The Asshai's Bloodmage

 Today marks a week since the pirate attack and the mood of mourning and loss has improved. Things were only not worse because the men we lost had no family on board. We used the blacksmith's forge to cremate their bodies and keep their ashes. The second ship was purchased for 60 gold coins by me, Omar and Zhang. Yes, this time he wanted to be a partner in the business and we accepted, since it reduced the cost of the ship for us. Everyone who participated in the battle earned almost 1 gold coin each. Omar and I also added 3 gold coins each for the dead crew members, Henry added an extra coin also for being his men and lastly they will also receive their share of the sale of the Golden Dragon's cargo. The money will be delivered to their families in Pentos and New Ghis.

As for the passengers, we will give them adequate compensation if we find their family or friends. I asked them for the contact details of these people when they bought a ticket with me for this very reason. With all the details of the incident resolved, I turned my attention to my experiments and the meeting I will be organizing among the apprentices. I began studying the biology and anatomy of the Valyrian pirates and making small changes while using the biology books I collected from the Lords' library.

As for the meeting, I decided to do more than just a meeting. I decided to turn it into a sort of secret organization, an Order or Guild. Creating a form of bonding where one helps the other, organizing a monetary or points system, a quest table and a bazaar for buying and selling among the members. My goal is to create a network of contacts that will continue even after we arrive in Asshai. This will give us an initial advantage among the other apprentices in the city and the organization can grow stronger and stronger as time goes by and its members become more powerful and influential.

But to keep a group of people interested, I need something really valuable, and I have plenty of it, in the form of information about this world, its past, present, future, quotes, and the various confirmed and unconfirmed theories. Even a theory about certain locations should help the members. The amount of topics is enormous… The North, the Green Seer, skinchangers, dragons, and various information about religions and other organizations and houses that will emerge in the future.

I know exactly what everyone will want, whether out of curiosity or to avoid danger. I can classify this information into points and quantify it into extremely low and high levels, some of this information someone would have to work a century to obtain, that is, work hard for the group I am creating by doing tasks for me or for other members. This will also help me cover my blind spots and lack of information that the members can collect.

I then decide to completely take over the empty cabin that was being used to smoke fish. I will need that place to prepare everything. So I start to make several notes and put them on a board. I ask Ted and Aisha to bring my alchemy lab to this cabin, to offer an immediate benefit to the members. I also bring some of my experiments, such as the fish that are still alive and even a pirate. I get a large table with several seats and start putting scores and colors on the information titles. After a few more hours of organizing, I manage to get everything ready. I look at the guest list and decide to include Jack in this group.

This information is very attractive to him and some of the possible missions involving espionage and assassination may be acceptable to him. Of course, inviting him means that he will also become an apprentice; whether he has the talent or not is not for me to decide. I send the invitations through Aisha to all the participants and prepare for the meeting the next day, still trying to deduce how much each piece of information should cost.

***

 Meanwhile, that afternoon everyone received their invitations. Jack opened the envelope he received in his cabin and was surprised when he read its contents:

"The Order of the Sages invites you to attend our first meeting and become one of our founding members. The Order aims at the sharing of information, magic, spells, rituals, mystical knowledge, mutual aid among members in completing magical experiments, collecting ingredients and exploring dangerous places. Given the code name of Gray Sage, as part of the duty of being a founding member you must contribute at least one magical knowledge now or in the future. As a benefit of being a founding member, you receive 100 wisdom points that you can use to purchase items, information or commission quests for other members of the group. Please show up tomorrow at 10:00 pm for our first meeting. (Failure to show up will mean you refuse to join the group.)"

At the same time Liza was shouting excitedly and excitedly to her sister Zaya, while the two also received an invitation. Zaya just sighed, not knowing what to expect from this meeting.

Fatty Zhang and Omar didn't act too surprised because they already knew what would happen, since Rafael gave them two items to use as their entrance fees. Vitarys and Jhon were the most surprised, but they still accepted the invitations. 

Soon it was time for the meeting of the Order of the Sages, and everyone arrived at the cabin. At the entrance, a masked Aisha asked if they had anything they wanted to buy or sell. She explained that the items would be displayed on a larger table with details. Vitarys, Jhon, Jack and Zaya put some items up for sale, but nothing too flashy. Aisha had already said that it was more to have a bit of diversity in the bazaar that would take place. Jhon asked to buy some plants that he needed. His method of learning the Ensnare spell involved certain rare herbs and not jewels, so if he could get a few more extras on board that would help. Zaya only asked for alchemy books, she strictly followed her father's advice about alchemy being the path to success for a Blood Mage. She also asked for some extra emeralds for her spells, but she didn't expect to find many on board. Jack put a dagger and a portion of his paralyzing poison on sale and went ahead, entering the cabin. Inside he found a table where he saw several members sitting. Besides him, only Vitarys was masked. Everyone had a plate in front of them with a ball that represented their color, as soon as he sat down he placed the gray ball in the middle of the plate, imitating the others. He was the last to arrive, so he waved to the others and finally saw Rafael in a red cloak.

After sitting down and placing my red sphere in the circle, imitating the small council that had not yet been founded, I said good night to everyone. Then I began to explain the rules of the Order, about the secrecy of information and even the consequences of leaking any information. Then I talk about the initial payment as founding members, the information I am making available, how to obtain this information, items, fees, wisdom point system and conversion of points into money and money into points.

I then talk about other benefits that founding members will have, such as how we will recruit new members, ways to obtain more points through tasks, help with experiments, answers to certain magical knowledge, help or tutoring in magical learning. At the end I also add about the benefit that includes free access to all items that each founding member contributed to the founding of the Order.

After that, any item or knowledge delivered to the Order will earn extra points to the contributor and these items or knowledge will cost wisdom points even from the founding members. At this point I ask if everyone agrees to be founders and I ask them to offer their items before we enter the part of the meeting that will be about questions and answers. I begin followed by Omar:

"My name is Rafael and I give you a book on basic meditation."

"My name is Omar Velaryon and I give you a book on water element magic called Lesser Healing."

"My name is Zhang and I give you a book on preparing and preserving corpses for rituals and necromancy."

"My name is Liza and I give you a book on writing rituals that use common dye and copper as materials."

"My name is Zaya and I give you a book on wind element magic called Featherfall."

"My name is Jack and I give you a secret method of throwing hidden daggers, I promise on behalf of the Stranger to give you a valuable method later."

"My name is Jhon and I give you a book on plant element magic called Vine Whip."

"My name is Vitarys Ceres and I give you an alchemy method for a lesser healing potion."

After everyone introduces themselves and gives you their methods I also add the book on the blood writing ritual as an extra. And I present everyone's codenames:

Rafael - Red Sage

Omar - Blue Sage

Gordo - Silver Sage

Jack - Gray Sage

Zaya - Purple Sage

Jhon - Green Sage

Liza - Pink Sage

Vitarys - Golden Sage

"Remember that in Asshai the use of masks at all times outside your homes is practically a law there, to avoid unnecessary dangers. We will use these codenames during meetings, secret communications and other matters of the Order. If you are going to recruit someone, do so discreetly without revealing your true identity. Now let's talk about your goals in Asshai and how long you expect to remain there."

Omar and Gordo Zhang are the first ones; they hope to be able to learn magic in Asshai and if necessary spend many years studying. Fatty also says that he still doesn't know what his element is and that he would like the members' help to find out. Jack says he no longer works for the Faceless Men, and since he is well off financially, he would like to spend his time studying more about the occult and religions. He also makes the same request as Fatty. Liza, Zaya, and Jhon's goals are the same as ours, and they all want to improve their own skills. Vitarys is the only one with different ambitions, he says he wants to become a shadowmancer and study his secondary element, fire. And later follow his teacher to the infamous Stygai. I ask him and Zaya if they are going to be on their own in Asshai, and they confirm.

It seems that Esmer must go take care of the resurrection of Immortal first, the corpse city of Stygai is a place that even the most powerful mages are afraid to enter. After they finish their ambitions and goals, Zaya offers a stone to help Fatty and Jack discover their elemental affinities, she also says that the second affinity is harder to discover and must be used other methods that she does not have at the moment. Ironically, Jack has the rare talent for affinity with the dark element while Zhang seems to have something called soul affinity. Zaya said it was a rare type of affinity, but she doesn't have many details about it. Fatty is excited by the rarity and discouraged by the lack of information at the same time. 

Then I tell them that they can come to this cabin at any time to make copies of the methods each one handed in. They can use points to rent the alchemy lab as long as they book it in advance. Zaya and Jhon seem excited to have a lab on board the sailboat. All that's left is some security adjustments that aren't yet in this cabin. Then I stand up and ask everyone to follow me to a wall with a cloth. When the cloth is removed, everyone's mouths remain open for a long time.