Tonus,
We have arrived in Halgrim so I'll finally be able to send you the letters that I've been writing during our ocean journey, which I'm sure will please you.
We managed to find a trading post shortly after Ulco's hand was injured. It cost quite a bit in trade and I'm not sure if he even saw the face of the person who healed him, but his hand is fully functional again. The people of that city all appeared to be related and most were taller than me, some even taller than Isadora!
It was a short trip from there to the Isle of Hazren in the Land of the Linnorm Kings (one of the linnorms we actually got to see...sort of). We arrived and found out that were supposed to be meeting with the northern version of royalty, so we went to a bathhouse to make ourselves presentable. I'm not sure if your journals will read as holy writ because of this, but Curchanus revealed himself to us again; seems he wanted to visit with us and check our progress, see if there was anything we needed from him before moving into places out of his reach. Isa's three swords are now one, but I still seem to owe some sort of debt to Norgruber.
After we dressed in new (plain but at least clean) clothes, we met with the White Estred, one of the leaders of this cold land. She told us a tale (one I'm sure you'll be reading up on shortly) about Baba Yaga, the Crone who stole lands from the Linnorm Kings and the Mammoth Tribes. If I understood correctly, she has 3 daughters, and each daughter has a family. One family leads the land of Irisen for a hundred years and then the Crone slaughters that family and chooses another worthy of leading. This time, however, she has not returned, and the sisters are pitted against each other. Where an army would fail, perhaps a small group can enter the land and upset the balance of power even more.
One of the sisters is in the Hoarwood, and we leave tomorrow to seek her out. You'll find a large portion of coin with this missive, and hopefully that will last you until our return. The winter night is long (lasting moon-spans, not hours), so we have less than six ten-days to get in and get out of Irisen before the cold sets in.
Tell your brother to learn some new recipes; we'll be looking forward to new tastes when we get home. Considering the cold here, tell him to research soups.
Yours,
Claire