Preparing to visit Fort Gateport, Hat prepares his disguise, simply put, regardless of what happens at Fort Gateport it can’t trace back to Hat Home. The people of Hat Home are fairly used to Hat disappearing days on end, the travelers usually guess that Hat is simply off doing diplomacy, getting more funding for Hat Home, and although this is what they are doing, the way they are doing it is a bit questionable. The permanent residents of Hat Home suspect this  but considering how most permanent residents have a rather shady past and they came here specifically so people won’t ask questions, the people really don’t pry into Hats business. Although Hat is the leader of Hat Home on paper, his name is in the villages after all, they are far closer to being just another villager than a mayor. Once a disguise is picked out, a different one from visiting dawn’s reverie or the horse auction, Hat gathers supplies. A tent lined in permafrost to keep cool, some rations, a large water skin, a heath emerald, and of course the Hat Shot and a dagger, their best armor, along with a full set of Bandit Armor they looted, preferring one with as much hidden skin as possible. Looking at the heath emerald, Hat considers something, they could easily travel to Fort Gateport via wayburrow, but Hat may lose the option of stealth, even in the dead of night the light of the wayburrow could be seen. So considering this, Hat decides to travel on foot to Fort Gateport. Hat starts at Heath, before taking a ferry set for Eastlake and leaving the vessel between Lonebeach and Eastlake passing by Lonebeach seeing the massive building it has become. Using a small one-man vessel, they headed north east toward an inlet north of Fort Gateport. Upon reaching the inlet, Hat hid the vessel and continued on foot. In order to keep an eye on both routes of entry into Fort Gateport, Hat hides out on a small island near the fort. The first thing Hat wanted to check is what is being delivered, in order to determine whether or not the weapons were being made within the fort or outside. So for several days Hat kept in the shadows around the outskirts of Fort Gateport, watching everyone who came in or out. But it’s likely that a weapons shipment would be a very infrequent occurrence, so infiltration was the best course of action, go in see if the smiths are there and if not, get out. Upon donning the full bandit set Hat leaves his gear with the exception of his weapons and approaches the front gate. There are some bandits outside the fort, sentries, making sure to keep aware in the case someone uses the wayburrow. “Hey! You there” A Bandit shouts, a large man with a scruffy beard and a black mask over his face “Yes?” A disguised Hat replies “Where’s your loot bag? You better not be coming back empty handed” “Oh of course I put it in a stash, guards on my tail needed to dump the weight, don’t worry I know where it is” “Eh, likely story, same thing happened to slinks here” A bandit who looks a lot less imposing compared to the scruffy bearded one, presumably named slinks, wearing a metal helmet that seemed to be stolen from an Emeraldite guard nods in agreement “Y’know, I don’t think we’ve met, you a newbie?” The scruffy Bandit follows up “Uh, yes, very new” “Ah nice, I can show you how things are done ‘round here” the bandit grabs Hat on the shoulder, hard, and leads him to the gate, the other bandits stand up as well, following the two from behind, the bandit continues “The name’s Skinner, don’t forget, names and info round here work like currency, they’re earned, as a newbie, you’ll probably just be known as runt or some variation, unless you do something real good” “What did you do to get yours” Hat asks “Well as I said names and info is currency, you ain’t got a name yet, you’re not getting info, but what I will say is mines a bit on the nose” As the two reach the gate a guard on the tower shouts “Hey skinner who you got with you” “A runt!” Skinner replies The guard whistles in amusement “Well be sure to give them a proper check-in, we don’t need any intruders ‘round here” as the gates open wide enough for Hat, Skinner and the rest to enter.

With the prospect of war, supply lines are an important part of staying alive. Although it is unlikely that war will ever arrive at the doorstep of Hat Home it is more important to be prepared than do nothing. So Hat started recruiting from some of the Winterlands' more shady individuals, offering good deals for employment, gathering a suitable amount of workers. They have expressly one job, get stuff places and don’t ask questions. Since Hat made a vow to report anything dangerous that they know of, the less they know the better. Their first job was actually rather simple, this was a weapon shipment from Hat Home to Dawns Reverie. Since Hat had established this deal and it was in no way dangerous this would go off without a hitch. The next one was a bit stranger, a mysterious individual requesting the shipment of 12 large wooden boxes to a drop off point near Grastagg. Not asking questions, Hat and company dropped off the boxes and was paid for the job. The next shipment was probably the most questionable one, an anonymous request from the sewer town under heath to help guard two covered wagons. The route was predetermined, and had a driver already so all they had to do was guard the cargo. It went well for the first day of travel but the second a group of bandits attacked. They managed to fend off the bandits with ease, but not before one of the bandits had taken a look at the cargo. Hat and company didn’t see what the cargo was, but whatever the bandit saw made them run away, screaming in fear, calling them monsters, and telling his allies to fall back. Hat and company finished the job and took the money. Hat and Company agreed never to do an anonymous request again, whatever they just dropped off they wanted no more business with.

Descriptions by an Unknown Archivist in a book titled “Mages of Mystery: Disbarred and Disgraced” found in certain institutions across Templehelm   “The Great Pyroclastic Elmo” was a pyromancer who was disbarred from the mage society for arson on a fellow society member after said member mocked one of his theories. After said arson Elmo went into hiding, and a friend of the society member committed an arson against Elmo's home in an attempt to destroy his work. Due to the destruction of his home his writings are exceedingly rare and sought after by collectors. The following are some collected excerpts from his writings on magical fire.   “...I have encountered many types, ones that burn so bright and hot you may confuse it for the sun, ones that burn bright but burn cold so you can touch it and never burn, fires which will never be put out, and great blazes which can be…”   “...counter-clockwise mana flow within a fire sigil is associated with ignition, while clockwise mana flow is associated with extinguishing, the faster the mana flows the hotter it gets while the larger the sigil the larger the blaze, this is natural among sigil based magics however if modified you can subvert certain parts of the sigil in order to solely generate heat without fire, or conversely…”   “... call it holy fire, some call it hellfire. It was once used as a method of sending offerings to the gods, however due to certain associations it has gained infamy. The fire itself is nearly inextinguishable, burning underwater, in high speed freezing winds, and any other scenario. The fire will not stop until it has entirely consumed what it was cast upon, but it also seems unable to spread beyond what it is cast upon, reportedly it is utterly excruciating to be ignited with it. Many mages use it as a base for fire spells due to its…”   “..holy fires are their capacity to turn matter into mana, certain smokeless variants may seem not to have smoke but if you view it with a magical lens you can actually see mana smoke. Due to this I believe…”   “...invented to capture mana smoke where you catch the mana smoke with an antimagic satchel and with it attempt to compress the mana smoke back into a material form. Doing so yielded less of the material than what was burned, I assume some escaped. More experimentation…”   “...found in Templehelm called ‘Frost Fire’ it burns cold rather than hot. When a material is exposed to the fire for long enough it is covered in magical ice. When viewed with a magic lens you can see that the material is converted to mana and will flow freely within the ice, due to this fact I believe that ’Frost Fire’ is actually a type of…”   “...you can remove all the magic ice without also removing the mana within, the mana will convert back to a material in the shape you created by removing the ice, so with some simple mana control you can make the mana within form into a shape, carve out the ice and make…”   “... like others of its type it is aggressive to organic matter especially. Attempting to thaw a raw chicken frozen with it created a congealed appearance, it was solid gel but with a texture like the surface of water, it jiggled with a single touch, but cooking it made it taste just like normal cooked chicken with a truly awful texture, for cooking tips using this I believe you could…”   “... have perfected a spell which mixed…[Unreadable due to singes]...in order to make a spell I believe has all of the best aspects of magical fire, the following magical sigil shows my construction of the spell so fellow mages can use it as a base for new fire spells…[sigil is smudged and unreadable]...How this spell works is that by using [singed] it can convert [singed], allowing for larger and hotter fires while still completely being controllable, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg using this you could [Unreadable], and it’s so simple too! I believe that this spell will change pyromancy forever!”

When its master left for the last time, it weeped as much as a fungus could. It desperately wished they would return, did he not love it, did he not make it? But it pushed away these thoughts, hoping one day the master would return so in the meantime it tried its hardest to keep everything in order, to keep it just as it was. But the food ran out quick, the animals were starving, the house did what it could creating edible mushrooms but after a while they simply couldn’t stomach it any longer and died, so the house undeterred dug its mycelia into the creatures skin to give them a close approximation of life, nobody would notice. Next was the Testificates, who learning of the masters disappearance, wanted out of the wretched house but the house panicked, terrified at the thought the master would come home and realize there were no Testificates so the house did what it thought was best and confined the Testificates to their rooms. The Testificates managed to survive longer than the animals, they could stomach the mushrooms the house provided by cooking it, but it wouldn’t last forever the spores in the air were weak but after a while and without proper ventilation the Testificates became sick with the spores and began to hallucinate, they started to believe there were things outside racing and running, knocking and laughing, and maybe there was. Eventually the delusions got too much and one fateful day they turned on each other believing the others to be imposters mimicking their friends. They had all killed each other. With the animals the house could at least present a semblance of life, but the Testificates? Mangled dismembered bludgeoned, it was far too much, but the house had an idea, its master would often read these things called books to gain more knowledge, maybe it could find the knowledge to bring back the Testificates for the master, so for a long time it started trying to figure out how to extract the knowledge, until one day it figured out how. Magic was something it knew well, after all it had been born out of magic, it managed to create a spell where it absorbed the knowledge from books, and so it started its journey of learning. Every book in the library, but it wasn’t enough, so it searched, luckily quite nearby, a place which stored a mass of knowledge stood, so it crawled along its insides, the walls, making sure it was never noticed. Breached the book cases, reading each and every one, absorbing all knowledge eventually finding what it was searching for: the books on necromancy, and so it started to experiment, it had plenty of bodies to use. The first experiment was what the house considered a failure, it wasn’t a testificate, it was animated, it could move, but it stood still and just drooled and when it did walk it walked into a wall and fell over, so the house reversed the spell and the thing fell to pieces. But the house realized what it needed, it needed a sense of survival, to the thing life and death had little to no difference, so it may have as well not be alive at all. To the house all living things needed two things, to eat and to fear being eaten, so that’s what it added to the next Testificate. This one was far more promising, it could move, it could eat, and whenever the house hit it, it ran away in fear, this was a creature, but it wasn’t a Testificate. It’s issue is that it has no memory of the Testificate it once was, it couldn’t light fires, it couldn’t use tools, it ate raw flesh with its bare hands. However the house didn’t consider this creature hopeless, maybe it could teach it. So the house made an effort to reverse the knowledge spell, and infuse intelligence into the creature. It was a success, it knew things, it could vocalize, it was everything the house believed a Testificate could be. So the house attempted to return it to the Testificate room, but it refused, it evaded the house's efforts, the house could close off doorways, lock doors but the creature could claw through the walls. At that point the house realized that the creature no longer feared it, so it instead attempted symbiosis, a mutual agreement, to the house's delight it seemed to agree. Around this time the house saw something strange. A visitor, it watched the visitor. It was overjoyed that the visitor stayed. It had been so, so, so long since anyone stayed at the complex. The creature had been curious about the visitor but the house had stopped the creature from harming the visitor, and the creature agreed to stay away from the visitor, besides the creature didn’t consider the visitor prey as it had no meat. The visitor would leave and return, which did give it a bit of heartbreak, remembering how its master left one day and never came back. It went this way for a long time, until one day when it was watching the visitor when they entered the master's room, it suddenly felt something it had never experienced before, rage. How DARE this visitor touch the master's things, a long time ago other visitors had searched the house but it had been so busy it couldn’t do anything, but now, it had time. So the house decided to let the creature do whatever it wanted to the visitor, the creature lured it to the basement but before the creature could do anything the visitor ran away to a nearby town. The house attempted to follow but it felt weaker as it got to the town, the town had some issue about it, so the house decided not to approach any further. One day the visitor returned with someone it recognized, it was someone who was often found in the knowledge storehouse. It then had a fear, the knowledge keeper may have discovered it and followed it here, they wanted the knowledge it had taken. It wouldn’t let the knowledge keeper take it, so when the two got to the basement it locked the two down there with the creature, eventually though, they both found a way out before the creature had gotten them. Eventually the visitor returned alone to the house, adding unnecessary adornments. And awfully redecorating the master's room after a while the house got fed up and tried to get the creature to attack but the creature refused. And then that day happened, the house wanted to kill all of them, it and the creature both tried, but they had all gotten out, and they did the unforgivable, destroying the top structure of the house. It was beyond anger at this point it burned all of the individuals who had participated into its memory, it hated them more than anything it had ever hated. It wouldn’t let them get away with this, they would pay if it had anything to say about it. So the house started to work finding where each of the participants were. It would have its revenge. And when it wasn’t searching it was practicing necromancy, deep in the basement where the creature still survived. Trying its best to stitch the burnt remains of the testificates with the natural monsters who made the basement home. Soon the creature would have siblings and all would fear them.

Once upon a time there lived a hatmaker in a freezing cold kingdom. Their hats were beloved by all who lived in the kingdom, and always considered the height of fashion. But despite this the hatmaker was lonely, for they could never tell if they were the one being loved or simply their hats. So in the night the hatmaker would make sculptures out of the snow trying to envision someone they may call a friend. They would stylize these sculptures with their hats. One of these nights the hatmaker believed they had created their best sculpture yet, and gifted it their most incredible hat yet. But after that night the hatmaker awoke to find both sculpture and hat nowhere to be seen. The hatmaker was distraught and immediately went to the guards with the news believing the hat and sculpture both were stolen. Over the coming days more things would be stolen around town. Everything from clothing, food, money, and valuables. All of this would be blamed on “The Hat Thief" titled as such for their first crime. For weeks this went on. Until one day the thief was caught with some of the stolen valuables. Each of the valuables the thief stole would be returned, starting with the hatmaker's prized hat. The hat maker asked the guard if they had found the sculpture as well, the guard confused asked what the hatmaker ment, the hatmaker confessed their nightly activities of creating sculptures. The guard was surprised by this reveal and asked the hatmaker if they wanted to come see the thief. The hatmaker followed the guard to the jail and behind the bars was none other than the sculpture wearing nothing but rags. The night the sculpture and hat disappeared the sculpture had actually gained sentience, with no memories, knowledge, or connections it was forced to steal in order to survive. The hatmaker asked, pleaded, begged the guard to free the thief, but the guard refused. Nothing the hatmaker could have said or done could have freed the thief. Punishment in this kingdom was swift and absolute, without exception or mercy, and as such the typical punishment for any thief was the removal of the thief’s hands. The Hatmaker couldn’t bear to watch their friend be harmed so stayed home crying while the guards removed the thief’s hands for the whole town to witness. Once over the thief was left all alone and badly wounded due to missing their hands. Hopeless and alone, the thief began to shed icy tears. The Hatmaker then went off to find the thief so they may help them, they found the thief and returned the hat the Hatmaker had once given to them. And as if a miracle, the love within the hat began to heal the thief's hands.The Hatmaker and thief then lived happily ever after.   THE END