Harbinger Arniman,
I doubt that you could guarantee my safety anywhere within Lower-or within Upper Sanctuary, for that matter. Your correspondence may comprise the most asinine request I have ever seen. Gangsters roam the streets of Lower Sanctuary, assaulting, extorting, mugging, and murdering the populace at a whim. Cyrus Doors of the Crone Inn turns a blind eye to those who reside within his walls, and criminals, cultists, and slavers conspire within, plotting to inflict yet more suffering upon the already-shattered people of Lower Sanctuary. Goblins, kobolds, ogres, minotaurs-all of these roam your streets, the people too afraid or overwhelmed to care about the blatant corruption that walks among them. Your own Temple cowers under the weight of this darkness, your Harbingers sheltered within its walls and unable or unwilling to lift a weapon against the waves of crime that undulate throughout Lower.
And yet, on the word of a corrupted man who has just died attempting to incinerate himself and others alive in a massive explosion of suicidal flame, you have the effrontery to demand that I, apart from all the criminals, savages, and petty tyrants who walk your streets, be made to account before you? You choose to ignore the blatant crimes of those around you, and seek to enact unjustified retribution against me? I have never once seen you walk among the people of Lower Sanctuary, enact justice for those who wrong them, provide vengeance for those who cannot avenge their own loved ones-and you have the audacity to claim judgment over me? You are pathetic.
I committed no wrong. Arsden Lazaz was a wanted criminal of Upper Sanctuary-and a man who had inflicted countless wrongs upon Lower Sanctuary. He was guilty of assault, harboring criminals, murder, and slavery-likely amongst many other crimes that I do not know of. He fled the justice of Upper Sanctuary, after brazenly attempting to slay me in the streets of our city. When I found him in caves under the former streets of the goblin settlement-which, whatever others may say, are not a part of Lower Sanctuary by any legitimate claims-he was with a party that consisted of goblins and various other fell elements, including a necromancer. Their apparent goal was to claim the pieces of a corrupt crystal, imbued with immense necromantic powers, for the remnants of the Gruzzle Goblin Tribe. After sighting Arsden, I subdued him-at which point a rolling melee that lasted perhaps twenty minutes began among his cohorts and those others who would arrive to reinforce him. His cohorts-including Van Volfram-attacked myself and others with me, and refused repeated orders to stay away from Lazaz's body. In the course of this battle, Lazaz was slain, and his body was burned after another of his cohorts attempted to steal it away. I allowed all others with him-even the goblins, which was a grave mistake-to leave, and saw that the crystal was shattered, and its shards purified of the dark taint that had dwelled within them. This action has led to the demise of the goblins that walked the streets of the former goblin claims-and it has prevented dangerous criminals, monsters, and necromancers from seizing this power for their own corrupted and dangerous ends.
I make no apologies for apprehending and defeating this criminal outside Upper Sanctuary. Justice does not end at the walls of our city-and he who commits crimes against our city will be made to account for them-as vengeance is not limited to a straight, pre-defined line, the principles of law and justice do not end by a single step through a gate. He brought crime to Upper Sanctuary-he was made to account for this.
The people of Lower Sanctuary have lived with injustice and petty tyranny for so long that they now cling to it because it is all that they can claim as theirs. The Ledskir Crew walks the streets, comitting crime after crime upon the people of Lower. Chaos reigns in your streets, blood stains the stones, fear permeates the air, and melancholy echoes through every heart. Your own cowardice, fear, and impotent claims to savage chaos allow this to continue-and your people's own blindness to the tyranny they so desperately cling to because it is all they know only continues to harm them further. If you wish to punish the guilty, they are all around you. If you wish to avenge those who have been wronged, they number in the hundreds. If you wish to see justice done, then step outside your Temple and see the dark presence that grips Lower like the vise of the Dark Tyrant's gauntlet.
If you wish to see justice done, then see that my name is cleared, and see that your Harbingers right the countless wrongs around you, instead of directing your impotent wrath against one who stands against the corruption that lays waste to your streets. I will not be judged by you-as it stands, you are fit to judge nothing, least of all yourselves.
-Valaron Sunellar, servant of Lady Sune Firehair