Snake Oil
A travelling huckster called Gaudy Johnson has recently enjoyed a financial and political windfall, and has been appointed by the Doge as head of a Great Family.
It is Shuttered’s smallest Great Family, as Johnson is yet to marry or bear children, but it is a mark of the Doge’s great gratitude.
Gaudy Johnson is a snake oil salesman, which is to say that he somehow extracts the story from a snake and renders it in oil form. There, anyone may anoint their temples and, as they sleep, the book is read to them.
While useful for the busy and the illiterate, it is the blindness of the Doge that makes him so pleased to be able to read books in this manner. He has already devoured Gaudy’s limited selection and has sent him south for more.
Meanwhile, Shuttered’s established Great Families are not keen to witness the rise of an outsider and are making plans to ensure that the first member of the Johnson family is also its last.
Hooks
- Can the Doge announce new Great Families whenever he likes?
- What are the benefits of belonging to or heading a Great Family?
- How does Gaudy extract the oil? Do the lizardmen know of this technique? Does it destroy the snake?
- Is there potential for mistranslations, errors or even deliberate tampering with the text?
- What do the Great Families have planned?