Today, I awoke to a knock at my bedroom door. It was a federal agent from the Basin District asking me about Tom Pero, himself.

The agent's name was Jon Fletcher. And he asked me quite a few questions about my dealings with Tom Pero. When we finished that interview, he informed me that Tom Pero may have been an insider. Jon and his colleagues had apparently spoken with the Society Dungeonmaster and the University Headmaster on this matter, and they both consented to an investigation, one to be kept discreet so as not to incite mass panic. Jon told me that another agent would be meeting with me to immerse himself as an avatar to tag along with mine in order to track down the avatar created by Tom Pero. I consented to this but I am fully convinced, even now, that Tom Pero, though Provan in appearance, is not necessarily a Lykian insider. So I feel confident that it will be only a matter of time before the authorities realize their misunderstanding.

I am concerned, however, of the fact that Rachele, now that she is aware of Tom Pero, may focus her attention on me and my friends, and ultimately find out about our Underground Plan.

Rachele Evernorth and I were not always enemies like we are today. In fact, she and I had been in a romantic relationship. I had about one year of experience in the Arturian Realm when she first joined. She was brand new at the time, and I was the one to show her the basics. After that point, though, she began to excel even to a level exceeding mine. And quite frankly, I was impressed. As a matter of fact, it was her intellect and ability that played a huge role in my attraction to her.

About two months after we met, Rachele and I began dating. And about a year ago today, she and I were building our own blockworld together: the blockworld of Evernorth.

And then around the beginning of April, she went completely silent on me. She stopped showing up to our Evernorth-building sessions. She stopped answering my phone calls and ticker messages. Twice, I approached her between university classes, where she explained to me on both occasions that she needed some "thinking space" for awhile. I felt crushed, but figured that it was important to respect her social boundaries. And then right after finals week, she approached me and told me, straight-up, that she wished to part ways with me as friends because of how uncomfortable she was with my "total dedication" to the card agenda.

I was crushed. That was the whole point of my Dungeonmaster candidate agenda. I was running for the Dungeonmaster position last year, and Rachele was my number one supporter.

And I will go even further to say that the card agenda was not because of the Dungeonmaster candidate agenda; the Dungeonmaster candidate agenda was because of the card agenda. I came up with the card agenda back in high school, when I realized that a Third Level Society Member could simply store the scripts making up an avatar on a simple paper card, which you could cast anywhere in the Arturian Realm, meaning no more need to set a "point of origin," temporary or permanent.

I fought quite the battle with this card idea, getting people to understand and accept it. Four years ago, I brought it up to Cray Fenton, who refused even to hear of it. I still remained good friends with Cray, but then I saw another exciting opportunity, the Third Level Society, upon my acceptance into Cabotton University. So one year later, I started at Cabotton University, where I joined the Third Level Society and brought up the card idea to the Dungeonmaster at the time, Sarah Marks. Sarah Marks actually took me up on the card idea but said that it was harder than I thought to actually fit all the scripts for an avatar onto a paper card. She suggested that I use cards for daemons rather than avatars. I was a little disappointed in this compromise at first, but then reluctantly accepted it. Ironically, it caught on very well with numerous other Members.

Last year, Cray Fenton approached me and Sarah with an idea to establish a portal between the Arturian Realm and Cray Fenton's real-world-oriented dymensional plane. I thought about springing the idea of my cards to him and how trendy they were, but Sarah suggested I wait until the Society Caucus votes in favor of a measure to establish the card system as a regular budgetary program. This was easier said than done because of a camp of Society Members opposed even to the inter-plane portal, let alone the cards.

That autumn, so this would be the autumn of 1285, right after winning the year 1286 as the Dungeonmaster, Sarah announced that 1286 would be her final year as Dungeonmaster. Right around that same time, I had begun dating Rachele. Sarah suggested to me that I would make a good Dungeonmaster whenever January 1287 came around, and then endorsed me over the Ticketer whenever I expressed that I was open to the idea. Rachele stated that she would support me so long as I was willing to accept the possibility of the Caucus not voting in favor of making the card idea a regular program in the Society.

That was her standing on my card agenda initially. She had been uncomfortable with it because she felt that it went against a highly-esteemed Third Level Society principle, one against the barter and trade of dymensional plane assets for real ones. Such trade-offs, after all, were the sort of thing driving the treachery in the old TableQuest games. Rachele feared that my cards came dangerously close to that sort of thing, which I realized was a misunderstanding. I proposed a compromise to her that I would make cardholders sign a written agreement to not do that sort of thing. At first, Rachele asked, "How do you know people will keep that promise after your time?," but after a great deal of debate, she came to the realization that having the signature of a written promise in place as part of that program would provide a reasonable check.

In other words, I thought she and I came to a consensus on this from the very beginning.

The breakup happened in the beginning of May 1286. Both she and I had planned previously to stay on campus to take summer courses, presuming that we would be maximizing our time together. Not only that, but we would also be running my Dungeonmaster campaign platform as I had planned to have her as my number one supporter on the campaign trail and in the Dungeonmaster Office, which I had anticipated I would gain. When we broke up, both she and I remained on campus but barely spoke to each other.

And this is where I confess I did some wrongdoing.

I spied on her. Her sudden change in her stance on the card idea was just uncharacteristic of her, especially when citing that as the reason for the breakup. I felt very strongly that there was another reason for her change in demeanor. So I concealed myself, using Concealment Spells, a skill she taught me by the way. And I feared that her knowledge of Concealment would lead her to catching me. But curiosity at this point was stronger than common sense for me. So I concealed myself, followed her to her dormitory, snuck up to her dormitory door in Adams House, and, though I did not actually enter her dormitory suite, I used a special spellcrafter device that could pick up on conversations on the other side of the door.

As I anticipated, she was talking about me with her fellow roommates, and was, in fact, deep in conversation with them over me, even using my full name. What they said in the days leading up to this point, I could only guess, but it sounded as though there was a lot talked about me that I was never around to catch.

What I did catch, though, was the real reason for her breaking up with me. Apparently, she felt that I was always taking over the conversation with her every time she spoke with me; not only that, but apparently, I would always force the conversation into the subject of politics, which it turned out she absolutely hated.

The dejection I felt from the initial breakup was nothing compared to what I felt at the moment of this revelation. Everything I felt about her was completely a misunderstanding on my part. I thought she and I had a deep connection when we spoke. I thought she enjoyed feeling a sense of enlightenment and inspiration from me, seeing me as somewhat of an amateur-expert on the subject of Basin District goings-on. But I realized then and there that she was simply being polite, having patience for my apparent shenanigans, and patience that wore out.

But I was angry at that point. I felt that she betrayed me. How could she fake a mutual connection with me like that? I almost wanted to kick the door down, but second thoughts held me back. Even then I had somewhat enough sense not to utterly ruin my life. But after I stole out of there, I did the next thing that, in hindsight, I confess was a bit of wrongdoing.

I "fired" her from her spot in my Dungeonmaster campaign.

She was already getting distant with that as well. But seeking satisfaction to my rage, I not only made it official by sending her a message letting her know of her firing and including less-than-thoughtful words in that message, I also sent a copy of that message across the Public Section of the Ticketer. This drew mixed reactions, both supporting me and supporting Rachele. But ultimately, that was a decision I would come to regret.

As May passed into June, and then into September, Rachele turned around established her own Dungeonmaster candidate platform. She built it up so that it surpassed mine in popularity. She smeared my words and actions in the process. By the second week of October, the week of Dungeonmaster elections, I was unable to defeat her; thus, Rachele Evernorth, now a very sworn enemy of mine, became the next Dungeonmaster.

And to add insult to injury, she banned utterly the use of avatar and daemon cards from the Third Level Society.

Since then, I have come to accept my defeat, as in the breakup with Rachele and the failure of my Dungeonmaster campaign. However, I have not been so willing to give up the card agenda. Thus, I met with my roommates and a few other close friends to form an Underground Plan: to create daemon cards that never took physical form. Furthermore, these cards would cease to exist if, through a special script I designed, they detected that they were being traded. Furthermore yet, I designed these to be completely undetectable under Dungeonmaster Rachele and her Prefects.

The goal I was pushing with this system in place was to get a majority of Society Members to partake in the Plan, thus providing enough pressure against Rachele to overturn her ban.

But this would come with assistance. So Rachele's ban included a ban not only on my cards but also on any portals connecting the Arturian Realm and its blockworld network to other dymensional planes like Cray Fenton's; and the portal we had in place was terminated. Cray Fenton was greatly discouraged by what happened at that point; and I determined that he needed some convincing to re-consider collaborating with the Third Level Society again.

So that was where Tom Pero came in.

Despite the ban, I had created a new secret portal from Evernorth to Cray's dymensional plane. Even today, as far as I know, neither Cray nor Rachele know that this new portal exists. I asked Tom Pero to send his newly-created avatar through that secret portal, carrying some of my virtual cards with him, and into Cray Fenton's plane and secretly recruit some of the avatars and daemons there to starting using these cards. While that was happening, Tom Pero, himself, would arrive in North Kempton, befriend Cray, and invite Cray to go with him to his parents' house in Daylram in the Great North. At that point, Cray would still be unaware of Tom Pero's avatar, which would be self-running in Cray's plane. After Cray and Tom returned to North Kempton, Cray would then see the card promotions that Tom Pero's self-running avatar had carried; and, ideally, Cray would become convinced not only with the cards, but also to support my Underground Movement, leading to Rachele overturning the card ban, and then eventually Cray and the Society collaborating again.

Currently, we are at the part where Tom Pero is trying to establish a good connection with Cray in the Great North. The timing of Cray's return, as one can see, was absolutely essential to the plan. And now he is stranded. And with Rachele aware of the situation with Tom Pero, I have been absolutely scrambling to hide the hidden portal to Cray's dymensional plane.

Also, I am figuring out ways to distract Rachele.