Mail From Home
Dec. 17th, 2001 03:34 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ralphmelton.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ralph_dndA letter from Brion finally catches up to Larissa at the end of the party's stay in Duvik's Pass:
My dear Larissa,
The blessings of Pelor upon you and your companions. May you walk always in the Light.
Even since your departure, the lion's share of the news in Shepford has been to do with the ratkin. The ratkin, it seems, are not mere vermin, but also have many gifts to share with us. They are quick and nimble with their hands, and they seem to learn with prodigious speed. Several of them seem already to have mastered the use of bows--they have been hunting vermin in our fields with such efficiency that we may have a much-improved harvest this year. And some of them have been taught weaving and lacemaking, again with rare skill.
Nearly all of them have attained some mastery of our tongue--far better mastery than this old priest can manage of theirs. My vocabulary is limited to "food" and "good" and a few more words, and Tobin laughs at the clumsiness of my tongue. I do recognize the word they use for you and the others who went down beneath the tavern--its translation would be "Foodbringer", and it is spoken always with terms of great reverence.
I see that I had not previously mentioned Tobin--Tobin is a young rat-kin who has come to live with me. "Tobin" is not his real name; it is merely my poor approximation of the quick gabble of syllables that forms his own name. It is my hope that he may learn enough from me to be able to spread the love of Pelor among his own people.
It is a matter of great concern for me that the rat-kin are dazzled in the sunlight--does this mean that they have been rejected by Pelor? Or that they have rejected Him? For now, I have taken the position that their excessive sensitivity to the sunlight means that they are especially sensitive to the love of Pelor, and will be especially responsive to his mercies. This is supported by the fact that they seem eager to come out of the ground, and speak with tones of fear when they point down beneath the surface.
Jehan's tavern is being rebuilt with the rat-kin's silver. It should be much nicer than before.
On more personal matters: two days after you left, your mother entered a frenzy of guilt and self-recrimination about the unspeakable dangers into which you were going, about how she should never have allowed you to leave home, and about how it was imperative that you be brought back home on the instant and stay at home until you were properly wed. This does not count as news, per se--certainly, it was only a surprise to your father or to me in that we had been expecting this to happen slightly earlier. I know something of your difficulties, my dear Larissa, and I have confidence that you made the right decision. You will make us all proud.
How proceed matters in Duvik's Pass? I have heard a third-hand rumor that another heretofore unknown set of tunnels was found down south in Stross--have you heard anything about this in a bigger town?
It is my fond hope that I will soon hear of stories of your exploits told and retold in the tavern.
May the light of Pelor light every path you walk and warm every heart you meet.
Brion
My dear Larissa,
The blessings of Pelor upon you and your companions. May you walk always in the Light.
Even since your departure, the lion's share of the news in Shepford has been to do with the ratkin. The ratkin, it seems, are not mere vermin, but also have many gifts to share with us. They are quick and nimble with their hands, and they seem to learn with prodigious speed. Several of them seem already to have mastered the use of bows--they have been hunting vermin in our fields with such efficiency that we may have a much-improved harvest this year. And some of them have been taught weaving and lacemaking, again with rare skill.
Nearly all of them have attained some mastery of our tongue--far better mastery than this old priest can manage of theirs. My vocabulary is limited to "food" and "good" and a few more words, and Tobin laughs at the clumsiness of my tongue. I do recognize the word they use for you and the others who went down beneath the tavern--its translation would be "Foodbringer", and it is spoken always with terms of great reverence.
I see that I had not previously mentioned Tobin--Tobin is a young rat-kin who has come to live with me. "Tobin" is not his real name; it is merely my poor approximation of the quick gabble of syllables that forms his own name. It is my hope that he may learn enough from me to be able to spread the love of Pelor among his own people.
It is a matter of great concern for me that the rat-kin are dazzled in the sunlight--does this mean that they have been rejected by Pelor? Or that they have rejected Him? For now, I have taken the position that their excessive sensitivity to the sunlight means that they are especially sensitive to the love of Pelor, and will be especially responsive to his mercies. This is supported by the fact that they seem eager to come out of the ground, and speak with tones of fear when they point down beneath the surface.
Jehan's tavern is being rebuilt with the rat-kin's silver. It should be much nicer than before.
On more personal matters: two days after you left, your mother entered a frenzy of guilt and self-recrimination about the unspeakable dangers into which you were going, about how she should never have allowed you to leave home, and about how it was imperative that you be brought back home on the instant and stay at home until you were properly wed. This does not count as news, per se--certainly, it was only a surprise to your father or to me in that we had been expecting this to happen slightly earlier. I know something of your difficulties, my dear Larissa, and I have confidence that you made the right decision. You will make us all proud.
How proceed matters in Duvik's Pass? I have heard a third-hand rumor that another heretofore unknown set of tunnels was found down south in Stross--have you heard anything about this in a bigger town?
It is my fond hope that I will soon hear of stories of your exploits told and retold in the tavern.
May the light of Pelor light every path you walk and warm every heart you meet.
Brion
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Date: 2001-12-17 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2001-12-17 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-12-18 06:59 am (UTC)(And, as an aside, the person Larissa is more likely to be suspicious of with respect to the rat-kin is actually Prolix. He's the one who drunkenly suggested that the rat-kin should intermarry with the humans because of conservation of ugliness, or something like that...)