Minaerva Lenesticles is the latest artist to dominate the cutthroat high-art scene of Shentreau. Minaerva goes by the sobriquet “M,” and was once just another of the self-important sycophants which litter the city’s courts. She longed to break through and join the cognoscenti, but it seemed she could never follow the tastes of the moment– always one step behind.

Several months ago that all changed, however. Minaerva made the transformation from art-lover to artist, and she’s seen a meteoric rise to success. Every month at the art show she appears, and every month she wins best-in-show. The other nobles are all in awe at her seemingly endless variety; unlike so many others the works of M are always fresh, edgy and exciting.

Minaerva has a terrible secret, however. She’s not got an artistic bone in her body. What happened originally is she was approached by a young man by the name of Bruno. Bruno had no money to get his art in the shows, and was completely unknown so could not get an audience with any of the high society. He learned of Minaerva, the woman who so desperately wanted to be taken seriously, and figured that she might give him a chance.

Minaerva gave him a chance, but not in the way he’d hoped. She invited him to her estate and locked him away in the basement, stealing his artwork. This she presented as her own, and after the rave reviews she forced Bruno to paint more. These new works were poorly received however, and she fell out of favor. Minaerva killed the artist in her rage.

Ever since then, she’s sent trusted agents around the city and surrounding areas to discover new talents and bring them to her manor. She steals their best work and imprisons them in her basement, not quite having the mettle to kill them as she did the first.

Encounters with The Plagiarist

Arnod Zep was a simple farm boy who, through a friend of his father’s, got a job as a servant to Lord Huntsley, one of the cognoscenti in Shentreau. Arnod had grown quite used to being hauled back and forth to the art shows, and the whole affair was quite boring to his “unrefined” eye.

Last week, however, something he saw startled him: back in his village there was a young lady named Kristina whom he had eyes for. Kristina, like him, worked on a farm, but with her free time she’d taken up painting, and there was one hauntingly beautiful picture of a little girl (Arnod’s sister, in fact) standing in front of a well.

This picture was displayed as M’s latest, and after the show Arnod told his master about it. His master had long been suspicious of M’s talent, and this provided the impetus he needed. Lord Huntsley contacts the PCs, hiring them to expose M for the fraud she is.