Underworld Secrets
c. 100 ADW
Arriving in the magical metropolis of New Arcanum, the party puts on their detective hats for Guildmaster Alyndor "Aly" Marvale, who wants to know why sentimental trinkets are being delivered to the city like grand treasures. Working the city's secretive underworld—a tavern keeper (Nessa Vey) whose fortunes turned after her mother's bracelet vanished, a crotchety second-hand dealer (Milo Venn) who refused the brokers' bargain, and the cheerful customs clerk Orville Thrice-Checked, whose records show shipments expedited by the Church of Aurelian—they trace the Soul Brokers' rotating rented warehouses to the ninth ring. There they fight the expendable Thrall Grunts left behind to burn the evidence and recover the address of a hidden "Archive Intake" feeding something called the Ledger.
Referenced In
This module is referenced by the following lore entries:
Factions and Organizations
- Soul BrokersThe organized network of Aurelian's agents, who trade mortals their heart's desire for a keepsake of sentimental value—and with it, unknowingly, their soul. Centered in New Arcanum but with a far broader reach, the organization runs like a corporation and a church at once: shipments of "secondhand goods" expedited through customs by the Church of Aurelian, rotating rented warehouses where collateral is tagged and recorded, a hidden archive whose clockwork counting machine binds the Ledger of Souls, and regional strongholds like Aurelian's Spire. Its hierarchy of grunts, managers, recruiters, and directors is itself bound by soul contracts—even Regional Director Elara Voss is owned by the demigod—with performance metrics enforced on pain of having one's own soul token and autonomy revoked. Meticulous record-keepers and negotiators before all else, its members honor every promise they make, down to the letter.
Legendary Characters
- Alyndor "Aly" MarvaleA tiefling who serves as Guildmaster of New Arcanum's Adventurers Guild. Sharp-tongued, brilliant, and unshakably confident, she reads the weave with unsettling precision. She favors simple but elegant robes and a faint perfume, and is fond of small pranks and bad jokes. She stands with Master Thalin Fernstride, Guildmaster Teyla Coalmaker, and Elrin Veymar when the four great guilds unite against Holt and the Molokite. As Thalin's counterpart in the west, she agrees the string of caravan robberies "smells like trouble," and welcomes the agents he sends across the Western Wastes to investigate Aurelian's soul brokers. From New Arcanum's guild hall she directs the hunt for the Soul Brokers: posting a bounty for the location of their operations, promising a team for the hidden archive beneath the canals, and briefing the night infiltration of Aurelian's Spire over dinner at an evening-market cafe ("No one plans a successful infiltration on an empty stomach!").
- AurelianA charismatic demigod who collects mortal souls through Faustian "soul contracts," granting people their heart's desire in exchange for a small keepsake of sentimental value. Unbeknownst to the mark, forfeiting that token severs their anchor to their own soul, letting Aurelian claim them as a thrall—a flawless, emotionless soldier with glowing golden eyes who cannot speak his name or break their bond without their throat searing with divine golden light. His elite agents, the Soul Brokers, broker these deals and bank the collateral in the vaults of New Arcanum, and ordinary magic such as remove curse cannot undo his contracts. Biscuit was the first of his thralls to be uncovered by the Adventurer's Guild. His worshippers operate openly as the Church of Aurelian, and the Soul Brokers run in his name like a corporation—warehouses, archives, and regional sectors under directors such as Elara Voss—tallying the debtors, friends, and materiel of the army he is building in the Ledger of Souls.
- CassiusAn arrogant but craven soul broker in the service of Aurelian, charged with escorting a caravan of stolen soul-contract collateral west from Kingdom Grand toward New Arcanum. Dressed in fine merchant's clothes and never without his ledger, he prizes keepsakes far above coin—"Sentiment is the only currency that appreciates"—and, quick to flee and quicker to haggle, would sooner bargain a Writ of Exchange than trade blows, taking up his whip and hand crossbow only when cornered. The keepsakes recovered from his broken-down caravan are what set the guild's agents on the road to New Arcanum.
- Milo VennAn elderly, bitter, crotchety human who owns "One Man's Trash," a second-hand shop on New Arcanum's Market Circle. When a Soul Broker passed through offering patronage in exchange for a token of enormous sentimental value, Milo turned the deal down as a scam—and watched his longtime friend and next-door neighbor, the owlfolk merchant Renna Vale, accept it and move up to a prestigious middle-ring shop without so much as a goodbye. Left behind and bitter enough to complain to anyone who will stand still long enough, he remembers the stranger's creed: through the gods, all things are possible.
- Nessa VeyA warm, energetic elf woman who owns the Fortunate Flagon, a bustling tavern overlooking New Arcanum's seventh-ring canal. She traded her mother's bracelet to a Soul Broker in exchange for business success, and soon after discovered an astoundingly talented young bard who drew in customers like crazy. She cannot speak of her bargain—a ring of golden light flares around her throat if she tries—and lies about having lost the bracelet, though she touches her bare wrist whenever her new success comes up. Later summoned to Aurelian's Spire for a "new opportunity," she was moments from being enthralled in the orientation office when guild agents interrupted the ritual; returning her bracelet broke the daze and sent her home shaken, though possession of her soul token alone could not lift the curse of her contract.
- Orville Thrice-CheckedA young owlfolk clerk at New Arcanum's Office of Mercantile Transit, with wide eyes, a cheerful demeanor, and a genuine passion for paperwork. Proud that his office is open 9 hours a day, 7 days a week, 342 days a year, he happily helped guild agents trace shipments of "secondhand goods" through the customs records—shipments expedited, unsearched, by the Church of Aurelian, a demigod Orville had never heard of—straight to the Soul Brokers' rotating rented warehouses.
Legendary Items & Artifacts
- Soul TokenA small keepsake of sentimental value—a bracelet, a pocket watch, a child's macaroni necklace, a silver hand mirror—traded away as "collateral" in one of Aurelian's soul contracts. Forfeiting the token severs its owner's anchor to their own soul. The Soul Brokers tag each one with a paper label tied with golden thread recording the item, its owner's name, and their "use," then bank it in their vaults. Tokens held by ranking Soul Brokers double as keys: they can be imbued with authorization that opens the warded floors of Aurelian's Spire, and recalled to the vaults to strip a holder's clearance. Returning a token to a dazed victim can break an enthrallment in progress, but possession of the token alone does not lift the curse of the contract.
Locations
- New ArcanumA magical metropolis rising from the heart of the Western Wastes that, in the century after the Dead Wars, became the seat of power for the Arcane Registry and its nation. Perfectly circular, it is a city of towering spires and gravity-defying floating platforms, with airships passing overhead and a great floating black obelisk at its center. A shimmering protective dome cools the entire city, granting relief from the desert heat to travelers who reach its gates. It is connected to other major world powers via teleportation gates, and about a week's wagon travel from Kingdom Grand along a well-marked but perilous trade route. Its Adventurers Guild is led by Alyndor "Aly" Marvale, who joins the other guildmasters against Holt. The city is laid out on a polar grid: radial avenues named by angle, ring roads named by radius, and addresses given as a distance and an angle from the Senate Obelisk, the colossal floating stone that hovers above Origin Lake at the city's center—locals insist the system makes perfect sense. Its concentric canals, fed by the artesian well beneath the lake and drained through culverted arteries and veins, double as a vast evaporative cooling and irrigation system devised by the city's builder, Merric Goldbright, with scholars and senators in the inner rings, the educated trades in the middle rings, and merchants, students, and warehouses filling the outer rings beneath the dome.
Military Units and Creatures
- Soul BrokerAn elite agent of the demigod Aurelian, charged with brokering his soul contracts—trading mortals their heart's desire for a keepsake of sentimental value—and with overseeing the thralls and caravans that carry the forfeited collateral to the vaults of New Arcanum. Soul brokers are negotiators before all else, valuing sentiment over gold. Cassius is one such broker. Within the organization, brokers rise through a strict hierarchy of managers, recruiters, and directors—see the Soul Brokers.
- Thrall GruntA soulbound humanoid enslaved by one of Aurelian's soul contracts, serving as muscle and mounted outriders for a Soul Broker's caravan. Thralls speak in a flat monotone, show no pain or fear, and press forward relentlessly, their eyes flashing with golden light. They have advantage on saves against being charmed and are immune to fear, but cannot act against their contract—if one tries to speak its master's name or reveal contract terms, its throat sears with divine golden light. They fight with a mace and heavy crossbow. Expendable thralls also guard the Soul Brokers' warehouses and strongholds, burning evidence and holding doors without fear or hesitation; they can be killed or knocked out, but not returned to their senses—not even by handing back their own soul token.