BRITAIN - I must ask thee to keep an eye on thy purse, kind readers, as a new group of dastardly criminals is walking among thee. Since the end of last month our editors have received many reports of respectable people finding themselves devoid of their carried possessions without ever noticing the loss until they reach for their purse and find it missing.

    Our inquiries have led us to a man calling himself Jerome who is often found in the pubs near the harbor, sitting on a quiet table with a bottle of ale. He is usually dressed completely in black with a dark shield at his side, which bears a certain similarity to the one which according to legends from the times of the feudal lords was the property of the Master of Thieves. The legends also tell us that this artifact was lost during the Age of Darkness and Jerome says that he inherited the shield, but I will do more research into that subject. Another interesting thing about him is his hair, which is a most remarkable shade of blue even though he claims that he did not dye it this way.

    I will leave it to the reader to make a decision about this person, but it is certainly interesting that almost every shady character in Britain seems to know him. I did not get to talk to him much though, as he walked off to talk to one of Britains well-known thieves, “to do his job” as he called it. While I sat near him I was also impressed about the amount of his knowledge on various subjects, which he was willing to share with me in exchange for gold.

    So if you see this person walk near thee I would suggest to keep thy pouch tight in thy grasp, because although I doubt Jerome would get his own hands dirty on something like this he could certainly snatch a gem from under thine own eyes without thee noticing.



From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online, Wednesday, March 4th 1998