Dear friends, I do not have much time, but I wanted to sneak out a missive to you in the name of the Athasian Survey Project.

The fabled sinister Red Kreen city of L’Rax was hardly my first choice for visiting the Kreen Empire. And yet here I am.

When I left off in my last message, I was indeed surrounded. While it is fair to say that kreen psychology stands as far above the minds of insect predators of Athas as human minds stand above those of the feylaar, thri-kreen seem to become absorbed in the hunt in a way few can understand. Perhaps only elves at full sprint, or dwarves absorbed in their foci can truly relate.

I was surrounded, and as I felt them closing in around me, I knew that there would be no reasoning with them. I was the target they had felled. All I could do was hope that they instinctively knew their masters would prefer I was delivered alive.

Even at full strength, I knew I could not take them, and I also knew they could smell if I was pretending to be wounded. So I drew upon my source and slowed my heartbeat down to make it appear as if I was barely alive. I was counting on the fact it they would take a nearly dead old human as less of a threat than a elderly wounded human still actively defending themselves. From the air I knew we were a long way from the nearest settlement, and they wouldn’t bother transporting someone whom they thought would put up a struggle.

Thank the moons, I was right.

I awoke at the top of a bluff above L’rax. I was tied to a pole being awkwardly carried by two thri-kreen ambling along the ground.

The image you now see is what I saw of the ornately vicious spires of L’Rax as I faced what I believe is roughly eastward.

As I looked upon them, I recalled the writings of a dwarven historian who, upon being captured by the crimson J’hol Tohr-Kreen and taken here as a slave, described his first view of their intricate z’ock’n towers: “They were unlike anything I had ever seen in the Kreen cities before. The Red Kreen seemed to write poetry directly into the savannah air with these structures.”

I shared his feeling of awe upon viewing the towers, and could only wonder how many J’hol craftsmen’s lifetimes had been dedicated to weaving these towers out of resin.

The city itself is enormous, easily rivalling the largest domains of the sorcerer-kings. It is also famously unfriendly to non-kreen. Considering that even the other kreen avoid the J’hol, it is perhaps fair to say this image may well be as close as most people will ever safely get to this city.

I am being carried into the city now. As I pass under the guard towers, I will have too many eyes upon me to attempt another missive until I can either find a way to escape, or your efforts to advocate on my behalf are successful.

I can only hope they are.

Until then, may the moons guide us both.

Sources:
* Thri-Kreen of Athas