In Sharn the City of Towers, two half-elven bards had recently opened an inquisitives’ office. Their front door was freshly painted with the sign Eros & Dante, Inc. Inside the office, Eros was looking for quests in the latest edition of the Korranberg Chronicle while his partner, Dante, wrote entries in their book of expenses. They were both trying to concentrate on their work, but the noise made by the other members of their office was not helping.

This homebrew Valentine’s Day adventure was held on Feb. 14, 2018, at The Dice Latte. It was very partly inspired by The Lake House and the original Korean film Siwolae upon which it was based.

Rogrock, a large and heavily-muscled shifter cleric of Olladra, was intently reading a romance novel in the corner. Terence, a kobold bard, was feeding the rats inside his cage. Talia, a halfling fighter from the Talenta Plains, was sharpening her knives by the window. Bundy, a mountain dwarf ranger, was leafing through a tome on wilderness survival. And Malma, a human cleric of Aureon, was organizing the few books on the bookshelf. Altogether, they were a peculiar lot of inquisitives.

Suddenly, a knock came at the door, and a beautiful human woman clad in a fine green robe entered the office. The upper edge of her dragonmark could be seen on her neck just above the collar of her silken garment. She introduced herself as Katelyn Forrester d’Vadalis, and she had a special request for these inquisitives.

Katelyn had a suitor named Alexander ir’Wylde, a half-elven noble living in the distant elven land of Valenar. Katelyn and Alexander’s relationship was an arrangement formed by the leaders of their respective houses. To fulfill her duties to her house, Katelyn had to correspond with her suitor and exchange romantic letters to him which might later be published in her memoirs.

However, Katelyn had manifested her dragonmark late in life and was recruited by House Vadalis, so she had not received the same training as those born into nobility. She could not write the kind of beautiful prose that was required of her, so she was searching for a ghostwriter to pen the letters for her. She had come to the office of Eros and Dante, Inc. in the hopes that they could help her discreetly, and in exchange she offered a sum reward of 1000 gold galifars.

The adventurers heartily agreed to the quest and set out to find a suitable ghostwriter. In fact, they had heard that some of the most famous authors on the continent were having a book tour in Sharn at that very moment. They were Diane Farrowind, the half-elven author of Rogrock’s favorite romance novel The Giant and the Warforged; J.H. Silverclaw, the author of a series of epic tales involving demons and lycanthropes; and Thriller, a warforged author of gritty crime and suspense novels like the bestselling Maltese Dragon.

The party decided to focus their attention on Diane Farrowind. She was a debut novelist yet the most popular author by far. Somehow, she had gotten the attention of a large segment of the reading public across the continent. In the courtyard where a book signing was being held, her line was by far the longest of all the authors.
Eros, Malma, and Bundy joined the line for Diane’s book signing. Rogrock, feeling too shy to approach his favorite author, decided to talk to Mr. Silverclaw instead. Talia stood in the line for Thriller’s autograph. And Terence stood outside of the crowd, keeping a watch on the scene from a distance.

Talia was the first to get her signature. Thriller was a finely dressed warforged gentleman, but there was something strangely stiff and mechanical about him, even for a warforged. Thriller offered Talia a copy of his novel, but she declined. Rather, she pulled out two of her daggers and asked him to sign them instead. Thriller obliged by taking an adamantine tipped pen and etching his signature, which looked like a bar code, on each blade. Talia happily left the line to join Terence around the perimeter.

Next, Rogrock approached J.H. Silverclaw. He was a great, round fellow with wild side burns under his well-worn beret. Silverclaw seemed pleased at first to meet a fellow shifter who was a fan of his work, but he soon saw that Rogrock’s attention was fixed on her friends and Diane Farrowind. Silverclaw let out a sigh but did not seem surprised.

“I don’t know why people are so excited about that Diane Farrowind,” Silverclaw said.
“She didn’t even write her own novel!”
“No! That can’t be true!” Rogrock exclaimed.
“That’s the rumor in the Sharn Writer’s Circle.” Silverclaw shrugged. “They say she uses a ghostwriter. Must be a good one to have reeled in all those fans for her. Your friends included, I assume.”
At that, Rogrock blushed but gave no reply.

At last, Eros, Malma, and Bundy arrived at the front of the line for Diane Farrowind. Bundy busily prepared his most pressing question, rehearsing it in his head.

So, you’re book is all about giants, ain’t it? In that case, umm… how big is a giant’s… you know.

Malma had many questions of her own that she wished to ask. But both Malma and Bundy were standing behind Eros who was the first to speak.

“Ms. Farrowind, I really love your writing!” he said, trying to sound like an excited fan.
“Why, thank you!” Diane replied earnestly. Despite the large number of fans she had met, she greeted each person with the same genuine enthusiasm.
“Your writing is so original!” Eros continued.
“Why yes! Of course! Because I wrote it myself. Yes, yes, of course I did!”

Diane began to blush, and Eros started to get an idea. He quickly wrote a note and slipped it in a copy of her novel before asking her to sign it. When Diane opened the book to write her signature, she saw the note inside. It said:

I know your secret.

Diane’s face went from a rosy complexion to pale white in an instant. Suddenly, she got up from her seat and announced in a shaky voice.

“The book signing is over! I’m sorry everyone, but I must go.”

As Diane turned and left, she was immediately surrounded by armed dwarven bodyguards. They kept the mob of dismayed and angry fans at bay. They were now shouting over one another, trying desperately to get the fleeing writer’s attention.

“Wait, Diane! We love you! Sign my book before you go!”

Eros, Malma, and Bundy were crushed shoulder to shoulder in the throng of fans. Bundy, frustrated by the situation, reached for the Decanter of Endless Water upon his belt. Then aiming it towards the crowd around him, he uncorked it and released a blast of water into the crowd. The mob was dispersed it in an instant. Bundy, Malma and Eros were joined by Rogrock, and together they pursued Diane and her bodyguards, though they were nearly out of sight.

Terence and Talia, on the other hand, were close on the heels of Diane’s entourage. Terence had cast a spell of invisibility upon himself, and Talia was dashing through the buildings and rooftops along the street. The chase ended at a safehouse guarded by more dwarven guards. They looked like members of House Kundarak, the dragonmarked house of warding and the wealthiest of the noble houses who were famed for their bodyguards for hire. Seeing that they were outnumbered by the guards inside the safehouse, Terence and Talia waited for the others to arrive.

When the inquisitives were all gathered outside, Eros approached the door and asked to meet Ms. Farrowind. The dwarven guards courteous refused him and asked him to leave. Eros gave them his business card and asked them to deliver it to the author along with an offer to provide her with important information. The guards obliged to do so.

Meanwhile, Bundy used his ranger’s magic to see through the eyes of Terence’s pet rat. Terence went around to the back and magically compelled one of the dwarf guards at the rear entrance to take a bathroom break. When the guards opened the door to changed shifts on the watch, Terence sent his rat scurrying into the safehouse. The rat navigated the household and saw over a dozen heavily armed dwarves inside as well as one immensely muscular goliath wielding a greatclub.

The rat climbed up to the second floor and found Diane in the upper suite whose door was ajar. It was a well-furnished room that might have been fitting for a wealthy patron, but it had been turned upside down as Diane tore the room apart in a frantic search for some precious possession.

“Oh no! Where is it! Why can’t I find it? Where could my manuscript be?”

There was a cautious knock on her door which was already open, followed by a polite but insistent cough.

“Ms. Farrowind, we received this from a visitor. He says he has some information for you.”
“Who? ‘Eros & Dante’? What on earth could this… Oh! It must be that fiend from the book signing!”

Diane fell into a rage and began to issue orders. Reluctantly, more than half of the dwarven guards gathered themselves together and formed a posse, led by the goliath. Then they marched out of the safehouse and down the streets of Sharn, in the direction of the office of Eros & Dante, Inc. (When the inquisitives later returned to the office, they would find it in shambles, having been turned upside down by the dwarves, and a bewildered Dante whose face was badly bruised by the goliath’s fists.)

The party waited until the dwarven posse was out of sight, then began their invasion of the house. Seeing that the dwarven guards would not yield, the inquisitives fell upon them with force. They quietly dispatched the guards at the entrance and began their invasion of the safehouse.

Inside, they found a few remaining guards who had been left to defend their ward. The inquisitives cut them down without mercy, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake. When they were finished, all the guards were dead, and a great smouldering hole was left in one wall where a dwarven guard was blasted by magical lightning.

The party headed upstairs and found a distressed Diane in her room. When Diane saw the group of inquisitives led by Eros, she flew into a rage and let loose a fireball at the party. But Eros reacted quickly and counterspelled her magic. Seeing her spell dissipate with a pathetic puff of smoke, Diane collapsed on the floor and began to weep.

“I’m ruined! My manuscript is gone. The next book will never be published now. Or worse still, someone else will publish it, and I’ll be exposed.”

As Diane began to ramble, the inquisitives gathered around and tried to calm her down. They insisted that they were not to blame for the loss of her manuscript, and in fact they could help her recover it if she would help them as well. The party explained their own quest to find a ghostwriter, and Diane began to listen.

“You’re looking for my ghostwriter, June? You need her help?”

The inquisitives were excited to learn the ghostwriter’s name and eager to heard more details, but Diane herself knew little about the ghostwriter whom she had hired to write her book. She knew only that June was a young woman who had written for many famous authors and brought them great success. June’s favorite topic was the Last War, and she possessed the uncanny ability to write with incredible detail and realism about all facets of the war.

“I don’t know how she does it. Why, she couldn’t be much older than I am, yet she writes as if she had really been there, in those battles and trenches of the war. But I don’t know how that could be possible.”

The inquisitives were intrigued and asked if they could meet June, but Diane told them that June had gone missing just before the book tour.

“You don’t suppose she took the manuscript herself? Oh, that would be awful!”

The inquisitives promised to get to the bottom of the burglary. They asked her who else might be interested in the manuscript.

“Why, I’m sure anyone writing about the Last War would be fascinated by it. You see, my next book is about a changeling spy and a warforged soldier named Builder who fall in love during the Last War. It’s sort of a spiritual prequel to my first novel, although it has a different setting and characters. I did a bit of historical research, but June nearly wrote the entire book herself. Come to think of it, I think she even may have suggested the topic.”

In that case, who would have had the opportunity to steal the manuscript, the inquisitives wondered. They asked Diane when she had last seen the manuscript.

“I’m sure I had the latest draft right before the book tour began. That’s the last draft that June showed me just before she disappeared. You don’t suppose it could have been one of the other authors in the book tour, do you?”

Rogrock was certain that it was not Mr. Silverclaw. He showed a clear disdain for ghostwriters and publishing work that was not written by his own hand. Thriller, on the other hand, was known for his gritty realism. His action-packed novels were famous for describing only the actions of their characters, without any descriptions of their inner thoughts or emotions. He was also highly popular among warforged readers who were becoming a growing market. Warforged readers confounded most fleshborn writers who did not include warforged as prominent characters. For an author like Thriller, June’s manuscript about a warforged love story could prove invaluable.

The problem was getting to Thriller now that the book signing was over. Rumor had it that despite his fame and fortune, he resided within the Cogs, the dark underbelly of Sharn where most of the city’s warforged lived. The warforged enclaves within the Cogs were a dangerous place for the fleshborn. Visitors were sometimes assailed in the alleys by desperate warforged seeking money to make much-needed repairs on themselves.

Now, Talia had an idea. She had gotten Thriller’s autograph engraved onto her daggers. She suggested planting the daggers on the fallen dwarf guards downstairs and framing Thriller for the crime. The inquistives were unsure whether they could live with themselves after such a foul deed, but they decided that they had few options short of storming the Cogs, where they would be hopelessly outnumbered Thriller’s supporters. So, they agreed to Talia’s plan.

A few days later, in a courthouse on the upper level of Sharn, the warforged Thriller was brought to trial for the murder of numerous House Khundarak guards. Two daggers with his signature engraved on them were the evidence given to the court. Thriller was sentenced to be imprisoned for the remainder of his existence, however long his parts may last, in the dark recesses of the Dreadhold, the maximum security prison operated by House Kundarak.

Now, the inquisitives were free to explore the Cogs without fear of being assailed by Thriller’s minions. They learned the location of Thriller’s safehouse where they suspected he had hidden Diane’s manuscript, if he did indeed steal it. They gathered outside the entrance of the safehouse and Eros quietly opened the door.

Inside, they saw a woman writing at a desk. She was reading the passages out loud as she wrote them. And as she did so, her shape shifted and changed. First, she became a warforged. Then she became a soldier from the Last War. Then at last, she took on what might have been her true form: a changeling.

“And then the changeling spy embraced the fallen warforged and cradled him in her arms. As the light in his construct eyes grew dim, Builder the warforged reached up and gently touched the changeling’s cheek. Then his eyes grew dark and he moved no more.”

After she wrote the final lines of the manuscript, the changeling stretched her hands. Then, as if noticing her company for the first time, she whirled around. But she did not seem alarmed. Rather, she looked extremely pleased that someone was there to hear her announcement.

“The manuscript is finally finished!”

The changeling was June, the ghostwriter who had written Diane Farrowind’s latest manuscript. Thriller had offered her a better deal than Diane, so she had changed her allegiance. But now that Thriller was behind bars, June seemed to have no qualms about returning to her original patron.

For it wasn’t material greed that motivated June but rather a lust for stories. June was writing a love story between a changeling and a warforged set in the Last War. Although she had lived through the war as a changeling spy, Thriller had offered her the fascinating perspective of a true warforged which was something that Diane could not give her. And June wove Thriller’s insights into the tapestry of her love story.

When June delivered the manuscript to her original patron, Diane was greatly relieved and held up her end of the bargain by keeping quiet about the inquisitives’ involvement in the murder of her own guards. Then the inquisitives turned to their original quest and asked June if she would help their own patron, Katelyn Forrester d’Vadalis, write letters to her suitor. June gladly accepted the challenge, eager to explore a new persona.

When June wrote on behalf of someone else, she took on the persona of her patron. But Katelyn had few original ideas of her own with which to sustain a long-term correspondence. The inquisitives soon found themselves in the position of having to come up with topics for the letters themselves. Each inquisitive offered their own suggestions for the love letters. (*See Appendix)

For the next six months, Katelyn exchanged letters with her suitor. The letters that she received in return were written with flawless penmanship and
were every bit as refined as she had expected. But there was a stiff formality to them, and Alexander never wrote any details about himself. In fact, they seemed more like an analysis of June’s letters which expanded upon them until they reached their logical conclusion. This was thrilling for June who finally felt as if someone truly understood her writing and was seeing her real self for the first time.

After six months, Katelyn finally received a formal invitation to visit her suitor at his noble estate in Valenar. There was just one problem. In his final letter to Katelyn, Alexander had written the following: “After our long correspondence, I am eagerly looking forward to our dinner conversations about the lovely letters that we have exchanged.”

Katelyn was terrified because she had not even read the letters that she had sent! And now that the correspondence had ended, June had once again vanished without a trace. Without June, how could Katelyn navigate the dinner conversation alone and answer Alexander’s questions without looking like a fraud?

Katelyn asked the inquisitives to help her one more time by guiding her through the dinner conversation. The heroes obliged and joined Katelyn’s entourage. They traveled by land to Alexander’s lakeside villa in the elven land of Valenar. Alexander was a tall and handsome half-elf who was an ambassador between the elves of Valenar and the surrounding kingdoms. He asked many pointed questions about Katelyn’s letters, but the inquisitives helped Katelyn navigate her way through the dinner conversation.

Then during dessert, there came a stunning revelation. As Alexander reached over for a cup of tea, a handful of notes fell from his sleeve. They were covered with questions to ask during dinner which were written by one of his servants. Alexander blushed as everyone stared at the notes in shock and surprise.
“I am so sorry, my dear Katelyn. For I have deceived you. I did not write the letters that you received. In fact, I am a terrible writer and could never write anything as beautiful as the letters that I received from you.”

“Then who was it?” Katelyn asked. “Who wrote the letters that I received? Whose words have I been reading?”

“It’s hard to explain, and I am not sure if you will even believe me. But here is the truth…”

Then Alexander told his guests of an ancient letterbox that he had discovered when he was first building his villa by the lake. When he received the first of Katelyn’s letters, he had his servants read them to him. He was deeply moved by them, but he was so distraught by his inability to write a proper response that he threw the letters in the letterbox and hoped they would vanish. And in fact, when he opened the letterbox to retrieve them, he found that his wish had come true. In place of Katelyn’s letters, there was a sealed envelope dated ten years in the past with a letter that was written in reply. Not knowing what else to do, Alexander sent off the letter that had magically appeared in the letterbox, believing it to be a miracle or a blessing from his ancestors. It was only later than he realized his own foolishness when
tradition and custom forced him at last to invite Katelyn to his home.

Katelyn and Alexander were both stunned, and they did not notice as one of Katelyn’s handmaidens ran out of the villa. It was June, disguised as a member of Katelyn’s entourage. She now rushed to the lake and searched for the letterbox. It did not take her long to find it. Standing before the ancient letterbox covered with vines, June tore a piece of paper from her notebook which she always kept with her. She scrawled a hastily written message and thrust the note into the letterbox. A moment later, she opened the lid and indeed, she found an envelope with a reply. The letter was dated several years in the past. It was a single sentence with only three words.

“Wait for me.”

Terence, curious about the effects of thw letterbox on other objects, placed a hunk of indescribable rotting trash (no one could tell what it had once been) inside and closed the lid. It too disappeared, although this time there was no reply.

The inquisitive bade June to wait and be patient without losing hope. From that day on, June waited. Months turned into years, and the inquisitives each went their separate ways. They had little choice after Eros took all of the money from their office safe and departed for distant lands. Most of them left as well in search of new adventures. But a few of them, like Malma, sought to learn more about the mysterious origins of the letter which seemed to have come from the past.

Many more books and manuscripts were written by June’s hand and published under her patrons’ names. Once Rogrock asked June why she never published anything under her own name. June assured him that she had come to accept this arrangement. It was her way of expressing herself in a world that did not want to accept the existence of changelings. Her people were both feared and envied for their ability to take on any persona they desired. June did not want recognition for her persona. As far as she was concerned, all personas were merely illusions, even those that were kept by form-bound beings. What mattered most to her were her own lived experiences, which were more real than any persona.

In time, June purchased a modest lakeside cabin of her own with the money that she had earned as a ghostwriter. One day in the future, when she was an elderly changeling near the end of her life, she was sitting by the lake when she heard footsteps, heavy and even, approaching that were accompanied by a bad smell. An old warforged, his body covered with rust and scars from the long years, strode toward the lakeside home. Under one arm, he carried a bundle of letters bound with twine. In the other, he held what remained of a hunk of garbage that had rotted away long ago, but he cradled it lovingly. When he reached June sitting by the lake she stared at him with amazement and tear-filled eyes (whether it was from her emotions or the stench it was hard to tell). At last, the warforged spoke and said only two words.

“You waited.”

The End

APPENDIX: Letters

1
아직 만나지 못 한 당신에게 미흡하지만 저의 마음을 써봅니다.
I may not be worthy of a suitor as noble as yourself, but I wish to write earnestly of my feelings for you…
Keyword: Humble

2
당신과 엄청 많은 것들을 보고 듵고 싶어요! 같이 이 시간을 살아요! 이 멋지고 찬란한 세상을 같이 즐겨봐요! 같이 낮잠도 자고, 도글도 하고, 책도 읽고 해요!
I want to see and hear so many things with you! Let us live together in this moment! Let’s enjoy this wonderful world together! Let’s take afternoon naps, dig for relics, and read books together!
Keywords: Digging, afternoon nap, reading books

3
Dear Alexander,
My love for you burns greater than the sands of the desert.
Our communion will be a sign for progress and passion and a love for the lands that now mourn.
With your hand in mine, with our hearts and fates intertwined, we can heal the land, mend lost histories, and reign in generations that can live in times of peace, sheltered by our love.
Keyword: Progress

4
The letter is a story in the style of a Greek epic where a girl braves many trials and dangers to personally give a boy a raptor egg as a gift, but the story doesn’t ever get to a happy ending, and the girl dies just before giving him the egg.

5
My Alexander,
Your eyes are as black as the beadiest rats’.
Your breath smells of petrid trash left to rot in the burning sun. Still lingering in the night wind.
I have killed for you.
I will kill more probably. Hopefully not you.
But if you need someone to hide a body, I am your woman.
For now any way,
Katelyn

6
사랑하는 당신을 만날 날만을 기다리고 있어요. 우리는 거인과 warforged 소설처럼 정말 눈물나는 사랑을 할 수 있을거예요. 대표적으로 237에 나온 그의 대사는 정말로 감동적이였어요. 그 사랑을 건네는 장면이란!! 정말 준을 대단한… (중략)
I wait only for the day when I can meet you, my beloved. Like the novel The Giant and the Warforged, our deep love will bring tears to people’s eyes. I was especially moved by the line of dialogue on page 237. What a heartwrenching scene!