Castle Martorius

Decades after the Gods’ End, an enormous palace of shining, opalescent towers and silken banners appeared atop a mountain overlooking Abendland.
The castle’s owner is the archmage Martorius. He claimed that he had lived on this land before the Bürach Empire even existed, but had spent the intervening years traveling between dimensions in pursuit of his magical research. Now, he assured the Unterfolk, he had no interest but to observe developments in the Empire as they unfold.
Indeed, the archmage’s castle is a wonder to behold. Dignitaries that have visited it report that there is no way to determine its true dimensions, as it expands and adds rooms to itself as necessary. Aerial servants cater to the guests, and a wide variety of illusionary people and animals wander through the halls as if they had a life of their own.
Given Martorius’ stature, the imperial government decided to accommodate him. In return, Martorius offered his counsel and even aided the Hearthkeepers in keeping the peace among the provinces. Yet for all this, no one in the imperial court believes Martorius is truly benevolent. The Hearthkeepers know his servants have been making inquiries throughout the provinces, searching high and low for the emperor’s artifacts.
They have sent spies to infiltrate his palace, but none have returned. What Martorius is really after remains to be seen.

Riddles At Dinner

From the journals of Nadja Morten, Imperious Consul:
Of the wizard Martorius, I can only say that he is at once brilliant, capricious, and cruel.
Six moons ago, I was invited to a dinner party at his palace high in the Rock Teeth mountains. With me at the time was a group of visiting dignitaries from Fiergaard and Hearthkeeper Bishop Villman Schild. Carriages pulled by a team of albino griffins took us there. We were provided a resplendent meal fit for a king’s entire court, served by a scandalously-dressed female djinn and a fire elemental chef.
At the dinner’s end, over wine from an extradimensional vineyard, Martorius decided to play a game with us. Each would test the others’ wits by asking the most difficult riddle we could think of.
We all did our best to impress our host. I told the one about the map, which the good bishop himself answered easily enough. The man was as clever as they say. Then it was Martorius’s turn. He promised a reward to the one who could answer his riddle. “I have no end nor have I a beginning. Even as you enter me, you are already leaving.”
Again, it was Bishop Schild who had the answer. “A ring.” Martorius smiled at Schild as if he’d expected the holy man would answer. “Very good.”
He then slid a silken pouch across the table to the Bishop. The Hearthkeeper looked inside, turned the color of milk, then spoke no more for the rest of the night.
On our way back to Altenheim, a shaking Bishop Schild rode with me in my carriage. “A few hours before,” he said, “I sent Varian Lore to steal into Martorius’s castle.”
I gaped at him. “The adventurer Varian Lore? The one who broke into the Rauland Vault?”
“The same. His mission was to find evidence that Martorius was hunting the Imperial Artifacts. Our dinner was to be his distraction. To help, I even gave Lore a ring of invisibility.”
He opened up the pouch to show me that very same ring.
It still had Lore’s finger in it.

Type

Castle

Owner

Archmage Martorius