Tilth Adventure - The Four Pharaohs (Pow Duc only)

After the near fiasco in Southkeep, you took your leave of the group and headed to the Argo Hills near Blackmoor to enter into a more ascetic phase of your career and to start work on a monastery. You have some support from the Tilth government as they would like you to take a more active role in Tilth security, particularly on the northern frontier. You have a few followers – some of them budding priests. You and the rest of the group periodically keep in touch through magical sendings.

During one of your trips to Col Tilth, the Capital, to meet with representatives of the ruling family, you receive a sealed letter. The seal pressed into the wax is one you have not seen in some time. It is of the House of the Griffon. It reads:

Anchorite Pow Duc:

Forgive this intrusion into your private purposes, but I, like yourself, am a Giorandi expatriate. I am less skilled in religion and history than yourself. I know this because I have considerable wealth and like most things in the Tilth, information is for sale. Please do not interpret my investigations as prying. Rather I was merely trying to locate someone who may help me better understand the Sothis Antiquities Market. If you can find the time to meet with me, please stop by the Wayward Dragon Inn at your convenience.

-Valeros, House of the Griffon

You know the Wayward Dragon Inn in Col Tilth is an expensive place, usually catering to traveling merchants and dignitaries. Some of the rooms are even leased long term. The Sothis Antiquities Market is a near fabled biennial bazaar held in Sothis, Giorandi, on the eastern coast of the Great Sea. It is usually held in the fall but its exact time and place are only known by the initiated. The level of secrecy is required due to the often questionable legal status of some of the items being offered for sale. You have been there several times many years ago when you were one of the guards for Qui Pan of the House [insert your house here]. You also know that the House of the Griffon is in charge of the Giorandi Treasury. The name Valeros is not familiar.

You see no harm in meeting this person and choose a busy time of the day to stop at the Wayward Dragon. You find out from the innkeeper that Valeros is in and send word up to him via a serving maid that you are in the grand hall. He comes down quickly. He attempts some small talk but you ask him to get straight to the point.

From him you learn that the great Sothis Antiquities Market is scheduled to be held this fall. He has heard that there are some items being offered this year that are purported to be from the Four Pharaohs of Ascension. He knows of the market but not the pharaohs. He has searched you out to learn more about these pharaohs and to determine if it would be worth his coin to try to purchase some of the items. He presents himself a collector of rarities. He offers to show you some of his collection if you would like to see for yourself.
You know the following about the Four Pharaohs of Ascension and can tell him as much or as little as you wish.

• During sometime in the Third Age of the Black Phoenix, Ancient Giorandi was, for a time ruled by a union of four feuding pharaohs known as the Four Pharaohs of Ascension.
• The Four Pharaohs of Ascension were Anuk Fero, the Cerulean Pharaoh, Hetshepsu, the Fiend Pharaoh, Ankana, the radiant Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh of Numbers, whose name is lost to time. Each had different strengths, but all were equal.
• Legends say the Four Pharaohs of Ascension were bound by a magical pact that intertwined their fates: they lived together, ruled together, and were fated to die together.
• For whatever reason, items from this time are periodically (re)discovered or appear. Every 56 years you remember after some thinking.
  

He listen intently to anything you tell him and asks, offers to pay, and nearly begs for more no matter how much you tell him. After your conversation he seems convinced that he has enough information to believe that these items are legitimate and offers you a proposition. He is willing to help finance your building in exchange for your acting as his agent at the Sothis Antiquities Market for the acquisition of true artifacts from the Four Pharaohs of Ascension.

You are originally from the area near Sothis and have not been back in Giorandi for years. Building a monastery is exorbitantly expensive and you wonder if it would be better to be somewhat beholden to the Tilth or to an expatriate who seems to be offering few strings. You decide to have an acolyte prepare a sending to one of the group the next day.

It’s your choice as to who receives the sending. You have 25 words. Email me with the wording and to whom it is sent.

Tilth Adventure - The Four Pharaohs (for all but Pow Duc)

Nearly a year has past since the near fiasco in Southkeep. The truce in the valleys has held and the few remaining camps of bandits, humanoids and other ne’er-do-wells have mostly been eradicated. The more problematic tribes of humanoids have been at least beaten back to where it will take them years to fully recover. Crops were planted and the harvest is approaching.

Most of the trouble makers in the area have fled to The Baronies. The political structure is at near collapse in Seavering as no one has been able to take and hold power after the Night of the Demons. The roads are very dangerous and while trade is still fairly strong, it has turned darker. The black market thrives and drug and ‘human(oid)’ trafficking is on the increase.

The political machinations of the Prince of Rastgoth continue and some of you have been regularly attending Guild Council Meetings. Alorian and Pow Duc, have not been seen much over the last year. Each are working to establish academies (for lack of a better term that applies to both) in disparate parts of the Tilth. Pip seems to never be around when anyone is looking for him and always around when no one wants him to be there. Potenzia is in Rastgoth and Saltmarsh for extended periods and then gone for similar lengths. He has added to his fleet of ships and is busy overseeing an expanding ‘shipping’ business. Zoltan and Iam have receded into the more secluded tasks that come with being Baronettes. Schweitezer has been extensively traveling with a small retinue and spreading the word of the Black Huntsman. He has actually been seen reading in the Library on the Isle of White. JP has been rarely seen, and then only by those who stop at Bilikin Isle during their travels. Leo has been happily helping to keep the overland travel and trade routes free from bandits, protecting areas farmsteads, and leading small excursions further inland to check reports of ogres and giants. You all keep in fairly regular contact by written letters and periodic magical sendings.

Potenzia returns from a longer than normal absence to attend a Guild meeting. All of you but JP and Pow Duc happen to be in Rastgoth and you agree to hang out one evening at the Gutted Fish to reminisce. You eat well and break out ‘the good stuff.’ There is some lamenting about the more sedentary turn your lives have taken. At a random point in the evening, talk turns to Potenzia’s travels. “Nothing special, just a lot of traveling on ship. But I did hear something interesting on my last trip.”

Potenzia recounts the story of his most recent trip to Giorandi. His last stop before heading back west was in Sothis, on the eastern coast of the Great Sea. It was here that he heard of a great antiquities market that is held every two years. The most interesting thing about this market was that no one readily talked about it, making it all that much more intriguing. He says it took a lot of coin and even more persistence to learn that there is a lot of excitement about this year’s market. The rumor is that there are going to be items at the auction this year from the Four Pharaohs of Ascension. People were even less willing to talk about the pharaohs. Apparently, sometime during Giorandi ancient history – thousands of years ago – the area was ruled by four people, called the Four Pharaohs of Ascension. It seems that some artifacts from this time have appeared – the first time in over 50 years. Potenzia ends his story with a query of sorts. “If any of you have some spare coin, I would be more than happy to act as your agent and invest in some antiquities.” Some of you smile and some frown depending on how your last ‘investment opportunity’ with Potenzia panned out.