Curse of the Crimson Throne

Game Master Euan

Dandi sighs and opens her ring. she spits on her fingers and gathers the iridescent dust, rolling it into a sticky ball. Finally, before he can surface from yet another love tap from Nikolay, she shoves the homemade pill down the assassin's tongue. A tiny whimper hides in the back of her throat as she uses both hands, one in his mouth, one on the outside, to coax the last bit of her saving grace down down down, until she is certain he can't hack it up again.

It'll be ok. I don't really need it. I can make it. What's a few days... Still, her shoulders shudder as she pulls away.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18 vs DC 16

Nikolay and the others bludgeon him to a deep, deep unconsciousness, but the drugs running through his system do no lasting damage. He has very vivid dreams as he sleeps.

You drag his body through the streets of old Korvosa back to Vencarlo's house. You see a pair of men walking along an alley way at one point toward you, but they size you up, and the body you carry, and turn the other way cutting over a few streets before continuing on their journey.

When you return, you take stock of their equipment. Aside from two more alchemist's fire, 6 masterwork sawtooth sabres, and 6 daggers, there are two suites of magical leather, two magical masks, and two magical robes.

Every so often, Dandi leans close and whispers....things... into the assassin's ears. She is no novice to those dreams and remembers well a time when someone else controlled her own adventure in much the same way... But in it, there were no mantises trapped within the web, and no stalking spider eating it alive, piece by piece by piece....

Briar climbs back to the window like he is walking on air. In fact, he spends the next 60+ minutes never touching the ground because *magic*, that's why.

Briar will continue his complete and thorough search of the estate, looking for clues as to Vencarlo's whereabouts.

* * *
1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 12 + 2 = 33 Spellcraft Armor
1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 12 + 2 = 32 Spellcraft Mask
1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 12 + 2 = 30 Spellcraft Cloak

"Barael, let me know if I need to turn around."

"Keep an eye out, would ya? These assassins. What do you know about them? Is it a small group?" They left us. Six becomes two. The weakest two. "Look along the rooftops. These two nested inside. I don't want to think about others right now."

They left us.

...

Barael is deeply relieved when the others return, with the body. "This is good, right? He didn't get away, so we have time. Before the Mantis learn that they just lost two the weakest two of their ranks." Barael nudges the dead one's corpse. "There was a lot of training that won't see further use."

"Brov, you called out their name. What do you know of them? Are we thinking that a pair of them is focused on nesting in the Harrow House as well? If Vencarlo was being discreet, and he managed to draw a couple of them..."

Barael tries to make himself useful in the search of Vencarlo's home.
Search: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24 If time lends itself, then Take 20, 31

Briar is able to identify the magical items. The leather is +1, the cloak is +1 resistance. The masks are called Mantis Masks. They are effectively unsellable as anyone using owning or using a mask would be a target for the red mantis assassins.

As for searching the house - it's a lot of house. Doing a take-20 search of the entire thing will take, well, many many long tedious hours. As usual, I presume take-10 searches when you 'search' a room and I'm presuming now that the party will do that on the whole house now that it is secure. With that it's still on the order of 3:30am or so when you are done with the initial search.

When looking through the study more carefully, you will notice a series of books about sword fighting and philosophy. The papers on and in the desk are mostly accounting documents and ledgers for Vencarlo’s Academy. It appears that up until the death of King Eodred II, Vencarlo’s Academy was doing rather well, but then things slowed as students failed to show and Vencarlo himself took an increasing number of breaks from teaching.

The other rooms reveal nothing of particular note other than what you'd expect to find in a house recently abandoned.

Nothing more of particular note is found so far. Anyone not actually searching can give me a perception check. I know at least Barael is searching, Briar is taking stock of and identifying magics (for a little while anyway) and I suspect several others are also searching but surely you have someone watching over the prisoner and maybe someone else watching the street? Maybe not... Let me know your plans for that half hour of searching the house please.

Dandi will eventually tire of tormenting the mantis in his dreams and help search.

After the items are identified, Briar will assist Barael in the search, both keeping an eye on him and air walking a few feet above him.

"C'mon, Rat. Let's get looking."

After Briar identifies the Mantis Masks, Barael will put one of them on if Briar succeeded in identifying under the 30 minutes. He'll be checking the charge expenditures.

"Walking on air now, are we?" Barael chuckles, the unvoiced punchline hitting him in the tickle.

Each mask has 1 charge remaining.

"Can you see anything we're missing from up there, Briar?" She releases Wraith and sends her crawling...

Fondo returns to the house and frets for a bit. I'm a man marked if this one escapes. Perhaps marked anyway. Had to provoke them to turn them away from Brov, but...

He looks at the unconscious assassin's face, trying to mark it's owner's origins. He thinks about ending another life. Wonders what lives their captive has ended.

Knowing his fellows to be better at searching, he puts his trust in them to discover the fate of Vencarlo. He studies the captive's face for signs of wakefulness, or other such things.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30

Charlie will keep watch of the streets. He will periodically use ghost sounds to keep people away.

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Nikolay will put on one of the cloaks (since Charlie still has his +2 cloak I believe).

With Fondo watching the prisoner, Nikolay will help in the search until he comes across the book on sword fighting. At that point, he'll stop searching and begin reading until someone taps him on the shoulder and tells him to get back to work.

*lol* what are you percepting?

Dandi's head cocks to one side as she listens to Wraith's chittering. "No, darling, I don't think that's what we're looking for. You can have the fly."

He looks at the unconscious assassin's face, trying to mark it's owner's origins. He thinks about ending another life. Wonders what lives their captive has ended.

Knowing his fellows to be better at searching, he puts his trust in them to discover the fate of Vencarlo. He studies the captive's face for signs of wakefulness, or other such things.

It's hard to get a read on a man bludgeoned into unconsciousness. From the pained expression on his face though, his dreams are... unpleasant. He seems to be Varisian but his dead companion is Osirian.

Charlie sees no traffic on the streets at this late hour, and completely misses the figure walking up to the door in the darkness.

Knock, Knock, Knock

The knocking at the door surprises those of you searching inside. The party girds itself for another battle and eventually opens the door. You see a small lithe Korvosan with a few days growth stubble-ing his chin. He introduces himself shakily as Amin Janelto, a minor noble from the Midlands district and a student of Vencarlos.

"Is he here? Is he OK? Where is Vencarlo?! I didn't see him come in, I just nodded off for a second. But I've seen you with him before - you're friends of his."

He blusters by you for a moment beginning to search the house for Vencarlo.

Briar is largely unconcerned with Vencarlo's student in the house.

When Briar finishes searching, we joins Nikolay in perusing a book or two, hoping to find some tidbits of magical lore to ponder upon.

"Yo Nikolay, says here that a swordsman is only as good as the metal in his sword. Do you believe that?"

Briar will be reading until something happens, not having a lot of interest in discussing things with yet another Varisian.

After a while, Fondo begins (without the motives our readers might assume) to truly strip the assassin of his clothing and make sure he has no hidden weapons on his person.

When Amin Janelto arrives, Fondo gives him a smile that conceals his mistrust. "Ah, Signore Janelto. Tis an honor. What brings you to Signore Orisini's manse tonight? I fear he is not here, and may have fled from yon assassins."

Sense motive for any disguises or hidden schemes: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29

Knowledge, Local, Amin Janelto: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

Barael waves the Mantis Mask at Amin, looking for a reaction, or trigger a reaction that Brov will pick up on.
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

Dandi stops what she is doing at the knock on the door. She joins Fondo as he greets the new comer, though prefers to listen from the shadows rather than approach.

Barael doesn't learn anything with his knowledge check. The name isn't one that is familiar to you.

Amin doesn't seem to have any hidden agendas in his conversation - at least as far as Fondo can tell. Barael rushes up and waves the assassins mask in front of his face and Amin does start at the assault, but doesn't particularly react otherwise. "So you killed one of the assassins too! Great! I thought I saw some movement behind the curtains now and again, but I couldn't' be sure from my vantage point."

When he can't find Vencarlo, Jalento tells you he was attending classes at Vencarlo’s Academy when the quarantine hit. As he was unable to escape back to the mainland and his home, Vencarlo was gracious enough to allow Amin to stay at the Academy as a guest. That stay ended quickly when several Red Mantis assassins invaded the building a few days later. Vencarlo confronted them and took one of them down, but there were too many. The master was forced to flee, and the academy burned to the ground during the fight.

"I don't know where Vencarlo has gone, but I am worried. My lord Vencarlo seemed restless and distracted the few days before the attack - he regularly left the house at odd hours of the night sometimes not returning until morning. After one such trip, he returned bloody and injured, claiming he had fought off a thief - but I think there was more that he wasn't telling me."

"In the days before the assassins attacked, we had a singularly strange houseguest visit several times - a man with paint stained hands, wild hair and a jittery habit of looking about at things that were not there. Vencarlo introduced him as a friend, but I recognized him as a somewhat notorious local artist named Salvator Scream."

"They met and talked for long hours in Vencarlo's private study upstairs and at their last meeting I could swear I heard Vencarlo's voice raised in anger. I've been meaning to track the artist down and see what he knows, but frankly I'm no adventurer and Old Korvosa is a dangerous place these days. I've been hiding and sleeping a little in the abandoned building across the street."

"Well come in for a spell. Jalento, is it?" Fondo plumbs his own knowledge of the local aristocracy while returning to watch over the unconscious assassin.

Knowledge (nobility): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

He considers for a moment while others talk, and then says, "Friends, the Red Mantis are known to stop at no length to slay those who learn their secrets. I do not like the idea of murdering a man in cold blood. But we are not in a position to turn this man over to the Guard, and I've no desire to have him hunting me should he escape. What should we do?" He turns to the friend who seems least likely to want to kill others, hoping to be dissuaded from murdering their prisoner. "Charlie?"

Fondo has heard the family name before, but no particular information crops up. There are many minor noble houses in Korvosa, and he belongs to one of them. He's not in one of the major houses (Arkona, Jeggare, Deroung, Ornelos, or Zenderholm).

Easy enough to claim to be a minor noble... "Briar, Nikolay... Have you found a record of the Signore's other students? Mayhap we should seek them all out. Like our friend here, they'll be no friend of the Gray Maidens, nor these assassins." Let's see if his name's there.

"I do not like the idea of murdering a man in cold blood."

Barael walks past Fondo. "But you'll do in the heat of the moment, eh? You'll do it, defending those you care about? You saw how merciless they were, Brov. I had a pulse in my veins before I slew the other, let's be clear."

Barael prods the unconscious Mantis. "You leave him alive, and Ruan is certainly a dead man."

"Yes. Perhaps we should place him closer to the fire to warm his blood first--that way it will pour more quickly from his body."

"This is war now. There are no prisons we can trust. Even if we give this man to the guard somehow, there's no guarantee he won't be walked right out the back door only to show up at our front door someday soon. If he has some use and there is a legitimate reason to believe he won't stab us in the back--now or later--than he might make it out of here alive."

Feel free to stop this action...

With an eye roll, Briar, tired of the interruptions to his reading, puts his book down in a huff and walks over to the assassin, pulling an arrow as he moves.

Coup de Arrow: 3d8 + 3 + 3 ⇒ (1, 4, 5) + 3 + 3 = 16 damage

Briar goes back to his book, hopeful that people will let him read in peace, until its time to do something or leave.

Fondo puts his hand on Briar's arm as he draws the bow string back. "No, allow me." He draws his rapier and drives it through the man's chest. "Gods show you more mercy than you've shown your victims."

2d6 + 6 + 8 ⇒ (4, 4) + 6 + 8 = 22

Dandi watches the exchange, her arms crossed over herself and her gaze hard. Tis better than you deserve. Quick and clean and over too soon.

Nikolay nods to see that the party has reached agreement about the current situation.

"I was watching out of this window. How did you get past me? You must be very skilled. When did you last see Vencarlo?"

Sense motive on the boy
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (8) + 17 = 25

It takes a little digging, but there is someone by the name Amin Jalento in Vencarlo's books. There is no description of course so it's hard to know for sure if it's him.

As Fondo kills the assassin Amin gets a little pale. "He was your prisoner. And you just killed him. Wha?" He is clearly distraught at what has just happened and takes a moment to recover. He hears Charlie's question, and stammers out an answer "it's… it's been two days."

Charlie, he could have come from the other side of the building. It's possible you just missed him in the dark street. It's close to 4am.

Briar yawns.

"No point in leaving here tonight. Let us rest and pick up the search in daylight? you all talk. I'll take 3rd watch, eh?"

Briar will go to the broken window upstairs and cast Magic Mouth ("Alarm!") if any but the HarrowCast enter.

Briar goes to find a secluded spot to rest.

"No, he was a viper just waiting for another chance to kill us. Would you watch him for us? Guarantee all of our safety or forfeit your own? Would you guarantee he wouldn't leave this place and try again for Vencarlo? Or yourself?" She is tired, and perhaps a little distraught herself.

She reminds herself that if what the man says is true, then Vencarlo would appreciate a gentler tone with his pupil. She tries to smile, "Excuse us if our generosity is at low ebb just now. Won't you sit and be comfortable? Perhaps in another room would be better?" one without a dead body on the floor

"Yes. Perhaps we should place him closer to the fire to warm his blood first--that way it will pour more quickly from his body."

He's a cold-hearted snake. Barael looks into his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of a lie.

"You're serious, aren't ya? Dark times when these thoughts come to mind so easily. You're right, none the less. Urban warfare, collateral damage, acceptable casualties." Barael rotates the mask in his hand.

"The Mantis. Are we better off if word spreads through the city regarding their existence? Or is it impossible to overcome their urban legends? They don't know about us yet, right? So maybe we finish searching this place, and get on the move again." Barael turns to Amin. "Can you tell us how to get to Scream's residence? Are you willing to help us?"

"And... we need to stay together from this point on. If they're searching for Vencarlo, we're likely to cross paths again. They don't need much time to pick off stragglers."

Fondo blushes at Amin's words as he feels his own soul grow darker. "Aye, I know. I do it with no relish. But people of his organization are known as relentless, dedicated killers. Word that we've uncovered they'd leave a mark on our heads."

He shakes his head at Briar. "Brov's right. We can't stay here. Let us finish our search and find other shelter. Perhaps the orphanage'll have us."

"Excuse us if our generosity is at low ebb just now. Won't you sit and be comfortable? Perhaps in another room would be better?" one without a dead body on the floor

"Thank you, but I think I'll leave you to your efforts. Clearly while we both know Vencarlo we know him in differing ways and circumstances."

"The Mantis. Are we better off if word spreads through the city regarding their existence? Or is it impossible to overcome their urban legends? They don't know about us yet, right? So maybe we finish searching this place, and get on the move again." Barael turns to Amin. "Can you tell us how to get to Scream's residence? Are you willing to help us?"

"I don't know where he resides - just that he's near the Old Dock district, likely along the waterfront. More than that I do not know, nor would I know the house if I saw it."

"I wish you luck in finding my lord Vencarlo, but I cannot help you further I think." He stands and makes his way carefully to the door as if expecting at any moment to be cut down. He turns and eyes you all carefully a moment, "Good luck." And with that he leaves unless prevented.

Dandi watches him leave, a cold ball of dread in her stomach. And there goes another that knows where we are....

Turning to the others, "Should we go? Uncle Briar seems intent on resting first."she rubs her arms and peeks out the closest window.

I'll not rest here. Let's continue to search for clues to our friend's fate."

Fondo proceeds to begin searching unexamined rooms—but especially Vencarlo's personal chambers. What were they doing here, if there's no body...?

Not hearing any good reasons to leave in the middle of night, Briar sleeps while Fondo searches.

We got food and drink and shelter.

After a bit, Fondo concedes to Briar's call for rest. It's been a long night.

Before Fondo goes a-searchin', Charlie will put an arm on his shoulder and say a little prayer he casts guidance for good measure "No time for back stabbin', no place for rest, let us be free in the night and worry no more."

With that he takes a pull and offers some to Fondo before walking over to the corpse and giving it a hard kick to the ribs. I like these new boots. He then finds a couch and takes his pack off and, using it as a pillow, steals a bit of rest aware of the irony.

Dandi and Wraith find a small corner to spin a bed. Sleep, when it comes, is fitful and restless, as the very long days events swirl in her head.

Nikolay continues perusing Vencarlo's books hoping to gain some bits of knowledge or insight since he might never have a chance to train with the man himself now. If he finds any of them to particularly important, he will stash them in his backpack. Eventually he will stop and get his two hours of required rest.

Barael examines all windows and the front door, seeking to understand how the assassins got in. He activates the last charge of the mask he currently possesses to enhance his perception during this investigation.
Perception: 1d20 + 11 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 11 + 5 = 31

After 25 minutes or so, Barael takes the mask off, to see if the enhanced perception continues without having to wear the mask. If the mask casts the spell on the wearer...

He stays up. Charlie's failure to detect a grizzled noble, and his brush with death has him a little twitchy.

Watching Nik stash a book, Barael pauses. "Safekeeping, eh? Making sure he gets 'em back safe and sound? Vencarlo's turned librarian." Barael chuckles at the thought of Master Orsini, spectacled, shushing patrons.

Barael eventually passes out, eyelids slowly drooping as they observe Nikolay bound from his short recharge.

Nikolay does find some useful passages perusing Vencarlo's collection, but he finds it's more of a mindset that it's teaching rather than individual techniques. Still, it's a useful tome. There is always more to learn.

Barael isn't completely sure if the enhanced perception remains after the mask is removed. As it is a marginal increase how would he really know? It's a judgement call, and at 4am his judgement is suspect. Further examination of the windows and doors reveals nothing of note. The front door was jimmied, but you did it just a few hours before so you don't know if your actions were repeated some time before that.

The party searches a little further and then everyone goes to sleep scattered throughout the house, leaving Bareal to guard their intert forms as he himself searches and dozes (though the upstairs window is guarded by an alarming spell). Luckily there are no further attacks in the night and the party wakes ~10am (though Nikolay is up earlier). The sun is thin as there is a haze over the city. It is Wealday Erastus 11, 4707.

Upon rising, Fondo stumbles about in the kitchen in search of kahve and whatever might lend itself to breakfast. His nose wrinkles at the smell of death taking its toll on the assassins' corpses. Let us be done with this place soon.

"To the painter's house, then?"

Briar awakes and looks a vessel to dunk his armor, but, when that fails, just casts Create Water on the armor repeatedly. As usual, he makes time to commune with the Voices from the Void.

In time, he is ready to leave.

"Hmmm...the painter...yes...more Varisians, good," Briar says without much enthusiasm.

Dandi stalks about the house, chittering and frowning as she "talks" to Wraith.

If time presents itself, Briar will make one last sweep through the house, this time with Detect Magic active and looking for auras.

In case there was something I missed.