Letter from Alaric, Lord Mayor of Rinburg

Received January 14th, in Champimont

Robin and Company,

I have taken the liberty of copying this missive from Lord Mayor Alaric, in the hopes it will aid and guide your decisions and prospects.

To All Good Souls,

I, Alaric, Lord Mayor of Rinburg, beg those with might in arms or the blessings of the gods for assistance. Our situation is worsening by the day and our messages to Fellburn, Wisford, Embry, and Veltor have not borne fruit.

Lake Rin is inhabited by a vicious eel, two dozen feet long at least, and rotting it seems. No traffic can cross the lake, and which we can manage, but we fear it is growing. The first day, January 6th, the reports seemed to indicate it was no bigger than ten feet. We lost some good people, tragically, but we felt luckily that nothing worse had emerged, like in Eftly or Fellburn. By the 10th, the lake traffic had stopped, and we had erected defenses in the shallows of the Aurbonne, just upriver of Lake Rin, and on the Enst, near the city, where the ferries usually cross. The beast seemed uninterested in leaving the lake. On the 13th however, the beast probed our defenses on the Enst, and the guards caught glimpses of a twenty-foot long beast, clogging the water with rot and stink, with swarms of smaller creatures swimming around it. It had doubled in size in a week.

Our guards caught some of these smaller creatures who seemed to be the eels we catch for our meals, just in an unnatural frenzy. At the urging of Corrine Morphokamia, the wizard, our best and brightest led an attack. Using Corrine’s magic to breathe in the water, they followed the beast into the depths. Celeste, a skilled warrior, and her companions Jehan, Lucien, and Bastien went, along with Eneko, a lizardfolk. Many hours later, we found Corrine unconscious on the shore. Her companions, the best of our fair city, appear to be lost forever to the depths. As many feared, counting on the trickery of a wizard did not work, and we do not know if Corrine will awaken. We deeply mourn the loss of Celeste, our brightest citizen, honored of the Mother, and her companions. We fear for their souls, if their bodies cannot be recovered.

We fear the beast will only grow, until it cannot be defeated.

We beg all who can to come to our aid.

Lord Alaric, Lord Mayor of Rinburg
January 14th, 7 Robert I