Flenniel Loak

UP: Baja

    My name is Flenniel, though my friends �oft call me Flen. Ye can call me whatever ye like so long as it does not involve any expletives an references to my mother in unpleasant ways... else I will have to practice tying knots with your internal organs, and neither of us want that do we? Now, my point in writing this is to inform all ye folk about the goings on with my once-apprentice and very old friend Mendur Marris and his daughter, Aireen. So ye know where I fit in here, a week or so back (as the goodly people who scribe this chronicle have put in a previous article) Mendur suspected his daughter of being kidnapped and had his friends o�er at the Golden Brew track his former clerk who was fired due to suspected theft. Paburt, as that was his name an if�n ye have not guessed that ye�d better stop readin an go back to grammar school, told them that the old, if somewhat sage and debonair with amazing wit and intelligence, merchant who apprenticed Mendur and became the closest thing Aireen had to a grandfather, might have an idea where Aireen would have gone if she ran off on her own. That, if ye have not guessed as yet... an if not, shame on ye, dolt... is myself. Mendur used to go on long trips while seeing through deals and, back before his tasks were purely administrative, he often saw the shipments through himself across the more dangerous areas of mainland Britannia. He an I tried to time our trips so that when he was gone, I would be able to help keep watch over Aireen. Sometimes, I had to go on a trip too an I would just take the young Lady with me. Other times, we would just go out on trips together for the fun of it, and quite lovely walks they were. Aireen has always regarded me as a confidant, and friend, and I must admit my day gets brighter with just one smile from the young one. During our trips, one of her favorite places were some old ruins near the Yew Orc Fort, where we would camp out and hide to watch the orcs play and fight each other. It was not too risky in those days, but what with the orcs going rampant lately and growing more restless...

The only place I thought of that she might go in times of trouble would be this place, as despite the dangerous area she seemed to find security in that place. I made out a few maps from the Yew guard tower to the ruins and passed them on to the folks gathered at Golden. Those present seemed to constitute the cities of Golden, Heaven�s Forge, Dawn, and Avalon. There may have been people from other cities there, but I think that covers the majority. They used a rune I had from a long time ago to get to the guard post after facet gating over to Felucca, and then from what I am told found the ruins. And the many orcs infesting it. I was told they were a bit alarmed to find blood on the ground, and Aireen�s diary. With Aireen�s permission I will write the contents here for ye to see:

Dear Eilis,
I don�t know what to do. I write to you every day, and I know that... wherever you are... you hear these words. The hope that perhaps you wait for me on the other side makes me long to join you... but, I just cannot do that to Daddy. I am all he has left... and since I took Mother away from him, it would be cruel to leave him too. But Daddy just won�t see what that Amon Jolds is really like, when he looks at me I feel like a piece of meat he is appraising the worth of... if you were here, you wouldn�t let him look at me like that, would you? I know, my heart, I know. I did not know what to do, so I came to the only place I knew of that nobody would know where to find me... except, maybe Papa Loak. But it�s okay if he comes here... I really need a hug from him.

Oh dear, wait a moment my Eilis, for I think I hear some animals coming near, I shall be right back as soon as I find out what it is.

Aireen has always felt a burden on her heart for the death of her mother... the poor dear�s mother died while giving birth to her, and ever since Aireen has felt an obligation of sorts to Mendur. Mendur, though, instead of getting all bitter-like about it, simply looked at his �lil one as a continuation of his wife in a way, and his world from then on really has been built around her. Then, Aireen had fallen in love with a friend of Mendur�s, Eilis Soll, and Eilis became like a son to Mendur. His death hit Mendur almost as hard as it did Aireen. Anyway, I do digress. The brave folks journeyed on to the Orc Fort right away, smartly predicting that if Aireen was still alive there would be some trace of her at the fort nearby. An of course, there was. Aireen could be heard screaming from the hut inside the fort, and there was a huge orc warrior armored in black, unmarked plate. There was also an unusually powerful orcish mage on the walls attacking the folks trying to save Aireen. But the brave folks fought through wave after wave of them beasties, finally making it inside with no small loss of life, and killing off the orc mage before going for the leader. The leader had been slapping Aireen around, the bloody brute... I wish I had been there, so I could have used his entrails as... oh, nevermind. I hear it was a rather long battle, and the orc warrior was outnumbered by almost fifteen to one, but he kept going strong and even took a few people down before they finally put down the awful creature. They brought Aireen outside and talked to her a bit, getting a sense of what happened and finding out she had indeed ran away but was attacked by orcs at her favorite ruins. I must say, I as well as Mendur give sincere thanks to Golden Brew and Heaven�s Forge for the rescue of my daughter and pursuing her safe return for the last two weeks. I also extend a most sincere congratulations to Dawn and Avalon for joining the rescue mission this last week... it took all of ye to take down those orcs, every last one of ye, and ye made a marvelous team!

Aireen seemed to have suspicions about Amon, and the other people at the tavern from what I hear also had their suspicions. Apparently Amon was the one who, when they were searching Paburt�s (Mendur�s clerk, ye dolt, do ye not remember from above?) house, suggested they check under the floorboards where they found the pilfered gold Mendur was missing. Aireen also did not like Amon�s demeanor, and felt he had less than good intentions. Mendur was quite distressed by this, an I do understand: Amon has been there through a lot of troubles. When Eilis died, Amon was there to be a friend and help Mendur through things. As for myself, Amon is a rather kind sort if a bit ruthless in his business tactics. But the armor and weapons he trades is always of the highest quality, and is renown around Britannia.

I came into the tavern a while after Aireen and Mendur had left and talked some with Beaker and Pasque... that Pasque sure is a rather odd girl, if�n I say so myself, but quite pleasant company... an Beaker showed me the halberd he got from the Orc Warrior. I examined it a bit and used my extensive knowledge from trading for the past fifty years of my life to see what I could tell. Apparently it seemed made of the harder sort of metal that comes from the mountains around the Britain area, and looked to have been forged in a rather dry temperature which shows it is of Felucca... as Trammel has a subtly more damp climate. The angles were rather sharp, which shows it is of a Britain design and the craftsmanship was superb quality, obviously that of a skilled grand master smith. The reason an orc had this could have been that the orc killed and stole weapons and armor off people, but the one odd thing was: the weapon was unmarked. Apparently they had gotten valorite plate off the orc as well, and that too was completely unmarked and of superior quality. As a merchant, I must say, in all my years I have never seen merchandise of that quality made and yet gone unmarked. It had to have been especially ordered that way.