In Response to "The Plan"

[(OOG: The following note and bundles of paper are attached to the board by a rather irate raven, who flies off upon finishing his task.)]

Hell's bells, suppose I'll make what I know public.

During the feast this past month, I and other stalwart adventurers received a few letters from the one known as the Artist. I decided to hold onto a few of them on the off chance there were codes or ciphers hidden within. I realize now that I've given the bastard too much credit, and in between a bit of work, I've been making a few copies of them. Just in case, you see. On the off chance the events of the impromptu society attempting to unravel the tapestry this Artist seemed to weave around us were not discussed as much as I had hoped, I shall detail them below.

In the evening hours of Friday night, an initial letter was found, beginning with the words "Allow me to be pristine" and suggesting that there would be a clue in the Dragon's Claw Inn, but we needed to find something out by midnight this night.. That clue came in the form of a lovely woman named Amy, who had been told she would meet a friend by the name of Jon at this very same building. We then came into contact with a series of riddles written in Khitanese. The answers to those riddles were Stars, Water, Darkness and sand. The one place where we would find all those things would be the beach of the lake, at midnight. We, however, were too late. Burkhart found Jon after unrelated affairs at the beach a few minutes after the midnight bell was struck. He (Jon) appeared to have been dead for a long time, and was heavily chained. After Burkhart brought the man to the Inn, we figured out what we could, and found another letter. This parchment had a letter 'written by Jon' on one side and a thinly veiled threat at the other, asking us to write a letter to a man by the name of Arthur Wainwright. To most people that name may mean nothing, however when the Circus came to town a man by that very same name saw some freshly raised undead and asked us to eliminate them. He interposed himself between a blade and my limb on my behalf as I was carrying him to a healer during that fight, and for that I am grateful. However, near the back end of the July feast, he did try to get people arrested for lycanthropy and openly praised Malyc, so I cannot be sure what his motives are. The Artist also may have hinted at having him captured. After reading this letter, the ranger Valanye tracked the path that Jon had taken to reach the lake's beach, and found that it went in a circle around the whole Proper.

At that point, we elected to give Jon a proper burial. We said some words and dug a hole beside the large tree at the beach. After covering him, the spot was blessed with small flowers by either a druid or ranger, in honor of the forests Amy and Jon played in as children. I only mention this now because when I return to the Proper in a few months time I would like to discuss with someone the purchase of a small headstone on his behalf. He did not deserve to die at the hands of this Artist.

Anyhow, after mourning Jon I led us few investigators to the Mage's Guild, where we would discuss our next course of action over pretzels. After informing Cyric of what had happened thus far, we all decided to write a letter to Arthur Wainwright under my name, asking for a drink on behalf of the sacrifice he had made for me against those undead. We felt it was our safest, if not only move to play the Artist's game, lest more persons were at risk.

The next morning, I received a letter that both taunted us, and offered a riddle that, over the course of the day, was determined to lead to the one and only Blood Spirit's encampment. Afterwards, I was too wrapped up in finding a gate and getting rest to see to gathering more adventurers to investigate.

That is where my part of the story ends.

However, I believe the following should be stressed.

1: The Artist does not want to involve seasoned adventurers
2: The Artist does not want to involve the Guard.
3: When we did involve 'those who've learned to beat their chest' and the Guard, we've only found corpses.
4: When we have not done as the Artist asks, an innocent person died.

Enclosed are copies of the same notes and letters he has sent (I had to guess a little bit (read: a lot) at the Khitanese alphabet, but I finally made a copy).

I'd like to request that the Adventurer's Guild send a modestly sized group of our newer hands to investigate the Blood Spirits encampment as soon as it is available, and that the guard and the higher seasoned offer some counsel at the absolute most. Please, do keep me informed. He has stalked me a tad as well, and I would rather he did not do it again.

This Artist has killed a Travancian citizen and supposedly holds more hostage, my friends. Bring him to justice. Save lives. Be the hero the people of Arawyn believe in.

~Terzak

[hr]

I find it amazing to watch. You have a mole among you. That is most obvious.

To the Artist, who is not a multiple of names herein, your machinations will find your corpse lying somewhere. Playing with Travancian gets you killed as often you turn too slowly.

Dear Mr. Laric,

Thank you very much.
I enjoy writing haiku.
It is very fun.

Dear Mr. Terzak,

If you're unsure if you translated the Khitanese properly, I can help. It is my native language.

- Midori Suarez
Daughter of Mercy