My Dear Sister—There is only little yet to say of my last excursion. I last left you right at its conclusion, which is this:
In the cellar of the ruined fort, thoroughly shrouded in silk, our party found the nest of the massive spider queen and swarms of countless hatchlings. I know not if it was the cobwebs amplifying every vibration or my heightened senses after the previous incident, but the spiders’ shrieking seemed to reverberate in my bones as we untangled ourselves from the place and drove them forcefully from us. It was some time until we dealt with their remains and with the webbing besides. It may be that they have a use—ditto the building, whatever is left of it.
We spent another night in a safe lodging in the wode, having followed our previous trail that was needlessly meandering, and on the following morning the more interesting thing happened.
Upon arriving back to Sophia’s Rest we were greeted by news that a keep along the Northwest coast, a place already visited and thought to be safe, was besieged by a “shambling force”. None could say exactly what it was—a distant sighting by quarry workers with eyes unaccustomed to watching the horizon could produce only little detail—but the vague description seemed sufficient to my companions. It was then I learned of the province of Crowspire, and its recent assault by hordes of undead under the command of a vampire.
Now this had my attention, and my companions disappointed me by having little information for certain. Crowspire’s plight has been known to them for some time and they have been in the habit of sending provisions and weaponry to aid the effort against the invaders, yet they could make no guesses as to the cause of the invasion itself; nor had they attempted to discover one. They assumed these undead must be the vampire’s thralls—as one monstrous thing must follow another?—and that this vampire must seek destruction for its own sake. The Doctor and I took exception to this assumption of malicious mindlessness, though understood it was not intended as a personal slight. Still, we felt it right to question such quick judgement and such readiness to take to arms before it is known for certain what—or who—lies at the heart of the matter.
Is this not an astonishing discovery, sister? An unbeating heart whose pulse is felt across the land? I shall seek to discover much more. Keep my heart in the mean time, as I am
ever your own,
Tristan
