As they walk, Cherias whispers to Absinthe, "What was that about? You don't trust him?"
"I certainly don't trust him," says Melianthe. "I suggest we go to the Heights and take a look at this fire, perhaps find out more about the lynch mob as well."
Melianthe also rummages around in her pockets. "Oh, and I wrote down those various rumors we collected. Let's see:"
A field hospital in north Midland, run by Asmodean clerics, is coercing people to sign diabolic contracts in exchange for care.
The entire plague and its supposed victims are all to cover up a plot by cultists of Urgathoa trying to usurp the Queen and take over Korvosa.
A dead ship, piloted by ghostly pirates, attacked the Korvosan docks a week ago, infecting those they touched before the guard finally drove them back into the water.
The disease was started by Shoanti tribesmen who corrupted the city wells, in order to weaken Korvosa for invasion and retake their ancestral lands.
At a perfumery in the Heights called 'Lavender', the owner is claiming to have discovered a cure for blood veil.
Priests of Pharasma are hiding piles of bodies in Gray to keep the populace from panicking.
Blood veil is actually an elaborate Varisian chain-curse, passed through the gaze of the infected.
"Field hospital in Midland? Did we check that out?"
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"Didn't we?" the dusk elf scratches a long ear.
"Isn't the church of Asmodeus allowed to operate in the city, though? I'm not sure what we would be able to do according to the law even if they are doing that. Well, we could find out for sure, anyway. "
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"One would not allow a man who orders the seizure and slaying of the sick to spread news of vampirism," Absinthe grumbles. "On top of the panic over plague, people would be staked alive for sneezing!"
Later, you conducted a harrowing with Zellara, and then helped Trinia Sabor escape the city in secret, as a favor for Vencarlo Orisini.
The next day, you went to the Bank of Abadar to meet Ishani and found a mob of sick and scared out front. Many were infected with the same pox as Brienna. Cherias tries to aid and old acquaintance, setting off a near-riot from the desperate. You manage to get inside the temple safely, meet with Ishani, and agree to escort him to Marshal Kroft to combine efforts between the guard and temple.
At the Marshal's office, you meet Doctor Davaulus and his attendant doctors, and a Gray Maiden, all ordered there by Queen Ileosa for similar purpose. After a long meeting, some progress is made on how to contain the rising pestilence. Marshal Kroft has little specific work for you, but retains your services to track down a number of odd reports and rumors. Before sleep, you spend a few hours canvasing the streets
You start the next day checking out the Lavender perfumery, and find that she is selling a false cure to the desperate and foolish. You later pass by the city docks and hear some gruesome stories about the plague ship Direption being sunk several nights past. Then, at the Temple of Pharasma, you find the rumors of hidden mass graves to be a false one, though they are busy with many dead from the Blood Veil. Lastly, you visit the Temple of Asmodeus and find them serving legitimate cures for contracts to the desperate and foolish.
The next morning, you are approached by a old woman named Eries, who identifies herself as a wererat, one of a small community in Korvosa, and concerned about a warmongering kin named Girrigz. With an offer for more information to aid your cause, she sends you into the sewers to negotiate or kill him. The effort quickly turns sour, but you are able to get Girrigz and his cronies to leave.
The next day, after getting Eries's information, you delve into the cool river waters to investigate the sunken Direption. Inside the wreck, you encounter a sea hag and her shark, but more importantly discover the source of the Blood Veil: a sealed coffer filled with infected silver coins -- one of many that floated ashore just after the Direption was sunk. You quickly and carefully brought the coffer to Marshal Kroft.
She sent you out to check on a disturbing rumor of unburied bodies piling up in Old Korvosa, in Racker's Alley. There, just outside an toymaker's shop, you found a grisly collection of corpses, but not all dead from Blood Veil. Below the shop, you found and destroyed a nest of six Ustalavan vampires.
*
You leave the Citadel and climb towards the west side of the city, initially headed in the direction of Castle Korvosa. As you reach the top of the hill, you gain a better vantage of the surrounding city. With moon and stars shrouded by the thick overcast, the city is nonetheless illuminated by the eerie glow of pyres burning the diseased dead, down in Gray to the south. Plumes of dark smoke climb and meld into the darker clouds above.
To the north you spy more smoke, these dispersed and random, in the vicinity of the Academae tower. You make that way through the cordoned blocks and abandoned streets. The scent of burnt wood and smoke reach your nostrils about the same time you catch the sound of shouts on the wind. As you enter the University neighborhood, the scene grows worse. Several buildings are burned out husks, smoldering with smoke and embers. Any major fires have been subdued by the rain, but the damage is done.
Ahead, the shouts grow in clarity. You hear a lead voice calling out, with a score or more voices responding in defiant chorus.
Melianthe strains to hear what they are saying.
Cherias checks to make sure that the life-force of all of his friends is linked to his, and if Segang's Shield Other has worn off, will cast it again.
Mortal men. Segang says, hope in his voice. I can deal with mortal men. He begins to move forward.
Seren looks around aghast
"This was my home for so many years ... look at it ...."
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"This whole city is one's home," Absinthe says, her face as smooth as that of a professional geisha -- but her tail is lashing furiously, and the way the tiefling draws her scimitar does not speak of emotional tranquility, either.
"Let us see about the people who would befoul and vandalize our home, brother Seren," she suggests as she marches forward -- and melts into the shadows.
Absinthe keeps to the edges as the group approaches the ruckus. The first voice you clearly make out is one of a woman, attempting to yell over the call/response crowd. "Your gathering here is a violation of quarantine and is endangering the city and its people! By the Queen's order, you are to return to your homes immediately!"
Rounding the next street corner, the scene comes into view. About a hundred civilians face off against a smaller group of the city guard. The former have blocked off three sides of a small courtyard, while the latter stand in a straight line opposite. The guard are led by a Gray Maiden, and two others stand among the guardsmen. The Gray Maiden, shouting against the din of the crowd, repeats her order.
Among the citizens, a young man stands atop an overturned wagon. He, like many of his allies, is dressed like a student: latest fashion, expensive cloths, but worn lazily. He holds a long lamplighter's staff, torch alight. "Fie to your orders and those of the whore Queen! This is our city, our home, and we shall come and go as we please!" The crowd roars in agreement.
Segang stops at the edge of the gathering, pausing to get a sense of the argument and the tone of the crowd. He is unsure which side he should support until he hears more.
Absinthe continues to skulk in the shadows, likewise paying attention to what is being said and wondering who she should support. More than that, though, she is looking and listening for the unexpected, the dangerous. The spark that will set this tinder alight...
"This is bad, those guards are not going to take this lightly. I foresee a riot, maybe a massacre, if this isn't stopped."
Cherias looks around at the others, and whispers, "I have to try to talk them down, I couldn't live with myself if we just let this happen. Will you come with me, or cover me at least?"
I shall come with and speak with you as well.
Seren, nervous in the rising emotion of the crowd, keeps an eye out for signs of impending danger or erupting chaos
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Melianthe nods and follows Cherias and Segang. "This is better solved with words than swords..or more fire."
Segang moves to stand between the two groups. Addressing the crowd he speaks in a loud and clear voice accented both by the streets of this town and by his tribal heritage. People, People. Someof you know me and know I am of this city. I understand your feelings in this matter, but we are all intelligent and rational. There is a plague in the city and so we need to follow at least the spirit of the rules to help prevent the spread of disease and to stay safe ourselves. This is our city. Let us use common sense to make sure we stay safe and healthily. Let us not act against our best interest simply because those acts are exactly what the queen's agents are asking us to do.
Cherias says a brief prayer to Arshea before stepping forward.
"Hear me! All you will accomplish is to spread disease, destroy the homes of our fellow citizens, and if you incite these guards sufficiently, losing your own lives and some of theirs. You," he points at the young man holding the lamplighter's pole ( ), "you look like a student, probably of the Acadamae, or some other institution -- what purpose does rioting bring? Your death? His death?" Cherias now points at a guard. "He has a family. Possibly kids, likely a wife or lover, most likely parents or siblings. Just like you! We don't need to fight. We are all Korvosans! All of us, guards, students, soldiers, mages, beggars in the streets! All of us are thinking, living, beings whose lives are worth preserving! And we can survive this plague, achieve peace once more, if we do not forget that fact!"
As he speaks, Cherias nearly glows with his sincerity and concern for everyone present.
The Gray Maiden in front flinches noticeably at the mob leader's affront to the queen. The guardsmen tense, and she reaches for her sword.
Segang's arrival on the scene interrupts her for a moment, and draws everyone's attention. However, his words are met with hisses of derision. "Shovel it, horser!" a man hollers, eliciting grunts of agreement and more racist epithets.
Cherias steps up, and immediately, the gravitas of his voice carries throughout the square, silencing the hecklers. His wise words gain a few nods among the crowd, but the leader scoffs. "Your honeyed speech does nothing to solve the problem that many of our homes are destroyed! The streets are our home now, yet they say we cannot stay out. We know of you, and you are nothing more than proxies for the queen -- lackies like these guards... eloquent, but lackies nonetheless!" He waves his torch as the mob cheers.
Someone hurls a moldy vegetable at Cherias, missing high over his head.
"Diplomacy isn't going to work, Cherias," says Melianthe quietly. "We need to subdue people, I'm afraid. I can put the leader to sleep."
"There are alternatives," Absinthe says, her weird eyes casting a half-shuttered look at the Grey Maiden. "Plenty of buildings go wanting for inhabitation. If the troops of law and order will see fit to grant this group leave of passage, we can guide them there. They may not be fancy, but they can be home. For a time. I have to wonder, though; who has been destroying homes?"
"The people themselves," says Melianthe darkly, keeping her eyes on the roiling crowd.
Segang's eyes flash anger and he looks ready to take the entire crowd on all at once. His hand strays to his earth breaker, but he only touches it softly and waits to see if this can be turned around.
Drawing his Earthbreaker Segang takes a threatening step towards the leader. If things turn violent here, you shall die first.
"It's not too late to avoid bloodshed!" Cherias implores the man. He then turns to the guards and the Grey Maidens leading them "If their houses are destroyed by the actions of marauding mobs, then we must make allowances to let them travel to a place of shelter. We must clear the streets, assuredly, for the plague will spread when people gather together, but think how you would fare if your home were burned!"
Melianthe looks to the young man.
"List your demands, sir. We cannot just let you flaunt health ordinance, but we want your voice to be heard. And your people to be sheltered." She speaks firmly, but her last sentence is empathetic.
"It's true. Violent actions lead to violent responses, never to resolution. Just begets more pain." Seren adds half-heartedly, with a tremor of fear in his voice
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Once again, Cherias's voice carries strongly over the roiling crowd, bolstered by Melianthe's wisdom. The unrest settles for a few moments. Cherias's suggestion hangs in the air until the Gray Maiden officer finally agrees with a single nod. You hear a few of the guards let out sighs of relief.
"We will allow safe passage to shelter for those whose homes were destroyed, but the rest must disperse immediately." The Gray Maiden steps forward, pointing at the provocateur. "But that one comes with us. His life was forfeit the moment he uttered those seditious words."
The air of the courtyard goes still enough to hear a pin drop, a breath held in anticipation of the next act.
Cherias whispers to Melianthe in celestial.
"A life forfeit does not preclude the possibility of mercy," Cherias says. "Please come in peace, young sir, for defiance will gain nothing but risk the lives of those you seek to champion. You speak in anger, but fighting here and now will lead to no good."
Segang is unwilling to go along with this and moves closer to the officer, but not in a threatening manner. I heard no sedition, but only the words of a man that loves his city and his people. Speaking more quietly he continues speaking to the officer. I was not aware that Grey Maiden's had the right of High Justice, even in this time of plague. Better to let his small fish go and not make a marter of him. He as no power unless you give it to him.
Hurriedly, Absinthe draws up her collar and pulls her hood down, obscuring her face.
"" the tiefling growls out loud.
Abruptly, the tiefling bounds forward out of hiding, moving in an animalistic way, and comes to a screeching halt - literally, her hooves striking sparks from the cobbles - in front of the man whose life has been forfeited.
"Play along, for your life's sake and the sake of the people you champion!"
Darkness abruptly envelops both Absinthe and the man; a zone of magical darkness. From within the darkness, there sounds a horrid scream - and then a dull thud.
"The Queen's justice," you can all hear the tiefling's gloating voice from within the darkness, "has been served. Get the cattle to their new place of settlement, then."
The darkness moves away towards a nearby alley at a swift pace.
"Might've been a good idea to bring the illusionist in on the plan ..." Seren mutters to no one in particular.
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"Absinthe! No!!" Cherias shouts, not sure exactly what's happening.
Segang too looks unsure and concerned. His concern is more with the reaction of the Gray Maiden.
As soon as Absinthe casts her darkness spell, blinding a large segment of the crowd, chaos erupts. Some of the crowd starts to flee immediately; more stand around in confusion, while the rest draw weapons.
"What treachery is this!?" the Gray Maiden shouts. "Take him!" The guard phalanx set their weapons for battle.