To His Imperial Majesty Maximus first of his name.

From your loyal servant and Brother Count Roland

My dearest Brother I write to you in strange circumstances, I am currently in some old elven
ruins surrounded by ratmen. I decided after facing the dead that I needed to make allies. The threat of
corruption of the land necessitated making allies outside of the local tribes and minor barons of men. I
had to decide between ogres and ratmen. I picked the Plaugeborne as they call themselves because they
appear to be a new race born by circumstance and not by nature. As such these Plagueborne can be
shaped, not totally obviously. I was able to gain an audience by approaching with with 5 heads of cattle
offering cows to each patrol of ratmen and was able to trade books and teaching in exchange for an
alliance. They apparently were not a unified group as their leader told me, they were undergoing a
small-scale civil war. The Plaugeborne differed on whether to settle down and seek to build up or
whether to continue to seek to roam and consume and spread endlessly. I offered my army’s assistance
and they accepted.

The coordination before the battle was brief, they warned us of the threat of the large war
beasts and the veritable sea of ratmen. I left my knights and a token force left at my camp and advanced
with my main force augmented by volunteer reinforcements. I would be remiss if I did not mention a
Lieutenant Petrus late of Scholla of Agermont. He managed to graduate, go back to his local barony and
gathered a small company of volunteers. Lt. Peter said the young men wanted land grants after the
campaign. I could grant them land in Agermont but I will ask your advice on what to offer. In any case
We marched to the Plaugeborne’s land bringing promised books and some specialists along with
provisions for the specialists. Plus, some older farmers along with seed attempt to teach them how to
practice agriculture. They welcomed us with some suspicion which I purposely paid no attention to.
They placed us to their left and put large orge sized rat people which have strange firearms and weapons
fused on to their forms . Our lines advanced into the ruins of some lost civilization.

As our two armies approached it appeared as if we were interrupting some form of ritual. Lady
Katerin looked on in horror as she was able to sense what was going on. The ruins had several strange
spires made in the middle of the ruins. Without communicating both our armies sought control of these
points. The feral ratmen had several large abominations serving as their front line. The most frightening
was a semi rotting form that looked as if hundreds of forms were fused together by some strange
magical means. Our forced opened with a withering volley. While our fire did not slay the house sized
crime against nature to blew holes that men could walk through into it. The rest of our foot advanced
claiming a ritual site. Our allies weaved strange magics that created a green lightning storm that
prevented the bulk of the ratmen from advancing, forcing the enemy into the flanks which were better
prepared for an assault. The raking fire of the Large orge sized rats wounded and killed many of the
large abominations in the front ranks. When the enemy acted, I was finally able to see what looked like
it was a cannon. The cannon, however, appeared to be magical in nature and glowed with the same
magic as the storm weaved in our center. Fortunately for our allies it appeared as if the exploded leaving
a crater as not a shot left its barrel. After this point with our foes war beasts decimated the enemy fled
the field.

After our Mages dispelled the magics the Plaugeborne’s leader told me to not touch the dead of
his people and gave us some magical texts that his mages had no interest in from the defeated force. We
gave his people the books and specialist and went back to our camp. It was a strange experience, but I
can say that we can work with his people. My men seemed to think of the plagueborne much of the
same they though of the Orcish clans we passed through on our way through Agermont. A touch of fear,
curiosity, and guarded friendliness. While primarily motivated by food they were willing to trade small
trinkets for food among each other. The march out of their territory was without incident.

Brother, I have an idea on how to organize the area west of the empire. Most of the peoples of
the west do not love the empire, some like the orcs with personally friendly to our family would rather
die then be under Imperial auspices. So we must create some confederation outside of the empire’s
structure to ensure our western border is secure and allow for trade. I would ask your permission for this
idea to go forward. My scouts have just found a pass to a mountain range that seems to make a more
useful permanent camp. I would also ask that you send off the rest of the mail along with my current
package of reports. It seems as if my magical associate has mail for our uncle. She is much more
reasonable then her grandfather but until recently has regarded me only in a professional manner.

Your Vassal and Brother

Roland Astoria