Thanalan Acquisitions

We at RELIC kindly thank @wyranimh , @weepingknight, and @floating-city-of-nem for their efforts and support in unearthing an invaluable treasure and knowledge about the fate of a viceregent wiped from the annals of history. We kindly do not thank @rhotanored for making off with an incredibly dangerous artifact better suited for our vault, although frankly, expected no less.

Thanks for coming, y’all!

LOG

 Professor Gray had arranged a party, for his employees and friends, to celebrate his favorite time of year. Among the guests were Romina Lucretius, Professor Qico, Xev’tan Tatse, K’velkha Odh, Sleepy Cat, and a guest among them, Jeremiah Greycastle. Briefly, Gray’s dear friend and brother-in-spirit Ruran Vas also attended.

The party went as well as could be expected. Which is to say, the entirety of the time was spent harassing their good founder and company leader to the point of exasperated sighs and sulking in a corner. Donuts, starlight cake, and a roasted dodo were served while the group talked about their latest endeavors, and the past embarrassing ventures of their dearest leader. Twelve help the poor man.

The night culminated in a gift-exchange game, in which different members of the party took terms opening presents, or stealing presents already claimed. At the end of the night, the gifts and their owners were as follows: Professor Gray: A can of Jam, which upon opening, released spring-loaded paper worms about the room.

Romina: A photo of Rha, naked and unconscious, with a certain someone dropping their certain unmentionables over his face. Thanks, Xev’tan. Really. Thanks.

K’velkha: A box which upon opening promptly exploded into fireworks and confetti. Remaining inside were coordinates. For what? Who knows. 

Professor Qico: One-thousand “allagan silver pieces,” along with a book titled: “Glamours and Illusionment: A Practical Guide.” 

Sleepy Cat:  A Little Black Book. It contained an embarrassing secret of every scheduled attendee at the party. 

Xev’tan: A large, inappropriately shaped dousing rod which detected nearby magic.

Jeremiah Greycastle: A single phial of vitality potion, with the label, “...You know ;)”.

Far past civilization, in the furthest reaches of the Sagolii desert, there stood a pass. G’rha Nunh had assembled a team of friends and employees alike, in braving the Trial of the Priest, one of three trials, relating to three gems necessary to unlock the tomb of Viceregent Shoshotepo. The trial was comprised of two parts--first, the path to the gem’s hiding place itself, a pass known in records as the Path of Azeyma, through which only a narrow, winding strip was safe to traverse. As Rha demonstrated with a tossing of a stone, any errant step resulted in being swallowed by the sands themselves. After a brief survey of the ambient atmosphere, D’arca Ovraen managed to identify trails of aether suspended throughout the pass. With the cooperation of Eleanor Blackfeather, the two were able to supply a charge of magic through the environment. The resultant streaks of light which arced through the dim desert pass became the compass by which they traversed. One wonders if this was truly how the Priests of Qarn (or the Reliquarium’s competition) intended the trial to be overcome. Perhaps it didn’t matter. The Light of Azeyma lit the path forward, bringing them to the remnants of a shrine. 

The shrine door was remarkably well kept, and depicted two priests. One of which held a dagger into the air, a vicious snarl carved into his features. The other was bowed in deference. To either side, were a pair of statues in a twisted, corrupted visage of Azeyma. Instead of holding the sun as her fan, she held knives stained red. Professor Qico, along with the help of Rha, managed to identify hieroglyphs upon the mural--to open the way, a Priest must show both their will and deference to the Gods. Before the party had much time to contemplate, the statues stirred in response to the reading. A stone knife came down, slicing through Rha’s tricep, as well as knocking him down by the sheer weight of it. As the blood came into contact with the statue, one of its eyes began to glow! The other statue began its advance towards the rest of the party, with as much murderous intent behind its eyes as an inanimate object could have (which, for the record, is a surprisingly large amount). 

Enraged and panicked, Memma Rha released a blast of potent magic which quickly obliterated the advancing statue. Having shown it her will, the eyes of the statue began to glow just as it shattered. Half of the mural--the aggressing priest--upon the door began to give off a vibrant blue light. The other statue was promptly shattered as well, but in vain--the statue quickly reanimated itself! Operating off of the relationship between the eyes, the mural, and how the reanimating statue responded firstly to the presence of blood, and not the act of aggression, Emerald Sunrise then understood the devotion of a priest. Cutting her own hand, she placed it upon the statue, adding to the blood of the professor. The eyes lit once more, and the deferential priest began to glow in turn with the agressor. The door began to rise, sliding upwards to reveal a chysoprase dagger! They party had obtained their reward! Sunny treated Rha’s wounds, and they returned the gem to the vault. However, Nonoimo Totoimo likely will not be pleased, at The Professor’s decision to move forward without him--and the man is still in possession of The Sun gem. In response, our intrepid heroes will likely be finding themselves with an uninvited guest upon their doorstep, quite soon.

Nonoimo leaned back across a chaise longue, taking up far less space than the length of the furnishing but letting no-one else near. Across the hall, the surprisingly lanky, spindly looking lalafell watched as women danced for him on a stage which he had made specifically for that purpose. He spun a comically villainous mustache before stroking along its length. If this were a film, which this absolutely wasn’t, because not only do films not exist and what are we even talking about but this is absolutely real life, there would be some ominous score in the background or something. 

Located in the Goblet, Ward 9, Plot 15 sits a small, decorated building overlooking the Brimming Heart. There was a dinosaur out front, and a moai statue. Occasionally, angry shouts could be heard, and the sound of drills and chisels. It was a pretty hard place to miss, if you frequented The Goblet. Attached to its front placard is a notice written in bold, large lettering: NOW HIRING: ACQUISITIONS EXPERTS, INTERNS, AND RESEARCHERS AND FOR THE PURPOSES OF GROWING A MUSEUM AND ACQUISITIONS COMPANY. INQUIRE WITHIN.

Contact Professor Gray for details.

Which is to say: RELIC is currently recruiting! We’re a neutral-aligned (though good-leaning) medium/heavy RP-FC with three stated goals: 1) Be a museum, and expand from a small repurposed home to a full-fledged facility with several dedicated wings. 2) Provide acquisition services, retrieving artifacts from any manner of location and situation, both from NPCs and PCs in and out of our FC, and in doing so facilitate community engagement and meaningful interactions. 3) Secure and contain particularly dangerous or unpredictable artifacts behind the scenes, and keep them safe from the hands of megalomaniacs, desperate fellows, and general rabble-rousers who think a vase capable of granting forbidden knowledge at the cost of parts of your soul and a gradual loss of your autonomy is a wise investment. More succinctly: we strive to offer community engagement and short, event-based RP through retrieval of artifacts for clients, and long-term, narrative-driven RP through the discovery, containment, or in occasional cases destruction of particularly dangerous, strange, unpredictable artifacts. The company is good leaning, as stated, although many of those working within it’s halls have come from all walks of life--and shady wheeling and dealing, heists, and rat races against crooks are just as likely as delving into ancient ruins with a team of expert scholars, when working with the Museum.

We feature a quest system, with Main Quests, DM’d by the Officers, sidequests, which may be DM’d by anyone, and character quests, which are user-generated content, either DM’d by the creator or, at request, an officer, and utilize a monster of the week hack for our event system--if you’re new to tabletops, we’ll be happy to teach you--it’s a simple system!

Already in an FC?

No problem! We have a handy affiliate status which gives you access to events, the linkshell, and our discord--you’re a member in all ways except FC chat and FC-room access. We value community engagement, networking, and having fun above all else!

Interested?

Introduction

The Thanalan Acquisitions and Reliquarium (RELIC) is a medium-intensity roleplaying free company on the Balmung server of Final Fantasy XIV. We come from a range of backgrounds and are a mostly tight circle of friends who prefer quality over quantity in membership. We’re NA Based, with most of our events happening between the hours of 4-11PM EST on weekdays, and late on Fridays and Saturdays. RELIC prides itself on collaboration with several other groups and works hard to coordinate schedules with its partners. We’re located in the Goblet, ward 9, plot 15. We are currently using a Monster of the Week hack for our main quests and events. Background Thanalan Acquisitions was established by a notoriously belligerent, stubborn, private, and ambitious man, Dr. Gray (G’rha Nunh), with the intent of realizing his lifelong dream of establishing his own museum. More importantly, after having had enough run-ins with dangerous megalomaniacs and desperate men (and having had his own share of mistakes and hard-learned lessons), Gray sought to create a place where dangerous, unspeakable, esoteric artifacts could be safely contained where they would be unreachable by the likes of those who would seek to abuse them--people, admittedly, like the man he had once been. This secondary goal is kept close to the chest, and only reclaimers and curators know about this goal. In order to facilitate the attainment of these artifacts, as well as to help fund the museum, an acquisitions operation was promptly formed to generate a steady revenue stream as well as help make a name for themselves. What We Do We’re scholars, treasure-hunters, well-intentioned thieves, and adventurers! Our RP largely revolves around acquisition of artifacts and day-to-day museum life through our robust Quest System, occasional public events centered around entertainment and education of the public, as well as taking acquisition requests from both NPCs, FC Members, and non-FC members alike to facilitate community engagement and help deliver plot hooks and light worldbuilding. This takes the form of event-based oneshots and lighthearted, energetic, pulp adventure novel fun. Additionally, more intense arcs continue in the background on a fairly consistent basis with major events taking place biweekly--these are the backbone of the closeted, quiet goal of attainment and containment of dangerous and unpredictable artifacts.

Quests

RELIC operates on a Quest System, with 3 primary forms of content. Main Quests are time-limited quests which advance the overarching RELIC narrative, and are explicitly DM’d by Officers. Sidequests are quests which may or may not have a deadline, and are often able to be DM’d by anyone, with any style you prefer--Officers ask for logs and results of these events, and will communicate with a DM what to expect. Sidequests may be just for fun, or they may open up new and previously unforeseen routes for the MSQ to take! Lastly, we have Character Quests which are our form of user-generated content! Often DM’d by the creator, unless specifically requested, these events are any character-centric or user-submitted quest or quest chain and open up involvement from our membership beyond simply running or participating in events we put out. Attached are examples of each!

Main Quest

Sidequest

Character Quest

New quests are generally thrown up weekly or as-completed, so there’s almost always something to do! Roles Within the Company Roles are largely fluid and little more than a way of distinguishing particular dynamics pertinent to museum life and providing flavor to RP. There is considerable overlap and any member may be active in several roles at once. That being said, we do have several distinct roles which influence the interactions within the company: Curators are responsible for research and identifying goods, and often helm expeditions to retrieve them. They are also responsible with expanding the museum. Curators are expected to turn a private room into a personal exhibit hall based around their own theme and interests. Current exhibits will be listed on the company tumblr (here!). They are the closest thing to a supervisory role within the company, and are always fully briefed on the full motives of the company.  Reclaimers are the muscle of the company, handling artifact retrieval, acquisitions jobs, and wetwork. Conservators are responsible for restoring and maintaining collections, as well as the occasional recreation of a device or artifact. They’re the tinkerers of the company.

Custodians are responsible for handling museum affairs, interacting with the public, and helping with social events. This is largely suited for alts, or as a secondary role, considering the casual nature of this position.

The Mentees are often younger characters, accepted on a provisional basis, who do safer, low-risk jobs at the museum while acquiring valuable experience. They may be wards, interns, or aspiring heroes who don’t quite have the age or experience for the fields of glory. This role was designed to facilitate the youth of RELIC. Most of these are alts, and it is not recommended you apply as your main.

Who We Want

We’re looking for members who are active in game, as well as proactive in pitching story ideas, arcs, and events, in a collaborative effort. Participation in events, as well as producing ideas for events oneself is strongly encouraged. If you’re unfamiliar with running events, we’re happy to help you! Any character with a history in mercenary work or adventuring, scholarly pursuits, or craftsmanship with any interest in museum/acquisition work or containment and protection of highly volatile artifacts is a good fit for the company. We are predominantly good-aligned, though we veer into neutral territory frequently--most of our membership, if placed on an alignment spectrum, are Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Good, and Chaotic Good. Outright evil characters are discouraged, though exceptions can be made if they’re played exceptionally well and add to the overall narrative experience. We try to keep our membership small and tight-knit, but active. Please be understanding of this atmosphere. However, you are not required to be in the Free Company to be a part of our events, and if you are already in another Company you are welcome to be an affiliate and spend time in our discord and linkshell!

Interested?