Some matters have come to my attention about which I though you would urgently want to hear. I apologize for the delay in getting this letter to you; I imagine you will be reading this, at best, two days’ hence. The courier, Yanush Metz is, as you doubtless recall, one of our newer recruits, but I trust in his resourcefulness in locating you.
I was awakened last evening by Bristol Grenville who had been alerted by the swamp-man Lathrop. The swamp-men… I apologize, I have no idea how to write the name by which these people prefer to be called… had captured an individual on the edges of the swamp. He put up quite a fight, it seems, but the… our allies managed to subdue him and brought him to us for questioning. Ralluk turned him promptly over to me, ensuring that we had no qualms with how this person had been treated and also, that they would be given full credit for having done the right thing. I assured him of our gratitude and of our concurrence in how they had gone about this matter.
The man that they turned over was, without a doubt, a member of the cult that you had warned me of ere your departure. He wore modest travel garb but had in his possession dark robes and an ornate mask embroidered with symbols of the four elements. Ralluk indicated that the man had been searching for someone in the swamps when they found him.
The man was already in rough shape by the time we received him, and I must confess that our questioning of him was rather more intense than we might have wished. He expired in the early hours of this morning. Here is everything that we gleaned from this person, incorporating what we also heard from Ralluk and Lathrop:
He was involved with other cultists on a raid of Greensward — known by locals, I gather, as “Harrowfen.” I understand that this is a small community just south of the marshes, or perhaps on the very edge. I admit that I have never seen this village. The cultist invaded the town and killed some number. Their objective, originally, was to capture the young girls of the community. While there, they apparently learned of a hidden shrine of old, underground in Greensward, to the Temple of the Elemental.
They made off, according to this man, in two directions. He and his cohort with three of the young girls, a separate group with three other girls and with nine adults they had also abducted. These nine he said were to be the “walking dead.” He did not have a chance to disclose the meaning of this cryptic phrase.
The cult found, it seems, something unexpected in that shrine. He was most evasive on this topic, and drawing this information out of him, ultimately, led to his demise. But it appears that they found ‘some” stone tablets. How many total, I do not know but it appears they made off with one of these tablets.
This cultist had been left by the others to search for one of the young girls who had escaped into the swamps. If she lives, I can not say. I have asked Ralluk to do what he might to attempt to find this girl and bring her — unharmed if at all possible — to me. I hope I have not overstretched my authority in promising him a significant reward if he is successful.
The cultist would only say that he followed “the Wind that Listens.” That whole thing is what he called his leader. I thought he was kidding. The leader of the second cult group which seemed bound for Elder Pool, at least initially, he called “the Stone Beneath.” I thought he was referring to the tablets for the longest time. This cultist fellow I now prefer to think of “Breakfast for Thalgruun,” which Bristol tells me is the name for the great moat beast.
If there is any update, I will do what I can to get it to you. Which brings up a modest request: the Circle have entirely bereft the Moat House of any horses. I might have been able to get this message to more timely if I had been able to dispatch Yanush on horseback. Would it be possible to send back with Yanush one or two of the steeds your allies borrowed so that we might have access to them for patrols, dispatches and the like?
I remain your humble servant,
Captain Lassadorn, Castillian of the Moat House of Darkmoor