To the anonymous letter writer and pretty much everyone else,

While I could wax poetical about the implications of what kind of person leaves anonymous letters scattered around the highways, I'll restrain myself, because it's possible this is someone's first attempt at trying to influence a large audience and they were too nervous to claim the attempt. Or they thought that people would listen to an unknown voice as opposed to their own. Or, as I'm sure most people assume, they're just a coward who wanted to spread vitriol without risking their own reputation.

For those who didn't get to enjoy the litter scattered across the continent, I'll summarise:

Eleusis' vines are bad. Druids can listen to what we say, and track where we walk, and do other bad things like teleport directly to someone who walks among the vines. Eleusis has a clan to track the spread of the vines, and they're probably archiving intelligence gathering efforts there too.

That's about it.

As for a response? To be blunt, they weren't wrong about the vine abilities. We really can track where people walk, and listen in on things said when standing around the vines. Do we? Not really. Can you imagine hearing every single person moving around across the entire length of the vines? It would be maddening. Or hearing everything said among the vines? I could only listen to young lovers whispering sweet nothings so many times before wanting to throw myself off a cliff. Which I've done before. And it was more enjoyable than listening to what some people think is romantic and sensual. And how many times can one hear "duanathar" repeated over and over and over before it just gets old?

What we're much more likely to do with the vines is so much more benign, if not beneficial. We put out fires, quickly and efficiently. This is the single most common use of the vines. Not a month goes by that the vine holder doesn't call out that fires were extinguished by the vines, either individually, or entire areas all at once. Have you ever felt a refreshing feeling coming from the vines? That's the vines providing a small boost to your own natural healing abilities. It's really useful when you're hunting, and the vines refresh everyone - friends, allies, those neutral to us, and even our enemies. And darn it, they just look pretty.

As for the clan, yes, we have one. We use it to discuss the spread of the vines, and any areas that have been lashed, and how pretty the vines are as they wrap themselves around trees and up walls and around the necks of people who like lighting living, growing vines on fire. We don't keep logs of intelligence gathered, because it would be a very short log. "Such and such is in love with such and such and recited a poem. It was nauseating." If you're looking for a clan for gathering information like that, go ask Hashan. They have one. I used to be in it. Ask for the Watchers of the Night.

Now, to the letter writer. I have my suspicions about who you are. You clearly know about some of the inner workings of Eleusis, since you knew about specific vine abilities, and you knew about our clan to keep track of vine related efforts. Maybe you're even a former villager - I'm looking at you Yinaf, Juma, and Ellieora. It's clear though that you're terribly uninformed about the important things, like the intent of actual people. What -can- be done and what is -being- done are very different things, and you would do well to figure out the difference. I am available all the time, usually standing around the entrance to Eleusis reading or jotting down some thoughts. Come and ask, assuming our guards allow you.

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Daedalan, in the year 947 AF.