Bullies and Beasts
Rumors of new developments among the Cloaks and Jungle Elves
Men,
You are among our best scouts and spies: we are very pleased with your previous scouting work. As you know, the reward for a job well done is another job, and there are new situations we need more intelligence about.
You first three will go to the Bender empire to investigate reports of rebellion there. It looks like there are some new gangs that are bullying townsfolk and even soldiers when found in small groups.
More importantly, there have been several assassination attempts, most of them successful, against middle- and high-ranking officials of the empire.
Our analysts see patterns in this behavior which make us suspect the Cloaks are behind this. We want you to investigate this possibility, and keep tabs on the Cloaks in general.
You other two will go the jungles where Abua Shi's tribe of Elves lives. What we hear from those quarters is increased attacks of animals against humans, goblins, and other sentients.
The rumors make it sound like the beasts are showing a near-human sentience of their own. Of course, this could be the inevitable distortion that rumors always go through, but we have heard enough to conclude that the beasts are being driven by a summoner. We want to know whether that is true, and whether it is Abua Shi or some new summoner among the Elves. Given the number of new summoners we have seen, it wouldn't surprise me to find another one anywhere.
Good luck.
