Doctor Lowri's Letter (Lady Tara Starblade)

[Substitute Author]

To His Excellency, The Supreme Emperor, Pashta Malachite:

Greetings, O Emperor. Truly you are the most powerful and cleverest of mustelidae. Though you are a weasel and I a pine marten, you are Lord of all my kind, and of all species.

I am afraid to have to impart to you some unfortunate news, O Emperor. Our expedition has taken a turn for the worst. We have not located the elusive isle of Sampetra, as we set out to do. Due to many hardships at sea over the past few weeks, of which I have already written in previous letters, we became lost, and have recently hit a reef in the moonless night.

Half of the oarslaves and the crew have died, but the rest of us, thankfully including my daughter and First Mate Sableclaw, got to the shores of a mysterious island. It took me a while to find out the identity of the island, but after careful study I have identified it as Terramort, or Land of Death, the long ago home of the Searat King, Gabool the Wild.

As it turns out, the island is not deserted, as I had assumed. We weren't resting on the shores for even an hour before the most emaciated specimen of a rat that I had ever seen begged us to follow him. He seemed terrified out of his wits, so we did so. He took us to the ruins of Fort Bladegirt, and that is where we have been staying for the past three days. There are about fifty rats living here, all emaciated as the first we saw. They all seem to live in constant fear of something, and conduct themselves with caution in everything, jumping if one of the crew or slaves makes a sudden movement.

I have tried asking them what they are afraid of in this desolate place, but most do not even speak of it. I have gathered through various vague interviews that there is a Great Evil that lives inside the island. I do not know what they mean by "inside" the island, but they may be talking about the series of tunnels and passageways throughout the island that I have read about. So far I have not seen any evidence of this, though we have not yet ventured outside of Bladegirt, which is what the rats simply call the Safe Place. I will continue to do as much research on this fascinating island as I can.

Your Faithful Subject,
Doctor Jonas Lowri