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Old 01-07-2019, 04:52 AM   #21
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
Thank you.

I suppose some instinct of sanity-preservation led me to Google only diamonds and gems, reading through the history of various famous ones, but avoiding any Googling of Hollywood engagements.

I can see that I must delve into these unsavory accounts of forbidden knowledge, however, if only to learn how to oppose such things.

Robert Mouawad, however, like the occult mastermind that he is (undoubtedly, at least in my campaign), bought a private residence in Beirut, where he was born, and took great care to keep the deeply significant house, belonging to a mysterious and esoteric figure, who was murdered in a very dramatic fashion (but not in this home) exactly as it was, to make it his Sanctum and have the protection of its Threshold, to protect his collection. He also has an occult library there.

See:

Quote:
The intricately painted, carved wooden panels depicting Islamic scenes still adorn the walls and ceilings and the two floors are punctuated with stone and marble carvings, which include numerous ancient funerary steles, roman pillars, clocks, carpets, metal work, Chinese pottery and Islamic pottery, as well as Mouawad’s own collection of jewelry and precious stones. Altogether they create a magnificent time capsule of the distant past. “There is so much to see from different eras,” says Abu Khalil.

The museum’s vast collection of books, possibly the oldest and rarest in the capital, are particularly captivating, along with the decorative 19th century narguileh that line the dividing wall of the central, first floor landing.
That is the sort of thing that players might call shenanigans on, as too cliche and implausible in a setting that's supposed to resemble the real world, except that it really exists.

In any case, however, the NPCs who were stealing diamonds were based on California, because they are not the sort of people who'd have any plausible way to travel the world on a globetrotting mission of derring-do and stylish villainy. I'll have to find some suitable gems for them to steal in vulgar Tinseltown and environs, as they are a rather shabby sort of villains.

Well, I suppose that the female of the pair is rather more elegant, significant and capable. With the right partners, she could no doubt rob any vault in the world, acquiring diamonds from a variety of private collections. But she was assigned to work with a magician valuable for his undoubted educated intellect and arcane ability, even though he is, in terms of personality, a pitiful dweeb.

A pitiful dweeb, moreover, who really only had the Cultural Familiarity, connections and language ability to operate in the United States, specifically, the California from whence he came. In fact, when the PCs encountered them, these villains were not actually carrying out the dark will of their distant masters, they were engaged in a bit of personal business on behalf of said dweeb, due to the relative proximity of Dallas, where they were on their real business, to Houston, where the dweeb had tracked someone he wants for personal reasons.

It's just that they were in possession of 34 diamonds, each of which was cartoonishly large, and which if real, would be worth something north of 100 million dollars. And their sad little freshman philosophy nihilist driver said that these had been 'fetched' from a bunch of houses, mostly around LA, the help of some South Americans, who sound like, frankly, gangsters.

Which may or may not check out, as the PCs recall a diamond heist or two in the news in the last months, but certainly not enough of them for so many awesomely expensive gems to be on the loose. Then again, the PCs did find out that a number of Hollywood people had approached one or more of the police, private security companies and their insurers because of something that might have been an attempt, successful or not, to steal from them, but that either the apparent victims or the police had successfully prevented the media from finding out.
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