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[Don't blame Peni if this one's not up to the usual standards. Damon wrote most of it, and the parts Peni wrote were just for Sofia's personal diary, not written in the belief that the whole group would be interested.] Sept. 16th (cont.) - Bidding farewell to the Aeronaut's lair, we retrieved the three brooch keys, boarded the legendary ship and set sail for the Mare Nostrum, taking turns at the tiller each day. (Entries omitted for a peaceful trip home, during which time Sofia and Uncle exchanged a few more messages, coordinating the arrangements for our arrival; Decimus spent most of the ten day trip learning spells, Robyn began outlining plans to craft a new bow, Alfredus composed a heroic song about slaying a dragon, etc.) Sept. 26th - The party sets the flying ship down in the Nostrum, and unobtrusively sails into the Sempronius family's private port near Tarantium. Over the next couple of days, the ship is presented to the Emperor by our patron, and it is quickly decided to keep the vessel a secret for now, while Imperial wizards study it and attempt to duplicate the magic. Sept. 28th - After family visits etc. in Tarantium, the staff returns to Analubia via teleport circle, leaving Otho and Sam to make political hay in the capital. For some days Sofia's diary is full of gossipy personal stuff. The diamond pegasus is presented to the Senator as a token of our esteem. Alfredus presents the Sunshine Boys with dragonwing leather to make into capes, and they arrange a party among their local Teutonic acquaintance to celebrate the bathing in blood and hear Alfredus's new composition on the subject. Gaius is green with envy and has to be disciplined for sulking; Sofia arranges to have some of the leather made into accessories for him, anyway. The household is in a frenzy preparing for a royal visit. [No diary entries of group concern for the next week or so; we're back in Ayzidas, taking care of our various personal errands -- selling off stuff we decided to convert to cash, making arrangements for dragonhide to be turned into finished products, etc. The entry below describes the awards banquet, which Peni had not posted to the group, that being considered unnecesary since we were all there. I include it here only for completeness. -- Damon] October 7 - I am much too excited to sleep. The Emperor's intimate dinner party went off like clockwork from the guest's perspective, though I'm sure I'll hear stories from Gaius and the kitchen tomorrow. Alfredus sang his dragon-slaying song. After the courses, the servants were sent away and a mind-boggling round of gift-givings Alfredus and Robyn are both citizens now! And not a day too soon, after all they've done for the Empire, but no one will ever hear me say so. In addition, we all have 16 talents worth of land - of our choice, which is more than I would ever have hoped for. Additional even to that, on a one-time basis the Emperor will match an additional purchase of Imperial land with an equal amount of Imperial gift. We all quickly realized that this would allow the plebians to raise themselves to equestrian status. Decimus's theoretical children's equestrian status is now assured; and the nobility is not outside the realm of possibility. This is land, not infrastrucure, and Uncle considered this also. He offered us a choice; we could all go in together on a large central villa, which he would furnish, if we all chose adjacent holdings; or he would enter into a patronage arrangement for building and maintaining on our property; or he could just give us 20,000 solidii. The patronage arrangement sounds ideal to me, but we must all sleep on it and consider. (Here the entry trails off into lists of priorities, properties she's seen, theoretical ideal properties, etc.) [A few more days, mostly consisting of completely mundane activity follow this, but there was one interesting development...] As most of us may remember, some time before Corvus joined us, our party spent some time on the island of Arandor (a.k.a. Skopelos), a site rumored to be the location of the legendary Tomb of the Archmagi, a group of spellcasters from -- I dunno, a really long time ago -- who may have mastered now-forgotten secrets. We did in fact find the tomb, and the arcane library with hundreds, maybe thousands of spells carefully engraved in stone so that the lore would be preserved for all but not readily portable. We also got some treasure, similar in makeup to the treasure we just divided, but much smaller. One item that ended up in Robyn's share of the treasure was this: Oaken staff, shod with meteoric iron and smoky quartz gems set in the head (996.3gp) One item that ended up in Robyn's share of this weekend's treasure was this: Oaken staff, shod with meteoric iron and smoky quartz gems set in the head (834gp) Oct. 8th - Struck by the similarity of the two items -- descriptions identical or nearly so, both found as part of milennia-old treasure caches, and the difference in appraised value could be attributed to any number of things that would still allow for the two to be connected. Perhaps one staff is several inches shorter than the other; perhaps one was slightly damaged at some point. In any case, neither staff is magical, but Robyn thought it worth investigating them for possible historical or arcane significance. Even if they weren't magical themselves, they could still be foci for lost arcane rituals, or perhaps badges of office for an ancient arcane order. So he paid a local researcher in Ayzidas to find out. This is what the researcher came back with after a week:
The staves are, in fact, badges of office. They are given to members of an organization known as the "Shadow Conclave". Just exactly what rank one has to be to get one, he could not find out, but not everyone gets one. In fact, there is actually very little information available about the organization. Their name has surfaced in connection with various activities from time to time for more than three thousand years, though nobody knows if the organization has been operating continuously for that long or if it is different groups or even individuals coming along and using the name for their own ends. Little is known about their goals, but they tend to be involved in events that concern politics or forbidden magic. At the time of the Drusus Nasica - Faustus Lentulus feud in 1542 there was some speculation they were involved with providing the shapeshifter. Given the reference to a shapeshifter, in combination with the organization's name (Shadow Conclave sounds much like Shadow Lords, a name we've recently come across) Robyn brought this to the Senator's attention and asked how he'd suggest we proceed. He said he doesn't know if the two are connected, and advised is more research. To him, it would appear that the only two leads we have are the staves and the rumor. One approach would be to check into the rumor and see if we can find out where it originated so we can see if that person knows more and judge how reliable the rumor might be. In connection, we might also check with the family of the man who was supposed to have dealt with them for more information, or even seek him out, though he has been banished so that is probably not very practical just yet. As far as the staves go, "Legend Lore" spells might give us information about them that might lead to further leads. It was at this point Robyn decided to approach Corvus about looking into this further. Covus agreed to look into the matter further, but at the time we were still involved in the events of the trial (see Peni's summary "Trial and Tribulation") so this was postponed for several days. This is what we know about the Nasica-Lentulus feud from the Ben's webpage on Analubia:
The year of 1542 saw an intense feud erupt between the Drusus Nasica and Faustus Lentulus families. Both are equestrian families involved in the fishing trade. A dispute over fishing grounds erupted into first a price war and then actual armed conflict both at sea and in the streets. Events finally came to a head when the Faustus Lentulus family patriarch Rufus was found to have been plotting to assassinate Gnaeus, the Drusus Nasica family patriarch and replace him with some sort of shape shifter that would then agree to a settlement heavily in the favor of the Faustus Lentulus family.
Last Updated:
Saturday, 21-Jun-2003 23:38:19 CDT
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