\--==Official Submission==-- FROM: General Debinani Rahl RE: Chapter Five - The Plot Thickens The Covenant Mystery Sometime recently, a few individuals had appeared in the Yew area, skulking about at night and generally giving everyone the chills whenever they were around. I had a few run-ins with this Myca fellow, most of which left me nowhere but cold and confused, stifling the mammalian instinct to start screeching, climb up a tree and start tossing fruit and feces at the bastards. We never really got any hard evidence that these fellows new something until just the other night, when Sandoval and Shade had a bit of a run-in. The following is his report: Captain, Sergeant Sandoval and I were in Kent's Last Pint last night and encountered that strange, old man again and his pupil. We learned quite a bit about them. First of all, they are members of something called the Covenant of Blood. I'll tell you more about that later. The old man's name is Myca (don't know if that's his full name) and the pupil's name is Kamir (also not sure about his full name). Kamir referred to Myca as 'Master'. I do not know what the significance of this is. I assumed that Kamir was an apprentice or pupil to Myca. Something I learned later that night makes me think it may be something more. Anyway, Sandoval spoke to them for some time before I had the chance to. I was engaged in conversation with an elven-mage that carries around a human heart (don't ask). I was also more than a bit drunk. Once I realized that they were talking about the Society, I began to press for answers (ok...I was a lot drunk and didn't consider that this may have been dangerous; I'll accept full responsibility for my actions). By the way, something peculiar happened. Sandoval placed a healing potion before Myca (Sandoval was out of ale, and he was also drunk...don't tell him I told you that). Myca reacted violently and recoiled from it. I pressed Myca and Kamir (who also said he knew of the Society from long ago) to tell me from when they knew of us and where. They wouldn't say exactly when, but it was very long ago. I pressed and (forgive me, but I was drunk and can't be entirely sure that I heard them right since they were so evasive) Myca admitted that he knew of us from before you came here. He was in your homeland, Captain! He knew of Vesper and his knowledge was firsthand! The man is absolutely ancient, I'd say. I decided (perhaps wisely) not to push them any further, and they didn't seem to be willing to tell me any more, anyway. They said that they had to leave. Myca offered his hand, and I took it. When I did, his sleeve slipped up his arm and revealed a faded tattoo. The tattoo is that of the Black Rose Society. And unless I'm loosing my mind, Kamir tried to hide something on his arm, too. I'm willing to bet anything that he had the same tattoo. By the way, Myca's flesh is very pale and as cold as a corpse's. He's also incredibly strong. I let them leave at that time. Sandoval believes that they are vampires. And I think he's right...I'm getting ahead of myself. At any rate, I went for a walk after that. Clear my head, you know. When I came back, Myca was there again. I didn't talk to him much, and he left soon after. I did get to speak to the Elven-Mage with the human heart in a bag (once again, I don't know why; he says he's studying it, but I don't know for what). I asked him and he admitted knowing something of Myca. In exchange for some reagents, he told me what he could. All he really did is verify what Sandoval suspected. Myca is a vampire, but he says that he is not exactly an 'evil' one. I don't know exactly what he meant by that. Maybe he meant that Myca is not evil for a vampire, but until recently, I was convinced that vampires did not exist. I may have to look into them. Well, that's what happened, Captain. Sorry I couldn't find out any more than that. I'll try and stay away from the ale next time I'm at the Pint. Hopefully Myca will stop in and maybe I can learn more. You may want to ask Sandoval for his part of the story. I don't know what was said between him and Myca before I got into the conversation. If you want to know what all this means to me, Captain, well... I'd say that Myca was a member of the Black Rose Society when you joined. Did he look familiar in any way? Does the name Kamir ring a bell? By the way, they mentioned that they had met another member. I think it may have been Shadowspawn. You may want to ask him about it. Anyway, as I was saying. Maybe Myca didn't get out like you did, and something happened to him. Or maybe he had to make the wrong kind of deal to get out. Regardless, he may know where Tablenhelm is. This may be the break you've been looking for. Well, that's my report, Captain. To be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure how to handle this. The obvious response would be to confront these individuals and squeeze them for all the information they have, but it just doesn't feel right. If they felt like explaining, I'm sure they'd just come out and say "Hi, Black Rose, cool, we used to be too...", not inundate my senior non-comms with vague references to things they never witnessed. As far as the details gleaned are concerned, I'm troubled. The tattoo they've described is the same used by the 1st back in the day when there were hundreds of them and not a single one were nice people. Hell, if it had been in charge back then I would've put all of em in a sealed crate and just let em loose when we had a lot of something's to kill. Old Bruenor used to joke about building the palisade around them. Never got too close to any of those creepies during the few weeks of my membership before everything went to hell, so I suppose it's conceivable that they could be members of the old Society. This fact then leads me to some other disturbing conclusions. If they are vampires as the rumor has it, and they were members of the old Society, and they managed to escape Cove with their lives, then that would mean that when the Captain gated me away, he didn't gate me into another Sosarian shard, he gated me into the future. I find this stimulating and unnerving at the same time, for if this is the same place, then there may still be traces of The Society's legacy surviving hidden away somewhere. This is, of course, entirely academic...but I think I'm going to have to watch my step around these vampires until I can glean what they want and why.