I have updated Phu's background and answered a couple of the wizard questions
What responsibility did his community count on him for?
In the ramshackle alleys of
Ashcoil Shantytown,
Phu was the go-to arcane fixer—a "wizard of the people," patching wards, unsealing cursed loot, or summoning minor spirits for coin, luck, or the occasional vengeance gig. His slyborne crew relied on him to do the dirty magical jobs without frying the hideout or attracting guards.
How did he let them down?
One night, a rival gang dared them to pull off a high-profile heist: summon a fire elemental from the Ashdeep to melt open the vault of a royal tax cart. Cocky and desperate to prove his rising magical chops,
Phu went too far—he didn’t just summon the elemental… he broke its bindings.
The fiery beast tore through Ashcoil, igniting shanties and sending half the quarter into chaos.
Phu stayed behind and managed to subdue it—not with brute force, but through cunning arcane whispers and a pact of mutual survival.
The twist:
That elemental—now shrunk, sassy, and spark-sized—is
Harmell, the flame spirit perched on his shoulder today. It’s not a pet—it’s a bond of fire and guilt.
Harmell remembers everything. They bicker constantly. And despite the destruction, they’ve become... weirdly inseparable.
Phu was cast out. Not because he failed—but because he survived and brought the chaos home.
You’ve spent your life searching for a book or object of great significance. What is it, and why is it so important to you?
The
Emberheart Reliquary isn’t some dainty magical trinket—it’s a massive, iron-clad vessel, about 2 meters long, 50 cm wide, and 30 cm deep, shaped like a ritual sarcophagus or containment crate. Runes snake across its surface, pulsing with a slow, ember-like glow. The metal hums faintly, vibrating as if something inside is… breathing.
It’s sealed with three locks: one mechanical, one magical, and one that seems to react to draconic blood.
What’s inside?
No one knows for sure. The oldest legends hint at a Drakonic embercore—a bound fragment of a slain fire god or the final heartbeat of a long-dead dragon monarch. Phu has heard it called:
"The Flame That Eats Other Flames", "The Ember-Tomb of Va’rush" and by the slyborne:
"Hot Box of Doom."
Why is it important to Phu?
For Phu, this isn't just a container—it's a lifeline. The Emberheart Reliquary, fiery as it may be, represents his chance at starting over. The slyborne community sees him as the burnout, the one who nearly torched a neighborhood and got buddy-buddy with a living flame. But in the next city—this relic is his leverage, his reputation reboot, his arcane golden ticket.
He believes:
* Delivering it to the right buyer, scholar, or arcane guild could grant him wealth or favor.
* Unlocking its secrets might give him the power to forge a new Everflame—but one tempered by frost, a balance between his lineage and what nearly destroyed him.
* It might even help him finally understand what his fire elemental companion Harmell truly is… because sometimes, deep down, he wonders if Harmell isn’t just a fragment of what’s locked inside.
Harmell, the tiny fire elemental, loves the reliquary. It curls up next to it like a cat near a hearth. Phu tolerates it, mistrusts it… but needs it.
OOC:
I imagine that Phu has brought
Emberheart Reliquary on the caravan and he has used his last coins to get this thing out of the city
