Excerpt of a letter from Brom Kestrel:
Dear Dad,
What a place! Like you said, just the opportunity I needed to make my own place in the world. Sandpoint has proven to be more than enough. Already there is a foul plot. Someone convinced local Goblin tribes to raid during the big festival. Reason we know is someone left a ladder on the inside of the wall so they could steal a body of a long dead priest, one Father Tobyn. Anyway, we followed some tracks, though to my shame I wasn't able to follow to their completion. That night on Nethyl's watch, he woke me to hear what sounded like screeching and baying in the woods to the East. Guard up there with us said it was a local legend: the Devil of Sandpoint. Some crazy wizard supposedly made it and many other abominations, but it is the only living one. Anyway, I should get back on point.
We looked into the ladder next. It was a pretty fancy design with good craftsmanship. Custom, too. Sif and Nethyl had the brilliant idea to talk with the Sandpoint Carpenters' Guild. There we spoke with a Dwarf by the name of Aesrick Battlehorn. He didn't know who owned the ladder, but he knew its maker. Apparantly he was a bit of an infamous killer. The locals call him The Cutter, but he was known as Jervis Stoot before his killing spree. He was a carpenter of some renown that refused payment and mostly carved birds into buildings. This ladder was among a handful of exceptions to the nature of his works; though Aesrick admitted to not knowing who it belonged to he did offer to help in finding the old records the guild kept in Magnimar.
After our meeting at the guild, we split to try finding leads, and to my shame, I found the lowliest place in Sandpoint. A bar called the Fatman's Feedbag is supposedly the source for much information, and we needed to find out who might have been the traitor to Sandpoint. Sif and Nethyl went into the basement to talk with a shady info-broker type. I regret ever having mentioned the place. I have no doubt now that this is where local Sczarni meet. I can't say whether our contact Jubrayl Vhiski is one or not, but he seemed to think that Lonjiku Kaijitsu might be the one responsible. This obviously didn't sit well with us. His daughter, Ameiko Kaijitsu, is our lovely hostess at the Rusty Dragon. We thought to speak to her on the subject gently at first.
…But we were interrupted by a most amusing thing. When we got back to the inn, we were caught by Aldern Foxglove, the noble we had rescued. It seemed he was most grateful for our exploits, and now came to loudly procaim us "The Heroes of Sandpoint". Though even more hilarious was his sudden attraction to Nethyl, despite Nethyl's squirming. He insisted on buying us horses and taking us on a boar hunt in nearby Tickwood. We accepted, and spent a most enjoyable evening with him, departing for the hunt the next day. There were apparently some escapades that night, but the hunt went well, if strangely. After some excellent tracking by Aldern and I, Sif and Nethyl took down the great boar with a mighty thrust into its throat followed by a barrage of magic bolts. All the while there and back though, Aldern seemed extremely obsessive, if cheerful. On our return, we learned that he plans on returning to Magnimar to settle other business (much to our relief).
I now write this the following morning. We are looking for Nickolai in hopes that he will join us in investigating Cutter's Isle. Sif claims she smelled something quite foul coming from it last night on watch. But that is all for now. Until next time father. May your fields be ever fruitful!
-Brom
