[Royal Guard] Unto Vorfon Lucius Von Stahl, Captain of the Royal Guard...

[JD]

UNTO VORFON LUCIUS VON STAHL, CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD:

 Greetings,

I write to you from Parmi. Lord Protector Aginor has relieved us. He arrived
several days ago with a small number of retainers and elements of the Border
Watch. Since then, we have replaced our makeshift defenses with more
permanent fortifications. We have some small artillery, an excellent
palisade wall (complete with trench) and men enough to keep it sufficiently
manned. Parmi is now defendable, and eminently so. However, we are
inadequately supplied; the river will provide us with fish for only so long
and, in the event of a protracted siege (which I think an unlikely
possibility at this time), we would not have the benefit of hunting from the
woods nearby. Were such a circumstance to arise, I predict we would be
capable of repulsing an enemy force of three times our numbers for
approximately one week given our current stores. That said, it is the Lord
Protector's order--and my wish!--that the force you send to our aid bring,
in addition to its own stores, no less than fifteen hundred (1,500) pounds
of grain or chickpea and five hundred (500) pounds of salt pork or beef.
This would be sufficient to feed the existing garrison for well over a
month. I do not foresee and end to hostilities before then.

Inadequately supplied though we are, we are not lame and we have not been
idle. Through regular patrols, we control the north-south road between Parmi
and Sarla crossing, the east-west road between Parmi and Sarla Brook,
and--so long as the sun is up--the area between the two roads. At night,
patrols that would normally be operating in that area are brought in to
reinforce Parmi's defenses, for it is my belief--Menxvan guide my
intuition!--that the enemy is too clever to come at is in daylight.

We have also managed to undertake some scouting operations, but with mixed
success. I led an expedition upriver with four of my band to probe and
attempt to capture a bandit-operated boat. We were carried upriver by the
Lord Protector Aginor's dragon. Riding on its back, our heads above water,
and with branches and driftwood gathered about us for camouflage, we
approached the boat, boarded it, and killed three of the six men on watch
with our bows and short swords before the alarm was sounded and the boat's
human cargo--perhaps twenty bandits--clambered onto the deck and pushed as
back into the water, but not before one of my men was fatally shot through
the eye. His blood be on my hands. Lord Protector Aginor's dragon promptly
came to our aid, killing one bandit for certain and another probably before
retrieving us and carrying us downriver to Parmi. This sortie was not a
complete loss, though. We were able to ascertain the depth of the boat's
keel; it sits a good four feet below the waterline. We have since taken the
liberty of hammering some stout palisade spikes into the soft river mud in
the waters closest Parmi.

Some more useful intelligence was gathered on my sortie to Valktokat.
Growing my stubble into a beard, not bathing for a few days, dressing myself
all in rags, and giving myself an especially pathetic beggar's bowl, I hied
myself across the river to Valktokat. Much to my surprise, the city is
open--or is open to beggars, anyhow. I approached it by the Elgar road,
moved within its limits without harassment from the bandits there. I counted
thirty in all. They were equiipped with good bows and swords that looked to
have been mass-produced. Most wore armor, but nothing heavier than studded
leather. These bandits moved about the town freely, their interactions with
citizens nothing if not polite. This struck me as odd. Seeking more
information, I visited an inn, purchased an ale, and struck up a
conversation with the barkeep. I told him was a beggar, but had once been a
carpenter that worked for Vorfon Thraxod (the area's once and now
disappeared master), whose generosity I now sought. I was informed that
Vorfon Thraxod had been succeeded by a Vorfon Broxkad. According to the
innkeeper, the men I had seen on my way into the town (the bandits) were
Broxkad's men. Broxkad's deputy is a man called Aritz, the immediate
superior of the men wandering about town. The innkeeper claimed and appeared
to believe that the bandits--Broxkad's men--were engaged in Broxkad's
business, the excavation of an ancient Menxvanic temple on the western side
of the Darian. Leaving the inn, I wandered about town for the rest of the
day, observed groups of four and six bandits coming into and leaving town
from all points of the compass. As this activity happened close to dusk, I
believe I witnessed a changing of the watches surrounding the town.

So Valktokat is unwittingly colluding with the bandits, whose numbers
are--adding the thirty I saw in town and the twenty in the boat to the fifty
or so we have confirmed through interrogating the captured--at least a
hundred, probably more. Please take this into account when you send
reinforcements. And for Menxvan's sake, send them quickly!

*Me exemil,

Abraxas ul-Bralk Caros
Magistrate of the Realm
*Aptentrod of Parmi
<seals affixed>

15. V. 474

CC: TESPIN NISA UL ALATHAR-FOLVATI, SITHER OF SOUTHERN ARANGOTH
       VORFON MARCION UL-FENDUTH UL-ARDUIN TAGRAN ALDENBAR, LORD CHANCELLOR


*Me exemil - "By my hand."
*Aptentrod - "Sheriff."

--JD