The Fourth Letter of Scot of Tols

To the Lords Continous and all Hierophants Attending

From your loyal brother the Anavares, called Scot of Tols

a fourth report of my investigation and born by a furred ally for your deepest consideration.

The previous missives I sent detailed my discoveries regarding the Solomonari and the self-styled Magisters of Erenth. In this one I will detail their secret fortress. For I journeyed with one far to the West side of Westrun and across the Goblin Kingdoms to the very Citadel itself.

The Citadel is a massive ziggurat set on a peninsula in the middle of the Goblin Kingdoms. It is guarded from attack by the zealous and superstitious hordes who believe (aided by illusions and other magic) that it is an ancient temple dedicated to the worship of any one of a thousand of their loathsome deities. People caught in the area are usually considered to be slaves or food and do not get far from the peninsula before that becomes a horrific reality.

The Citadel is built of red bricks made from the sand in the area and the seaweed which grows in the marshes around the peninsula. The goblins refer to these red bricks as the Blood Bricks and assume that blood and viscera are the unholy mortar which keeps the building together. This, and the fact that no goblin has ever made it past the Citadel's portico and returned to tell the tale, means that the goblin hordes have given up any hope of entering the Blood Temple. Instead, they bring gifts and tribute to its occupants and make sacrifices upon its stairs.

The custom that is mostly observed among the hordes is that no battles can be enjoined within a day’s walk of the Bloodstone Temple. It has even become a pilgrimage site of sorts, with newly crowned goblin kings making offerings for their continued rule and for elongated lives.

Meanwhile, inside the Citadel, a wizard known as the Archmage is protected by storehouse of magical items and a powerful group of sentries known as the Rainbow Guard. They are magic resistant warriors who neither age, nor grow weary. The Archmage devotes his life to magical studies and also rules over his fellow Magisters as the lord of all Erenth’s wizards. His decisions are supreme and binding and can only be overridden by a Vacating Proclamation. This Proclamation must be issued by the assembled Magisters of Erenth (or their designees) which are the heads of the Colleges of Erenth.

I continue to learn. More reports will follow.