Untold Tales RPG

Dear Elphir,

Your letter concerns me deeply. While in these trying and dangerous times, people will always kill others to get what they want, the tone of your letter tells me this is not a murder for money or resources, but something more vicious and sinister. Here in Minas Tirith some people have died in relation to a cult of the East -- I am advising you to use extreme caution, if you believe magic may be at hand. I am passing to you a recommendation of aid, a man named Alagos and his acquaintances, who have helped me in the past to solve other such murders and crimes.

With Elessar's injury it is not certain when he will be married. Formal invitation or not, the tedium of remaining in the city indefinitely wears on my knights, who know they have important work to be doing. Do we need to come home? I trust you to handle the situation with competence, but with the reports of the attack on the king and the other sinister news that has been abroad in Minas Tirith (including murders, the dead returned by black magic, the arrival of an Eastern cult, and bold kidnappings by Umbar), do the people need to see their prince and know I'm safe in Dol Amroth? Use your best discretion.

I would like to report happy news, but I am not sure I am capable. Your wife is well, as is your son. I believe she has made some friends here in the city, I've seen her less than is her usual. Your sister... Several lines of text were written then scratched out and are now illegible. The letter resumes two or three lines down. Your sister has married Eomer of the Mark. They wed in secret, and Lothiriel told your wife she was staying away from the guest house before I arrived, so I did not suspect. I was not told until a surprise meeting on the street, and I almost believe had I not seen Lothiriel, she would have simply have left for Rohan without a farewell or a goodbye.

I have agreed to pretend they met in the city and are now properly engaged and shall be having a wedding feast here in Minas Tirith soon. Spread the word of your sister's engagement and when you receive my next letter, of her subsequent marriage. I chose to do this, rather than to annul their frankly appalling union because it was Elessar who wed them. I have never been so insulted in my life, and if I had known this at the time I left the city, I would have declined his wedding invitation and let people wonder. But now that he is injured, I must appear supportive, at least until I have an excuse to leave the city. It is yet more proof that in this new Gondor, we are not afforded the respect and dignity that was granted us under the reign of the stewards, and a most disturbing development to me. I can only hope the people of Belfalas do not learn of the insulting and undignified way I have been treated by Rohan, as it will result in anger and outrage we are too thin in soldiers to contain.

Aergannel sends her love, and Alphros has given me a very sticky hug I am to pass to you. I hope you are as well as you can be, under the circumstances. I continue to manage, and know you are taking good care of the city in my absence.

Your Father,
Imrahil Swanhelm
Prince of Dol Amroth, Lord of Belfalas and Dor-en-Ernil
Lord Knight Commander and Admiral of the Navy

Stamped with Imrahil's seal, the letter is delivered post-haste to Dol Amroth. Attached are several copies of the pages of Imrahil's own files, which outline what he knows about the returned, the kidnappings and power shift in Umbar, the attack on Aragorn, and the cult of Khamul, as well as a summary of the events in Belfalas involving Arnatur. Conveniently excluded are any reports of Imrahil's health.