Abah's Landing Merchant Lords, V. 6

Summary

 * Location:
 * Author: Tamonir, Master of Secrets

Content
Prepared by Tamonir, Master of Secrets for the Queen of Taneth

I wasn't sure I was ever going to send this to you. Everything it contains is little more than theory and conjecture. I have no proof, you see. No facts to hang before you. All that said, I decided that you had a right to know my thinking on this subject. Better safe than sorry, as the Dark Elves are wont to say.

I've suggested in my previous reports that there was another group or organization hindering and even actively attacking the merchant houses of Abah's Landing. I've referred to this as the "hidden house," but I have a better name: The Shadow Conglomerate. Like the vast chasm in front of you in the middle of the night, you can feel the Shadow Conglomerate's presence looming in the darkness, even though you can't see it.

What is the Shadow Conglomerate? I really don't know. Every avenue I approach that promises to reveal the truth of the organization instead sends me running in a dozen different directions, searching for the next clue that always seemed to be at least one step out of reach. Here's what I do know. I believe that the Shadow Conglomerate was formed about forty years ago, suddenly coming on the scene to challenge the merchant lords after a century of only having to deal with themselves. Within twenty-five years, the Shadow Conglomerate has risen to a place of prominence that allowed it to actually cause the merchant houses to step back and concede a portion of their power and influence to this new and secret organization.

I believe a battle of some sort took place in the deepest shadows. In the battle, the hidden house emerges victorious while the public-facing merchant houses were grievously wounded and forced off the pedestals they had raised themselves upon, the worse casualty was Gurges and Associates, which stopped being an active concern almost overnight and has since become known as "the Fallen House."

Is the Shadow Conglomerate the true power of Abah's Landing? I cannot say for certain, and that is what troubles me the most.

(NOTE: These dispatches were "recovered" from a Taneth vessel and delivered to an interested party in Abah's Landing. I have published them so we may all know what our cousins across the may thing of us. -Anonymous)