The sage, a swarthy foreign geezer named Walid Ophuls, lives in a series of rooms, filled with bric-a-brac, beneath the streets of the Ward of Strangers. Ophuls is polite and friendly, though he cannot quite grasp that Martin is a full-grown adult rather than a precocious child.
Over tea and a variety of honeyed cakes, he tells Martin more of the goddess Ululaya, the Scarlet Moon, said to be a former Lady of Chaos who severed her ties with her kin and abandoned her place of power among the Chaos Planes to rule in the mortal world. Records indicate that she sent forth an avatar or champion to conquer the Isles of the Pearl during the Age of Chaos, establishing a realm that endured until the end of the Age of Chaos and the rise of Thyatis.
Walid Ophuls believes that the worship of Ululaya persists in the Isles of the Pearl to this day, noting a sojourner's journal speaking of a priestess of that place who afflicted his traveling companions with puissant curses—including one of perpetual diminution. Walid provides a tea-stained map indicating the temple's probable location.
Martin contacts Agreus the Agile, a rumormonger and middleman of his acquaintance. From Agreus he learns that while the Isles of the Pearl are not open to outside visitors, certain Darokinese smugglers have been known to do business on the isles, and he may be able to get Martin in touch with someone who can get him there.
So here’s what I’m proposing. The company of the Crossed Swords will hire a ship, captain, and crew and chart a voyage south, to the Isles of Pearl! It might be a fun change of scenery and a chance to play with/invent some new rule for navigation, ship to ship combat, resource management of a shipboard journey, etc. It would also be fun to build the larger world outside of our quaint little Principalities, and encounter people with funny accents (What’s that? The people of the IoP speak with a Jamaican accent? Smashing!). We can engineer a language of holy crusade thinly veiling a veneer of abject greed – all fun things!
While the impetus is Hanna and Martin’s desire to have their respective conditions addressed, this is not meant to be a “spotlight” moment for the two, but rather a shared extension of the setting/adventure. Most of the personal plot stuff would be handled offscreen in posts and carousing – our adventures will follow the story, but folks who aren’t involved can have fun just exploring new lands and meeting new people. In theory it should take us 2-4 sessions, but if we like it we can take our boat further afield – perhaps even to far Shazalmar!
We can spread the word of the Boss, and of our mighty company. It sounds like there’s also a good chance we could curry favor with another minor god, and potentially even get the Boss a girlfriend. We could spearhead the formation of a “Pantheon of the People” exalting lesser known deities to new worshippers in exchange for minor miracles and divine support.
We can even try our hand at some war profiteering. Surely we could find some investors who are looking to get passengers or cargo through Darokin and the war torn waters of the Inner sea. This could be a great opportunity to get some fun NPC’s on the ships to drive plots and carousing (gambling on deck, visiting foreign ports, parleying with pirates, etc.).
We wouldn’t have to bring everyone, but we’d certainly want a solid core. Some folks might want to bring all of their chars, and we’d probably want to bring as many henchmen as possible. Who is with me? Is this particularly interesting to anyone? Is anyone particularly opposed? We'd be gone from Glantri for awhile, but that said, we will surely find great adventure and derring-do wherever the company shall travel.