A PROCLAMATION TO THE CITIZENS OF ESGAROTH
FROM HIS GRAND MUNIFICENCE AND HIGH POTENCE
KHAMUL: MASTER OF MIRKWOOD, DESTROYER OF CARAS
GALADHON.
Citizens of Esgaroth,
Where are you now? Where have you gone? Are you hiding? I notice you do not come out and greet my forces. You must be hiding. No matter.
You must be fortifying your women and children in your hovels, and sending your men and boys out to the plaza with their pitchforks and torches. I say that, as you have no real army that can deal with me.
Let's talk about that. You have no army defending you. Oh, you may have had a general come and recruited the men. You may have had a parade for them; filled with cheers and tears. But let us be clear on this: You have no army defending you. They have gone.
They have left you defenceless. They have abandoned you like an unwanted pet. you have been forsaken such as the name of my master Sauron is forsaken among the lands of the North.
Inevitably, you ask yourselves "why?" Why indeed? Why have your fellow Lake Towners sworn to defend you and then desert you? There are many ways to answer that, but I shall use the most direct: you are weak, and they know it.
I don't blame them for that. It is natural to run from something you fear. What I do despise is the continued resistance provided for my troops.
Do you think your feeble attempt at 'valiance' or 'honor' will be made note of when I write the history? Are you serious in thinking that some mention, even in passing, will be made of your great resistance? Pride with skill, begets confidence. Pride with nothing is pompousness, and you are pompous to think that you rank so highly...
All who oppose the Dark Lord Sauron will be crushed underfoot; as so many ants from a hill. You shall be paid the same amount of note as well: Forgotten about within a moment and an errant thought.
As you cower, and weep for your city; your very souls, know now this-I have no hatred for you. I do not curse your names, nor do I plan to feast on your bones, or other grim fates you may be imagining.
However, you are my enemy. And as such, you will be killed to a man. That is the way it is. The Strong will always dominate The Weak. That is the Nature of things. I have learned to fulfill my role, and in doing so, I will be assisting you in being subjugated and killed-your role in nature.
This ends my message to Esgaroth. My soliloquy to Lake Town is finished. Weep if you need to. Pray if you must. But above else, prepare yourselves for the inevitable, for the precious city as you know it, will be my smoking pile of ash within a fortnight.
Khamul