The Firefly Society is an organization composed of scholars and Corsairs dedicated to treasure hunting and the study of ancient artifacts. Founded by an archeologist and treasure hunting Corsair named Anderson Lake, the society is dedicated to connecting the Academy's foremost scholars of ancient history with Corsair treasure hunters able to bypass the Alliance's artifact restriction.
Admission to the Firefly Society is a rare honor, even among Corsairs. Those who gain admittance can access a secret base connected by daemon doors to every Orbiter's Coffee Shop, where they can discuss artifacts and acquire leads from the leading scholars on every major ancient civilization. Corsairs who perform quests for the Firefly Society are awarded with treasure maps to more ancient artifacts.
The Party gained a fastrtrack admission to the Firefly Society when Anderson Lake wanted to study
Helix's Illithid Gauntlet. However, their admission comes with some strings attached as Lake has recruited them to perform a heist of Countess
Bellari's private collection to free a prisoner, gifted and cursed with the ability to read an artifact's history by touch, named Melfina.
Formation
The Firefly Society was founded by Anderson Lake, an archeologist raised by a noble on
Mons Mirror named Countess
Bellari. As a member of a powerful group of tastemakers called the Mons Mirroti,
Bellari had almost unlimited resources to throw toward her passion of collecting artifacts. She used her connections and protoges to amass a private hoard of ancient wonders.
Bellari helped Lake gain admission to the Corsairs to fund her collection efforts and served as his patron. However, he soon grew disillusioned with her greed and instead chose to put his talents toward collecting artifacts to be studied and enjoyed by society as a whole.
He enlisted the help of the then Count of
Mons Mirror, Phineas, who also shared a passion for the study of ancient history. In partnership with the College of Ages, Lake amassed resources and scholars to make his vision a reality.
However, the Firefly Society fell on hard times when Phineas was struck by a curse that caused him to lose all of his possessions. He soon fell out of power and lost his wits, leaving Anderson Lake to manage the Firefly Society on his own.
Structure and Leadership
Most of the Firefly Society's ranks consist of Corsairs and professors vetted by the organization to handle tasks based on the organization's need and availability. Missions and discussions are disperesed at a subterranean hideout at an undisclosed location, accessible via daemon door through every Orbiter's Coffee Shop across the spheres.
The Firefly Society maintains a small number of faculty in residence at their hideout who study artifcacts and lend their expertise full-time. These include:
--Anderson Lake, the leader of the Firefly Society and a famous treasure-hunting Corsair.
--Mollie, a Mong Bal Professor who specializes in the study of the
Erryl civilization. She has a playful nature and believes that ancient technologies should be researche to improve modern society. She works with Corsairs to help restore the Ryllian Network to operational status.
--Romulus, a Koan professor who specializes in the study of the Ifrit civilization. He is a stickler for historical accuracy and criticizes corsairs who plunder ruins of ancient cultures for no other reason than to make themselves more powerful.
--Sazed, a shaman from the Rim who specializes in the study of the Illithid civilization. He is an expert in the occult, but tempers his research with extreme caution.
--Phineas, the Firefly Society's doorman and former Count of
Mons Mirror. His perpetual poverty and feeble mind in his senility make him of little use to help with their scholarship, but they keep him around and look after him in thanks for all the support he gave them when he was in power.
Conflict with Countess Bellari
Anderson Lake had ulterior motives when forming the Firefly Society. Growing up in Countess
Bellari's manor he became infatuated with a cursed girl she kept imprisoned named Melfina. Too powerful a figure to challenge through lawful means, Anderson sought to use his connections and status as a Corsair to steal his love back from his adoptive mother.
He kept tabs on Melfina while her mistress took her to the Bone Market of Lion City, selling her out to identify artifacts. However, when she identified
Helix's Illithid Gauntlet, she began frantically screaming and offered
him gold to take it away. Lake believed the gauntlet was a key to winning Melfina back from
Bellari and offered to give the Party a fastrtrack admission into the Firefly Society if he allowed them to study it and helped him with his heist when the time came.
The Firefly Society ran into an unexpected conflict with
Bellari when they both pursued a data cache in an
Erryl satellite called the
Straylight Lighthouse above Source. Anderson Lake and the Party came out ahead on that conflict, but he knew he would need to be careful while he prepared his plan.
In studying the Gauntlet, Lake learned that it was part of a pair and that he would need the other half to complete his plan. At a loss of where the other guantlet might be, he enlisted the help of his
Erryl expert, Mollie to run a search through a vast database that contained the
Erryl's collective knowledge called the Network.
Mollie was studying the Network with a friend and fellow Ryllian scholar named Byron. However, she needed the Corsairs' help to complete the mission because a relay tower needed to bring the Network online was in an active warzone between the Scalfi and the Lunar Brigade. The Party snuck into the tower only to find that Byron was actually a Scalfi scholar. Nevertheless, they felt the area would be safe in Homyn hands so they gave the tower back to the Lunar Brigade on the condition that they let Byron continue to study there. However, when the Homyn took control of the tower, Countess
Bellari used her position in the Homyn Kingdom to murder the scholar in cold blood.
Luckily, Mollie was able to find information about the other gauntlet inside a filter kept by a Ryllian corporation called Jintek. They had been tracking information related to an Ifrit General called Prestor John who led a faction called the Heresy of the Void. Unlike most Ifrit factions who relied on technology and mathmatics, the Heresy of the Void was said to have actual spiritual powers. Prestor John's cathedral had fallen into a sinkhole full of quicksand on Sera, and Anderson Lake tasked his Ifrit expert, Romulus with excavating it so the Corsairs could explore.
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