At the Edge of Humanity {IC}

[Stegyre]

Tai

The rat takes the torn and burned paper in hand. To his sharp mind, it is almost as good as complete. He waxes pedantic, as he explains it to the others.

"First, one must understand that dwarves are extremely formal. We know they are holding a moot, so the most likely salutation would be "mootsmen" or something like that."

He moves on to the first few lines and says, "With writing they like to sound formal instead of simple. So we need a few important terms. 'demonstrating within this letter, to show our... ,' and the Dwarves like commitment, and it hasn't come up yet. So it's likely to be here. Of course, being dwarves, they may just as well have spoken of 'exemplifying' and 'devotion,' but you get the same sense. There are more synonyms for these concepts in dwarven than in any other language I can think of.

"You did a good job translating that middle, and dwarves don't like words like Important when they could use something related to architecture. So Integral might be a good word, or perhaps 'key,' which for a dwarf as often signifies 'keystone' as the key to a lock. Again, however, the sense is the same. I think the gist of the letter is very clear.

"Now as for numbers, dwarves are painfully precise – one must be, where architecture or engineering are concerned, so it carries through to other aspects of their culture and language. Consequently, we can only guess. But Abdul said something about it being fifty years since the last moot, so I say it's a fair guess to put a hundred fifty years. Now, a dwarf would not have written, 'and fifty, as that would signify a decimal: 100.50 years. That would just sound silly.

"A note like this contains multiple imperatives, so the writer will conclude with a closing to soften the tone. 'Respectfully,' perhaps? And it will be Moot councilman"

Mootsmen,
We have given here the documents [demonstrating
within this letter] [to] show our [commitment to our]
great nation. DO NOT [be l]ate; the council MUST
continue. [There] must be a SENDING should [you]
have troub[le arri]ving. This IS the most integral
meeting we can have, as we all know. I [look]
forward to seeing you fine gentlemen after
a hundred fifty years of stagnation.
Respectfully,
[First Name] Thöranson
Moot Councilman

He looks around to the others and realizes he has been lecturing, and more than a little patronizing. "Ahem, um, I'm sure you worked that out yourselves, too.

"So, I think it imperative that we continue on to the moot, with haste.

Perhaps, we should bring the dwarf's remains, as well, so the mootsmen may see what happened to him.

And the sword, so they may see what did it, and know we were not at fault. They may also know how best to destroy it, if need be."