The Truth About “Duke Edgar Balliol”

Before I share what I know, I give the disclaimer that I speak with the blessing of Count Sebastian Everest, Warden of Kormyre.

It has been many a moon that we have worked to reach Hauxwell but our efforts have finally borne fruit. I owe that to all of you, my dearest heroes. I could not have gotten so far without everyone’s help. With the denizens of Hauxwell liberated, I was able to enter the dungeons of my family’s keep, The Kestrel’s Perch, with a small group after my family’s soldiers worked tirelessly to clear the rubble out of the collapsed tunnels.

We were able to locate my father, chained and battered, but still very much alive. My mother wasn’t with him. He told me that as soon as the siege began, the duke’s forces took my mother and several other political prisoners and fled. As to where, he couldn’t say. That’s a mystery unto itself that I intend to unravel. But I need to share something my lord father told me. Something that may shake the very foundation of this war as we know it.

I inquired about the letter my lady mother wrote—the one in which she mentioned a man who bore no resemblance to the Duke Edgar Balliol my father met so many years ago. The supposed duke he laid eyes within these past few months, my father told me, should have been an old man. I inquired if, perhaps, he was using magic to make himself younger or maybe if the duke had sired children. Duke Edgar Balliol never had children or kin. In fact, my father informed me that this “duke’s” face was completely wrong; it was as though this duke was “a completely different person.” The Duke Edgar Balliol we have been fighting is a fake. That’s not the part chilled me. What he said next filled my heart with dread.

Soon after my family refused to pledge fealty and was taken into the dungeons, a local blacksmith was brought into our keep. A blacksmith who took my father’s seat and acted as though he was the true Lord of Hauxwell—going so far as to take on my father’s name. All of Travance and Ravenhurst’s old allies who signed the duke’s treaty—all of the knights and lords and ladies who supposedly signed away their allegiance to the Kingdom of Kormyre with a flourish of their quill… What if I told all of you that there’s a chance they haven’t betrayed us? What if I told you that any knight or noble who didn’t bend the knee to this false duke was spirited away, clapped with chains, and left to languish in a dungeon—replaced by pretenders.
The deeper I dig into the reasons for this war, the more sinister falsehoods come to light. And I don’t believe that we’ve yet hit the bedrock. Exactly how many nobles have been replaced? Is this “false duke” being puppeted; could he be an innocent man? Who is he? What happened to Duke Edgar Balliol? Where has my mother gone and why has only she been taken? The questions and implications are overwhelming…

I freely share this information with you all, my fellow Travancians—my fellow heroes. Through our united efforts, I have hope that we will reach the truth. I implore you all and thrust my selfish request upon your shoulders: please, help me to uncover the truth about Duke Edgar Balliol.

Thank you.

-Sir Odette D. Lucatiel, Knight of Kormyre

Hjolda!

I shall bend my mind, efforts and words to this task

You know where I stand.

On my honor,

Ser Odette-

As I said this feast, I will aid in any way I can.

In service to Count Everest and the Kingdom of Kormyre,

Cara Easton
Court Sorcerer of Winterdark

Sir Odette,

It is no selfish request to ask for aid in uncovering the truth.

Was the blacksmith aware that he was a pretender?

Lady Heimdell,

That's one of the parts I'm unsure of. With my father freed and restoring order to my people, I can always write him a letter with a list of additional questions. Particularly, I'd like to know if this blacksmith was taken into custody or if he was only of the people who fled with the duke's forces. Any unasked questions, I'm willing to relay.

-Sir Odette D. Lucatiel