5 Flamerule 1372

To Delgluth Zorthaster, Zorthaster's Herbals, North Market Street, Suzail, Cormyr

Dear Delgluth,

While we have never met, I am writing to you with an urgent appeal. I have, over the past couple of days had the occasion to spend some very important time with one Tescelin Maratim, known to friends and associates as the Archmage Cedar. This young practitioner of the Art has made it clear to me in converstation that he still considers himself to be a student of yours despite being away from your tutelage for some time now. Further, it is my understanding that he has been in frequent communication with you via a series of letters he has written regularly. It is my hope that you may have some continued influence over the development of this very young yet powerful Archmage. He is badly in need of guidance from someone older, wiser and more experienced in the ways of the weave. I am hopeful that you may harbor some feelings of concern for him and might be able to help him at this difficult time. I fear that my relationship with him, brief as it has been, is in no way strong enough or deep enough to be able to sustain the strains that would inevitably be encountered given the grave situation at hand. If you truly see yourself as his mentor, please come now to his aid.

Cedar is suffing from Mystra's Refusal. He has been cut off from the weave after challenging Her ban on the most powerful and destructive forms of magic. I must confess that I have myself pushed the edges of Mystra's Ban on occasion, but today Cedar has gone far beyond the line of what She will allow and now suffers the consequences. I fear that he may, in his youth and frustration turn to darker paths to achieve his objectives. Please permit me to provide you with a detailed account of the events that led up to this terrible circumstance.

As I believe you know, the adventuring group known as the Wandsmen and my team aboard the Realms Master have been in contact for a short while and are allied against the return of Shade Enclave and the descendants of the ancient people who fled to Shadow at the time of the fall of Netheril. Along with the Lord's Alliance, the Bedine of Anauroch and a mighty fleet of Halruaan flying ships, we engaged the forces of ancient Netheril in the desert west of the Shinatra mountains. Tales of this battle, which is beginning to be known as the battle of Telemont's Hand, may not have reached you yet, but undoubtably they soon will. I'll not go into the sad events that led to our crushing loss, for those stories will, without my aid, quickly become part of the the oft-told sad and blood-stained history of our people.

I will take up the tale with the part that the Wandsmen played in the efforts to save as many of the Bedine as possible during the rout that followed the appearance of a dozen new shadow enclaves during the battle. As it became clear that the fight was another crushing defeat for the enemies of Lord Shadow, we turned our attention to trying to prevent the slaughter of the Bedine leadership and many of the desert warriors at the hands and claws of the shadovar and their blue dragon allies. As the Realms Master was beginning to assist in this, Cedar had a direct, intimate and powerful encounter with the Lady of Mysteries. Her presence was likely felt by by anyone sensitive to the weave within a half mile or more of my ship. The encounter was a personal one and no one I have spoken to aboard this ship overheard any part of the conversation between Mystra and the young wizard. As would be expected though, the encounter left the boy an emotional wreck. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to be gentle during his recovery, but instead plunged into a fight with hundreds of enemy troops and several dragons.

Unexpectely, Cedar shook himself out of his funk and threw himself into the fray. I was not present on the ship's deck to witness the events that followed, but through the accounts of my crew, I have pieced together what happened. As soon as my ship arrived on the scene to witness the Bedine leadership being torn apart by vargouile, shadovar and dragons, Cedar was in a painfully obvious internal struggle. He looked tortured by what he saw on the enormous battlefield and his desire to help seemed to directly conflict with what we surmise Mystra instructed him to do. It appears that he knowingly and wittingly rejected her will for he looked to the sky and shouted somthing about refusing to stand by and watch the destruction. Then he cast time stop followed by a series of other spells that left hundreds of enemy forces dead or dying. Sadly, many innocent Bedine whom we were trying to save also suffered from the rather indiscriminant use of powerful and explosive spells in the midst of a chaotic battle field. Perhaps this action resulted in more people saved than might have otherwise been, but I fear the action was done recklessly rather than strategicly. Following this event, the entire adventuring group focused their attention on the two closest blue dragons. As the last of them was dying, Cedar saw the enormous scale of devastation being wrought across the field and appears to have come to the decision to not only reject Mystra's counsel, but to openly defy her ban.

He shouted to the sky again, something about the unfairness of the Shades' use of powerful magic and the rules we need to follow according to Mystra's will and then openly challenged her ban. He drank deeply from a large flask of heavy magic, and brought forth the nether scroll he carries and began to read from it. I suspect that the heavy magic, activiated due to the presence of all the mythals on the shadow enclaves, interacted with the power of the scroll to create a spell of enormous power. The accounts from my crew conflict with regard to the scale of the spell's power, but all describe a swirling malestom of fire opeinging in the air above one of the enclaves. Fire rained from the rift in the sky and balls of molten rock pounded into the city, driving the dragons above to the ground in flames. He attempted to do this same thing upon a second enclave, but my crew tells me that absolutely nothing happened. Mystra had, in that instant between spells, denied him access to the weave.

Meanwhile, I had been positioning the ship so that we could take on passengers. We began boarding the hundreds of Bedine that we could pack onto the Realms Master and several captured netherese skiffs. Most of the Wandsmen were very helpful in this process, piloting skiffs and assisting the desperate fleeing desert people. In particular, the bard's skills as handling people were crucial. As soon as we had the ship packed to the rails we teleported away, seeking refuge in the ancient holy site at Elah'Zad. There, guarded by the power of Ella/Selune and Eldath, the Bedine should be safe. We unloaded as fast as possible and returned to the battle to try to save more refugees. We encounterred an old blue dragon tearing up a crowd of Bedine and engaged him in battle. I had assigned two of my crew to assist your student should he need it. They tell me that Cedar spent the begining breaths of the battle with the dragon on deck until his frustration at being unable to work the Art became too much for him to bear. As he was going below decks he stopped briefly at the body of the Shade wizard whom the group had recently killed. He took a few things from the body including what appeared to be the dead man's travelling spellbook. Upon going below, he met with a person that had not been on the ship moments before. She was an elegant and beautiful young lady who passed your student two thick books that looked heavly used and that were stuffed full of additinal sheets of loose paper filled with notes. They spoke little but as the young lady turned to leave, Cedar kissed her on her cheek. She seemed very surprised by this gesture, but continued to walk away and fade from view.

The other Wandsmen were very effective against the blue attacking the ship. The group is likely to be a good influence upon your youngster if they choose to take advantage of their situation. The bard Kerith is selfless and dedicated, extremely articulate and is a master at handling people and thier emotions. We wouldn't have saved half the Bedine that we did had it not been for his leadership today. The paladin is steady and it appears that Cedar looks to him as something of a moral compass, but I fear that as things stand now, the wizard may not be aware that he is drifting toward darkness and away from Oskar's path. The archer Xan is a deadly warrior and reminds me of some of the fiercest Bedine, only much more so. He may have already faced some of the same inner demons that Cedar is encountering and his experience along the way may benefit your friend. The priestess is a deep well of wisdom. It seems she has conflicting pasions about the path Cedar is taking however. She seems to share many of his frustrations about the return of the ancient Netherese, but is more trusting of her faith in the elven gods than Cedar obviously is in Mystra. She is also fiercely protective of her friends and that pasion may be something that can reach through the anger boiling inside your protege. Shane, the small monk is quiet much of the time but can explode into a deadly fury or can suddenly pierce someone with biting sarcasm when least expected. I think Cedar is unaware of how important is this halfling's steadfast protection and care for him. These people compose a rather remarkable team, one of the best I've seen in a long while. They find themselves, as do we all, in the most difficult of circumstances, the most challenging of times. Only time will tell with certainty, but we, those like you and I who are older and wiser in matters of changing the course of the world must exert influence upon these young spirits as best we may.

I hope this letter finds you well and that you may find a way to use the information contained herein to aid and assist our poor distressed brother. As he is your student, and I know he thinks of you fondly as a mentor and a second father, I leave the next steps to your discretion. I remain at your service if there is anything I can do to assist you in these matters.

Sincerely,

Dwalimar Omen of Halruaa, Captain of the Realms Master

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5 Flamerule, 1372

Dear Master Zorthaster,

Once again we have suffered defeat at the hands of High Prince Telemont, Lord Shadow. It was a crushing blow to the host assembled against him and the best we could do was to rescue a few desert warriors from thier victorious persuers as they were being routed from the field. Darkness spreads across the land and our goddess does nothing to help her people.

I fear that Mystra is unhappy with my decisions this day. I could not stand by and idly watch the descruction of so many good people at the hands of the Shades. I cast what spells I could in their defence but it all seemed so insignificant in comparison to the power wielded by the followers of Shar. The few blows we landed did little in the overall battle against the evil tide. The few hundred we saved appear more interested in fleeing back to the ancient lands from whence they came than in fighting their opressors.

To add insult to injury, Khemed, our one-time desert guide and muckety-muck in the ranks of the Cult of the Dragon approached us as we recovered our strength, hiding in the scented hills. Khemed was hoping for an alliance of sorts to discover and break the hold the Shades have over the blue dragons of Anauroch. It seems that the Shades have made the Cult's activities more difficult in this region. Khemed went on for an intermitible time about the sacred pacts broken by the dragons under the influence of the Shades. Even the undead dragons seem to be less friendly to the Cult than in days past. What a shame. It breaks my heart to hear that the Cult of the Dragon's leaders are suffering such distress. Their pain and woe must not be universal though since Khemed came to us riding a horse that was in reality a polymorphed red dragon. I hate that man and would like to see him eaten by one of his "most holy" dracoliches.

I has been a long day and I really want nothing more than to spend some quiet time alone to read. I discovered some interesting texts today and feel like they might be very useful in overcoming some problems I have recently discovered in more powerful aspects of the Art. Wish me well.

The others have been roaming around in our hidden grove and spent some time with the Bedine who are using a gate here to travel to the distant land of Zahkara to escape the Shades. Kerith's parents are leaving Anauroch as well. They invited him to travel with them, but he declined, choosing instead to stay with us. The gate is located in a lovely temple to Selune on an island in a small lake sacred to Eldath. It is a peaceful place, belieing the terrible realilty of the world outside its quiet sphere of artificial calm.

That's all for now. As I said, it has been a very tiring day and I feel the need for rest. I think I can rest here. Greet my parents for me should you see them and tell them that I think of them constantly.

Until next,

Cedar