After weeks in which fears mounted concerning some deadly force in the kingswood, following the disappearance first of Ser Endros Buckler and other officers of the Warden of the Kingswood, and then reports of missing carters and travellers who were travelling to and from the city, and then finally by the disappearance of Ser Endros’s father, the infamous Ser Lormon, and a company of men-at-arms and sellswords he took into the woods to attempt to find his missing son, it seems an answer to the mystery is forthcoming. Early in the day, a haggard company of men crossed the Blackwater by ferry and arrived at the gates of the city. Led by none other than Ser Lormon, the company lacked a few of the men it had initially set out with, and a few men carried injuries and showed signs of privation. Ser Lormon was questioned by the officer in charge of the River Gate before he was allowed through with his men. Some of the company, the terms of employment ended, went their own ways, but Ser Lormon put the rest up at the inn between the three hills.
It’s said Ser Lormon has since been visited by a few acquaintances, but has not yet made his appearance at court. The sellswords formerly in his hire, however, have been more forthcoming of what happened, and hint that the mysterious disappearances in the kingswood can be lain at the feet of the notorious outlaw Starion Flowers, called the Starveling, and his band. The Starveling had previously kept to the Rainwood and other, deep regions of the forested lands near the royal forest, but now it seems that the bandit-leader has grown ambitious and used his wiles to terrify the inhabitants of the kingswood. As to Ser Endros, the fact that he was not with the company that arrived in the city, and that Ser Lormon has been very nearly silent on what he discovered when his acquaintances pressed him, suggests that the Buckler knight met his end.