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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 1751611" data-attributes="member: 6294">Kull's 16th Report - Part 1SaltmarshFourth MoonTo: Bishop-General Kartrak VisehartCommunication from Kull RedfistKartrak,Let me begin by expressing my very great pride and pleasure on receiving the Church's promotion to a rank of Bishop-General.  Although I do not agree that my secular rank warranted such a promotion, I will do all I can to prove worthy of it, and to advance the interests of Our Lord Hextor in this region.I trust that the Church will understand that I have long since put the staff of the late administrator to work. They are responsible for border security, customs excise and law enforcement.  Their performance thus far has been in most respects exemplary.  The only infraction I have to report was in the case of a certain Inquisitor Matin, whose frequent use of excessive force led to the deaths of several prisoners before questioning could be completed.  Matin claimed that he had done so because he believed to be Our Lord's Will.  I sentenced him to undergo the same trials as those he had killed.  Had he survived, it would have demonstrated he was correct in his interpretation of Hextor's purpose.The purpose of this report, however, is to advise the Church of a recent visit by the Lizardfolk ambassador, and the developments that resulted from it.  The ambassador had arrived to propose a treaty between his people, and the realm of the Birch Coast, which I now administer in Our Lord's name.The lizardfolk proposal was simple enough: they requested dominion of the area of land around their stronghold, in exchange for which they would offer intelligence on a dangerous renegade of their race, whom they believed would go to war with Saltmarsh if I succeeded in my goal of draining the swamp.As the region the ambassador requested would remain marshland even after the swamp retreated, I agreed to the request.  In addition to this, however, I required them to enter into a treaty of mutual defence and trade.  I will not have an independent state within the bounds of the Birch Coast, unless that state's welfare and interests are tied to that of the region as a whole.With the negotiations at an end, we turned to the matter of the lizardfolk renegade, whom the ambassador gave the name S'Slakk.  The renegade made his base at a cavern complex between the Lesser and Greater Buffalo Bone Rivers, to the west and south of the old Beacon.  They estimated his followers there to number some ten thousand, about half of which were warriors: a force many times over that which could be marshalled against it.I doubted then - and still doubt now - the accuracy of these figures.  An settlement of such size could not long endure in such poor land.  If this S'Slakk had the forces the ambassador gave him, he would have gone on to war long before, simply to feed his followers.  That he had a formidable force, however, I was more than willing to accept.  The lizardfolk are a proud people, and would not have allowed the renegade's forces to survive, had they been able to destroy them, themselves.In addition to the main body of his army - however large it might actually be - S'Slakk was also known to have a bodyguard of elite troops, as well as a powerful advisor.  Beyond the hyperbole of 'elite' and 'powerful', the ambassador could give little indication of these group's capabilities, though he indicated that S'Slakk himself was a mighty warrior.The lizardfolk's intelligence on S'Slakk came from one of their scouts, who had been captured by the renegade, but subsequently escaped through an underwater tunnel.  This tunnel apparently led deep into S'Slakk's camp.  The ambassador was confident that the tunnel could be used to reach the heart of the camp, without the need to battle the main body of the renegade's army.  I cannot say that I shared his confidence: S'Slakk would be a fool indeed if he was not by now aware of the means by which the lizardfolk scout had escaped.It was also the ambassdor's belief that, were S'Slakk slain, the body of his followers would wither away into small groups, none of which could threaten the wider region of the Birch Coast.  No doubt many such groups would 'wither' into the control of the local lizardfolk, a fact the ambassador admitted when I suggested as much.After due consideration, I decided that I would strike against this S'Slakk.  I had heard enough to be confident that he was a threat to the security of the Birch Coast.  I did not plan to make the attack with only the ambassador's information, however.  First, I would call on Our Lord Hextor for his counsel.</blockquote>

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