Has anyone seen Jackdaw???

Khala,

Did the same happen to your less chaotic summons? The animals?

--Mantel

No. Also my familiar was unaffected. If there is anything else you wish me to try with the powers available to me, please let me know.

Khala Stormbringer
Dean of Druidics
Darkwood Academy

For the sake of my own clarity: Has anyone else noticed other people in the Proper have been going missing? Perhaps we are just missing each other?

I may be a bit paranoid, but there are several people I have not seen around lately.

Dame Ilana Darkwood

[Written in an unsteady and erratic hand]
Ilana,

You mean, ghosts and memories haven't seen other ghosts and memories around? I wouldn't call that cause for alarm.

-Lorkeirlai

Ilana, I have not noticed anyone else missing.

(not magnus )

(the paper is covered in anti demon and anti scrying runes)

Keep it up, your getting close but there is still more to know.

-The fool

---

The hands grasping at Khala’s summons are concerning... as is her losing control of them. I do not doubt that this is the same for all summons of a chaotic nature.

What, then, is the case for all other negative energy creatures? Are they now under the control of these hands?

Reyna,
Worst case scenario says yes, possibly e'en th' Laird o' Bad Whisky. I think w should plan on that occasion and be pleasantly surprised than not, kinswoman.

I reached out to my fellow paladins in hopes that they might have insight into the matter at hand. As it turns out, there's been demon activity on the rise all over the continent lately. The order is of the belief that it is the actions of one demon in particular. They've not been able to name him and know little about what class of demon he is. It appears this demon harbors a special fondness for making deals with people by offering them exactly what they want, seemingly in exchange for very little. Those desperate enough to accept such bargains see their desires twisted, and usually end in servitude to the demon and its master. The one time the paladins managed to corner him, he quickly fled rather than fight, maintaining a disguise all the while. It's also rumored that the demon is working for someone assembling all sorts of negative energy creatures in service to this person or persons. We might make some more progress by looking into more “classic” negative energy creatures, according to my sources.

In service,
Dame Amalthea Laurent-Belmont

I don't know if this helps, but I believe the White Lady or Temperance was a Banshee. Her ability to scream portrayed as much. I would request that someone who knows the Tarot arcana create a list of the major arcana and write down what we know each arcana currently is. Such as Temperance being a Banshee. I would also request that anyone that still has information about previous versions of these cabal members, such as what titles they held and what they were, make note of it. We might be able to use previous iterations of the cabal to predict what sort of negative energy creature is holding what title.

Right.
So I figured wi' all this creeping nonsense going on in Travance maybe some o' the other local settlements were having trouble. I reached out an' had a check. I have a few contacts in Stonefall an' I heard about these two siblings tha' the Blackguard encountered during patrols. It doesn't seem related ta anything else going on... but if this is true, then it's both disturbing an' concerning ta say the least. This was the report I read,

"There was a pair of adventurers, a brother and sister. The Sister was a healer strong in intuition, a bit of a divine scholar, and though young, incredibly wise. While the brother was a warrior brash and brave, but constantly doubting himself, constantly guided by the opinions of others never trusting his own intuitions.

Well sadly for them they got attacked before they even made it to the Dragon's claw inn and the brother was picked off. The sister survived and tried everything in her power to bring her brother back, but to no avail.

That is till she saw a man dressed as a priest, said he was an angel in disguise. Said he could perform miracles. Said 'he could bring the brother back, but they would have to share a body'.

Apparently the girl has been switching between the two personalities, though it seems the 'Brother' personality has reverted to more basic… primal... instincts. The duality between the two personalities is horrifying even by our standards."

I would like ta express again tha' even the Blackguard were unnerved by this child. But what I want ta know though is who this cleric bastard is, going round' making horrible schisms in the minds an' souls o' grieving lasses. I've got some words for him an' I hope ta Gaia his answers are good.

Dominic, I can assure you that the White Lady was not a Banshee. A different sort of negative energy creature, yes, and of seemingly similar tendency, but not a Banshee.

I had the less-than-fortunate occasion to see and interact with both kinds of creatures in close proximity within the same span of twenty-four hours, so I feel as though I can put that theory soundly to rest.

As far as the listing of the Arcana and what rumors we've heard may line up to which major Arcana, myself, Cara, Ilana, Kanas, and others have been compiling a list of what we know about the Arcana and what we know about the members of this cabal. I will include a copy on the other posting where we are compiling research notes, including notes pertaining to our suppositions about which rumors fit which Arcana. I want to stress that, other than the fact that the White Lady was Temperance, and that the Fool, Hierophant, and Devil are somehow active, nothing else is concretely known at this time, though I think we all have some strong suppositions. I'd more than welcome additional perspectives, thoughts, or theories.

Starling, can you identify what the White Lady was if not a Banshee?

Regardless, if the cabal had fought others in the past like in Caras vision, there may be records of what title arcana the different creature were. If we can establish a pattern between what negative energy creature carried what title of arcana we can better prepare ourselves to face them, by the title.

(not magnus)

(paper covered in anti demon anti scrying and anti summoning runes)

white lady is a type of undead all in of itself...

The fool

I spoke to the Seneschal a little about the Arcana, mostly because I was unfamiliar with all of the cards and she is quite knowledgeable on the subject. To help those like me who don't know as much about the Arcana, here is a list of the cards and what they are associated with. Please feel free to correct or elaborate upon this if anyone has more to add.

0 - Fool - Naivety
1 - The Magician - Mastery
2 - The High Priestess - Intuition
3 - Empress - Nurturing
4 - Emperor - Ruler
5 - Hierophant - Tradition
6 - Lovers - Connection
7 - Chariot - Controlling opposite forces
8 - Strength - Right tool for the right job
9 - Hermit - Introspection
10 - Wheel of Fortune - "This too will pass"
11 - Justice - the Valosian kind of justice
12 - Hanged Man - Acceptance of your own destruction, martyrs
13 - Death - change
14 - Temperance - literally just that - using two things to control each other
15 - Devil - temptation
16 - Tower - destruction, one thing breaking into many (I read it as revolution, personally)
17 - Star - Hope
18 - Moon - Mystery/unknown
19 - Sun - the warm fuzzies
20 - Judgement - more like discernment & wisdom, being able to make good judgements, not passing judgement
21 - World - The completion of a major cycle, the point when everything has come to completion but you also know something new is going to start

~Amalthea

Thank you Amalthea (and Lois by extension) for that break down and much thanks to everyone who has been contributing thus far on this chain of research. The more that is being collected, the better prepared we will be to tackle this Cabal and its growing threat. I'll check with the local garrisons and try to compile some reports from my fellow servicemen and local militia. We might be able to establish a paper trail of corroborated sightings and a timeline for the encroachment onto our sovereign lands.

Yours in Service,
Sgt. Arradir Go-Dringol

Reyna,

Seeing as it happened when I summoned a werewolf as well, I'm thinking it's just chaotic creatures in general. Now, this is not to say to others not to summon at all. I kept control of them for a bit. I just recommend using caution if calling upon those abilities to those who are able to.

Khala Stormbringer
Dean of Druidics
Darkwood Academy

Alright, I am reporting back with compiled notes of eyewitness testimony and crediable sightings/events from my survey of the guards within the Baronial Estate.

First, I have handfulls of reports of guardsmen coming across bodies drained completely of their blood bearing two marks on their carotid artery (neck). No notable trend linking the identies of the victims, so I assume these are crimes of the moment as it were ... like a hawk spotting a mouse as it flies overhead. I would say these are likely vampire attacks, but there are other beings who operate with similar methods.

Second, I have a good number of reports of a rather tall, lean man appearing before people near the woods in the evenings. He is extremely disfigured, balled and has wrinkles across his body. Some have aliked his appearance to an undead abomination. He is said to scream into the night that if he "kills enough, Death will return him to how he was hefore the Master was killed."

The reports have grown in frequency over the last month to distressing numbers, all the while traveling east towards the Proper. This is likely due to the higher population in the areas. I will note that the path of accounts show that the beings are not following the Eastern Trade Road, but rather cutting directly across the land in a straight line regardless of terrian difficulty. It is likely that whoever is leading this grouping is adept in traveling through dense forest and wild lands.

Yours in Service,
~ Sgt. Arradir Go-Dringol

I've had a chance to catch up on all of these, and just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for looking for me, and making sure I didn't stay... like that.

Been describing you to the few who didn't know who you was as a "man who there's a lot of folk tales about, except most of them are true."

I'm glad they can get to know you now.

--Chet