So as I write this chapter, I’m at a bizarre crossroad where I’m having trouble deciding what items Marialeth discovers in this chest. She’s at an old trading post but there is no indication when it was destroyed nor by whom. We can assume that the responsibility most likely will be from the Arch Lich’s army when they ravaged the region. However, the items in the chest ought to be meaningful and therein lies the issue for me.
So at the moment, Marialeth discovers three things: 1) silver (money); 2) a platinum bracelet; 3) something else. The something else is driving me absolutely nuts because I’m not 100% certain how it ought to play out. Originally, in the back of my mind, I wanted the item to be an ancient book of religion. Yet in my outline I had written that she had stolen a book of ancient religion from the Arch Lich’s library. During this chapter, I completely ignored that detail, freeing me re-insert this item later down the road if I chose. This seems like a potentially good spot to place said item.
However, the first question raised in allowing this item to appear here is why. Why would this trading post keep such an item? My first notion was to make this trading post ancient as well, possibly a few hundred years. Yet that seems in itself illogical depending on how long the Arch Lich dominated this area. A century at best but not longer otherwise he might’ve been challenged prior to Lord Waterbrook’s assault.
At the same time, the trading post should have been decimated within that time span, at least several decades. I did write it into a map that Marialeth had “acquired” but the map is outdated. So the trading post’s ruins could be anywhere between 50-100 years let’s say. If that were the case, then this book shouldn’t be that ancient if it were used in any meaningful manner.
On the other hand, the argument for making it ancient is that the place is a trading post, meaning that the people there might’ve acquired it from a random merchant for a bargain basement price or even found it after the merchant accidentally left it behind. Yet it still remains an odd “treasure” depending on the content.
Since the first idea is that it’s a book about ancient religion, we’d have to believe that the proprietor of the trading post was religious or had an interest in it. The connecting thought to this book to make it more relevant is to add a journal component either inside the book or as one last item. Maybe a log of transactions or diary.
The argument against the diary is to avoid another lengthy segue from the main story. We could hasten the diary only to point out pertinent elements rather than a gigantic retracing of events. The pertinent elements might discuss what the ancient tome is about, perhaps diverging into a VERY short discussion of its relevance to the whole story. Maybe the Arch Lich desired the tome and was scouring the land for it to add to his collection.
Now, that begs the question why the Arch Lich was so interested in history and ancient religion. We know that Marialeth is amazed at the Arch Lich’s library to the point where it becomes part of her living quarters in the troll caverns. My thought is that the Arch Lich originally had been an ambitious wizard who sought the highest levels of truth and asked the most critical questions. His lust for ultimate knowledge sent him on a personal quest to travel across dimensions, time and worlds and learn about history, culture, life and religion. Eventually, he bargained with his soul with Faelork for immortality and became a servant to continue his quest when his spells of longevity were at an end.
In this situation, Marialeth unknowingly has acquired a very potent artifact of raw knowledge, a segment missing from the Arch Lich’s vast collection. The book might be written in a script that she cannot read or has great trouble deciphering but Keith can (a version of cursive handwriting). The passages she has managed to decipher might entail keys to what she thinks is more clues to Pleiathone, which is what she wants Keith to help her decipher.
Of course, Keith finds her entire story to be set in the mind of a fanatic. As a skeptic, he goes on to explain parallels between this world and Earth’s history where older civilizations might misinterpret things because they lacked the vocabulary and scientific knowledge to properly describe what they saw. Yet she would get him to read the book regardless. Instead of discovering more details on Pleiathone, he comes across a section that reminds him of events from Earth’s ancient history (have to fill in details here later).
Based on this mental discussion, I think the ancient religion/history book will fit best. The journal might talk about the Arch Lich’s conquest of the region in summary and the last days of the outpost, which hint at the Arch Lich’s attempt at locating this book. That will hopefully give a little more context about the importance of the outpost rather than just randomly have it show up for no good reason.
The silver is pretty self-explanatory. Now, the bracelet should be more than just a fancy trinket. It will have a role when she encounters the scouting group but for the specific power that’s the hard part. My initial thought is to make a defensive object, maybe even something with XXX number of charges. Yet it might have a connection with the ancient religion book. After all, why place a bracelet in a chest with such treasure? On the other hand, the chest does include silver, which implies that the owner could’ve just kept everything as a secret stash.
At the very least, Marialeth might between that the bracelet is tied to Pleiathone. I’m not sure I want to put another lengthy journal entry just to discuss its powers. If anything Marialeth would discover that it has powers on accident rather than reading about it. Gives it more oomph overall. She might attempt to peruse the journal to see if there are any mentions of Pleiathone in justifying the bracelet’s power and how it saves her.
An alternate explanation is that the previous owner simply kept a small stash of treasure together for emergencies. Maybe the person did not discover the bracelet’s power or knew of it and made no note. When the trading post came under attack, the person probably abandoned the chest or kept it really hidden with the intention of returning. Either way, there definitely ought to be an air of mystery surrounding the bracelet.
One last idea could be that the chest itself is a small start to Marialeth acquiring her own wealth/power. It’s part of the whole “adventurer’s luck” notion. Yet in her eyes, she sees it as having greater symbolic meaning in her life as well as “proving” that her existence has a higher purpose.