My Dearest Ursula,

I enjoyed having the chance to meet you at the celebration of the Shining Sons return at the week's dawn. I'm embarrased to admit however that I must have misheard you with the noise of the celebration around us. I was under the mistaken impression that you had said that you move around too often for Guild membership to be worthwhile for you. So I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I heard of that terrible incident with the skeleton exploding in the sitting room of Fair Winds, on which your group holds a multiple year lease.

Let me say right away that I desperately hope no one sustained any lasting injury. I fear the news reached me a few days too late to be of much help, but if any of your group are still suffering from that outrageous attack, please contact me. At the very least I should be able to arrange reduced healing rates with the priests of Sune, whom we collaborate closely with. I heard the damage to the room was quite extensive, I can only imagine how deadful the whole experience must have been. To be attacked in the apparent safety of one's own home is a truly terrible experience to have. I can't tell you how many normally rather jaded people whom I've spoken to who were quite outraged about this terrible violation.

But enough of such unpleasantness. Now that I've been disabused of my confused impression that you were only passing through Waterdeep, let me encourage you again to avail yourself of the advantages of membership in Elegant Order of Hostesses, Hosts and Escorts. So many people don't realize the many benefits that our Sister- and Brotherhood has to offer a person in the personal entertainment professions. Access to our modest spell library, for example, can be a great boon to anyone who uses our specialized brand of magics. Just getting access to Disease Ward, Conception Ward and their variants has been enough to motivate many who live elsewhere in the North to make a trip to the City of Splendors and secure Guild membership. We also, as I mentioned, get discounts on healing spells cast by the members of the Church of Sune who work in Mother Tathlorn's House of Pleasure and Healing and our adjoining Guild Hall. We also provide access to training classes in advanced tecniques, some of them only taught within our Sister- and Brotherhood. Most important of all to someone active in the professions are our contact and referral services and our extensive customer files which allow those in the guild to avoid the more unpleasant customers.

Ursula darling, nobody in any profession in the City of Splendors is compelled to join a Guild in order to practice her profession - the law has been quite clear on that subject for generations. It is up to the Guilds to make membership attractive and I like to think that in my time as Guildmadam I have helped our Guild in that regard. But I helped form the Elegant Order with the goal of helping as many people as possible avoid the worst dangers of a group of professions that should ultimately about joy, companionship, and the easing of other's troubles, not becoming better at defending oneself from the consequences of one's own calling.

If I have managed to peak your interest, I encourage you to seek out Mother Tathlorn, our Guild contact, at her House of Pleasure and Healing. The entrance requirement is a modest fee of 30gp followed by an examination procedure performed by two of our ranking members (one of each gender, of course). Half the fee is refunded to those who fail the examination, of course. However if I'm any judge of character, and I wouldn't be Guildmadam if I wasn't, I suspect you'll find the examination more enjoyable than it is challenging. Once one is a member of the Elegant Order, there is only a paltry 15gp annual fee to remain a member.

I hope I will see you among the other Sisters and Brothers of the Elegant Order at a Guild function soon, but I'm sure that even if you don't choose to join the Order we'll have the pleasure of crossing paths again. I hope when that happens we'll have time to share a drink and regale each other with tales of our exploits.

Until then, soothing drinks and soft cushions.

Salierna Longtresses
Guildmadam
Elegant Order of Hostesses, Hosts and Escorts