My Dearest sister,
By now tales may have reached Highvale of the tragedy that
struck during the very heart of the joyous occasion that drew me to this place.
Please tell the family that I am safe, in good health and high spirits. I am
writing to provide a true recounting of the events as I lived them so that you
may know what truly befell our beloved cousin Hort.
I had arrived safely to the scarred city of Ravenskeep on
the eve of the wedding. I entered the
city with a heart full of cheer, eager to renew the acquaintance of our cousins
the Leddys and celebrate such a joyous occasion. As you now know this happy atmosphere was not
to last as, at the very height of the merriment, a nightmare erupted from
beneath our feet. Man-sized ant creatures burst forth and the massacre began as
they leapt upon the wedding party. The next few minutes are a violent blur as
all of us fought for our lives with little more than tableware and our fists as
weapons. It was a costly fight but we drove the beasts off. Yet when the dust
settled we found to our horror that the beasts had taken dear Hort’s head and
his sweet bride was stricken by some unknown malady. So brutal was the assault by
these mandibled-terrors that many of the guests and guards lay slain, whileothers
had disappeared. In the aftermath those
of us who had faired best through the assault were asked by the parents of the
betrothed to chase down the beasts and if possible recover Hort’s head so that
he might at least rest eternally in dignity.
It would be revealed later that Lord Whitegrass had ulterior-motives for
our pursuit into the old Vintner estate, but the promise of coin and vengeance persuaded
many and upon retrieving what arms we possessed we stalked our pray into the
abandoned Vineyard not knowing that this would be the true beginning of our
nightmare.
The Vineyard, if this overgrown tangle of vines still
deserved such a title, had long been abandoned by the Vintner line and only the
odd hermit Lupin Vintner had spent any time on the property back in his distant
youth. With his assistance and the keen eyes among our party who spotted the
trail of blood which had led us to this place we ventured deeper into the
ominous overgrowth. It was in our course
of pursuit that we discovered that the very land itself opposed our presence
when a strange and deadly plant assaulted us with vines that struck like coiled
serpents and pollen which stole the breath from our bodies. Only through a desperate
combined effort of arms were we able to strike down the ferocious flora of that
doomed place. Shaken but true of purpose we drove forward finally reaching a
clearing where the Vintner homestead, now in ruins, stood. Little of the once
bucolic home remained and those in our company for whom the other-worldly veil
is thin found the scene all the more disquieting. As the home looked little
more than a ruin we chose to first investigate the large barn which dominated
the property. This barn and the deeds committed
therein shall haunt me, dear sister, for the rest of my days.
I shall spare you much of the details of this place as truly
I wish not to summon them to my own memory. In our hubris we stumbled in to a
web beyond our understanding and many of us paid a great price some with their lives,
others their souls. Long ago a vile act of pride-fueled rage bound a tormented
spirit to that barn. A spirit so in pain that our very presence enraged the
being to lash at us with all manner of implements at its disposal. That was
until she tasted the lineage of Lupin who bore the il-lfate of sharing blood-ties
with her murderer. At the hint of even such a diluted revenge the spirit’s rage
was focused on a single point. Her will overpowered a number of us and so
ensorcelled I was party to an act so heinous I fear no penance shall wash away
the blood from my hands. The spirit’s bloodlust sated by the act of sacrifice
we survived her tempest were able to make our escape from the cursed barn.
I owe a great debt to Lucinda Greywolf for it was she In
those moments after leaving the barn that lifted me up. Lucinda is a woman of
mystic reputation who soothed my ravaged mind, and told me of the power of the
otherworldly to cloud our mind and steal our actions. She helped me to
acknowledge that I was harmed by the spirit’s actions just as Lupin yet I was
burdened to live with the scar. Her words were shallow comfort but they were
enough to allow me to push forward and focus on the task ahead; a task which led
us to yet another great horror.
The remaining posse, demoralized by the events in the barn,
chose to venture into the cave where the Vintners aged their wine. Here we
found great vats of the Brandolyn Red. Those who sampled it, in fact those who
sampled even the fruit off the vine, found themselves infused with strange
magic. I myself along with a few others found it prudent not to partake, especially
after our encounter with the spirit in the barn. Of far greater note it was
within this cave that we discovered a great mound and entrance to the Ant-men’s
tunnels. Driven to finish the task and
leave that foul place we pursued our prey into their very home. Torch in hand
we crept through the claustrophobic tunnels and cut down several more of the
beasts before stumbling upon a chilling sight. An antechamber stuffed like a
larder with mucus filled pods. To the shock of all we discovered that those
within were still alive. We freed those trapped souls and they eagerly took up
arms to avenge themselves against the beasts that would have made them supper
or worse.
We were soon glad to have their company as the very next
chamber revealed itself to be the lair of the beasts’ queen. It seemed that
someone had done our work for us this day as the great creature lay dead upon
the packed earth its head removed, and nowhere to be seen. What could be seen
were her angry servants, as well as strange animated gourd puppets which burst
into swarms of seeds upon their destruction. The mystery of the missing head
was short lived however as the true menace behind the wedding massacre revealed
itself. Within the tunnels we discovered Frezzo Leddy our kin was now in league
with a grotesque abomination whose physical manifestation was an amalgam of
faces and heads ranging from Ol’ Gage Vintner, to Hort, and the Ant Queen
herself. In the fight that followed we were forced to slay Frezzo, while the
corrupting power of the abomination managed to dominate the minds of our
companions turning them against us. Even sweet Lucinda fell victim to its sway,
ending the life of one of our companions her eyes blank and jaw slack as she delivered
the fatal blow. Ultimately we were once more victorious if fewer for our
efforts. We agreed there was a need to
clear the rest of the tunnels and estate to be certain the nightmare had truly come
to an end.
It was during this time that the truth of the fall of
Vintner was made clear, and why Lord Whitegrass had shown such interest in the
location of Brandolyn bones. In the VInter Crypt a some of our company encountered
her spirit where they took her remains to be united with her true love, a love whose
identity was made clear by his letters found hidden in the Vintner’s home. The tainted vineyard and our own greed
claimed the lives of even more of our companions, and we discovered the remains
of a man in service to the whitegrass family, as well as a friend of Frezzo
whom he had callously murdered and left to rot in the pond upon the Vineyard’s
grounds.
Upon returning we discretely revealed our discoveries to those
involved and left the burial of the dead to less weary souls. Both the Leddy
and Whitegrass families were generous with their gratitude though I am not
certain any price will restore that which I left behind in the vineyard. I tell
you all this dear sister not to boast of my deeds; rather quite the opposite. I
am telling you so that you may know the truth, and so that you may understand
why in the name of St. Ras I shall dedicate my life to the protection of the peasantry
those simple folk unprepared for the horrors I now know this world visits upon
them. As penance for my weakness I shall not return home to my cherished
Highvale until I have made this world, which is home to us all, a safer place. Please
convey my love and deep regrets to the family.
Love,
Squire Landis Giltwhistle
