Following the death of Valerie Gerhard von Briarwood, knight of the Kaltstaat, a public letter is published and read aloud in the great cities of the realm.
You have in your ignorance done a great disservice to the Kaltstaat and its people. Valerie Gerharde has been slain by your hand for reasons unrecognized by the court of the north at large. Whatever crimes you felt she had committed, it is not the place of foreign men to act as vigilantes in our empire. It is fortunate that it is not our custom to seek vengeance by the sword unless forced, however.
Restitution is owed House Briarwood for the wrongful death of our knight, and the insult implicit in such actions both against their house and against we of the empire as a whole.
Two hundred thousand radiants in weregild are due. Twenty-five thousand for our knight's surviving kin; fifty thousand for the death of a servant of a count of Eastmarch; fifty thousand likewise for a second count von Briarwood; and seventy-five thousand for the offense to the reigning Lady von Briarwood.
If you wish to dispute these charges, appear before the court and make your case. If you do not grant what is owed, we shall have no other option but to pursue what is owed with necessary force.
In peace,
A.V
