Items and artifacts¶

Locked The notable objects, materials and artifacts of Meridia: what they are, where they are now, and who wants them. Meridia is low-magic (R-009), so its famous objects are famous for what they mean or what they do in human hands, not for enchantments.

A real-world comparison

Think of a museum's catalogue rather than a treasure hoard. The Crown Jewels, a battle flag, a signed treaty, a single musket from a shipwreck: none of them is magic, but each one can start a war or end one. Meridia's objects work the same way.

The major items¶

Item	What it is	Where it is now	Page
Sunstone	A sacred glowing stone, found only in Aldoria	In the ground of the Sunstone fields, under the Kiln	Sunstone
The Ring of Ghost-Zero	The mark of the Jade Lotus's highest field seat	On Vesper's hand, under ruined Solis	The Ring of Ghost-Zero
Alyssa's revolver	The only firearm in Meridia; the "thunder-weapon" that killed Emperor Malakor	With Eleven, in pieces, two rounds left	Alyssa's revolver
Pale Lotus root and the pulse-stopping herb	The Lotus's slow poison, and the herb that fakes death	Lotus tradecraft; Tristen still carries both	Lotus poisons and herbs
The ledgers and papers	The secret accord, the Greyrock ledger, Kira's bribe ledger, Oren's ledgers, Four's confession	Mostly spent, burned or read aloud	Ledgers and papers

Other notable objects¶

Alyssa's father's sword¶

Locked The sword Alyssa Kruger carried. Weapons are held at the Citadel's gates, and hers was left in the seventh gate's custody. The day of the shooting, the Edge reclaimed it with its red-jade token and rode west alone. She carries it now.

The red-jade gate tokens¶

Locked At the Citadel, a weapon left at a gate is reclaimed with a red-jade token, the way a coat is reclaimed with a cloakroom ticket. The Edge used Alyssa's token to take the sword back.

Alyssa's medical bag¶

Locked A gift from Dr. Okoro, brought back from Farrow. Open It is lost, and nobody knows where it went.

Whatever the Farrowans carried¶

Open Dr. Okoro and Professor Osric Penhallow are sheltering in the canal tunnels under Solis with whatever they brought from Farrow. What it is hasn't been decided.

The coin¶

Locked The coin of Tristen's ritual. He asked a beaten enemy "Do you fear death?", and those who admitted fear got a toss: win and live as a collared servant, lose and die cleanly. Oren called "Dragon" and won, so he was collared; Kira made the same call, lost, and took a clean death (R-033). In the Empire the toss reads as deeply pious, because it lets fate settle the account (see Kar'esh), so using it now would tell the Empire exactly who he is. Oren deduced Ghost-9 from it.

Open What the coin looks like, and what its faces are called besides "Dragon".

The red ribbon¶

Locked Alyssa wore a red ribbon in her hair. Since her death, ordinary Aldorians tie red ribbons to doorframes, harness straps and sword hilts. See The Red Ribbon.

Locked Sarith's company, Kaelen soldiers abandoned by their own Empire, held the southern ridge at Hollowpass on the first night of the invasion under the banner Stay. None of them went home.

The Far Lantern¶

Locked The ship of Captain Marrin, and the only ship ever to cross the Grey Wall both ways. It carried Alyssa to Farrow and back. Open Where it is now.

The Jade Lotus sigil¶

Locked A lotus: in Kaelen a sacred flower, purity rising from mud, turned into the mark of the Jade Lotus. The wiki shows it as a carved green jade lotus with a crimson heart.

The great seal of Aldoria¶

Locked Kept by the Lord Chancellor, Bertram Hale. Lord Trevor's betrothal to Princess Lyra was read at a morning court under the King's seal in spring 903 AP.

The Kilian weapon¶

Locked In deep history the Kilian built an ultimate weapon, and their king Mordakar, drunk on it, turned conqueror and founded the first Crimson Empire. See Deep history. Open What it was, and whether any of it survives.

DM only: thunder-tubes

DM projection for the Age of Ribbons: Stonedeep smiths, paid in Lantern Road silver, copy Eleven's drawings of the revolver into the first crude "thunder-tubes". They are heavy, slow and unreliable. See Alyssa's revolver.

At the table¶

Every item here is a story object first. Before giving a player one, ask who else wants it and what happens when they find out it's gone.
Ordinary gear (swords, bows, rope, lanterns) works as in any low-fantasy game. Kaelen sells silk, steel and spice; the dwarves of the White North are known for steel and deep-mined metals.
There are no magic swords. A player who wants something wondrous gets craft instead: an alchemist's Sunstone reagent, a hedge-arcanist's charm with small, deniable effects.

Sources¶

The Aldorian Codex
The Aldorian Codex: Lands Beyond
Campaign handoff (Campaign Two)
Campaign Three handoff, §2, §7 and §10
Kaelen Codex, §0 and §4
The Rise of Ghost-9, Chapter One