GM note

Square brackets are editorial additions to explain things that might not make sense to the players or the PCs, or to clarify details about the way that deepfolk write.

Ritualistic declarations of rage or honour are presented in round brackets. In the original letter these appear to have been written in a different colour, possibly due to having been carefully written using blood.

The letter

[Date]: 79th day of the year 1012

Wrathchild!

Vengeance until the sands of time lay waste to all of existence!

We have learnt that our kinfolk beneath the Great Island have made an obscene connection with the beasts who walk beneath the sun (may they be cursed to eternity). They have foolishly revealed the secrets of our magic to the beasts (may their soulless bodies be crushed in the depths of the ocean), and now work together on some fool’s errand.

No compact with the beasts (may their cities lie in ruin beneath our wrath) has ever been tried before, and I do not believe it can come to any good end. They are a jinx upon the earth and always have been, for all above and below the line of day [Deepfolk word for the surface of the earth].  We should not work with them; we should smash their bones and scatter them in the earth as we would our own heretics. Nonetheless, our kinfolk on the Great Island work with the beasts (may the marrow of their bones feed the vilest worms of the earth) to some secret end they do not share with us.

Though we cannot know their plan, word has reached us from spies (whose self-sacrifice was valiant and worthy!) that they seek seven ancient items for some purpose. These items:

  • Fragment of a fallen moon [the pictogram reads as a ball that circles the world we live on, but you can make no sense of it] (location unknown)
  • Rib of the first of the beasts (our kinfolk have this already)
  • Eye of a dead god
  • Fragments of a dragon egg (this must be on Kaen where the lizard rules!)
  • The ghost of the first beastchild (may all their foul progeny be born with open fists) (location unknown)
  • A fragment of death’s shadow (location unknown)
  • The embers of the beasts’ first fire (may they all perish in fire!) (it is rumoured they seek this in Gon)

Does not the third of these artifacts sound familiar to you? Is it not what our ancestors (may their souls rest forever in a world yet untainted by the beasts) uncovered and buried again in the Small Sea. If we have this thing then we can stand between our kinfolk on the Great Island and their plans! Our spies learnt that whatever this secret plan is, it hinges on a deadline connected to the circling of the stars, and in particular the Seven Children of Rage, and if they do not obtain the artifacts within the next year they will be forced to wait 1000 years for the next alignment of the Children of Rage. So it is that, should we obtain this artifact soon, they will be forced to reveal their plans to us, and welcome us into their conspiracy.

So! I command you to dig up this Eye that has been buried, being cautious of its powers and risks, and bring it back to me. Take a small but powerful force to guard the camp, lest any beasts (may their soulless bodies never find ease) stumble upon you. Our lives here have been secret from the beasts for generations (may they know no more generations after this, filthy wretches!), and though this mission is pressing, I do not wish our presence under this land to become known to them, so be merciless in your defense of our secrets.

Make haste, and secure this thing before our kinfolk and their beast allies (rot in the earth, oh filth!) learn of its location.

Do not fail me, Wrathchild!

[Marked with a seal in blood, the icon of the Poison Eye clan]