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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sanglorian" data-source="post: 6007839" data-attributes="member: 83822">THE SKINSCRATCH MURDERS (The Cross) People walking early in the morning along the decks of the Cross have stumbled across butchered bodies, each one marked with a sign scratched in their foreheads. Any Scarecrow or homeless person could identify the signs—they are Gabber, the language of circus folk, travellers and sexual ‘deviants’. Perhaps in context they would mean something; each one taken alone is impossible to decipher. There is also no clear motive, although each corpse has been found missing an item that they held precious: wedding rings, holy books, lucky charms, and so on. Street preachers have not been shy to accuse the crowfolk of somehow being responsible. One-Eyed Kristof—a known fantasist—claims that the crowfolk have realised that their obsession with shiny things leads them to value worthless trash: so they have devised magic that identifies the most valuable item a person is carrying, without realising that this is almost as arbitrary as their own love of ‘shinies’. He cannot explain the Gabber marks, however.   The Scarecrows have shown particular interest in the killings, with one saying darkly that they have to be stopped before ‘the forbidden sign’ is used. Hooks What is the forbidden sign? Are the crowfolk involved? Where does One-Eyed Kristof get his information? What is the meaning of the Gabber marks? What’s happened to the valuable items? THE TIAMATAN REVIVAL (Shuttered City) There is a reaction against the Cult of Dead Tiamat among the worshippers of Tiamat. These Tiamatan Revivalists reject the desperate and often destructive attempts by the Cult to resurrect Tiamat and hold that—now she is dead—the only way to truly honour Tiamat is to live as she taught her followers to live. Although Tiamat has always emphasised ruthlessness, ambition and pragmatism, Revivalists usually hold that the stage of violence and repression before her death represented a madness or senility not true to Tiamat’s legacy. They focus instead on personal excellence and esoteric mysticism. The Revival is still unpopular among Tiamat’s faithful, but it is growing in power and popularity: partly because of its message of self-chosen morality and self-directed living. At the end of the Street of Small Gods is a brave preacher who talks of Tiamat as the Empty God and spreads word of the revival. Because he has avoided violating Temple doctrine (how can it be sin to say Tiamat is dead and will not return?) the Temple is yet to deal with him. Hooks Where are there still faithful of Tiamat? What does the Temple Indivisible think of the Revival? Is the Revival as innocent as they appear?</blockquote>

Verification