From Malatac, Head mage and chief advisor to Clan Sessair
To Lord Arcane of Tower Arcane,
Caerdydd
Master,
I feel that I must inform you of what has transpired within the ranks of Clan Sessair within the last two months. First of all we have a new war leader, Keldon, who will advise our leader, Caracatus, on matters of war, and will train our soldiers as I will train the mages.
But now to more serious matters, a few of Clan Sessair have formed an adventuring group called the Shadowreavers, which include Keldon and myself. Out adventuring one day we came upon two Drow who have now joined our group. I believe that Drynnin wants to meet these two, so we will be bringing them to Tower Arcane within the next two weeks. Whilst there I would like to bring up the serious matter of Keryth Loneshadow, an Elf who has joined Clan Sessair whilst on a mission to avenge the death of his half brother Thirion Hawkmoon. I am sure that you are aware of Keryth's story but I will lay out the exact details again.
Our group was approached by a messenger from the Lord Protector of Southern Cymrja, who proclaimed a reward for any adventuring group who would brave the heartlands of werewolf territory to find their leader Jazrael, so that we could set up talks between the Lord Protector and Jazrael. During our travels through the forest we came upon an impenetrable wall of thick fog from which the unnatural howling of werewolves could be heard along with the crunching of the undergrowth, with our wolfsbane held aloft we ventured into the fog very slowly at first as we were not sure what effect the wolfsbane would have on the lycanthropes. Suddenly with a crash, the undergrowth around us erupted as nails flayed and teeth tore at us, I felt the hot putrid breath of one of the creatures upon me, and pushing the bunch of wolfsbane into the creatures face I ran for it shouting for the others to follow. Eventually the fog ended and we were in the clear, for some reason the lycanthropes refused to follow, and I clearly sensed that we were being toyed with. Counting our numbers we noticed that the Elf Keryth was not with us. Saying a prayer for the fallen, we decided to rest a while to regain our strength for the long journey ahead.
Continuing on our way I had an overwhelming feeling that we were being stalked, a quick decision was reached, so we hid and waited for our stalker, eventually a figure entered the circle of trees where we hid. It was Keryth, and with a sigh of relief we welcomed him back, however I noticed that although his clothes were torn his body held no wounds, my suspicions were high and with a cunning which would have embarrassed a fox I managed to get him to breathe in the aroma of the wolfsbane flowers, he didn't even flinch. Suspicions suspended for the moment we continued.
After a long hard battle with some undead, which almost wiped out our entire party, then running into some walking compost heaps, which would not stay down, we finally met an emissary of Jazrael who prompted us to follow, into the centre of werewolf activity. Surely we would not leave this place alive, or if we did, then we would howl at the moon and become one with the wolf every full moon.
Leaving our weapons outside, Thankfully I had lost all of my wolfsbane or I would not have got this far. we were frog-marched over to their leader and thrown to the floor, where we remained for the entire encounter. It was someway into these talks that a strange thing occurred, Keryth issued a long threatening growl at one of our guards, and was at once pulled from our party and forced to listen to the taunts of the werewolves as they attempted to seduce him to their ways. Looking up I could see the struggle that shook his body. he resisted with all his power and I thought that he would succeed. The straw that broke the camels back came when Jazrael ordered a prisoner to be slaughtered and devoured in front of us. Keryth's battle ended as the beast took control, he ripped into this poor human, as if he had been doing it for years, I almost threw up at the sight of the glistening entrails sliding down the throats of these disgusting creatures.
After the meal, talks were resumed, Llewelyn (your scribe) managed to get Jazrael to accept this offer of talks with the Lord Protector, but only if we could escape from the forest with our lives and with some gifts which we were to deliver to the Lord Protector. We promptly agreed. However Jazrael had one final condition, he proclaimed a hunt to which he gave us a head start. We ran for all that we were worth the sound of pursuit followed closely behind and at some point ahead of us. With a bit of luck we made it, and fell to the ground exhausted and wounded.
In a while Keryth returned, I managed to persuade the rest of the party not to kill him on sight, as I agreed with Keryth's story that he was not responsible for his actions, and anyway, how could we kill him, we had no silver, better to get him back to Sessair lands, where wolfsbane is plentiful and Caracatus has a silver sword.
From then on we kept a close eye on Keryth, surrounding his sleeping quarters with wolfsbane in the night, just in case, however nothing happened and we came to believe that this change was just a one off, we began to grow lapse in watching him. It wasn't until the moot that things really got rough.
On the first morning, returning from my usual early morning walk, with the healer Bosc, I noticed Keryth wandering in a daze, close to the edge of our camp. He was startled when he noticed we were watching him, and began acting nervously, keeping his hands hidden behind his back. Playing on his nervousness I tricked him so that I could look at his hands, they were covered in blood. Anger overcame me and I accused him of changing and slaughtering someone. He came up with this ludicrous tale of how he was set up by a member of our clan, dragged into the bushes where animal blood was smeared on his hands, I scoffed at this tale but did not push it, I let him believe that we believed he was telling the truth.
After this episode I tried to get in contact with you, but I was told by your less than helpful scribe that you were very busy, and should see Cullen Lochan instead. This I did, he told me to bring Keryth to him, so that he may test that my claims were true.
Getting Keryth to meet Cullen was easy as Keryth is part of our ritual circle, he suspected nothing. The meeting between the two went well, and whilst shaking hands Cullen was able to deduce that Keryth was indeed cursed with Lycanthropy, but as yet it had not fully established itself within him. Our only hope to contain this beast was to wrap his hands in bonds contaminated with wolfsbane, place something silver within these bonds and to circle his tent with wolfsbane. As the curse had not yet claimed the elf's soul, he would not be able to pass out from the circle.
During that evening I cast a sleep spell on Keryth, which allowed us to do all of the above. It worked. The next morning I retrieved my silver coin and undid his bonds, confused and dazed he walked aimlessly around that day and we are now very vigilant in our guarding of Keryth, I do believe that there is a cure and it is against the wishes of most on our council that I plead in favour of seeking out this cure and not destroying the elf.
As we are bringing the two Drow to Tower Arcane to meet Drynnin I would like the opportunity to ask you if you know of any way that we can cure Keryth as I am sure that he does not enjoy his transformation and wishes some way to be rid of it, but I feel that he will not admit to his predicament because he thinks that if he did so then Caracatus would surely have him killed. As yet he merely thinks that we suspect, but I saw what happened, And with Cullen Lochan's testimony we have the proof.
Also to bring up a last point, I am sure that you are aware that I have applied for the post of assistant to the head ritualist, Cullen Lochan, I would like to put this in writing to you, and would speak of it further when we meet. I would also like permission to stay with you at Tower Arcane for a few months, so that I may study and be ready for this post should I be successful.
Your apprentice.
MALATAC