The Lodge of Byzantia is a secret order bent upon arcane knowledge and influence. Osman Hamdi Bey, a member of the Lodge, bequeathed his manor and its hidden compartments — an artifact vault among them — to his friends. His journal holds the whereabouts of a powerful diviner, whose very existence is said to bar the full arcane potential of the Padishah’s Consort, and so to thwart the Padishah's grand design. The journal is made fast with locks both mundane and arcane, though Osman allows that another road to its contents lies through the seeking of an ally's help.
The Lodge convenes upon the new moon. The djinn of Sidra al-Najjar recalled being summoned by a Lodge ritual, and imparted two secret gestures bound up with the Lodge. Osman lately spoke of needing the assistance of "The Shahmeran," a powerful and dangerous entity fettered beneath the Basilica Cistern since the days of Justinian and Theodora.