The Tower of Weng Xiao
Hex 29.14.45
Connects to: 29.14.46 and 48.18.
Weng Lo, a wizened adventurer from the far east, claims to have brought the secret of silk making to the Shrouded Lands. His family was granted five floors of a prestigious tower after Lo demonstrated the quality of his silk to the Doge. Despite operating in the city for over a decade, no one in Shuttered can match the quality of his fabric. Weng died in a ballooning accident while dining with his sometime mistress, cattle baroness Cessine the Fair (from Sosaria). His daughter, Xiao, now runs the family business. Her first act was to place her employees, all gnomes, under a geas to die before revealing the secrets of their business.
Xiao rents the first floor of her tower to a charnel house. The charnel house is unusual in many ways. Its employees are all blind. The bodies brought to the house are place in coffins for a week. When removed, the bodies are always reduced to clean skeletons. The skeletons are then buried in a customary manner along the White Road. The house’s method of disposal is becoming popular because it minimizes stench and the spread of disease. Other customers appreciate it because it effectively erases the corpse’s identity. Many suspect the disposal of bodies somehow aids Xiao’s silk production.
Connection:
- Alvise Ettienne, the nephew of the famous ettin, is Weng Lo’s biggest competition in the silk market (29.14.46).
Hooks:
- What is known about the lands far to the east?
- Tell me about Lo’s other family members.
- Was Cessine the Fair trying to learn old Lo’s secrets? Was the balloon accident more than an accident?
- Why are all of the silk makers gnomes?
- Has the charnel house been used to “disappear” anyone? Someone, maybe, who knew too much about the silk?