DFE 1P - Mayor of Stormreach to the Paw - Informal Report & Request for Training

Dated:  2nd day after PC return to Stormreach

Durus:

We can follow this up with a formal request, but I thought it politic to approach you informally first. My granddaughter and grandson are, as you know, assigned to our first real expedition of exploration into the Xen’drik. I hope, with you, that this renders the Dragon’s People independent of the wildcat prospectors who currently control all information we have about our rather interesting continent-sized sinkhole.

My granddaughter Jaicinteleq has briefly  informed me of the events of their ‘milk run’ trip to Eberron’s Rest. So much for the idea that anything going to Xen’drik will ever be a milk run. Casualties in Eberron’s Rest are evidently nearly 50% - as a result of an attack by natives wearing 3’ tall wooden masks and armed with stone knives and arrowheads! I assume you will be ordering replacements there from the 3rd Regiment. It would be desirable for these replacements to be ready to march when the First Expedition (as I am calling it) departs; the two can support one another en route.

The dangers of the Xen’drik now made obvious mean protecting our expedition is even more urgent than we previously thought. Jaicinteleq also described some things rather independently important which I will get to in a moment.

Of course, as Protectress of the Xen’drik, responsibility for the First Expedition technically falls to me. The formal public stance that I am responsible for the Xen’drik continues to be useful to you, and probably will until we know for certain exactly what polities and powers exist there;  any diplomatic or military faux pas can be blamed on me, and you or Kalaet, who seems to be the lead on interest in Xen’drik,  can then take control whenever you decide. Meanwhile though, I actually have to exercise those duties. What was a formality abruptly became a hard reality with the arrival of the Ghost Centaur delegation and their demand for protection from what appear to be (and I emphasize ‘appear’ – we are guessing, from data provided by a herd of savage wild centaurs with neither political nor magical sophistication) Anghella. I know some elements of your War Plans section have gone quite mad laying on contingencies to fight a major incursion by YHWH (they go to pubs where my people clean up, and they yap a bit too freely after a pint, some of them – might want to have Himself do some quiet counterintelligence in that arena). Please restrain them.

First, as long as I hold the title, I, not your G3,  will plan any such actions, and request military, logistic and diplomatic support directly through you, as you and I have done for years.

Second, I am far from convinced that the conclusion which your G2 has reached that this is Anghella official action is correct. It may be. But the evidence is far too scanty to justify action yet. Why YHWH would make such an incursion, and then restrain it entirely to eating wild centaurs for six months or so is a question one ought to ask before skying off into the wild green hell yonder in Xen’drik with a major military force. And why would He take such action when a large portion of His forces are suddenly engaged in Aerth? And, apparently, elsewhere in the Universe?

Third, this sinkhole is a green hell. Jaicinder described for me some of the interaction they had with ordinary plants. To make short work of it, everything down there either tries to kill you or is growing up with that aim firmly in mind. Ordinary grazing fodder plants have specialized grazers, others eating of the plant are likely to die trying. Jaicinteleq described a ‘catoid’ I would not care to meet even with my massarai in attendance en masse. And the biological relationships are very complicated. Worse, this bloodthirsty life is very dense. Somehow the plants thrive in huge abundance (and size) and evidently grow through the dark season. The First Expedition is going to have to be very careful. Native contacts available to us at this time are minimal.

Therefore, I suggest that my response to the Ghost Centaur request be to send the First Expedition with them to their home, strictly to evaluate the threat  - with the Ghost Centaurs clearly understanding the same. This will provide the Expedition with knowledgeable guides highly motivated to see it safely there, and back. Something we otherwise lack and are in no position to get as of yet. We know absolutely nothing about polities in the Xen’drik (beyond a vast farrago of stories and myths, most of which probably have some basis in fact, but Eberron only knows how far back in time and remote in relation to reality that basis is). But it is large, and rich enough to support many empires. Since helping the Ghost Centaurs has potential consequences both diplomatic and military, I inform you so that you may direct otherwise if you see fit.

Which brings me to the first point. The Expedition has some psionic support, but only from an Outsider – a hireling Illyr here by happenstance. Yes, it’s the one who brought Lord Katanavash down on our heads. Lairya, how embarrassing for Riedra – a shipful of barbarians with impossible beards just ripped enough gold from Durat Tal Qat’s piers to maintain Dar Qat for half a year – and  in broad daylight too – which  by the way is exactly what I think the small fleet was fitting out to do, take support to Dar Qat. Wherever it is on the Xen’drik coast.

By the by, I don’t know what else the Vikings hauled off, but it was not gold that had Katanavash in a rage – it was something else. I”ve never seen him apoplectic. You know how serene they are even when they should be raging, but Katanavash was in full throat over this. I’ve reserved the first right to buy any of the treasures the Vikings sell – and they plan to sell everything but jewels and gold – and hope that way to both find out exactly what Riedra thinks is so important, and avoid either a diplomatic rift, or even war, or having to change Stormreach’s ancient policy of ‘legal bottoms make legal goods’. If we do identify the object of interest, I will be asking Kalaet and his Institute for fast help to analyze it before we buy it and turn it over to Katanavash (at a profit, I promise you).

At any rate, if the Riedrans are interested in the Illyr, who hired the Vikings to bring him here, and boasts everywhere that he actually scouted out Durat Tal Qat himself for their raid – he was inordinately pleased with himself over that, by the by – then it would be wise to have further psi protection for the Expedition. We do not know where Dar Qat is, and the Riedrans may be able to project power into the Xen’drik and seek revenge on the Illyr. You know they will if they can. I have my own people watching the young idiot, and your French Orcs too. I request a nullpsi Mentor to accompany the expedition. My family (not the Wilks side, Durus!) happens to have rather consistent strong nullpsi potential, but since, as you know, very few Chla Nachran are positive Psiarchs, we have never developed our own equivalent of the White Lodge or your Combine inter-House Psiarch’s Guild. I would like the Mentor to accompany the Expedition and train my granddaughter and grandson so they can shield the Expedition in the longer term. I hope the Paw will indulge me with a very competent, high-level nullpsi Mentor. We will do our best to keep him alive…but no promises.

On to the last two issues.

It seems Eberron’s Rest would have been completely overwhelmed were it not for the purely fortuitous presence of a wildcat expedition. When it was licensed, we assumed they were shard/relic hunting, and they said nothing to the contrary, but on reviewing their application, they did not say so, either. Nine Arrivees. All Jewish, according to Jaicinder. One Aesiran Jew, one of their preachers, from somewhere in Talonne. That’s it. Ten. Only. They were surprised when the natives burst in, and Jaicinder tells me that they yet responded instantly – with weapons that are very clearly at least 20th century Aerth make. Automatic firearms. The bodies were carried off by the invaders, but Jaicinder estimates that there were about 400 invaders, and that at least 100 and probably closer to 150/200 of them died overwhelming these Arrivees. The natives finally overwhelmed them by sheer numbers and proximity at time of contact, butchered nine, and left one impaled and nailed to a wagon, having to support herself on her nailed hands in order to keep from having the impalement slide through her intestines clear up to her neck…which she did. I’d like to meet the girl. Name’s Rachel something or other. Only other identification I have is the expedition leader, a Lieutenant Colonel Ayalon. It appears the Arrivees are actually a military unit from some Aerth nation. Who arrive together and intact as a unit….

I bother you with all this because the Arrivee wagons were carefully searched. There are no preparations for preserving Shards, nor anything which would be helpful in bringing back relics safely – packing material, boxes, so forth. Only one wagon appeared to be available for cargo, and it was fitted out with a single flat pedestal mount in its center, and rather impressive tiedown straps. And armored. Heavily. It appears to Jaicinder that the expedition was looking for something very, very specific. But the survivor, whose name in Rachel, is not discussing that –not that she’s been in ideal shape to do so. The Arrivees Arrived AFTER your victory over YHWH. Please tell me what, if anything, that means. I would like to know. I suggest this might be something Himself should be interested in.

Lastly, we both know that at least some of the Five Nations are cheating on your command to stay out of the Xen’drik. Very likely the violations are simple wildcatting expeditions, but I have instructed Jaicinteleq and Jaicinder to watch for signs of this most assiduously.

Your obd’t Svt,

Jaycinthe [Signature]

Jaycinthe Wilks

Mayoress of Stormreach etc etc etc….