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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3890367" data-attributes="member: 11760">The top of the altar is too high for Katadid to see except when distant, so he's unable to search there, but as he circles it, he sees the altar appears to be made of obsidian, and spies, near the rear of the altar, just beneath its upper lip, is what looks like a concealed compartment. It's too high for him to reach at his current height, however."Hmm."The candelabras standing beside the altar are twisted in shape and seem to suggest both birds and something more sinuous, like a dragon, but aren't strictly representational either way. Katadid guesses they might be worth some money, if one could find a way to transport five-foot high candelabras easily.Finally, referring to the map, he locates a secret panel in the wall concealed to look like flowstone. It presumably leads to the next cave on the map."Renraw? Mage hand?""I'll decide what spells I cast and when, thank you, Leach," Renraw huffs, casting mage hand. "Now, for a look at that book."The leather bound book scrapes forward across the altar and then thumps onto the floor near the Gentlemen Delvers, falling open as it does so. The inside pages all appear to be encrypted in the same way as the work order the group found previously. At a glance, the format appears to have both dates and regular text throughout the book."Ah," Kat exhales. With a blissful look on his face, he kneels down in the center of the book between the open binding. At normal size, it would only be his eyes, but at this height, his entire body darts across the pages as he attempts to decipher the text. He calls for Ragglus to turn the pages as needed.It is indeed the same cipher as the work order found earlier and the book appears to be a man's journal. Beyond telling he's someone from Blackberry Ridge, it's not immediately obvious who he might be."Should be easy enough," Katadid mutters.With much turning of pages and Katadid tracking tiny dirty footprints back and forth across the page, he deciphers the journal as the rest of the Gentlemen Delvers listen with bemusement.The journal belongs to someone calling himself "Card Firmer Then," which the author concedes is a silly pseudonym to use, but at the time he chose it, he was "still newly reborn in your secret embrace, Kran."The author is outraged that, with the death of the previous bailiff, "that stupid girl" was chosen as the new bailiff by the duke, and not him, "despite all I have done for that wretched fop." Despairing, he had found this cave while wandering the hills north of Blackberry Ridge. Within was the dead body of a hermit, apparently a priest of Kran. Finding the secret door in the rear of his cave, the author found the hidden shrine and the cave system beyond. The voice of Kran herself had spoken to him, and he turned away from the church he had always served, but which had failed him in his desire for more power. Finally, Kran sent Blackspine to him as a servant and familiar.Reading further, Katadid discovers the author jumps around in time: About a year and a half ago, a dwarf trapper named Tarn Tetherknot arrived outside the palisade walls of Blackberry Ridge, saying he needed to speak to the author and the bailiff. But upon revealing that he had been bitten by a werebadger, the soldiers in town drove him off.Realizing the werebadger could be an asset, the author set off in pursuit of Tarn, eventually finding him and extending an offer of help, including a promise to cure the dwarf. The offer, of course, was a lie. In the meantime, the author set Tarn to robbing the town, using a simple cave system beneath the town that connected to a hidden shrine the author had previously found.The author brags about hiring the Azzak twins in secret to expand the cave system and install traps and then betraying them, "for the best secrets are the ones that are kept," and animating their corpses to guard the complex.The stolen goods are transported through the cave system by rats controlled by Tarn, using the author's magical panpipes. These are periodically packaged together and sold in Goblin Falls and Stonecrown. The monies are to be used to hire the Black Reavers to fall upon the town and kill the new bailiff, Arabelle. Once she's dead, Card Firmer Then will rally the troops and the goblins will turn and flee, having been paid well to do so. He knows the goblins can be trusted, since he had previously hired them to kill the last bailiff with a poisoned arrow as well.This plot, the author is convinced, will force the duke to raise him up to bailiff this time around.Katadid looks up to find both Renraw and Tock quietly discussing the flaws in the plan and how they would have done things differently."Of course! OF COURSE!" Kat babbles as he paces back and forth. "The silver sling stones were hidden in the water in case he ever needed to get rid of Tetherknot. Just north of town would make a dwarven excavation easy to connect to the well, where the moisture would attract rats. And the person whose journal it is: He said he changed his faith. The high priest, Richter, OF COURSE!The other Delver's jump back at Kat's outburst."An anagram! Card Firmer Then is Manfred Richter!"He pauses, thinking."Hmm. The Maidensbridge Abbey nuns, this man. Lothian has poor judgment."</blockquote>

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