The Academy of Arcane Arts office that registers, evaluates, and reclaims powerful magical artifacts brought to campus. The formal desk is staffed by Ms. Maris and junior apprentices such as Tobin. Submissions go through a three-step process (initial Identify assessment, hazard/curse evaluation, scholarly review), and submitters must sign an enchanted disclosure form that reveals a false name if one is attempted. The Initiative maintains a watch list of specific items it has been told to look out for. (During the Session 6 reveal it was also referred to as the “Arcane Reclamation Project.”)
The Golden Chalice
The party submitted the Golden Chalice here in Session 3 (Ms. Maris offered 50 gold, which they declined). Because they signed the disclosure form, the chalice technically belongs to the Initiative, and the party has a 30-day deadline before a “repo man” is sent to collect it (the clock is still ticking).
In Session 6 the party learned that Tobin had registered the chalice with the Initiative, so the Academy now knows the party holds one of its watch-listed artifacts. However, the magically binding agreement prevents repossession until the deadline expires.
The Watch List — “the Sinful Spoils”
In Session 3, Tobin revealed the chalice matched one of several specific items the Initiative was told to watch for — which he could only half-remember as “the Something Spoils.” In Session 6 the full name was revealed: “the Sinful Spoils,” pursued by the The Seeker of the Sinful Spoils. The party suspects the Initiative’s true aim is to gather up the Spoils and keep them out of the Seeker’s reach. Three other item types remain on the watch list; the chalice was the first to come through.
Session 10 — The List Is Four Items Long
Tobin, reporting from inside the office, finally answered what and how many:
Four Sinful Spoils: a spear, a book, a chalice, and a dress. The Academy believes the Seeker already has one of them.
Two complications for the Initiative’s stated plan, both from Session 10:
- The Initiative told the party to strip the Golden Chalice’s concealment themselves and report back. Genni of the WitchCrafters has since established that the nondetection is not a spell and cannot be dispelled — it emanates from the chalice. Nobody is dispelling anything.
- The party has now tasked Tobin with finding out the Academy’s plan to reclaim the chalice — turning the office’s own junior apprentice against the collection effort.
Clock: roughly 15 days before the “repo man” can be sent. The party has also discussed conjuring decoy chalices (see Golden Chalice) to hand over instead.
Session 11 — What the Repo Man Might Be (September 9, 2026)
Tobin’s counter-intelligence assignment came back on a roll of 99, and still couldn’t name the thing:
“Don’t know exactly what repo man is. Some kind of experiment academy is working on. Oracle may be involved.”
The repo man may not be a person. The reading the party took: an Academy experiment, plausibly its cogwork constructs, tied to whatever sits in the Hall of Oracles — the Snarl of raw magic that powers the university, and the supposed home of the Academy’s Oracle.
Tobin has been reassigned to the Oracle itself. Meanwhile the Golden Chalice is not merely still out of the Initiative’s reach — it is under contract to the WitchCrafters of Pentamarone, being taken apart by a guild of witches several hundred miles outside Academy jurisdiction.
Connections
- The Academy of Arcane Arts — the program’s parent institution.
- Ms. Maris — runs the desk; acted strangely after the chalice came through.
- Tobin — junior apprentice (secretly S.A.T.O.); registered the chalice.
- Golden Chalice — registered here; repossession blocked until the deadline.
- The Seeker of the Sinful Spoils — the figure the Spoils may be kept from.
- Hall of Oracles — where the “repo man” lead now points.
- WitchCrafters · Madame Verre — who currently hold the chalice under contract.
First Appeared
Session 3 (chalice submission); watch-list purpose and the “Sinful Spoils” name clarified in Session 6.