In the Patriarch's Abode
"Having a little trouble, there, are we? Allow me to assist your recollection," says the Patriarch as he begins to recite the history of this case as he knows it: "Every winter, about the time of the Advent of Meda, for the past several years, there is an ongoing series of murders. I hesitate to use the word 'series' as pertaining to these crimes, because the only thing that the crimes seem to share in common, as far as I know for certain, is that they are invariably perpetrated in the season of the Advent of Meda. The fist few times I just thought it was an unhappy coincidence, but by the third or fourth time, I began to question whether some enemy of Meda's might be behind these crimes, because I firmly believe that there is some connection with a clergyman of one stripe or another. Just what that connection may be, I do not know. I have done some divinations related to this, and I have learned from them that Meda's gravest enemies are not implicated, and yet I have also learned that some clergyman or other is somehow directly tied to the events, although it is usually the clergy of Barcarus. This is obvious even to the casual observer, though, because it seems that someone with ties to the clergy is victimized in one of the murders each year. We have asked the constbulary for help repeatedly, and most recently, a private band of investigators who call themselves the Fur Burners have offered their help. Some among Meda's clergy have encouraged them, perhaps too much, and while I they have not made any appreciable progress that I am aware of, the word around Clayfields is that they are supposedly 'on the case,' for whatever that is worth. But, no, I thought it best to reach out to the established constabulary and to our own Special Squad of investigators to help us. Do you have any additional questions for me just now?"