(A letter from Duke Viezmar of Blüdhafen to Knight Commander Dietrich Menge (Deciphered), 17th of January, Year 143 of the Blessed Age, Blüdhafen)

Dietrich, I too have read the studies of that scholar and I as well am disturbed by his findings. From what I’ve heard he was labelled delusional by his peers, but they haven’t seen what we have. If yo remember what the thing in the cathedral was capable of, wouldn’t it make perfect sense that it wanted to create a gateway between our world and some dark beyond. And wouldn’t that explain from whence the dagger had and why it wasn’t in the cathedral.
I agree that getting the arcanist to examine it (under heavy supervision of course, we know what happened with the dagger) would be the best course of action, but alas, I bring bad news.
Before I could contact the disgraced scholar, that fool Montagnon provided him safe haven at his court and made him one of his court advisors.
I don’t hold any grudge against Montagnon, but he is the last person I want to deal with when concerning something occult. Damn that fool and his bloody curiosity.
So getting the arcanist is no longer a sound option, and I won’t trust some random researcher with such an important thing.
So it seems that until something changes, we must continue to stay vigilant, for if that study is correct, then we can be certain that the things will return someday.
But you know what gives me nightmares more than the creatures returning to our Empire? Them appearing in neighbouring lands. The Drakhnian war is taking its toll as it is, but what if in addition to that, the dwarves got corrupted by these eldritch powers. I hold no love for the dwarves and our truce is barely holding as it is, but they at least take a brunt of the Drakhnian attacks. If their holds were to become these gateways to this eldritch dimension the scholar talked about in his work…I don’t even want to think about that.
Maybe we should warn the dwarves and elves and others, but I fear that if they saw how terrified we are of these horrid entities, they might try to use them to their advantage, not heeding our warning of their terrible influence.

Every since our most holy Emperor honoured me, a lowborn, with the title of the Duke of Blüdhafen, I have tried to bring back and maintain order in the duchy. The city prospers, and it is now mostly inhabited by those who were not here during the Massacre. Everyone acts like the accursed remnant of it that remains in the centre doesn’t exist and everything is going as it should. But as long as that item is within the walls of my city and I know almost nothing about it, I will never feel that my people are safe.
With the help of the restored paladin chapter we’ve only uncovered little about what it does. This one doesn’t seem to hold any corruptive mind controlling influence, but even then, anyone who comes into contact with it is locked for at least few months without any physical encounters with anyone else, and is examined for any signs of indoctrination.
The device cannot be damaged by any means we have at our disposal it seems, and reacts to the so called “Attunement process”, which your paladins explained to me. They told me that it looks like the item enhances their powers once they use them through the device, but that they do not fully understand it. If that is so, perhaps that’s why that explosion happened once you severed the connection between the Gatekeeper and this device. It was full of this power ready to be used, but then it lost the source and the power dispersed chaotically, resulting in that explosion.
If that is so, I am even less cheerful of this item being in my city, seeing as it had already caused such devastation before, but I understand that it needs to be kept here.
I know that your condition doesn’t allow you to travel much now, but I hope we shall meet again soon.
There are other things that need to be discussed that I won’t entrust into a letter, no matter if it is ciphered or not. May Zuthar be with you friend, I believe we shall need him soon.