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November 19, 2000
OSI: A Wild Goose Chase for Mendur’s Daughter
I read the following article from November 14th, written by Mendor Marris himself about his missing daughter, in the BNN section of the Ultima Online web site:A Wild Goose Chase for Mendur’s Daughter
I was off on a trip to Yew, Trammel when I first got word that my daughter was missing. Aireen is the center of my world. Ever since her mother died giving birth to the wee little blessing, Aireen was what I cared about most in the world. I had been particularly worried about her recently, as for the last two years or so she has been secluded in her room in constant mourning for her fiancé Eilis Soll. Eilis was a good man, a diplomat for the city of Britain who handled disputes involving trade with any city who traded with Britain. He met my daughter through me, and after a period of courtship asked my permission to marry her. Then, tragedy struck, and pieces of his body were found neat an orc camp – brutally slaughtered by a band of well-armed orcs.
Ever since that horrible day, Aireen had never got on with her life - indeed she had never even left her room to eat. I was worried about my daughter. What would happen to her after I died? I am getting rather old, and while she is a tough young Lady of eighteen years, she is not used to living on her own in this harsh land. I was forced to the decision that she would have to marry, out of love for her, and a middle aged friend of mine named Amon seemed to be the perfect pick. Amon is a good man who has always been there for me, in good times and bad, and is an extremely wealthy arms merchant. Just the person who would take good care of my daughter. He did not suggest this - in fact, I had to work hard to convince him to accept the idea, but finally he did.
Then, while I was on a trade arrangement trip to Yew, Trammel (I live in Britain, Felucca myself and until recently did all my trading in the Felucca mainland area) I received word that she had disappeared. I headed immediately back home to Britain, Felucca and sent all my merchants out looking for Aireen throughout Britannia. After nearly a week, it seemed hopeless, until, with Amon’s help, I realized that a former clerk of mine named Paburt might be responsible. He was caught “juggling the books” and filching a large amount of my money over the years for his own use, and was removed from service two or three months back. He had talked with Aireen a great deal and seemed to have a crush on her, which we decided made him a very likely suspect, seeing as he might have heard about my plans to marry Aireen to Amon. The search was on.
I had arranged a trade conference at the Golden Brew in Felucca, and asked several different people to have those interested come, but it became clearer and clearer that this conference would turn into my only hope to beseech others to aid in finding Aireen. All I knew was that Paburt had a fondness for taverns, and had come from the city of Vesper before he started working for me.
The kind folks from the Golden Brew and Heaven’s Forge, however, were quick to find a tavern in Vesper with a barkeeper who had seen someone of Paburt’s description. He had mentioned that his uncle was in the fishermen’s guild, as though it was a sign of status, and the players quickly found the fishermen’s guild and began to question the guildmaster Treben. At first the man denied knowing Paburt, but from what I heard the group promised not to harm him and showed their good intentions in simply finding Aireen and even proving Paburt’s innocence if they could. Treben finally agreed to help them, and explained that Paburt had come back to Vesper a few months back in a panic, talking about how he was betrayed and wrongly accused of stealing from his job.
When Treben heard that Aireen had gone missing, as it was no secret, Paburt panicked yet again and said they would come looking for him, and ran off to hide in the graveyard. The group thanked Treben and made their way to the graveyard, where Paburt was seen to be calling out for help while being chased by undead.
One particularly large Bone Knight had cornered him and was accusing Paburt of defiling the sanctity of their resting place. After the group defeated a powerful Liche Lord, they dispached the Knight and attempted to calm Paburt down.With some coaxing, Paburt shared that if anyone would know where Aireen was it would be Flenniel Loak. Flenniel is the merchant that I apprenticed to back when I first started out in the trade, before going off on my own. He was the closest thing that Aireen had to a grandfather, and would often go out with her on trips. The only person who has ever known Aireen better than Flenniel was the late Eilis Soll.
Flenniel, however, is still away on a trading expedition and shall not be back for a few days yet. Paburt agreed to have Flenniel attempt to come to the Golden Brew a week from that day. It is my sincere hope that my daughter will be found, through the efforts of these brave and kind friends I have met at Golden Brew and beyond, and I have faith.
If you would like to assist Mendur Marris in his search for Aireen, join the adventurers at the Golden Brew Tavern on Tuesday, November 14 at 7 PST.
Posted by Keith at November 19, 2000 1:09 PM