Talonfall

Talonfall is the hunting cell of the Talons of Veylan given to Keyleth on her elevation to Scaled Bane. They watch the roads, walk people safely down them, and kill what they are sent to kill.

The note

Nettle and four others were already camped in the treeline north of Nuts Deep when the company came back from Elturel in the second week of the downtime. They had been there two days and had not announced themselves. The letter came separately, tied to a hawk's leg, written small on bark-paper to keep the weight down.

Keyleth,

Nettle and the others will have been sitting in your treeline for some days by the time this reaches you. She does not announce herself and she will not come inside your walls, and you will save yourself a season if you stop trying to make her. Everything else about her is an improvement on that.

Five people, then. Nettle runs them and answers to me. The other four go where you send them, and the Talons will add a fifth when your name carries further than it does now, and a sixth after that. I have known it to reach a sixth twice.

There are three things you can ask of them, and I want to set out all three properly rather than have you learn the shape of it by getting it wrong.

The first is watching. Put one of them somewhere and they will tell you what moves through it — a road, a pass, a valley you do not like the look of. You will know a thing is coming before it arrives, which is worth more than most people credit until the one time it saves them. You hear the wind before you see the wolf. Most of what this order does is watching, and nobody has ever thanked us for a season of it.

The second is guiding. They will walk your people through country that would otherwise take something from you. Nothing has ever jumped a party on a road a Talon walked first, and I have been checking that claim for forty years in the hope of catching it out.

The third is the cull, and it is the one you will reach for. Name a thing and they will go and end it. A young wyrm, a brood, a nest of dragonkin that has got above itself. Nothing older or larger than that — I am setting it down in writing so there is no argument about what I meant when the moment comes and you want there to have been more latitude in it.

Understand what a cull actually costs. It is weeks, not days. The tracking is the long part; the killing is quick, or else it has already gone wrong. While they are hunting they are not watching anything and not guiding anyone, so do not ask them for two things in the same month and expect both. They will bring back the carcass, or as much of it as will travel — I am told your company has a use for that, which I approve of. Waste is its own kind of insult.

Moving them costs you time and you should reckon it in advance. Hours to cross a town. Three to five days to cross a region. Ten days to cross the coast, and longer once the passes close. On the road they see nothing and do nothing, so decide where they ought to be and then leave them there.

One posting I made on my own account, which you may reverse without argument from me. When your Harpers' account of the burnings came south, Brannoc Yew asked me for those sites before I had finished reading it through. His people are Yewbank, out of the Misty Forest, and their winter ground lay close enough to Thornwild Court that it was his grandmother's people who walked in afterward and buried what there was to bury. They were told it had been a dragon's rampage and that nobody could put a name to the dragon, and that is what the Yewbank have believed for eighty-six years. He has now been told it was one of eight, and that all eight were deliberate. He has been cutting the names into his stave since the account reached us and I do not believe he has slept much. A man with that much reason to look closely ought to be the one walking the ground. If you want him elsewhere, move him.

The last part I would rather not write down, but you are owed it before you give your first order.

I have buried twenty-one of my own in forty years. Nineteen of those were culls. Watching wears people out slowly and you see it coming; the cull takes them all at once and you find out by way of a report that does not arrive. Both facts are true, and only one of them will feel real to you when you are standing somewhere with a problem in front of you and five people who will go if you ask.

So do not count antlers before the rut. Send word to me when you are minded to use them hard, and I will tell you honestly whether I think they will come back.

You have done well by this order. Veylan's ease was owed and you paid it.

— Corwyth Skarn

The cell

Nettle — the anchor, and not counted among the four. Keeps to the treeline outside Nuts Deep and has never been inside the walls. Offers no other name. Nobody has asked twice.

Four hunters stand under her. The Talons add a fifth as Keyleth's name carries further, and a sixth after that.

Hunter	Bears	Currently posted
Hessa Duncroft	Tracker. Ran caravans for the Cult of the Dragon before she left them, and knows how they move because she used to move that way.	The eastern road, ahead of the march on Boareskr Bridge
Brannoc Yew	Half-orc of the Yewbank, out of the Misty Forest. His grandmother's people buried Thornwild Court after it burned and were told it had been a rampage nobody could name. He has been cutting the eight sites into his stave since the Harper account came south.	Travelling — the Grove Burnings sites
Immeril Stagwatch	Wood elf, ancient and slow-spoken. Has watched the same twelve miles for ninety years and can tell you what changed on a given Tuesday.	The Misty Forest approaches
Sildreth Yarrow	Falconer. Keeps a bird she refuses to name, on the grounds that naming things is how you lose them.	Nuts Deep — watching the northern sky

What you can order

Order	What it does	How long
Watch	Post one somewhere and they tell you what moves through it — a road, a pass, a valley. You know a thing is coming before it arrives.	Indefinite. Most of the order's work is this.
Guide	Walk your people through country that would otherwise cost you. Nothing has jumped a party on a road a Talon walked first.	The length of the journey.
Cull	Name a thing and they go and end it. A young wyrm, a brood, a dragonkin nest. Nothing older or larger. They bring back the carcass, or what of it will travel.	Weeks. Tracking is the long part; the killing is quick or it has gone wrong.

Standing rules.

• Complement: four hunters under Nettle, who is counted apart. A fifth as your name carries further, and a sixth after that.
• Moving them: hours across a town, three to five days across a region, ten days across the coast, longer once the passes close. On the road they see nothing and do nothing.
• One thing at a time. While they are hunting they are not watching and not guiding. Do not ask for two in the same month and expect both.
• The cull is where people die. Watching wears them out slowly and you see it coming. A cull takes them all at once, and you find out when a report does not arrive. Write to Corwyth before using them hard and he will tell you honestly whether they will come back.

Correspondence

Letters Keyleth sends through the cell, kept here as Talonfall keeps everything else: quietly.

To Nettle

Written on the 14th of Hammer, 1489 DR, on the trail north of Boareskyr Bridge and sent south with a returning drover, addressed to no one, folded the way things are folded when they are meant for the treeline north of Nuts Deep. A second letter travelled inside it.

Nettle,

Thank you for everything you've done for Talonfall and for the Talons of Veylan. You've carried more weight than most ever see, and you've done it without complaint. I'm grateful — truly — for your steady presence and for your dedication to our onerous calling.

I'm sending a message to King Melendrak about the Cult of the Dragon and the threat we're facing. If Immeril Stagwatch has any way of passing this along — through old elven contacts, forest messengers, or whatever channels he still keeps — I'd appreciate it.

I don't want to impose or pull him into anything dangerous. Just… if there's a quiet path to get this letter into the right hands, I trust you and Immeril to know it.

Thank you again, Nettle. Talonfall stands to serve our cause, because you hold it steady.

Scaled Bane of the Talons of Veylan, Emerald Enclave

To King Melendrak of the Misty Forest

The enclosed letter, written the same day, passed to Immeril Stagwatch on the Misty Forest approaches for whatever channels ninety years of watching leave a wood elf. It bears no seal. No reply has yet come back.

Carried by the hunters of Talonfall

To King Melendrak,

I'll keep this brief. My retinues have been tracking the Cult of the Dragon, and their activity is getting more coordinated and more concerning. I know you've seen a lot of "end-times" warnings over the centuries, but this doesn't feel like one of those. Something real is shifting — in the Weave, in the dragons, even in the forest spirits.

I'm not asking you to commit forces or change your stance. I'm asking for information — the kind your people have the history and perspective to notice.

If Misty Forest has recorded anything unusual, past or present — old lore about Tiamat, changes in dragon behavior, cult sightings, magical disturbances, anything at all — it could help us understand what's coming.

Talonfall will share what we've learned in return. My hunters can relay messages quickly and quietly.

Knowledge is something we can trade without risking your people, and it might be what keeps all of us ahead of whatever the Cult is trying to awaken.

Any intel you can provide would be a real help.

Scaled Bane of the Talons of Veylan, Emerald Enclave

See also

• Talons of Veylan — the wing; standings are tracked on the Renown Tracker
• Corwyth Skarn — the elder who sent them
• The Grove Burnings — the eight sites, and what Brannoc is walking
• Monster Harvesting — where a cull's carcass ends up
• The Nightingales · The Anvil · The Broken Latch · The Hearthwardens · The Dawnwatch — the other companies' cells
• Keyleth