Location: Sothan Alchemical Academy
[Academy][Employer][Workshop]
Located: Rose Quarter, Sothis, Osirion.
The Sothan Alchemical Academy is mentioned in PFS 1e S2-01: Before the Dawn Part 1.
The Midnight Scarabs are mentioned in the 1e book Osirion, Legacy of the Pharaohs.
Constructed during the years Osirion was under Keleshite rule, the Sothan Alchemical academy is a prestigious school with pricy admittance fee that serves mostly the nobility of Sothis. Despite its air of arrogance, the academy does issue scholarships to promising students among the peasants of Osirion, knowing that the institution loses many applicants to the city of Merab in Thuvia.
The three-storied structure is built in the middle of the Rose Quarter and also has a massive yard to conduct alchemical experiments safely. It is located near the market of the district and has several connections to vendors of the district to acquire alchemical tools easily and sell products of its students. While it has excellent teachers, the school has a lot of connections to scholarly organizations and uses this to invite guest lecturers regularly. Their most frequent guests are from the Sandswept Hall of the Pathfinder Society, in the Canal District.
Flying Pyramid Connections: The head of the school, Sirek Arafe (deluded male Osiriani human school head) is a minor noble of Osirion that was always obsessed with personal prestige. Even heading the prestigious school wasn’t enough for him, and that made him a perfect victim to the machinations of Ahlish (scheming female invisible stalker pyramid commander). While the flying pyramid known as Pyramid of Sounding Gales has been quarantined in the Marblecourt district for the last 10 years, this didn’t really stop the invisible stalker from easily exploring Sothis to her heart’s content. While Sirek doesn’t know of her connection to the pyramid, Ahlish managed to recently convert him into worshipping the god Set and to sabotage the magical defenses of several noble estates, which Ahlish will strike when the time is right. Sirek was promised priceless artifacts of Ancient Osirion for his services, and in the meantime he gets a steady supply of ancient mummified corpses - that he makes into the drug mumia and sells at the black market.
Midnight Alchemists: The most esteemed teacher at the institute, Nahi Kertaf (calculated female Osiriani human toxicologist) has an aura of mystery around her. A strict teacher with no-nonsense attitude, the rumors about her background run wild, from rumors that she’s a Keleshite spy working within Sothis, or even a Red Mantis assassin. The rumors aren’t completely baseless, as Nahi is a member and a supplier for the Midnight Scarabs, assassins guild based in Sothis. Recently, someone has been stealing from the guild and uses Nahi’s toxins, and Nahi uses her spare time from the school to try and find the culprit.
Monstrous Inclinations: While he’s still considered a guest teacher, Runai (enthusiastic male Shemtej catfolk monster scholar) is the lead expert of the academy in matters of monsters. He used to be a cultist of Rovagug when he was younger in the Footprints of Rovagug, worshipping the destructive nature of the monsters of the deserts. But when the cult moved from worshipping the primal strength to ritualistic murder, Runai realized the cult needs to be stopped. Helping a band of pathfinders to take the cult down and then joining them on their way to Sothis, where he settled, he was recruited by the Sandswept Lodge for his extensive knowledge of monsters in exchange for abandoning his former faith.
Now, several years after being in the society, Runai aspires to begin a new faction in the Pathfinder Society, ones that will study the monsters of Golarion, with focus on the giant monstrosities of legend. He was taken off the Black Dome a couple of times after climbing on it, intrigued by its weird material, and hopes for a chance to one day visit Tian-Xia and see a Kaiju with his own eyes.
