Vox finally lands a good blow, cutting deep into the man's armor.
As the old man falls, Nicoleta spits on his age-spotted form. Reaching down, she tears off a strip of cloth from the bottom edge of her dress. "Damn thing's ruined already," she says as she begins binding the man's wrists. "Roz? Can you make sure he's not going to die on us? At least in the short term?"
Roz tears her gaze away from Nicoleta’s ankles and kneels beside the fallen Lamm. She breaks the arrow off that is protruding from his chest and examines him. ”He’s stable. Out cold, but probably won’t die.”
"Focus, Roz," the dhampir says, patting the woman's cheek. "Heal now, ogle later." She looks down at the unconscious man. "I want him awake enough to talk."
While the oracle tends to Lamm, Nicoleta turns to the others. "You're pretty good with that bread-slicer, Whitey. Don't kill him yet, though. I have a couple of questions for him first. Once he's answered them, he's all yours."
"And Sweet-cheeks, I owe you an apology. You're not half-bad with that thing," she says with a grin. "Even if the only thing you seem to be able to hit is a pair of nice boots on the hoof." She glances at the alligator and smiles wider.
Aurelia nods to Nicoleta's compliment, but doesn't let her initial statement get lost "Thank you. Compliment accepted."
She points to Lamm "We need to make sure he doesn't leave this place."
Looking to Vox she asks "Are you going to take care of that, Song of Vengeance?"
Roz binds Lamm’s hands and feet with rope for now as you explore the last room.
This foul-smelling room seems to be a combination bedroom and study. A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall, while a round table heaped with dirty plates, bread crusts, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby. At the foot of the bed sits a large strongbox; a slightly rusted lock secures it and a moldy ledger with pages rippled from moisture sits atop its lid. A sagging dresser filled with moth-eaten clothes well past their glory days is in one corner. What appears to be a wooden hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop this dresser.
The ledger is written in Varisian, in a cipher. It will probably take a few hours to try to crack the code.
Lamm’s key unlocks the footlocker. Each of the treasures inside is individually wrapped in a cloth that’s tied shut with twine. The treasures include a narrow teak cigar case inlaid with tiny bits of jade (worth 25 gp,) a 2-pound gold ingot bearing the Cheliax coat of arms (worth 100 gp), a miniature gold crown (worth 350 gp), a fist-sized scrimshaw carving of a kraken with garnets for eyes (worth 200 gp), a silver ring bearing the inscription “For Emmah—the light in my nights” (worth 150 gp), a highly realistic and highly scandalous ivory figurine of two entwined succubi (worth 450 gp), a masterwork shuriken, an adamantine arrowhead, a masterwork dagger with a strange blade shaped almost like a key bearing the inscription: “For an inspiration of a father” (worth 750 gp), an abalone-shell holy symbol of Shelyn (worth 300 gp), a glass tube containing a dose of oil of keen edge, an obsidian wand of magic missile (23 charges), a crystalline vial (itself worth 50 gp) containing a dose of silversheen, and a bejeweled brooch with a broken clasp.
Even to an untrained eye, this brooch is obviously the most valuable object in the entire collection. The circular gold brooch depicts a house drake and an imp coiled around each other in an almost yin-yang pattern. The pseudodragon’s eye is an amethyst, while the imp’s eye is an emerald.
Rozalia lets out a low whistle as she points to the strange dagger. ”Damn. This belonged to the Key Lock Killer. He was one of Korvosa’s most notorious killers, a man who slaughtered over 15 dozen victims between 4690 and 4697 before his killing spree mysteriously ended. He’d break into people’s homes and ‘open’ them up with keys like this, leave them for their loved ones to find after he left. And he always locked up the houses behind them, never leaving any unsecured. Nasty bit of business. Wonder how Lamm got this?”
She looks at the hatbox and shudders. ”I’m kind of afraid to look inside there...”
"That's probably where Lamm keeps his snacks away from the cockroaches," Nicoleta says with a shrug as she flips open the lid to look inside.
The hatbox contains something shocking—Zellara’s severed head, poorly preserved and decorated with unsightly makeup in a crude attempt to give her dead flesh the semblance of life. It is clear that the fortune-teller has been dead for weeks! Her harrow deck sits in a smaller wooden box under the ragged stump of her neck.
Nicoleta stumbles back and her hand moves to her mouth as she attempts to keep down her dinner.
"Oh, f*++!" she curses, scrambling out of the room to get fresher air.
Vox, who had been standing guard over the unconscious Lamm, stalks over to investigate. The site of the severed head gets a sharply raised eyebrow but, all in all, the sight provokes remarkably little reaction.
"She seemed strange." Is the only comment.
She seems uninterested in the valuables, at least for now, and returns to Lamm's side, swishing her sword in short arcs through the air.
"Yes." She answers Aurelia's question. "I will take care of him. Unless you want him?" She turns to Roz. "You have Vengeance also."
Roz grimaces and steps back to allow Nicoleta to run out. ”So, what? The Zellara we talked to is a ghost or something? Freaky...”
She moves beside Vox and frowns at Lamm. ”We both can take our pound of flesh. But I think the others wanted to talk to him first?” She looks at Aurelia and Nicoleta questioningly.
Aurelian grows alarmed when Nicoleta comes stumbling out cursing. She quickly moves into the room behind Vox to see what's a matter. She covers her mouth and stumbles backwards out of the room as well. "What the f#@$! She's been dead for awhile!"
She looks to Vox and Rozalia "I just want him dead. I don't need to cut him to pieces or anything disgusting. I ..." she looks down , ashamed. "I have a thing about blood and gore, I'd prefer he die, but I don't want to see any of it."
Once Nicoleta catches her breath, she gives Lamm another kick for good measure and to make herself feel better.
"So who the f&$@ were we talking to in her house? A ghost? She sure looked f~@*ing real! What in the hells is going on here?" Remembering the other thing she saw in the hat-box, she steels herself before returning to Lamm's bedroom and removing the box underneath Zellara's head.
Returning to the others, she opens the box displaying the woman's precious harrow cards. "These are the same f~@@ing cards she did the harrow reading with." The dhampir looks around at the others, clearly confused.
"I think we'd better head back there and find out what is happening," Rozalia says. "But first... Lamm's fate?"
"The old man, right," the dhampir says with a nod as if she had forgotten the reason they came here.
She squats down to face the bound figure.
"Now listen up. Your fate is in your own hands, old man. What happens to you from here is entirely up to you. I'll I want to know is who killed Nadia Radacan. And don't try to play ignorant because I know you know something about it and I have no qualms about causing pain until you give me what I want."
Lamm scowls up at Nicoleta. "Alright, let me think. Nadia... Nadia..." His eyes glint with cruel malice and he grins, revealing yellowed teeth. "Yes, I remember her now. Such beautiful eyes and silky hair... She was a good whore, but a lousy thief. Thought she could pull a fast one on old Gaedren, swindle me out of my hard-earned loot. Well, I showed her, didn't I? She paid the price for trying to make a mark out of me!"
Nicoleta goes rigid at Gaedren's words. Her hands are clinched in fists so tight that trails of blood sneak from between her fingers.
"Yes, you showed her," she finally says through grinding teeth. She stands slowly and carefully.
"He's all yours," she says to the others before stepping away to look over the table filled with Lamm's junk. One hand reaches up to wipe at her face, smearing blood across her cheek.
Vox bring her blade down sharply, slicing through Gaedrens wrist with one precise blow. The hand flops off into the water, staining the surface red for a moment.
"Nothing good about you Lamm." She states flatly.
Unless stopped for more questions Vox drags the old man to the waters edge and cuts his throat cleanly so that his last sight is that of his own blood splattering across his reflection in the water. She gives the body a contemptuous kick and it slides into the water with a final splash.
"It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again." She sings softly.
Gaedren's screams of pain turn into a gurgle as Vox's blade slices his throat. He plummets into the water, where Gobblegut hungrily opens his jaws wide and chomps down on the old man's body, dragging it down beneath the water.
"A fitting end for a horrible scumbag," Roz remarks. "Let's get out of here."
When you make your way out of the fishery, the sight of smoke rising on the horizon is impossible to miss. The frantic clang of alarm bells sing out in harmony with a multifarious cacophony of screams, the clash of steel on steel, shrieks of terror, and even the periodic detonation of arcane power. A wing of Sable Company hippogriff riders swoops overhead, angling toward Castle Korvosa at a breakneck pace. One of the badly wounded hippogriff mounts rains blood down on the street around you before it succumbs and crashes headlong into a statue, taking its rider and itself to a messy, bone-crunching demise. The others in the flight do not pause to check on their fallen ally.
Amid the chaos, the voice of a Korvosan herald cuts through the din: “The king is dead! Long live the queen!” only to be shouted down by ragged cries of “Hang the queen!” or “The usurper must die!”
It would seem that while you were hunting down Gaedren Lamm, the entire city has gone mad...
Nicoleta takes enough time to gather up the items of value before the group leaves the fishery.
She stands looking at the hat-box for a long moment before closing the lid and grabbing the handle to bring it as well.
"We should head back to Zellara's house," she says as she surveys the chaos the city has fallen into.
Vox barely spares the chaotic city a glance, she's more concerned with the large brood of children that are following her with varying degrees of confidence or fear.
"You go." She says shortly. "The children matter more."
The drow steps away and then pulls up short.
"Thank you." She offers, turning back and offering one dark-skinned hand to her new companions. "Go to Leaf's Blades tomorrow. My friend will want to thank you for helping to rescue her apprentice."
With that, Vox heads into the city, heading for the nearest temple of either Sarenrae or Shelyn. Once there she gives a brief explanation of the circumstances from within the safety of her headscarf and consigns the children to the temple priests for safety. She retains Tobias and takes him back to Leaf's Blades, trying her best to deflect his questions until they reach the privacy of the store.
Aurelia listens intently as Nicoletta questions Lamm. She had planned to ask a similar question, but given Lamm's response to her, it didn't matter what he would say. She looked away, feeling the dhampir's pain as her own. She squeezed her own eyes shut and focused away the pain that threatened to flood in, squeezing harder and harder until the black turned white.
She tuned out whatever was happening with Vox and when she opens her eyes, Lamm is gone with only spattering of blood between where he was and where Vox stands at the edge of the water. She moves to Vox and says softly to her "Thank you for taking care of him.", wiping away her own tears.
She helps search the place when they are done, taking whatever they can find that might be relevant. She points to Zellara's head and asks "Uhm. Should we do something with that?" When Nicoleta's picks it up, she nods and says "Thank you. I'm not sure I could carry that."
When they walk outside, she's overwhelmed with the chaos. "I don't understand, what's happened? Someone's killed the king? Yes, let's get to Zellara's, great idea Peaches."
”Either somebody killed him, or he kicked the bucket on his own. The geezer was getting on in years,” Rozalia says with a frown. ”Better lie low until all this madness settles down. Zellara’s seems like a good place to start.”
Vox meanwhile returns to Leafs Blades without incident, entering rough the backdoor that she left unlocked specifically. Tobias watches with curiosity as she moves arou d the darkness room, placing the armor and weapons in quiet corners where they won't be easily noticed.
"Come through." Vox tells the boy, leading him I to the small kitchen. ]b]"Don't talk to me for a minute or so and then Iolaire will answer all your questions. I promise."[/b] With that she takes a seat on the floor and begins to breathe slowly and calmly.
A minute later Iolaire opens her eyes and sweeps a lock of red hair put of her face. "So?" She asks, half dreading Tobias's reaction.
Though uneasy about being lead by a drow, the rescued children nevertheless accompany Vox to the nearest temple, the Sanctuary of Shelyn. Navigating the streets is tricky, as the citizens of Korvosa are in full-fledged riot mode, but the vigilante manages to get to her destination safely and leave the orphans in the care of the clergy. From there, she brings Tobias to Leaf's Blades.
Once inside, the boy glares at the drow defiantly, but his expression changes to one of wonder when she transforms back into Iolaire. "Whoa! Cool! So is this the real you, or is it the drow? How do you change? Do you have any other powers you never told me about?" He bombards the elf with questions.
***
When the rest of you return to Zellara's home, you find it abandoned, and showing clear signs of having been empty for weeks. No sign of the food, the wall hangings, the rugs, or Zellara herself can be found—the furniture is in pieces, scattered throughout the room under a thick layer of dust disturbed only by the footprints and evidence you left yourselves on your prior visit.
From within her pocket, Nicoleta can feel Zellara's Harrow deck begin to get warm. The air wavers as an image of the Varisian woman manifests before you. "My friends... I suppose it is time I came clean. Yes, I am dead. The story I told you about my son is true, but what I didn't tell you was that I tried to infiltrate the fishery and confront Gaedren Lamm myself. He caught me and had me killed, but my spirit did not pass on to the Boneyard. Instead, my lingering anguish and despair infused these very cards, and so I became this. A haunt, tied to my Harrow deck and my home here.
"I could sense the pain of all those whom Gaedren's evil had touched and hurt, and so I was able to reach out to you. I thank you for bringing Gaedren to justice, but now that Korvosa has apparently erupted into anarchy, I find that I cannot move on yet. I must stay to see peace restored to the city I love. So I shall stay and help as best I can in the dark times ahead."
These features are subtle manifestations of the spirit that haunts the cards. In life, Zellara lived by this deck, and in death, she has become the deck. Although this magical harrow deck wasn’t created using the standard method for creating magic items, it should nonetheless be treated as an intelligent magic item. Zellara can sense the world around the deck via sight and sound, and she can communicate with anyone who holds the deck via empathy. She can create a major image once per day, often doing so to generate an image of herself manipulating the cards—in this manner, she can carry on conversations with other creatures in Common or Varisian. She can also cast identify for anyone who holds one of the cards of the deck to his forehead (a move action) up to three times per day.
Zellara’s harrow deck has a special purpose as well: to defend and protect the city of Korvosa, her home in life and in death. In order to attain this purpose, she can periodically perform powerful harrow readings for those she has chosen as Korvosa’s defenders—the PCs. These harrowings grant those who benefit from them a number of Harrow Points that can be used to manipulate fate and chance.
Aurelia is dumbfounded by Zellara returning to explain the situation to them. She looks to the table for the wine that had been left, now understanding why it tasted so bland.
She periodically peeks out the window to watch and see that there isn't any trouble brewing outside. "So what's the plan?" she asks, turning back to Ros and Nicoleta. "We hang out here tonight and regroup with the drow in the morning? Then what?"
"I, for one, could definitely go for a nice scented bath at Tenna's to get this fish stink off of me. But I doubt it will be open amidst this chaos. Probably best to crash here for the night."
Aurelia immediately throws caution to the wind when Rozalia mentions scented baths. "Girl, that is exactly what we need. I need to get this stink of spiders and filth off me. I think it's worth the risk.
We should go!"
A high-pitched voice near Roz says, "You stank of fish before you went to that place!" This is accompanied by several giggles. The oracle growls and swats at the empty air.
"Bah! A stay at Tenna's is expensive, but we've got all that coin we 'liberated' from Lamm. What do you say, Nicoleta?"
Nicoleta has been unusually quiet on the trip back to Zellara's place.
"We do have coin," she says as she sits down at the table and looks over the valuables they brought back from the fishery. She holds up the statue of the intertwined succubi. "Perverted old bastard," she mutters to herself.
"We're not going to be able to fence any of this other s!~* until tomorrow morning - assuming the chaos settles down by then." She considers the idea for a moment. "Why the f&@! not? A hot bath and a bottle of something good sounds like just the thing, assuming no one's looted her place yet."
She gathers back up the valuables and pats her pocket. "What do you think, Zellara? Do we deserve a hot bath?"
Nicoleta feels a reassuring warmth from the harrow deck. It seems Zellara supports the decision.
Tenna's is located in Citadel Crest, not too far from Zellara's home, but it is close to Castle Korvosa, and it seems like the riots are more intense the closer you get to the castle. A handful of doomsayers lurk on street corners, shouting about the end of the world. "The Eye of Groetus has turned from the Boneyard to look upon Korvosa!" one shouts as you hurry past.
Dodging past one crazy person puts you in the line of fire of another, though. A wild-haired, sick-looking man fixates upon Aurelia. "You! I saw you the other night, in my dream... You were broken and bloodied, upon death's door... There will come a time of great sickness and peril during Korvosa's darkest hour, and you will be the harbinger of a new age of writhing doom! Doom! DOOOOOM!" He staggers towards the mesmerist, attempting to grab at her!
Nicoleta interposes herself, or at least her foot.
"Back the f*+% off, a&@$~##!" she barks at the man as she sweeps his feet.
The madman falls face-first onto the street. He groans and quickly scrambles back on his hands and knees, but his eyes never leave Aurelia. "Doom, I tells ya. Doom!"
"Ok, s!~~head, I tried to do this the nice way, but some people just have their own brand of crazy and it takes a little more."
Aurelia isn't ecstatic the girls all concur on a ladies night out. When Zellara supports their decision, they quickly set out on their way. The full weight of the riots don't really sink in on the mesmerist until the doomsayer accosts Aurelia.
"What?!" she gasps, stepping backward away from the man as he stries to grab her at her. "No. You're high on shiver or something. GEt away from me!."
She stares at the man and then casts a dazing spell to confuse him momentarily, stepping behind Nicoleta. "Peaches, he scares me. If you don't mind..."
The lunatic succumbs to Aurelia's magic, leaving him helpless as Nicoleta pins his arms behind his back, eliminating any danger he might pose to you.
With the man secured, Aurelia walks up and approaches him, crouching down in front of his face. She asks "What is this nonsense you spew from your vile mouth? What doom do you speak of? You must tell me what you know or my friend here will knock you into next week. Speak quickly now, tell me of the sickness."
"I have seen the streets filled with the dead and dying. Covered in rashes, blisters, blood pouring from every orifice," the crazed man babbles. "Swarms of birds descend to peck flesh from their bodies. And then the worms... Wriggling beneath the skin, burrowing through the very cobblestones of the city. Writhing, squirming, thrashing, flailing... Doom! Doom and gloom and doom, doom, DOOM!"
"I'm pretty sure this guy's just plain barmy," Rozalia says. "We should get off the streets. Tenna's is just a few blocks away."
"Grade 'A' nutter, Sweet-cheeks," Nicoleta grumbles as she restrains the man. "Don't pay any attention to him."
You leave the man to his delusions as you continue up to the Heights, reaching your destination without further incident.
Smallest of the three bed and breakfasts in Citadel Crest, Tenna’s stands on Volshyenek Loop across from the manor grounds of House Ornelos. While the most expensive, Tenna’s makes up for its price by offering the most amenities in Korvosa: scented baths, massages, manicures and pedicures, a valet, and three lavish meals, to name only a few. Tenna’s can hold up to 11 guests in four rooms.
For the price of 10 gp, you are able to secure a suite with all of the amenities. "Quite a bit of commotion going on out there, isn't it?" the propietor Tenna asks. "Poor King Eodred. The Curse of the Crimson Throne strikes again! I hope the authorities get things settled soon. Ah, well. Shall I have the valet draw your baths?"
Three large tubs are brought into your suite and filled with warm water scented with the sweet aroma of roses.
Rozalia wastes no time in divesting herself of her clothes and sinking into her tub, the short woman almost disappearing beneath the water. "Ah... Green Mother, this feels so good..."
There's the sound of flatulence, and then a burst of bubbles erupts from the water. "Ugh! Bloody fairies! Just let me relax, will you?"
Nicoleta stretches languidly as her damaged dress drops to the floor revealing nothing underneath but flawless, blood-stained, olive-colored skin.
She slips into her own tub and bubbles burst to the surface. "Yeah, bloody fairies," she says with a crude laugh. A sigh follows as she relaxes back against the edge of the tub.
"So what do you do for fun, Roz?" she asks, her head back and her eyes closed.
Regardless of the comfort from her new friends, Aurelia is unnerved the rest of the trip to the bath house. It isn’t until the fragrant warmth moisture fills the room does she seem to relax and let go of the crazy chatter from the street.
She follows suit and disrobes quickly, showing off various tattoos on her body that seem to contrast the unusually pale skin that would mark her closer to Chelaxian than Varisian. She is about the make a comment on how often Roz gets away with blaming the fey for their jokes when Nicoleta accomplishes the same task through different means. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head without further comment.
She sinks herself all the way under the water to soak her hair and face, coming back up in time to await Rozalia’s response on fun. ”We already know what your fey do for fun. Why is it they pester you anyway?”
Rozalia drinks in the sight of Nicoleta’s and Aurelia’s bodies appreciatively.
”You mean when I’m not taking vengeance against the man who tortured me throughout my childhood?” she replies wryly. ”I’m a regular performer down at Exemplary Execrables. Apparently people will pay to see a chubby girl tell jokes and get pranked by fairies. They love the farts and nips slips there. It’s not glamorous but it gives me money to go drinking.”
She looks to Aurelia. ”The faeries found me after Lamm tossed me out on my ass. Their mistress gave me some power in exchange for being cursed with constant annoying hangers-on. Still don’t know if the bargain was worth it.”
"So you get humiliated on stage for money. They're a lot worse ways to make a living. But what do you do for fun? I can't imagine that being very relaxing."
Nicoleta opens her eyes and looks over at Aurelia. "Speaking of which ... What's your story, Sweet-cheeks? You're wearing Varisian ink, but you don't quite look Varisian."
Rozalia shrugs. ”Oh, you know, drink, f%#*, read the occasional book.”
"You sound like a woman I could party with," Nicoleta says with a grin as she waits for Aurelia's answer.