First letter -

Greetings Uncle Max,

It was delightful to hear from you. As you are aware, I am working toward Journeyman status within the Guild. I have teamed up with some of my cousins. I am sure you will hear from them as well.

The Guild training is great! I really enjoy the free-form learning. The biggest frustration is not having access to the central library. Fortunately, I am able to access many of the outlying libraries. I find everything to be so fascinating. There is such a different perspective than proper Ardanian education. Perhaps I should concentrate on other studies a bit more, but my curiosity has always managed to get the better of me.

I mentioned that I had teamed up with a few cousins. I hope you remember Steven, he prefers to be called Blackhawk. He has definitely developed a talent with the Rapier. He can be a bit stiff at times, but he certainly pursues each task with vigor and determination. I am sure some of the menial tasks grate on him, but to his credit, he still does them without excess grumbling. You probably remember McGyver as well. I always thought he was clever. I haven't really figured out what he is studying, but it will be good to have him with us. The other cousin we currently have is Raven. It really is a shame that I never had a chance to really meet her father. She seems saddened and is leaving to avoid being married off. I can't say that I blame her. She is also fairly quiet. Hopefully, she will open up with us soon.

Anyway, once we have finished our training we will be heading for the Isles. Perhaps we will have an opportunity to meet with you once we arrive. I was hoping you could offer a few pointers for us.

If you have time, would you please offer advice on what the current political structure is and how we can integrate with it? I would like to identify who our potential enemies are as well as try to establish some strong friendships. Perhaps I have grown too paranoid in Ardania, but it seems that befriending a strong lord would be useful.

I am sure that we would also be interested in any ideas you might have for us to acquire a little experience. We aren't looking to strike it rich right away, but we could probably use a little practical application of the skills we are building as well as a confidence builder of sorts. Particularly after the voyage, where we won't have instructors jumping at us from the shadows at all hours.

I do hope that your current expedition is going well. I am sure the stories will be exciting. Once again, thank you for your letter, and any advice you can offer would be most appreciated.

Stephen

Second letter (After the Dark Circle)

Greetings and Salutations Uncle Max, I simply felt the need to regale you with stories about your nephews and nieces. Please, do not feel obligated to respond. Particularly with the long wait for correspondence. It is entirely possible that we will be in Bliss before a letter would arrive at Seagate.

I am sure that you keep up with Guild affairs whenever possible. However, in the event that you have been out of touch for an extended period of time, I will give you a brief report on recent events near Seagate.

Shortly into our second year, reports began to surface of the rising of the dead to the South. This blasted influence began to increase in an ever growing circle. Villages and towns towards the periphery of the circle would fall, the ranks of the undead would swell, and the circle would increase in size. Initially, it seemed that nothing would survive the onslaught, but as the circle grew, the Guild began to receive reports from brave souls that not the entire landscape had been ravaged. The majority of the undead were concentrated in a narrow ring. As a community would be reached, the undead would swarm to that area and engulf it. Then, after it fell, the undead would disperse back into a ring. Obviously, even a narrow ring of undead, several miles in circumference, is a major concern.

As the ring neared Seagate, the Guild and the Duke of Carzala put together a plan to deal with the assault. I don't know all the specifics, but the gist of it was to force the undead into a trap by creating a single, path of least resistance. Namely, across the SouthWest bridge into Seagate, towards the Cathedral. Every other path was reinforced or destroyed to make it too difficult to traverse. As I am sure you can guess, the bulk of the Clergy and Paladins were to be staged at the Cathedral to cleanse the fount of Evil after it crossed the bridge. Each class of Guild Apprentices was chosen to perform a specific part of this trap. The role of the second years (our class) was to defend the bridge long enough to compress the undead forces into a compact, easier to destroy group. I must admit that I was quite impressed with the scope of the planning for this engagement. Certainly, some of the finest military minds were working on it, but I don't think you ever truly appreciate the amount of planning until you are involved in this scale of combat.

Anyway, our class was broken into three groups (White squad, Blue squad & Red squad) to defend the major access points to the bridge. All of the Foxes ended up assigned to Red squad, along with a few of the other apprentices. Further, we were chosen to guard the avenue directly in front of the bridge. White squad was assigned to guard to the West and Blue squad was assigned the East. As we all fell back, Red squad was to make sure that we kept the way clear until White & Blue had time to cross the bridge. We had enough time that MacGyver, Blackhawk and Hardblood devised a clever deadfall to impede the undead as we fell back past the park. In all, we were nervous, but confident that we could fulfill our duties.

Unfortunately, everything did not go exactly as planned. The Undead host sent a number of advance scouts that managed to take our couriers by surprise. All but one fell before moving. The remaining courier managed to streak off to warn us. Unfortunately, her horse ended up expiring and she managed to make it to us minutes before the mass of Undead arrived. I think we would have been doomed by the wraith, or wight, or whatever, that pursued her if it wasn't for the assault of Fizzgig. He is one mean character when he gets a bit riled up. I'm still not sure if we impressed him, but he hasn't shown up to chew us out. That should be a good sign. Anyway, the courier that made it to our position checked with Bishop Alistair, he was stationed at the bridge to advise us and provide last ditch support so we could fall back, to see what she should do next. Without her horse, there was almost no chance of making it to any other positions, so she was ordered to fall in with us. She was pretty spooked and kept trying to tell us of the horrors that were accompanying the skeletons and zombies that we were expecting. I must admit, if we had truly understood what she was referring to, I am not sure we would have been as confident as we were.

So, Fizzgig dispatched the big nasty that pursued the courier, her name is Mira, and then returned to his position to look for other nasties. Things got eerie. Everything became quiet, very quiet. Toward the end of our vision, we could just make out the dim mass of skeletons advancing. Mira suddenly stepped out and invoked her gods. The skeletons turned and ran. For a moment, we were shocked. This burly barbarian woman is also some sort of priestess! Then we all got into an argument. Apparently, Mira did not know the plan was to draw the army down the avenue. We managed to get that straightened out before the next wave approached. The skeletons fell upon our front line and were quickly dispatched. We fell back a bit and waited for the next wave. They weren't long in coming. We were still a bit unorganized and left a gap in our defenses. Fortunately, we managed to dispatch them all before we were overrun. It was truly amazing! One of the other apprentices, a brassy, charismatic lass named Morgan, stepped forward and pulverized one skeleton. She hit it so hard, that a nearby skeleton was hit by the skull. It too collapsed. I'm not sure if she has some sort of hatred for the undead, if she was inspired by my singing, or what. But, she dispatched those two skeletons with such ferocity that we had time to fall back and plug our defensive line. After that, the skeletons began to come in a single horde. We would destroy a few and then fall back. Our orders were to hold the avenue as long as possible. We were doing quite well. Our front line had barely taken any injuries and those of us in the secondary position did whatever we could. One of us was lobbing holy water vials, I was singing and the entire time we were falling back to our position to release the deadfall. The biggest concern was that we could see the ranks of Zombies advancing.

That was when the signal to fall back to the bridge came. We weren't ready for it. It seemed as if we had barely gotten going. Apparently, the Blue or White squad was forced to fall back. This was a tricky time for us. We weren't quite positioned to drop the deadfall, and we were poorly positioned to fall back without leaving someone vulnerable. Nevertheless, we pulled it off without an injury! As soon as everyone was clear, one of the other apprentices, Ian, used a bit of magic to drop the deadfall. It was glorious! The log dropped and took out two whole ranks of skeletons. We had to dispatch a few that hadn't been caught by the deadfall. Raven did something with the trees in the park to make sure we had time to guard the other squads as they fell back across the river. White squad made it down and crossed without incident. Apparently, the undead had begun to mass in their area when the signal came. Blue squad, however, was sorely pressed. Only two of their members made it back to the bridge. Apparently, the Archbishop discovered their troubles and sounded the signal himself.

As we fell back across the bridge, we could begin to appreciate some of the difficulties in the battle around us. From our position, we could see an 18 foot demon assaulting one of the magical barriers. We fell back to the Cathedral and passed the ranks of Clergy and Paladins waiting to take on the remaining monstrosities. It was an awe inspiring sight. I continued singing as long as I could to help fortify those around us, but I think it helped benefit the remaining apprentices more than anyone else. At least I didn't see anyone flee in abject terror.

After the battle, we were able to find out some of what had happened. Because most of the couriers were slain, many of our forces were not forewarned. All the third year apprentices were slain. In turn, Blue squad was not warned. They knew something was going wrong when several of them passed out. The two that managed to escape did so with grievous injuries. The good news is that the battle was won! The Dark Circle has been sorely damaged and the Duke is pressing inward to find the source of the undead. The Fox family members, with the assistance of our friends, managed to destroy nearly fifty skeletons. I hope our performance would do you proud. We are certainly basking in our own glory. It is a shame that so many others were slain. I suppose that is one of the harsh realities of war. It is also something that we will need to acknowledge since we are choosing to become Adventurers.

Well, I just wanted to update you on our status and let you know that we have not done anything to disgrace the family yet. I expect that you will receive this at some point in our third year, so look for us in Bliss fairly soon.

Your nephew, Stephen Fox