PrinceCon XXXV - The Gold Rush
The discovery of a “pocket universe” provides new worlds for adventurers to explore, and threatens to upset the balance of power in the old country.
Coming from a relatively modest, middle-class family with future political aspirations, your parents were so proud when you were accepted to the Magical Conservatory, and your kin mortgaged their small merchant fleet to buy the 16 grains of Orichalkon that you would need to attend. Years later, you completed your degree and were ready for more challenging work, but in the interim the Gutenacht banking clan foreclosed on the mortgage and repossessed your family’s fleet, and so you did not (and do not) have the resources to purchase the necessary Orichalkon to cast more powerful spells. Oh, the lackwits from powerful families have moved on, along with a lucky brilliant few who received grants from the Conservatory, but you are stuck in a dead-end position as eternal research assistant to Marlin Rainwillow.
Then Archmage Koshwig Shadowglass found the Pocket Universe.At the time, it was mostly a curiosity, a minor find by a minor upper-class family and a high-risk venture for only the most desperate of adventurers. When the exploratory party returned, mostly forgotten and presumed dead, but laden with gems and Orichalkon, everything changed. The ranks of Hireling Hall swelled with applicants to explore the Pocket Universe and clear the way for settlers. Shadowglass would soon join the ranks of major families, if they can successfully defend their claim and exploit the resources of their new kingdom. Publicly, the greater families deny any involvement or interference in the Pocket Universe, but Hireling Hall contracts with the Shadowglass family specifically call out the need to help clear out the claim jumpers.