30 Days of Mythic Sites of the Roman Tribunal

Balzi Rossi

On the Liguria coast, lies a series of forgotten caves. In this otherwise unremarkable red and yellow cliff hides remnants of the ancient Fertility Cult. The locals simply call this place “egg beach” due to the many sea birds which roost among the cliffs. None has bothered exploring them. Very close-by the Via Julia Augusta road used to stretch, but it has since decayed and is hardly noticeable. The site is also on the Tribunal border region.

The caves are natural and show little signs of inhabitation, though extensive searches reveal buried treasure and bodies. The only immediately detectable features of the site would be its magical aura of three and the engraving of a horse in one of the caves.

There are thirteen completed venus figures, each still having a single pawn of corpus vis in them. They are made of ochre, serpentine, and bone. Other items found within the caves are simple and crude flint blades, scrapers and arrowheads. Deer canines, shells and the graves themselves.

No less than fourteen people were ritually buried within the caves. If properly exhumed it's quite likely that Hermetic magic would allow communication with these spells. At least one of them was likely an initiate of the fertility cult and created the venus figures.

Harco harvest vis from the beach outside the site. Each spring they gather some of the gull eggs for creo vis. They havent found the cave during these harvests - and wouldnt likely not approve of snooping magi. Though their benefit of an integration of fertility magic might change this attitude.

Story Seed: Putting the cart before the horse?
Cavalh of House Bjornaer has recently undertaken a great spirit quest. Tracking his ancestor has led him to discover Balzi Rossi. Here he finds the engraving which he is sure depicts his own heartbeast as a sure sign of his success. There is just a slight problem, he's from the Provençal Tribunal. Cavalh isn't interested in migrating from one tribunal to another, so instead he has decided to try the matter at tribunal. He believes his claim of the site is stronger than anyone else's, due to his ancestry. Further he also has the 1129 Grand Tribunal ruling on his side, Cavalh has confirmed that some of the locals speak occitan. He also has the covenant of Coenobium support in this endeavour. Cavalh has never been known for his patience though, and thus he has already set up a camp at Balzi Rossi, and prevented Harco’s servant from gathering the vis. The PC might be hired to try to sort out the conflict, or scare Cavalh away some other way.

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