headband of intellect +2
Unknown
unguent of timelessness
"I have my own potions. Thank you." She drinks the a potion. "I can use the wand. Remind me to look at the ring and that bottle we found upstairs tomorrow. I'll ask the Harrow deck to help me out."
The wand will be very useful for you, Iolana, perhaps the headband for Sebastion?
I could use the Cloak if no one objects.
Ayako taps Sebastion with her healing wand
Ayako examines the last surviving victim of Rolth and sees if there is anything see can do for him, making a quick cuppa tea using bodybalm to treat his ills
There are two people on the beds who like they can be saved. The rest are beyond saving. However they are wracked with advanced stage blood veil and fall in and out of consciousness. Curing their disease would put them in a better state to interact with.
"I have more healing kits. Do you need them Ayako? I don't have any way to cure the disease. I'm not very good at healing. Please do take the cloak."
Iolana examines the patients in the room looking for their missing Varisian. Then she starts to ask questions of the survivors. "What happened? Do you know anything about the necromancer? What's in the next room?"
I can use my wand of Cure Disease. We have yet to be infected so healing these unfortunates is proper. If no one objects, she taps each one, using a charge to erase the disease.
"I can help as well. Thanks to Abadar's favor, I can cure diseases with a touch of my hands" says Lucien with a warm smile, coming closer to Ayako. "Can you tell us more about this place? What lies beyond that door, for example. We just want to help", adds Lucien, turning to the patients.
_____________________________
Ayako allows Lucian to heal one while she heals the other
The men are unable to answer Iolana's questions until cured. They can only hack and cough. However, once Ayako and Lucien tend to them and remove the disease, they immediately look much better and, assuming you unstrap them, sit up and can talk to you.
"What happened? Do you know anything about the necromancer? What's in the next room?"
"My name is Olen Hanch, a cobbler, and this is Dalvun Krand, a Sable Company stableboy. We were both kidnapped when we came to the hospice looking for aid. Since then, we've been tortured and tested on. As you can see," he motions to the other beds, "We've fared better than others. I don't know much about the necromancer. He led the testing down here. He seemed to be trying to develop a new more powerful version of the blood veil that not only quickly kills the victim but then animates the dead as a plague zombie. But from what we gather, the necromancer isn't part of this cult but was brought in because of his knowledge of disease. I've only caught glimpses of these fearsome leaders while in and out of consciousness. One is a beautiful high priestess who speaks of death like some great gift. The other is a disturbing man with elven and rodent features who berates the doctors for amateurish and dim-witted work. In the next room are cells where they keep more prisoners waiting to replace those of us here as we perish."
"Can you tell us more about this place? What lies beyond that door, for example. We just want to help"
"I don't know much more about this place but I believe that they must have a laboratory further to the east where they are manufacturing the disease."
"That seals it this place needs destroyed. A lab to manufacturer disease, and an attempt to make it more deadly and raise the dead. That's horrible. We should free the other prisoners. Who has the key from the priest?"
Ayako helps free the prisoners. We'll have to escort them out at least, it wouldn't be proper to let them travel upstairs on their own.
The key you have does work on the doors back here.
Iron doors with slotted windows, much like one might find in a prison or asylum, line the walls of this chamber. Faint bloodstains fleck the straw-strewn flagstones.
Five of the eight cells here hold captive Varisian men and women. These prisoners have been here for a week or less and many have seen those who were here before them taken away to face the Urgathoans' terrible experiments. They claim they were taken from the hospice above because they all displayed a remarkable resistance to the blood veil. Besides that, they don't have any more to tell you that you haven't already found out.
Hmm..After we escort them up, they could head to Sabine and inform them about what is going on here and ask that she send her most trustworthy soldiers here.
Sebastian shakes his head at Ayako's suggestion. "Didn't you see the look in that woman's eyes? She knew. I can't believe that Sabina knows about what's going on, but the Gray Maidens can't be trusted right now. Better to send them to Croft instead."
Ayako baps herself on the head. My goodness, I have gotten fuzzyheaded with everything we have gone through. Yes, Croft, Majenko could escort them.
"Yes let's get them out of this place before we continue. Who knows what we'll find further in. We don't want to leave them unprotected."
You guide the prisoners upstairs. The hospice is much like you left it. The patients upstairs remain in their cots suffering with no one to care for them. Although it is unlikely that they received much care under the Queen's Physicians' watch to begin with. Unlike the patients in the hospice, the Varisians you found in the temple are in good enough shape to travel. You are able to call out and summon Majenko. The Varisians are a little disconcerted by the talking dragon even though psuedodragons are a common enough sight in Korvosa. However, they are more than eager to escape this place and willing follow Majenko's lead to Citadel Volshyenek.
Once you return return downstairs to the temple, there is only one direction left to go. You head through the double doors to the east.
The stinging scent of harsh chemicals chokes this high-ceilinged chamber. Three huge metal vats bubble here, each more than six feet tall. A sturdy series of catwalks ten feet off the ground stretches over and around the vats, allowing those above to attend whatever slurry produces the foul green-brown mist emanating from each gigantic vessel. Circling the upper portion of the room is an elaborate mosaic of white, black, and green stone that depicts a giant half-corpse woman in black veils dancing among fields of the dead, undead, and dying.
The room is now empty since the priests within had come out to attack you.
There are numerous doors in this room. One to the north, two to the east, and two to the south.
Let us go to the first south door. Ayako does so with the others. She worries about the suffering above and hopes they can end this quickly.
You open the door to the southwest.
Little more than barrels of water, kindling, and long stirring poles are contained in this room.
Four zombies stand idly within. Without a master to command them, you quickly dispatch them.
Once done, you open the door to the southeast.
The southeastern corner of this otherwise empty room seems to be unfinished—a large mound of rubble fills the corner.
It looks like we should head northeast. Hopefully this place has become empty of priests and 'doctors'. Ayako will go the the NE door.
The northeast door is a strong wooden door and is securely locked from the inside.
Hmm..Sebastion, I think this calls for your skilled fingers.
Iolana quickly detects magic on the pile of rubble, and examines it before following Ayako to the NE door.
Sebastian gags on the chemical fumes, warily eying the mosaic. Dispatching the zombies doesn't make him feel any better about the temple's decor.
"Skilled fingers, right," he says. Stepping forward, he throws a kick at the door, trying to break it in.
"No good. Lucien, you follow the god of keys. Perhaps you should give it a go."
Ayako smiles lightly. My mistake if I thought you had skill with picking locks. In atonement, I will sacrifice my foot for the cause.
Ayako wobbles a bit and slams her foot into the door.
Sebastian and Ayako both slam into the solid door with a loud "Thump" but it does not budge.
But then you hear the door unlock and it swings open. Within stands a somberly dress man, intense and pale as death. His arms are crossed and his nose wrinkled in an expression of extreme distaste. Yellow teeth bared, his overly large incisors jut forward, not like those of a man, but of a filth-hungry vermin.
"What?!" he shouts. Then his expression softens. "Oh! You are not one of Lady Andaisin's. Listen. I have no desire to fight you. I bear no love for the cult of Urgathoa, the Red Mantis, or the Gray Maidens. I merely wish to continue my experiments. If you leave me be and leave my laboratory alone, I'll reciprocate the favor."
With the door open, you can see inside.
An elegant operating table dominates the center of this grim laboratory. Crossed with iron restraints and encircled by a gore-encrusted gutter, the macabre device sprouts various cranks and levers, and is large enough to accommodate an ogre. Along the walls stand several tables strewn with all manner of alchemical accoutrements, their contents appearing old in the extreme, with rusted iron tools, beakers of purpled glass, and deep pools of wax from countless melted candles.
A young and unconscious man, barely older than twenty winters, lies upon the operating table, bound by its heavy restraints.
You recognize the man as Ruan Mirukova, Deyanira's missing brother from the description she gave you of him.
Ayako is taken aback by the man's appearance. Pardon me for asking, are you one of the ratfolk of the city? She looks over his shoulder. That man, we have been looking for him at the request at another and wish his release. Ayako seems rather calm despite being nose to snout with such a being.
Iolana recoils slightly from the creature. "What experiments are you conducing? What might your name be?" She glances at the others. I hope they have some idea what this creature might be up to. If he has no problem with the others then I don't think I want him to live.
"A ratfolk?!" he gasps. "Heavens no. In fact, I'm quite offended that you would compare me to such a lowly life-form. I am a Nosferatu and I've lived for hundreds of years. Although I suppose we do share one commonality. Both lycanthropy and vampirism are contracted and in fact that is a heart of my current research."
"Oh, but I'm rambling on and I haven't even introduced myself. Howe rude of me. I am Ramoska Arkiminos, thrall of Senir Tiriac, Conte of Varno County in the nation of Ustalav many miles to the east of Varisia. I was lent to the service of the Red Mantis, and by extension, the cult of Urgathoa. Through my centuries of alchemical research, I've become a scholar of diseases nearly without peer. I take umbrage at being drawn away from my experiments in Varno, but I have no choice but to be obedient to my patron and master, the Conte."
Ramoska waves his hand back towards the man on the table. "You say you know this man? And you wish his release? No, no, no. This Varisian has fascinated me. He seems to be immune to the blood veil and I intend to test the extent of this mysterious resilience. Already, I've subjected him to a number of strains of blood veil and each time it has failed to infect the youth. I've now prepared a regime of other equally virulent diseases to test on my captive and was just about to administer them. However, this is not the first time that I have subjected a Varisian to this test and each time my subject has proven immune to blood veil and no other disease. I repeat my test now out of scientific thoroughness, and perhaps in desperate optimism, that my past tests were somehow flawed and a greater immunity to infections does indeed lay within some Varisians."
"So, as you can see, I can't just release him. I am a desperate man and he is perhaps my last hope. And if you are thinking of trying to take him by force, I strongly urge you to reconsider. As I stated, I have no desire to fight you but know that you are severely outmatched."
How many tests have you done? Would the results of the past tests, if the same indicate that Blood Veil is the sole disease the Varisians are immune to and thus further tests are redundant? I see no reason why your past tests were flawed if the results were the same.
"What needs to happen to make it possible for you to return to your experiments in Varno? I'm sure those are much more important experiments than what you are doing here. By the way, was that your creation or the Red Mantis'?" Iolana's questions are intended to figure out how to get Ramosaka out of Korvosa, and free Ruan. "You must be so tired of doing the same experiment over and over with the same result. Perhaps you need a new test subject."
Sebastian balks silently as Ayako and Iolana stand there trying to reason with a vampire. Even Lucien does nothing!
Noticing that their holy warrior stands idly by triggers Sebastian's sense of self-preservation enough to suppress the inclination to attack the grotesque nose-for-achoo.
Lucien has detect evil and confirms what he sees. He whispers, "He is definitely evil, but also powerful as he says. I advise caution but I too am barely restraining myself."
"You are right, you know. As a scientist, I must be thorough, but at the same time, I know the probability that this boy will be any different from the others is slim to none. It's just that I can't give up hope. Do you know how long I've sought I cure? Do you know how many years I've loathed my existence? I was once a man like you. But it's been so long, my past life is just the faintest of memories. I was once a devout worshiper of a god, although which god that was, I can't recall. I regret the forgotten decisions that led to my undead status and want nothing more than to end my life...but not as an undead. Not like this. If I die as a vampire, I'll be denied my eternal reward in the afterlife. There was someone else once. A reunion I seek but can't remember. Thus I seek a cure for the curse of vampirism...if only so I can die as a man."
"I suppose if he means so much to you, I could sell him to you for the cost it would take to transport me and my equipment back to Ustalav."
"Was the Blood Veil the creation of the Red Mantis? No. They've been more intermediaries than anything else. They brought Doctor Reiner Davaulus into Korvosa to lead the genocide of the Varisians, the Shoanti, and the poor. They arranged for Doctor Davaulus to get in contact with the local cult of Urgathoa. And they arranged for Conte Senir Tiriac to send me to instruct the cult on how to utilize methods perfected by him to target the lifeblood of the city: its coin. The Red Mantis also provided the disease from which the blood veil was created, a rare disease called Vorel's Phage that they purchased in Magnimar from a group that called itself the Brothers of the Seven. Although I hear that the group has since been eliminated by adventurers. Doctor Davaulus and the cult of Urgathoa worked together to engineer Vorel's phage into a slower, easy-to-spread variation with dramatic symptoms sure to panic the populace. They named this new creation the blood veil."
"After that, I oversaw the work to taint the Korvosan silver that would spread the disease throughout the city. The plan was rather ingenious if I do say so myself. The coin was split into two loads. Only half the coin was loaded into the hull of the Direption. It was merely a red herring and scapegoat to draw attention aware from the true fortune of tainted silver that was secretly deposited directly into the Grand Vault of Abadar where its taint would spread throughout the city and cripple the priests best posed to combat the disease."
"But my work here is done. Clearly you are going to seek out and kill Lady Andaisin and cut off the head of this cult. With no one left to serve but my master, I might as well make my way back to him. You seem like a sensible lot and I've been nothing but cordial. Let us continue this truce and part ways amicably. I'd say 2,000 gold should cover my expenses. I'll leave my patient with you and I'll leave this place without a fight. I'll accept coin or valuables."
He waits patiently for you to make the next move.
I am willing to pay for the safety of the young man and saving our strength for the greatest threat. I will not ask Sebastion or Lucian to pay though and let them choose. Iolana, what do you say?
"I'll contribute what I can to resolve this amicably."
"A wise paladin knows to choose his battles. While I loathe not smiting this creature, it would be foolish to expend our resources when they may be needed elsewhere." says Lucien.
"Very well." says Ramoska as he takes your offering. "He's all yours. Don't mind me. I'll let myself out." The nofsferatu opens a secret door on the western wall and begins packing.
Now that Ramoska has moved away from the door, you can enter and get a better look at the operating table.
Ruan Mirukova lays unconscious and the table and is held fast by the table's three heavy iron crossbeams. There are three identical levers on the side of the table. The levers can be moved to any of 20 slots, each denoting an inch of space between the restraints and the table's surface. Words in Varisian at either end of the levers' paths suggest the mechanisms' use, "up" to the left and "down" to the right. All three restraints are currently set to slot 10. Other cranks on the table adjust its height and the angle of the table's surface.
Various alchemical supplies and Ramoska's notes are strewn around the room as well. Presumably he intends to take those with him. You hear Ramoska call out from the other room, "Oh, feel free to keep the notes on the blood veil. I have no use for them. Like all the diseases before it, it offered no further breakthrough into curing my vampirism. What a disappointment. Luckily I have an eternity to continue my research."
Ayako frees Ruan from the restraints and gives him some basic first adi.
"Thank you. We'll be happy to take those. Out of curiosity have you had any break through's on a cure?" she asks Ramoska as she begins to gather up any notes pertaining to Blood Veil.
"A cure? For the blood veil? I wasn't looking for one. You're on your own there." says Ramoska.
Ruan is released from the table and is in stable but unconscious state.
"Not Blood Veil. Your own affliction."
Well, we can perhaps leave Ruan here or carry him upstairs. If Majenko and the rescued people are able to get aid, then he will be taken care off.
Yes. 'Luckily.' Sebastian shivers in disgust as they enter the vampire's laboratory. He lets the others poke and prod around the room; Sebastian merely keeps his distance. Distracting himself from the current situation, he tries to gather more information. Calling into the other room, he asks, "What connection does this cult have with the Gray Maidens and Queen Ileosa?"
"Not Blood Veil. Your own affliction."
"No such luck. This excursion was a complete waste of time. But I can't disobey the Conte. By breaking up this cult, you've done me a favor and freed me to return much sooner than expected."
"What connection does this cult have with the Gray Maidens and Queen Ileosa?"
"If there's any connection, it's none of my business."
Well now that we know where we should go, let us place Ruan somewhere safer and deal with this cult once and for all. Ayako is ready to head east.
"Let's put him back in that first room we rested in. It should be safe enough, and one of the first places the rescuers find." Iolana is ready to head east as well.