One of the Guards steps up and mutters something to the one who'd been talking to the group. He grunts and gives Artegall a second look. "You know how to conduct yourself around a crime scene?"
The guards should come with us, and witness what we will find, search the place following their rules. We're making powerful foes here. Maybe they are still some, hidden in the rooms. And probably sick people too, so we need to take all the precautions we can
"Yes, I was in the City Guard as a Constable, and am now a private investigator."
"The one who escaped is a spellcaster. Dr. Davaulus, had claimed to be trying to cure the plague. He was actually behind it. He used invisibility to escape, and tried to use mind-magic on me, so he is a slippery one. I wouldn't be surprised if he also knew disguise magic."
She looks up and says
Can I be getting up? Then more softly so the guard before her can hear We also do be 'aving a powerful Priestess of the Pallid Priestess.... I mean Pallid Princess. She do be a prisoner inside. We saw 'er working with the doctor. I assume you will want to be taking 'er in for questioning before she recovers.
The Guards look somewhat skeptical but allow Mirela to stand up and the group to re-arm themselves. "We'll secure the patients but we aren't here to take care of the sick. If the doctors here were behind the plague what are we supposed to do?" The Guard sounded reasonably confident but the group could tell he was shaken by the idea the people who were supposed to be curing the disease were actually villains.
He huddles with the rest of his team and sends a couple of runners to the other groups of Guards around the building. In a few minutes, 14 Korvosan Guards are assembled and ready to accompany the group back into the building. The other 10 are going to remain outside to secure the exits. The one in charge nods at Artegall. "Lead us in." To the other non-Guards, he says "Please don't touch anything."
"Twilight, Mirela, if you have any healing left I could use it."
He shows the guards to the prisoner.
"Lady Andaisin here was the leader of the Cult of Urgathoa behind this plague. Her associate Davaulus who escaped is a spellcaster skilled at subterfuge. So DO NOT release Lady Andaisin to anyone. I don't care if they appear to be Field Marshal Croft or Aroden himself. You are up against foes who can trick you with magic. Lady Andaisin needs to stay here, unconscious, until we get back."
He takes a stick and breaks it, handing one half to a nearby guard.
"See these jagged edges? They match. Anyone comes back pretending to be me but they don't have the other half, they are an imposter. It's not perfect, but it's a pretty good safeguard against magical trickery."
Artegall is quite worried that Davaulus will try to liberate Lady Andaisin - but maybe the man had the good sense to just flee.
Then he leads the group back down the elevator, past the carnage of zombies and cultists and vats.
He goes back to the room with the tanks and the daemon.
"Lady Andaisin and her wizard ally came from down that hall. Let's proceed carefully."
As a reminder, Artegall has Trap Spotter for an automatic check, and he will also make an active check every 10'.
The dwarf can't help but let a brief half smile on his face when Artegall breaks the bit of wood to give his instructions
That's a wise trick.I'm glad you're on our side, Artegall. I wouldn't have think of that. It's devious in its simplicity.
Mirela suggests the go upstairs to the doctors office before we go downstairs to secure the notes on the plague. She also warns the guards of the undead display before the guards see it so they don’t panic and break the glass cases holding the zombies.
She also casts Cure Moderate Wounds on Artegall.
Artegall accedes to Mirela's direction. "Very well, the office first. There were some notes there."
The group leads the Guards through the enormous convalescent ward full of sick people. Most are asleep, exhausted by the rigors of the blood veil, but even those who woke at the noise of fighting have no energy to do much more than turn their heads and watch as the heroes and Guards make their way past the suffering patients. Like any right-thinking person, the Guards edge away from the sick and cover their mouths and noses with hands and cloths to try to keep from getting the deadly disease.
They lead the Guards to the stairs, then through the carnage of bodies of Physicians and Grey Maidens that had assaulted the party as they first made their way up to the office. The Guards give each other considering looks but say nothing as it becomes clear exactly just how many dead the group have left in their wake.
A few Guards blanch at the sight of the experimentation ward just outside the doctor's office, at the strange beakers and terrifying tools and- more than anything- the subjects of experiment strapped to the beds, each with their throat neatly slit. One begins muttering a prayer to Asmodeus, pointing out their adherence to the tenets of the church and the Prince of Law's resultant responsibility to keep them safe from harm.
The leader of the group clears his throat. "This is..." he coughs. "This is what they were doing in here?"
In the office beyond the experiment room, the scattered notes the group had found and collected were still where they left them.
This do be just the start. There is a whole temple below this place where they do advanced research and raise undead from those who die. ‘Ell there were even Plague demons down there they were working with.
Let’s grab the research notes and we can be bringing you to one of the major Priestesses we captured before we go down to the Temple.
But we need to be getting the notes to someone who can figure out how we can fight this damn thing.
The Guards mill about uselessly as the party spends a few minutes collecting the notes from the experimenting room and the doctor's office. The leader of the Guards asks Mirela "What... what should we be doing? We're not qualified to deal with the sick and if the Physicians aren't actually helping anyone... what do we do?"
Do the Guard be ‘aving any Alchemists on staff or consultants they can call in? We need someone to get these notes to them. I ‘ope someone smarter then me can be understanding them and find a cure.
Then we should take the Priestess to lockup and ‘ave anyone who does interrogation look at ‘er to see if we can be getting more about this plague. She did be liking to talk about her mistress untill we knocked ‘er out.
Finally we should be looking down below and making sure there don’t be any more cult members that are lurking.
Oh, And maybe if we can be sending messages to the temples to get them to really ‘elp these sick people, that would be good.
Wait….. Lords of Drarkness take them, I forgot to tell your men, don’t be touching coins. We told Commander Kroft we saw plague was on some of the coins we got from the doctors. Given what we see ‘ere I don’t be thinking that did be a mistake.
What do you be thinking your team can ‘andle as this is too much for us to be doing alone.
The lead Guard shook his head and lowered his voice as he turned his back on his fellow Korvosan Guards to talk to Mirela. "These are the consultants! The Queen's Physicians are working with the Guard and the Maidens. If I sent for anyone the ones who would show up are these people! The temples are overwhelmed- they've been turning away people for days! How do you think they're going to have anyone to send here?"
"If there's anyone to fight or arrest here, we can do that. We can make sure nobody comes or goes from this building. But the entire city is counting on the Physicians to cure the blood veil. The Queen promised they would find the cure. Is there a cure? Are we all going to die from this disease?" Mirela could tell the man was on the verge of panicking, having been let in on the mind-blowing secret of the Physicians' treachery.
He shook his head and cleared his throat. "You said there's a prisoner? A priestess? Let's go question her and get some answers."
Damn, I had 'oped... Artigal, Twilight, can either of you be figuring out who might be able to make heads or tales of these notes and find a cure while Nargun and I show them the priestess?
Mirela leads the guard captain down to the Priestess and make sure she is in manacles before we wake her up.
Twilight had largely let the others do the talking with the guard. She wanted nothing more than to get out of the hospice and back to a nice warm bath to wash away the day's filth and a glass of nice wine to ease the memories of what she had witnessed.
She was also eager to find out if she had been infected with the Veil again so that it could be dealt with sooner rather than later.
At the guard's questions though she did feel a pang of pity. When one relied on the authorities to keep you safe, who do you turn to when those authorities turn out to be the actual threat?
As she mulled this over Mirela's question caught her attention. "Well, from these notes Varisian's are immune to the Veil. That was why they were being experimented on. The doctors were trying to find out why that was in order to find a way around it. That is the best lead we have. Maybe someone who knows a lot about Varisians might have an idea that could be turned into a cure.
We could also spread the word about the infected coins. It might be a blow to Abadar's ego if people start avoiding coins, but it could slow the spread. The Abadarians themselves might take up the challenge and start purifying coins. They are a significant symbol of Abadar's influence and they would probably find it offensive that a symbol of their beliefs has been co-opted to spread the filth of Urgathoa.
The money itself was tainted somehow but I'm not sure if they can become infected with the Veil again once they are cleaned. That should remove a constant underlying source of infection so that any other efforts aren't undermined."
"Twilight, Mirela, do either of you have skill at the healing arts? I have a small amount."
"The Temple of Abadar may also have some healers. But if not, we may be able to develop the cure."
He will address the guards. "I am confident that there is a cure, and the only reason it wasn't found before now is that the Queen's Physicians were not in fact looking for it but instead trying to spread the disease."
I 'ave the basic training in 'ealing, but I've only treated childhood dieases and broken bones. Nothing like this.
I'm just here to kill the bad guys. Don't look at me.
The Guard sergeant nods, looking somewhat relieved as Twilight starts talking like she knows what she's talking about. Leaving a handful of Guards to assist Twilight and Artegall, he and a dozen Guards accompany Mirela to the loading dock and the unconscious priestess's box.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at the suggestion of finding a cure themselves. She took a moment to consider the adulation and praise that she might be able to reap as the saviour of Korvosa for curing the Red Veil. That was of course assuming that the Queen didn't just arrest and execute her first.
But all flights of fantasy aside, she had no skill in the healing arts and such research held no particular interest for her.
"A very interesting thought, but such a project is well beyond my means. I think this will have to be left to others."
Twilight picked up on the guard's relief when she suggested some courses of action that might combat the plague. Not wanting that spark of hope to slip away she added confidently " With all this research material already available I am certain that someone that actually wanted to find the cure would have more than enough to go on. In the meantime, lets see if there is anything else we can learn from the one who was involved in all of this."
I'm sure whoever unleashed that plague on the city must first have a plan about how to escape it unharmed. So there is hope to find a cure.
The sergeant and dozen Guards arrange themselves around the indicated box and gesture for the heroes to wake their prisoner for questioning. "We're ready."
The Guard sergeant nods at Mirela's directive and splits his unit into two, detailing 6 Guards to transport the crate and unconscious captive to the keep and keeping half a dozen with him. That done, the group descends back into the Temple. The place is silent and still.
There did be a couple doors we didn't be opening. Do you want to open those doors our head straight through the main doors? I would rather make sure there is nothing behind us before we go farther in.
If it was only me, I would charge through the biggest doors, and kill whoever attacks me. But it's not just about me and my bloodlust. There are people to save, and some to avenge, answers to find even maybe. So I'll follow your advice, Huntress.
The dwarf pause, and adds
There will always been more foes to kill, later.
"I assume that Lady Andaisin's quarters are down that hall further, so there could be notes or information about the plague. I really don't want to get into any more fights - we are all exhausted."
"If there was anyone that we missed, they didn't come out to attack us when we were at our weakest. We can hope they stay out of sight and behind doors having seen that Lady Andaisin is defeated and that we now have reinforcements. We can try to clear things out more once we have had a chance to rest and speak to Kroft."
"I assume that if there was anyone else here with any fight left in them they would have come to the aide of their leader. I think we should at least have a quick look down the hall. We do after all still have the option of running if the situation should warrant it."
To the main hall it is.
She looks at the guards and says Be careful, lots of things down here do be pretty nasty. I suggest you don't be touching anything you don't 'ave to, as some things I know exploded when touched.
Then she knocks one of her last few arrows and falls in the back of the line while motioning for Nargun to lead them on through to the hall they captured the Lady Andaisin from.
Nargun has no problem leading the way, and enters the hall fearlessly, hoping to find some wrongs to right, and an excuse to kill someone, preferably quite bloodily.
The guards nod their understanding at Mirela and the large group proceeds through the silent halls. Once again, the evidence of the party's passing is laid out for the guards to see and they trade silent, meaningful glances at all the dead bodies (and re-dead un-dead). Through the vat room and then the tube room, then into the long, dark hall.
The long hall opens into a circular chamber rising into a high dome. Seven basins jut from the walls, ensconced within evenly spaced alcoves that circle the room. Each is filled to the brim with a unique liquid - blood, bile, milk, or other unidentifiable fluid. Each fills the air with its own distinct reek, creating a noxious, eye-watering bouquet. On the floor around each basin lie several small, empty metal boxes carved with images of skulls.
At the room’s center, rising from a wide pool of crystalline water, is a golden statue that is both erotic and horrifying. The statue depicts a beautiful nude woman who is human above the waist, but below this, the figure is nothing more than a skeleton.
It do be a true temple to Urgathoa. There is no question now that this plague was planned. I would be very careful what you touch 'ere as anything could be conducing her corruption.
Artegall will search the room thoroughly for any notes, objects, or evidence.
He will search the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the pool, the statue, and the metal boxes. He's not going to touch the liquids in the basins, though.
Thoroughly searching the room but carefully avoiding any liquids, Artegall finds not much of interest outside the basins . There are more than two dozen small to medium sized locking coffers scattered around the basins throughout the room. Except for one, each holds evidence of having once held something that could be a possible plague vector, such as rats, diseased blood, flesh from plague victims, or other contaminants. One such box, though, sits pristine and with no sign of having been used to hold anything yet.
Yes, Artegall will wade into the fountain to search the statue.
Seeing Artegall wade into the fountain Mirela says.
You might not want….. She cuts off as he goes it anyway.
Well in that case after you search the statue can you try to be opening the box? I ’ave one major blessing left that could ‘opefully be cleansing her filth from you.
Even to me, that doesn't seems safe, Artegall.. and that's coming from the mouth of a dwarf who has a death wish...
"The Pallid Princes. To think that this whole complex was built right here in the city without anyone noticing. Quite remarkable."
Twilight pulled her scarf tighter around her face trying to keep out the worst of the foul miasma that permeated the air.
"Of all the things here, the crystal clear water in a temple dedicated to disease is the thing I find most suspicious."
She kept well clear of all the basins and the empty boxes beside and watched Artegall wade into the pool. On a whim she cast a cantrip allowing her to sense magic within her sight.
Artegall wades into the fountain to search the statute and finds a well concealed compartment at its base. Within lie a number of ceremonial instruments: two grim candelabras made from human hands encased in silver, several sticks of exotic incense, 2 wand, two scrolls, and 3 blocks of wax incense.
Twilight looked for magical auras and saw them around magic around the statue , each basin , and the single unused metal coffer .