be a pretty good leader. From the caves he took us almost straight to where the halfling lived. The farmhouse was torn up and the gravesite was desecrated. We were thinking someone beat us to it when we spotted a halfling burrow. While we checked that out some riders from the Hand of Evil showed up and demanded we turn over Morduke. There was some discussion followed by a fair number of spells and twenty bodies getting disintegrated. Around then the halfling turned up, told us the house and grave were fakes and agreed to give us the ring if we'd eat dinner and hang out with him. We did and so did he
'Til next time,
Tog
PS: I know what you're thinking and I can't explain it. In the dream the elf said I had a "good heart". It pissed me off, but ever since then I've had trouble getting a good rage on. Bastard elf.

Hismer 20
Dear Pen,
hings have gotten nothing but strange since we slew the giants and siezed the sword. First we had problems with leaving the tomb and then when we did, Cutter decided he'd had enough of travelling with us. Apparently Ulrich's magically-inspired attack on him had left him so rattled he couldn't travel with us anymore. As the rest of us headed to the sea for our voyage to Dinasis, he headed back to Bistal to try and sieze some power. he rest of us made our way through some benighted enchanted forest to get to the boat. The forest made us forget exactly what was going on unless we talked about it constantly. No problem for some of the chatterboxes, but yikes! Anyhow, some old man showed up leading eight giants right towards us. We attacked them, he turned to fight, they died. When we went to talk to him, he was disrespectful and slapped Morduke for no reason - at least, I don't remember why any of it happened - I do remember that he died a gruesome horrible death. e headed south to Dinasis and docked at a small town there. Word of my reputation had preceded me and the townsfolk were very respectful. We're heading out soon
Your brother
the Terrible.


Hismer 18
Another fine Mess,
ell, things have been nothing if not interesting. Since last I wrote we've left Bistal, dropped the princess (soon to be Queen of Bistal) off in Hikria, met with the elves, found out where some sword of Gramlock was, killed a bunch of hill giants and taken the sword. guess we're still supposed to be chasing the ring of four parts and that's where we're going next. At least the sea elf managed to just look at stuff this time without starting a fight
Bored now,
Toglard.


Midsmer 20
Dear Pen
ell, it looks like the war is over for the moment. As you can guess by my being alive to write a letter, we won. The battle was pretty sweet. 10,000 of Selcor's men and nearly 2,000 Amazons. Cutter and Morduke set everything up before Morduke went off to visit his friends. he army advanced, a huge pit (courtesy of Morduke and the elementals) opened up in their back ranks, trapping them and destroying most of their siege engines. They pressed forwards and a second pit opened trapping them about 700 yards short of the castle. Our ballista were firing flaming javelins to good effect. They rode closer and a third pit opened. hey still didn't get it and continued to attack. Some wizard showed up and meteor swarmed the wall. Before he could do anymore damage the sea elf lobbed one of the spell absorbers at him and he disappeared when his prismatic spray went bad. he men and amazons eventually gathered in front of the gate where we set off our spellstick trap. We had laid out the dozen or so of their spell-absorbing crystals after charging them to near capacity. We made a web in front of the castle and I blew up the nearest one. By the time it was done we had cleared out an area of about 60 by 90 yards. They didn't come back, that routed them. e gave chase and spotted Selcor trying to rally his men. Several long-range lightning bolts put an end to the rally (and to Selcor). Cutter caught one of the amazons for questioning. e're going to be here for a few weeks to tidy up loose ends and plan our next move. I don't think the war is over, just the battle
Your Hero?
Toglard


Midsmer
Dear Rat Bastard,
ell, now you're in for it. Thanks to you and your stupid idea, I actually had to be nice to one of the bitches yesterday. You're going to pay for that. e were waiting at the capital for the forces to come. There was a rumor that some big force of wizards and priests would come first to soften up our defenses then the rest of the army would follow later. There was a lot of talk of defending this way and that way. I finally got bored and went out and dug a hole a few hundred yards from the castle and buried myself in it. hen those magicians showed up I conjured some tentacles then cut loose with three fireballs. We left their heads in a pile with a sign saying "your dead" and another sign saying "our dead". Our pile was totally empty. fter that there was a lot of talk and we wound up trying to turn the various forces against each other. We told the ogres Selcor wanted to attack the bitches right away so he could arrive in the city a hero. While we were there, Nadimas used some spell that had Ogres dropping over dead. Cutter convinced them it was poison and they marched on the Amazons. e went to the Amazons and claimed to be with Selcor. We told them about the attack plans and begged for our lives. They told us to just leave because they never needed us anyhow. We left just before the ogres got there. An hour into it, all the ogres were dead and only a few women had died. In all, the 1000 women killed 2000 ogres and lost only 200 of their number. Not pretty. e recovered some of their spell absorbing disks and we're trying to work out a way to use their "explosive overload" power to our advantage. So far, we haven't got one, but I think we have a few good ideas
You suck,
Toglard
I just want to point out that all of this is your fault because you told me to go to the peace ceremony. On the other hand, I am getting to be more bad ass more quickly than I ever imagined. The ring I've enclosed is magical. Believe it or not, I've got a dozen more just like it on a stick I'm calling my "death rattle". I took them from the wizards that attacked the capital.

Midsmer 17
Penrath,
ooks like I was wrong. We were headed back when we got intercepted by some shadowy amazon chicks. It was pretty weird - a dark mist rolled in and wasn't even cooked when I cast my first fireball. The chicks shot darts, then we went to swords (well, the other guys went to swords; I went to see if there was anyone else coming). The shadowzons were dead in no time leaving behind three dangerous swords. e headed back to the capital and were again intercepted, this time by one of Tubal's lackeys who insisted we march through some wierd magical tunnel of Nadimas' creation. We did it and found that Nadimus had pretty much taken over in the capital. e had hidden the seneschal, the princess, and the bykin fields. There was some discussion and he wound up taking the guys who got darted to meet the earth elementals and the princess. He also told us that the archer had a seriously magical ring (figures). here was some big talk about 4 rings and 1 ring with 4 parts and a lot of confusion and we wound up going into the caverns beneath the castle where I lightning bolted a bunch of earth elementals and we got one of the facets. ooks like the war is coming now. There's about a thousand men coming to reinforce us, but there's six thousand on the attack. Tubal got talking to Selcor and tried to talk him out of attacking but it didn't work (which is good cuz I like killing enemies) so now we're just waiting out the siege
Faithfully,
Penrath
PS: Hopefully our siege won't take as long as your damn move has.

Midsmer 15
Dear Penrath,
o now it looks like we're headed off to fight the ogres. Cutter's got it in his head that if we retrieve the kid we'll somehow break the back of the revolution. Sounds like crap to me, but I'm not exactly a political guy. he best part of this trip so far has been the chance to learn some new spells. I'm already tossing around fireballs like nobody's business and that last Baron we killed had a Lightning Bolt too. I know you always thought I was a fool for pursuing all the big slammer spells without worrying about protection and enchantment, but I think you were wrong. never had the temperment for enchantment and I don't have to defend myself as long as the other guy dies first. haven't made much money at this crap so far though, so I can't send you any get out of jail gold yet. I'm guessing we're going to see some coin before it's all over though. There's no way you can run around saving kings and kingdoms and not make some money somewhere
Your brother,
Toglard
PS: Still waiting for your next move, or are you ready to conceed?

Midsmer 14
Pen
guess we're at war. There's periods of frantic activity followed by plenty of time in which to write letters to relieve the boredom. I probably shouldn't use too many names because there could be spies, but then again, if they find out enough they might get brave and attack and then they'd die. Of course, I'd have to pay more attention to the whole mess to use names, so there it is. e got to the capital a couple of days ago and strolled in pretty as you please. You can bet we were expecting a trap, but this one was much more subtle. We got stuck talking to idiots - I'd have prefered a straight up fight, but that's how it goes. These guys here are so dense they sent a guy out to find out who we were than acted surprised when we showed up and got announced. nyhow, we decided to take a jander to check on a nearby camp of some other baron (F something I think). We got there and the elf got all antsy about how he could sneak up and kill the guy. Well, there's two thousand troops down there, but who am I to tell a man no to killing? I made him invisible and in he went. e found the right tent, then cast a couple of spells to deliberately make light and noise. He said it was a distraction, I say anything weird puts guards on alert. Oh well. He got inside and I guess he killed his man. He sure brought back a lot of cool stuff (not that I got any). hen he got in trouble, the rest of us waded in and provided a "diversion". I killed about 30 myself, not including the pyrotechnics and any other fires. Still that left the odds at 1970 to 6, so we hightailed back to the capital. ubal yelled out some crap about anyone who took charge of the army and swore fealty to him would get amnesty but I don't think anyone believed him. He also swore that anyone who took control and marched against him would die. I sure hope he's right, because this is looking like one hell of a fight.
Bored beyond words,
Toglard.


Midsmer 12
Pen,
'll say one thing for these so-called bravos, riding with them is never boring. After kicking the crap out of a twenty-man patrol, we headed back to the castle of some baron or other (they're all the same anyhow) to meet up with the princess. e got there and rode in pretty as you please, they even waited supper on us. We arrived and were seated pretty much right away after some of the guys cleaned up. The princess was there along with a bunch of other guys. The meal was good, they even had peas in butter sauce (you'd best believe I got my share). s we were waiting for dessert, there was a lot of banging on one of the doors. The voice on the other side is muffled, but damned if it wasn't that queer Cutter Tubal guy yelling it was a trap. ell, I wasted no time. I looked about and saw where some men were hiding behind a tapestry. I let loose with a ball of fire (yeah, I can do that now) and killed 5 of the 6. Then, while the others was still gathering their wits, I let loose with pyrotechnics. I could probably have done another ball of fire, but I figured blinding them all would make the clean up work easy. hings got pretty crazy from there. I remember another fireball down a hallway that killea about two dozen men, then another one on a cluster of soldiers in the courtyard, then rushing down a hall to exit the castle. We met up with another wizard then, it turned out to be Baron Griffon, the guy who had taken the castle, himself. It didn't matter much as this warrior named Ulrich (whom I'd made strong as an ox and twice as big) smacked him down like you'd swat a mosquito (no, I'm not making that up). e got out of the castle with the princess in tow and are now heading to the capital city again. There was a bunch of other crap, like the crown prince being sent off to ogres and some kind of plan to attack the capital and some magic using the Bistal color weed, but none of that involved kicking the shit out of people so I didn't pay as much attention as I probably should have.
Your brother,
Toglard
PS: Tell sis I said happy birthday and spit on her piece of cake for me would ya? thanks.

Midsmer 11
Brother
eah I know, two letters in two days. The sad thing is that telling you how fucked up this is is my best chance to not kill one of these idiots. We caught up with 'em. Some elf tried to sneak up on us, but I'd already marked him. No matter, let him play his silly games. urns out Nadimus was kind of right. The bravos (that's what their leader calls them) had already lost one. A dumbass wizard named Bali (you know, the "I summon a hawk" guy. Very effective). I guess I'm going to have to take his place somehow. I don't know if I can be that worthless, I just keep saying to myself "Hmm. What would my brother do in this case" nyhow we joined up with them, headed south and Cutter (no shit, that's his name) wandered into an ambush. I scattered the bandits with a ball of fire and we kicked their asses. They eventually coughed up their base camp and we rode down on it. Nadimus used some kind of Seven League Gallop spell on the horses - very fast. nyhow, there wasn't much of a fight. The soldiers, a wizard, and a priest were no match for us. I softned 'em with pyrotechnics, a few ice darts and a snowball. Some of the others chopped 'em into a fine mince and life is good.
Still pissed at you though,
Toglard
PS: You wouldn't believe how bizarre this Cutter guy is. He actually prefers the company of men (maybe boys) over women.

Midsmer 10
Brother,
ave I mentioned how much I hate the sea? We've spent the last ten days at sea and I don't think I've kept down a single thing in all that time. Soon I'll be a stick like you. e're off the ship now and riding hard for Bistal. Nadimus seems to think there's trouble ahead and he's worried that they'll need the smith to restore order to Bistal. I think we should have brought a priest, because a miracle is more likely to help.
Hurl this!
Toglard
PS: Remember, send stuff to Bistal.

Lowsmer 30
Brother,
hate you. You said I should go to Paruv to see the spectacle of peace and it's nothing but a war. Worse yet, I've been drafted by that idiot Nadimus to run off and join up with some group of losers that are going to restore order to Bistal. hy would anyone care about order in Bistal? It's like military intelligence. Now I'm off (on horseback no less) with Nadimus and some pussy named Des Cortes who, when he's not busy preening himself, seems to think that wizardry and blacksmithing are the same thing. his is, without a doubt, the worst mess you've ever gotten me into. I hopw one day I can return the favor.
See ya,
Toglard
PS: If you have any more suggestions for me, keep 'em to yourself. PSS: Send your return message, if you still remember how to read and write, to Bistal. PSSS: KN-KB3