By Beth Griese

Date:  December 6, 1997

Quote of the Day:
"Look, Eddie, you have to understand: I haven’t killed anything in almost six months." -- Brian Smith

To Garen Thundersson, cleric of Mielikki. From your faithful friend, Jade.

Winter is a quiet time when you have a castle to maintain. We raced the snows to make a final trip to Suzail for the year, getting supplies and returning to our old magician friend for potions that would restore the years that the ghost of Hirontius Bosco had stolen from some of us. We made it back to Castle Weston before the weather made any more wagon travel impossible.

Visiting you on Midwinter’s was the highlight of the season for me, and as I said when we left, I’m happier than I can explain in words that you and Borreau enjoy each other’s company so well. I look forward to our Midsummer visit as always.

The rest of the winter, I and the rest of the Wayfarers did what we could to stay busy and support Jeremiah and the work on the castle. More workers showed up during the cold months when living in the surrounding forests and mountains gets tougher. We put them all to work easily. I had a small group of hunters that I frequently traveled the area with; game is good in this land, which is a good thing, since we now have an amazing 200 or so mouths to feed. How did we suddenly become the center of this small town I see sprouting up around us? As the snows melted, I could already see signs of the plants that used to be on the dragon’s hill recovering now that his foulness is gone.

Borreau and Telaran ran militia drills and supervised the defenses that were being built, Nory managed to piece together a still that produces something that I think resembles how tannery dips must taste, but it certainly did the job of putting some people under the tables on some of our colder nights. Verence spoke with his family and found out that one of the berries that grows on our mountainside is extremely rare, so we had a mid-winter berry hunt, gathering up some of the fruits to sell, and protecting the rest to encourage them to grow and give us a crop next year. I was amazed when our payment arrived; those little berries bring in a hundred times their weight in gold!

When the ice finally broke and the snows thawed at last, the work on the castle was about half done, and it’s looking very nice for a huge stone monstrosity. We celebrated both the arrival of spring and the birth of our first baby resident - a boy, the son of one of the stonemasons and a cook. Spring also brought some new arrivals to our door. A group of traveling worshippers of Mielikki came to see Weston Castle, the shrine to Mielikki within, and the spring she gave us outside. Four of them have stayed with us, and I’ve enjoyed their company. Verence now has an acolyte - a young boy named Eddie who has shown me respect so far, but from what I gathered from the others, could use some serious time in the woodshed to learn manners. We’ll see how well Verence fares with him.

Spring also stirred up more than just the local wildlife; we suffered an attack from three hill giants who threw boulders onto the castle and houses and farms that now surround it. The main damage was to our house and tower, and I suppose we were lucky that we only lost one person in the attack - one of the purple dragon soldiers was crushed under a rock. I’m surprised at how responsible we all feel for these people living on our land. We were so happy to celebrate the birth of Justin, and the death of the soldier even put a pall on Nory.

It’s well past time for the Wayfarers to travel again. The castle work is progressing well now that the weather is turning warm, and we are not so home-bound yet that we’re not itching to ferret out some evil cache of creatures again. I found Borreau just this week staring out our window at the mountains that surround us, and his expression has been on most of the others’ faces, too. And mine, I’m sure.

Faithfully yours,

--Jade

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