Love fool
I suddenly felt a delicate hand grabbing hold of my arm, and I noticed that Darius received the same treatment. We turned to face Auralia Bromathan, a beautiful young woman who was an acquaintance of mine and Hipazia’s. She beamed at us and said: “Come on, you two, I’m sure my uncle Illrem has bored you enough with his old war stories, come have a talk with your contemporaries!”
We followed her to another section of the salon where a group of bored young nobles were lounging around. They lazily and disdainfully watched Amin, Darius and I as we approached. Many of them surely considered us beneath them. I was wearing one of my most beautiful dresses for the occasion, but it was surely considered much too plain compared to more elaborate gowns such as the one Auralia was wearing.
Auralia sat down next to Akmelek Ornelos, a handsome young man with dark hair and cruel eyes. Akmelek was entertaining his comrades by commanding his imp familiar to dance for them. It was clear that the rising star of the Ornelos family was Auralia’s newest flame. Perhaps she had grown bored of elves?
“Isn’t it hilarious?” she said, giggling and pointing at the tiny devil. If the little creature resented being treated like an animal, it was wise enough not to show it.
“It’s brand new, I just got it,” bragged Akmelek. “Normally, it takes quite a few years for wizards to be able to gain such control over devils. But of course, I learned a few tricks from my great-uncle.” That was, of course, a none-too-subtle mention of his link to the headmaster of the Acadamae, Toff Ornelos.
“With the recent magical progress in Cheliax, we have the means to control devils as our pets,” stated a dangerously beautiful young woman standing next to Jeffrid Fordyce. She was dressed all in red and black. Amin stared at the copious amount of cleavage she was proudly displaying, but I sensed that Darius tensed at my side: like me, he had noticed the symbol of Asmodeus that she wore around her neck. “We could be obeyed by some much more suitably potent servitors, so there’s really no reason for us to waste our time being served by Halflings anymore.”
“Or fronters!” added Jeffrid.
“Or moths!” exclaimed his friend Abranas with a guffaw.
“And yet, the Most Holy Church of Asmodeus is opposed at every turn by the very people it is trying to help,” continued the dark-haired priestess of Asmodeus. “It is time for Korvosa to wake up and stop living in the past. Aroden is gone forever and it is time for humanity to worship a new protector!”
Darius and I struggled to remain silent. We were both strongly opposed to the cult of Asmodeus, which tries to seduce and corrupt the hearts of people. And here was this viper in this den of wealth and excess, trying to poison the minds of our peers with her honeyed words. I wondered if Auralia had brought us here just to create some drama, in hopes that we would verbally oppose the priestess of Asmodeus?
Thankfully, Amin came to our rescue by changing the subject. “So what did you think of the play, dearest Auralia?”
The sandy-haired woman giggled. “Oh, was it ever dreadful! I would expect such rubbish to be shown to fronters at Exemplary Execrables, but not at the Marbledome! I’m afraid old Touran Palastus just doesn’t have the talent and inspiration he once possessed.”
“Perhaps he’s found love at last and is distracted from his writing!” suggested Jeffrid’s sister Ziria with a coy smile.
“Unlikely, he’s probably just taking more pesh than before,” replied Jeffrid sardonically, inciting a round of laughter from his cronies.
“Perhaps House Jeggare should get rid of him and look for fresher talent,” suggested Darius.
“Assuredly,” replied Jeffrid. “For years now, the Marbledome has produced mediocre performances that bleed them gold. Things have gotten so bad that the Jeggare’s now consider a performance that breaks even a resounding success.”
This last statement brought forth another round of mocking laughter, which was discreetly shushed by Auralia as she watched someone approach. As if on cue, Jarissa Jeggare joined us. Though now part of Korvosa’s richest family by marriage to Serrian Jeggare, she was in fact the older sister of Jeffrid and Ziria Fordyce.
The conversation returned to more polite topics with Jarissa’s arrival, but was once again steered in an interesting direction by Amin. “I’m surprised that Marguerite didn’t attend the show tonight,” he told Jarissa, “she usually loves to attend on the first night.” He was, of course, referring to Jarissa’s sister-in-law, the magnificent Marguerite Jeggare, considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in Korvosa, and as a member of the wealthiest family, Korvosa’s most eligible bachelorette. Amin was but one of the many young aristocrats who were fawning over her.
Jarissa’s expression changed to one that was at once annoyed and amused. Clearly, she did not appreciate the mention of her better-looking sister-in-law, but she had some embarrassing news to reveal about her. “It seems that dear Marguerite has taken leave of her senses and has decided to become a soldier.”
A stunned silence followed as the eyes of all those who had been listening distractedly turned toward Jarissa.
“What???” asked Auralia, beaming at the prospect of delicious gossip.
“Yes, she left last week to begin military training in the service of Korvosa.”
“That’s ridiculous, she’s never even held a sword in her hand before,” said Akmelek derisively.
“She’s going to join the Korvosan Guard?” asked Amin with a bewildered expression.
“No, she…”
“The Sable Company?? Can you imagine her riding a hippogriff?” interjected Akmelek.
“Surely not, the wind would ruin her hair!” teased Auralia.
“Then… Not the Hellknights, I hope??” asked Amin, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
“No, no, no” replied Jarissa, shaking her head. “It’s something else entirely. I don’t know the details, but it’s a new force that the Queen is putting together to…”
We never heard the rest of her statement, because Abranas Serinis suddenly loudly began proclaiming his love for the buxom priestess of Asmodeus who was apparently the companion of his best friend, Jeffrid Fordyce.
“LURIA!” exclaimed the curly-haired young man. “I love you! You are the moon in my starlit sky! You are the reason my heart beats! You are… so beautiful!”
The priestess watched him with an amused but surprised expression. Everyone else was stunned. They thought at first that it was a joke, but as it dragged on, they realized that Abranas seemed to speak genuinely. He then clumsily tried to kiss Luria, but she pushed him away. Mocking laughter began to be heard all around us.
Jeffrid grabbed hold of his friend’s arm. “What are you doing, you oaf??” he hissed.
“I’m sorry, Jeffrid, but I can’t hide it any longer. I love Luria! I love her with all my heart! I want to marry her!”
With Akmelek’s help, Jeffrid led Abranas away from the crowd, under the amused glares and the deluge of laughter from the surrounding nobles. Luria, the object of his affection, appeared to be positively glowing with satisfaction. Darius and I exchanged a puzzled look. Abranas was not the most delicate nobleman in Korvosa, and certainly not the smartest, but such a faux-pas was simply unheard of. He would surely be the talk of the town and the subject of countless taunts for many weeks to come. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Ziria, a delicate little woman with brown hair, seemed completely flabbergasted and very embarrassed by what had happened. Auralia and Jarissa hurried to ‘comfort’ her, but I could tell that they were enjoying the situation far too much to offer much support. Had I known Ziria better, I would’ve gone to speak to her, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing so, and did not wish to add to her embarrassment.
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"Some foul wererats lurk in the Vaults below Korvosa."
"An evil sea witch lives somewhere close to Jeggare River. It is said that she is able to breathe water and drags unsuspecting victims to their doom, to drown below the cold waters."
"A fortress next to Turtleback Ferry in the Hook Mountain region was overrun by ogres, but some adventurers reclaimed it. Yet I hear tales that other outposts to the north and west are being attacked by ogres, trolls, and worse!"
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A trail of blood
Kaeso and his brother Aelius were brought by Cyril Leroung to take part in fencing practices with him and his friends at master Vencarlo Orisini's academy on a regular basis. Since Aelius was Cyril's servant, and Kaeso was Hipazia's, protection was one of their many duties, and Cyril wanted to ensure that they received proper combat training.
Of course, Kaeso already had some first-hand experience with combat, so he impressed everyone with his skill with the blade, including Vencarlo himself. Some people, like Cyril and his friends, praised him for his ability, but others were jealous, including Kaeso's own brother...
One day, after practice, Vencarlo asked Kaeso and Amin to come to his office. He announced to Kaeso that Amin (one of his most trusted students) had told him Esia's story, including her horrible and incomprehensible death. Vencarlo also knew that Hipazia had performed an analysis of Esia's blood. He produced a vial of blood and handed it to Kaeso, asking him to request from his mistress an analysis of this new sample. Vencarlo did not reveal where it came from, but asked Kaeso to keep this investigation quiet.
Kaeso obeyed, and Hipazia began her work analyzing the blood in a laboratory at the University of Korvosa, partly by herself and partly with the help of her former mentor, Nicklod Starweather. After a few days of lab work, they discovered that this sample also originated from a simulacrum; that the "victim" had been a young woman with blonde hair, but its composition was different from Esia's. Hipazia was fascinated by this discovery and suspected that this blood belonged in fact to the "fake" Trinia who had been present at the execution... and who had been saved by Blackjack. She shared this suspicion with Nicklod.
Nicklod was surprised that two simulacrums had now been found: very few mages in the city were powerful enough to make them, and all of them worked at the Acadamae. Simulacrums were also very expensive... There must be a good reason why they were being created. Hipazia suggested that perhaps these blood-based simulacrums were experiments to make a new kind of clones that were less expensive to make than the better-known snow-based ones.
Hipazia also wondered if these blood simulacrums were in any way related to the Leukodaemon mentioned in the letters sent to Rolth. She explained to her mentor that she and her allies had explored Rolth’s lair below the Gray District. Nicklod was impressed: Rolth was, apparently, a wizard of considerable power, and even though Hipazia had not faced him in battle, it seemed that his minions and his creations had been quite dangerous. Hipazia also described to him the letters the group had found.
Nicklod showed her an ancient tome written by a renowned wizard named Ezren: it was a volume about the denizens of the lower planes. Within were described many strange and deadly creatures, and some of the pages were illustrated. Nicklod turned them until he reached one that depicted a hideous creature, thin and tall, with the body of a man whose flesh was eaten by maggots, a horse’s skull where its head should be, and large black-feathered wings. This was a depiction of a Leukodaemon, a member of a race of very dangerous creatures from the lower realm of Abbadon that served Apollyon, the Horseman of Pestilence. They were known to be among the most dangerous archers of the underworld, and they were surrounded by an aura of pestilence wherever they went. According to this description, Nicklod did not see any link with the blood simulacrums… But a Leukodaemon sounded like a foe that even he wouldn’t wish to face in combat. He also confirmed to Hipazia that such fiends could be summoned, but that only the most powerful masters at the Acadamae were capable of such a feat – and even then, they were keener on summoning devils rather than foul abominations like daemons.
Hipazia later visited Vencarlo Orisini at his home in Old Korvosa. She informed him of the results of her work, also hinting that she knew the real Trinia Sabor, and that she believed it hadn't been her at the execution. She asked Vencarlo whether the sample indeed came from this false Trinia. The gray-haired gentleman explained that he wasn't sure who the blood sample came from, as it had been given to him by an ally who had not provided much information. Vencarlo said that this ally was a man of action and of few words... He questioned Hipazia further regarding the real Trinia's whereabouts. Hipazia remained elusive, but told him that Trinia had left town. Vencarlo seemed relieved to hear that.
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Rumors of war
Even though their adventure was finished and peace had once again returned to Korvosa, the five companions continued to meet each other frequently to share information and celebrate their victories of the past few weeks, such as the defeat of Gaedren Lamm and Devargo Barvasi, and Trinia’s escape. It was now the month of Desnus; the weather was starting to turn really warm and beautiful. With a bit of luck, this was to be the beginning of a beautiful and memorable summer…
Hipazia informed the others of her recent investigation regarding the second source of magical blood. Kindrasius was very intrigued and immediately began making connections…even suggesting that Vencarlo, who had the blood in his possession, was quite likely Blackjack’s real identity. The companions then discussed Blackjack’s legend. The famous hero had been around Korvosa for over two centuries, so rumors usually assumed that he was either an elf, or that the title of Blackjack was passed from one generation to the next.
There were some interesting and worrying rumors going around town these days. Probably the most important of those were the increasingly frequent rumors of an army of giants, trolls and/or ogres forming in the Wyvern Mountains to the northwest. Allegedly, this army had destroyed some outposts such as Fort Rannick and the town of Turtleback Ferry. More and more sightings of the gigantic monsters were reported in the regions at the edge of Korvosa’s area of influence, and if nothing was done, more villages would surely be destroyed, and within a few weeks or months, perhaps even mighty Korvosa itself would be in danger! Many soldiers from the Korvosan Guard, the Sable Company and the Hellknights had been dispatched to more remote areas to oppose the giants’ progress, but so far, the prospects were grim: how could a force of men oppose a horde of ravenous giants?
Yet, Manius told the others that there was hope. Despite the wild rumors, Field Marshal Kroft and Maralictor Zaren had received reports that Fort Rannick had been retaken by a band of adventurers and was now under the control of a garrison of Hellknights from Magnimar led by Paralictor Vesko Naruncrast; also, despite a flood and some strange attack by a gigantic aquatic monster, Turtleback Ferry had survived.
Commandant Marcus Endrin was, of course, heavily involved in the preparations for war, yet there were rumors that stated worriedly that, six weeks after Queen Ileosa’s coronation, he had still not sworn allegiance to her. Indeed, the Sable Company was a military organization that answered not to the rulers of Korvosa (which the Korvosan Guard obeyed directly), but rather to the Seneschal. However, all previous Sable Company Commandants had always sworn fealty to all previous Korvosan Monarchs. The current situation was most unheard of.
There were also rumors of a new military group being put together by Queen Ileosa. There wasn’t much information on it yet, but from what Manius had heard, it was composed entirely of women. His own sister, Corella, had recently passed the necessary tests and transferred to that unit from the Korvosan Guard.
Then, Kaeso and Manius both told a brief story about having been shadowed by agents of the Korvosan Guard. They had spotted and confronted them, and since then, hadn’t seemed to be observed anymore. But, with an annoyed glare toward Manius, Kaeso stated that this unwanted scrutiny was likely a consequence of the Hellknight’s blunder in revealing the group’s involvement with Trinia Sabor to Field Marshal Kroft.
Finally, Zeeva showed her longspear to her friends and announced that she’d sought the services of a priest of Sarenrae to have the weapon enchanted. This work had been done by none other than Riktos Sunblade, the half-orc that Kindrasius had befriended by a few days before.
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Shadowing the fancy lady
A large portion of Kindrasius’s schedule was spent rehearsing and performing at Exemplary Execrables, where Pilts Swastel was presenting a brand new play, an amorous comedy about a shy elf called "the 400-year-old virgin". He also spent some time gathering information about the various names mentioned in Rolth’s letters. He was helped in this endeavour by his children. Unfortunately, the only name that seemed to be known was Jolistina: she was rumoured to be a black-haired elf woman who was a criminal often associated with a tall, dark-haired bearded man dressed in filthy clothes. Some knew him as the necromancer Rolth, but others seemed to describe a different couple entirely: Laori Vaus and Salvator Scream. It was true that there was some resemblance between them. Kindrasius pondered this and wondered if Laori and Jolistina were one and the same; or if it were possible that he didn’t know his friend Salvator as well as he’d thought he did. Was it possible that Salvator suffered from a multiple personality disorder, and was in fact Rolth’s alter-ego? Were Rolth’s hideous experiments the true source of inspiration for Salvator’s creepy paintings? It seemed a bit far-fetched, but nevertheless, Kindrasius asked some of his kids to keep an eye on Salvator’s activities.
Kindrasius also learned that an increasing number of vagrants, or “empties” as they were called in Korvosa, had gone missing lately. Another missing person of greater import was Shiria Semyr, the daughter of the high priestess of Shelyn. Nobody had seen her in recent weeks.
The unstable Shoanti also decided to use some of his free time to get to know Zeeva better: the mysterious priestess of Pharasma had struck his fancy. He visited her now and then at random times of the day, but on one occasion, he showed up at her manor in the middle of the night. Heldrin Blackbarrel, her majordomo, explained that she was sleeping and asked Kindrasius to come back in the morning. The Shoanti proved very persistent and tried to convince the dwarf to let him in. When that failed to work, he went to the back of the manor and entered through a window. Heldrin had been expecting this and awaited him in the dining room with a crossbow in his hands. Kindrasius was able to convince the dwarf not to shoot him, but still wasn’t allowed to see Zeeva. He spent some time on the gallery behind the house eating bread with Heldrin and talking about their lives.
A few nights later, Kramm, another one of “Kindrasius’s Lambs”, came home very excited and revealed that he had seen “her”: the fancy woman who had visited Gaedren Lamm from time to time and who had taken away the little girls to a beautiful house. She had been talking with a man near the Ironworks. Kramm had followed her south for a little while before losing sight of her.
A few days later, a commotion among the kids attracted Kindrasius’s attention. The trigger for this conflict was a golden ring that belonged to Debius, one of the older children. Some others were jealous of it and were asking him how he had gotten it.
“I bet you stole it!” spat Lerrim, the Shoanti child. Lerrim and Debius were the two oldest and tallest boys. Lerrim really looked up to Kindrasius, whom he considered his role-model. He always tried to keep the other kids in line when Kindrasius wasn’t around, seeing himself as the “second-in-command”. Of course, such rigidity didn’t make him very appreciated among the other kids. It was also ironic that he tried so hard to maintain order when Kindrasius himself oversaw the children’s activities in a very loose and even chaotic manner. But it was true that he had forbidden them to steal anymore.
Debius was very different from Lerrim. Although he had learned to respect order in Gaedren’s lair enough to avoid being fed to Gobblegut the alligator, he was a deeply free-spirited individual, closer in nature to Kindrasius, although he wasn’t very keen on obeying his orders, no matter how loose they were. Debius was one of the hardest kids to control, as he was smart, charismatic and rebellious. But he was also one of those with the most potential in Kindrasius’s eyes.
Kindrasius was very serious about this ring, though. He sternly asked Debius where he had gotten it. The child replied that a kind old man had given it to him in exchange for directions to the closest inn. Kindrasius felt that Debius was being honest, but he questioned him at length about the old man. Unfortunately, the description didn’t ring any bell for him. Nevertheless, he was paranoid about this expensive ring, fearful that it might be another poisoned gift like Hipazia’s dagger. He ordered Debius to sell it the following day. He then gathered all the children in the living room, where they (along with old Beviela, their housekeeper) listened to the Bard tell a compelling tale of his fight against Verik Vancaskerkin and his men at All the World’s Meat, and the following complications when Hipazia had realized that the silver dagger had disappeared, turned into a bracelet, and later into a snake that had tried to bite her!
The message had gotten through: Debius placed the ring at the bottom of an old wooden chest and promised he would get rid of it the following day. Kindrasius felt a tug on his breeches. It was Kelsin, one of the youngest children. “Kindrasius, can you buy us some toys? We don’t have much to play with.” Kelsin was adorable, with big eyes that were impossible to refuse.
Kindrasius accepted to buy the children some gifts, and he headed to the nearest toy store the following day with a few of the children. It was located in one of the most dangerous parts of Korvosa, next to Racker’s Alley, a place where illicit transactions often took place, and where people were frequently found dead. He surely didn’t want the children to go there alone. The Shoanti and his young ones entered Giotorri’s Toys and were warmly greeted by the toymaker himself, a heavyset bald man. Rodolfo Giotorri boasted about the joy his “works of art” would bring the children, but Kindrasius was not impressed, seeing many flaws in the badly-made toys. He started to regret not taking the longer walk to Midland to go to Pestico’s Dolls and Figurines, the home of Lixa’s creator.
When they came out of the store, having nevertheless bought many toys, a few of the children discreetly pointed toward a black-haired woman dressed in elegant clothes and high leather boots.
“It’s her, Kindrasius!” whispered Kelsin. “It’s the lady who brought Gaedren’s girls to her home!”
Kindrasius’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Get back to the apartment, children. I’ll meet you there.”
He began to quietly follow the woman. She headed south and crossed a bridge into the Heights. Once they reached that area, Kindrasius cast a Detect Magic spell and sensed something magical around her belt, perhaps a weapon. Shortly after that, though, he lost sight of her. He searched the area for some time, but could only find tracks of her in an alley. She had escaped him, but at least, he now knew what she looked like!
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Competing for Zeeva’s attention
Things looked bleak for Zeeva. She stood alone, all her companions having been grievously wounded by their foes. Many enemies had been slain as well, but still, there remained several feral orcs who growled as they pointed their blood-coated weapons in her direction. Their ranks parted to let through an enormous monstrosity the size and girth of an ogre, but with the head of a bull. It wielded a massive greataxe of black metal adorned with a grinning skull. This was the Horned Warrior, the most dreaded creature living in the shadows of the Onyx Chasm. Zeeva felt the full weight of the monster's evil gaze, as well as its fetid breath fall upon her, and she knew that the next few instants would determine whether she lived or died.
So she picked up the dice again and rolled a 20 and a 17.
"Awesome!" she exclaimed. "That's a critical hit, isn't it?"
"Indeed, there might be hope for your group’s survival after all!" replied Cyril.
"Beginner's luck," grumbled Amin, whose character was on the brink of death despite his extensive experience with the game.
"Well done, Zeeva!' said Darius encouragingly, "If you manage to get rid of the Horned Warrior, the orcs might flee and you'll be able to restore my wizard with your potion of healing! I've still got a few useful spells left!"
Darius had convinced Zeeva to attend a session of his favorite game: Caverns and Creatures. The game was relatively complex, with many rules that required mathematical calculations based on the results of several dice of varying colors and shapes. Zeeva marvelled at how realistic it was: every weapon, magical spell and creature that she had heard of within Golarion had been modelled within the game. Even though the worlds and adventures that Darius and his friends played in were imaginary, they were also heavily steeped in realism and represented actual situations that might happen in the real world.
Besides this, Darius and Zeeva spent more and more time together during these few weeks. As time passed, Zeeva began to truly appreciate the young nobleman's gentleness, charm and artistic traits. They attended several more plays and concerts together; they dined at pleasant restaurants like the Posh and Turtle. Darius frequently offered Zeeva flowers and even composed a few songs about her. Zeeva visited his family's manor several times, enjoying the beautiful garden and the many works of art on display there. Darius's parents, Ausio and Olauren, were kind people, articulate and with a great knowledge of the arts. Their latest discovery was a very talented young musician, a Varisian ocarina player named Ruan Mirukova, who also (unknown to them or to Zeeva) happened to be Kaeso’s cousin.
Yet Darius was not the only one who had set his sights on Zeeva. Kindrasius also took the opportunity, now that things were calmer, to try and get closer to the dark-haired priestess. Unfortunately for him, Zeeva did not seem to appreciate his efforts, which were usually tainted by his characteristic eccentricity and which even sometimes bordered on the downright illegal or even creepy. When Zeeva heard from her servant Heldrin that Kindrasius had tried to enter her house in the middle of the night through a window and had ignored the dwarf’s many requests to leave, she became really upset. She saw Kindrasius’s actions as a blatant lack of respect.
“The next time he gives you trouble,” she told Heldrin, “just wake me up and I’ll kick him out myself!”
Yet when she was in Kindrasius’s presence, she tried to spare his feelings. There were several reasons for that, first, she did not want to hurt him or make him feel unwanted; she couldn’t muster the strength to be callous enough to reject him. But also, she was worried about how he would react, knowing his unpredictable and often volatile nature. She harboured some resentment toward him due to the patronizing way he sometimes treated people like Heldrin, and his antagonistic attitude toward Zellara. Truly, even though Darius was no hero, she found him to be a much gentler soul who represented better what she looked for in a man.
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Seeking Debius
Kindrasius was persistent and kept making attempts to win over Zeeva. He went all out and invited her to the Posh and Turtle, one of the city’s most expansive restaurants, only to find out that Darius had already brought her there a few nights before. Initially, Zeeva tried to pay for her own meal, but seemed uncomfortable when Kindrasius paid for hers. She wasn’t quite sure how to handle the situation diplomatically.
On a more serious note, Debius disappeared around that time. Kindrasius grew worried and went looking for him. He asked people if they’d seen him, and one of those he questioned was Kirmo Savas, the young man who had been involved in a missing weapon shipment that had been sent by Devargo Barvasi to the Arkonas. Kindrasius treated Kirmo very kindly, inviting him for lunch and discussing various issues, including more questions about the Wererats. In fact, he revealed that he had gotten a Harrow reading about Wererats recently. Kirmo sullenly replied that as long as Kindrasius stayed out of the sewers, he shouldn’t have any troubles with Wererats; as far as he knew, they were just like humans: there were some good ones, and there were some bad ones. Unfortunately, Kirmo had no information to give regarding Debius, Jolistina or Rolth.
Shortly after, Kindrasius met a gray-haired, kind-looking man named Tesh Zobberdin. He told him he’d seen Debius near the Sticky Mermaid tavern two days before, talking with a woman who matched the description of the “fancy lady” that dealt with Gaedren Lamm. Tesh believed that her name was Vimanda, a dangerous woman who worked for the Thieves’ Guild.
Kindrasius finally made a connection between two pieces of the puzzle: Vimanda, Verik’s girlfriend and probably the one who had given him the silver dagger that had turned out to be a magical shape-shifting snake, and who had hired Verik’s own men to assassinate people and serve them as food at All the World’s Meat, was also the same woman who had taken the little girls from Gaedren’s band!
The Shoanti searched the area for the next few days, but unfortunately, he saw no sign of Debius or Vimanda. He did run into Salvator one day, though, as he was having lunch with another friend. Kindrasius joined them for a meal, and soon realized that Salvator’s friend “Landus” was in fact none other than Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis in disguise! The man seemed like a pleasant fellow, and a true lover of Salvator’s work, but Kindrasius couldn’t resist “testing” him by making some rebellious comments regarding the queen, making a reference to having heard from a servant from the royal castle that the queen was “a real b##$%” and that she and her bodyguard Sabina often had noisy sex together in the royal bedroom.
Salvator laughed uproariously, mentioning that his next painting would depict just such a scene, but the Seneschal stiffened at Kindrasius’s vulgar statements. He became much quieter for the rest of the conversation. A bit later, a group of Sable Company soldiers entered the tavern, and one of them was actually Commandant Marcus Endrin himself. He noticed the Seneschal and approached him, taking his shoulder when he rose and bringing him a bit further from the table; Kindrasius could still hear the exchange, though.
“What the hell are you doing?” whispered the Commandant. “You shouldn’t be outside the castle by yourself, especially not in this part of town.”
“Oh, relax, Marcus! I was just visiting a friend. Besides, I can take care of myself… I was trained as a marine too, if you’ll recall.”
“That was a long time ago, my friend…” replied Endrin.
Perhaps heeding the advice of his old comrade, it wasn’t long before the Seneschal gave his goodbyes to Salvator and Kindrasius and left the tavern.
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Kaeso and Ziria
Kaeso spent these few weeks with the knowledge that Abranas Serinis was now the laughing stock of Korvosa’s aristocracy, at least for a time. He was rarely seen in public, and was shunned even by his friends Jeffrid and Akmelek. This meant that Ziria had more freedom, and she contacted Kaeso via one of her own servants, inviting him to meet her in secret in the garden of one of her friends. Kaeso met the young lady there, and they spent some very pleasant time together, in the peaceful and remote place by themselves. The fact that they could only meet on such rare occasions, and that they might get caught at any time, only made the experience even more enjoyable, of course.
The coach’s son
Manius carried on his duties as a Hellknight, being kept quite busy since there was now only a skeleton crew manning the Black Bulwark, the rest of the troops having been sent off to war. Pontia and Selgrim were among those who had remained to watch over the city, as well as the Maralictor himself.
Even though a mysterious Hellknight had been mentioned in Rolth’s letters, Manius did not investigate the matter further. The Hellknights were mercenaries, and even though they usually worked for Korvosa’s leaders themselves, they could also be hired by other parties. The person who would know about such deals would be Maralictor Zaren, but Manius was in the hot seat since he had often spent some time away from his regular schedule in recent weeks to perform extraneous duties such as adventuring and doing deeds for Field Marshal Kroft. When he had been questioned by the Maralictor about the more delicate absences, such as the period when he had spent three days in secret with Trinia Sabor at the Leroung vineyard outside of town, Manius had tried to dodge the questions, but truth be told, he was a truly terrible liar. He strongly suspected that Maralictor Zaren knew he was hiding something, and although he had, by some miracle, not been punished yet, he didn’t want to push his luck, and as a result, he avoided his superior as much as possible.
On a more joyful note, things seemed to be going well for Manius’s father, Brannos. He had recently become employed by House Arkona to coach their Blood Pig team. Indeed, the season of that bloody game was starting and some new players had been drafted in the various teams of Old Korvosa. One of the top teams of the previous year had belonged to Devargo Barvasi, but with his recent demise (and those of some of his players as well), the surviving members had been hired by various other teams, such as the Arkona Reefclaws and Pilts Swastel’s Shinglesnipes.
Brannos himself had been a player in his youth, but the unfortunate accident that had cost him his leg some years back had put an end to his career. He wistfully told Manius that he wished he could hire his powerful son in the team, but there just wasn’t enough time in Manius’s schedule to participate in the training and the games.
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A prestigious invitation
Guest speakers regularly came to the University of Korvosa to give lectures on specific subjects, and on one occasion, one such speaker was the wizard Togomor, head of the Evocation wing of the Acadamae. The corpulent man made a presentation on the Mushfens, the vast region of swamps that stretched between Korvosa and Magnimar. He presented many elements of the fauna and flora of this place (including the aggressive race of toad-men known as Boggards), as well as a general description of ancient Thassilonian ruins he had visited during his travels. Like other such ruins scattered around Varisia, some of these contained ancient lore and forgotten magic from the great empire of Thassilon, which had come to an end in a cataclysm ten thousand years ago.
Hipazia spoke with Togomor after the presentation and learned that he was originally from Magnimar and had explored the Mushfens for many years as an adventurer in his youth. He had later traveled to the ancient city of Kaer Maga where he had studied the secrets of hemotheurgy and taken the rituals to become a bloatmage, a member of a special sect of wizards who used leeches to increase and regulate the amount of blood in their bodies. All bloatmages were enormous in size, as their bodies contained a huge amount of blood; this fluid was the main focus of their magical energies. Of course, this triggered something in Hipazia's mind: could the bloatmages' nature be linked to the blood-related simulacrums she had encountered?
***
The young lady went with several of her relatives to one of the season’s most prestigious social events, a ball at Castle Korvosa. Hipazia did not enjoy such festivities too much, but she did her duty and presented herself. Only members of the greater families had been deemed worthy of attending, so only nobles from the Arkona, Zenderholm, Jeggare, Ornelos or Leroung families were present; none of the minor house riff-raff had been invited by her majesty. There were also other guests of mark such as Archbanker Darb Tuttle and High Priestess Larella Semyr of the church of Shelyn, as well as Field Marshal Kroft and Maralictor Zaren. Hipazia found the entire affair quite boring, especially since she was not accompanied by any man to the occasion. Although she attracted the attention of many young nobles, Hipazia was a very studious person and was simply not interested in such trivial notions as romance. The scene she found most noteworthy was Queen Ileosa’s appreciation for the Maralictor’s hell hound. The ferocious beast seemed very docile in her presence and even let itself be petted by the young monarch.
“This creature is so delightful!” exclaimed Queen Ileosa merrily, “We should get some of these here in the castle!”
“My lady, are you sure that’s wise?” replied Seneschal Kalepopolis warily. “These are dangerous monsters from the pits of Hell…”
Ileosa glared at him and sighed. “Dear Neolandus, must you always be such a bore? I’ve decided we’ll get Hell Hounds in the castle, and that’s final!”
The Maralictor’s hound growled at the Seneschal as if to punctuate that statement.
***
Only a few days later, Hipazia also received a letter she’d been strongly hoping for. It bore the seal of the Acadamae’s headmaster, and was an invitation to the upcoming Breaching Festival, signed by Lord Toff Ornelos himself. Such an invitation was extremely prestigious, as each year, only a handful of people were selected to participate in the event in addition to the top student of each of the Acadamae’s wings, except that of Abjuration, of course, which was providing the defense that was the key to the event. In its more than 160 years of existence, the Festival had only once seen a successful attempt to breach the heavily-warded house of Abjuration. There was a fantastic reward promised to anyone who might duplicate the feat that Dyson Fordyce had performed more than a century and a half ago: setting half a shoe beyond the threshold of the building.
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Another disappearance
Kindrasius made another attempt to woo Zeeva, inviting her to a game of Blood Pig in Old Korvosa. The noblewoman reluctantly accepted, but was visibly disgusted by the violent game that featured two teams of large men causing bodily harm to one another while trying to throw innocent little pigs into the opposite team’s pit, each containing a ravenous wolverine. Kindrasius tried to cheer her up by mentioning that at least this was “somewhere that Darius hadn’t brought her yet”, but it completely failed to impress Zeeva. In fact, she resented the fact that Kindrasius seemed to consider “winning her over” to be a competition between him and Darius… just as she knew that he had at first taken in the twelve kids under his roof just to prove to her that she’d been wrong about him not being able to take care of them.
Speaking of little kids, another one disappeared around that time. This time, it was Falvako, one of the youngest little lambs, who failed to return home. Kindrasius realized that the others were in danger, and that he couldn’t leave them in harm’s way anymore. He gathered them all and headed to Leroung Manor with them, where he asked Hipazia to arrange for them to be sent to the family estate outside of town. It was the best way he could envision to keep them safe.
The game
Falvako couldn’t believe how beautiful the mansion was. Gaedren had told his little lambs that the girls were brought to a beautiful house, but the young boy could never have imagined that they had been brought to such a marvellous place. A huge garden surrounded the manor, and inside, it was decorated with countless statues of animals and strange people.
He munched on a pastry while the two adults talked: the dark-haired lady had brought him to a study in the house, a place where they had met a man with long wavy brown hair and a thick moustache. He was dressed in very fancy clothes. Falvako couldn’t really remember why he had followed the dark-haired woman. After all, Kindrasius had warned him precisely not to do that. But when she had invited him to the manor, he had been completely unable to refuse. Now, he didn’t regret coming with her at all. She and the fancy man were very nice to him, and had given him some treats while they talked.
The young boy couldn’t understand anything they said. They spoke in a language he had never heard before. They rarely talked to him at all, but at times, they would go silent and stare into his eyes… As if they were learning something just by looking at him. Amidst their gibberish, Falvako only understood a few names that he knew: Kindrasius… Hipazia… Gaedren… Verik… Pilts…
The man with the moustache finally turned back toward him and smiled. He now spoke in the common tongue. “Young man, you must be quite bored of listening to us talk. It’s time for you to play. Follow Vimanda and she’ll bring you to our playground. There’s a lot of fun to be had there!”
And so Falvako followed the black-haired woman, Vimanda, downstairs. Along the way, he saw some things that should’ve made him very scared, but Vimanda’s voice soothed his fears… Urged him to continue to follow her.
They finally reached a metal door decorated with tigers, and beyond, there was a room with two statues of a man with a tiger’s head. Vimanda pointed to the back of the room, and Falvako went there while she remained between the statues.
“It’s time for the game to start. Pull that lever on the wall.”
Falvako looked at the lever, then back at Vimanda. “Where are the girls, Vimanda? Those that came with you from Gaedren’s house. Can I see them?”
The woman smiled, but now, her face didn’t look as soothing as it had before. In a way, she looked like a predator, just like the two tiger-headed statues. “You’ll soon be joined with them, little one. But you have to play the game first. Pull down the lever and the game will start. The girls have all played it before, and they enjoyed it so much that they never played any other game since then.”
Falvako hesitated for a moment, but he couldn’t resist Vimanda’s voice.
He reached for the lever with a trembling hand…
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“Sabina Merrin, the queen’s bodyguard, wields a magical sword that makes her invincible.”
“The enemies of House Arkona have a tendency to disappear under mysterious circumstances.”
“There is some rivalry between the houses of Conjuration and Necromancy at the Acadamae. The young students from those departments sometimes duel each other.”
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Due to the recent disappearance of the children, Kindrasius contacted Kaeso to get a Harrow reading from Zellara. Even though the cards gave a result that was too vague to satisfy him, he learned that something very bad had happened to the children, and that they were likely already dead. Kaeso also questioned Zellara about the fate of his father and the necklace he had stolen on the last night he had seen him. Again, the cards gave a grim result: Kaeso’s father had been betrayed by someone dangerous who was still lurking around. He was likely dead as well. As for the necklace, it had been sold.
Sunday, Desnus 30th, 4708
The Breaching Festival
The day of the Breaching Festival finally arrived. It was the only day of the year during which the Acadamae opened its doors to visitors. A crowd of Korvosans from all ranks and ages gathered inside the mighty walls of the wizards’ school. Kindrasius and Kaeso went with Hipazia, who was a guest of honor, since she was supposed to participate in the Breaching contest itself. As such, they were shown around the compound by Lord Aradnar Ornelos, himself an accomplished wizard; he showed them the buildings that housed the various departments of magic, which each had a distinctive look.
Then, the participants gathered together and were introduced to the crowd. There were twelve of them, including Hipazia and Heblar Septam, another student of Theumanexus College. Three thieves had been invited for the event: Mannam “Beergut”, a Halfling member of the Cerulean Society; Koro Sedvi, a Sczarni; and Tiora, the young lady that the party had saved from Rolth’s lair. They learned that she was part of a group of female burglars called the Catsdew Lofties.
Then, the other seven contestants were introduced: they were all bright young students of the various schools of magic at the Acadamae. Kaeso recognized among them Akmelek Ornelos, a student of the conjuration wing and one of the close friends of his nemesis Jeffrid Fordyce. But the companions became especially alert when the transmutation student was introduced. She was named Elvira Kamworth, but Kindrasius, Kaeso and Hipazia had met this gorgeous young woman with long blonde hair before, or at least someone completely identical to her physically: Esia, the mysterious simulacrum who had been found in the riots and who had died at Leroung Manor in a pool of blood.
The contest itself lasted for several hours, as the twelve participants tried to penetrate the well-warded house of Abjuration. Various techniques were used, from the use of thieves’ tools, weapons, summoned monsters, evocation blasts or even illusions depending on everyone’s talents, but as usual, nobody was able to enter. The grand prize would remain unclaimed for at least one more year.
After this, Hipazia approached Elvira and subtly asked her a few questions. The young woman looked and sounded exactly like Esia, except that she seemed much more confident, as she was more aware of her situation and identity. She had heard about Hipazia’s reputation, but it was the first time she actually met her. She appeared pleasant enough. Hipazia didn’t mention anything special about simulacrums, remembering that Esia had mentioned waking up in the presence of a man with two ioun stones floating around his head, a description that seemed to match that of Professor Karpangram, the headmaster of the transmutation wing, to which Elvira belonged.
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Moonday, Sarenith 8th, 4708
Not alone
After a few days of living without the children in Old Korvosa, with only the old Beviela to keep him company, Kindrasius asked Hipazia if he could stay at Leroung Manor instead. He was too nervous when he wasn’t surrounded by people. He was very scared at night. Hipazia’s family graciously offered him to stay in one of their guest chambers. Tiago and Cyril, in particular, appreciated his presence and his ability to tell stories.
It finally became clear to Kindrasius that Zeeva wasn’t responding well to his advances; he was very surprised, convinced as he was that his attempts had been extremely romantic. He had noticed that a girl at Exemplary Execrables, Deyanira Mirukova, was interested in him, but when he went to see her, he was so rude in his approach that she wanted nothing to do with him.
Meanwhile, a minor tension was rising between Kaeso and his younger brother Aelius. Indeed, Aelius wasn’t satisfied with the fencing lessons he was getting from “that old man Vencarlo”. He was much more interested by the Hellknights, and would much rather be practicing with Manius. Kaeso gave him a slap on the back of the head when he heard that.
On the morning of Sarenith 8th, a rumor began spreading throughout the city: during the night, an unidentified ship had approached the city and had been sunk somewhere in the Jeggare River, between Old Korvosa, North Point and Trail’s End.
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Starday, Sarenith 13th, 4708
Brienna’s illness
A few days later, Kaeso was asked by his mother to go to the house of another servant of the Leroung family, a 12-year-old girl named Brienna Soldado. She had been given leave to go back to her family for a few days and had been scheduled to come back two days ago, but hadn’t returned. Kindrasius came along, and the two men crossed the bridge to Trail’s End, just outside Korvosa. It was a poor neighbourhood whose inhabitants were mostly Shoantis and Varisians. A group of Sczarni thugs watched the two companions, but didn’t give them any trouble since they weren’t “Chels” and that Kaeso was a member of a known Varisian clan.
Brienna and her siblings were half-Varisians too, and thus also “acceptable” among the inhabitants of Trail’s End. Their mother was Varisian and their recently defunct father, Grau’s brother, had been Chelaxian.
Kaeso and Kindrasius arrived in front of Brienna’s house. It looked in need of repair and maintenance. The grass hadn’t been cut this year yet. Kaeso knocked at the door, and was let inside by Brienna’s mother Tayce. Also in the house were Brienna’s teenage brothers Rello and Charlo, Grau (who was present for a visit) as well as a dark-skinned priest of Abadar named Ishani Dhatri.
In a worried voice, Tayce explained that Brienna had fallen very sick three days ago, and that none of the local herbalists had been able to cure her. She was afflicted with something they’d never seen. She lacked the 150 gold sails that were required for a magical spell to remove the disease, but Brother Ishani had offered a herbal cure for free instead. Kaeso and Kindrasius sarcastically grumbled against the greedy priests of Abadar who charged such a large sum to cure a sick child. So convinced were they that all Abadar worshippers were obtuse that they completely ignored the genuine concern that Ishani displayed.
Tayce led the two companions upstairs, where they witnessed the sad sight of poor little Brienna lying under thick covers, her face and arms afflicted by foul red rashes, her thin body wracked by painful coughs. She was semi-unconscious.
The two men questioned Tayce and learned that Brienna had found a chest containing fifty silver pieces on the shore of the Jeggare River a few days before. Tayce produce this container from underneath Brienna’s bed. It was immediately apparent that something was wrong with this item: it was decorated with skulls, and Kindrasius felt an aura of necromancy emanating from it. Only seven pieces of silver remained within; the rest had already been spent by Brienna to buy herself new clothes.
The two companions wondered if this skull-chest had anything to do with the containers mentioned in Rolth’s letters. They asked to keep the item to study it further. Ishani then came upstairs and began applying his poultice to Brienna to try and heal her. Grau then asked Kaeso and Kindrasius if Zeeva would be able to use her own magic to cure Brienna. They didn’t think she could, but Kaeso nonetheless went to fetch the priestess, as well as Hipazia and Manius. Meanwhile, Kindrasius helped the family as he could, using Unseen Servants to perform the chores that Tayce’s late husband wasn’t around to do anymore.
Once everyone was gathered in the house, Zeeva and Hipazia discussed the disease with Ishani. Neither of them had ever seen it, but it seemed very serious. They also knew that, obviously, if it was contagious, they were all in great danger. Based on their analysis, they guessed that once someone caught this disease, barring any magical or medical treatment, they only had seven days to the grave. Hipazia was touched by poor Brienna’s plight and accepted to pay for her cure, asking Ishani to come back the next day with a spell to heal her. She also suspected that it might be a curse rather than a disease, and asked him to prepare a spell against that as well.
The companions then left the house, promising, along with Ishani, that they would be back the following morning for Brienna and her worried mother. Grau thanked them all for their kindness.
That night, Kindrasius met Tiora in a tavern and they talked about the Breaching Festival and Kindrasius’s enemies. Tiora knew about Jolistina, who was an assassin unaffiliated with the thieves’ guild, as well as Vimanda, who was, she thought, a high-ranking member of the Cerulean Society, probably very close to guildmaster Boule, the head of that organization.
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Sunday, Sarenith 14th, 4708
Signs of the plague
The following morning, the companions met at Tayce Soldado’s house, where Ishani returned and was successful in curing Brienna’s disease with his magic!
Tayce burst into tears of joy and profusely thanked the priest and Hipazia, who had so generously paid to save her daughter’s life. After some time, Brienna’s eyes fluttered open, and she slowly sat up on her bed. She was surprised to see so many people gathered in her bedroom, but once she realized what had happened, she also thanked the visitors. She explained what Tayce had already said about the box found on the shore, also adding that there had in fact been a dead rat in the coffer. She had removed the corpse with a stick, but even despite this, she had kept the money, as it represented a substantial sum for a poor girl like her.
Hipazia used some strong alcohol and made it burn over the silver pieces, explaining to Tayce that it would decontaminate them. The group then discussed the entire situation: where had that box come from? Perhaps from the ship that got sunk a few days before?
The group left the Soldado home and visited the river’s shore. They met two Varisian men there who seemed to be looking for something. They learned from them that more skull boxes had been found, with money and a dead rat in each of them. Also, other people had turned up sick in Trail’s End in the past few days. The companions realized that something dreadful was going on. They informed the two Varisians of their suspicions that the boxes contained a dangerous disease, and that they shouldn’t be touched anymore. Fifty silver pieces weren’t worth dying for, and even worse, contaminating the entire population. They asked the two men to spread the word around Trail’s End, even up to the Sczarni boss that they suspected they worked for.
The group then crossed back to Korvosa and split up to evaluate the situation. Kindrasius and Zeeva went to Old Korvosa to look for more skull box sightings. Indeed, they learned that more such chests had been found there, and saw several people showing early signs of Brienna’s disease in the streets. Feeling that it was necessary to warn the population about this, they went to Longacre Building to ask for the services of a town crier. There, they found that the administration was already in a flurry of activity: people were aware of the recent outbreak and things were being put into place to fight it. Kindrasius and Zeeva told all they had learned so far to one concerned clerk, who replied that most of the measures against the disease would be taken from the command center at Citadel Volshyenek.
Meanwhile, Hipazia, Kaeso and Manius went to Castle Korvosa to try to get the Queen’s attention on the matter; unfortunately, the gates of the castle were closed, and guards beyond them directed the adventurers to Citadel Volshyenek instead. On the way, the three friends saw Ishani Dhatri once again. This time, the unfortunate priest was being held hostage by a burly blacksmith who held a dagger at his back. The man claimed that his young son was sick with the disease, and that he had been turned away at the church of Abadar. He wanted to bring Ishani home to get a cure for his son.
Ishani protested that he had used up his magic for the day, and asked the companions to help him. A tense negotiation followed between the party and the blacksmith. When Ishani suggested that Hipazia could pay for the son’s cure as well, the noblewoman got outraged at his words and walked away with Kaeso. Manius remained and tried to intimidate the man to free Ishani. The Vudrani priest was able to kick his captor’s shin and tumble away. Manius then moved to protect him, and caused the blacksmith to flee.
Ishani profusely thanked Manius, his savior, and both of them headed to Citadel Volshyenek. A call had been sent to all churches to dispatch a representative to the garrison, and Ishani had been chosen by Archbanker Tuttle to answer this summons.
When he and Manius arrived at the Citadel, they saw that many guards were gathered in the central courtyard. Hipazia and Kaeso were also present; they had gotten there a few minutes before. On a raised platform, Field Marshal Kroft and Sabina Merrin were addressing the guards. Sabina wore a brand new suit of armor, silver and red in color. Behind her were several women dressed in similar armor, with full helms hiding their faces. Kaeso whistled: even in their heavy armors, it was clear that these women were all very beautiful.
“Which one of these is your sister?” he whispered to Manius with a wink.
The Hellknight scanned all the women. He couldn’t tell for sure, as they all wore helms, but it’s true that one of the taller ones might be his sister Corella.
There seemed to be some tension between Field Marshal Kroft and Sabina. Indeed, Sabina had just introduced her new order of warriors, the Gray Maidens, who were Queen Ileosa’s new special force and who had just been given much greater authority than the Korvosan Guard or the Sable Company.
Also present were about a dozen men in thick leather coats, wide-brimmed hats and strange bird-like masks that hid their faces. Sabina introduced them as the Queen’s Physicians, a group of doctors who had been gathered in haste from the surrounding region to combat the disease that seemed about to spread over the city. She introduced their leader, a middle-aged Chelaxian with dark hair, as Dr. Reiner Davaulus.
The physicians, Sabina, Cressida and their officers then gathered inside the Citadel to discuss how to best defend the city against the plague. Several priests had also answered the Field Marshal’s call: Luria Azon from the temple of Asmodeus, Riktos Sunblade from the temple of Sarenrae, Marixa Tenner from the cathedral of Pharasma, and of course, Ishani Dhatri. There were no representatives from the temple of Shelyn or the Pantheon of Many.
A long discussion followed, in which different measures to contain and fight the plague were discussed. Containing the sick and reducing the population’s movement was an important part of the strategy. Each priest also reported the number of members of his church who were powerful enough to cure diseases by magic. The church of Abadar had four (Archbanker Darb Tuttle, Avram Wirton, Zenobia Zenderholm and Ishani Dhatri), as did the temple of Asmodeus (Archbishop Ornher Reebs, Aggrinas Karpello, Batsel Hoon and Mirinith Azon). There were three more among the church of Pharasma (Bishop Keppira D’Bear, Garello Lemmek and Marixa Tenner) and three more at the temple of Sarenrae (High Priest Edrimalar Tzerno, Riktos Sunblade, and a young paladin named Kaligvad Allurilas). Manius mentioned that the Hellknights’ ally, Shadowcount Sial, could also probably help with his own magic.
Even after extrapolating the number of other priests in the city, the total of available spells per day was still less than one hundred, for a city of over 18 000 inhabitants. It was clear that magic alone wouldn’t be sufficient to halt the plague. The doctors’ skills would also be required.
Doctor Davaulus introduced himself to the other physicians, priests, and to the companions. He was actually from Egorian, the capital of Cheliax, where he worked as the personal physician of the Arvanxi noble family (which Queen Ileosa was originally from). As it became clear that a plague was about to hit the city, the queen had mandated a wizard of the Acadamae to teleport to Egorian and to return with the good doctor to spearhead the efforts.
Hipazia, Kaeso and Manius also described to Field Marshal Kroft, Sabina and Dr. Davaulus their own findings in Trail’s End, getting Brienna cured and investigating the skull boxes.
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“The tavern called Jeggare’s Jug in Old Korvosa was the first drinking establishment built in Korvosa. The renowned explorer Montlarion Jeggare used to stop by this pub once or twice a month to purchase bottles of Chelaxian pepper whiskey, from which he drank a single shot before distributing the rest to other patrons. When Montlarion died, the owner at the time decided to honor him by renaming the pub after him.”
“Some say that old King Eodred died doing what he loved best… making love to his beautiful young wife. So I guess the rumors that accuse Ileosa of killing him could be considered true, ha ha ha!”
“The town of Sirathu, to the north, was wrestled from Kaer Maga’s control by the Korvosan army 45 years ago. But it’s just a dirty community without hope, and Korvosa’s elite wonders why the city should even bother to consider it among its holdings. Recently, however, the village gained a bit of fame when rumors spread of a young girl there blessed with power from Pharasma.”
Blood Veil
A terrible plague has fallen on Korvosa. The doctors call it Blood Veil, for a reason I do not know. Every day, more and more citizens become infested with this disease that causes their skin to erupt in foul red tumors. Their bodies are wracked with a violent cough. Summer is upon us now, bringing an oppressive heat and humidity that makes the experience even worse. Despite the sunny weather, the streets are often deserted. Most people only go out when they absolutely need to; they avoid public places. Besides, the Gray Maidens and the Korvosan Guard have begun restricting access between various parts of the city. More and more, we start seeing corpse-laden carts being carried through the streets, bringing their morbid cargo to the burial pits of the Gray District.
Of course, as a priestess of Pharasma, it is among my duties to make sure that these people are given the proper funeral rites, even though they are tossed into mass graves to rot in the ground, nameless and forgotten. To make things worse, giant species of vermin are beginning to infest the burial grounds, mainly giant flies and giant maggots, attracted there by the quantity of diseased flesh to feast on. We fight them off, but for every one of these foul creatures that we kill, two seem to appear.
My companions also do what they can to help the city, regardless of the danger it represents for their well-being. Manius performs his duties as a Hellknight, duties made all the more necessary since the ranks of his order, as well as those of the Korvosan Guard, are depleted because of the war effort against the army of giants.
Kindrasius spends some time in the poorest districts, helping common folk against thugs and looters who are taking advantage of the chaos caused by the plague for their own gain. On two occasions, he caught glimpses of the legendary hero Blackjack helping in a similar way.
Like many noble houses, most members of the Leroung family have left the city to go to their country estate, where Kindrasius’s children have already been sent. Only Hipazia (and of course, her servant Kaeso) remained behind to “hold the fort”. Some manors have become like impregnable fortresses: those families who have elected to stay in Korvosa very careful monitor who they let inside their homes.
Darius and the rest of the Carowyn family are among those who have stayed in the city. I know that they yearn to help the victims of the plague, but for the moment, there is little they can do. By luck and with some of their funds, they were able to escape the effects of the plague so far, purchasing costly healing magic on a few occasions. But there are so few priests who can remove the disease by magic in the city that even those with money are often left waiting days before being treated.
It is a very frustrating experience for me, as a talented healer, not to be powerful enough to heal the needy by magic. I do what I can with herbal remedies, but if I possessed the same powers as Bishop Keppira d’Bear, or even my friend Marixa, I would feel so much more useful. I pray for several hours every night for Pharasma to grant me the power to help stem the flow of new souls into the Boneyard, but alas, my pleas have remained unanswered so far.
The plague doctors are hard at work patrolling the streets, monitoring the advance of the plague and bringing people to hospices where they can be treated. Despite their valiant efforts, the sinister appearance of their dark coats and bird-like masks makes them seem like packs of vultures feasting on the bodies of the dead that have already begun to litter the streets.
A number of notices have been posted throughout the city, explaining the current situation:
“By Decree of Her Royal Majesty, the Radiant Queen Illeosa I, all citizens and members of the Korvosan Guard are to aid and admit the newly established Queen’s Physicians in this time of urgency. These royal agents will extend healing to the sick and organize defense against the spreading affliction known as “blood veil.” They are to be allowed access to any home or building they deem necessary in the course of their duties. All those suffering from disease or disorder are to submit themselves to the Physicians for treatment.
To aid in the duties of the Queen’s Physicians, know that the order of the Gray Maidens has been established to provide military support as needed. The Maidens answer directly to the Crimson Throne, and will be called upon as necessary to augment and strengthen the peace where simple city guards will not suffice.
Impeding or distracting the duties of the Queen’s Physicians or the Gray Maidens is punishable by imprisonment. Impersonating one of the Queen’s Physicians is punishable by death. Knowingly harboring or hiding the infected is punishable by death. Purposefully spreading blood veil is punishable by torture, then death.
The Queen’s Physicians will be making rounds of every city district henceforth until Her Majesty deems this misfortune abated.”
To add a level of absurdity to the situation, Kindrasius and Kaeso one day found an unfortunate man being kept captive in stocks on Jeggare Square. This man was the scribe in charge of writing these announcements, and he was being punished for misspelling the Queen’s name (which in fact contains only one “L”). Thankfully, the poor man was freed by my allies under the cover of night.
So far, my companions and I have somehow miraculously avoided contracting Blood Veil*.
Our loved ones, though, have not been not so lucky. Beviela, the old lady living in Kindrasius’s apartments, caught Blood Veil, as did Manius’s father Brannos. The Hellknight was able to get his father cured by Ishani Dhatri, the Abadarian priest whose life he had saved a few days ago. A few servants at Leroung Manor also became sick, and were placed at the hospices manned by the plague doctors.
But unfortunately, I was hit the hardest, as all the people under my “care” fell sick within two days of each other: Heldrin, Korwick (my other servant), as well as the two children: Saroko and Mouse. At first I tended to them within my townhouse, not managing to cure them completely, but stabilizing their state. Some were doing worse than others. On the second day, though, a patrol of Gray Maidens and Plague Doctors came to my house and announced that the sick could not remain there indefinitely: I would need to bring them to one of the hospices.
I argued with the Gray Maiden in charge for several minutes, explaining to her that I was a priestess and a healer, but she stubbornly insisted on her orders being followed. It was frustrating to speak with the metal-clad woman whose eyes I could not even see. Strangely, her voice seemed familiar, although I couldn’t quite place it at the time. Truth be told, I felt responsible for the children and for my servants, and didn’t want to leave them in the hands of strangers.
Thankfully, another plague doctor soon arrived and smoothed things over. He introduced himself as Dr Reiner Davaulus, the man in charge of the operations for the entire city. When he heard my explanations, he nodded calmly and suggested a compromise: I would bring my four patients to the church of Pharasma. There, I could not only get help from the other priests, but I could also help heal other patients. I had been too caught up in trying to get my dear ones cured that I had lost sight of the big picture.
I watched the doctors and the Gray Maidens leave through the window of my living room, and then I finally remembered the woman’s voice: she had sounded a lot like Marguerite Jeggare. Could it really be her? It seemed so ludicrous, the fancy noblewoman in that heavy armor. Besides, she had given no indication that she recognized me. But it’s true that Auralia Bromathan had mentioned that she had recently joined the military. Could she have been accepted among the Gray Maidens?
Fireday, Sarenith 22nd, 4708
The Bromathan crypt
And so it was that I left my uncle’s house abandoned for several days, packing up my thing and moving to the temple of Pharasma with my servants and the children so they will, hopefully, receive proper healing. Of course, I would’ve liked the Bishop or Marixa to use their magic to help them quickly, but there are so many other people in need of healing… I know it will take a while for my patients to make it to the top of the list, if they survive that long.
I lost track of time as I tirelessly tended to the many sick people being kept on thin mattresses on the floor of the main central hall of the cathedral. It is so heart-wrenching to deal with these poor people, with their skins covered in red tumors… Strangely, their plight reminds me of some rats I saw at my family’s haunted manor on the lost coast, foul little hairless beasts that were covered in pustules not unlike these, frantically and blindly skittering in the shadows.
The morose monotony of taking care of the many patients of Blood Veil was interrupted this afternoon by the arrival of my companions at the Grand Cathedral of Pharasma. Hipazia briefly informed me that she had been contacted by our acquaintance Auralia Bromathan. The usually elegant noblewoman had come to meet Hipazia dirty, dishevelled and in a state of unrest, relating frantically that her family's mausoleum had become overrun by undead. Her father Valdur, the lord of House Bromathan, had ventured there the previous day with his brother Illrem and his nephew Temiros. Unfortunately, only Valdur had made it out alive; he had staggered, covered in bite and claw wounds, back to the temple of Sarenrae, where he had sent a messenger to warn Auralia of the demise of Illrem and Temiros; they had been slain by ghouls. Auralia hadn't been able to secure help from the overloaded city guards, and had turned toward Hipazia for assistance, having heard rumors that she and her friends were talented problem solvers, especially when a violent solution was required.
So it was that the five of us ventured toward the Bromathan family crypt in the Gray District. Inside its old walls, we indeed found some ghouls of various shapes and forms. On the ground floor's chapel, we fought the ghoulish remains of citizens old and young. It felt strangely disturbing to fight some of Korvosa's former inhabitants, but we knew that they had been afflicted with a disease even worse than Blood Veil, and now their very souls were corrupted. There was no salvation for them beyond the mercy of death that we offered them with our weapons and Hipazia's blazing spells. Kindrasius, who harbors a hatred for the undead that is even greater than my own, smashed the corpses' heads with his earthbreaker after the combat was over.
After this first fight, we went down a shadowy flight of stairs into the catacombs below the main crypt. A narrow hallway led to several doorways that provided access to side-crypts. The doors of some of them had been smashed open, the contents of the sarcophagi within having been despoiled by the undead horrors that now roamed the crypt of the unfortunate House Bromathan. Within one of these crypts, we faced two more ghouls who, alas, looked very familiar to me, Hipazia and Kaeso: they had recently been Illrem and Temiros Bromathan. Their features were now twisted into foul grimaces of hatred; their teeth and nails had already grown into wicked fangs and claws. As soon as we entered, they savagely attacked us. A difficult battle followed: they were both clad in sturdy steel chainmails made by the dwarves of Janderhoff, and these armors made them very resilient in battle. Kaeso was paralyzed by Temiros's claws. Manius entered the room to help him, suffering several wounds from both ghouls. I provided help with my longspear from the relative safety of the corridor, while Kindrasius fired arrows and Hipazia used her magic. Temiros was the first to fall, and Illrem soon followed his son in true death, collapsing to the ground with two of Kindrasius's arrows lodged in his skull.
Soon afterward, Kaeso regained consciousness. Horrified at the tragic fate of the Bromathan nobles, I whispered a prayer for their souls, knowing there was nothing more we could do for them now that we had freed them from the shackles of undeath. It felt so strange... I had spoken to Lord Illrem but a few weeks ago... I had never imagined that he would suffer such a terrible fate, so soon.
Still further down into the bowels of the crypt, we fought yet more ghouls in a room decorated with a macabre statue of a hooded skeleton wielding a scythe and a vase from which poured a stream of water. The first two ghouls who attacked us were the remains of unarmed women, and were easily dispatched, but behind them came two armor-clad warriors. I was able to kill the one dressed in an old rusty chainmail, but the other one was protected by an ancient but still fully-functional suit of plate armor decorated with the Bromathan insignia. What's more, this foul creature radiated a foul stench that almost made me throw up. I tried to fight despite the nausea, but I was unable to harm the creature. Of course, my efforts were made more difficult by the fact that Kaeso had positioned himself badly, facing the creature in a narrow tunnel that prevented Manius and me from easily helping him.
Kaeso finally withdrew, but when the creature emerged into the fountain room, it fell upon me in a storm of wicked claws. I felt them penetrate deeply into my flesh, and my limbs went numb. Some time later, I regained consciousness, and thankfully, the foul creature was already writhing on the ground, being consumed to ashes by the mighty fire of Hipazia's magic.
Once I had healed everyone, we finished our exploration of the crypt, but it seemed that we had cleared it of undead - for now, at least. Some of the resting places of the Bromathan ancestors contained valuable items that tempted some of our members, but Hipazia, Manius and I ensured that the tomb wasn't further desecrated. We returned to the temple of Sarenrae, where Auralia and her father thanked us for the help we had given them. Lord Valdur rewarded us with a large bag of gold sails, while Auralia turned the warmth of her gratitude toward the muscular Manius. I had no doubt that she would find a way to thank the Hellknight in a very "personal" way. After all, Hipazia and I knew that Auralia had the reputation of being a very "easy" girl, much to her family's discomfort. In fact, she had been absent from Korvosa for over a year until a few months ago, and it was rumored that she had been whisked away to a distant estate to give birth to an illegitimate offspring - a half-elf, it was rumored. Still, I was sure that Auralia's behavior was the least of her father's worries at the moment, given the death of his relatives and the general menace looming over Korvosa. I couldn't blame Auralia either. In these times of uncertainty, when we felt that every day might be our last, why not make the best of what time we still had?
Sunday, Sarenith 24th, 4708
Lavender
Two more days of struggle against the plague followed. Once again, even though Pharasma did not answer my prayers to grant me the ability to cure others, at least she mercifully spared me from the touch of Blood Veil. It’s quite miraculous that I haven’t contracted it yet, as I spend my days amidst its victims.
Seeing my servants and the two innocent children, Saroko and Mouse, get weaker and weaker every day breaks my heart; and that is to say nothing of the myriad of other patients, with more and more entering the temple every day.
Among my other friends, Manius and Kindrasius also finally caught the disease. Manius had the good fortune of being healed by magic: the mysterious Shadowcount Sial has been visiting the Hellknights every day, using his protective spells to keep them clean of the taint. According to Manius, the Shadowcount’s magic is quite powerful, perhaps on par with the likes of Bishop Keppira or Archbanker Darb Tuttle.
Manius informed us that he had asked Shadowcount Sial to reveal more information from his divinations. Was there something the Shadowcount had learned about Korvosa’s current predicament, or about Manius’s destiny? Unfortunately, the white-haired man only replied enigmatically: "I cannot yet reveal your true path, for if you followed it in a straight line, it would lead you to your doom. But later, we will speak of this again, and then, the time and the place may be right for me to guide you."
Kindrasius, unfortunately, is not so well-connected, and has begun to develop signs of Blood Veil, although he is hiding it behind thick Varisian scarves that mask his rashes, but not his cough.
Manius gathered the group together today to announce that Field Marshal Kroft has given him – us – a new mission. There is a cosmetics shop called Lavender in the Heights district that is selling a cure for Blood Veil. If this cure is real, then it could be what we need to save Korvosa. If it isn’t, though, then the sham needs to be revealed, so people don’t waste their time and money on a false hope that will only increase their risk of being contaminated. The Field Marshal is offering us a standard reward of a thousand gold sails for a thorough investigation about the veracity of this cure.
We headed toward Lavender, where Hipazia had shopped on a number of occasions. Along the way, Manius whispered and chuckled with Kaeso. I caught glimpses of their hushed conversation and understood that the Hellknight has visited Auralia at her residence on at least two occasions. Apparently, he has been very well rewarded for our mission at her family’s crypt.
We reached Lavender, a beautiful store in a busy section of the Heights, not far from the Acadamae. Its large display window was tainted in purple, and a large number of people waited in line in front of the store; in fact, the line spread over four blocks! It was clear that many people were seeking a cure there. While we were debating whether to wait in line like good, law-abiding citizens (which Hipazia and I suggested) or to just barge into the store with no regard for the people who had been waiting here for hours (as Kindrasius pushed for), a second-floor window opened, and the owner of Lavender, a black-haired woman in her late thirties, addressed the crowd of customers, smiling and holding a delicate vial of her elixir:
“Good citizens of Korvosa, do not worry, because you’ve come to the right place! I know you’ve all waited for a long time to purchase my product, but be certain that it is time well spent! Lavender’s Luxuriant Liniment is the everyday elixir of the common Korvosan. It wakes you up in the morning and calms you down at night. It soothes aching joints, tired feet, sore hands, and throbbing heads. It takes the pain out of cuts, burns, bruises, and blemishes. It smells like chastity, confidence, and respectability, and tastes like honeyed dewdrops over snow clouds. Most miraculously, though, Lavender’s Luxuriant Liniment dispels blisters, minimizes swelling, calms the complexion, and erases all symptoms of the common blood veil complaint. And now, it can be yours for only two gold sails per vial!”
We finally agreed to buy vials at a higher price from customers who came out of the store. For almost a hundred gold sails, we bought five vials of Lavender’s Luxuriant Liniment. We then brought them to Theumanexus College in the East Shore District to get a sample analyzed by Hipazia’s former mentor, Nicklod Starweather. The man seemed kind and competent, and he promised us an analysis by the following day. By ourselves, we had learned nothing about this substance, apart from the fact that it did not radiate magic.
Kindrasius had chosen not to try it on himself before it was tested by the wizard. A laboratory assistant asked to take one of the doses, as he was also starting to exhibit signs of Blood Veil. Even though Kindrasius initially proved very reluctant to just give it away to “some random person” and asked for the sum of fifty gold sails for that one dose, we ignored him and let the poor young man drink the content of one of the vials. After all, it would also help the experiment to test it on a plague victim.
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“The plague started because of the wererats. Some people were bitten by those foul creatures, and were the first victims of the plague. When are the Korvosan guards and the Hellknights going to get off their asses and actually get rid of those pests once and for all?!?”
“Frost giants from the Land of Linnorm Kings have invaded Varisia and destroyed Riddleport and Magnimar. They are marching on Korvosa as we speak! What are we going to do??”
“The Hellknights are immune to Blood Veil. I don’t know if it’s their magical armors that are protecting them, or some weird pact with a powerful devil, but I’ve never seen any of them fall sick. It almost makes me want to start worshipping Asmodeus too… that sounds better than catching Blood Veil!”
Sunday, Sarenith 24th, 4708 (continued)
Eries’s offer
Late in the afternoon, Kindrasius and Kaeso gathered the rest of our group for a new mission. Indeed, since we had left Theumanexus College earlier today, they had spent some time swimming in the Jeggare River, looking for the ship that had been sunk several days ago. Since many boxes had been found on the river bank, boxes which carried dead rats and silver coins contaminated with an unholy affliction, it seemed likely that the mysterious ship was linked to the arrival of Blood Veil in Korvosa.
The swim in the cool river waters had been beneficial to my friends in this oppressively hot and humid weather, but unfortunately, the waters were murky and the river was deep, so they hadn’t found any trace of the ship. They bitterly described that the Jeggare River was far deeper than they had expected, perhaps as deep as a hundred feet in some places: it seemed illogical to them that the gods could have created such a deep river. I suppose that Golarion can be a strange place...
Thankfully, a solution of sorts presented itself to them as they came out of the river. They noticed that someone had been observing them for a while, someone who turned out to be a shrivelled old woman with jaundiced eyes. She had been washing her clothes, looking at the two men as they swam in the river. They recognized her as the grandmother of Kirmo Savas, the weapon smuggler that Devargo had hired us to beat up a few weeks ago. We had in fact not beaten him up, but had been told that the shipment of dwarven weapons he had been charged to bring to House Arkona had in fact been “commandeered” by Wererats.
We now learned from this grandmother, whose name was Eries, that she and Kirmo were in fact Wererats themselves. This seemed to explain the convenient “disappearance” of these weapons. Kirmo had in fact been in league with the lycanthropes all along. Eries also knew about the skull-marked chests and suspected, just like us, that the sunken ship was linked to the appearance of Blood Veil. Unfortunately, many Korvosans believed otherwise, and blamed the Wererats for the epidemic. Because of this, several Wererats had been harmed or even murdered by humans in a misguided effort to fight the plague at its source (or to just get some revenge). Up until recently, most Wererats had been peaceful, not harming Korvosans, living below the city or among the humans unnoticed. But one of the victims of the recent attacks was a red-furred wererat named Girrigz, a firebrand who was gathering around him many of the most impressionable young males. Having barely escaped death in the form of silver arrows being shot by a Korvosan Guard, Girrigz was now planning to lead an attack in vengeance against the hateful citizens of the city above. The cost in human lives, and in Wererat lives from the inevitable retaliation, would be staggering. Eries wanted to avoid this, but the young males did not listen to her ‘old woman’s rantings’. She saw only one solution, a necessary evil: the death of Girrigz.
She offered a deal to Kaeso and Kindrasius: if our group killed Girrigz without killing any of the young Wererats around him, she would give us something magical that would allow us to explore the depths of the Jeggare River and perhaps find clues regarding the true source of Blood Veil. The two men had reluctantly accepted. Kindrasius was especially reticent, since he was, as per his usual paranoid nature, convinced that Eries had sinister hidden motives and that the entire operation was a complete waste of time. He saw the Wererats as disgusting vermin, and wasn’t convinced that eliminating them wasn’t in fact to Korvosa’s advantage. Were we to kill any of Girrigz’s followers by accident, it was clear that he wouldn’t be sad at all.
The smugglers
We ventured into the sewers around nightfall. Eries had given us directions to Girrigz’s lair and had told us to expect encountering between five and fifteen other Wererats there. Traveling in the sewers was a pretty dismal experience, especially for a noblewoman like me. If word got out among the city’s aristocracy that Hipazia and I were doing something like this, we would become the new laughing stock of Korvosa. Thankfully, there was a ledge we could walk on, so we didn’t have to set foot in the canal of dirty water. Still, the walkway was slippery and covered with suspicious stains and debris here and there. What’s more, the stench was as unpleasant as expected. In addition to offal, a variety of intriguing flotsam could be seen making its way down the sewage canal, including porcelain tea cups, discarded shoes, children’s toys, raunchy flipbooks and even a human corpse.
Definitely not the highlight of my adventuring career…
Hipazia and I used our magic to light the way in the dark tunnels, causing her staff and Manius’s flail to glow. Kindrasius also summoned an Unseen Servant to act as both a scout and a decoy, placing a cloak over it and making it carry a torch about thirty feet ahead of us.
After some time, we saw some lights further down the tunnel and we approached a stone platform upon which were placed various crates and barrels. Three men and a Halfling were standing guard there, and it seemed we had caught them in the middle of a smuggling operation. The Halfling immediately began screaming obscenities at us and rushed toward our ledge over a rickety bridge of wooden planks. The others appeared to hesitate at first, but finally joined the battle. Two of them were long-haired young men with bows, and the third was a thin old man with a belt of knives around his chest.
While Manius fought the diminutive, foul-mouthed Halfling thug at the front of the group, the rest of us exchanged missile fire with the other bandits. The walkway was only wide enough for us to walk in single file. Our enemies were tough, but we were tougher. We were grazed by a few arrows and knives, but took no serious wounds. We killed one of the archers, causing the other one to yell in rage. Apparently, we had just slain his brother.
Two more enemies arrived through a tunnel beyond the platform: one was a gray-haired half-elf dressed in slick black leather. He carried a whip. The other was a hooded half-orc with several vials of alchemist’s fire at his belt. Kindrasius cast a Grease spell on the ground, causing these two new arrivals and the remaining archer to drop down in a comical fashion.
Manius finally killed the Halfling (a tough little bugger), and as he crossed the planks toward the platform, a woman came out of the tunnel, jumped over the grease area, and attacked him with a heavy mace. The other enemies staggered back to their feet. Kaeso jumped over the sewer canal unto their platform, attacking the old knife-thrower with his rapier. The half-orc threw a container of alchemist’s fire, missing his mark and sending it into the canal, then fumbled with a second one, splashing Manius, Kaeso and some of his allies instead of his target, Hipazia.
I then moved toward the bridge and switched to my spear, finishing off the knife-thrower. Manius killed the archer and the woman with his flail; Kindrasius killed the half-orc with his deadly arrows. Meanwhile, a black-bearded man had appeared in the tunnel beyond the grease, had shot Kindrasius with two crossbow bolts, but ran away once it became clear that we had the upper hand. Kaeso chased him, nimbly navigating the greased area, while Manius and I finished off the whip-wielding half-elf.
Kaeso managed to catch up to the fleeing thug and to ‘take care of him’. We had killed them all. We inspected the surroundings and confirmed our suspicion that this had been a smuggling operation. Beyond the tunnel was the basement of a warehouse. We found a few signs on the corpses indicating that these people had most likely been members of the Cerulean Society, Korvosa’s thieves’ guild. We confiscated the most precious items amidst their loot, although such an illegal act did not sit well with Manius. He wouldn’t take any of the stolen goods, but he didn’t stop us either. He recognized the faces of two of the goons as wanted criminals and cut off their heads, planning to bring them to Maralictor Zaren for a reward.
The Wererat den
Further ahead in the sewers, we reached the Wererats’ lair. Its entrance was simply a crack in the wall, from which a vile stream of dirty water was flowing into the main canal. As we approached, Kindrasius sent his disguised Unseen Servant ahead of the group. A few moments after it went around the corner, we heard a high-pitched scream. The sound was unrelenting and almost deafening.
“Solly Slop, that’s a Shrieker!” exclaimed Kaeso.
“A what?” asked Manius.
“A Shrieker. A big giant mushroom that makes a lot of noise!”
“Well, I guess they know we’re here now. Let’s go!” said the Hellknight as he hurried toward the entrance.
We entered a dark cavern in the corners of which we saw dirty nests that likely served as sleeping places for the Wererats. The river of foul water passed through this room, coming from a second cave beyond this one, which was lit by the glow of a campfire. To our right was a dry ledge where a number of dark fungi were growing, including the annoying high-pitched Shrieker. To our left, in the main part of the cave, three feral Wererats eyed us balefully, gripping shortswords as they prepared to attack.
Our strategy was to kill Girrigz as quickly as possible, only dealing non-lethal blows to the other Wererats to respect our oath to Eries. She had given us a description of Girrigz, who was apparently the only red-furred Wererat here. None of those we could see at the moment matched that description, so Manius kept on going and entered the second cave, where he encountered five more Wererats; still no Girrigz among them. In the mean time, the rest of us engaged those of the first cave in battle. The stream made things more complicated, as its bottom was very slippery and made movement and fighting more difficult. Hipazia and I hurried to the ledge where the giant mushroom kept screaming, while Kindrasius and Kaeso moved into defensive positions to protect us.
This proved to be one of the most annoying fights I’d been in so far. I felt like smashing that infuriating mushroom, but I didn’t have time. Using my spear, I tried to help Kaeso and Kindrasius against the Wererats, but I had a very hard time trying to knock them out. Kaeso then ran after Manius, leaving an opening for a Wererat to approach me. I swung my spear around and decided, like Kindrasius had just done, to try and use lethal damage instead. I figured I could heal the creatures once they passed into unconsciousness but before they actually died. I managed to wound it, but only superficially: these creatures were very resilient against conventional weapons, just like the rumors had said! As the Wererat drew closer, it bit my forearm painfully. The wound itself wasn’t deep, but it was enough to give me worry: I had now been subjected to the taint of lycanthropy…
Since the Wererat was so close, my longspear was now useless. I let go of it and drew my secondary weapon, which I’d bought long ago for just such an occasion: a silver morningstar! The Wererat recoiled in fear when it saw that I brandished that weapon, and it reverted to a defensive stance, dodging my next attacks. At my side, Hipazia cast one of her spells, and one of the two Wererats fighting Kindrasius collapsed to the ground, its mind overcome by magical sleep.
Suddenly, a cavernous voice bellowed from behind the wall that was at my back: “ME SO HUNGRYYYY…” The sound reminded us of the Otyugh we had fought in Rolth’s lair a few weeks ago. That made us even more worried, but it seemed to scare the Wererats as well.
By then, things looked bleak: Kaeso had gotten badly wounded, as he faced many Wererats at once in the second cave. Manius was out of sight, therefore beyond my ability to heal. He had gone further into the cave complex, still looking for Girrigz. A swarm of rats had appeared through holes at the back of the first cave, skittering toward Kindrasius, and they were now climbing all over his body, biting him mercilessly. The Shoanti flailed around wildly, trying to get them off him. He retreated in the stream of filth, making it harder for the rats to get to him. Hipazia fired a Scorching Ray at the squirming mass, but missed the bulk of the rats.
I gripped the holy spiral of Pharasma that hung at my neck and desperately called upon my goddess to help us. A wave of healing energy flowed over me and my companions, healing some of our wounds. Yet it would not be enough to save Kaeso… He was so badly wounded that I feared he would soon succumb to the attacks of our enemies. It seemed that we were doomed to die in these stinking caves. But thankfully, Kaeso saved us. In a loud voice (shouting to be heard over the Shrieker’s noise), he addressed the Wererats and told them we hadn’t come to attack them; that we didn’t want to hurt them. Our purpose here was with Girrigz, and him alone. The lycanthropes watched him with hateful eyes, but miraculously, they stopped their attacks. One of them joined Kaeso’s pleading and helped to convince his brothers to cease attacking us. Although its voice was twisted by the bestial jaw of a rat, we recognized it as belonging to Kirmo Savas!
For a few moments, everything went still as our foes pondered Kaeso’s words. But then, a big red-furred rat that had entered the second cave through a tiny tunnel transformed into a rat-man hybrid. We recognized him from Eries’s description: it was Girrigz.
“What is the meaning of this?” he roared. “You enter in our abode with weapons drawn and dare to talk to us of peace! Your people have persecuted us for long enough! Now it’s time for you to die!”
But for all his fierceness, Girrigz was perhaps not that inspirational a leader. Most of the other Wererats were listening intently to Kaeso, disregarding the orders of red-furred “alpha rat”. Kaeso had intrigued them with his words of peace, and to sweeten the deal, had offered them three hundred gold sails if they stopped their attacks.
Manius then returned to the second cave where Kaeso and Girrigz were fighting verbally for the control of the Wererat packs, with Kirmo helping Kaeso. He attacked Girrigz, but had difficulty fighting in these cramped quarters. The Wererat chief was able to nimbly avoid his powerful blows, and retaliated with lightning-quick thrusts of his rapier, wounding the Hellknight in several places. To our horror, it seemed that our powerful ally was about to be bested in combat by Girrigz!
I called upon Pharasma’s healing several more times, trying to keep Manius alive, but he was being damaged by Girrigz too quickly for me to heal. I was too far from him and had to rely on this aura of healing, which I also used to heal the Wererats we had wounded, as a gesture of good faith. Meanwhile, Kindrasius desperately tried to get rid of the rat swarm, dropping two flasks of alchemist’s fire on top of it, and then finishing off the burning rats with his earthbreaker. Miraculously, the Wererats did not retaliate against him even though he was killing their “pets”.
Once the rat swarm was dispersed, Kindrasius went to help Manius with his wand of healing. Once he had helped me close the Hellknight’s most grievous wounds, he joined the fight using arrows and a potent spell, one that caught Girrigz in a fit of maniacal laughter for a short while. Meanwhile, I channelled healing energy as much as I could, trying to keep Manius alive despite the many wounds he was taking from Girrigz. At my side, Hipazia shot the wererat leader with many Magic Missiles and she enlarged Manius. Finally, Manius’s accuracy improved, and he landed a few solid hits on the wererat, finally slaying him.
What a fight! Kaeso explained to the Wererats that Girrigz would have only brought the lycanthrope community to its doom. He also paid them the 300 gold sails he had promised. We told the Wererats that we needed Girrigz’s body as proof that we had completed our mission, but in truth that was just an excuse to claim his gear for ourselves. After all, we couldn’t call ourselves adventurers if there wasn’t a hefty dose of greed within our hearts. As we left the caves, Kirmo nodded to us in a gesture of respect.
We were walking in the sewers, heading back toward the entrance. I was still worried about the bite wound I had taken. Even though my magic had sealed the wound and that my forearm now looked perfectly intact, I knew that there was a chance that the bestial taint had made its way into my blood stream, infecting me. It would turn me into one of them by the next full moon… I asked if anyone else had gotten bitten: Manius replied that he had been, but the others had only been wounded by the regular rats, or by the Wererats’ swords. Thinking back, those were very fine swords. The kind that would be forged by the dwarves of Janderhoff…
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“The wizards of the Acadamae can summon more than just devils. I saw a beautiful angel that they summoned recently to help us get rid of Blood Veil. Her name is Poss, and she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, with smooth golden hair and a great pair of legs. She healed by brother’s illness and saved his life!”
“Some people say there are some red-clad thugs lurking around Korvosa these days – apparently, they're a new gang of Varisian thieves.”
“More and more people are dying from this damned plague. I heard that one of the latest victims is Kep, that fishmonger from the market at Eodred’s Walk.”
Moonday, Sarenith 25th, 4708
Racker’s Alley
Saroko and Korwick’s state got worse during the night. They are now both unconscious, and only hanging on to life by a thread, despite my best efforts to save them from Blood Veil’s grasp. Even though I am spending as much time as I can with them, I fear it will not be enough. Heldrin and Mouse are more stable, but they still haven’t shaken off the effect of the plague. I don’t dare yet hope that they will survive it until more of their symptoms have disappeared.
Kindrasius brought an old woman to the temple this morning; her name is Beviela, the old Varisian who lived with him and the children. She is already very sick with Blood Veil, barely able to walk. I began treating her illness soon after she arrived, but will it be enough to save her? I also did what I could to treat Kindrasius’s disease, although, thank Pharasma, his symptoms have not gotten worse since the last time I saw him.
I later learned that Hipazia also caught Blood Veil, but was healed by a paladin of Abadar, a woman named Poss who came to Korvosa from the countryside when she heard that people here were in need of healing. Kindrasius commented derisively that a paladin should never charge money for healing people.
So far, only Kaeso and I have miraculously escaped the touch of Blood Veil. Apparently, Poss mentioned something about Varisians being more resistant to the illness than members of other races. This seems true in Kaeso’s case, as none of his relatives have fallen sick yet.
Kindrasius and Kaeso gathered us all later today, informing us that they had received the result of Nicklod Starweather’s analysis of Lavender’s Luxuriant Liniment. Apparently, it had gone more or less like this:
Nicklod: “My experiment showed that this product contains three basic elements.”
Kaeso: “Water?”
Nicklod: “Yes.”
Kaeso: “Sugar?”
Nicklod: “Yes…”
Kaeso: “And what else?”
Nicklod: “Cheap perfume…”
My two companions brought these results to Field Marshal Kroft, who gave orders to Sergeant Soldado to go arrest the staff of Lavender. She gave our group a reward of a thousand gold sails (which, now that I think about it, should be shared with Nicklod, which we haven’t done!) and also gave us a new mission. Apparently, some of the plague cart drivers have gotten lazy around Old Korvosa, and have started dumping bodies in a dark alleyway called Racker’s Alley instead of bringing them all the way to the Gray District. Field Marshal Kroft asked us to investigate.
We took one of the carts from Leroung Manor and dressed ourselves in dirty brown clothes over our armors to look like regular plague cart drivers. Beneath my companions’ disguises, I spotted Kaeso’s new silver rapier, and Kindrasius’s new chain shirt, both magical in nature and having previously both belonged to Girrigz.
Kindrasius led us to Racker’s Alley, as he is quite familiar with Old Korvosa, especially this area, which is near a toy store he visited with the children recently. We were not too impressed with the quality of the goods on display at the main window of that establishment, but it seemed closed today. Just between the toy store and another building was this infamous “Racker’s Alley”, from which a putrid scent wafted forth. Even though we were in the middle of a sunny afternoon, the narrow gap between the tall buildings was shrouded in shadows.
In this dismal place, we found the source of this stench: a mound of perhaps forty bodies, victims of Blood Veil. We grimaced in disgust. Manius wore his doctor’s mask and wasn’t as badly affected as the rest of us, but despite this, it was Kindrasius who volunteered for the odious task of examining the bodies and placing them in our cart. As he did so, he noticed some bite marks on the necks and wrists of several of the corpses. Those seemed like they had been done by vampires. But we wondered if vampires would really feed on the blood of the dead; we deduced that it probably took longer to congeal in this unusually warm weather, but still, it seemed strange. I took the time to describe to my companions what I know about vampires, their strengths and weaknesses. I know quite a lot in fact, as I have studied many texts about them, and have also read many stories about those fiends. One of my favorite writers, Ailson Kindler, has written a number of books about these terrifying, yet undeniably seductive creatures.
We also noticed that a hole had been torn into the wall of Giotorri’s Toys. Was this an entrance the vampires had made for themselves?
Now that they had been warned about the vampires’ ability to control the minds of the living with a mere gaze, my companions were not inclined to fight them without proper preparation. We decided to come back tomorrow, and that Hipazia and I would prepare some magical protections against such attacks.
I returned to the temple for a few hours to continue helping the sick. Bishop Keppira assured me that she would be able to help one of my patients tomorrow, but that I had to choose which one. What a terrible choice to make! But of course, I will ask for Saroko to be saved. He is still a child, and in a worse condition than Mouse. Poor Korwick deserves to be saved as well, but he is around fifty years of age, and has led, I hope, a worthwhile life, should this indeed be the end for him.
Later at night, I once again joined the rest of the group as we met the wizened old Wererat named Eries near a bridge in Old Korvosa. She was pleased with how we had handled the situation with her brethren: killing Girrigz, but not seriously harming the other Wererats. As a reward, she gave us some potions of water breathing, which will enable us to explore the depths of the Jeggare River in search of the sunken ship, and perhaps, find some clue about the origin of Blood Veil. She also gave us some potions of healing as a further sign of her gratitude.
Toilday, Sarenith 26th, 4708
The vampire’s fangs
Bishop Keppira did as she had promised this morning, curing Saroko from Blood Veil. He is still unconscious, and it will take a few days for him to recover, even in the best of cases. That is, of course, hoping that he won’t catch the disease again. For now, I have brought him back to my mansion. This will minimize the risk of contamination. What’s more, despite my best intentions, after a few days of spending nearly all my time, day and night, at the temple, I need some respite from the ordeal of being surrounded by the sick and dying. I need some time alone, in my own things and with my own thoughts. Is that too selfish of me?
The house is eerily quiet now, without Heldrin and Korwick. Only Saroko’s occasional coughing fit breaks the silence. Still, I sometimes get the sense that I am being watched. Perhaps I am losing my mind… Perhaps the horrors I have faced in recent weeks have been too much for my psyche to cope with.
And yet, what I faced later that day was far worse than anything I had yet encountered. I came very close to making my journey to the Boneyard.
We returned to Racker’s Alley. I had prepared as many warding spells as I could. We made sure to return in broad daylight, knowing this would provide a measure of protection against the night-spawn. Manius had also come prepared with a silver mace and some wooden stakes. Good man.
A cursory look around the area showed that the corpses had been disturbed since yesterday. Nobody answered our knocks at the front door of Giotorri’s Toys, so Kaeso picked the lock. Inside, things looked abandoned. After passing through the store itself, we entered the private workshop on the other side of the building. This was where the hole in the alley led. Unfortunately, we came upon the corpse of poor mister Giotorri. Kindrasius had described him as a tall, heavyset man in life, but his remains were shrivelled and bore eight puncture wounds on his neck and wrists, hinting that he had been drained of blood by the vampires. Poor old man, it was a horrible death, although he had mercifully been spared from the horrors of Blood Veil.
I spoke a prayer over the man’s body while the others examined the room. They found a trap door that led to a cramped basement with a dirt floor. Within it were four coffins. So we had found the creatures, and knew that they slept. We had a chance to kill them while they were vulnerable!
We prepared some stakes and decided to climb down into the basement to drive them into the vampires’ hearts. Unfortunately, Manius and Kindrasius, the first two to go, made a lot of noise going down, and the vampires awoke immediately, hissing fiercely as they opened the lids of their coffins.
All hell broke loose.
“Let’s go back up!” yelled Kindrasius to Manius, but it was in vain: the Hellknight continued forward and struck one of the vampires with his silver mace, badly wounding it. Hipazia and I protected ourselves from domination with our magic, and as we did so, Kindrasius and Manius climbed back up. We immediately noticed something wrong in their eyes and in their movements: they had fallen under the influence of the vampires!
While Kindrasius prepared his bow, Manius raised his mace to strike Kaeso, but Hipazia was able to cast a protective spell on the big warrior just in time to save her servant’s life! Meanwhile, three of the vampires climbed up, crawling horribly on the walls like human-shaped spiders. Their skin was deathly pale, their hair dark, and they wore tattered black clothes. They looked a lot more feral than the vampires I’d read about, and they hissed curses in Varisian. I guessed that they were in fact vampire spawns, the weaker thralls of true vampires. That was a good thing, because we probably wouldn’t have survived an encounter against four true vampires. One of them gazed at me balefully, no doubt trying to overcome my will with its own, but I was mercifully protected by Pharasma’s blessing.
Manius and Kaeso struck some of the vampires with their silver weapons, but Hipazia was shot by Kindrasius, who was still acting as our enemy. I chanted a prayer to Pharasma, radiating a wave of channel energy, but my voice shook, as did my hand that held the holy spiral, and the vampires were only slightly wounded by the effect. Manius fought as well as usual, striking the vampires in a wide cleaving arc and killing the one that was still below the opening of the trap door.
Suddenly, though, the vampire spawn that had tried to control me jumped on me from the wall, snarling in Varisian. Its fangs dug deep into my neck, temporarily paralyzing me with pain. I could feel my limbs going numb; I tried to push it back, but I was unable to summon the necessary strength.
Kaeso came to help me, stabbing the creature in the back with his rapier. Hipazia unleashed her magic against another vampire spawn, casting mighty bolts of fire that consumed the creature, which turned into a cloud of white mist, retreating to the basement.
The vampire mercilessly drank my blood. I could feel my life slipping away with each heartbeat… Then, I finally gathered my strength and was able to push it back. I raised my silver morningstar high and brought it crashing down against the creature’s skull, breaking it with one blow! The vampire spawn instantly turned into another cloud of mist, this one too retreating to its coffin below.
The last remaining vampire sensed my weakness and tried to finish me off, but I was able to summon enough energy to desperately avoid its claws. Suddenly, a dark shadow jumped on my assailant: it was Kindrasius, who had escaped the control of the vampire Hipazia had slain earlier. He was now enraged at having been manipulated by one of the undead he hated so much (and perhaps also to see that I was in such deep trouble). He lost all sense of reason and tried to pummel the vampire bare-fisted. Strangely, his hands had taken on a bluish tinge; I’d never seen that before. Despite being very loud and intimidating, Kindrasius wasn’t able to do much damage to the vampire bare-handed, but Manius finished it off with his silver mace.
We had now defeated all four vampires and had caused them to return, in gaseous form, to their coffins. Now that we were out of immediate danger, I collapsed to the ground. The others gathered around me with worried looks. I must have been as white as a sheet. I felt so very cold. I pressed a handkerchief to my neck, which was bleeding profusely. Yes… I almost died in this battle… But not today, not yet.
Kindrasius was still berserk; he had jumped down into the basement and was mutilating the vampires’ corpses. Meanwhile, I explained to the others in a hoarse voice how to truly kill the vampires. Manius went down and put a stake in the heart of each one; then he and Kaeso brought the coffins up one by one and carried them outside, where the vampires burned in the pure light of the day. Soon, all that was left from each coffin was the dark earth it had contained.
The others found some coins within the coffins, as well as minor magical items. The coins came from Ustalav, and my companions, who all understood the Varisian language, had recognized an accent from Ustalav when the creatures had spoken. It was strange… Why were those foreign creatures here?
I had no idea, but I was too weak to think straight or to make arrangements for mister Giotorri or the other corpses to be disposed of properly. Our resources were also too depleted to explore the river. It would have to wait until tomorrow. For now, Kindrasius helped me back to the cathedral of Pharasma, hoping that some of the priests there could help me regain the life energy I had lost. I shivered despite the warm weather, holding Hipazia’s cloak tight around me. She had kindly lent it to me so I could benefit from its protective magic during the night.
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“The Church of Asmodeus is serving mostly nobles and members of the Acadamae to battle Blood Veil. The priests of Abadar also spend some of their magic to heal the Korvosan Guard.”
“The Hellknights of the Order of the Nail were a force to be reckoned with when they were paid by Queen Domina to come here from Cheliax in 4682. But of course, they haven’t been very useful lately in combating Blood Veil. It seems they’ve mostly retreated within their black-stoned Citadel Vraid to hide like cowards until the doctors and the priests fix the problem! But I tell you, those Gray Maidens are perhaps even harsher than the Hellknights. I heard they killed over a hundred people who refused to respect the quarantine barricades a few days ago!”
“Apparently, a bunch of Varisians have disappeared lately. They don’t seem to have died of Blood Veil – must be something else. I would think they would have just fled Korvosa to escape the plague, but they left their families behind without saying anything, which seems strange…”
Wealday, Sarenith 27th, 4708
Death march
We walked in a barren wasteland, under a lead-gray sky. Dark birds hovered underneath the dark clouds; faceless riders atop black steeds stood watch over the column of people advancing quietly through the desolate landscape. All around me they walked, slowly, without trepidation. This was to be their final journey. Our final journey?
I could not remember how I got there.
“Is this the end for us?” I asked, turning toward the familiar figure at my side.
“I’m afraid I do not know, my lady,” replied my servant Korwick. Just like me, he was dressed in dark rags and his skin was pale, but it was now clear of the rashes caused by Blood Veil. “I was hoping, in fact, that you would be able to enlighten me about the nature of our predicament, my lady, what with you being so well-versed in the faith of the Lady of Graves.“
I stared back at Korwick in silence. I was at a loss for words. I had read The Bones Land in a Spiral so many times, yet still, I had only a vague idea of what it truly felt like to pass into the afterlife.
“So that’s it, then?” I asked Korwick. “You’ve died from Blood Veil?”
The servant nodded grimly.
“I’m sorry, Korwick, I’m so sorry… I wish I could’ve done something to help you. But I wasn’t strong enough in my faith… I guess I won’t be able to save Heldrin and Mouse either, now that I’m here.”
A small humanoid had been walking in front of us; he turned to face me when he heard these words. He looked like a white rabbit walking on its hind legs. “Nonsense!” he exclaimed. “You can’t just give up like that, Zeeva!”
I looked back at him, flabbergasted. “You know my name?”
“We all do, now,” said a centaur to my right. He carried all kinds of strange items in bags that were strapped to the horse part of his body. “Just like you know ours.”
“I do?”
“Of course, you do, Lady Foxglove!” replied a frail-looking creature with the head and long thin legs of an insect. “You’ve seen us in the cards!’
I looked from one to the other. “The Cricket… The Rabbit Prince… The Wanderer??” They nodded one after the other. “But what does this mean? What are you doing here? Are you all dead? Were you ever alive, did you actually exist?”
“Nothing, saving you, no, maybe, probably!” replied the Rabbit Prince frantically. “You can’t let a little vampire bite get to you, Zeeva, you’ve got too much to offer the world!”
“He’s right, all hope is not yet lost,” said the Wanderer. “You have to go back to the world of the living before you venture too deep into Pharasma’s domain.”
“But how??” I asked. “These watchers are leading us to be judged,” I added, eyeing the shadowy sentinels that were observing us vigilantly.
“My friend will take you back,” said the Wanderer, gesturing toward a magnificent unicorn that had been following us; I hadn’t noticed her until now.
“And the Mountain Man will help us provide a distraction for these guards,” said the Cricket, pointing at a hulking giant, whose immense frame had also somehow escaped my notice until now. The giant left the ranks of the dead and began charging the black riders to our left. Sensing an attack, the riders lifted black hunting horns to their faceless helmets and began sounding the alarm.
“There’s not much time,” said the Wanderer as the Cricket and the Rabbit Prince both produced long knives from underneath their rags, “you’ve got to go now, my lady!”
“But I can’t… I can’t disobey Pharasma’s will!”
“You worry too much!” said the Rabbit Prince. “Besides, Zellara said it was all right…”
The Unicorn was just beside me now. She was magnificent, with a pelt of such a pure shade of white that she was almost blinding. I climbed atop her and held out my hand to Korwick, but he shook his head sadly.
“Begging your pardon, I’m afraid my destiny is here, my lady. I’ll stay with these lads and help cover your escape. It’s been an honor serving your family!”
He saluted me as the dark riders began approaching the column of souls in an attack formation.
“Now ride!” shouted the Wanderer. “Ride like the wind!”
And so I did. The Unicorn was a magnificent steed, by far the fastest mount I’d ever ridden. Despite her great speed, and the fact that I was riding her bare-backed, I had no problem staying astride her. I looked back at the souls under attack, at those brave Harrow characters, and Korwick, who were covering my retreat. Was I really on my way back to the world of the living? Was I safe?
No.
I saw her, the lone rider shadowing me. She was dressed all in black, and her steed was also the color of a moonless night; but around this rider’s head floated a long mane of snow-white hair. Even though I could barely see her in the distance, I knew who she was: this was Pharasma herself, chasing me, trying to prevent me from escaping her grasp. Probably trying to catch up to me to punish me for defying the natural order of her rule!
We rode for a long time like this; I don’t know exactly for how long, but I was left with the impression of a wild chase through many sinister and peculiar landscapes, always under the night sky or a thick cover of angry clouds. Pharasma was relentless, yet the Unicorn was a magical steed: even the goddess wasn’t able to catch up with me. Not tonight… Not yet?
But unfortunately, I could not outrun the Lady of Graves forever; after some time, the Unicorn grew tired. We saw a forest of dark trees looming to our left, and seized the opportunity to try and shake off pursuit: the Unicorn headed toward the woods, galloping with the last ounces of her energy.
Once we reached the forest, we went deeper, deeper, hoping that the goddess wouldn’t be able to follow our trail. The deeper we went, the darker it got. After a time, I became aware of a noise… a cry: relentless, piercing. It was the cry of a newborn baby. Curious, we followed the sound and emerged into a clearing where a wooden cabin had been built. The crying baby seemed to be inside. Everything in the clearing was quiet, safe-looking. The only visible sign of life was a little girl sitting on the porch, drawing on pieces of paper.
We approached quietly, the sound of the Unicorn’s hooves on the grass completely muffled by the baby’s cries. As we got closer to the little girl, I set foot on the ground and called out to her. She did not raise her head from her drawings. In fact, she didn’t seem to even be aware of us.
“Hello, little girl. Are you all right? I’m Zeeva. Who’s that inside, crying? Is your mother home?”
None of those statements and questions triggered any response. Curious, I approached even closer and looked at the child’s drawings.
I was astounded… I’ve never really met a child with much talent for painting or drawing, but this little girl was amazing. Everything she had drawn looked unbelievably realistic; the pictures seemed almost ready to come to life, and even more shockingly, I recognized many of their subjects! There was Field Marshal Kroft, dirty, dishevelled, bruised, dressed all in rags; and there was Ishani Dhatri, the priest of Abadar, hanging from a monstrously large contraption that looked like a demonic torture device! I saw a dark-skinned man in the throes of a hideously painful transformation into a blue-scaled reptile… Kindrasius!? I saw a white-haired man standing triumphant, but with a gigantic and terrible black bird hovering over him, unseen, ready to strike him down. Was that… Shadowcount Sial? And then I saw myself, holding a skeleton in a delicate embrace, with bitter tears flowing down my cheeks.
The sheets fell from my hands. Who was this strange little girl? Why was she drawing all these pictures of pain?
Before I could enquire, the door of the cabin opened and a woman came out, carrying a basket filled with wet, dirty bed sheets. She wore a simple Varisian dress, with a red scarf over her brown hair. I recognized her immediately.
“Zellara!”
She turned back to look at me and gave a weary smile. “Hello, Zeeva, I’m glad you made it back here. Could you follow me to the well, please? I’ve got a lot to do. Being a midwife is no easy job.”
I followed her, pondering her last statement… Remembering those Harrow characters who had come to life, and that the Midwife had been my own card.
“Where are we?” I asked Zellara as I helped her clean the soiled sheets with some water from the well.
“Currently, you could say we are in a place which is at once beyond the edge of reality and within your very mind.”
“But are we dead? Are we both dead, I mean, did I?...”
She chuckled gently. “No, Zeeva, you’re not dead. Not yet. This is all in your head. But there is some power in dreams. You can learn as much from them as you can from what you see and hear, back there.” Somehow, I knew she meant the world of the living.
“But I disobeyed Pharasma… I fled from her realm…”
Zellara stopped washing the sheets for a moment and looked at me with very steady eyes. “Did you, now?” She seemed strangely amused.
“Well, I assumed we were… I mean…” I once again went silent and felt a shiver come over me. I turned around and saw Her at the edge of the clearing: the dark rider with the white mane of hair. She had caught up to me after all.
“As you well know, I have more than one form, my child,” said Zellara. “You, like most people, fear me as the Lady of Graves, but I am also the ones who brings new life into the world, and I am also this child sitting there on the porch, drawing mad prophecies in which mortals place entirely too much faith.”
The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning.
“Zellara, you’re… you’re Her… all this time?”
Her smile was kind and wise, like the smile of my mother all those years ago.
“Maybe I am. It would sure put things into perspective, wouldn’t it?” She shrugged. “Or perhaps this is just a silly dream. But I like you, Zeeva. Your life was almost stolen from us tonight, by one of Urgathoa’s children no less. She tried to turn you into one of hers. Well now, I won’t have any of that. So I decided to give you a hand, breathe some fresh life into you. When you’ll open your eyes, you’ll feel different inside. There will be a little more of me in your heart. Even though it was Korwick’s time to join me tonight, you’ll have to take care of Heldrin and Mouse for a while longer. But I’ll make it easier for you.”
I was stunned. I didn’t know how to respond.
“Thanks…” was all that I could muster.
Pharasma’s gift
I woke up in my bed. The events of the previous day washed over my consciousness, colliding with the recollection of that incredible dream I’d just had.
I looked around. Most of my things were scattered around the room: my weapons, my backpack, even my breastplate. I was still wearing my bloodstained clothes from the previous day. Hmm, I wasn’t usually this careless?
And then I remembered: Kindrasius! He had gently brought me back home and had taken care of me. The delicious smell of pastries came from downstairs. I understood that he had gallantly watched over me all night and had even brought breakfast. Finding an open bakery in these dire times of illness was no small feat of street wisdom.
After changing into something cleaner, I made my way downstairs and saw him in the kitchen.
“Good morning, Zeeva!” he said gently. “How are you feeling this morning?” I could sense the worry in his voice.
I reassured him and told him I felt much better: I had regained all the life force I had lost from the vampire’s bite yesterday. But I wasn’t ready to talk to him about the dream, not before I put some order in my chaotic thoughts. I knew that Kindrasius feared and distrusted Zellara; I wasn’t sure he was ready to accept the fact that she was in fact… his goddess. But of course, here I assumed that my dream was something to be believed, and not just some insane clutter of visions. Probably he would just dismiss my dream as that: a dream, with no value, weight or meaning.
Sadly, despite his concern toward my health, I could see that Kindrasius was not faring well: he shivered and sweated. I examined him for a few minutes and discovered that he had caught filth fever, probably from the many wounds he had suffered from that swarm of rats down in the sewers. Damnation! On the bright side, though, the symptoms of Blood Veil hadn’t gotten worse in him. He seemed on the verge of recovery.
Later, we made our way to the grand cathedral. I felt a sense of dread at what I would find there. Once I was inside, I immediately knew what had happened, from the empty cot to the look of loss and regret in Heldrin’s eyes: Korwick was dead. Just like I had seen in my dream. Did that lend credibility to my oneiric visions?
Marixa noticed my presence and came to comfort me. She felt guilty that she hadn’t been able to save Korwick, nor the many others who had died during the night. She was overwhelmed, as was Bishop Keppira, and all the other priests in town. I thanked her and went to pray at an altar for Korwick to have a peaceful afterlife. Then I returned to Heldrin and Mouse’s side, and remembered what I had been told in my dream. Indeed, I felt something inside me, something that hadn’t been there before: a sense of quiet power, of oneness with life and with death. I placed my hands on each of them, and they glowed with a gentle silver light. In a few instants, the signs of Blood Veil disappeared from their bodies.
“My lady!” exclaimed Heldrin in a reverent whisper, “you’re able to cure this disease now?”
“Yes,” I replied quietly, “but I fear I won’t be able to save any others, not today, not yet.”
The masquerade
I brought Mouse and Heldrin back to my mansion. They were still very weak, but they could walk. I felt they would have less risks of contracting Blood Veil in there, if they stayed indoors and away from the sick crowds; now that they were free of the disease, I wanted to make sure they stayed that way! I wasn’t able to cure Kindrasius’s disease, but his life wasn’t in danger for now, and I was able to reduce his discomfort with lesser magic.
We were planning on exploring the bottom of the river today, but weren’t scheduled to meet up with the others until after noon. That left me a few hours to visit Darius, and in fact I remembered I had missed an appointment with his family yesterday due to some vampire-related complications.
I excused myself from Kindrasius, who left my mansion for an unknown destination. Poor Kindrasius, I felt bad leaving him to go see my lover, I am sure it wounded his pride, especially after having been so chivalrous to me yesterday and this morning. But the truth was that I was very worried for Darius, and felt sorry I had missed the appointment his mother had given me. I wanted to make a good impression, after all.
The mood at Carowyn Manor was surprisingly cheerful and active. Nobody showed signs of Blood Veil: most likely, the sick servants and family members had received magical cures. Lady Olauren Carowyn didn’t seem bothered at all that I had missed my appointment yesterday; she told me that Darius was busy for now, but she invited me to try on my costume. Indeed, she had been planning a masquerade since several weeks before the plague. I’d assumed she had called it off, but apparently, she was still planning on hosting it soon. It seemed very eccentric to me, but she assured me that people needed to be cheered up even more than usual in these grim times, and that a feast would give them the energy and the morale to get over the disease. I thought of several medical reasons to disprove those words, but I stayed silent, not wishing to contradict my host, and realizing that Blood Veil was so prevalent in the city now that one more evening might not make it that much worse, in the grand scheme of things.
And so I found myself in Olauren’s parlor, chit-chatting with her while her seamstress adjusted the costume I was to wear at the ball. In the beginning, I wasn’t in the mood to do this at all; Korwick’s death still weighed heavily on my heart, and the powerful significance of my dream still made my mind reel. But Lady Carowyn is a very warm person, and her kind nature was able to dispel these dark thoughts from my mind, at least for a time. I was able to appreciate the beautiful work her servant had done on the splendid green and brown silk outfit that was half ball gown, half sea-captain’s coat. Indeed, it came complete with a wide-brimmed hat and an extravagant red-haired wig so my transformation into Keyra Palin, a legendary heroine of Korvosa, would be complete.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror and was stunned with the result: I had seen a number of statues and paintings of the military commander, and there was indeed some resemblance now that my hair was of a crimson color; but unfortunately, I was not able to replicate the self-assured smirk that Keyra was often displayed with. There was too much pain in my heart for that.
A low whistle broke my reverie. I turned to see Darius, who looked a tad more sinister than usual in his blue skeleton costume.
“So she got to you too, huh?” he said with a wink. “Well, I think you look great!”
Darius’s mother gave us a sneak peak of her costume: that of a Galtan queen with a pearl-studded gown and a huge, elaborate powdered wig. Her servant had fashioned a Qadiran princess attire for herself, very well made also. Once we were back in our regular clothes, Darius and I went to the balcony upstairs. To my surprise, there was a pair of hippogriffs tethered in the garden below. Sitting in the gazebo on the other side of the large ornamental pond, I saw Darius’s father speaking with two Sable Company officers; I thought I recognized one of them as Commandant Marcus Endrin himself.
“Yes, he’s back from the front lines,” said Darius.
“How are our troops faring against the giants?” I asked worriedly.
“Surprisingly well, but that’s mostly because the war is over.”
“What?!” I asked, not daring to hope that I had heard right.
Darius nodded knowingly. “Yes, that’s right. Endrin has been in town for a few days, yet surprisingly few people have been told. Apparently, the leader of the giants, some kind of powerful wizard, has been killed by a group of adventurers. There are still some scattered groups of giants rampaging in the countryside, but the main force of giants has abandoned the war.”
“That’s wonderful, I wonder why it hasn’t been announced yet? Do you think it’s because of Blood Veil?”
“I’m not sure,” replied Darius with a shrug. “But it almost feels like someone wants to keep us in the dark. All of us in Korvosa, I mean. Maybe someone who stands to gain from having us all scared and hopeless.”
“Not Commandant Endrin?” I asked, surprised.
“No, no,” replied Darius quickly. “Endrin’s a good guy, my father trusts him completely. I’m talking about some of the other people in charge of the city.”
He gazed at the men talking for a few moments, then turned back toward me and looked straight into my eyes: “I’ve even heard some scary rumors about the Queen herself. It seems that the botched execution of Trinia Sabor was done in very suspicious circumstances. Could our beloved queen have a secret to hide regarding the death of her husband? You see, there’s more to the upcoming masquerade than just a party, Zeeva. My parents aren’t that shallow or frivolous. It’s a cover for a secret gathering of like-minded people who’re worried about recent events and who want to make sure Korvosa stays safe. My parents have heard scary rumors of plots from high up in the city… Real cloak and dagger stuff. They decided to gather a group of trustworthy people together to see if we can actually do something about it. And we’d like you and your friends to be there. Maybe not the Hellknight, or Kindrasius, because he’s a bit… unpredictable. But perhaps Hipazia could come and hear what we have to say? There’s going to be some pretty well-connected people there, people who’ve got important news to give us… I’m sure she would be interested.”
“Oh, I guess it makes more sense now to hold this masquerade,” I replied. “Hmm, all right, I’ll mention this to Hipazia. I’m not sure Kindrasius would be interested in coming even if we asked him, anyway. He can be quite cynical.”
“Did you and your friends hear any strange rumors around town? About the nature of Blood Veil or some kind of power struggle?”
“We don’t have any serious evidence yet… But we’ve got a lead we’re about to explore…”
The Direption
I met my companions on the shore of the Jeggare River, at the edge of North Point. Kindrasius had been waiting for us there, and he seemed to be in a sour mood, perhaps because he knew I had been with Darius. He was eyeing a stray dog with bad intent; thankfully, whatever sinister thoughts he had been contemplating concerning the defenceless canine did not see the light of day once we were all together and ready for this new adventure.
My companions were relieved that I had survived the encounter with the vampire unscathed after all. Hipazia proudly announced that she had unlocked the secrets to some brand new spells, some which she had learned from the spellbook of Vreeg, Rolth’s derro apprentice. One of them was a Water Breathing spell, which would come in very handy today. We noticed how ironic it was that we didn’t need Eries’s potions after all, but we decided to sell them later for money.
I didn’t mention the masquerade to Hipazia yet, nor did I speak about my dream to anymore. The timing just didn’t seem right. Manius, however, gave us our share of the reward he had received from Field Marshal Kroft for dealing with the vampires at Racker’s Alley. The Korvosan Guard would make sure that the bodies be brought to Gray District for proper burial, and that the contents of mister Giotorri’s vault at the bank of Abadar would be used for the good of the city.
We brought most of our equipment, including weapons and armors, with us for this underwater expedition. We had left behind only the items which might obviously get damaged by water, such as Hipazia’s spellbook. With the oppressively warm weather that had been hanging over Korvosa lately, the waters of the river were blessedly cool, even if they were somewhat murky.
Exploring the bottom of the Jeggare River was a strange experience, adding to the many unusual things that were happening to me that day, from a divine revelation, to receiving a divine gift, mourning the death of a loyal servant, saving the life of a child, dressing up as one of Korvosa’s heroes, and getting invited to a secret meeting with rebellious undertones.
After about an hour of clumsily trudging at the bottom of the river, we found it: the sunken ship called the Direption. It had black sails and bore the breaches caused by several missiles from the city’s siege engines. The vessel had broken in two when it had sunk against a large rock. We first entered the smaller portion, which was the front of the ship. Inside, we found only a group of poisonous eels who viciously attacked us to defend their new home. We were able to kill them all, but at the cost of Kaeso getting badly poisoned. His life wasn’t in danger, but he was weakened. I was only able to partially restore him with what was left of my magic.
It was the first time any of us had fought underwater, and we discovered that piercing weapons like my longspear and Kaeso’s rapier were much easier to wield than Manius’s flail or Kindrasius’s earthbreaker. Another surprise in the fight was that Kindrasius’s weapon now glowed blue when he struck. It’s strange: our weird friend seems to develop new powers every now and then without having any idea of their origin.
We entered the back section of the ship through the gaping hole that a catapult stone had left. Inside the dark hold, we saw various kinds of debris floating around, including many open and broken coffers with those eerie skulls decorating them. Before we could really investigate them, though, we were attacked by a mighty jigsaw shark. Kaeso had glimpsed this scene before when Zellara had dealt us the Harrow a while ago. The shark bit Manius and Kaeso several times before we were able to slay it – I’m pretty proud to say, actually, that I was the one who killed it with some vicious strikes from my spear. This fight was also the first time that Hipazia used her new-found spells to enhance our movements with her magic: it made us a lot more dangerous in battle.
Unfortunately, despite these new powers, we came very close to all dying not long after. I had only finished healing the bite wounds on Kaeso and Manius when a door opened at the far end of the hold. A hideous thing came out from the cabin beyond it. She looked like a shrivelled old woman with brown skin. There was something truly monstrous about her; in fact, merely looking at her almost paralyzed us with fear. Kaeso and Hipazia were seriously hindered, affected by this unnatural effect. Yes, she was just that ugly.
Unfortunately, this monster that Hipazia would later identify for the rest of us as a Sea Hag was as powerful as she was ugly. Kaeso quickly wounded her with a dirty blow of his rapier, but she pierced his torso mercilessly with her spear. We watched our poor friend begin to float, unconscious in a mist of blood. I knew that he was still alive, but beyond my ability to heal, for now.
Manius, Kindrasius and I ponderously walked toward her at the bottom of the hold, but moving in the water was agonizingly slow. I called upon the blessing of Pharasma to help us. Manius was the first to reach the hag, but he had a lot of trouble fighting properly in the water, and was unable to land a telling blow for now. Kindrasius used his own magic to bolster out attacks. Hipazia tried to cast a firebolt under water, but the magic of fire failed to work in this aquatic environment, and her spell fizzled. She instead cast another Haste spell on us and fired Magic Missiles at the hag.
Our enemy dealt powerful blows to Manius. Kindrasius and I healed him as best we could, but he finally went down after striking the hag twice – not hardly enough to kill her.
Kindrasius prepared to fight the hag as Hipazia enlarged him and I protected him with a Shield of Faith and rendered his weapon magical. Unfortunately, the horrible hag, who was much more manoeuvrable than us in the water, retreated to the cabin and healed some of her wounds.
Kindrasius followed her in the cabin and Hipazia helped him with her special diviner’s touch, but alas, our Shoanti friend was also cut down like the other men. Hipazia and I slowly retreated back, but we felt that our time had finally come. The hag followed us, cackling evilly, and clawed us both. I desperately tried to reanimate Kindrasius, but it was very difficult to cast the spells and dodge the hag’s blows at the same time.
But I finally did it!
Kindrasius was healed back to consciousness, and managed to stand up without being noticed by the hag. He then raised his earthbreaker and brought it crashing down on her skull, smashing it!
Pharasma be praised – she was still watching over us, and had saved us once again.
|
|
“One of the main refuges for victims of Blood Veil is the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, in Midland. It used to be a warehouse that belonged to the Arkona family, but it seems the city acquired it recently.”
“I’ve heard that Blackjack isn’t as big as hero as some claim he is. I’ve heard that he’s actually the master of the Cerulean Society, and a hell-spawn: that would explain his longevity.”
“To lift people’s spirits in these dire times, the Carowyn family is preparing a grand masquerade for the city’s nobility – those who haven’t fled beyond Korvosa’s walls, that is.“
Wealday, Sarenith 27th, 4708 (continued)
Nursing our wounds
Manius and Kaeso had been so badly injured during the fight that my healing magic couldn’t bring them back to consciousness, though I was able to stop their bleeding and ensure that they would survive… in time. Fearing more underwater predators, we decided to leave the area as quickly as possible. We only searched the hag’s body, taking her magical spear and her magical bracers before exiting the ship, carrying the limp bodies of our friends with us. Hipazia was so weakened that she was barely able to walk along the bottom of the river, so Kindrasius and I were left with all the heavy lifting – and I was the one who had the dubious honor of carrying the mountain-sized Manius.
Somehow, we made it back to shore. Every muscle in my body throbbed with a dull pain. Yet our efforts were not yet over: we hid the two unconscious bodies in the shadows below a pier, and while Kindrasius guarded them, Hipazia and I walked all the way back to Leroung Manor to fetch a cart that would allow us to bring them back to safety in Hipazia’s residence. We finally made it all the way over there and placed Kaeso and Manius in beds after removing their armors and wet clothes. I must admit that I got the chance to learn more about my companions’ intimate anatomy today… Most interesting indeed… From a medical point of view, of course!
Once again, Hipazia kindly offered us all the hospitality of her family’s estate. It felt eerily silent and empty compared to the previous times I’d been here. All of her relatives had relocated to the countryside to avoid the plague, and only a skeleton crew of servants remained here. Of those who hadn’t gone with their masters to the vineyard where we had earlier hidden Trinia Sabor, some had fallen sick and had been sent to the various hospices of the city to receive treatment at the hands of Doctor Davaulus’s team of physicians. It seemed as though Kaeso’s family (his mother, brother and sister) now comprised fully half of the remaining servants in the manor. It seemed strangely miraculous that they, like Kaeso, had been spared from the terrors of Blood Veil, at least so far. Perhaps there was some truth to what the paladin Poss had said: were Varisians really protected from the affliction?
While I quietly dined with Hipazia and Kindrasius, I told them about the masquerade that Lady Carowyn had planned for the 29th. I also informed them of the true purpose of the event: a gathering for a group of like-minded individuals who had some strong suspicions about some recent events in Korvosa (such as the way legality had been totally ignored in the Trinia Sabor trial). Even though my invitation technically only extended to Hipazia, both of my companions seemed interested in attending. As I had feared, Kindrasius “invited himself”. Trying to remain patient and polite, I asked him to be on his best behavior for that evening. He seemed offended at what was implied in my words, as if they were somewhat unjustified. Does he truly fancy himself a paragon of tact and high-society etiquette? But I knew this would happen… Kindrasius is motivated by defiance, and by implying that he wouldn’t be able to make a good impression at the event, I only fuelled his desire to prove me wrong.
He can be very childish like that…
Oathday, Sarenith 28th, 4708
R. Davaulus
Pharasma once again answered my prayers this morning. Kaeso and Manius both recovered from their wounds from yesterday’s battle. Although Manius began displaying the symptoms of Blood Veil, I was able to make them disappear with my magic. I was also able to diminish the weakness that Hipazia and Kaeso were still feeling from the sight of the horrible hag and from the eel poison.
Despite our near-death experience, we returned to the Jeggare River that morning and made our way back to the Direption. Aquatic scavengers had already begun devouring the corpses of the hag and of the jigsaw shark. Searching the hag’s cabin, we found an intact “plague chest”. Kaeso unlocked it, and Kindrasius used his magic to open it safely from a distance. Within, as we had expected, we found fifty silver shields and a dead rat. We sensed necromantic magic coming from the chest and from the coins themselves. We decided it was wiser to leave the contaminated money there.
Next, we found a darkwood coffer and did something that was definitely not wise: we opened it underwater. Water immediately ruined all the documents that were contained within. We closed the lid as fast as we could, but the damage was done… Continuing our search of the wreck, we found another cabin. After getting past its door, which was swollen shut, we found the corpse of a man wearing black robes, a doctor’s mask and a brass unholy symbol of Urgathoa, the goddess of the undead and of pestilence. She is also the greatest enemy of Pharasma. I felt a chill go down my spine as I gazed upon her mark, the fat fly adorned with the symbol of a skull.
The man seemed to have drowned here. He was a middle-aged man with a thin beard. Judging by his state of decomposition, he had probably died here when the ship had been sunk. We decided to bring this body back with us, in the hopes that I will be able to question it by magic tomorrow.
It seemed that we had found everything of interest in the Direption, so we once again made our way slowly back to the shore, walking along the bottom of the Jeggare River. We surfaced near a pier and hid underneath for a few minutes as we examined the contents of the darkwood coffer. Only one single sheet of paper had partly survived destruction by water. The water had rendered all text illegible except for a certain passage which read:
“(…) by this deed does the B (…) Seven title R. Davaulus with ownership of the vessel known as the Direption, along with as cargo all the specimens contained therein as of this date. (…)”
Except for Kindrasius who had never met the man, we all recognized the name of “Davaulus” as that of the head doctor in charge of fighting Blood Veil itself.
“So that means that this ‘Davaulus’ guy is creating work for himself by starting a plague?” said Kindrasius. “But are we sure this is the same person? The paper doesn’t say ‘doctor Davaulus’, it says ‘R. Davaulus’. Do we know his first name?”
“Reiner Davaulus,” I offered helpfully, since none of the others seemed to remember it.
“Crap…” replied Kindrasius.
“But Dr. Davaulus wasn’t even in Korvosa when this ship was sunk,” said Hipazia. “He was brought in from Cheliax once Blood Veil started spreading. The queen arranged for him to be teleported here so he could help fight the disease.”
“Why did the queen bring a doctor all the way from Cheliax?” asked Kindrasius.
“He’s the family doctor of House Arvanxi, Queen Ileosa’s family back in Egorian,” replied Hipazia.
We still had more questions than answers, but we decided to voice our suspicions at the masquerade tomorrow. We all planned on attending it, except for Manius. He wouldn’t really fit in there, and in fact, I got the feeling that the rest of my companions were worried that he would rat us out to Field Marshal Kroft again. Or worse, to his sister Corella who was now one of the Gray Maidens.
In the mean time, we discreetly brought the corpse of the Urgathoa worshipper to Leroung Manor’s basement. For the rest of the day, I went back to the Gray District to help heal the sick. Manius was summoned to see the Field Marshal, who rewarded our group with part of the treasure the Korvosan Guard had found in the bank vault of mister Giotorri, the toy maker who had been slain by the vampires of Racker’s Alley: a pair of magical boots that increase their wearer’s speed. We decided that Manius will be the one to wear them.
I dined with Darius at Carowyn Manor tonight. There was some frantic activity as the servants prepared for tomorrow’s masquerade. We took our evening meal together in the gazebo outside, watching the Ember Lake charigs, these small salamanders who illuminated the waters of the nearby pond with their soft glow in the darkening twilight. Darius and I were both very distracted by the upcoming feast, and by the recent events my friends and I had gone through. I told him everything we’d found in the Direption’s wreck. He agreed that this was exactly the kind of information we should share with our allies tomorrow.
His friend Amin Jalento met us later that night and told us he had run into Kindrasius earlier. The Shoanti had gone to visit Vencarlo Orisini at his academy. He got the chance to fence with him, impressing the blade master’s students with his own skill with weapons – though it’s not yet as high as that of Master Orisini. Amin relayed to us how puzzled he had been when he had noticed that – at the climax of the intense fencing duel – Kindrasius’s hands had become covered in dark blue scales. I frowned, remembering that such a phenomenon had happened at the toy store a few days ago… How strange.
Later, Kindrasius had a long discussion with Vencarlo and Amin, informing them about many things we’d discovered, such as the fact that we had met Elvira Kamworth, who seemed to be the original person who Esia had been a clone of, and that the blood that Blackjack had given Vencarlo to have analyzed had belonged to a clone that had most probably been that of Trinia Sabor. In fact, Kindrasius believed that Vencarlo was Blackjack’s true identity, and that he had deceived us by pretending to be a mere proxy for Blackjack. I agree that there would be some sense to this, surely Master Orisini is skilled enough to make a convincing Blackjack, but I’d rather have some more formal proof before making up my mind for sure. Kindrasius also told them about our suspicion that Dr. Davaulus was tied to the ship that had brought Blood Veil to Korvosa. Vencarlo had seemed very intrigued by all of this, and said it surely merited some further investigation.
It will all be much clearer tomorrow, once we’ve had a chance to speak with Vencarlo, Commandant Endrin, Lady Zenobia Zenderholm, and the other friends and allies of the Carowyn family.
Fireday, Sarenith 29th, 4708
Myself in distress
This morning, Kindrasius showed no further signs of Filth Fever: he had shaken off the disease with no need for magical assistance. Thankfully, none of us showed signs of Blood Veil, either. I tried to question the corpse of the Urgathoa worshipper by magic, but alas, his strong soul resisted the influence of my spell. While Kaeso and Hipazia grumbled about the need to keep the foul-smelling cadaver in their basement for another week until I could try again, I left the estate and returned to the Cathedral of Pharasma to continue to provide healing for those in need. I spent most of my day there, only leaving late in the afternoon, a few hours before the start of the ball.
I made my way back toward my house to get ready. As usual in these times of epidemic, the streets were rather quiet. Suddenly, everything went dark about me. I knew there was some kind of foul magic at work, but I had already expended most of my spells to heal the sick. I was unable to dispel it. While I was still in shock of the sudden attack, I sensed someone approaching me in the darkness; then I was hit by powerful fists. I tried to defend myself, but I couldn’t do it properly in the darkness. My assailant only gave a few low grunts as she struck me brutally – I was able to tell that she was a woman, and that she was as strong as an ogre, but that was about it. She must’ve been able to see well in the darkness to hit me with such precision.
Unfortunately, she was stronger even than me, she had the advantage of surprise, and she was able to see while I could not. I did not last long; she knocked me out with one final solid punch…
I woke up gagged, with my hands tied up solidly behind my back, aching all over, lying in a dark cramped place. Fear and incomprehension washed over me like a bucket of icy water. Where was I? Who had attacked me? What did they want with me? Why hadn’t they killed me? Would they kill me later? And were my friends all right?
From time to time, I could hear the sounds of footsteps on a creaky wooden floor, and the voice of a man speaking quietly; but he the sounds was too faint for me to hear what he said. After a while, I stopped hearing these noises. It seemed as though my captor(s) had left the area. I struggled in vain against my bonds. I was just too solidly tied up, and was unable to use any of my magic abilities. I still wore my clothes, but they had taken my armor, my weapons, my valuables and my holy symbol.
Bastards!
I stayed in silence and darkness for an unknown period of time… perhaps an hour? It was difficult to say for sure due to my dark confinement and my state of intense dread. Eventually, though, I heard some sounds coming from outside my “container”: voices and the sounds of people walking on the creaky wooden floor. I recognized the voices: Manius, Kindrasius… My friend had somehow found where I was being held captive!
I moaned through my gag and tapped the walls of my container with my feet to catch their attention, and after a few moments, light washed over me and I beheld the blessed beauty of Kaeso and Manius’s faces! It seemed I had been kept inside a large, solid chest. The two men helped me out of it, and removed my gag and my bonds. They seemed nervous but unharmed. Hipazia was standing behind them, looking relieved that I was still alive. Looking around, I saw that we were in an old windmill; Kindrasius had gone up a ladder to the top level, and he climbed back down soon after, having found all of my equipment up there. I questioned my companions about the current circumstances, but all they told me was that they hadn’t seen my captors here and that we had to leave quickly.
I hastily gathered my equipment and followed them out of the mill. We were in the countryside outside of Korvosa. It seemed we were in the middle of the night. Soon, we reached a small copse of trees were Manius’s black steed and another horse taken from the stables of the Leroung family were waiting. There, I took the time to heal myself from the nasty bruises I had suffered. While the men kept a nervous eye on the surroundings, Hipazia finally answered my questions and told me how they had managed to find me in this secluded place.
Early in the evening, she had been getting ready for the masquerade when Kaeso’s sister Alika had come to give her a message that had been delivered at the manor’s gate. Hipazia handed me the note, and I read it:
” Good evening, courageous ones,
It would appear that Lady Zeeva Foxglove is in distress. She has been captured earlier today and is being held captive. I know for a fact that she is to be executed this very night, when the moon will be at its highest in the darkened sky. This fair lady's only hope for survival is for you to find her, and rescue her.
I can reveal more information regarding her whereabouts. Meet me at Endrin Square in the East Shore District, close to the statue of Waydon Endrin, who kept the first settlers of Korvosa safe with his sharp sword and especially with his sturdy shield.
I would advise caution, so bringing your closest allies would be well-advised. Those who have abducted Lady Foxglove are powerful indeed.
A friend”
I looked at the sky and noticed that the moon at reached its zenith: if the note had been truthful, my companions would indeed have saved me in the nick of time. But Hipazia continued her tale: fortunately, Kindrasius had yet again “invited himself” to her manor and had been present, preparing himself for the ball as well. So it was that they, and Kaeso, headed toward the East Shore District, stopping at the Black Bulwark along the way to get Manius.
Once they had reached Endrin Square, they had found it very quiet and mostly empty except for a few worried passers-by. Suspecting a ruse, Manius rode his horse all the way to my manor and to the Cathedral of Pharasma to ensure I wasn’t at either location. Unfortunately, neither Heldrin nor Marixa had seen me in the last few hours: Heldrin told Manius that I had never returned from the temple that afternoon, and Marixa had seen me leave for my house and wasn’t aware that anything unusual had happened only minutes after I’d left her company.
When Manius returned to Endrin Square, he saw that the three others had found a clue: although Kindrasius had initially derided how the “friend” had taken the time to ramble on about Waydon Endrin’s sword and shield in his letter, in fact, upon examining the statue of this beloved Korvosan hero, Kaeso had found a piece of paper wedged behind its shield. Hipazia handed me this second note:
” If you are reading this, it bodes well for Lady Foxglove's well-being that you have heeded my words. Unfortunately, the East Shore District is well-guarded and would provide a poor hiding place for the captive priestess of Pharasma. Her captors would be much more likely to be found in the shadows of Old Korvosa. More specifically, in the abandoned house with black shutters near the corner of Fiddleback Way and Lumber Street.
Remember... You have only a limited amount of time before Lady Foxglove perishes at the hands of her captors.”
Of course, by then my friends had become highly suspicious that they were being led into a trap and/or played for fools, but thankfully, they were sufficiently worried for my well-being that they decided not to waste any time and headed to Old Korvosa. Along the way, they noticed an abnormally large gathering of Gray Maidens in the northern section of North Point, but continued through to Old Korvosa, as they were in a hurry.
They found the house with the black shutters, and after carefully entering it, they found a third note on a table:
” You have done well. I am sorry to say that yet again, Lady Foxglove is not held here. Worried that magic could be used to divine her location, her captors have brought her outside of Korvosa's walls. I can understand the frustration you must feel when reading these words, but I swear by Abadar that if you follow these last instructions, you will find her, unless you wait too long, of course.
Following the road leading north from Trail's End, after about seven miles you will see an abandoned mill near a lake surrounded by weeping willows. Proceed cautiously once you reach that area. Lady Foxglove is being held prisoner within the mill.
I pray that you arrive in time to save her. ”
Even though they were raging in frustration, my friends still followed this letter, which finally led them to the mill where I was indeed held captive. They had found nobody guarding me, but had noticed the tracks of two human-sized beings having been there recently. Strangely, my captors had left me unguarded, with the key to my chest in plain sight and my equipment, down to the smallest copper pinch, for us to reclaim.
Now, my friends had wanted to escape the mill as fast as possible, as they feared that something terrible might happen when the moon reached its highest point in the sky. And yet, nothing had happened. It seemed that the goal of this bizarre kidnapping / treasure-hunt had in fact been to keep us from attending the ball at Carowyn Manor… but why?
Deyanira’s escape
Since there seemed to be nothing left to do at the windmill, we decided to return to Korvosa. We only had two horses for the five of us, so Hipazia and I had to ride in front of Manius. Thankfully, his black steed is a strong warhorse and was able to carry our weight without protesting… too much.
It was the middle of the night by the time we returned to Korvosa. We were surprised to hear the sounds of frantic activity, as if some buildings were being destroyed or perhaps a new wave of riots was starting. We saw many torches and lanterns lighting the shores of North Point and Old Korvosa: it was clear that something was going on. Something big.
It became clearer once we entered the city: we were astounded to realize that the bridges leading from the main land to Old Korvosa were all being destroyed, except the main stone bridge, where a huge force of Gray Maidens were standing watch. A crowd of appalled and frightened citizens had gathered in the streets despite the late hour, watching with bewildered expressions as the Gray Maidens directed groups of workers, sappers and wizards to destroy the bridges. Of course, none among us was more outraged at this than Kindrasius: his house was one the other side of those bridges! Sadly, the reason for this destruction soon became clear: Old Korvosa was being quarantined. Kindrasius questioned the Gray Maidens about this, but he was coldly rebuffed and told to move along. There were too many Gray Maidens for us (even foolhardy Kindrasius) to try anything “funny”, and besides, we were all eager to go to Carowyn Manor in the hopes that the secret gathering wasn’t yet over. So we regretfully turned our backs on the Gray Maidens’ dirty work and headed south.
As we rode through the dark streets, we shared our worries about the Gray Maidens: they seemed very aloof and rigid in their application of the law, certainly much more than the Korvosan Guards and the Sable Company, and (something we said with apologies to Manius) they seemed in a way even harsher than the Hellknights themselves. Manius grudgingly agreed, informing us that his requests to talk to his sister had been sternly rejected. In fact, he had not had any contact with Corella since she had joined the Gray Maidens.
Alas, when we reached Carowyn Manor, we realized that our night’s troubles were far from over. The estate was dark and very quiet. Even at this late hour, I would’ve had expected the festivities to still be underway, albeit winding down. The cold fist of fear clutched my heart yet again. Something had gone terribly wrong here in our absence…
As we approached, we noticed a lone figure kneeling in the street not far from the manor. It was a young, beautiful Varisian woman who was crying. As it turned out, both Kaeso and Kindrasius recognized her: her name was Deyanira Mirukova, and she was not only Kaeso’s cousin, but also a “performer” at the dubious establishment called Exemplary Execrables, where Kindrasius also worked. When she saw the two men, she immediately begged them to help, saying through ragged sobs that her brother was in terrible danger.
My companions calmed her down and asked her to tell us what had happened. Though she was still crying, she was able to compose herself somewhat and give us a coherent story of what had happened: she and her brother Ruan had been invited to perform as a singer and ocarina player, respectively, at tonight’s masquerade at Carowyn Manor. Everything had started well, with a showing of many finely-dressed nobles and important people in elegant costumes. A few hours past nightfall, after the dinner and her performance, Deyanira had retired to the garden to enjoy the fresh evening breeze with a few other revellers, among which was Commandant Marcus Endrin.
It was at that time that the screams had started. They came first from within, and it was immediately clear that something was very wrong. Then they had appeared: horrible demons with the bodies of men but the heads of insects. Their skin was completely red and they fought with a serrated longsword in each hand. Although Deyanira had miraculously escaped death or even injury, most of the other guests in the garden had been slain in a matter of seconds. Only Commandant Endrin had been able to effectively fight off these assailants, surviving their assaults and gallantly protecting Deyanira as well. After some time, he had taken several wounds and was beginning to falter, but two of the demons lay dead on the ground, slain by his blade. Just as it seemed that the remaining demons were about to get the best of him, several daggers had whistled from the darkness and had embedded themselves in the bodies of some of the enemies, killing or maiming them. From the shadows had then emerged a legendary figure: Blackjack!
Together, Commandant Endrin and Blackjack had been able to defeat the remaining insect-headed demons. By then, Endrin was bleeding profusely and was in no shape to fight anymore. Blackjack had only suffered minor wounds, but he grimly claimed that he knew there were too many enemies inside, and that they had to retreat for now. With Deyanira’s help, Blackjack carried the limping Commandant of the Sable Company over the garden wall and away from the besieged manor. They then made their way to the nearest temple: the Pantheon of Many, where several gods were worshipped. By then, Commandant Endrin was delirious and barely conscious. A young acolyte of Cayden Cailean received them, his eyes wide with shock when he realized whom he was giving help to. As he prepared to heal Commandant Endrin, they realized that his wounds were beginning to grow infected with Blood Veil, as if the demons’ weapons had been carrying the disease. Fortunately, Blackjack hadn’t contracted that illness and was still strong enough to fight: he asked Deyanira to watch over Commandant Endrin and left into the night, perhaps to try and help the other people at the manor.
Deyanira had waited in the temple for perhaps an hour or two. Unfortunately, the young acolyte wasn’t able to do much more than to stabilize Commandant Endrin’s worst wounds. After some time, a patrol of Gray Maidens had entered the church, accompanied by a few doctors wearing plague masks. In cold voices, they had given orders that Commandant Endrin was to be brought to the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden. Knowing that some Varisians had been brutalized by the Gray Maidens in recent days, Deyanira had hidden when she had heard the patrol approach. Feeling terribly helpless, the young woman and the frightened acolyte of Cayden had watched as the wounded Commandant was taken away.
Terrified, confused and horribly worried about her brother Ruan, who had been inside the manor itself during the attack, Deyanira had walked back toward the site of the attack, but hadn’t been able to find the courage to go inside, fearing that she would be slain by the red demons after escaping them the first time. We arrived at that point.
Of course, as the woman was speaking, I had to struggle to keep my fear under control: did that mean that my dear Darius had been killed???
Once we’d heard Deyanira’s story, Hipazia explained that she didn’t think the assailants had been demons: the description matched that of the Red Mantis, a guild of deadly assassins. We then wondered if our “friend”, the one who had guided my companions to find where I was being held captive tonight, had in fact orchestrated the kidnapping himself to purposefully keep us away from Carowyn Manor, knowing that this attack would take place? But if so, why? Was it to prevent us from defending the manor, or to save us from the Red Mantis?
According to Hipazia, the Red Mantis were quite skilled, and even though we were capable combatants, we probably wouldn’t stand a chance against a large number of these assassins.
I was worried about Commandant Endrin’s fate. Hipazia told me that the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden was the main place where Blood Veil was treated in the city, and that in fact, it was where Dr. Davaulus himself worked. The building was located in Midland and had once been a warehouse belonging to the Arkona family, but had been bought by the city a few months ago.
But unfortunately, Commandant Endrin would have to wait. We had to go into the manor first to see if there were any survivors… And if not, to try to avenge them. We knew we might be going to our deaths as we approached the dark manor, but at that point, we all had so much accumulated hatred that we needed to make someone pay for the atrocities that had been committed tonight.
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“They’ve quarantined all of Old Korvosa! The Gray Maidens destroyed all of the bridges during the night, except the main one that they keep under heavy guard. I feel bad for those poor fronters stuck there to die, but if it keeps the rest of us safe from Blood Veil, well I guess it’s a necessary sacrifice.”
“That strange Bone Tower is gone from the Heights. Maybe the Gray Maidens found a way to get rid of it. I say good riddance! That tower gave me the creeps…”
“I heard that the members of House Ornelos all stayed in Korvosa despite the plague, instead of leaving like so many of those other cowardly nobles. You know, there are some who say that now would be the perfect time for them to make a move to increase their status even more. They’re the most powerful of the noble houses, after all, except perhaps for the Jeggare family. Hey – I wonder if they might even have their eyes on the Crimson Throne??”
Mistress of puppets
Just as we were getting ready to enter the manor, we noticed a heavily-armored figure approaching down the street. This large blond man turned out to be one of Manius’s fellow Hellknight armigers. His name was Selgrim Vissik and he had been patrolling the streets during the night, running into us by chance. Manius seemed to trust him and told him what we knew about the assault on Carowyn Manor. Selgrim offered to join us in securing the place.
The main doors of the mansion opened to reveal of carnage scene right out of my worst nightmares: the floor was slick with blood, and a large number of costumed corpses were heaped in the corners of the entrance hall. In apparent contrast with the slaughtered people around them, three couples danced clumsily at the center of the room. It was clear that there was something very wrong about them: they all bore gaping, bloody wounds, so we knew instantly that they were in fact cadavers reanimated through necromancy.
Manius and Kaeso were the first to enter, and the zombies turned to attack them. A brutal combat began. It seemed like sheer madness to be fighting these people who, only a few hours ago, had been innocent guests at the Carowyns’ ball. They could have been our allies if things hadn’t spiralled down into such a nightmare. But now, we had no other recourse than to bring them a second death in the same night. While the two men fought the dancers, Selgrim moved ahead into the living room. He wore a sturdy breastplate and wielded a warhammer and a heavy black shield. In the living room, he faced a couple of undead guests with matching masks of a lion and a lioness, who were “attended” by a servant bearing a silver platter. I recognized this servant as one of the Carowyns’ staff, although I couldn’t remember his name at the moment. I also recognized various people here and there despite their masks. Many of these people were acquaintances of mine (and Hipazia), which made this all even more difficult.
I called upon the power of Pharasma and a nimbus of silver light radiated out from my spiral symbol, searing the flesh of the zombies, causing the two nearest ones to collapse. Behind me, Hipazia and Kindrasius helped with missile fire.
Suddenly, a loud scream erupted in the entrance hall, and a crossbow bolt penetrated deep into Manius’s shoulder. It took us a few moments to understand that it was this enchanted bolt itself that had emitted this unnerving sound. Kaeso spotted someone upstairs and immediately ran after her, with Hipazia following him closely. Meanwhile, the rest of us fought the remaining zombies downstairs. Kindrasius entered the living room, wielding a handaxe, a slashing weapon that would be more effective than his arrows. He was assaulted by the “lioness”, fought her back desperately, but I was able to slay this undead before Kindrasius got too badly hurt.
He and Manius then climbed the stairs to confront the person who had shot the screaming bolt while Selgrim and I finished the servant and the man with the lion mask. We were able to slay them. Selgrim then went up, but I remained downstairs, desperately going over the corpses to try and locate anyone that I knew. I did not see Darius or his parents, but alas, I recognized the body of Lady Zenobia Zenderholm: she had been pierced many times, as if she had defended her life well before being slain. My mind reeled at the enormity of seeing the matriarch of one of the major houses of Korvosa lying so brutally slain at my feet. Thankfully, she had not been turned into an undead, so it was still possible for her life to be restored. I felt confident that a family as wealthy as hers would be able to afford a resurrection. But I wondered if anyone else would be. Most people here were wealthy, but the material cost alone of bringing someone back to life is at least five thousand gold sails…
I heard that the sounds of battle upstairs were moving toward the entrance, and I went out the doors only to see that Hipazia, Kaeso and Manius had dropped down from the balcony. The two men appeared to be trying to wrestle and maim the thin air, but Hipazia directed them verbally toward an invisible opponent that only she could see. Manius’s flail finally struck something unseen, and we heard a feminine cry of pain followed by the soft sound of someone falling to the ground. My companions hurried to secure the woman in manacles, while Kindrasius, who had also joined us, stabilized her with his healing wand. Although our enemy was still invisible, Hipazia described her as a tall elven woman with long black hair, dressed in black leather. This seemed to match the description of Jolistina, Rolth’s ally. Whoever she was, she had a lot to answer for. She had told Kaeso that “he would join her children”, so we guessed that she was the one responsible for animating these poor people into a mockery of life. This twisted woman had turned Carowyn Manor into her life-sized nightmarish doll house.
Vision of death
I healed my friends’ wounds as we headed back inside with our invisible prisoner. Selgrim came downstairs, informing us that he had finished off the last zombies from the gallery up there. Now that we were out of immediate danger, the horror of our surroundings finally had time to settle in. I wasn’t the only one to recognize familiar faces among the dead. I showed Lady Zenderholm’s corpse to the others, and they shared my outrage. Examining the corpses, we noted that they had all been killed by serrated blades. Hipazia confirmed that such were the weapons of predilection of Red Mantis assassins. But to make things even worse, the corpses all showed signs of Blood Veil: it was as if they had all contracted it just after being wounded… as if the assassins’ weapons had afflicted them with the disease. We remembered that Deyanira had told us that Commandant Endrin had shown similar symptoms.
While Kaeso stood watch over the elven woman in the main hall, the rest of us explored the other areas of the house carefully. Some rooms were empty, but displayed stains of blood, and of bodies being dragged into the main hall. In others, we found more unfortunates who had been animated as zombies; servants and guests alike.
It was in the music room that I saw what I had been desperately hoping not to see… Sitting in front of a zombie-musician dressed like an angel were four spectators… Corpses who had been placed there by the elven woman… All worse costumes, but I immediately recognized the one in the blue skeleton outfit… It was Darius.
I howled in anguish while the two Hellknights fought the angel-zombie. I rushed to inspect Darius’s body, but it was too late. He was dead. He had been stabbed in the back by one of those foul assassins! I fell to my knees, holding Darius’s body against mine, sobbing uncontrollably. Kindrasius comforted me as best he could, reassuring me that at least he hadn’t been turned into an undead, but I was in too deep a state of shock to be able to focus on his kind words with any sort of clarity.
As I knelt there, I remembered vividly my dream… the little girl on the balcony… one of the pictures she had drawn had been of this very scene…
My companions respectfully gave me a few minutes to shed my tears over Darius, and then they helped me bring him back into the main hall. By now, the black-clad elven woman had reappeared. It took every ounce of my willpower to refrain myself from striking her, from stabbing her repeatedly, to make her feel but a fraction of the pain she had inflicted on these poor innocents, on those good people, on my beloved Darius! But I knew we could not afford to kill her… not yet. She surely had valuable information that would help us understand exactly what had happened here tonight…
We cleared the rest of the ground floor. After fighting two reanimated cooks in the kitchen, we found in the dining room a number of corpses gathered around a table heaped with food. Jolistina had placed them as if they were enjoying a feast. Only four of the corpses were zombies, but to our horror, we recognized that one of them was a burly half-orc wearing a symbol of Sarenrae: Riktos Sunblade! Kindrasius shot two arrows at him, giving him a much cleaner death than his first one. Indeed, just like Lady Zenderholm, Riktos’s corpse had been riddled with wounds: clearly, he had given the Red Mantis a tough fight before going down.
Exploring the garden only showed us blood stains on the grass. The corpses seemed to all have been moved inside. The servants’ building was similarly empty of corpses or enemies. Returning inside, we moved to the second floor where I beheld more corpses in the art gallery. So much blood… Darius’s room was mercilessly free of blood and corpses, but alas, in the master bedroom we finally found his mother and her maid. Both were wearing their elaborate costumes of Galtan queen and Qadiran princess, and both had been turned into zombies. I had to avert my eyes as the two Hellknights put them to death… I could not bear such atrocity.
Luck finally smiled upon us in the manor’s cellar, in a way. We found our only survivor: Darius’s father. He had managed to hide in a small room next to the wine cellar, a room where he had loved to paint over the years. His skin was white as a sheet, and he held a dull knife in a trembling hand. I was able to calm him down, and he recovered his wits when he recognized me. Sadly, we had to inform him of the death of his wife and son. We tried to do so as gently as we could, but there was really no good way to put it. We were soon both crying over the terrible events of this accursed night.
We learned that Lord Carowyn had been fetching some wine bottles when the Red Mantis had struck. Understanding that he would have no hope to survive, to escape or to make a difference in the fight if his presence was known, he had chosen to hide. He had heard the butchery above, and afterward, silence, broken only here and there by the laughter of an insane woman.
We returned upstairs, and I led Lord Carowyn to Darius’s room, where we would keep him for now. We didn’t let him see his wife’s corpse, and we brought Darius up, but covered his body with a blanket after his father had a look at him. I didn’t want to cause poor Lord Carowyn more anguish than he had already suffered tonight. But even though there weren’t any enemies left in the house, we knew our work wasn’t over.
Deyanira joined us inside the house, her eyes going wide at the horrible sight of the carnage. We told her that we hadn’t found Ruan’s corpse, which meant that perhaps he had escaped. That was one of the few good pieces of news of the night. In normal circumstances, she suspected he would have made his way home and would be waiting for her there, but since they lived in Old Korvosa, getting there would be much more difficult since the Gray Maidens had destroyed all the bridges. Unfortunately, for now, Deyanira had no idea where to find her brother.
Hostile doctors
A discussion ensued with the rest of my companions. We were all exhausted, but we knew we still had many things to do: we had to interrogate the elven woman; the corpses needed seeing to; we had to warn the authorities; and we had to ensure that Commandant Endrin was safe, and if not, we had to help him. We decided that Kaeso and Deyanira would go to the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden to check on the Commandant, while Hipazia would go to the Bank of Abadar to get help from the clerics there: Lady Zenderholm was a high-ranking member of that church in addition to her position of judge and noble matriarch. Surely her fellow clerics would come to her aid and put things in motion to get her brought back to life.
After our companions left, the two Hellknights stood watch on the balconies while Kindrasius cleaned the entrance hall downstairs using both magical and mundane means. He also kept an eye on the unconscious elf. I tried to comfort Darius’ father as best as I could, still in Darius’s room with him. Of course, this was no easy feat given my current emotional state. But feeling that I had a responsibility to keep him together somehow allowed me to focus on something beside my own grief. I knew I could not afford to bear the full weight of Darius’s death, not yet.
Poor Lord Carowyn dealt not only with the grief of the deaths of his wife and son, but also of many close friends and allies. What’s more, he blamed himself for allowing this to happen: they and their guests had taken great risks with this event, and now, they were all dead because of him and his wife. He couldn’t believe things had degenerated into such a nightmare. Who could have believed that the Red Mantis were present in Korvosa, and that they would get involved in a slaughter of this magnitude? I questioned him regarding those he had invited: did he trust every one of them? Who could have leaked the information to this guild of assassins?
Lord Carowyn agreed that there had likely been a traitor among those he had chosen to trust. He told me that a few guests had not showed up to the event in addition to me and my companions. The most noticeable of these was Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis. We both shuddered to think of the implications if the Queen’s right-hand man himself was capable of such betrayal and mass murder. But Lord Carowyn found it impossible to imagine the Seneschal being behind the massacre. He was Commandant Endrin’s closest friend, and Lord Carowyn fully trusted Commandant Endrin.
After some time, Hipazia returned with Archbanker Darb Tuttle himself and a group of templars, including the golden-haired paladin simply called “Poss”, whom I had heard about via Hipazia and Kaeso. The mild-mannered Ishani Dhatri was also present. The newcomers reacted with revulsion to the horror they saw when they entered (even though Kindrasius had partly cleaned it up since our arrival). Archbanker Darb Tuttle remained the most stoic of them all, but we could see that he was also deeply disturbed by what he saw. He knelt by Lady Zenderholm’s body and examined her as he gently held her hand. No emotions were visible on his face, except for his jaw muscles that were clenching with anger. In a grave voice, he stated that Lady Zenderholm would be tended to, and would be returned to the world of the living. He also said that the Korvosan Guard had been notified and were on their way to help to “clean up this mess”. Kindrasius asked him about the destruction of the bridges, and the high priest was forced to admit that he was in the dark about these recent events. All he knew was that those orders had come from Castle Korvosa itself.
The Archbanker thanked us all for our good work (especially Hipazia, due to her higher standing and her family’s close ties with the church of Abadar) before he and his retinue left, taking Lady Zenderholm’s remains with them.
A few minutes later, Kaeso and Deyanira returned as well; both seemed very agitated. We learned that they had gone to the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, but that they had been refused entry. Deyanira had distracted the burly nurse at the entrance, allowing Kaeso to enter in stealth; our friend had seen a large number of sick people lying in beds in the former warehouse. He had seen four doctors and four Gray Maidens watching over them. He had been hailed by the doctors, who had seemed interested by his Varisian heritage. They had seemingly believed him when he said he was a subordinate of Commandant Endrin, and that he wanted to see him. The doctors had brought Kaeso up some stairs, but had attacked him by surprise. Due to his phenomenal reflexes and agility, our roguish friend had somehow managed to elude the doctors and the Gray Maidens. He had rushed back to the entrance room and had fled with Deyanira. Thankfully, the two resourceful Varisians had been able to escape pursuit in the darkened streets of Midland.
Of course, we could hardly believe our ears. These doctors and Gray Maidens, official agents of the Queen, had attacked Kaeso in a hospice! Something was clearly very, very rotten in Korvosa…
Deyanira went upstairs to watch over Lord Carowyn while I remained downstairs and discussed our next move with the rest of my companions. Selgrim was also still standing watch at the front balcony; even though Manius trusted him, the rest of the group did not.
It was clear that there was something dirty going on at the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden: the staff had attacked Kaeso. Commandant Endrin had been brought there soon after the attack. Dr. Davaulus, who was under our suspicion, had his office there. And the place had until recently been a warehouse belonging to Korvosa’s shadiest noble family.
Kindrasius and Kaeso contemplated investigating the hospice in stealth. Unfortunately, we were all very tired. Through the windows, we could see the sun starting to rise. Hipazia and I had spent a good portion of our magic already, and I felt exhausted, not having yet fully recovered from the ordeal of having being kidnapped earlier tonight. So much had happened in just one night!
Yet, we were wary that going back to our usual residences might make us targets of the Red Mantis. Kindrasius’s house was now out of reach, thanks to the Gray Maidens. We suspected that we would not be offered shelter at the Black Bulwark: so we had to find a new lair for now, somewhere secret and safe. We went over various locations we’d visited in recent months during our missions for the Korvosan Guard, but most of them were decrepit at best, downright foul at worst. The best candidate seemed to be Lavender, the perfume store that Field Marshal Kroft had ordered closed down thanks to our investigation a few days ago. We hoped it was now vacant and would allow us to rest in secrecy.
But I was worried about Heldrin, Mouse and Saroko: if the Red Mantis really knew about us, it seemed quite likely that they would put our loved ones in danger…
Starday, Sarenith 30th, 4708
Moving on from the manor
A large patrol of Korvosan Guards led by Sergeant Grau Soldado then came to Carowyn Manor. Like everyone else, they were horrified by the massacre that had taken place there, but they grimly set to work gathering the bodies and securing the place while Grau listened to our report about the night’s events. He nodded grimly and seemed to agree with our conclusions so far. Grau seemed to be more concerned with the safety of Korvosa’s citizens and with justice than with obeying the law to the letter, so he didn’t give us any trouble when we said we wanted to keep Jolistina to interrogate her ourselves. Actually, we weren’t totally sure that the black-haired elf was truly Jolistina, but we strongly suspected it was her.
We began making preparations to leave the manor and go in hiding at Lavender. Deyanira told us that she would go out and look for her brother Ruan. Selgrim would remain with the Korvosan Guards and help them gather the bodies and bring them to the Gray District. He would also make a report about the night’s events to Maralictor Zaren.
Sadly, I noticed that both Manius and Lord Carowyn were starting to show signs of Blood Veil – and exhausted as I was, I didn’t have the power to cure them by magic. Hipazia offered Lord Carowyn to take refuge at her family’s estate outside of town, but he politely refused. With a grim look in his eyes, he said that he preferred staying in Korvosa with the remains of his wife and son until they could be taken care of. He meant to see things through until the end, even if it caused his own death. He wanted to do what little he could to unmask those who had killed his family and his friends, and bring them to justice (either the justice of the law, or the kind of vigilante justice that our group specialized in).
A lot of the most altruistic aristocrats of Korvosa died tonight. The Red Mantis killed many of the brightest and the best our city had to offer. The highest-ranking of those had, of course, been Lady Zenderholm. Discussing with my companions, we went through the chain of command in Korvosa. At the top was Queen Ileosa, with Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis being the second most powerful person in the city. Below them were the heads of the five major noble families: Lord Glorio Arkona, Lord Kerredo Jeggare, Lady Eliasia Leroung (Hipazia’s aunt), Lord Toff Ornelos and Lady Zenobia Zenderholm (who we were hoping would be soon resurrected by her church). The most powerful of these was, of course, Toff Ornelos, since he was also the headmaster of the Acadamae and a wizard of considerable power. In fact, he was quite possibly the most powerful person in Korvosa – by his magical abilities alone.
Then came the leaders of the military orders: Field Marshal Cressida Kroft of the Korvosan Guard, Commandant Marcus Endrin of the Sable Company, Lictor Severs DiVri of the Hellknights and Sabina Merrin, the leader of the new order of the Gray Maidens. The most powerful and richest priest was of course Archbanker Darb Tuttle; Bishop Keppira D’Bear and Archbishop Ornher Reebs of the cult of Asmodeus were also quite powerful, but not as influential.
We wondered how the Seneschal fit into all of this. He seemed to be trusted by Lord Carowyn, but had never showed up at the ball. Had he been the victim of an attack or an accident? I also noticed that Amin Jalento and Vencarlo Orisini’s bodies had, thankfully, not been among the victims at the ball. Yet I knew they had both been invited. Had they been able to escape, just like we hoped Ruan had?
We wondered who had hired the Red Mantis. They weren’t originally from Korvosa, so who had made them come here? Who had been their mark(s)? Had we been among them? If so, were they still mandated to kill us? Or had they been after a specific person at the party, and had everyone else been collateral damage? Even though we didn’t have the answers to these questions, it seemed safer to lay low for now, and hope Lady Zenderholm would do the same once she was brought back to life.
I also wondered if Darius would be brought back from the dead. Such things are never guaranteed. Not only is such a ritual extremely expensive, but the gods only rarely allow mortals to come back to life. Since they must expend a portion of their divine energy to place a new spark of life in the fallen mortal’s body, gods only do this when they expect the mortal’s destiny to truly be worthy of such a sacrifice. To make things worse, Pharasma is the goddess of death, so she is in most cases especially reluctant to return those who have already passed into her domain.
Besides, I didn’t know anyone who had been brought back from the dead. Would Darius still be the same if he came back? Or would he forever be tainted from his experience with the afterlife? Would he only live a half-life from that point on, almost yearning to go back to the beyond?
While I was lost in these existential reveries, Manius and Kaeso went to get a cart at Leroung Manor (so we could move Jolistina more discreetly) and Hipazia went to buy a scroll of Rope Trick (so we could torture Jolistina more discreetly). While we waited at the manor, Kindrasius comforted me. It was kind of him, but my sadness was too deep to be dispelled by mere words. Still, I confided in him that I’d had a prophetic dream in which I’d seen a picture of myself holding a blue skeleton, and crying at his death. This had represented Darius in his blue skeleton costume. I told Kindrasius about the other pictures I’d seen, such as the one of him turning into a blue-scaled monster. We both knew that it was related to those blue scales we’d seen on his hands when he started to lose control of his emotions.
I also told him that I had seen the three aspects of Pharasma: death – as the dark-skinned iconic image of Pharasma herself; prophecy, as the quiet child who drew these pictures; and life, as Zellara the midwife. Kindrasius was surprised, having expected that Zellara would be the aspect of prophecy, but as a pragmatic man, he wasn’t sure what to think of my esoteric visions, and I got the impression that his opinion of Zellara hadn’t changed.
The others finally returned, so we loaded Jolistina’s body in the cart, and said good-bye to Lord Carowyn, Selgrim and Grau. On the way to Lavender, we stopped briefly at my house so I could reassure Heldrin and the children that I was still alive: after all, they hadn’t heard from me since last night when Manius told them I’d been kidnapped!
Torture and silence
As we had hoped, we found Lavender to be abandoned and a propitious hiding place for us. It had been previous looted, but we didn’t care about its contents. The shop on the ground floor was a mess, most of the products on its shelves having been stolen by now, but the office on the second floor would make decent temporary quarters for us. We were all extremely tired, but before we could rest, we wanted to get information from Jolistina. Manius and Kaeso brought the cart and the two horses to Leroung Manor while Hipazia learned the Rope Trick spell and transcribed it in her spellbook.
She cast the spell, and the three men brought Jolistina with them in the extra-dimensional space to torture her. I noted that Kindrasius seemed especially eager and joyful at the idea of torture. Although I was nearly overwhelmed by my hatred for this foul woman, torture is just simply not something that comes as naturally to me as it does to him. I stood watch outside the magical hole while the three men did their dirty deed within; during that time, Hipazia wrote a coded message to inform her family of recent events. She would arrange for a messenger to deliver it to them.
After a few hours, the men came out of the hole. They looked surprisingly clean, but that only meant that Kindrasius had used his magic to wash away the gore that had covered them. Judging by what was left of Jolistina, they had been most thorough and brutal in their interrogation. She was missing several body parts and was at the brink of death. She was barely recognizable, so bruised was her face. Despite this, the men had to ruefully admit that the elf had not revealed anything: she seemed to be a masochist with a death wish, so the torture hadn’t had any effect, despite its thoroughness. They asked Hipazia to use her magic to try and charm her.
Hipazia spent some time alone in the hole with Jolistina, but she also came back with no results: her spell had failed. The men then decided that we had to try our last option; they went in the hole and killed Jolistina. It was a task done by Kindrasius in the slowest, most painful and messy way possible, from what I understood. They brought the mangled corpse out of the magical hole, and I performed the necromantic ritual to try and ask questions directly from her soul, but alas, I failed as well: the stubborn elf refused to cooperate with us even in death.
Frustrated by this turn of events, we rested for the rest of the day. A few hours after sunset, Deyanira joined us, also with bad news: she had found no signs of Ruan anywhere…
Cressida’s dilemma
We decided to go speak with Field Marshal Kroft to inform her of what we knew and see if she had any information or guidance to offer us. Despite the late hour and the ever-present threat of Blood Veil, there were many citizens out in the streets tonight, whispering worriedly about the recent dire events: the destruction of the bridges to Old Korvosa and the mass-murder that had taken place in a noble mansion in South Shore…
Citadel Volshyenek was understaffed, its gates manned by only a handful of grim, haggard guards, some of which were coughing or showing early signs of Blood Veil. We were let in to speak with the Field Marshal, who was dressed in her red full plate armor, her hair impeccable as always. My companions and I guessed that she had some kind of magic at her disposal that allowed her to work around the clock without the need for food or rest. We informed her about our recent findings, most of which she’d already heard through Grau Soldado. We had to admit that we had failed to extract any valuable information from the elf we believed was Jolistina. I thought that Cressida seemed disappointed that we’d taken the risk of killing her instead of bringing her in for further questioning, but she remained respectfully silent – perhaps guessing that some of us do not handle criticism well.
She had little information to give us that we did not already know – it was worrying to see that even someone as highly placed as her was being kept in the dark on matters such as the destruction of the bridges. We detected some bitterness in her voice when she described how the Gray Maidens were slowly replacing the Korvosan Guard as the queen’s main armed force. Sabina Merrin was taking more and more importance in the city every day at her expense. What’s more, collaboration with the Gray Maidens was difficult even for her – she said that she had an easier time dealing with even the Hellknights (partly thanks to Manius).
I got the impression that Field Marshal Kroft was a very strong, righteous and intelligent woman, who was appalled to see the city collapse around her due to the failures and corruption of some of its citizens. I also got the impression that she wanted us to investigate the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, to try and find Commandant Endrin, but that due to her code of ethic and her position as Field Marshal, she could not ask us out loud to perform such an unlawful act. She did mention to us that the soldiers she’d sent to the hospice earlier today to enquire about Commandant Endrin had been told that the Commandant had in fact never been brought there.
We knew that we risked being condemned to death if we openly confronted Dr. Davaulus, or attacked the Gray Maidens or the doctors of the hospice. Even just saying what we had just said to the Field Marshal was very risky, but it seemed that she agreed with our conclusions so far, and that we were in no danger of retribution on her part. In fact, we got the impression that she would protect us as much as the law could, but Manius didn’t seem confident that it would be enough if we were accused of assaulting the queen’s underlings. Kindrasius said that we were already probably in a lot of danger because we knew too much. He stated that Dr. Davaulus was the owner of the ship that had brought Blood Veil to Korvosa, and that Queen Ileosa was the one who brought Dr. Davaulus here. He believed that she was the one who had hired the Red Mantis to get rid of her enemies: he saw her as the ultimate enemy.
Kaeso, however, wasn’t convinced. He believed our enemy was still faceless and that it was too soon to pretend knowing its identity. All we knew with near-certainty was who our allies were, such as Field Marshal Kroft and Commandant Endrin. Archbanker Tuttle wasn’t our enemy, but he probably wasn’t our ally, either. He seemed to want to remain neutral in all matters.
We wondered about where the Seneschal fit in all this: was he dead? Kindrasius asked Field Marshal Kroft if she had reported to him today, but she and Kaeso reminded him that she reported to the Queen directly. It was Commandant Endrin and the Sable Company who were directed by the Seneschal.
“See? I told you so!” said Kaeso hotly. “Nobody ever listens to me around here!”
Nevertheless, Field Marshal Kroft hadn’t seen the Seneschal in a few days, and her reports to the queen were becoming increasingly rare, as Sabina Merrin seemed to be handling most of the queen’s urgent requests. It seemed as though the Field Marshal was being set aside from the main flow of information, and I warned her about the vision I’d had in my dream: of her dressed all in rags, dirty and bruised. Maybe something bad was going to happen to her. She listened to me with a very stern expression and thanked me for this warning. I couldn’t tell how seriously she would consider this dream vision, though.
Field Marshal Kroft helped us determine what our next step should be. She was especially interested in our tale regarding the Direption: the diseased silver we found inside, as well as the papers (which Kaeso said had already been damaged by the humidity – rather than admitting that it was our own fault they had gotten ruined). When the Field Marshal read the note we found in the wreck, she asked to see the letters we’d found in Rolth’s lair again. She read them quickly and began frantically quoting some excerpts from them, which seemed quite relevant in light of recent events:
”Things are working apace, for the most part. The production of the boxes is proceeding according to plan. However, we will need more supplies from Jolistina. I thought I made that clear to her during her last visit, but apparently the message did not get through. I would be most grateful if you could ensure that your underling shows a tad more discipline in the future.”
”Two miscreants somehow managed to infiltrate our facilities in Old Korvosa and stole one of the boxes. I believe they had already run into that effeminate elven fellow who had brought a box just a few days earlier. It seems that this elf is now dead at their hands.”
”After some deliberation, we decided to strike back decisively against those thieves. We contracted the services of a powerful Hellknight. He managed to slay one of the thieves, but alas, the other one was able to flee through the Vaults. I can only hope that our other agents will be able to catch him soon before word of our operations gets out.”
”It seems there have been some unfortunate complications with our suppliers in Magnimar. Cinnabar has returned yesterday to inform us that Ironbriar is dead, his operation in shambles. (…) Now, even his charming muse has disappeared, and it seems as though we shan’t be able to count on the Brotherhood of the Seven for the further stages of our operations. No matter. With the latest samples that Cinnabar brought us, I will surely be able to finish my experiments.”
So it seemed that the “B. Seven” of the Direption’s letter was the Brotherhood of the Seven, that terrible cult of Norgorber worshippers who had indirectly caused my brother Aldern’s death and who had assassinated dozens of people in Magnimar as sacrifices to their dark god. What was their link in our current predicament?
Field Marshal Kroft asked if we recognized the arcane mark that was signed at the bottom of each of these letters, but unfortunately, we did not. Hipazia knew it was the sort rune used by wizards and sorcerers, and she only knew that it was not one that belonged to any of the wizards she knew well, such as Nicklod Starweather, Tepest Geezlebottle, or Lord Toff Ornelos.
Regarding the Red Mantis, the Field Marshal admitted that the news of their presence confirmed some rumors about red-clad assassins in town, which she’d heard for the past several months. Their presence also explained some mysterious murders that had recently taken place, including one of her own officers at the heart of Citadel Volshyenek itself.
We then discussed the possibility of assaulting the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, but that seemed not only very dangerous from a combat perspective, but also very risky because we risked being identified by the Gray Maidens, the doctors, or even the Blood Veil patients being treated there, who would surely not appreciate if we attacked the very people who were treating them. We would need to infiltrate the hospice with subtlety, under the cover of some disguises, so we couldn’t be blamed later. We weren’t sure whether Dr. Davaulus was related to the suspicious events taking place there: he was the owner of the Direption, but did that necessarily mean that he knew what the ship had been carrying when it got sunk? Either way, attacking him would be like declaring war against Queen Ileosa. When questioned about being attacked by the doctors, Kaeso told us he had the impression they had attacked him because he was a Varisian: was this an extreme case of racism or could it be related to his seemingly unnatural resistance to Blood Veil?
Finally, we discussed various spells that could be used to find Commandant Endrin, and maybe the Seneschal as well. We also mentioned Blackjack, but we had no way of getting in touch with him, and Kindrasius pointed out that he was more of a “lone wolf” type of character anyway.
After leaving Citadel Volshyenek, we went to the Cathedral of Pharasma to ask the Bishop to prepare a Sending spell for tomorrow. The crowd of ill people was just as large, if not larger, than before, and Lord Carowyn was now among them as well. I wish I could’ve helped, but I had to focus on rescuing Commandant Endrin for now…
We returned to Lavender to spend the rest of the night, but Kaeso had the idea to ask for advice from another one of our allies, perhaps our closest one: Zellara! He shuffled the deck, and sure enough, the ghostly Varisian fortune-teller once again appeared to give us her otherworldly advice. She seemed to be aware of Korvosa’s recent plight as if by osmosis. She shuffled the cards with great dexterity as always, then spread out the nine most relevant to our current predicament:
For the foundation of the situation, she placed the Eclipse, the Queen Mother and the Snakebite. A darkness was looming over Korvosa, a terrible plight that threatened each and every inhabitant. She spoke about assassinations, betrayals. And she pointed out a female figure that was directing an army of little female-warriors under her command. The queen? Or Sabina Merrin?
For the current situation, she placed the Hidden Truth, the Keep and the Inquisitor, which showed up in a weird inverted position. She interpreted this by saying that we had made a very important discovery that placed us in a unique situation to resolve the situation. But to achieve our goal, we had to enter a well-guarded keep. The Inquisitor in that position indicated that those who would normally oppose use from a lawful point of view would not do so this time. I took this to indicate that we had information, and had an obligation to act on it by infiltrating the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, especially since we seemed to have the Field Marshal’s unofficial permission to do so.
For the possible outcomes, we saw the Midwife, the Liar and the Tyrant. It seemed that if we were successful, we would either bring new life into the world, or preserve life. We would uncover layers of lies within lies, and if we failed, the terrible blue dragon of the tyrant card would drive its claws into the heart of the earth… or at least, the heart of Korvosa. That blue dragon seemed very real for some reason, and it really made an impression on me. I thought of Kindrasius, and the vision of his transformation into a blue-scaled creature…
Sunday, Erastus 1st, 4708
The doctor’s lab
I woke up feeling absolutely terrible this morning. I was coughing raggedly, and to my horror, I discovered that parts of my skin were covered with the horrible red rashes of Blood Veil. At long last, even I had fallen prey to the horrible disease!
Poor Hipazia was also afflicted with it, but the men and Deyanira were all fine for now. I was able to heal myself through magic, and Hipazia also cleansed her body of the sickness by drinking one of the potions we’d found on Jolistina. Questioning Deyanira, I discovered that neither she nor Ruan had ever fallen sick to Blood Veil, just like Kaeso and all his close relatives… Interesting…
In the morning, Kindrasius went to purchase ten potions of Disguise Self, which would be instrumental in our subtle infiltration of the hospice. We had decided to infiltrate the hospice at night, so we rested during the day, preparing our spells. At night, we returned to Midland and approached the hospice carefully. The streets were almost deserted. Hipazia took several minutes to cast a Clairvoyance spell on a spot on the second floor of the building. She told us that she saw a large laboratory where Dr. Davaulus was busy doing some kind of experiment. We weren’t sure exactly what it was, but it seemed likely that it was indeed related to the study of Blood Veil.
Sunday, Erastus 1st, 4708 (continued)
A busy man
We each drank a potion and took the appearance of a plague doctor. The illusions were perfect, changing not only our own appearance, but also that of our clothes and even our weapons. We truly looked like a group of five plague doctors. Thanks to this disguise, we were able to enter the hospice unchallenged. The staff of the hospice barely paid us any mind. Kaeso led us upstairs, where we met a pair of Gray Maidens guarding an ornate door adorned in antelope motifs. We asked to speak with Dr. Davaulus about an urgent matter. The women knocked on the doors, and after a while, the doors opened, revealing a gruesome laboratory beyond. Three of the plague doctors were conducting some painful-looking experiments on about fifteen patients of Varisian origin who were in fact not displaying any signs of Blood Veil whatsoever. I found the sight shocking, but I struggled to remain in control of my emotions and pretend that I was used to this.
Dr. Davaulus was the one who had opened the doors, and he asked what we wanted in an impatient voice. It really seemed that we had interrupted something important. Kindrasius and Kaeso did most of the talking, as they are the best suited at trickery among us. They convinced the doctor that we had an urgent message for his ears only. With some hesitation, he brought us through the laboratory and to his own office, which Hipazia had spied by magic mere minutes before.
Once there, he asked what we had to tell him, but Kindrasius began drilling him with questions while I cast a Silence spell to prevent anyone from hearing us.
The doctor immediately understood that he had been tricked and that he was now in a room with five dangerous individuals disguised as his underlings. Hipazia and I cast some magic to gain some information about him. I sensed no evil within the doctor, but saw some magical auras around some items he carried, such as a rapier, a chain shirt under his coat, and an amulet at his neck. The doctor asked us who we were, and Kindrasius replied with an outrageous lie about us being five Varisians working for the Sable Company.
In response to Kindrasius’s questions, the doctor seemed to know very little: he denied being the owner of the Direption and also claimed that Commandant Endrin had never been brought to the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden. He said he knew neither Rolth nor Jolistina. He gave us the impression of being a very busy man who we had interrupted in his very important task of coordinating the fight against Blood Veil; that every minute of our unlawful questioning was putting the lives of more Korvosans in danger. Of course, we later discovered that he lied to us all the way, but at the time, he seemed extremely genuine, and we were unable to sense any falsehood in his words.
After a few minutes, we had learned nothing of interest, but we were feeling that our potions of illusion were about to fade. Not wanting him to know our identities, and not having any concrete reason to attack him (even though Manius was clearly very eager for violence), we all drank a second dose of the liquid and bade the doctor good night. We felt defeated: we had failed to learn anything of use. Before leaving, Kindrasius turned toward Doctor Davaulus and told him:
“Oh, and don’t think about sending some Gray Maidens after us unless you want to have a bloodbath in this place.”
The rest of us winced at his typical belligerent attitude; Kaeso clearly thought he had gone too far. Dr. Davaulus glared back at Kindrasius, but was wise enough not to reply with anything that would trigger his short fuse: he surely felt very vulnerable while he was alone with us in his office. And so we left the hospice empty-handed…
Breaking into the office
We found a discreet spot in an alley a few streets away from the hospice, making sure we weren’t being followed, and there we discussed how things had gone so far. The experience left us with a bitter taste in our mouth. We had to do something, but we still felt an assault of the hospice was way too foolhardy. We were still not convinced of any wrongdoing on Dr. Davaulus’s part, although I had been shocked by the cruelty of the experiments that had been performed on those poor Varisians on the second floor. When I said this out loud, though, the rest of the group seemed unmoved by their plight, commenting that perhaps such a regrettable sacrifice was necessary in the search of a cure for Blood Veil.
After a few minutes, we agreed on a new plan that was illegal in a different way from our previous one; miraculously, even Manius agreed to go along with it. Hipazia used her staff to look at the doctor’s office again with her magic, noticing that he had left it. We then hurried back toward the hospice, making our way into the alley behind it. There, Hipazia cast a Fly spell on Manius, who went up to the roof, and threw down a rope for us to climb. I then cast my second Silence spell, so the people on the second floor wouldn’t hear us moving around on the roof, and especially so they wouldn’t hear us break a hole into the roof above the doctor’s office – which is exactly what we did.
What this plan lacked in subtlety, it made up for in efficiency: Kaeso and Kindrasius went down the hole, quickly ransacked the doctor’s office for papers, climbed back up on the roof, and we all left before our spells ended. We were out of sight from the hospice within a few minutes, and we had most of the doctor’s papers in our hands. We knew that, even if we were wrong and he was truly innocent, we’d just be able to return them the following day.
We returned to Lavender and began reading the stolen documents at the light of our magic and a few candles. Deyanira helped us go through it all. Since I am the most skilled at healing, I was given the doctor’s voluminous experiments journal, while the others went through other papers. After only a few minutes, Manius announced enthusiastically that he had found three very interesting letters that seemed to be the counterparts of those we had found earlier on in Rolth’s laboratory. They were all dirty, covered in blood stains, filled with a messy handwriting that was barely readable, and they were signed by a specific arcane mark; all three were signed by the same rune, which was different from the letters we’d found in Rolth’s lab. Yet the letters were clearly sequential and represented a correspondence between two people. Matching the handwriting of the other letters with the one found in most of Dr. Davaulus’s papers, we finally understood that the first set of letters had been written by the “good doctor” himself, and that the second set, which we had just found, had been written by Rolth!
This of course proved without a shadow of a doubt that Dr. Davaulus was very, very guilty of every possible crime we had imagined. Manius read Rolth’s letters out loud, and I later copied them into this very journal:
Rolth’s first letter
Greetings doctor,
His name is Shadowcount sial. I’ve done some research on him and it seems he used to be a priest of Asmodeus at some point, but he now worships the midnight lord. All attempts at negotiations have proved fruitless. The priests of zon-kuthon are zealots who revere pain above all else. They care not about the circle of life and rebirth. He is often accompanied by a vicious Kyton who acts as his bodyguard. She is also highly dangerous. There is also another powerful priest of Zon-Kuthon around, a woman, though I don’t know exactly who she is.
Ideally, they should be dealt with, but I worry that we would need to expend a lot of precious resources to do so. I believe that guile and stealth remain the most appropriate modes of defense. I have other laboratories elsewhere in the city, and I can resume my research in one of those. I shall dearly miss the little doll, though, as I’d almost finished my experiments on her. Perhaps I will have to pay a visit to mister pestico’s store and buy another one.
I’ve prepared the samples of vorel’s phage that you asked for. They should be safe to handle now. I would like to be the one to present them personally to lady Andaisin. I wish to see the smile on her face when she sees the wonders that they can do.
Watch your back for those zon-kuthonites,
(signed by an arcane mark)
Rolth’s second letter
Hello doctor,
I hope things work out with that missing box.
I too have witnessed the greatness of lady Andaisin. The unholy aura that surrounds her is like a delicate, yet exhilarating perfume. Or maybe that is just her regular perfume. I look forward to the next time I will be able to give her a personal report. Has she mentioned me recently?
I have conveyed your message to Jolistina. You have to understand, good doctor, that she is a fickle creature, for not only is she an elf, she is also a woman, the most devious and whimsical beings in existence! Countless times has she tried to divert my attention away from my experiments with her uninhibited lust. Sometimes I wonder if she wouldn’t be more useful to me as a test subject than as a lover.
Despite jolistina’s constant interruptions, I am pleased to inform you that I have just completed my work on my grandest creation yet: a carrion golem! Yes, this being is even more impressive that the necrophidii I made previously. I’ve been collecting choice pieces of animal parts over the past few months for this creation, and now I see it was time well spent.
I found the formula for the creation of such a construct in an old tome I discovered on a trip I made to galduria a few years ago. It seems that the necromancers of the twilight academy imported the works of yargtha, the former acolyte of geb. Some twenty years ago, though, their experiment got slightly out of hand, and some of their creations escaped into the countryside and caused some amount of damage to the surrounding farmlands, including loss of human life. Unfortunately, repercussion against the college was swift, and poor headmaster melrod griggock had to terminate the project. Yet some of their documentation was left behind for those who know where to look…
See you soon…
(signed by an arcane mark)
Rolth’s third letter
dear doctor,
there was a little mishap at my lair in the dead warrens this morning. My carrion golem somehow escaped control and rampaged along the tunnels until it ruined part of my laboratory. As much as I enjoyed seeing my beautiful creation in all of its berserk splendour, I knew I had to stop it somehow. I lured it into a pantry, where I locked it up with the help of my underlings.
I hope that when I return tonight, the thing will have recovered its natural behavior. But until then, I have urgent business to attend: I must secure a scroll of the utmost potency, one that contains a spell of limited wish!
This will be the final and crucial ingredient in the crafting of my most magnificent creation yet: a true flesh golem! I’ve already finished crafting the body, thanks to the recent arrival of a deceased young Shoanti warrior. What a beauty… I cannot wait to see this baby in action! Yes, lady Andaisin will be most pleased. Has she said anything else about my carrion golem? Surely she will be impressed by this one… it is much larger and easier to control.
I have to run now, but I’ll see you in time for the next ritual!
(signed by an arcane mark)
It all comes together
Based on things I had learned earlier upon my visit to the cursed home of my childhood on the Lost Coast and the contents of Doctor Davaulus’s journal, I was finally able to fully understand the origin of Blood Veil. The disease called Vorel’s Phage that was mentioned in Rolth’s letter was also mentioned many times in the doctor’s notes. Its origin was, dreadfully, from the bowels of my family’s manor, and its initial samples had been harvested by none other than my loathsome brother-turned-ghast Aldern…
With a shiver, I now vividly remembered those despicable rats I had seen skittering blindly along the floor of Foxglove Manor a few months ago, hairless things that were covered in violent red pustules not unlike those that Blood Veil caused in humans. Yes, the parallel between the two was now painfully obvious. According to the doctor’s notes, Aldern had been paid by the Brotherhood of the Seven to “harvest” some samples of Vorel’s Phage from the rats in our mansion. This disease had, of course, been named after the infamous Vorel Foxglove, my father’s great-uncle. He had in fact been a member of the Brotherhood of the Seven, and worse, he had through an unholy ritual attempted to transcend the very boundaries of his existence and to become a lich. The ceremony had somehow failed, and the backlash of raw necromantic energy had contaminated all of the inhabitants of the manor – including Vorel’s wife and daughter – with a terrible disease.
That had taken place over sixty years ago. For decades, both our family’s curse and the disease it had engendered had remained dormant. On that terrible summer of 4693, a time in my life I will never forget, but wish I could, the hauntings began anew. A series of terrible events culminated in the death of both of my parents. I was only ten years old at the time… Aldern and I, and our sister Sendeli, were rescued by people from the nearby village of Sandpoint and sent to live with our uncle Nelkren here in Korvosa… But Aldern returned to the manor two years ago after he had arranged for uncle Nelkren’s death, and had failed to take control of his business. I cannot imagine how he mustered the courage to return to that place of death and madness. I can only assume that there was so much death and madness already festering in his very soul that only he could feel at home over there.
Having obtained samples of the potent disease from Aldern, the Brotherhood of the Seven had then sold them to agents of the Red Mantis, led by someone named Cinnabar. Reading the doctor’s journal, I understood that he actually belonged to the order of the Red Mantis himself, although I got the impression that he had received a different training: he used his knowledge of science to kill people from afar, discreetly… not directly with the use of blades like most assassins do. Using Vorel’s Phage as a base, Davaulus had then concocted a disease that was even more potent and contagious: Blood Veil.
Of great frustration to Doctor Davaulus, since Blood Veil’s primal goal was apparently to eliminate Korvosa’s “undesirables”, was that a sizable portion of the Varisian population appeared to be immune to the disease. I understood that he was baffled by this, and extremely angry. He had spent a lot of time investigating this phenomenon – hence the poor Varisians we had seen getting “operated on” in his lab. So far, he had been unable to determine was caused their resistance. He mentioned that a colleague of his, the alchemist Ramoska Arkminos, was also studying the issue with great attention.
Rolth was also helping with the study of Blood Veil, helping Davaulus and Arkminos to make it more potent, but even worse, trying to develop a new strain of the disease that reanimated its victims into zombies upon death. It seemed that for a long period, Davaulus and Rolth had mostly communicated via letters, but that Rolth had recently moved his main laboratory into the quarters of a Cult of Urgathoa below the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden.
Of course, my companions and I reacted strongly to this gold mine of dire implications: not only was Dr. Davaulus a profoundly twisted and evil man, and a menace to the entire city, but he was allied with cultists of Urgathoa whose lair was under the very hospice allegedly designed to cure people from the disease. The irony of it all was truly odious.
We discussed what to do next: should we try to access the hospice’s basement via the sewers? But we didn’t know of a way in, not for sure. We considered asking the help of Kirmo Savas and the other Wererats we had helped earlier, but those we knew lived in Old Korvosa, which was off limits now… Finally, we decided to simply go see Field Marshal Kroft and inform her of our findings. We hoped she would know what to do, and that we could just collaborate with her, counting on both her military and legal protection.