Back at the inn, Arianna will request a room with a bath from Theandra. After a long soak until the water gets cold Arianna gets dressed and walks down to the bar. "Now that the baths done, now comes the getting drunk part of the plan" Joining the others at the table she calls the barmaid over and passes her 2 gold pieces "That's to start with. Bring us a pitcher of beer every seven minutes until somebody passes out. And then bring one every ten minutes."
"Don't worry, love. The Marshall has told me to give you a tab too." she smiled softly towards her "That's if you want it on the tab. Saw you all got involved in the chaos. Ya'll do anything exciting?" she appears to look over at Krenn and smirks a little, giving him a wink.
"I still have some of that dwarven stout my strong and powerful warrior." she smirks as she mops the counter with a rag and gives him another wink.
Somewhat morose, Curnach looks at the ale upon the table.
This is why we drink... To bury our disappointment and sorrows? he asks softly, taking his first pint of ale and raising the glass to the group.
Jerin proceeds to get really drunk, without worrying about his appearance. He matches you beer for beer, at least for the first hour...later that evening you have to stop a large drunk from kicking Jerin's a$$, for some reason he thinks he is stronger than his 8 strength and starts mouthing off to people in the tavern.
He is clearly not used to the booze as later he throws up on the table. You fish out some of his gold to pay to clean up the place as well as Jerin...he wakes up the next morning feeling the worst he has ever felt in the 24 years of his life...
Curnach drinks slowly and steadily through the night, uncharacteristically attempting to ask of his companions past and getting to know them better, overcoming his shyness in inebriation.
A toast to Trinia Sabor... Let it be witnessed here, that Curnach Daveck swears to bring the forces of justice upon the Queen of Korvosa herself, should she think herself above the powers of law and order. I shall tear down her castle walls and set her bedroom ablaze if I must...
Despite his sickened condition, its clear that Curnach is deadly serious in his pledge.
Theandra looks at your curiously as you make that comment about the queen and slowly makes a gaze across the room, looking out for anyone who would pick up on that and luckily no one here feels to step up against Curnach and even quite a few seem in favour of what he said.
Taking pity on Jerin who now lays under the table Theandra makes sure to take her cloak and lay it over him so that he atleast has something warm and soft to keep him covered.
As everyone goes to sleep the last few patrons either leave or head up to rooms they've paid for the night and she gives a wink over to the dwarf, escorting him to her own room.
The next day once you have all woken up and cleared your heads with waiting for Jerin's head to stop feeling like it was going to explode and waiting for Krenn and Theandra to get up and you have all suited up you find the city has calmed down with the imprisonment of Trinia Sabor, the king's killer.
As you arrive at the citadel all the guards appear to be acting very nervous. It's as if the very air seems ot have all the guards on edge.
In the morning Arianna comes down looking none the worse for wear, except for some red rimmed eyes. Sitting at table with the others she says "So who do we railroad today?"
In the morning Arianna comes down looking none the worse for wear, except for some red rimmed eyes. Sitting at table with the others she says "So who do we railroad today?"
Barely able to speak from the sore throat, DO we really have to see Croft today, I think I just want to go back to bed... he says miserably. If we do see Croft he has to make a pit stop first. He is going to sell the wand, it is worth 990*.5=495.
A third of Curnach's goodberries lose their magic today, and he spends the morning supplementing his supply.
Curnach watches Krenn's good cop, bad cop routine with amusement, and then moves to enter Croft's office once Krenn has finished.
As Arianna enters the Citadel she notices that the gaurds all seem on edge. Placing a hand on one of the gaurd's arm she smiles up at him "Why so nervous? Is there something going on that we should know about? It's better that we be prepared for the worst, than be surprised by it."
Diplomacy check:
As Arianna enters the Citadel she notices that the gaurds all seem on edge. Placing a hand on one of the gaurd's arm she smiles up at him "Why so nervous? Is there something going on that we should know about? It's better that we be prepared for the worst, than be surprised by it."
Diplomacy check: 1d20+7+1
The guard appears nervouse, but he nods towads you.
“One of those Shoanti kids went and got himself killed, and now the rest of them are all worked up. If it’s not one riot about to erupt, it’s another! Field Marshal Kroft’s in her office now, trying to talk some sense into the Shoanti ambassador. In fact, she mentioned that she’s looking for you all to help with the situation.” he shook his head at the trouble they were all facing. "He's a scarey looking one too. His eyes are all white like he's blind, but he could see perfectly fun. Leered right at one of the men who was giving him a...gesture from a distance."Tensions between Korvosa and the Shoanti have existed since the city’s foundation some 300 years ago, when Chelish colonists attacked and defeated the Shoanti tribes who dwelt in the region destined to become the largest city in Varisia. Forced to retreat and relocate into the inhospitable Cinderlands northeast of Korvosa, the Shoanti persevered and even flourished, and many among them preach that the time to take back their ancestral homeland is nigh.
Yet in Korvosa itself, the Shoanti seek a more peaceful accord. You assume this man he mentioned might be the one that they call Thousand Bones who talks with the government so that they can co-exist in peace. Due to these tensions there are often racist outlooks on the Shoanti and many of the Shoanti tribles are quick to anger which makes more problems in itself.
Knowledge (Local):
"I can understand the tension then. We will see what can be done to help ease the situation."
Jerin perks up at the mention of Shoanti, Shoanti, here? It has been some time since I have been able to speak the language of the Shoanti clan's. My father used to deal with them when I was a boy and he made me learn their language and some of their customs. This should be interesting...
As you find the office of Marshall Cressida Kroft you enter to see that she is in the office with a tall, rail-thin Shoanti man of 60 winters. He leans heavily on a walking stick, the polished femur of some giant beast crowned with a firepelt cougar's skull. He wears a shirt decorated with countless jangling animal bones, many painstakingly scrawled with dozens of tiny symbols and glyphs.
A bearskin cloak is draped about his bony shoulders and warpaint in the shape of a skull decorates his face. The Shoanti’s eyes are milky as if he were blind, though he sees better than most men half his age. He has a regal red-feathered razor crow sat on his shoulders, looking down at you all.
"Here are the people I was talking about. They have been saving this city and the city is still together thanks to they're actions." she nods in your directions, however Thousand Bones looks unimpressed and solemly nods towards you all. "We have a problem which could make the mayhem worse in this city. This man is Thousand Bones and is the ambassador of his people here in Korvosa, the Shoanti. In the riots of yesterday his grandson was, Gaehken was killed. He was killed in a fit of misplaced vigilantisim by some racist thugs. Thousand Bones wishes to ask something of us. Please, all sit down and I'll let my guest here explain the situation."
The old shaman speaks with a deep voice, his words carefully chosen but delivered with a barely restrained anger.
“My people have worked hard to understand yours, yet it seems each day we see new examples of how your people work just as hard to foster old hatreds. My grandson is dead, beaten to death by cowards in your city street. I do not blame you, yet still Gaekhen is dead, and my son and his kin are not so forgiving as I. They wish to return to the Skoan-Quah in the Cinderlands, to join with the Sklar-Quah and rally to war against Korvosa. This would be disastrous, for both our peoples. Amends must be made." he pauses for a moment, making sure to pick his words carefully. “Our ways are not as yours. If a body does not go whole to the fires of the gods, the smoke of a warrior’s spirit cannot rise to the Great Sky. If I could send Gaekhen’s body to the Great Sky with honor and dignity, his father and brothers would listen to me and stay their wrath. The talks of peace between my people and yours can continue. But he was not just murdered. His body was taken from the scene of his death, sold by a peddler of corpses to a necromancer named Rolth, a criminal to both our people. I have spoken with the spirits, and they have revealed to me that Gaekhen’s body has been taken to a place below your boneyard, a place the spirits call the Dead Warrens."
“With this knowledge, I could surely lead a group of my finest warriors into your boneyard to retrieve Gaekhen’s body, but this would be seen as an act of aggression by your people. No, it falls to you to make amends for what has been done. You must bring me Gaekhen’s body, lest we be forced to recover him ourselves. And although it pains my heart to say it we will not be gentle if it comes to this.”
You have heard of the necromancer, Rolth. He used to be a student at your Achademe and was a promising too, however he was found mutilating and collecting body parts for study and construction of golems. Something the Achademe dissapproves of where he was kicked out and saught after by the law, but they have been unable to find him.
From your times in the sewers you have seen a pale looking man with blood on his hands, ofen carrying bags with rotten body parts, but he rarely appeared. You were lucky if you ever saw him twice in a year as he appears to be very slippery and hiding out somewhere that you don't even know.
After saying this, Thousand Bones rises, nods curtly to Cressida and then leaves the room where you think he might be returning to his people.
Field Marshal Kroft walks over to you all, shaking her head.
"I apologise for his behavious, but I admit I agree with his assessment. Someone tied to Korvosa needs to find the dead Shoanti's body and return it to his people as a gesture of good will or things will quickly go from bad to worse." she sighs and shakes her head "Normally I would contact the church of Pharasma to orginise the epedition into one of the warrens under the city graveyard, but you have proven yourselves capable as you have too, Arianna for helping in the capture of Trinia Sabor. Also, I nominated you all first for the problem due to your skills so far and it will be look better if I sent out the heroes of Korvosa. If you can do this, there is another one thousand gold coins. I would like you all to start again, however I will answer any and all questions before you leave."
Jerin looks more than a little disappointed at not being able to talk with the Shoanti, but speaks up rather quickly, Yes, something we should try to address as quickly as possible. Of course if Rolth is involved, it could make this mission much more difficult. He is a necromancer of some renown. We have to move quickly if we are to reclaim the body before it is used for some horrible purpose.
You have been most fair to us, Lady Cressida. I am certainly willing to pursue this on your behalf. Do we have any leads? Does anyone know where to start looking for a way down to where he's supposed to be?
“Good thing I know where to look. We have the man who sold Gaekhen’s body to Rolth in custody: a simpleton named Elkaris. He spilled everything when we told him what was going on and how much trouble he was in. In any event, Elkaris says he delivered the body via wheelbarrow to a partially collapsed mausoleum deep in Potter’s Ward, near the southern edge. A toppled and headless statue of a sword-wielding gargoyle lay in the dirt near the mausoleum’s entrance. He was told to leave the body behind the gargoyle."
"This location matches where Thousand Bones believes the Shoanti burial grounds called the Dead Warrens used to be located, so that’s the best place to start the search.”
Jerin looks more than a little disappointed at not being able to talk with the Shoanti, but speaks up rather quickly, Yes, something we should try to address as quickly as possible. Of course if Rolth is involved, it could make this mission much more difficult. He is a necromancer of some renown. We have to move quickly if we are to reclaim the body before it is used for some horrible purpose.
You find your way to Korvosa's vast graveyard with east. This is known as the Gray Distric and is a mournful place, even in the daylight. Alone in the city, this place is quiet and calm in the fave of the civil unrest, yet this calm is an unnatural stillness in the air, almost as if the graveyard were preparing itself for a vast influx of new dead. Certainly this ominous feeling is nowhere more noticable than in Potter's Ward, the final resting ground of Korvosa's poor and homeless.
Mounds of unmarked dirt strech far and wide, indicating sites of mass graves, while crumbling mausoleums from years ago, abandoned by families of the Grey District expanded to the west, dot the bleak landscape forgotten and empty. Mourners do not visit here, for the dead buried in Potter’s Ward leave behind few who regret their passing. Locating the mausoleum described by Elkaris is a relatively simple task.
You see no sign of Gaekhen's body remains in the area.
You manage to find the presence of a man's tracks and a wheelbarrow trail. More interestingly, several smaller humanoid tracks, each bearing only four toes clutter the site as well. You find that these tracks lead into the mausoleum itself.
From what Jerin has been teaching me about the Green Faith, 'Druids' are opposed to Necromancy in all forms. I will undertake this task eagerly. What new of Trinia?
This way... Curnach whispers, pointing out a man's tracks and a wheelbarrow trail.
"I'm glad you dispise the dark art of necromancy too, Curnach." at the news of Trinia she shakes her head "It's not good. From what I hear but it is not my place to pry so I try not to ask too many questions.
You notice a poorly hidden secret trap door in the floor.
These footprints belong to the Derro, a race of pale skinned people who you know are under Korvosa and probably many other cities, but they rarely ever appear. You don't think you've ever seen one, atleast not the full body of one.
Curnach whistles softly.
What do you know about the Derro? They were the ones who took the body, through yonder trapdoor... he asks and informs the group.
Jerin, Arianna... I recall they have some innate resistance to magic but little else.
Curnach whistles softly.
What do you know about the Derro? They were the ones who took the body, through yonder trapdoor... he asks and informs the group.
There are few people who this happens to and when they try to remember something all they come up with is pain. Most mutilations that are found in the street are said to be caused by them.
Perception check:
Perception check:
Knowledge (nature):
"Derro, eh. Little buggers live under the city, like rats. Can't say I've ever heard of them coming to the surface, though." Entering the mausoleum, Arianna points to the floor "Looks like they taken the body underground with them through that trapdoor in the back."
Perception check: 1d20+6
Perception check: 1d20+6
Knowledge (nature): 1d20+6
"Derro, eh. Little buggers live under the city, like rats. Can't say I've ever heard of them coming to the surface, though." Entering the mausoleum, Arianna points to the floor "Looks like they taken the body underground with them through that trapdoor in the back."
Curnach takes the time to cast Guidance on everyone in the group, before attempting to open the trapdoor. If it opens without a fuss, he casts light on his shield as well as a Goodberry which he drops through it to see whats down there...
As you all decend into the darkness you notice that there are patches of eerily glowing mold all over the place in various patches of dampness and other patches of the mold has been obviously removed by something, though the knowledge check of nature both Curnach and Arianna know that this fungus is often eaten by the derro who find it's radiance soothing and it's flavour delivious.
The air is musty and damp, with the stink of rotting flesh permiating the air. The deeper you get you notice that the walls are ancient Shoanti construction.
You all enter a large room which is support by four wide pillars of stone. The ceiling above arches in a dome nearly twenty feet high. The walls are lined with skeletons caked into the mug. Most of these are human but there are smaller bones that might be from halflings or perhaps children. Fifteen-foot-squar pits sit to the east and west, each filled with a large heap of hundreds of bones and to the south a crude hole has been gouged into the wall, providing access to a tunnel.
You notice that not all the bones in the pits are completely innanimate. six humanoid skelitons to the west and a owl-bear skeliton to the east have the spark of unlife within them.
I have wanted to try out this baby for some time... he mutters to himself.
Ware the pits... Some of the skeletons have the spark of undeath about them. We should destroy them immediately.
As Arianna descends into the warrens she reaches into her pouch and pulls out a glowing rock. The area around her is suddenly illuminated as if by torch light. She tosses the rock into the air and it begins to slowly rotate around her head, shining light all around her.
Perception check:
Warned by Curnach's shout Arianna spots the moving skeletons before they emerge from the pits. "There are six of them to the right,and a larger one to the left"
As both Curnach and Arianna point out the bodies the bones suddenly move as on the east pit a large skeliton of a owl bear emerges and the west there are 6 skeletons.
Group Initiative:
Curnach Daveck:
Jerinthian Kos:
Arianna Rothschild:
Krenn Whetstone:
Owlbear =
Skeleton =
Order:
Owlbear Skeleton
Jerinthian Kos
Skeleton
Curnach Daveck
Krenn Whetstone
Arianna Rothschild
Even = Jerin
Odd = Krenn
The Owlbear strikes At Krenn as he attacks and the large creature manages to just hit Krenn and manages to grab him into a grapple. Krenn is now grappling the large boned creature that's leering down at him and trying to kill him.
attack
damage
CMB success
Round 1 Action-
Stepping back behind Arianna, Curnach swiftly creates a ball of flame atop the Owlbear.