Chapter 104 - Plot of the Harpy (Patreon)

The Ghiscari-Valyrian Wars were one of the most devastating conflicts in the entire Faerûnian history. Starting at the Year of the 4,715 of the Faerûn Callendar, which also marked the start of the Fourth Epoch: Age of Cataclysm and ended in the Year of the 6,000 with the Fall of the Ghis.

In the Year 6,000, the Ghiscari were defeated in the so-called Fifth Ghiscari War. The Old Ghis, the capital of their civilization, was burned to the ground under the dragon fire, and all of their Beyonders were killed; Temples of the Harpy God were torn down, and on the eve of the battle, the Harpy God itself was killed by the Five-Headed Dragon God.

With this, the ancient and powerful Ghiscari Civilization fell from grace and became a vassalised nation to the Valyrian Freehold, where they survived only by paying exorbitant amounts of wealth to the Freehold every year as tribute.

Yet that wasn't really the end for the Ghiscari as some of their cities and areas prevailed, and they adapted to the tide of change as they were slowly but surely gathering their strength. 

With the Valyrians foolishly adopting the concept of slavery in their civilization, the Ghiscari, even though they did not have any old power and position, managed to regain a certain standing.

The remnants of the old Ghiscari Civilizations were constantly stirring trouble, and they tried to rise once again. He could understand why the Clan Ferros wasn't that pleased by the appearance of the Arvinos Clan, which was dabbling into the business with Extraordinary Ingredients and weapons.

Something that was the primary area of trade for the Ferros Clan and its affiliated businesses. Now, when agents of the Clan Ferros managed to pinpoint one of the main bases of the Arvinos Clan where they were hiding the stolen goods that they gathered through their proxies.

Like cunning snakes, they were using the entire network of the proxy agents and pawns in their game to attack and rob merchant caravans of the various Chambers of Commerce, primarily targeting the ones transporting the Extraordinary Ingredients, sometimes even Beyonder Characteristics, and so on.

Valkorion knew that he was actually rather a good strategy because as long as they were careful and didn't create some really obvious patterns in their attacks, then it would remain a well-guarded secret.

He was rather surprised at how the Clan Ferros managed to learn about this and why she didn't give this information to someone else. However, he really expected that the correct answer to the second question was that it would be heavily contra-productive for the Clan Ferros to bother with some of the Dragonlord Houses.

It would be like giving them a loaded gun.

Not the best idea around.

"How did you even manage to learn about his plot in the first place?"

He was really curious about this, because this could be uncovering a great conspiracy.

"Well, we managed to capture one of the Archivists of the Sons of Harpy who, instead of hiding, was spending most of his time in the brothel. Idiot. And from this person, we managed to learn a lot about the Sons of the Harpy or at least what has remained from them because the organization is just a shallow self of what it was once in the past. Even though this was just one of the Archivists, we learned the location of several of their operatives, and after capturing the operatives, we learned of Arvino's plot to together the Extraordinary Ingredients for the Ghiscari."

Valkorion knew of the Sons of the Harpy.

A long time ago, they were a prestigious Beyonder Organization that was worshipping the Harpy God, the primary God of the Ghiscari Civilization. Unfotunly for the Ghiscari, the Sons of the Harpy were destroyed, and only small remnants remained, and their entire foundation was plundered and taken by Valyrians.

The current Sons of the Harpy were just weak imitations of what it was to the point where nobody in the Freehold really took them seriously. It was evident that they didn't even have one High Sequence Beyonder, at least on the surface, but even if they had, it would be a very small number of High Sequence Beyonders.

The Valyrian suppression was really thorough on the Ghiscari.

Right now, the Sons of the Harpy mainly consisted of the slave master, the Wise Masters of Yunkai, the Good Masters of Astapor, the Great Masters of Meereen, and various Noble Families of the Slave Cities of the Slaver's Bay.

"You are really lucky..."

Valkorion couldn't marvel at her luck, because she was lucky enough to snatch one of the Archivists of the Sons of Harpy. Within every single Beyonder Organization, be it the Orthodox, Secret, or Neutral, the Archivists were the people who had a single task.

Recording information and other events in the entire Beyonder Organization, these people were usually cooped up in the deepest and most secure parts of the headquarters of their respective Beyonder Organizations.

"Yes... that's what you get if your entire structure is filled with bratty noblemen who never encountered hardship in their lives and only knew how to play around with whores."

Camille held a very deep distaste for the Sons of the Harpy because what was once in the post very powerful Beyonder Organization was now just a poor facade of something that was playing at the Beyonder Organizations, and most of its members were young males from the Slaving Families of the Slaver's Bay.

"Consider it done. Give me actual information that you have gathered and bring me around three hundred Lesser Healing Potions; I will write you a cheque."

Three hundred Lesser Healing Potions was worth something around 3,000 Gold Dragon Coins with the standardized price of 10 Gold Dragon Coins for one Lesser Healing Potion, which wasn't a small number.

Valkorion immediately wrote Camille a cheque for the 3,000 Gold Dragon Coins on his account in the Iron Bank of Braavos as Camille nodded, took the cheque, and ordered some of her subordinates to prepare the Lesser Healing Potions for the Trifarian Mercenary Company.

With the Lesser Healing Potions being distributed among the soldiers of the Trifarian Mercenary Company, everything was done, and they could depart from the Volantis.

Right now, only two things remain for Valkorion to do.

He needed to meet with the Gotrik Gurnisson as he had a proposal for the dwarven Slayer, and then he needed to meet with the merchant caravans of the Ferros Chamber of Commerce and then escort the caravan to the Cartharys.

Because they would be escorting the merchant caravan, they would reach the Cartharys from the Volantis in one month, which was a very long time. But due to the circumstances, they were going on foot in combination with caravans and some horses, nothing supernatural, and everything was slow.

So it wasn't any kind of win.

"Give me one day, and we can depart from the Volantis."

Valkorion said to his female companion as she then went to prepare everything. The things that they would be escorting to the Cartharys were worth of something more than half a million Gold Dragon Coins minimally.

With the strength of the Trifarian Mercenary Company, she decided to increase the amount of goods and materials to at least one and a half million Gold Dragon Coins, as she had faith in Valkorion's capabilities to protect the caravans.

Not to mention the strength of the Trifarian Mercenary Company, even if compared to the other mercenary companies.