Crain forgot his fort save vs stunning fist.
Either way she will attack Crain full round. If Crain is stunned she gets sneak attack if not she doesn't.
your go.
Fort
Shieldless AC20
Drakus screamed and swung as hard as he could.
for a possible slashing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
for a possible extra slashing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
for a possible slashing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
for a possible slashing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
"Damn you to hell, Fox!" Donagar grunts, pulling the 'Cure' wand from his belt and aiding Crain as he falls. Then, making sure to hide behind his hammer and shield as much as possible, he begins moving to the opposite side of the Fox.
Crain wakes up from the healing burst and activates his blood rage, getting to his feet. He swings his weapon as hard as humanly possible.
Rage with BOF, PA and Rage
Damage
Iterative attack
Damage
Badly injured Vimanda attempts to run away using withdraw to moved 140 feet down the hall into the next room.
Drakus pursues, but even at a run given his armor he's going to fall behind lighter armored folk.
"Got her on the run now, let's finish this!" Donagar yells, following at speed.
You manage to give chase and you reach a room were it's literally raining longswords. The swords seem to vanish a few moments after hitting the ground only to teleport back to the ceiling to fall down again thousands of swords are repeating this process creating and endless rain of blades.
She runs in and the swords hit her but her damage reduction protects her.
However there is someone in the room. When she sees him she shouts out.
"Help me defeat these troublesome invaders and I will set you free!"
The man if he can still be called that simply looks at her with a feral look in his eyes the twenty or more longswords sticking out of his back don't seem to slow him down as he trows himself on her.
"YOU THINK I WOULD HELP YOU AFTER YOU TRAPPED ME IN HERE FOR OVER A DECADE!" He screams going for her throat he tries to grapple her but she avoids it.
If you enter the room you have to make a reflex save to avoid the blades as best you can but unless you have evasion you still take half damage cause it's impossible to avoid them all.
Your go. Assume your in between 30 and 60 feet of her. You can charge her if you want.
Shieldless AC20
Drakus screamed and lunged at Vimanda in a power/charge attack.
for a possible piercing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
Mai run in Katana at the ready while invisible.
Donagar follows Drakus, charging in as fast as he can, so focused on the Fox he ignores the falling blades, not that he could do much to dodge them even on his best day.
Crain follows the others, running ahead wildly.
Reflex
Once he reaches his target, he swings his weapon as hard as humanly possible.
Charging Rage with BOF, PA and Rage
Damage
you take half if you got 18 or more on your reflex save.
Vimanda is distracted and the man that was in this room takes the opportunity to grab unto her and sink his teeth in her neck.
You recognise that the man is a vampire.
Vimanda struggles but is unable to get free.
she looks to you "I admit defeat! save me and I swear to let you out of this maze! I will even give you the painter and the swordmaster!" says Vimanda.
Your go.
On your turn you take another 4d8 from falling blades dc 18 reflex for half.
Shieldless AC22
save!
Hesitating, Drakus is hit by more falling blades. /2=9 damage.
Snarling, Drakus turned and lunged at the Vampire.
for a possible piercing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
for a possible piercing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
Mai crain and Donagar can go.
Crain takes an extra attack from the BOF spell, all at the vamlire.
BoF Attack with Rage and Power Attack
Damage
Iterative BoF Attack
Damage
Bonus BOF attack
Damage
Possible critical on first attack
Damage
Possible critical on second attack
Damage
Recognizing the vampiric threat, Donagar draws up and throws a Sands of Time at the undead foe. "If you're lying to us," he threatens the Fox quickly after finishing his spell.
=36 damage
As much a Mai hates the fox lady, she hates vamps more.
and Attacks the vamp
Mai crain and Donagar takes damage from the falling blades dc 18 reflex for half.
The vampire struck multiple roars in frustration "YOU WOULD SIDE WITH HER?!? YOU CANT TRUST A WORD SHE SAYS!"
He slams her into the ground and then against the wall causing her to cough up some blood and she seems to become pale. 2 slams for 32 damage and 2 negative levels.
Your go again.
Shieldless AC22
Save!
Dodging, Drakus is hit by fewer falling blades. /2 = 6 damage.
Again, Drakus lashed out at the Vampire.
for a possible piercing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
for a possible piercing, magic, silver and good aligned damage.
Mai goes at it another round.
The vampire turns to smoke and sinks into the floor with a roar of frustration and rage.
The fox lady looks at you bewildered "You actually decided to help me?"
"I'm of the mind to kill everyone in this room. We started with the vampire, and you are next unless you give us the artist and get us the hell out of here!"
"You heard him. Do yourself a favor and don't be lyin' to us now, Fox," Donagar spits out, surly and quite tired of this woman's tricks.
Drakus raised his bardiche and thumped it to the ground, glaring at the fox woman.
You leave the room with the falling blades and Vimanda agrees to take you to the dungeon were she has the swordmaster and the old man. (I may have said the artist before but this was incorrect) several guards appear along with a woman with the head of a snake but vimanda waves them down to your surprise. "I have agreed to release our prisoners into their care. These warriors have wont their freedom." she says. The guards nod and stand down.
Vencarlo Orisin and an older gentlemen you may not recognise (knowledge local or nobility and royalty dc 20 to recognise him) are brought out to you.
"Well this is a surprise...I'm glad you got my note." says a badly beaten and starved Vencarlo
"We are to be released then?" says the older man who was also badly tortured.
"I believe we are to also pick up a lad whom has a musical talent....."
"And my shield. If it hasn't been stolen." Growled Drakus.
Since neither you nor Vimanda are interested in any more conflict you manage to get back Vimanda's shield and the prisoners you came for and you leave the manor.
The old man who was with vencarlo takes a moment to introduces himself.
"I am Neolandus Kalepopolis. Seneschal or Korvosa and I offer my thanks for the rescue. To all of you he says looking to Vencarlo as well."
"My rescue was less than successful...." says Vencarlo
"Perhaps but without you finding me they never would have come" replies the seneschal.
"In any case we must get to a safe place. I know were there is a barge we can use to leave the city. We can hide out in the nearby town of Harse and plan our next move."
This actually concludes part 3 of the adventure.
I will type out a full recap of everything that happened so far to give you all a refresher. In the meantime you can all level up.
The story began two months ago (in game time) a group of strangers gathered together by a mysterious patron to take down a local crime lord. A task organised it seems by the ghost of a murdered woman. The group proves successful and the crimelord Gaedren Lamm is taken down alive and brought to justice. Among his stolen treasures a jewelled brooch belonging to the queen.
However on that fateful day the beloved king of Korvosa died and his hated chelaxian bride became the new ruler pushing the largest city in Varisia to the brink of disaster. Riots erupt and the cities defended move out to try and control the crowd. The local chapter of hellknights become involved to put an end to the chaos adding to the number of deaths as they kill rioters on the spot with no mercy.
During the riots the group does it best to stay out of trouble and they save a young nobleman Mr. Jeggare cornered by rioters.
Once the riots are done the group goes to the castle to return the queens brooch meeting the queen and her bodyguard Sabine for the first time. The queen is short with them but but rewards them nicely for their work and offers them positions with the korvasan city guard special forces. Positions that the group accept.
From that point on the group works with Field Marshal Cressida kroft at the citadel volshyenek and helps maintain order. Their first mission is to deal with a deserter. A guard captain and his men who decided to take advantage of the riots to make some coin at the cities expense. Hole up in a butcher's shop Vancaskerkin has been giving out "free meat" to the people something far more sinister as you discover he was mixing human meat in with the animal meat to hide the bodies of men and women he and his goons had murdered. You manage to catch him alive but it was clear someone paid him a lot of money to do what he did but you never discovered who or why.
At this point a plague has begun to spread in the city. Getting worst and worst.
You then go out to meet the field marshall who had taken it upon herself to do help put down a wererat uprising (this were Drakus came in) you help cressida defeat the wererat uprising by bringing down it's leader and the rest flee back into the sewers.
Your next mission is to check in on a noble manor were according to his sister musician never came home after going to perform for a party. You investigate only to find all the guest have been murdered by an insane elf jester who turned all of them in plague spreading zombies under the orders of a necromancer names rolf. You defeat the zombies before they can spread out into the city and capture the elf for interrogation. However she is a total lunatic and you learn little of use from her. Just that rolf had her kill the guests at the party and she sent some prisoners to him. You do learns a potential hideout for rolf so you head there to investigate that next.
To be continued....
Rolth the necromancer it seems has been posing as a queen's physician a recently introduced group responsible for curing the plague that has been devastating the city. With the blessing of the guard captain Cressida croft you storm the headquarters of the queen's physicians and do battle with the Iron maidens a military group create by the queen to her her personal army loyal to her only. You find that the queen's physician's have not been trying to cure the plague at all but rather have been studying it and monitoring it's progress. You also discover that the plague was engineered by a cult of Urgathoa (goddess of disease, gluttony and undeath) to spread the disease in the poorest areas of the city and to certain districts were opposition to the queen was the strongest. Evidence is beginning to pile up that the queen is involved...
You present your information to the field Marshall but for the moment nothing can be done.
Having dispatched the cult the plague begins to whither out and for now the crisis is averted still thousands died but without your intervention it would have been much worst.
Soon after information breaks out that evidence has come up that the King was poisoned. This sparks up a frenzy in the populace and someone leaks to the masses that the one responsible was a local painter Trinia Sabor is responsible. You race ahead of the angry mobs and manage to find the painter first. You interrogate her and find that she is likely innocent but before you can do anything to help you are confronted by the sable company captain Marcus Thalassinus and some of his men. The sable company being an elite group in the korvosa defence force responsible for patrolling the air and sea around the city. He has direct orders to bring Trinia to the castle and rather than fight him you hand her over.
Soon after you hear that Trinia is to be executed. You go to the execution and as the execution is about to happen a local hero Blackjack appears after years of silence and rescues her from the executioner.
In a meeting with the field marshal later on she introduces you to a local sword-master who runs the school of blades in the city an incredibly popular school were all of the greatest swordsmans in the city were trained including the queen's bodyguard Sabine.
He tells you that Trinia is currently hidden at his school and he needs you help smuggling her out of the city. You agree to help and manage to get her to safety.
At this point the queen has an important announcement and you attend to discover what it is. The queen announces that she is dissolving the sable company and transferring all their members to the city guard and that the city guard will now serve under the Iron maidens that will from then on server as the cities primary military force.
This doesn't sit well at all with Marcus Thalassinus having spoken with field marshal Cressida croft was now aware of the queen's actions. Having learned that he almost condemned and innocent irl to the execution's block he lost his cool and attempted to murder the queen then and there. At almost point blank range he drew and fired a crossbow into the queen neck...To no effect. The bolt hit the queen square on and pierced her neck and came out the other side and she simply pulled it out and the wound regenerated on it's own. She then proceeded to grab Marcus Thalassinus and crush his neck with her bare hand killing him.
You later return to the field marshal and she gives you a note from the swordmaster assign that he had uncovered evidence that queen had made some kind of pact with a devil. In his message he asks that you meet him at his school to discuss it further.
Unfortunately when you arrive at the school you find ti has been burned to the ground and assassins from the red mantis attack you.
Vencarlo is missing but a student of his points you in the right direction saying that vencarlo had had many meeting with a local painter of late and had made many trips to the still quarantined island of old Korvosa.
You head to old korvosa sneaking in and avoiding the quarantine. You find this area in a terrible state with outlaws ruling the section with one crimelord calling himself the king of old korvosa.
You meet an elf woman who seems very interested in meeting the painter as well and you team up with her to take down the king of old korvosa and meet the painter he tells you that Vencarlo discovered that the seneschal of Korvosa the man closest to the King besides the queen someone who vanished the day the queen died was being held captive at the mansion of a local lord. Vencarlo went to rescue him and never returned.
You go to the mansion and found that Vencarlo and the seneschal are both in the underground maze were the baron's sister likes to hunt prisoners for sport. He send you down there and after several confrontation and traps you finally cornered vimanda and forced her to surrender.
She frees the prisoners and sends you on your way out.
Also of note you have a little box in your possession that you found in the burned down school that contains all of Blackjack's gear.
With the red mantis looking for you, Vencarlo and the seneschal it is not safe for you to stay in Korvosa so you escape the city on a boat and head to a nearby village were Vencarlo keep safehouse.
I realise that I got the order of events mixed up a little bit but that is more or less how everything happened.
When you are ready we can begin part 4 of the crimson throne.
We can do some roleplay while we wait for your character to be ready.
You are making your way to the town of Harse the the Seneschal shares with you his story.
"For several weeks prior to the kings deaths I noticed the queen had started acting strangely. More than once I caught her speaking to someone when there was nobody else in the room once I heard her say a name Kazavon. I asked her about it once but she grew furious and chased me out of the room screaming. The kings sudden incurable illness was also very odd to me and so I did a private investigation into the matter.
I started by researching the name Kazavon. He was a mercenary warlord who once conquered all of Ustalav and ruled it as a tyrant. He was defeated in 4043 (the current year is 4708) by the paladin Mandraivus and in the battle Kazavon revealed himself to be a great and powerful dragon. The paladin and his company were still victorious and his body was dismembered to keep him from rising from the grave. Fire and acid were applied to the body until all that was left were seven body parts. These seethed and crackled with an unholy energy and refused all manner of destruction, attempting to knit together and reform the dragon. Mandraivus decided that since none of them could wholly destroy Kazavon, they would have to hide each of the pieces, and make sure that the evil dragon would never be able to reform again. That was the last mention of Kazavon in any historical text but I found that his name has been spoken in Korvosa in the past a few times. I remembered a thief apprehended a few years ago who was trying to break into the palace vault. He was arrested and trown in prison of course but he kept raving about how Kazavon made him do it and that it was the only way to make the whispers stop eventually we moved him from the prison to the Asylum.
I went to visit the asylum and found the thief had taken his own life but checking the records I learned of dozens of men and woman who had apparently been driven mad by the whispers of Kazavon. The painter Salvatore scream was one such person to whom Kazavon spoke and give him visions. I visited Salvatore many times to learn more about his visions and we became good friends.
I was also looking into the king's sickness at the time and discovered to late that it was caused by a poison unique to the red mantis assassins which was odd because they will always refuse to take contracts on rightful monarchs. I was looking into this matter shortly after the king's demise when a red mantis assassin came for me. Thankfully I was a prepared for this and a magic item I had acquired for such an occasion wrapped me in a stoneskin spell and I drank a potion of invisibility to escape. Still I was wounded and poisoned I managed to flee to the house of Salvator who lived nearby and he took care of me. I believe you know the rest afterwards Vencarlo found me and he was also being pursued by the red mantis we needed a safe place to hide and Vencarlo decided the only such place nearby was the Arkonas mansion we went to see them to negotiate but instead they tossed us in their dungeon."
"Where do we go now? The Queen hates you, and probably isn't too fond of us. Now, how best to proceed? Do you think we could find a piece of that dragon...sounds like she might have beaten us to one. "
"Yes about that I believe this may have something to do with the Crown of Fangs that the queen now wears. It was created by using something the queen recovered from deep underneath the palace an artefact called the fangs of midnight. If I am right those fangs are actually dragon fangs. The queen might actually be possessed by the spirit of the dragon warlord. How do we stop her? That I have no idea. Let us go to the town of Harse and we can recuperate and plan our next move there."
Harse Harse is a narrow village located on a strip of land at the point where Sarwin River empties into Falcon River. The village itself consists of only a few dozen buildings, including a church dedicated to Erastil, two groceries, two taverns (the Spotted Pony and the somewhat dingier Nag Bag), a large inn, and a bustling ferry service—this has been a traditional river-crossing site since as far back as Shoanti times. The northeastern edge of Harse features a large collection of stables and other buildings around an open field—the Harse Market, one of the most popular places to buy and trade livestock in the region, and the site of a yearly rodeo designed to single out the best animals and riders. The majority of Harse’s citizens don’t live in the village proper, but on one of the dozens of ranches and farms that dot the surrounding countryside. It is one of these, the Blackbird Ranch, that is owned by Vencarlo’s friends, and it is here that he leads Neolandus and the PCs. There isn’t much for the PCs in the village itself; Harse’s gp limit is too low to support most magic items, and the villagers themselves have little to offer high-level characters apart from rumors.
Once you arrive you are greeted by a familiar face. Trinia Sabor.
Crain crooks an eye at seeing the pretty Trinia yet again. "What a sight for sore eyes! How has the world been treating you, young lady? At least the company will be pleasant while we are on the run!"
Mai sarcastically adds
"Oh goody cursed items being worn by those in power, great..."
"It is good to see you again as well Crain! I never did get to thank you and the other for saving me from those angry mobs!"
"Aw, you know how awesome I am. It wasn't nothing out of the ordinary. For me, that is," Crain blusters as he pulls out his jug of ale. "Anyone want a pull?"
Drakus takes the jug and takes a pull himself before passing it back.
"So. She MIGHT be an innocent princess possessed by the crown; but she's also a politician. Hard to tell. Might not even matter."
"Well she was always ambitious and driven I doubt the queen was ever "innocent" but she was not a maniacal tyrant before in any case" says the seneschal