Viceroy Orhan’s Madness
Connects to: 17.11 and 19.31.05.
Jahur has been on edge since Viceroy Orhan, the city’s treasurer, was attacked in his bedchamber last month. He escaped by throwing himself into the pool beneath his window, but his severe blunt force trauma wounds would have killed him had the city’s best clerics not come to his aid. Although they were able to heal his wounds, Orhan suffers from huge gaps in his memory. The gaps not only relate to the attack, but whole sections of his life. He is unable to recognize two of his wives, remember his recent journey to the Shuttered City and, most troubling, understand the nuances of managing the city’s wealth. For his own safety, Orhan is confined in a comfortable dungeon usually reserved for captured dignitaries.
Orhan was attacked by a wax golem similar to
Lady Naideen’s (17.11). This particular construct is
designed to drain Orhan’s memory and identity
and take his place. Had its attack been
successful, the golem would have stolen Orhan’s
memories, mannerisms and identity. The golem is
lurking in one of Jahur’s abandoned palaces,
plotting its next move. Orhan’s amnesia will
persist until the golem is slain.
Connections
- Orhan was chosen as treasurer because of his skill at alchemy. He was knowledgable of much else besides, for example he grew his own wives in vats (19.31.05). If is only because of one of these wives that he is still alive today.
Hooks
- Who created the wax golem? Was it a rival Viceroy, or a foreign threat?
- How do you create a wax golem that can steal an identity?
- Are any leaders in the Shrouded Lands actually wax golems?
The Wives of Viceroy Orhan
Connections: 19.31.01, 37.07 and 40.06.03.
It is easy to see why the Viceroys made Orhan (19.31.01) treasurer of Jahur. Despite his protestations about the cost of the material components, how could they not make a man who could turn lead to gold their treasurer?
And Orhan did not only make his own gold, he built his own palace and sculpted his own wives. In his younger days, fresh from serving as an apprentice of the Lady (40.06.03) the Viceroys of the Jahur showed him their daughters one by one, but Orhan found much to be desired both in the girls themselves and in the heavy duties that every Jahuri man owes to his father in-law.
He decided he could do better himself and grew his own wives in his vats and had a gnoll of the kharghaha sing souls into them (51.29.02). Their beauty and grace were envied by all of Jahur and Orhan owes his live to his favorite wife, Ronais, who was struck down defending him from the wax golem that attacked him (19.31.01). Although her body was shattered, one of Orhan‘s apprentices was able to cut out her brain and keep it safe until a new body can be built for it.
For his own safety Ohran now lies languishing in a dungeon and, while he has forgotten much, he has not forgotten Ronais and constantly rants and beats his fists screaming that he must be let out to build her a new body before it is too late.
Connection:
- The Lady grew similar people in vats (37.07). Maybe that‘s why she kept the gnolls around in her tower…
Hooks:
- What material components are needed to turn lead into gold? Why other alchemy does (did?) Orhan know?
- How did Orhan build his own palace?
- What duties do Jahuri men owe their father in-laws?
- Are there any differences between vat-born and normal humans? Did Orhan grow anything besides wives in his vats?
- Why did Orhan need gnolls to sing souls into his wives? What‘s special about gnollish singing?
- Too late? Too late for what? In his current state what sort of body would Orhan create?
- Is there anything else to tell about the love of Orhan and Ronais?