How do the Vekeshi communicate?

[efreund]

I have a PC who is very interested in the Vekeshi sideplot. So interested actually, I think I need to recalibrate with him, as he's more invested in that role and identity than he is in being a constable.

So that wrinkle aside, I have some questions about how the Vekeshi do their thing.

It seems that they gather roughly once a quarter, usually coincident with a full moon. Is the schedule and location known beforehand, or do they receive what are essentially invitations letting them know when the next party is?

Gale and Ellik meet up somehow, and tour the Bleak Gate sometime before the events of Adventure 2 (which Gale recounts in adventure 2). How does Ellik contact Gale?

I ask all of this with a head towards Starke's "Radical Vekeshi Plot" in adventure 3. It says that he contacts a PC in an improper way (at home, using wax, etc), but what would "proper" look like?

If the PC fouls up (i.e. go through with) this quest, the Old Stag is supposed to contact the Vekeshi PC to force him to answer for his indiscretions (i.e. the knife-on-boat scene). How does the Old Stag make contact in this case?

When looking through the premium handouts, I found a little bit of information about how a PC might initiate contact another member of the Vekeshi (place an antler under a tree, etc). But how do they finish that handshake and actually meet up? Also, is this information available in any of the books, or only in the handout?

Thanks!

 

[RangerWickett]

I imagine each mystic has a person who recruited them whose identity they know, and maybe another one or two mystics whose faces they've seen, but don't know their real name and identity.

When someone is inducted into the cult, they'd be taught a handful of places to look for messages, and what different messages mean. Like every day, try to find an excuse to walk past Sigalow Park, and if you see an antler tucked into the hollow of a tree, there's an urgent meeting that evening. Whoever places it should use a knife to make a mark -- there are four different symbols for four possible meeting places. There's also a public notice board at the edge of that park; the person who puts the antler in should post a news notice with the same icon. If you only see one thing but not the other, that's a hint that someone has figured out part of the code, in which case there's a protocol for laying low.

Additionally, Risuri people like to decorate gravestones with wreaths. If you pass by a cemetery each mystic has a few graves that are 'his' to keep tabs on. If you spot a wreath with three ribbons woven into it (matching the colors of the Elfaivaran flag) bound by a brass ring on or near your grave, check the inside of the ring. It should be inscribed with a meeting location. Typically those meetings will be the sort where two people sit down at benches back to back and can have a conversation without looking each other in the eye.

For those mystics who know each other in person, you might set up dead drops -- loose stones in walls where you'll hide a letter -- and you'll be able to signal the other person to check it if you do some sort of unusual action -- send a delivery to the person's place of work, but sent for a person who doesn't work there.

Likewise, there are call and response codes (which I won't come up with because it's 1am and I'm sleepy) and fashion accessories that individually are innocuous, but together will identify you as a mystic if you meet a stranger who's also a mystic.

There's not really any more collected Mystic information, except that in Adventure 8 you learn a bit about their origin, since you meet the person who created the secret society.