Posted in the Last Stand, and around Upper Sanctuary wherever is permitted.

A Response to Candidate Weber No doubt, many have read the recent campaign fliers of Candidate Weber. While his stance regarding execution of due justice, or more aptly, as true justice, is more hardline than my own views, I can respect many of his motivations. I cannot claim to have seen Sanctuary in its more prosperous times, being only a recent arrival to the city, but I am just as eager to see a return to relative order, after the turmoil the last term has plunged our city into.

However appealing his final goal for the city might be, his means of achieving it are excessively harsh.

He claimed all fit men and women should be trained in the use of ranged and melee weapons. I am an advocate of proper martial training, myself, having dedicated many years of my life to the honing of technique with the longsword, but I believe such training should be voluntary, not forced.

The respectable Candidate Weber also advocates conscription, which I cannot support. Low morale among the conscripted could only be to the city's detriment. However, I do see great merit in his idea of a labor corps, strictly voluntary, though. You will find this in line with my idea of reconstruction projects to employ those displaced from the Canal Ward.

Restricting access to sending stones is a preposterous idea. The technology is one of the few advantages our city has when it comes to defensive deployment, and the more citizens carry them, the more are able to receive instructions and warnings from our dedicated Watchmen and Spellguard Agents in times of emergency. I do not think this right should be denied to any citizen, save for those who have given up such privileges by deciding to engage in criminal activity.

One of his key points with which I can firmly agree is that everything should be done to protect our city's defensive organizations from infiltration by thralls. However, routine enthrallment testing simply is not feasible. I have spoken to a member of the Spellguard Order who informed me that cognitive scrutinizers are very expensive to recharge, and that mass employment of that technology increases the risk that our illithid enemies would find ways to circumvent our means of detection. I will, however, advocate policies that make it easier to investigate suspected thralls in law enforcement.

As for the closing statements of Candidate Weber's fliers, I do not believe fines to be the tools of the greedy and conniving, but suitable in punishing minor crimes and augmenting taxation as a means of increasing city funding for matters of defense and economic stimulation. Exile, however, is a sentence that I would see used less frequently, as it frees perpetrators of more serious crimes to repeat their offenses, is difficult to enforce, and generally amounts to displacement of problems rather than resolution.

My name is Elina Adair, and these are my views. I may not be as fervent as some, or as eloquent as others, but I believe I can and will make a difference for our city if elected.

[Each flier bears Elina's ornate signature.]

We are living in the Underdark, where the challenges are as extreme as can be found in this world. I understand this evokes an inclination to react in kind with radicalism of our own, but down that path lies division and, ultimately, destruction. Candidate Weber's policies may appeal to some for their rigidity, simplicity, and because of the forcefulness with which he advocates them, but they would lead our city into a state where the majority of our citizens lived hardly better off than we did when we were slaves. I cannot support any movement toward subjugation.

However, extremes in the opposite direction can be just as dangerous. Order must be maintained, and the safety of the city cannot be left to chance. Though I respect the man, I cannot support Evaristus d'Allimagne's views on the Shadow Tribe and the Great Shadow Death. With the drow of Traensyr united, our city needs Etorix more than ever, and the great dragon has been generous in forgiving the attempts by our very own citizens upon his life. We must accept his generosity and pay the meager price of his due praise if our city is to survive.

In Mirtul 153, I see a chance to recover from mistakes of the past, and calamities for which none of us can be blamed, but we must be careful not to veer too far from the middle path of compromise. Moderation will be vital to the city's continued survival.

[The posters all bear Elina Adair's ornate signature.]