Tablet of Ostracism
Story, common (requires attunement)
Price: none | no sentimentality
This magical tablet is already attuned to someone who has been ostracized and is used to track the person’s exile. It’s linked with a twin tablet kept in the polis that ostracized the person. When a polis ostracizes someone, it gives the ostracized citizen the tablet with the duration of the ostracism imbued within it. Each day at dawn, if the tablet is in the ostracized person’s possession and the person isn’t within the boundaries of the polis, the tablet subtracts 1 day from the duration of the ostracism. At the end of the ostracism’s duration, both tablets crack in half and the polis allows the citizen to enter its borders again. While carrying the tablet, the ostracized citizen can’t re-enter the polis. Death is the penalty for an ostracized citizen entering the polis without the tablet. Whoever traded this intact tablet to the Gray Merchant is doomed to permanent exile. You wonder what may have driven someone to give up the opportunity to go home. If you wish to track down the person who traded away the tablet, the DM can craft a story about the person or generate one by rolling on the following tables:
Table
| d3 | Home |
|---|---|
| 1 | Akros |
| 2 | Meletis |
| 3 | Setessa |
Table
| d8 | Identity |
|---|---|
| 1 | Politician |
| 2 | Soldier |
| 3 | Shopkeeper |
| 4 | Cleric |
| 5 | Commoner |
| 6 | Philosopher |
| 7 | Thaumaturge (wizard) |
| 8 | Quiet loner |
Table
| d6 | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1 | Displayed too much hubris |
| 2 | Committed a crime against the city’s patron god |
| 3 | Ran afoul of a powerful person |
| 4 | Scapegoated for a natural disaster |
| 5 | Jeopardized the city’s defenses |
| 6 | Violated the city’s norms or mores |
Table
| d4 | Location |
|---|---|
| 1 | In the home polis |
| 2 | In another polis |
| 3 | Wandering a distant land |
| 4 | In the Underworld |
Table
| d6 | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wanted to return to the home polis under a different identity |
| 2 | Planned to betray the home polis |
| 3 | Gave up on waiting out the duration of the ostracism |
| 4 | Lost all emotional connection to the home polis |
| 5 | Was desperate for something the Gray Merchant offered and had nothing else to trade |
| 6 | Discovered a way to be allowed to return home without waiting out the duration of the ostracism |
Paid
You know that if you find the polis that ostracized the owner of the tablet, authorities there can identify the tablet and the owner’s identity.
Overpaid
You receive divine inspiration that teaches you the command word to activate the tablet, which causes engraved text to appear on its surface detailing the polis that ostracized the tablet’s owner, the identity of the owner, and the reason for the ostracism.
Source: The Gray Merchant of Asphodel