This black leather-bound book looks fairly unremarkable. It's title was written in impressed gold that gives the book a scholarly distinction, but beyond this the author was largely apathetic about the aesthetics of his work. After a few pages of introduction on shipping over the last 70 years or so, the writing becomes much more personal and lazily written.

On the inside cover, a portrait of a beautiful woman has been lovingly sketched. She gazes at the reader with aloof indifference, preferring instead to focus on a valuable coin of Sembian nationality that she's clutching in her hand. The faintly sadistic smile which graces her lips lends her an alluring cunning. The sketch is unsigned, and no indication is given of her identity.

Marpenoth 7, 1374 DR

Greetings. I am Aurin Guerini. It seems that in making such a splendid name for myself among the dregs of Lower Dunwarren, I've neglected to take a moment and reflect on the blessings that I've received during my lifetime. I have been quite fortunate in my dealings and such, you see. In this, my forty-second year, I have had few relatively major setbacks in my pursuit of grander things. Credit for my wealth and power should be given where it is due: I have had Luck on my side for decades, largely for reasons unknown to me.

The rest of the credit must be given to my cunning and skills as an actor and playwright. I spent a year or two slumming among the less fortuitous of Selgaunt after I departed from the Sembian Royal Navy, practicing my trade and living among my fellow thespians. It was there that I learned all manner of things about men and how best to play them on a fitting stage. As the months passed, I began to acquaint myself with all of the dramatis personae that walked amongst me. In time, the great heroes and noble leaders of history became a bore as my depth of understanding of motives and behavior deepened. It was then that I stumbled upon something that has provided a spark of interest for some time now - life as dramatic art. I forget the platitudes about life imitating art and all that, but simple Truth remains beneath the flippant phrase. It is a grander, more moving tribute to mankind to infuse life with meaning through the application of drama than to leave it sterile and unamusing. Is it not a more virtuous exercise to pit brother against brother and watch as they thrill their fellow men than to teach them a craft and let them toil their lives away?

For my dramatic venture onto Sanctuary's grand stage, I have decided to select an old favorite from my repertoire. The broken down beggar, reviled by the industrious and pitied by the misguided. A man of vice and coarse words and thoughts. Cunning but unsubtle, a product of the old Comely Inn perhaps? My childhood comfort and learning hardly matter at this late stage, and there is more to be gained through such a role than a more dignified path.

A. Guerini