Winter, Castleford-on-Rim

It had snowed hard during the night, but was blue and bright in the morning.....he had gone out for a while, tromping around in his heavy boots, for his morning constitutional....but now he was back in his study, with the Lurvish Scroll unrolled on the large table....the slats of ebony and ivory at top and bottom keeping it flat for perusal.....It had taken years to learn the arcane Lurvish tongue....but the effort was small compared to the reward, in his private estimation....for here he had found solid clues to the mystery which had consumed his whole attention since that long ago day in High Delstin, when he had first heard of the Abiding Old Ones.  A boy came in with more wood for the fire, and tended to it....he barely noticed...he could never remember that boy's name....it didn't matter.  Again he had come to the same conclusion....he would have to brave the journey to the Western Lands if he had any hope of confirming the wonders presented in the Scroll.....the Metaphysicians and Ontologists at his own University, and at the other great seats of learning in the Realms did not think much of his quest for knowledge of the Old Ones.....they thought he wasted time and effort on things of rumor and myth.....but what reward there would be if his quest could reach fruition!  It was time for hard decisions and, at last, action!  He carefully rolled up the Scroll, and returned it to it's copper tube.....he decided that the first thing he had to do was enlist persons for the expedition....he would need a guide familiar with the Three Kingdoms of the West....he would need to purchase passage with the trading fleet....he would need trusted men, sworn to his cause.....men of arms....and clever men too....a secretary, a body servant, a physician too?  How civilized was the West?  Some sort of major-domo or quartermaster for this growing body of men?  And he would want someone familiar with the Dark Arts, since he would be pressing on into that part of the great world which was known to be perhaps the last firm stronghold of Magic!