It has been some weeks since the team put The Shark That Walks and the Ghosts of Brunswick County to rest for good. All the loose ends were tied up neatly, all supernatural i's dotted and t's crossed. Things had just about returned to normal, when you found this letter in your mailbox.
Comrades,
It has been a most... interesting... couple of weeks, has it not? Few times in Landon Island's history has it borne witness to terrors of this nature, and never before have the happenings come so close one after the other. If our past dealings have made the right impression on you, then you know that the last thing I want is to add to these troubles. Nevertheless I find myself in the unenviable position of bearing bad news.
Landon Island's troubles did not end with the creatures you dispatched these past weeks; far from it, in fact. Something is coming, and though I cannot guess its nature, every sign I've read has told me that the scale of the threat is beyond the reckoning of such a sleepy tourist town. Landon Island needs its protectors, needs you, now more than ever before.
I can tell you with certainty that supernatural energies are building on Landon Island. Were I you, I would prepare for a fight. Several fights. As you are by now aware, "expect the unexpected" is advice to which you can never pay too much heed. Beyond that, I have no information to give you, yet. Landon Island is becoming important to the forces that watch from beyond the mundane realm. To whom, exactly, and why, I cannot say.
However. To help you in your coming adventures, I have dispatched my young apprentice to Landon Island. She should be arriving very soon; in fact, it is quite possible that she has arrived in advance of this letter. She is... keen, to put it mildly.
Chiatra Morgan is a fierce and determined young woman. You will know her by her burning eyes, auburn hair, and tattered clothing. (I suspect I'll never know how it is she manages to destroy her clothing so utterly, or so quickly after acquiring it.)
It has been my task to help her control the power she wields, a task I have met with success, of a sort. Suffice it to say that she can now move among the mundane unsupervised, without fear of unfortunate consequences. This was not always the case.
Kyle: From the stories Chiatra has told me, I need not introduce her to you at all, for you know her far better than I. She is the niece you spent so much time with, back before you made your way to Landon Island, back before all the trouble. Possibly you were hurt when she left your life as suddenly as she did. Her newly-manifested powers were the impetus for that departure. I hope on her behalf that you can understand and forgive her, and help smooth things over with Harlow.
Harlow: you may remember Chiatra from the time before she made my acquaintance, though I suspect not fondly. She tells me the two of you had been caught working a con, and when pressed under questioning her powers got the better of her. The secret of yours she revealed that day got her out of trouble, and you into rather a lot of it. She has not told me the nature of this secret; only that she deeply regrets the incident, and that if I tell you she said so she'll "sock me right in the kisser".
In practical terms, she will be of great use to you in a fight. That which gives her her power does so through rage, and rewards violence. Though you know I teach a quieter path, Chiatra's failings in this regard have been frustratingly convenient to our cause on several occasions. Owing to her tutelage under me, she has also developed a keen investigative faculty, and a predilection for the strange and unexplainable forces that flow around us. Chiatra is no stranger to magic, especially divination. I suspect these talents will serve you even better than they've served me these past few years.
The Five Who Hearken have not, thankfully, cast their attention toward Landon Island in any official capacity. By sending Chiatra to you, I have forestalled that unpleasant eventuality for the foreseeable future. I need not remind you of what happened the last time my superiors felt the need to supervise our struggles against the forces of darkness, nor why it is in all our best interests to keep them from feeling the need again now. We--you, hunters--can quell the coming threat.
Pray that I am not mistaken.
Yours,
Charles Kelsey Remington, Sage of Chronicles, Second Attendant to the Fourth Hearkener
You are left with questions, of course. Some that you can answer on your own, and some that only your teammates can answer. And, you suppose, some that this Chiatra person can shed some light on. One thing is clear; it's time for a team meeting.
