It Belongs to a Museum

After reviewing the possibilities, you elect to found your museum upon what you're told is called Fire Serpent Island - not because of any local reptile populations you need to worry about, but simply because that's the naming theme for this chain of islands. This was where Luthor Harkon originally made landfall on the Vampire Coast, and though the castle appears modest from the outside, a network of chambers is carved into the dormant volcano that the castle is perched on the flank of. It's made of the same stone the volcano is formed out of, rough-textured and dark grey and somewhat less menacing than the pure black of his mainland castle, and takes the form of a rampart made of a ring of slanted stone pillars. This makes it look slightly more like the fortifications of your homeland rather than the northern style that Luthor aped for the other castle, but only just, and you gather it to be based on a design of a people from even further north, who supplied the original crew for his first ship. The harbour is extensive - the Luthor you spoke to said it's where his 'immediate predecessor' built up his fleet from the single ship he arrived in to an armada capable of conquering a Lizardman Temple-City - and you can see the possibility of having entire ships as exhibits on top of just using it for your visitors and underlings to come and go.

Once you've settled in - which apart from exploring, largely consists of finding an appropriate chamber to store your cosmetics and preservatives in - you row your way back to the mainland, which is a brisk trip for muscles that have been made to abandon the inefficiency of fatigue. You once more find yourself drawing curious looks as you make your way through the streets, but anyone with enough inherent savagery to consider ignoring the Pirate King's decrees for the sake of a simple meal tends to have enough animal cunning to tell that you differ in some way from their typical prey. Once more you make your way to Luthor's castle, and this time your entrance into his throne room takes much less waiting.

[Luthor Harkon roll: 1.]

"Uncle Paht," says the living embodiment of insouciance draped haphazardly over his throne as you come in, and you search his eyes for recognition and find none. "My old haunt to your liking?"

"Plenty of room, potential for even more, delightful aesthetics while being a bit less off-putting to the merely mortal than Awakening. It will suit my purposes marvelously," you say, trying to get a read on this new Luthor.

"Good," he says, jumping to his feet. "You're going to need things to put in it, then. Follow me, I'll take you around some of the more reliable crews for you to choose between."

It's hard to tell at first what has changed as you follow Luthor through the streets, as arrogance suffused the previous Luthor just as much as this one does, but it eventually occurs to you what you're looking at - this isn't just arrogance, this is cockiness. This is the confidence of someone who has never been humbled, who cannot even conceive of being humbled. This is someone who'd be convinced he'd live forever even if he wasn't a Vampire. This is Lutr of the Harkoni, a young warrior from a hill tribe west of Lahmia, yet to be recruited into Lahmia's navy and many years from even being considered for a position of authority that would get him recruited into Neferatem's coterie.

Or at least, that's the facet that he's operating through. He spoke to you in Low Nehekharan, but he exchanges words with passers-by in languages that did not yet exist when Lutr was young, and he was able to resume your business from the last time you spoke to him easily enough. It's not so simple as a reversion to a previous time - the mind is shifting into different configurations, but all of the same pieces are still there. That explains why he's still able to keep his realm under control.

You turn your attention back to the matter at hand, as Lutr explains that the most straightforward way to allow you to develop a museum would be for him to second one of his pirate crews to you, and for them to head in the direction you indicate and seek out whatever artefacts you tell them to look for, while still performing their regular profession upon any likely targets they encounter along the way. A more indirect way would involve the largest Asur presence on the continent: the Citadel of Dusk, a garrison-port on Lustria's southern cape, dense with Elven secrets and a potential side door to cultivate influence in other Asur colonies and potentially on Ulthuan itself. Its sizable armada, Storm Weavers, enchanted mists, Atharti cultists, the Lizardmen ruins it's built upon, its expeditions into the jungle, and its ancient enmity with the Fortress of Dawn are all of great interest and potentially of great value, and currently the Pirate King has two interesting contacts there that you can be put in touch with.

Then you'll scrape together whatever is locally available and worth exhibiting, decide and deduce what possibilities you might be aware of to complete a collection worthy of the name, and send your crew or commission your contact to add to it while you recruit the beginnings of a research team. Simple enough.



The one crew or contact with the most votes will be Pahtsekhen's first avenue for Acquisitions. Those not chosen may or may not be available in the future, and if available, may or may not be unchanged by the time that has passed. Crews might develop of their own accord over time or be developed by spending resources on them, as they grow more experienced or are given access to greater resources; contacts might become corrupt of their own accord over time or be corrupted by spending resources on them, as they are given reason to delve deeper into this illicit avenue for achieving their personal goals.



[ ] The Tide of Skjold

Off the northern coast of Norsca, where the Frozen Sea meets the Sea of Chaos, a very specific set of conditions are combined. First, and not least of which, is the immense amount of Chaos taint suffusing the area as some of the Winds blowing from the north fail to make it over the mountains of Norsca and sink beneath the waves. Second is the dark and sheltered waters of the Frozen Sea, where untold generations of terrible beasts have been taking on successively stranger and more terrible forms far from sunlight and witnesses. And third is the Sea of Chaos, where the relative abundance of light tempts the boldest and most fearsome of beasts to stake a claim, darting out from the darkness to prey on the fish and sharks and whales of the open ocean. These champions of the depths give name to the Kraken Sea and are considered sacred by the Norscans that live on nearby coastlines, and as such their worthiest warriors are given in death to these waters to be transported to the Halls of the Gods via the stomachs of these beasts.

But those rare few whose sinking corpses slip by the attention of the sea beasts and have the skeletons picked clean by the petty scavengers of the sea floor stew in the rejection of the Gods until their rage and hate burns bright enough to scare off the small beasts that would eat the corpse away to nothing, and burns like a beacon to the one salvation these lost souls might ever know: that of the Tide of Skjold. Pulled from unimaginable depths by an enormous pearl native to the area and enchanted by Luthor Harkon, they are recruited not just to the crew of the ship, but also to the strange heresies that brew in the souls of those so rejected by the Chaos Gods. This crew of draug berserkers will spend the rest of eternity flying on the waves and scouring the shores for the glory of the Pirate King that granted them undeath, and to honour their new conceptions of a worthier God.

Perhaps strangely, their flag is one that gives less reason to fear than others among the Pirate King's armada, as quite often their ire is reserved for beasts of the sea that they encounter and desire to punish based on their unique understanding of, and relationship to, the Sea God. The flesh of these beasts is sold or traded to towns and villages, and the bones and scales and other, stranger components are worked into their arms, armour, ship, and sometimes bodies.

Specialities: Theological (Chaos, Oceanic), Beasts (Ocean, River), Norsca
Rare Capabilities: Swimming, Portaging



[ ] The Lamprey

Legend has it that there once was a court singer for a Bretonnian Royarch who was so valued that he sent her to sing for the court of the Phoenix King, and so talented that the Elves agreed to allow this. The rest of the story as told on land is a tragedy, with the orchestra of wind and waves so jealous of the singer's music that they rose to drown her, the culmination of a career of beauty and excellence denied. It is said that her haunted spirit can still be heard in the depths of the wildest storms, mourning the recognition that will now never come.

The tale told at sea is a much darker one. The ship foundered, aye, and all aboard were drowned, but that did not cease the terrible song of Cylostra Direfin. The truth of the matter was that she was a witch, though it's oft debated whether the enchantment of her music was quite literal or whether the witchcraft was incidental and she truly was so talented, and in her last moments of life the song she sang through saltwater managed to charm the terrible God of the Drowned, Stromfels. The ship breached the waves once more, its crew having shed their mortality and free will and the singer her mortal body, and continued on towards Ulthuan to complete what could no longer be described as the performance of a lifetime. But Eataine's Sea Guard, for reasons one might find understandable, did not allow the drowned ship and dead crew permission to dock at Lothern and instead drove it away from Lothern's coastline with fire and magic.

Driven by denied ambition, Cylostra threw her lot in with the pirates of Awakening, who embrace her current status as a Wraith and her ambition to break through the Asur patrols guarding the Straits of Lothern. She's a domineering taskmistress to her crew, but those that sign on with her know exactly what they're getting into and seem not to be objecting to it, and she's seen a fair deal of success raiding the Bretonnian coast and binding the souls of Knights to her service.

Specialities: Bretonnia, Ulthuan, Stromfels
Rare Capabilities: Ghost Cavalry



[ ] The Salt Lord

A first glance at the ship called the Salt Lord often leaves those of a nautical bent frowning disapprovingly at the sails hanging loosely from their fixings instead of tightly bound to the crossbeams. A second glance draws a third, as the viewer realizes that the motions in the Salt Lord's rigging owes nothing to the wind. Then the onlooker realizes the truth: that every horizontal spar above the Salt Lord's deck has a line of enormous bats hanging from it, swaying to and fro as their beady eyes hungrily track the comings and goings of those below.

According to legend, the Salt Lord lost its original crew and gained its chiropteran complement when its captain took a single cursed shilling from the Estalian castle-port of Castelo Novo, attracting the beasts that slaughtered the crew and made their new home in the now-drifting vessel. The lack of any such castle-port on any map of Estalia is vexing, as is the lack of further detail about the shilling's curse or the captain's motivations in acquiring it. However it came about, when the ship full of bats drifted into the Vampire Coast, a boundless thirst for warm blood was something that the locals were quite used to dealing with and there was a range of possibilities for crewmen who did not contain any to tempt the bats, so a natural symbiosis was reached between the bats and the ship's new crew. On top of being able to wipe out the crew of smaller ships on their own, the bats of the Salt Lord can shred the sails and pick off the topmen of a ship they're pursuing, and when it's time for battle, they can carry aloft gunners to scour the enemy decks with blunderbuss fire and dropped explosives. And on top of conventional piracy, they've become quite adapt at identifying wealthy targets to be carried off at night to be held for ransom.

And as a side-benefit, if you're so inclined you could entice a breeding population away from the masts to take up residence on your new island.

Specialities: Piracy, Kidnapping
Rare Capabilities: Flight



[ ] Princess Aelsabrim Fallenstar

The current Ward of the Citadel of Dusk is, perhaps appropriately for a Tiranocian, on very shaky ground. A minor noble appointed to fob off Tiranoc's claim to wardship (in dispute of the previous Yvressian monopoly over it), her husband died shortly after her arrival, leaving her without her greatest supporter and with a stake in the lucrative beast trade she does not know how to parlay into the riches she had been depending upon. This has left her desperate for support and prone to signing off on lucrative trades in animals without investigating the ultimate destination of those beasts, both of which are potentially of great value to those in the service of the Pirate King.

While the value of the beasts of Lustria as both a resource and an area of study is great, the potential if the Princess is cultivated as a contact is even greater. As a genuine Asur Princess and a Ward of one of Ulthuan's colonies, she could open doors and make introductions that could garner resources, secrets, and artefacts that would normally be impossible for anyone not of the Asur to procure. Tiranoc in particular is infamous for its cities of immense wealth and beauty that sunk beneath the waves during the Sundering, inaccessible to them but jealously guarded against any interlopers that would seek to gain it for themselves.

Also of particular interest is the Merwyrm, a type of enormous aquatic reptile said to be distant kin to Dragons, that calls the area around the Citadel home. The Citadel's Storm Weavers summon it into battle and the local fishermen periodically attempt to slay it in the name of the Goddess of the Savage Hunt, Anath Raema. If either results in the beast's death, it is the Princess that would decide the fate of the carcass, and it would be of immense value to the Vampire Coast.

Specialities: Animals (Ulthuan, Lustria), Asur Colonies, Tiranoc
Rare Capabilites: Royal Connection



[ ] Harbourmaster Tenebrel Reefwalker

Perhaps less ambitious than the Princess of the Citadel of Dusk is its Harbourmaster. A former member of the Sea Guard, his enmity for the Druchii and his focus on the Athartian Pleasure Cults create a certain amount of flexibility in other areas, and the possibility for his blind eye to be purchased brought him to the attention of smugglers which brought him to the attention of the Pirate King. Currently his willingness to allow a flow of contraband exotics would allow you to fill out your museum with Asur trinkets and luxuries, but it shouldn't take much convincing for him to also begin passing on Asur weapons and militaria - not enough to equip entire crews, but certainly enough to craft an exhibit or two around.

If cultivated further, a source of information about the Asur navy could have all sorts of potential uses, as could access to Ulthuan's criminal underworld. The Harbourmaster might not be willing to play nice with the Athartian Pleasure Cults, but the Hekartian, Raeman, Khainite, and Khialian corners might be more palatable to him, especially if they're willing to throw the Athartians under the Dragonship as the cost of doing business.

A very significant possible prize would be if the Harbourmaster might be convinced to pass on information about naval clashes between the Citadel of Dusk and those whose presence in the area they oppose, primarily the Druchii but also including a smattering of other forms of oceanic reaver. With his conscience soothed by hard coin and returning at least some of the Asur bodies and artefacts found, the bodies, ships, and any cargo of their sunken enemies would be recoverable by those in your employ, and there's no telling what mysteries and wonders this might bring into your clutches.

Specialities: Contraband (Ulthuan), Weapons (Asur), Militaria (Asur)
Rare Capabilities: Elf Crime



- I know you don't yet know what you're going to be sending the crews off for, or asking your contacts to acquire. You should be evaluating this first member of your Acquisition team as an all-rounder, rather than for one specific purpose. Whatever choice you make, there will be ways to leverage them to fill out your first exhibits.