Well.  I have now had a taste of Justice in the City of Nvym-Dar. I must
say, that it is swift and mostly fair.  After many hours of sitting in our
cells, which had floors of cold iron, we were interviewed by three
individuals of forbidding mien.  There was a woman, who was a priestess of
Ishtar, a fellow who was a Priest of Tyr, and the third fellow was an
Inquisitor from the Adventurers Guild.  They informed us that spells of
truth were woven into the walls of this room, and that any attempt to lie
would result in our being unable to speak.  Lying was considered to be an
admission of guilt.  Refusing to answer the questions put to us was
likewise considered to be an admission of guilt.  We were informed that we
were on trial for murder, as one of the guards had died of the wounds dealt
him in the fight.
     We were passing glad that Bob was too ill to testify, he is a
formidable warrior with spear and shield, and a fair adept of Earth, but
courtly speech and manners seem beyond him.
  We let merlaine do the talking for us, elves are as good with words as a
mountain folk is with an axe.  Merlaine skillfully answered all the
questions put to her, but managed to omit some of the more serious offenses
without actually lying about them.
	It fell out that the guards were not the folks who had kidnapped Xarna,
and that they had been told by their employer ( a member of House Xaltan)
that Xarna was a dangerous spy plotting the downfall of the House.  So, the
guards were absolved of any responsibility.
	The Lord of House Xaltan whose personal guards they were however, was held
solely responsible for the kidnapping of Xarna and the misuse of his
guards.  House Xaltan was ordered to pay the family of the deceased guard 5
years pay.  It as also decided that if the guards had not attacked us, we
would have freed Xarna and left without drawing weapons, so the death of
the guard was ruled self-defense.  We were much relieved at that.
     However, we did break several laws of the city..carrying illegal
weapons, casting magic and such.  The worst offense was breaking and
entering... for as odious as that apartment was, it was still private
property, and we did bash down the door to it.  So, we were fined 20 Gold
Shillings each ( I was fined 30, as I cast the portal spells and bashed
down the door) and told that our punishment was very lenient because this
was our first offense, and the Lord of House Xaltan whose guards these
were, had taken a sudden vacation and left for Thyatis on the evenings
tide, thereby managing to look very suspicious.
	So, at an hour before dawn, we found ourselves released, and set outside
the Halls of Justice.  Bob was still sick, and so we had to drag him back
to the Inn.  It was a very long walk, as we were all still wounded from the
fight, and exhausted from having spent the night in jail.
	Less than an hour after we arrived back at the Inn and collapsed
gratefully into our beds ( after I cast the counterspell on the still
active runestick lying on the room's floor) we heard what sounded like an
explosion.  We soon realized that this was the signal that the ice had
broken and begun to move.  The rest of the Inn roused itself and began
hurried preparations for either departure, or celebration.  We woke long
enough to realize we did not want to be awake, and so promptly fell back to
sleeping.

	In the morning, we found Kyse waiting for us in the common room.  He and
Xarna were most happy to see each other, and made a bit of a spectacle of
themselves.  We all retired back to our room with a huge tray of cold meats
and cheese and ale for breakfast.  Kyse told us that because of concerns
for Xarna's safety, she had been hired as a maid in the house Pharaneese.
There, she would be much harder to kidnap again.  Also, Kyse asked us if
there was anything we wanted or needed, he said he could not repay us
enough for returning Xarna, but he would at least make a start.
	We said that there was nothing we could think of.. so he said he was ready
to make good on his offer of information concerning Dolgenen.  He asked us
if we could be ready to travel in three days time and we said yes.  He
asked us if we had horses, and when we said no, he said horses would be
provided us...they would be ours, and not just on loan.  We thanked him
profusely, and he thanked us profusely, and then he departed to escort
Xarna to her new residence in House Pharaneese.   We on the other hand,
talked about how best to leave the city.
	It was decided that we would rent rooms at the Four Winds Inn for our last
days.  This we did without delay.  We however, kept our rooms at the Arrows
Flight as well.  I took up residence in the Four Winds and spent the whole
of the three days making runesticks, with but one brief excursion to buy
two great axes, one of which is silvered, and to replace my poor shattered
battle axe, and to acquire some of the rare metal impregnated inks for
drawing of certain runes.  I have no knowledge of how to use a great axe,
but perhaps I shall have some time to practice and teach myself the way of
this weapon as we travel.
	Each day, one or more of our party would walk from the Arrow's flight to
the Four Winds, carrying a bundle of stuff with them.  We did not want to
alert our watchers that we were preparing to move out, and so tried to
disguise our activity.  Merlaine kept up a daily watch on our shadows with
her crystal orbs, and informs us daily of what their disguise of the day
is.  Merlaine also spent a fair amount of gold from the party's general
fund to purchase many herbs of a curative nature.  Shali purchased many
other necessary items, such as rope, sleeping sacks, blankets,backpacks,
rations, hammers, spikes, torches, candles, oil stones for our weapons,
extra bow strings and much other  equipment of use on the trail.

	The day of our departure arrived.  With her orbs Merlaine spied out one of
our shadows in the Arrow's Flight.  So, wanting to keep up the pretense of
not leaving as long as possible.  We rented two horses from Korbo's, and
with much grumbling about having to haul two sick people up to the Temple,
we threw Bob and Brianna over the horses like so much grain, and headed in
the direction of the temple of Ishtar.  Of course, after we had gone a ways
in that direction, we made some turns down narrow ally ways and headed to
the Caravanassery where we were to meet with Kyse.  We threw tarps over Bob
and Brianna so it wouldn't look like we were dragging two bodies through
the city.
	Once at the caravanassary, we spied Kyse waiting for us with the promised
horses.  They are fine animals, six quarter horses and two pack horses.  We
shall be most glad of the pack horses as we have a pressing lot of stuff
with us.  While we packed the horses and donned our armour and weapons,
Shali returned the horses from Korbos.
	And then we were off.  Iceout seems to be the start of the merchanting
season here in Nvym-Dar, and so there were several other caravans setting
out this day, most of them large.  I watched them with a bit of fondness,
for  I have pleasant memories of when getting a job as a caravan guard was
something to be hoped for.  I have come very far, and by many harsh roads
since then.  I can only hope that the many young faces I see armouring up
around me as their caravans set off come as far as i do, though one would
hope their roads are a bit easier in the traveling.
	It was a magnificent day, clear and cold as we road out.  We quickly left
the main road and took smaller and smaller roads, until we were on a road
that obviously is only seldom traveled.  I flew my eagle as we rode.  We
made slow progress, for none of us has been in the saddle in months, and it
takes some time to settle into the rhythms of travel.
	Eventually we came to our destination, a large Inn, well hidden from the
narrow trail.  The name of this inn is the Stormy petrel.  I wondered how
they could get enough business to survive, being that you'd never find the
place if you did not know where it was.  But business there appeared to be,
as there were well over twenty other horses tied out front of the Inn.  We
tied our own to the post, and at Kyse's suggestion, left one of Shali's
hounds to watch the horses and our packs.
	The interior of the Inn was large, and crowded.  Many of the folks here
were openly wearing armour and sporting weapons such as sabers, scimitars
and cutlasses; and I doubt I have ever seen more daggers under one roof
except in a weapon vender's shop.  Eventually the person whom we were here
to meet came in.  She is a tall woman, and sported a pair of silvered
scimitars.  She wore leather armour and carried herself as if she commanded
the whole of the Inn.
	I quickly surmised that she is a smuggler, of no small repute it would
seem.  For as we watched, she organized groups of men to unload boats that
were even now pulling up on the beach below the cliffs on which the Inn is
nestled.  She directed other, better armed men, to stand guard over the
loading in case the guard should arrive.  Then, as the unloading proceeded,
she talked earnestly with several well dress people at a table opposite
ours... i imagine they are the buyers for whatever wares are being
unloaded.  Eventually, with all her duties seen to, she had time for us.
She walked directly over to our table and greeted Kyse, somewhat coldly.
She introduced herself as Marquessa, and asked what our business was and
told Kyse he had better have a good reason for bringing us.   Kyse told her
that her and us had much in common, namely a certain merchant house who had
tried to make us a commodity to be traded, and revenge.
	This Marquessa stared at us a long time then, and finally seemed to decide
something within herself, for she ordered that ale, quality ale, be brought
to our table.  Once the ale arrived she downed a pint and poured herself
another, all without saying a word to us or Kyse.
	Then she proceeded to tell us a tale.  A tale of a prosperous sheep
farming village, where sheep were raised, wool gathered and spun, and many
fine sweaters and carpets and such made from the  wool and then sold
downriver.  She told us how orcs came out of the woods one day, not a
raiding party of a dozen or so as sometimes occurs, but forty or more,
perhaps as many as seventy orcs came boiling out of the woods.  Those that
could wield weapons lifted them in defense of their village, but to no
avail, the orcs were too numerous.  But the orcs only slew men that lifted
weapons against them.  The women warriors they captured with nets, as well
as the many wives and daughters that had neither weapon nor skill.
	Marquessa told us how all the villagers were captured and rounded up by
the orcs, even the bodies of the slain defenders of the village were taken
as well as the body of the local priest.  The living were forced to march
for days back to the foul cave which was the orcs lair.  The villagers were
made to carry the bodies of their slain on this harsh journey.  At night
they were forced to watch as the orcs took several of the slain away and
carved them up for food.
	When the captive villagers arrived at the orcs cave, they were sure they
would be herded and slaughtered for food, but such was not to be.  Upon
arriving at the ghastly cave, the villagers were inspected by a human.  A
human who seemed to be in league with the orcs.  This human looked over
each captive thoroughly, selecting most of them.  Those that he did not
select were given to the orcs, and those that were selected had to watch as
the orcs tortured, and worse, until finally killing those that had been
given to them.  Those the orcs were given were mainly the old ones, or lame
or deaf ones.
	The others, those selected, were blindfolded and led through a maze of
caverns, of which the orcs cavern was but one.  At the end of these caverns
their blindfolds were removed and they looked out over a valley, and the
ruins of a small, ancient temple.
	As Marquessa described what was done to those people, herself included, in
that temple, the fine ale turned sour in my stomach.  I will not set down
in writing all that transpired, save to say that were animals treated
thusly, their keeper would be strung up by his thumbs and fed to his own
charges.
	I often times why Clangeddin, in his deep wisdom, allows humans to prosper
on this world as they do.  True, there are some worthy examples or virtue
and thoughtfulness amongst them from time to time, but on the whole, the
only reason I have found to suffer the humans, is as an excellent example
of how not to conduct ones self.
	Marquessa continued her tale.  She told of her escape from that temple of
horrors, and of being tracked through the night by huge hounds who spoke to
her, whispering vile things as she clutched a treetop out of their reach.
When the day broke, the speaking hounds vanished, and Marquessa continued
her flight into the woods.  To make a long tale shorter, she escaped.  She
made her way to Nvym-Dar, and took apprenticeship on a merchant vessel.
This vessel made regular crossings between Thyatis and the Northern
Reaches, and so it happened that she was being entertained, along with the
rest of the ships crew, by a prosperous merchant, who had just been made
much more prosperous by their arrival, when she spied a man she knew well,
a man she could never forget, because the last time she had seen him, he
had been selecting out which villagers would be taken to the temple and
which would be thrown to the orcs.  She did not attack him then and there,
which is probably what I would have done were I there, but as I have often
noted, Mountain Folk are a bit more direct than most humans.  She made
inquiries as to who he was, and found out that he was a lesser son of the
great merchant house Dolgenen.  Marquessa left the crew of that ship, and
spent two years on the seas in the company of freebooters and smugglers,
learning their craft.  Now she commands a crew of her own and she raids
merchant ships, most especially those of Dolgenen.  She fully intends to
harass  Dolgenen as much as she can in her life, which she conceives of as
being very short, as she knows Dolgenen is hunting her.
	Marquessa finished her tale, and silence was the meat and drink of our
gathering for a time.  Then she continued, and told us that she had a bit
of woodcraft, and that she had marked well how many leagues, and in which
direction the band of orcs with their captives had traveled.  She asked us
if we would like to know this information, but cautioned us that that
information was the reason Dolgenen had been trying to kill her these past
years, and why she picked the sea as her home, for it is vast, and easy to
lose ones self in, and much of it is beyond even the reach of Dolgenen.
	We had to laugh at that, and we told her that even now there were
assassins trying to kill us, and indeed, two of our party had been killed
by these assassins, whom we have reason to believe were sent by Dolgenen.
	There was silence for a while as we all set to our tankards of ale. Then,
as one, our group said we would very much like to know the location of
these caves, which lead to the temple.
	Marquessa gave them to us.  The orcs cavern is located 75 miles north,
north-west of the former town of cranmore.  Cranmore was 135 miles west of
the town of Deep River Run on the shores of Mirrir lake.  She warned us
that there would be little profit in this venture, and that vengeance would
be the most abundant coin.  We nodded our assent and said this would suit
us well.   Marquessa made us promise, that if we encountered this fellow,
whom she described to us, we would kill him in a manner such that he could
not be raised from the dead.  To this we agreed.  Then a strange look came
over her face, and she said that she had had a thought as to how we might
earn some coin from this.  She said the she knows the Necromancers Guild
would pay good gold for the intact head of one of the Dolgenens.
	As much as I hate the Dolgenens, I cannot honestly say I hate them enough
to do that to one of them.  Once, many years ago, our former companion
Finder had dealing with the Necromancer's Guild.  And he told me of the
library they keep.  It is not a library such as I would ever visit.  The
Necromancers collect the heads of beings who know things, or who might know
things..scholars, arch mages, politicians, any sort of person.  Then they
keep that person's head preserved for eternity, in a small niche, so that
they can ask it questions.  Finder told me had had seen corridor upon
corridor of these niches, each with its formerly living repository of
knowledge.  By his estimate, and he was good at such things, there had to
be well over five thousand heads in there.
	Without another word, Marquessa then got up and left our table.  And for
several more hours did we debate what we were doing, and how best to do it,
and weather the supplies we had purchased would be adequate, and how best
to travel to the location Marquessa mentioned.  The only decision we
reached that night was that rest would do us all good, so we retired to our
rooms to sleep and think on what we had heard, and what we had done, and I
to write these things down.
	I do not yet realize if my companions have any idea of the import of the
decision we made here tonight.  We shall march against one of the largest
Merchant Houses in the Northern Reaches, if not the largest, and if we
succeed in our mission, we shall hurt them, perhaps not badly, but hurt
them we shall.  They of course, shall come down upon us with all the power
at their disposal. If we survive their onslaught, we of course shall be
most annoyed at them, and strike at them again.  In the end, either we
shall be dead, which I see as likely, or House Dolgenen shall no longer
exist.   But for all that, I am happy in our decision, for now we are set
against them. We shall carry the fight to them and strike a blow, rather
than running away and hoping they do not notice us.  Even if they wash us
away like a shell with the tide, we shall have faced them.  If a battle is
in vain, with no hope of being won, but the cause is honorable, then the
warrior who chooses to fight that battle has no cause to fear when he meets
Clangeddin in the Halls of the Dead.
	 And so, with my heart in trim, and expectation of the coming battle
making me restless, I shall write no longer this night, but shall check my
weapons, armour and runesticks one more time.



																												By My Hand, This Sixth Day Of Abril,
                            The Year of Our Lady 540

                                     Drashak Khea Malari