Greywing Dispatch

(Relevant NPCS: @Torkum Greywing , @Hildegard Eismantel , @Auren Vellhart )

Locations:

@Greywing Dispatch
@Greywing Dispatch: Delia Office

In a city carved from silence, Greywing Dispatch speaks for those who cannot. Operating out of a nondescript stone office near Southborough’s lower terraces, this specialized postal service is one of @Drachenburg's most discreet institutions. Founded by the dwarf @Torkum Greywing—a former smuggler turned courier savant—the service is known for delivering messages across fractured borders, warzones, and regions where diplomacy has failed. Other branch offices exist around Skybride. @Auren Vellhart for example, runs a branch out of Delia in @Thelidor.

Greywing Dispatch asks no questions. Its couriers do not wear uniforms, origins of the sender's location are obscured, its routes are never disclosed, and its prices are steep. But its bond is reputation: no letter has ever been lost, intercepted, or revealed. Whether a spy’s cipher, a refugee’s farewell, or a noble’s secret appeal, the message arrives—sealed, silent, and bearing only the return mark of Drachenburg.

Though officially unaffiliated, Greywing Dispatch is widely believed to operate under the protection of the Hollow Sigil. Some say Torkum was once a vault-runner for the guild, others claim he brokered a truce between rival borough cells in exchange for safe passage. Whatever the truth, his network of couriers—known as the Pale Chain—moves through tunnels, cliff paths, and forgotten trade routes that even the city’s Lugals cannot trace.

Torkum himself is a fixture of the service: gruff, precise, and always seated behind a desk carved from a single slab of black slate. He speaks little, but remembers every sender’s face. His motto, etched above the dispatch counter, reads: “No trail. No tale. Just trust.”

Greywing Dispatch Pricing Structure

“No trail. No tale. Just trust.”

*All correspondence are routed through Drachenburg. Both to obscure message origins and to go through Magical Customs (see the next section)

Tier I - Local Borough (within @Drachenburg)

Base Cost: 20 silver
Modifiers: —
Example: Message to a Lugal’s clerk in another borough

Tier II - Delia branch (between @Thelidor and @Drachenburg)

Base Cost: 25 gold
Modifiers: +5 gold if time-sensitive
Example: Letter to a merchant in @Thelidoror back to @Drachenburg

Tier III - Cross-Border (From anywhere to anywhere in @Skybride )

Base Cost: 35 gold
Modifiers:
+10 gold if urgent
+10 gold if crossing Hesan border
Example: Message to a Hesan exile in hiding

Tier IV - High-Risk Zone (warfronts, embargoed cities)

Base Cost: 50 gold
Modifiers:
+20 gold if urgent
+20 gold if recipient is under surveillance
Example: Coded letter to a rebel commander in occupied @Alendria

Tier V - High-Value Recipient (regent, high ranking clergy, government officials, or known targets)

Base Cost: 100 gold
Modifiers:
+50 gold if urgent
+50 gold if recipient is under guard
Example: Message to a prince in exile or a high priest under watch

Add-ons & Special Services:

- Ciphering & Deciphering: +10 gold
- Dead Drop Coordination: +5 gold
- Return Route Guarantee: +5 gold
- Courier Disguise or Cover Identity: +5–25 gold depending on complexity

Magical Customs: The Eye of the Greywing

Though Greywing Dispatch operates in the shadows, its integrity is fiercely guarded. To ensure that no letter carries poison, hexes, or hidden enchantments, all correspondence passes through the scrutiny of @Hildegard Eismantel, a high-ranking sorcerer and arcane customs officer.

Hildegard is no mere bureaucrat—she’s a former arcanist from the Hesan Navy, who defected because of the institution's lack of precision and substandard arcana she dubbed "parlor tricks". Her presence lends Greywing Dispatch a rare kind of legitimacy: one rooted not in law, but in magical trust. Every letter is examined through ritual, glyph, and gaze. Cursed ink fizzles under her breath; illusion spells unravel in her palm. She does not read the contents—only the intent.

Clients are warned: any attempt to smuggle magical contraband through Greywing Dispatch results in permanent blacklisting and, in some cases, quiet disappearance. Torkum and Hildegard share a mutual respect—his silence, her scrutiny—and together they maintain the fragile balance between secrecy and sanctity.

Hildegard's office is a quiet chamber of stone and silver, lit by a single floating lantern. Her desk bears no papers, only a polished obsidian slab where letters are placed for inspection. She speaks rarely, but when she does, her words carry the weight of binding oaths.