Also known as: Elie’s unvarnished opinion…
One of the loveliest things about playing this game is how it has gotten our creative juices enthusiastically gushing 🙂 All of us have found different ways to express this. I think that I can safely speak for whole Fromage Formation: we have each of us taken great joy in exploring our characters, their stories, their relationships, and their thoughts. Beyond just our sessions at the table together. And so I am delighted to present this contribution from BH. Who here inhabits her character, Elie, thoroughly and hilariously enough to provide us with this charming letter.
Thank you also the Bean for their wonderful photographs. You continue to add color, excitement and fun to all our shared times!
A letter home:
Rebecca Cooper
The Moonwood Cooperage
Quaervaar
25th of Mirtul, 1492 DR
Dear Little Wench,
George and I arrived with the caravan safely on the 21st, so you may breathe a sigh of relief that your favorite cousin and sister still live. You may not retort that I am your only sister. The journey was smooth and boring, just what every caravan owner wants. Waterdeep is a bigger city even than Silverymoon, so you can imagine how much I am at home here. George is comfortable no matter where he is, much like you, but has announced his intent to stay in the city for a while rather than immediately returning with a fresh caravan to the north after 5 days as he normally does. I suspect it has to do with a curvy armful with red hair named Bonnie who is a barmaid at the famous Yawning Portal. George dragged me there on the second day in town to see the sights and have lunch (good lunch!), and I’ve seen them together since, as well as heard mention of her.
Waterdeep is a huge city with all manner of people packed in on top of each other and that high density of people results in a higher density of their problems as well. Ever since Owen rescued me and taught me the ways of the Ranger, I’ve made helping people with their problems my business, but up in the outskirts of the Moonwood, one woman can make difference dealing with a missing child, or slaughtered livestock, a murder, or reports of a fell beast every few weeks. Here, they have multiple entire orders of people working constantly and yet still they are overwhelmed. I was drawn into helping someone that the beleaguered law could not at that very lunch at the Yawning Portal, and resisted initially because I felt it would pull me away from the great purpose that brought me to this stinking city in the first place – honestly, George blackmailed me into it. But after some time, I realized that it went against my nature to not provide help when I could, and the more I thought on it, the more I felt that these calls for aid might be directly linked to why the Goddess aimed me at Waterdeep in the first place. My greatest fear is that in trying to help so many, I will become stretched too thin and will ultimately help no one, or even worse, end up causing injury because my help came too late, and someone else could have done something sooner if I hadn’t agreed to be the one to take things on.
But enough navel gazing. I have been here but a short time, and here are some highlights of what I have been involved in: defeated a troll and several other underdark denizens at The Yawning Portal, investigated the kidnapping and effected rescue of two young nobleman (very pretty, very your type) from a local gang headed by a mindflayer (0/10, do not recommend the last part), taken 1/3 share in a decrepit piece of local property in payment, discovered said property is haunted by a friendly poltergeist as well as the spirit of a hag doing horrible things once a month – hag cleansing is on the to-do list, almost got eaten by a mimic pretending to be a perfectly lovely cask in the basement of said building, saved an elderly woman and her elderly cat from an escaped basilisk, and nearly gotten mugged in an alley because I didn’t put my foot down when my two young fool companions were lured by a charlatan.
Through all these adventures I have been partnered with two others – initially through happenstance and a common goal of righting the wrongs of the world, and now more formally through the bonds of property ownership. Elodie Skyshard appears to be part northern elf and part air genasi? I’ve never met anyone like her and I’m guessing on some of that based on context clues. She’s a divine knight and while, as an elf, she is likely 4x older than I am, she comes across with a level of naiveté mixed with enthusiasm that I expect from one of your apprentices. She also has a bit of a stick up her backside when it comes to rules and laws and what SHOULD BE vs. what is. Give her another century and she might mellow out of it. Of course, I’ll be long dead, so that won’t do me any good.
My other companion is, of all things, a Drow who appears to have run away from home because he actually believes in things like the rights of sentient creatures. Good on him, but if you think you are starting to detect a theme in my companions, you are right. Vaikner is a wizard (with a very attractive and useful owl familiar) who is an idealist with a great deal of enthusiasm and very little real world experience. He is most comfortable in libraries, and while he has also proven useful in these ventures, the apprentice analogy still persists. I swear, both of them are probably Granny’s age or older and yet I can’t stop thinking of them as very talented youngsters. No questions about their skills in battle; it’s the real world where they keep veering in odd directions. I, the woman who prefers to work alone, find myself constantly in their company for the past 3 days and sinking into a weirdly comfortable role of “The Voice of Reason” for them. They don’t always listen, but at least The Voice is there. Though the next time they want to go down a dark alley for the promise of ancient knowledge, I’m going to smack them both upside the head and drag them off by their ears like you do with your twins.
Waterdeep hasn’t all been dealing with other people’s problems, companion wrangling and near death experiences though. There have been some great highlights 1) The Opera! Through an odd set of circumstances better relayed when I see you again in person, I attended the opera with my companions – wore a gorgeous green gown, hair and makeup like an actual lady and we saw “The Fall of Tiamat” with Belasar in the lead! I will pause so you can fume with jealousy for a few minutes. 2) The food! So many people packed in such a small area means so many options for food packed in such a small area. I have had so much good food here, and it has been something different every time. As an ocean town they actually make stew with seafood in it! It was shockingly delicious, but getting something like that inland at home would be difficult indeed due to spoilage. Maybe someday there will be a way for you to taste it. 3) THE MEN. I haven’t had a chance to do more than look yet, but oh, there is so much to look at. Sure there are lots of pretty boys like your charming clerk of a husband with his smooth skin and delicate (ink stained) hands (give my love to Dale by the way), but this town has a wonderful bounty of men of experience with strong hands, broad chests, full beards and just the right number of scars. Once I get some time to myself, I hope to find an evening that pleasantly mixes all three of the above highlights of Waterdeep so that I can truly say that not everything about this city is obnoxious.
I have secured lodging at the temple of Mielikki where I expect I can stay indefinitely so long as I prove a credit to The Lady. I hope not to stay in this city long, though now I am a property owner here there is that entanglement to deal with. A worry for another day. It is also unknown how long it will take me to work through and resolve The Lady’s warning. Direct all correspondence to me c/o Brother Briosar Helmsing at the Temples of Nature and it should get to me. Brother Helmsing is aware of my purpose and is helping me look for clues and guidance to what The Lady might mean.
I hope this letter finds your sassy ass well. Give Dale a pinch for me and the twins a cuddle. Write me; I dearly miss the one person I don’t mind talking to for hours at a time.
Love,
Eli
P.S. I have attached a newspaper clipping about the rescue of the young nobleman. Proof you shouldn’t believe everything just because it’s in print.
Tears of the Seldarine 
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