From the introduction:
Me old chiv Voilá! gave me the rattle as he reckoned I could give you the best whispers on the plane of Ash. And he was probably right.
Me name's Efka Farstrider, and I've been banging about this part of the multiverse for as long as tanar'ri teeth. Longer than some of the factions have been in your Cage, that's a cert. I remember the Great Upheaval...it ain't often that something from Spiretown makes waves out this far, I'll tell you that for free.
But I'm meandering. You want to hear about Ash. I know it like the back of my hand. In fact, the back of my hand looks a lot like Ash. But then that's because I'm dead. No, don't get all morbid on me, I rather like it. I'm deader than dead. Undead, you call it, eh? Surprised? We're not all rapacious ghouls, mindless zombies or ravishing vampiresses, you know. Some of the wights I know are quite normal. Well, as normal as a shambling decaying talking corpse can be...you could almost call some of them friendly.
And before you ask just because I'm dead, it doesn't mean my chant's out of date too. 'Fact, I've done a lot more exploring since my (un)death set in; indeed, the Lower Elemental Planes are a hefty sight more friendly to your constitution if you ain't got one. Best thing I ever did was die. I heartily recommend it, portalskippers...