Brig considers the suggestion on fire, then looks at the narrow alleys and pressed in buildings of their city "Might get out of hand." her furrowed frown of worry speaking a lot about what could happen if it did.
"Stealth" the big woman votes. Then thinks about the blood veil.
"Uh, this is a mess and I say this considering the bar has been pretty low lately." Baldrek says as he peeks into the alley. "I'll take a look, so watch my back."
Vedika says, "This all screams ambush site for local gang, to me."
Before Zahur creeps off to investigate, Kayleigh temporarily removes the heavy kerchief that covers her nose and mouth, then quietly informs the others of a potential handicap if undead have found and/or overtaken the body dump.
"As part of my calling as a healer, I took a holy oath. Part of the trade-off for my enhanced healing capabilities is that I can't use my positive energy channels to harm undead...so let's hope there aren't any lurking about!" That said, she replaces the kerchief and prepares for trouble.
Brig nods at Kayleigh's warning. Then before wrapping a cloth around her mouth and nose, she drinks two potions. Heightened awareness and false life. Not her mutagen since there is no certainty that undead will be in there.
D1 Racker’s Alley
The high walls of the surrounding buildings throw this awkwardly bent alley into constant shadow. Although littered with garbage and filth, the refuse isn’t the most stomach turning trait of this rundown side way.
Heaped against a bent wooden wall rises a pile of more than three dozen plague victims, their faces blistered and flushed, eyes open and staring.
The scent of death is overpowered by the reek of rot, suggesting that some of these corpses have been here for days, but even a casual glance reveals that certain bodies seem strangely pale compared to most of the victims who succumb to the sickness.
During the day, Racker’s Alley is thick with fat flies and rats gorging themselves on the corpses.
Zahur slips quietly into the alley, getting no reaction from the gorged rats.
With a successful DC 16 Perception check, a PC confirms that not only are many of the bodies drained of blood, but that nearly half of them bear no signs of blood veil at all—merely twin puncture wounds on their necks, wrists, or inner thighs.
As Zahur gets closer to the pile of bodies he can see a hole in the eastern wall, leading into area D2.
What are you doing now?
Vedika pulls her kerchief back over her mouth and nose and slips in behind Zahur. She pulls her punch dagger, just in case things get weird.
"All of these corpses have bite marks," she whispers, "Like something drank their blood. Snakes, bats, vampires."
Zahur sneaks back towards the others. "You have some pretty good eyes, being able to see it without getting close to them." He says to Vedika. "But not all the bodies are like that, just about half... perhaps who did it was trying to hide the fact by throwing the bodies with the others."
He then points back to the pile of corpses. "There is also a hole in the wall."
"You should see my fangs sometime. Anyway, could also be, I dunno, an evil plague doctor taking samples to spread disease for Norgorber, or something, I suppose."
"Uh...umm...I can't really battle undead very well, but here's what I know about them...."
Kayleigh feels that it could be Vampires, but it is more likely that the corpses are being left by Vampire spawn. A true Vampire wouldn't leave their victims laying about openly.
What now?
Kayleigh tells the others what she's heard about vampire spawn. "We might want to find these creatures before the sun goes down."
"Good to know. If need be I can empower my blade to harm undead more than normal, and we still have the silver we got for the were-rats." Ariadne replies. "It's likely they use the shadows of these darkened alleys as a hunting ground."
"Do we anything we can make into stakes?" Brig asks when Kayleigh tells them the ways to kill one. She did a quick mental inventory of her own pack and knows she does not.
She does go ahead and drink her mutagen, making her muscles grow, her eyes shift into cat like gold and her nose become more a snout. A snout that wrinkles at the horrible smell.
How are you doing this?
"Do we anything we can make into stakes?" Brig asks when Kayleigh tells them the ways to kill one. She did a quick mental inventory of her own pack and knows she does not.
"Reckon we can worry about it later and if we need to, those walls are bent and weakened enough that we could break a plank and turn into stakes." He says, looking for his silver knife.
"I don't believe we'll be able to get the jump on the vampire to the point of putting a stake on its chest, so we'll probably need to defeat it first and then track its coffin."
"So, I can go in first, but I'll need some light, just in case the place is too dark to see."
After shrugging sheepishly in reply to Brigita's question, Kayleigh casts a light spell as directed by Zahur.
"Since most of us probably need light, stealth is pretty much pointless, unless anyone that can see in the dark wants to go first." Ariadne points out.
"I can" the currently cat eyed alchemist says, then drinks one more potions (barkskin) before moving into the alley to search for vampire spawn.
Aiadne tilts her head for a second, clearly impressed as Brig slips into the alleyway like a hunting tigress.
Baldrek offers Kayleigh his necklace so she can make it shine with her light and then follows Brigita to back her up.
.
Vedika looks confused at what you are doing and ghosts forward to peer into the room. Her low light vision enough with the dim daylight penetrating the gloomy alley to see inside.
She immediately signals to the party there are 4 Vampire spawn sleeping inside the room.
.
What are you doing now? 4 sleeping Vampire spawn
Brig pauses, looks at Vedika's wordless explanation and motions her own wordless suggestion of driving stakes into at least one of their hearts before the others wake up.
Thinking, and sighing, she reaches into her pack for some of her blacksmithing tools. Lovingly cared for but worn wooden handled picks that could be driving in the undead chests or two.
And then hands one to their wonderfully quiet Vedika.
Vedika accepts one of the pick handles and backs up to whisper to the team.
"As soon as I stab one of these through one of their chests, it's going to scream and hiss and wake up the others. How do we wanna play this?" she asks.
[b]"The moment you do we go in hard. Take the head of the one you've staked and then move on to the rest. If anybody has anything that could delay them or hold them off for a bit like a holy symbol or a spell, we do that so we can refocus on whoever's next."[/b,] Ariadne replies.
Kayleigh gives Ariadne a grim (possibly terrified) nod and grabs the chain of her holy symbol with her buckler arm's hand, the better to present it forcefully to the vampire spawn. Her right hand clutches her silver morningstar in a white-knuckled grasp.
Vedika nods and trusts in Kayleigh's faith... which is asking a lot of the sketchy vishkanya!
She sneaks up...
... and attempts to plunge the makeshift stake into the spawn's chest.
Brig has issues with someone going into that hole alone, so even though there is danger of her waking the creatures up, she follows Vedika into the den. Being REALLY careful, more careful than her bulk should be, she moves to another of the spawn, waiting until Vedika starts to slam the handle of her favorite pick into one of their heart, and does the same with her second favorite.
.
Anyone else going to give it a try. Two down already.
Taking a risk, Ariadne moves as quietly as she can to one of the other sleeping vampire spawn, ready to plunge a stake into their heart.
.
Ariadne sadly steps on a brittle piece of garage as she tries to slip into the room. The last surviving Spawn springs to his feet and tries to attack, but has to flinch back as Kayleigh's brandished Holy symbol blazes holy light in his face!
.
You steel yourselves take their heads as evidence and to prevent their rising again.
Treasure:
A successful DC 20 Perception check reveals several items amid the soil filling the four vampire spawns’ coffins.
Three leather pouches hold a combined total of 15pp and 300gp, all of Ustalavic minting;
A Ring of jumping sculpted to look like intertwined brass spider legs;
And a set of bone Pipes of haunting.
Survivor Count: By slaying or driving off the vampire spawn and confirming that Racker’s Alley is being used as a dumping ground (and therefore allowing the Guard to take action against such use in the future), the PCs save the lives of 200 citizens.
Marshall Croft is incandescent with rage when you show her the heads of the spawn As you leave her office you can hear her calling for her officers. It seems that some of the more careless plague carters will be having a very bad time soon!
You now have to investigate the Perfumer selling a 'cure'. So what are you doing now?
"Well at least the illegal dumping has Marshal Croft's attention now, and it seems that was beneath the attention of the Queen's elite guards to care about what happens in the poorer sections of the city." Ariadne comments after their meeting with the incensed Field Marshal. "And more importantly those bastards won't be feeding on any more innocent people."
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Brig nods in agreement, she being a woman of fewer words. There is a sheen of pride in her eyes at their accomplishment though.
Fewer words does not mean none, so as the Perfumer comes to mind, she says "I'm going to go buy a cure from this shop to deconstruct it."
"I'll come with," Kayleigh tells Brigita, flashing yet another of her seemingly inexhaustible happy-go-lucky smiles. "While I'm not very good at fighting the undead, I am pretty decent at reading people's intents and can usually tell when they're lying through their teeth."
Brigita & Kayleigh (and whoever else goes with them), head to Summoning street to the Lavender boutique. However they soon see the problem with reaching the store.
They find a queue of eager Korvosans standing in a line that stretches
nearly four blocks from the perfumery’s distinctive amethyst shaded
windows. Many of these people look healthy, but several bear the early but obvious symptoms of blood veil: hacking coughs and blisters.
What are you doing now?
"Of course there would be a line," Kayleigh comments glumly. "Even if this alleged cure does work--which I seriously doubt--everyone, sick or just scared of becoming sick, is waiting together in the same line, which only helps spread the blood veil."
Turning to Brigita, the cleric asks, "Do you suppose if we spoke to the healer and pointed out this problem, that they'd do something to at least try to alleviate it? Or do you think that us cutting to the head of the line is more likely to cause a riot?"
"And more importantly those bastards won't be feeding on any more innocent people."
"Unless of course the vampires for some reason were only feeding on evil and guilty folks." He jokes.
---
"We have a whole bunch of the Queen's doctors running around and looking for the cure. If those behind this place did indeed find a cure, we could only expect they'd share with the doctors... if not, they are more interested in the profit and will be probably happy to see folks clustered."
"Of course there would be a line," Kayleigh comments glumly. "Even if this alleged cure does work--which I seriously doubt--everyone, sick or just scared of becoming sick, is waiting together in the same line, which only helps spread the blood veil."
Turning to Brigita, the cleric asks, "Do you suppose if we spoke to the healer and pointed out this problem, that they'd do something to at least try to alleviate it? Or do you think that us cutting to the head of the line is more likely to cause a riot?"
Vedika says to Kayleigh, "Usually for these snake-oil cures, the goal is just to make money based on a transient opportunity. If someone doesn't get sick, they think the cure worked. If they get sick, the blood veil probably kills them, so they're not around to complain. The salesperson moves on to another market with a pocket full of gold."
"We can't just buy all the samples, that tells the seller that there's a bigger pot of gold out there and they'll just come up with a more elaborate scam. People need an alternative outlet, something that peels them off from the market with a better promise of a cure, and something that discredits the seller."
"If I were evil, I would say something like, infect the seller—or credibly appear to infect them—with blood veil, then publicly challenge them to use their product to 'cure' it. Obviously they will be desperate for a real cure, which could damage their credibility."
Given the tone of things in the city already, Ariadne joins the expedition to the Lavender boutique, much expecting massive crowds and the possibility of a riot, and fully prepared to end up having to pacify the crowd.
Looking at Vedika in surprise, her assessment of her companion's strategy is impressed by the soundness of the idea, notwithstanding the moral issues of willingly infecting someone with a potentially fatal disease.
"It's likely skipping a head would cause a problem, what with our 'not quite official' standing with the guard." she points out. "People are likely to just see us as taking advantage of being better armed than everyone else, to jump the line."
Brig frowns at the people, sick and otherwise. She agrees with the others, but then walks all the way back the store front shouting "COVER YOUR NOSE AND MOUTH! WHETHER YOU FEEL SICK OR NOT! IT HELPS!" the intimidating looking woman with arms as thick as most legs and a massive silver hammer in her hand giving medical advice through volume is at least doing so through a covering of her own on her face.
She shouts this over and over until she gets to the front and then pokes her head in the shop to ask (or to a guard/clerk at the door), "We need spare cloth, any spare cloth, otherwise you'll have more sick in here than not. I will pay for them. Then return in line for... " she waves her hand at the shop.
While the girls stay in the line, Zahur moves around to take a better look at the building, entering the nearby alleys.
.
Those that showed the early signs of Blood veil are already being kept at a distance, Brigita's words get some attention with several people passing scarves or cloth back to the ailing to get them to cover up.
Most however firmly hold their place in the queue and look around with hostility to make sure no one gets in front of them.
Zahur can that behind the store are two doors, one seems to be being used, there is a path from the back of the store to it. Likely an apartment.
The other is bordered up and shows no signs of use.
What now?