Shadows in the Gilded City

Bu-Birkata. The trade center of The Triad Dragon Emirates of Avanar, ruled over by the brass dragon Tratainauthfelingeir. Known for its great magic school, The Crimson College and its Grand Bazaars. 

The city has seen a golden age in recent years with a growing number of wizards and other knowledgeable people flocking to Bu-Birkata.

However, it also has a bit of a gang problem. 

Ja’amys, the First Dragonseed, shrewd businessman, and owner of real estate, suffers from these gangs as they are costing him money. He decides to make an investment and put a stop to them. He launches a campaign, supported by the local government, requesting adventurers all over Domus to help him put a stop to these gangs.

Many adventurers flock to Bu-Birkata, each with their own reason:
The satisfaction of stopping Ne'er-do-wells, the chance of obtaining riches, or simply having a place to stay. 

Unsure of what the adventurers are capable of, Ja’amys tests the waters by letting them clear out basements, battle in the Blood arena, and help out the Trader’s Union by providing security.

It is then the adventurers discover something unusual. A white opalescent powder, a drug now known as Stardust. After a trial by one of the adventurers, they discovered the addictive substance lets them see the future and the past simultaneously.

It seems that this drug is on the rise in Bu-Birkata, and can be lethal if ingested regularly. As more people are found dead with their bodies containing the Stardust.

The Stolen Book

As the adventurers get acquainted with Bu-Birkata, more and more citizens hear about them, mostly referred to as “Ja’amy’s people”. One of these people is a researcher from The Crimson College who requests to be safely escorted to make a trade for a stolen book with important information. While the adventurers are busy making sure the researcher doesn’t die, they get a peak at this book:

“Origin of us: Elves and their extra-terrestrial origin.”

Which later they learn is a book that theorizes that elves originate from The Moon.

The Automaton Conspiracy

With their rising reputation, the adventurers get more important jobs, like cleaning the warehouse of the most popular coffee dealer in Bu-Birkata: Kafir’s Coffee Emporium.

While on this 'important' mission, the adventurers also discover someone unusual is unloading a small boat, which, after a brief chase, they discover is actually an automaton. It seems a group of these automatons are gathering crates of Stardust and metal parts and hauling them to a single location: The Camel’s Burden warehouse.

Wanting to get to the source of these disruptions in society, Ja’amys orders the adventurers to raid this warehouse and stop the spread of the Stardust. Unfortunately the people of the palace are not interested in spending money on this, but allow the use of lethal force as this “small temporary disruption” should be swiftly and permanently dealt with.

But as the adventurers make their way inside, they discover that it is not a place of distribution of stardust, but a place of production. Automaton production.

They encounter a duo of automatons protecting what they call “A Cradle”. A machine that injects a metal husk with a soul. After a brief fight, the adventurers emerge victorious with The Cradle destroyed in the process. It is unknown how many automatons have been produced before the adventurers arrived.

While gathering more information about this operation the adventurers discovered new leads, A crescent moon logo on all crates and shipping manifests, as well as someone known as “The Genie”. On top of that, a signature on all of the documents: The one of “Saladin Ibn Mahmout”.

The One-Eyed Genie

While Ja’amys figures out a way to get in contact with Saladin, the adventurers take up many more jobs. They accept more fights in the Blood Arena, They gather more information on the book: “The Origin of us: Elves and their extra-terrestrial origin”, And they accept a job to deliver a package to a scientist.

This package however, turned out to be a decoy attracting many thugs and bandits.

Finding the whole operation a bit shady, the adventurers returned to the lab and found out the scientist, called Sprock Coppertome, was working for “The Genie”. who he’d met in The Crimson College. Sprock was researching secondary effects of Stardust. Stardust seems to explode under the right circumstances, producing wild magical effects. After a quick battle, a defeated Sprock detonated himself and the lab, leaving the adventurers unable to gather more information.

Another team of adventurers set out to gather more information:
The team searched for their initial contact: Prick, the cactus leshy. He, after investigating and questioning, told the adventurers another title of The Genie: “The One-Eyed Genie”.

Prick was also taken in by Ja’amys per request of the Adventurers.

At this time, another party found out by "Questioning" a bookkeeper the One-Eyed genie
was indeed working together with Saladin Ibn Mahmout. and even worse, he is planning to bomb the monorail!

The Sons of the Genie

And then finally, after pulling some strings, Ja’amys figured out a way to get to Saladin’s.
He ordered the organization of a parade. Making sure Saladin’s manor would be less guarded. He and the adventurers used the parade as a means to enter Saladin’s manor covertly, while most of the guards and another adventuring party were busy making sure the Parade went well. 

From this investigation the adventurers uncovered that Saladin had been framed by his right hand man:

“Mohammed Ibn Zafar”.

Mohammed has been secretly forging the signature of Saladin using Saladin’s money to fund The One-Eyed Genie's plans. 

With proof of the actions of Mohammed, the adventurers and the Bu-Birkata Police Department teamed up to capture Mohammed. The raid party confirmed here that Mohammed had been working with The One-Eyed Genie as they were attacked by several automatons.

After dealing with them, they successfully cornered Mohammed. Unfortunately just as Mohammed was about to spill important information, he was assassinated by an invisible automaton. The only thing Mohammed could say was that the true name of The One-Eyed Genie was “Seth”.

The automaton then dashed out of the window, and instead of the night sky, a pitch black veil with a message was shown on the Bu-Birkata Dome:

”Vermin, all of you.”

“We are the sons of the Genie And we wish for your death.” 

Thus learning the people following “Seth, The One-Eyed Genie” are called “The Sons of The Genie”

The Adventurers then chased this automaton towards the “New Trader’s Bazaar”. Here he turned around and provided a tough fight for the adventurers, causing one adventurer to lose his life.

Ja’amys then declared that “a license to kill status has been added to your organization on all automaton in the city, as we are now at war with The Genie.”