The Missive (arden scarlet)

The game in the area is getting thin. No explanation for it. I have seen no large amounts of predators, for they are becoming thin as well. Even the insects are behaving strangely. Flies that wont touch certain corpses, the feeling of oppression permeating the entire forest. Nothing seems right. last night i only caught one rabbit. I never only catch a single small prey. Nigh but two weeks ago this was a lush and fertile hunting ground, and i know that there is no other predator in the area. There must be a reason for it. A reason for the forest itself, life itself, to be scared to a standstill.

I go hunting once more today, hoping to find some decent game to keep me fed for the coming snowstorm. Supplies are running thin, and i may have to go to town soon. London. Bah. Nothing but bricks and bullox.

I return late to camp with naught but empty hands. I have not been this close to worry since i left my boyhood home, torn with cinders and smoke. I have not been this close to despair since i gazed upon that fire and realized that none would walk out of it. These are hard times coming upon us. Dark times, and i fear that i may not survive them. Crawling into my tent, something is amiss.

In the hours since i left the premises, someone has left me a missive. Not a fold of cloth is astray, everything how i remember it. Nothing stolen or moved or opened. Yet there it is, on my bedroll.

"You are invited to dine at the prancing pony, in London one week from now, bring your supplies, and tell nary a soul. I have work that may be relevant to your skills ~ Vanhelsing"

Short and to the point. Oh i know who he is, Vanhelsing. Everybody has heard of him, even a hermit like me. But to be confronted with a missive, with no clear sign how it got there is slightly... disconcerting. Stranger things have been known to happen though, and one thing is sure. If i stay here, i will not survive.

To the prancing pony then. Let us see what this hunter of the dark has in store for a simple man such as myself.