A dusty book, a broken window in an abandoned townhouse, an uprising during summer. What does it all have in common? one name keeps popping up.
Last night was a great night. I was back in the city after visiting family and friends over the holidays, I was outside our new offices (not quite moved our stuff yet, if you are strong and want free beer and pizza, then the moving happens tomorrow evening!) and I was surrounded by friends and co-workers.
Then the dreaded thing happened. A courier arrived with a parcel for me. Now, to most people this might be a non-issue. A parcel, what is the big deal? everyone loves gifts right?
Wrong. If there is one thing being a journalist in Stormwind has taught me then it is to not only look a gift horse in the mouth, but clear out the entire foul smelling cavity of anything remotely dangerous before even as much as attempting to gaze in its direction. Poor horse, maybe not a great metaphor.
Anyway. From severed heads, to bombs, to poisoned cakes - parcels rank fairly high on my list of work related safety issues, so I was instantly worried when the courier wanted to hand me the box. He confirmed it was not making ticking sounds, so I proceeded to move away from my friends with the parcel, erected (yes, giggle away kids) a magical barrier around myself and opened the box.
Inside I found what can best be described as a rather anti-climatic item. A book, A dusty book at that, titled "The People’s Orders: Book One" with the subtitle of "The Means of Incitement". Somewhat convinced this was not some clever trap to kill me or my friends I returned to them and we started looking over the book.
The book contains 25 sections named "Order No. 1" to "Order No. 25", each section consists of a small tag-line and then a paragraph of text, expanding upon the tag-line. It reads as a sort of manifest, and it has clear political motivations and content, some strange combination of anarchism and socialism mixed with meritocracy?
In short: The manifest first tries to tell workers to help each other and value what they have achieved, which is a good thing. But then turns this into an entitled feeling of deserving better, making nobles look like they do nothing (because merit is subjective, never explained and doesn't take into account the merit of the father or grandfather of that noble) with an inexistent analysis of what taxes are used for, mixed with a double standard of when it's okay to be violent or unfair (because again it is subjective and doesn't provide explanation). A book that aims to indoctrinate people to rise arms and put those that lead and wrote this in power, probably, because they say feudalism must be kept...
The game is afoot
Leaving the book to be examined and analysed later I corralled my friends into following me to the return address on the book. A town-house in Trade District.
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Upon arriving we immediately noticed the broken window on the first floor. In theory someone could have climbed through that, but since none of us are burglars we opted to not try to repeat that feat. Instead we turned to the door.
I knocked the door, even tried the handle, but unfortunately it was locked. Or so I thought, when we all turned around for Vimmy to take a wee in privacy, he apparently bumped into the door and it was unlocked. It must have been stuck and my attempt at opening it must have loosened it.
Anyway, we peered through the open door and all we saw was dust. It was a furnished house, but clearly not been lived in for a while, it had more dust than Lady Ashvane's copy of
"Morals and Ethics".
Not much wiser we decided the next thing to do was to check the public records, see who owns the house, and this is where the story takes a twist.
Old notes, new notes, same names
In the public records hall in the Stormwind Keep we quickly found the section in question (this thanks to Vimmy who apparently NEVER tried to get planning permission for a secret lair under his house, make of that what you will dear reader) and as I read through the names, the current owner's name stood out to me. Maximillian Wicheter.
Back in June, more specifically, around the end of June, there was talk about an uprising, great chaos and how certain public figures had been abusing their power and authority. This turned out to all be very nonsensical, and while I interviewed Maximillian Wicheter at the time, my subsequent investigation into his claims turned out to be manipulative at best, or simply made up. Previous owners of the place included what I assume is a relative, Malcolm Wicheter III, but so far this has not lead to any more information.
Is this related to the posters which has been showing up lately in Stormwind? talk of Corrupt Nobles? and a rebirth of the Defias? only time will tell, but as I wandered the streets later last night I discovered other people has read the book as well.
Man one: "Tolerate no tyranny..."
Woman one: Egg! Egg. Careful what you read aloud.
Woman two: Egg!
Man one: I am just having a read!
Woman one: It might be -censured-, Egg. You might get in -legal trouble-.
Man one: Well I'll just sprout wings won't I?
Woman two: I bet they have nets.
Woman one: Probably. They probably have nets.
Man one: ...Fair point, fair point.
Woman three: I'd hold your tongues around established aristocrats. If the Royal court caught wind, I'm sure they'd double down.
If you have information about the book, its authors or anything related to this, then stop by our new offices (again - moving tomorrow evening!) in Cathedral Square.
