'Greetings. I have heard your name in dispatches from Esteldín. It seems you have done good work for us in the past, so I am not surprised to see you here, on the very doorstep of the Enemy.

'North of here there is a region of dread and darkness called Imlad Balchorth. It is largely inhabited, if that is the word, by terrible wights and fell spirits summoned from the world of shadow. It is most unnatural for such creatures to be seen abroad...something must be summoning them, binding them, causing them to wander in that place.

'I have learned that there are three great black monuments, like huge jagged blades, placed around a lake in the centre of the region that overflows with menace. This lake can be recognized by the two vast dying trees upon a central island. The monuments are in the heights to the north, west, and south surrounding this lake. I ask you to visit each monument...it may be that they offer some evidence of the evil that breeds in that place.'