Chapter Four: The Manifest of the Harikan Squall

"Prophecies! By the stars, Martjan, what have you gotten yourself into?" Chorcarz chuckles to himself and takes a sip of wine. "Hazard and Sthombo were at war, once, long ago. Sthombo was sacked and the Sphere taken back to Hazard as a prize. We kept it a good long while, but relations eventually warmed to friendly once more, and we gave back the Sphere as a gesture of goodwill. This was all well before my time, of course, I'm not so old as that!"

"The role of the Innocent is to give voice to the will of the gods as it relates to the governance of Hazard," Martjan says. "And the Hierophant is there to...well, to massage that voice into the shape of workable policy. Whether the voice or the interpretation has more influence depends on the relative power of the families of the Innocent and the Hierophant."

"How crudely you demystify our ancient and sacred methods," Chorcarz says, sloshing the wine around in his cup.

"Forgive me," Martjan says. "As it so happens, we currently live in a time where the Innocent is the more dominant of the two. I'm sure my noble friend won't mind me saying that."

"And of course, a child needs wise and competent advisors to...better help him hear the subtle words of the gods," Chorcarz says with a knowing smile, raising his cup. "We are proud to be a kingless city. When I was a youth and little Welg Orjo failed the trials, there was talk of placing a crown on the Hierophant's head and conforming to a more conventional system of rule. We put a stop to that nonsense!" He takes another sip. "But back to the matter at hand. Might I be of any help in locating this...elementalist? Or if it is only the Crown cult's understanding of the Sphere that is relevant, perhaps you need only bait one of them out for capture, and give him over to a skilled questioner."

I want to say we have been told that the Sphere is about 1m in diameter? Maybe that's just my own personal interpretation. Perhaps it can alter its size?

The Iron Sphere is...
Chorcarz listens to Leth's recounting with an increasingly wide-eyed if not fully credulous expression. "An ordeal, to be sure," he says at the end. "But not without precedent. The Order of the Golden Worm killed hundreds in their vain attempt to bring about apocalypse, and counted many dozens of warlocks and necromancers among their number. And where are they now? Extinct. Nevertheless, I will be cautious." He smiles. "As for the Six-Pronged Crown, most of what I know of them comes from the trial I previously mentioned. We did not delve deeply into the theological underpinnings of their attempted burglary. The ones who were caught implicated others, of course, but the true leadership of such groups always insulate themselves well from the loose tongues of their lower functionaries. They have done little to attract the attention of the masters of Hazard since."

Mordred inquires about the Shrine of Culsu.

Martjan looks thoughtful. "It's in the South Temple District. It's very old and quite small. I've been inside it once or twice but I can't recall much about it, I'm afraid."

"An unremarkable place," Chorcarz agrees. "It no longer has a dedicated staff. For many years now, acolytes from the Ziu-Paterian College have been assigned to hold the key and maintain the altar."

Leth has never heard of the OotGW.

A reminder that this guy is basically the Sheldon Adelson of Hazard, catchpoling him may, uh, result in some major shifting of narrative priorities.

Mordred has no worm knowledge.

"Hmm. There are two such beings currently taking refuge in the Temple of Isis, a mother and her daughter, I believe, from one of the forest kingdoms of Engol. My sister employs a woman whose mother was of fey blood to educate her other children, but I doubt she would be able to provide you with any useful information on this matter. There may be others, but those are the only ones to which I can personally attest. As for the ship, there is a maritime historian of great renown who advises the Archmagus of Banwod." Chorcarz turns to Martjan with a conspiratorial smile. "Mainly as a shipwreck-locator. Banwod is...very creative in finding ways to repay its debts."

Martjan raises an eyebrow. "The Parzian ingots?"

Chorcarz nods.

Ha, no, I was being hyperbolic, I wouldn't actually attack him over his crappy attitude.

I vote for checking out the elves first.

It would seem we have a multitude of directions to go here, and I feel like pbo is dropping potential story hooks in every comment! I want to run all of them down!

I see three options:

1. Understand the Sphere: Chase down the elf who researched it; starting with the elves in city and then going to Banwod to see what we can learn about the last voyage of the Harikan Squall.

2. Retrieve the Sphere: Find out where Martjan thinks it is, get it, and secure it.

3. Figure out the 6PC: Investigate the Shrine(?) and see what we can do to take one of the cultists alive (I know we already had one, but the timing was not...auspicious for an interrogation and we couldn't risk taking him along).

I think we could do 1 or 2 and also work towards 3 simultaneously.

If we are going to be around Hazard for a bit to talk to the elves/investigate the shrine, we should figure out a way to move about the city so that we aren't drawing 6PC interest to where Zee will be hiding

My favorite is the one that nobody has noticed so far!

Yeah, I think we need to know wtf we are going to do with this giant ball of metal before we get our hands on it. I also agree that we should encourage Martjan to tell someone where it is in case something happens.