Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you had said no.
So here is what we are looking for. Only a few in my world have the power and resources to be the White Ghost. We call them the Oathbound. They are in charge of helping us keep to our one basic rule. When one of the Oathbound breaks their oath then one of the eleven fires burning in Tarandus goes out. As you may have guessed, one of those fires went out recently. The problem is that we don’t know for whom. This will be our job to find out. There are eleven possible culprits among the seven different regions here.
In the middle of our world are the Elemental led by the Mazors which include a mother and two feuding brothers. They are all Oathbound and I hear that the boys are both very volatile in nature and perhaps more than a little childish. I will really need your help with those two since they don’t seem to understand what cooperation is.
On the North Coast there are the wolves, led by Commander Zan. Their symbol is the talon. He shares his duties with his wife Lady Tagalong, and they are both Oathbound, so it is important for us to also speak with her.
The trundels are a group of small (and adorable) mouselike tinkerers in the Endless Plains. Their symbol is the cogwheel. They are led by jos and his advisor father. Only jos is an Oathbound and a suspect there.
Far to the north in Winterfell are the ice giants. Their leader is Brrrr Frostooth and they say he is nearly invincible in battle. The ice giants are not known to be gentle or friendly and unfortunately for us, their leader is an Oathbound. To make matters worse their symbol is the axe.
To the south I am told that we will find the mechanical Misfit, a large group of automatons (mechanical people), and their king Runetracer. The Misfit are secretive group residing on the Shattered Islands and I have no idea what to expect from them. Their symbol is the moon.
We must also find the elusive elves. Their symbol is the tree. Their leader Hermes Didious is a suspect. Like the ice giants, they don’t like to deal with outsiders and they may be difficult to find because few people have ever found the Lost Forest where the elves make their home.
Lastly, in the southernmost Reaches we will find the Cloaks. They are magic users and possibly magical beings. Old Grandpa Krall is a suspect there along with the mysterious Winter Wizard. Be warned that magical creatures can be dangerous to deal with.
Rain Lightning warned me that most of the Oathbound will be suspicious of each other; however, most of them will only suspect another because of bad feelings that already exist between them. She says that we should ignore all of those, but instead we should listen closely for anyone who suspects someone without already holding any grudges against them since “only a clear head can see truth.”
One thing we can use to our advantage is that the Oathbound all must speak the truth. Only the one who broke their oath, only the one who is the White Ghost, would be able to lie to a ranger like me. We will need to question each one and then have them all meet at Tarandus two weeks from today where we have to present actual proof to the court as to which of them is guilty.
In order to determine which direction to go first, Rain Thunder has given us our first test.
The answer is a five letter that word we all know.
- NEWLY has 1 letter in common with it and in the correct place.
- WHITE has 2 letters in common but one is in the wrong place.
- GAUDY has no letters in common with it.
- GIANT has 2 letters in common but they are in different locations.
- CLOAK has 1 letter in common but not in the right place.
- SLICK has no letters in common with it.
- RUSTY has 2 letters in common but only one is in the right place.
In which direction must we start?