Communique #3

Grigor,

My apologies for both the tardiness of this missive, and the terseness of the previous few.  It is difficult for me to discern what you would wish to hear and what would be a waste of words. You have after all been gone only three weeks at this point and are hardly far removed from the day to day life of our humble village.

You have however made specific inquiries, and it behooves me both as your pupil and your confidant to address those inquiries – particularly now that there is something to report. In addition there are some recent activities that I feel will be of interest to you. I will address your requests first.

On the matter of your “friend” Emilyn and her son I have some ill news. Emilyn’s husband Kiril fell from the roof of their Templemount home and is now paralyzed from the waist down. His injury seems to be beyond what the local healers can remedy. Kiril’s family did not take kindly to him becoming an invalid, and once the discussion of his 12 year old son being put to work to earn for the family was broached, Emilyn cut ties, packed up husband and son, and returned to Halvensprings where they now live with her family. She splits her time between caring for Kiril, and assisting Uriah Hawthorne in the bakery for a modest salary.

On the matter of the tree you came across, I feel the need to address this later in the letter as it ties in with the recent activities I mentioned.

Your brother Dorian has taken an interest in woods lore, and started accompanying your father into the Firnockt. Your father has abandoned all pretense of woodcutting, and now goes into the woods daily armed with a flail and bow. Dorian and I have struck up a friendship, and meet almost nightly at the Sleeping Dragon for drinks. He tells me that Pharun is re-training “just in case”, and needs to be ready to “take up dad’s (your grandfather Albaer’s) charge if need be”. Dorian has not been able to get any further details out of him.

On the matter of your maternal grandfather, I fear I have made little progress. Eden absolutely refuses to discuss him, and Pharun quickly changes the subject. No one else in the village seems to be aware of him other than your mother obviously having a father. Do you know if she has a maiden name? Where did your family come from prior to living in Halvenspring? Dorian believes that your sister Gwilyth knows some of this information by the way, and that it had something to do with the real reason for her leaving.

The new trade I mentioned has died down; it is still up over previous years but nowhere near what was going on two weeks ago. I confess I did not find anything suspicious about it, your concerns notwithstanding. One effect it did have was to bring people into town from Halvenstomb and Templemount as said new merchants did not press further west than our little village. For a brief moment we were the economic hub of the barony, a fact that disgruntled the visitors from Templemount to no end. It also made the Sleeping Dragon quite profitable, and you may relay to Bajol and Feydor that Porter seems to be doing an admirable job looking after their interests.

These new merchants did bring some books with them and I was able to acquire a modest set of reference books published by the Illmar University on topics arcane and supernatural. There was also a book on noteworthy legends and storied locations published by the Ornian Academy. In both cases I chose to buy them with my own funds rather than purchase them with your money (one must build one’s own library after all), but since they are fairly modern texts I assumed you would have no issue.

It is in the Ornian book that I found reference to the “Hanging Tree”. I do not know if it is what you discovered or not, but it seems to fit the description. Here is a relevant passage:

“…and none know the location of the various strongholds used during the Kindred War. One can only assume a heavy use of symbolism clouding and obscuring the truth. For example take the Hanging Tree, where some of the vilest of the Tainted forces were said to dwell. It is said that the elven hero Yellain led a force into the depths of the tree to “drive back the darkness” and “seal what was released”. The language is that of a siege, and the etymology suggests a fortress where as “sealed” and “released” suggest a box, tomb, or doorway, none of which lines up with an actual tree. Perhaps the Hang Tree refers to a tower with a tree motif? A poor translation may also be the culprit.”

I will begin researching into banshees. I think there was reference made to it in one of my new Illmarian books.

Now to address the activities of which I mentioned. First, Marc Risus started following your father into the woods. Apparently there was some sort of confrontation (Dorian was sent away) when Pharun caught Marc in this activity. This led to some tenseness for a number of days until yesterday Pharun went to the Risus farm, and then the two of them left together into the Firnockt. As of this writing they have not returned.

Next Halvenspring has acquired two new residents. An odd little fellow came in with the last round of merchants, a Halfling by the name of Salavic. He built a small shop/residence about a mile outside of town in the Firnockt where he weaves baskets and makes simple toys. He is not very sociable but seems harmless enough. There was something else about him I wanted to mention, but it escapes me at the moment.

The second new resident is a dwarf named Klaus Steelpick who of all things is building a tower across town from yours. Klaus is kindly but keeps to himself. He does not seem to have a profession of any kind, merely overseeing the building of his tower and keeping in the pavilion tent he lives in for the moment. Every evening he strolls through the town smoking a pipe, a sturdy robed figure with a walking stick, a gives friendly greeting and smiles when engaged.

Finally I was successful in casting my first spell of note yesterday, where I produced the hammerstrike effect. I am pleased with my progress and a relieved that I can do more than the simple cantrips I have thus far been able to employ.

Respectfully yours,

Osgood Hawthorne