Conrad Lorthon was not a man of high ambitions, neither was he a man of great importance. He was a short, stocky man with rough hands and weathered skin that spoke of a life spent in the wilds of the world, behind him walked a sturdy mule that was loaded high with all the tools of his trade. The was two shovels, a pickaxe, a set of hammers and iron wedges for splitting rocks the canvas and poles of his small tent were covering a small bedroll while saddlebags were loaded with cheeses, hard biscuits and all manner of small but vital items such as a spool of strong twine and some linen bandages. It was a heavy load that spoke of a prepared traveller but the mule seemed to manage just fine as it followed the man that was leading him though a sparse woodland, as he used one hand to hold the rope guiding his pack animal the other was clutching a bizarre bronze contraption that housed a thin silvery dial.
He followed the path of this dial for a few miles over increasing wet and muddy ground as the trees became rarer and rarer, eventually giving way to a marshy wetland. Sighing to himself he checked the dial on his device once more, it was guiding deeper into the wetlands.
“One day it’ll be a pleasant field on a sunny day” he muttered to himself, though truthfully he knew that the isolation and awful terrain leading to this cache were almost certainly the only things that had kept it unclaimed by other hunters. For the next hour he wandered the edge of the marsh until he found a suitable campsite by a small stream, then he unpacked bedroll, tent and other various items from his mule before tying it to a nearby tree that gave some shelter to the beast as well as leaving enough rope to let it graze a small patch of grass if it so wished. Finally the tired traveller pitched his tent and unrolled his bedroll before setting up some small fish traps in the stream, then he finally returned to the tent and fell into a very satisfied sleep.
Waking the next day Conrad found two small and silver-scaled fish in his nets, quickly dispatching them and putting them into his tent he briefly chastised himself for not taking the time to collect firewood the night before. He quickly checked on the mule and found it sitting quietly under the tree, so he spent a few minutes gathering some deadwood from the floor to load onto his mule before heading back to make breakfast. As the fishes sizzled in the coals and his mule munched into a bag of oats Conrad took down his tent and loaded it up then took the time to refill his waterskins and glanced back at the silver dial on his bronze contraption.
“This better not be another bunch of useless knick knacks some damn wizard made to celebrate his daughter’s wedding” he grumbled before skewering the fish on some sticks and starting his squelching march towards whatever his compass had found.
As he marched on he had to leave his mule behind as the ground became to soft so it was once again tethered in what Conrad hoped was a conspicuous enough spot that he would not struggle too hard to find it again, he slowly trudged further still but eventually he noticed two things that were gradually happening that greatly lifted his spirits. Slowly the compass began to turn more and more and the land started to become firmer and firmer under his feet, he was getting close! His pace quickened and he soon saw what must have been the cache, there was a crumbling and half-sunken tower that stood in the center of a small patch of solid ground that rose slightly from the surrounding wetlands. Briefly he pondered if this hillock of solid ground had always been here and so was the obvious place to build anything or if perhaps something in the cache was causing it to be protected from sinking down with the rest of the land?
While he had no way of knowing the truth Conrad hoped dearly that it was the latter, and more importantly that whatever caused it was small enough for him to carry away on a mule. Thrumming with excitement the hunter barely noticed the wetness of the mud as he ferried everything he needed from the mule to the central island, once the animal was unloaded he even managed to bring the now-lighter beast to the tower island as well (Was it an island? Conrad was not the kind of man that would know the answer to this question but decided that since he was the only person here then he could decide what the land the tower rested on was) before quickly re-establishing his camp and getting to work. While it was well past noon at this point Conrad was impatient to see what he might find now that he had arrived, a brief search of the island with the compass led him to several spots that he dug down into.
A yelp of glee soon rang out as he uncovered a short length of what had once clearly been a mighty chain, links the width of his forearm were neatly joined into a chain that was nearly as tall as him, despite having been buried for untold years the links gleamed brightly under the dirt and great blows from his pickaxe and chisels did not even scratch it. After cleaning the dirt from the chain with water, it was placed into a neat pile by the tent as Conrad spent the rest of the evening wandering the island with his compass and using sticks to mark all the spots it told him to dig. After that was done he headed back to his tent and his mule to enjoy some bread, cheese and sleep.
Over the next few days Conrad systematically dug out all of the easy spots that his compass had found, these were generally on the outskirts of the little island as the further in he went the more that debris and large stones from the collapsed tower got in his way. He dug up more lengths of chain as well as the fragments of broken links, magical arrowheads of some kind and several horns and scales that clearly came from mystical beasts from far away lands.
Though Conrad knew nothing of magic or the histories of the world he understood well enough what must have happened here. There had been magic in this place long ago, and then there was a battle of some sort that destroyed it, that was enough for him. Armed with this new knowledge he decided to take a few of the most interesting finds (As far he could tell anyway) and head back to civilization, he needed a wizard.
God dammit.
10 days later a considerably more dishevelled Conrad leading a ragged mule approached the gates of a small port city surrounded by an unimpressive stone wall, the one of the three guards by the gatehouse that had lazily watched the pair with an impressive indifference up until this point suddenly stood up and quickly rattled out his standard greeting while stifling a yawn.
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"Welcome to Lodd's Point, please state your name, business and prepare your baggage for inspection"
"Conrad Lorthon, I am planning to find an appraiser and potential buyer for a nearby cache of magical items before purchasing some supplies and hiring help to complete the excavations"
The a flicker of annoyance flashed across the faces of the guards until their leader kicked one of his resting subordinates to rouse him, clearly unhappy with the disruption to his planned nap and hoping to be rid of this unwanted distraction as quickly as possible.
"Alright Gerolf, go grab the artificer that runs the shop by the bakery will you? We'll search the rest of the stuff and log it in the records while you do"
Conrad almost pitied the two remaining guards that methodically searched through his equipment and meticulously wrote down everything in a huge logbook. Lodd's Point was built from an isolated outpost that was the only place ships could resupply and seek shelter from storms, the isolated location was surrounded by nothing more that scattered villages and farmsteads that only bothered to make the trip to sell their produce to the merchants inside the city. As such the city was built entirely on trade, growing from a simple resupply point to a regional hub for maritime trade, the city council therefore had strictly enforced laws of commerce in the city and took great efforts to prevent smuggling of any kind. As such the poor souls currently searching through his baggage would have to note every single item he took into the city and then once more when he left, not to mention the added complications of bringing unknown magical items inside without checking them first.
Luckily though to solution to that problem came quickly as Gerolf returned with an excited looking woman in tow that immediately took a small lens from her pocket and began looking over the various mystical objects Conrad had brought back. She seemed to be impressed with most of the items found, but was particularly fascinated by the gleaming links of chain for some reason, hopefully that meant it was valuable but you could never be sure with wizards.
"Oh yes there is nothing dangerous here my dears" the woman happily informed the guards before turning to Conrad, "Oh my it looks like you found a new batch, wonderful, I would love to hear all about it while the inspectors are finishing up!"
"Found a really promising spot this time, well off the beaten track and it seems like and abandoned battle site or siege. The stuff here is just a sample from the surface, I need better transport than a mule, more digging power than a shovel, and a way to detect any dangerous enchantments before they kill me. You set me up with with a wizard you can trust and the potential here is huge."
"A whole excavation site? This could be enormous, I will be overseeing this personally . Give me three days or so to sort things out here and then we will negotiate properly, deal?"
"Deal" Conrad declared before turning back to the guards as they finished up the inspection, then he walked mule-in-tow to the glorious sight of an inn and prepared to enjoy the fruits of civilization while he could, after all he had a reason to celebrate. It had been months since he had found anything of value and now he had come across a cache of magical items that could be detected for miles!
"Finally having some good luck for a change" he laughed to himself, this was not some trinket that had been lost by a traveller in the wilds but a whole cache of artefacts that had seemingly appeared from nowhere. Despite lacking any true magical aptitude he was almost certain of what caused this, someone long ago had taken great pains to hide this place with some form of magic, magic that had for some reason finally failed. Judging from the state of the tower he had found it seemed to be nothing more than the ravages of time finally causing enough damage to destroy the effect, there were of course countless other explanations that Conrad was sure he could never even imagine. Fortunately for him figuring that out, along with making sure there were no dangerous spells ready to burst out of that place was the job of the wizard. And so comforted by the large amounts of gold that might soon come his way he spent the remainder of his stay at Lodd's Point enjoying strong drinks, warm fires and soft beds.
After the third day of this interlude though Conrad was once again talking to the artificer he would be heading back to the tower with, her gentle smile was framed by wavy black hair and gave her an effortless charm that heavily contrasted the gruff and unkempt Conrad. Her name was Leticia and she rode atop a large wagon packed with supplies of all types as a cutthroat negotiation took place between the two.
"I don't care how much fancy gear you are bringing with you I am the only one that know the location, give me 80% of the goods or I will just get a different wizard"
"Mr Lorthon I am an artificer, not a wizard. I am also the only person within a week of travel that would actually buy any unknown magical artefacts from you as well as being the appraiser, transportation, security, excavation, and funding for this little operation. So unless you feel like finding an alternative way of digging up a whole stash of unknown magical artefacts and transporting them for over a week through the wilds with no money and hoping that your buyer will just accept such a huge delivery with no problems, then I think we can strike a better deal than that."
"Mr Lorthon? What happened to the Leticia that I met by the gates a few days ago?" Conrad was surprised with the sudden change in tone, he had known the magical shopkeep for several years by now if only in passing, clearly there was a canny business woman underneath the bubbly persona that she radiated when interacting with her customers.
"Oh that is easy, she received a business proposal," came the amused response. "Anyway climb up in here and we can work the rest out on the journey, I don't want to miss any more ships than I have to. And besides I am very curious about these ruins you keep telling me about."
As an irritated Conrad climbed into the wagon besides his new partner he continued to try and haggle the biggest share of the spoils he could, quickly however the strange nature of Leticia's cart became increasingly intriguing as he noticed complicated brass devices that held the wheels and axles in place as well as other similar contraptions attached to the back and sides of the wagon. Leticia noticed his curiosity and practically burst with a mischievous pride as he struggled to divine the purpose of the strange devices before deciding that it was best to just leave the ways of wizards alone.
"Don't worry about that Mr Lorthon, you will see what everything is for later on. Just one of the many services I am providing that justify my share of the profits as you will no doubt see" she said with a hint amusement before the negotiations resumed. After two hours of back and forth however they eventually reached a satisfying conclusion with Conrad receiving a 30% finders fee on the value of the entire haul upon their return to Lodd's point and after the opinion of a second appraiser, in return Leticia would cover all expenses and would sell the items to passing merchants in her shop over the next few months.
Once negotiations were finished however there was an immediate change and "Letty" was suddenly overflowing with naked excitement over the possibilities of all the fascinating magical objects that they might find on this expedition. Whether or not an relentlessly friendly wizard babbling endlessly about enchantment stabilisation was actually an improvement to the ruthless merchant bleeding him dry was unclear, at this point however Conrad was in far too deep to try and find another business partner. Not that he had expected anything different of course, after all he did need a wizard and in his considerable experience there was not a wizard alive that was not at least partially insane.
It was at moments like these that Conrad regretted his choice of career.