The Weaver

The Weaver event was a murder mystery event that ran from September 10th to September 16th, 2021. It was the first of its kind and thought up by Jane Barnaby and Stonks "Golden Hands", with help from Stray and Bruford. Throughout the week, there were four scenes with 'body drops' (named A Beginning and an End, The Thread of Life, Peace Begins with a Smile, and The Final Thread respectively), whereafter people could come into the theatre and look for clues. Between dead bodies appearing, there were smaller scenes on request to pursue specific clues and talk to various NPCs, such as Ezra Stone. Through this, people slowly but surely uncovered the continuously-growing horror story of Anna Smidt, who had turned into the Weaver.

Despite Puerto Dorado's turbulent nature and frequent brawls, the town rarely sees organised, methodical killing. So when a serial killer began their work on Isla de Oro, a vast group of pirates swiftly took interest and worked as hard as they could to find the murderer and bring them to justice. It started out with a single murder of Alex Stone, the way whose body had been arranged too unusual for a normal murder. Then Harry Cook died, swiftly followed by Joanna Rose. With every kill, with every day, the investigators got closer to finding the Weaver. A citizen's patrol was called in, asking for able-bodied volunteers to patrol the streets of Puerto Dorado at night.

In the end, it was already too late. By the time the investigators caught the Weaver, revealed to be Anna Smidt, had killed four people, including Stonks "Golden Hands". Thankfully, they managed to stop her before she killed even more, because the chaos magic corrupting her called for more blood. She was incarcerated and was to be put to trial, although this never happened due to circumstances.

Leading up to the event
Anna Smidt is a fraction of Jane Azarok Barnaby's soul that split off and manifested itself as a spirit of sorts. She has the uncanny ability to 'steal' things from her environment, be it abilities, energy, or even knowledge and skills. The more energy she consumes, the stronger a ghost she becomes. Stray realised this and tried giving her magical energy to help her, only to corrupt her with his own chaos magic.

Over the course of three days, the chaos magic steadily advanced and took hold of the ghost. Before, she'd been rather innocent, with most of her 'attacks' coming down to throwing shells or corks at people. Now, her thoughts had been twisted to the point she considered killing people a good way to help them. Her appearance changed, going monochrome with eerie magenta eyes, and the murders began.

The Weaver Diaries
The Weaver detailed her killings in diary-like retellings, each a few hundred words long. They were written shortly after each murder and found after she was incarcerated, and offer insight into what she did, how she did it, and why. If nothing else, they make for a series of chilling horror stories. You can find the Weaver Diaries here.

Victims
Over the span of six days, the Weaver killed a total of four people. They were all of varying ages, genders, and social classes. The only thing connecting them was the fact that they were ill at the time of being murdered. Their bodies were left in increasingly more disturbing states as the Weaver's corruption spread further through her mind.

Alex Stone
Alex Stone was a 24-year-old son, cousin, and beloved mate who worked aboard the Sinclair's Folly as a metalworker. He'd caught a nasty cold and had been ill for a while now, but work never stops. On September 10th, after a night out drinking with mates, he had another coughing fit as he walked through the park towards his home. The Weaver heard the painful noise and took it upon herself to help him.

She took a sewing needle she carried with her at the time and stabbed him in the neck. After 'putting him to sleep', she laid him out on one of the park's benches and arranged him to look peacefully at rest on a park bench. The stab wound was cleaned up and stitched so as to hide it. An anchor was drawn on one of the benches as a symbol of hope, with a woven ribbon tied above it.

Initially, one of the main suspects was Alex' father, a metalworker with a workshop near the harbour. Ezra Stone is a rough, rugged man, and he was none to keen on people asking about his relationship with his son. However, he was cleared by his wife, who explained that Ezra was grieving too, albeit in an unconventional way.

Harry Cook
Harry Cook was a 33-year-old day labourer working at the warehouses in the harbour district. On September 13th, the Clarissa, a ship of a rich merchant, came into port. The merchant dealt mostly in exotics, animals included. The unlucky man got bitten in the hand by a king cobra. The venom swiftly worked through his bloodstream, and he left his place of work in search of a doctor, which is when the Weaver found him.

Vaguely remembering what one is supposed to do when venom is involved, the Weaver made a tourniquet from a hand-woven ribbon. Except she made this tourniquet around Harry's neck, effectively choking him. The man was too far gone by then to even realise he was being killed. After he was 'asleep', the Weaver once again arranged him on a nearby bench to look as if he was asleep, his back against the wall and his head lowered. The bite mark on his hand had been stitched over in the shape of an anchor, with the two points at the anchor's base covering the pierce wounds.

The only clue that was found was a note in Harry's pocket reading ```Clarissa, sunset```. Although this clue was never followed, it would've lead the investigators to the merchant's ship and its rather curious cargo, as well as explain the unusual snake bite that Harry would've perished from if he hadn't been killed.

Joanna Rose
Joanna Rose was a 29-year-old nurse in the hospital of Puerto Dorado. She was truly beloved for how much she cared for both her patients and her coworkers and worked as hard as she could despite an unknown medical condition causing her increasing amounts of pain. When she was taking her pain medicine in the medicine storeroom of the hospital on September 15th, the Weaver spotted her through the window and struck.

The Weaver walked through the wall and smashed Joanna's head against one of the cabinets to knock her unconscious. Then, she smothers the nurse with a pillow, properly putting her to sleep. Joanna was moved to a vacant one-person room in the hospital, where the Weaver cleaned and stitched the wound on her head. A blanket gently lay over her, tucked in at her head. Yet, at the same time, her lips were forced into a twisted smile through stitches pulling the corners upwards. A ribbon with an amateur anchor pattern lay beside Joanna's wrist, as the Weaver was scared away before she could finish her work.

After taking care of the nurse, the Weaver went back to the storeroom and swiped as many medicines as she could. She'd seen more and more people fall ill at the tavern, and so she wanted to bring them something to help. She also nabbed Joanna's list of patients, a list that Cornilis de Roiter later took as evidence and to prevent the Weaver from systematically killing those on it.

Around this time, people realised the Weaver's true identity.

Stonks "Golden Hands"
Stonks is the Master at Arms of the Quackens Revenge and one of the people actively investigating the Weaver when he was killed. On September 16th, Stonks was out on the patrols the pirates had organised. He had been ill with a cold for some time, and as his shift ended, he found himself having a coughing fit, causing the Weaver to make him one of her targets.

An intense chase through the streets of Puerto Dorado followed. Stonks ran as hard as he could, and he managed to put some distance between himself and his would-be killer. That was undone when he twisted his ankle and fell to the ground. As with Harry, the Weaver wrapped a ribbon around Stonks' neck and choked him to death. However, before she had time to arrange his body as she'd done for her other victims, Mikulia Aveline and Sentinel Solovyov found the crime scene.

With this last murder and Anna having been found standing over the body, the mystery of the Weaver was officially solved, and the spirit was incarcerated.

Resolution
After Stonks' murder, the Weaver was chained up and put in the jail cart to await trial. However, the trial never ended up happening, as an evil alchemist dabbling with chaos magic by the name of Maxwell Jones freed Anna and lured her away for his own purposes. Things fizzled out a little after, and Stonks was revived with the help of Sylvani. Things mostly returned to normal after that.

Quite some time later, the chaos corruption was removed from Anna with the help of Marek the Black, and the ghost is now truly back to normal. Still, there are three new graves in Puerto Dorado, and the brutal killings are unlikely to go forgotten by the people.