Kayleigh looks everywhere except at the psychotic elf woman. But not very closely, in her flustered state.
With the clearly unstable woman under control at least, Ariadne joins the process of searching the manor.
Vedika plops herself down to keep a suspicious eye on the elf captive while the team searches the house for their true quarry. Some folks can get out of restraints, after all.
Trusting Zahur with the small bound woman, Brig concentrates on looking for Ruan
Baldrek follows along.
You explore the manor carefully, sadly there are no signs anywhere of a body that matches Ruan's description.
In the cellar E3 there is a small, locked door in the corner. The door is very sturdy and the lock is a of good quality.
What are you doing now?
"Lemme give this a try, see if he's locked in here."
Within, among the painting supplies, is a tawdry-looking divan, a small shrine to Shelyn, several scandalous portraits of Olauren Carowyn, and Ausio Carowyn himself.
He brandishes a dull paint knife at you when you enter, trying his best not to shake too obviously.
What are you doing now?
"Nicely done Vedika."
"You can stay your hand, Lord Carowyn, we're here to help." Ariadne says, sheathing her sword as she takes in the distraught noble along with the shrine, the artwork and contents of the hidden chamber, trying to piece it all together.
.
Thoroughly restocked in preparation for the Carowyns’ masquerade, most of this wine cellar’s contents have gone unused. Nestled away at the rear of this room is a small workshop that Ausio Carowyn converted into a studio.
============================================================
Ausio Carowyn has never been a brave man, and when Jolistina began her murder spree, he quickly exited the party, making for his semi-hidden sanctuary here in the cellar.
He has remained hidden here for some time now, listening to the shuffling of undead feet and the high-pitched laughter of a madwoman above while subsisting on a steadily diminishing cask of water stored within this room and what rats he can catch for dinner.
“We were greeting the Westerkiers when the elven acrobat we hired as an entertainer went crazy. I saw her open fire on one of my guests with her crossbow, laughing all the while in the most frightful, shrill way. I’ve been locked in here for days, and every time I got up the courage to sneak out, I heard that horrible laughter above. Is she dead? Is it safe?”
Ausio inquires after his wife and loses his composure for a few moments should you inform him of her demise—he expected the worst, but his response is much more dramatic as he learns her true fate.
If you ask after Ruan, Ausio recalls the youth and last saw him in the gallery on the second floor.
What now?
"You should come with us to Marshall Kroft." There is pity in the big woman's voice, seeing him crumble after learning of his wife's death. His wealth, opulence, separates them by leaps and bounds, but that pain...
"Come on." she gentle gets him to rise "Kroft will help get things settled."
Kayleigh also tries to console Ausio, but there are a couple of nagging questions she needs answered. "Do you know who hired the elf to entertain at your party?" she gently asks the distraught nobleman. Then she adds, "Did she give any indication as to why she did this?"
"Are there any secret doors in this complex? Hidden cupboards? Old, boarded up rooms? Any chance that someone might still be here but we missed them?"
As the contemplate any other possible hiding places or anyone else that could still be in the manor, Ariadne makes sure to secure any equipment or weaponry on the elven acrobat's person, relieving her of anything that could aid her should she somehow escape.
Ausio is broken and follows you numbly. He shakes his head and tells Kayleigh he and his wife hired the entertainers from the normal service.
There is nothing left to dig up in the manor.
Marshall Croft is grim faced hearing your report. She takes Jolistina off your hands and assigns her to her most skilled and experienced interrogators. Promising you any information they can get from the madwoman.
After exploring Carowyn Manor, you have both good news and bad news to report to Deyanira Mirukova. Although the manor was filled with the dead and undead, her brother was not among them.
Deyanira pays you anything she promised, entreating you to keep an eye out for her brother and to come to her with any rumor of him you might hear.
She knows of the service the Carowyns used for the entertainers. Jolistina is new and unknown to her and anyone at the service. Obviously she used it as her chance to slip into the manor.
Still distraught, she solemnly excuses herself from your company.
Marshall Croft draws you to one side, out of earshot of anyone listening once you have finished talking to Deyanira.
The plague continues to grow everyday. The 'Queens Physicians' seem to have little to no success in curing it. I believe it is time someone dug a little deeper into these mysterious healers. Perhaps you might know of someone not part of the watch who might be quiet and capable enough to investigate without making a lot of noise?"
What is your reponse?
"Well, I'll probably be a bit on the clanky side, but maybe I could use a silence spell or two to keep things relatively quiet."
The cleric then says she's willing to try if the others are up for it.
"I think she meant without drawing too much attention...rather than literal noise." Ariadne points out.
The Queens Physicians have taken over a former warehouse on the west docks and renamed it as the 'Hospice of the blessed maiden'.
The first floor is open to the public, it's the other areas that are unknown.
.
Ok, somewhere to go and investigate. What are you doing now?
"Hmm..., I'm a healer, so I could go inside and ask if perhaps my services might be required?" Kayleigh suggests to the others, not sounding sure of herself. "I might be able to pull it off, so long as I don't have to lie a lot. Then I'll report back to you all."
Kayleigh takes a deep breath, covers her nose and mouth with a folded kerchief, enters the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, and looks around for someone to speak with. She tries her best to look friendly and naive (in other words, the normal Kayleigh).
F1 Entry
The stinging scent of alcohol and medicine floods this dingy reception
room, an odor typical of hospices—and morgues. Across from the entrance sits a long wooden desk, beyond which a stained leather curtain covers an archway, muffling the moans issuing from the rooms beyond.
This reception room serves as the public face of the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden (formerly Arkona Imports West Dock).
Six poor citizens huddle in chairs and against walls here, some having waited for hours to be seen by the Queen’s Physicians in the hospice proper beyond. Each of these men and women exhibits symptoms of blood
veil, some at quite advanced stages.
A burly “nurse” named Bhrunlida Torthus sits at the desk, hired by the Queen’s Physicians to serve here. This blunt and bull-headed
woman’s job is to take the names of those who come to the hospice and ensure that patients are admitted to the quarantined main hall of the
warehouse in order and when the doctors are ready.
Nurse Torthus has no real compassion for the sick and does all she can to avoid contracting the plague herself, including avoiding physical contact, as well as wearing three scarves over her mouth and nose and
heavy leather gloves over her hands.
When Kayleigh enters Nurse Torthus looks up disinterestedly and waits for them to come over and add their name to her list of those waiting for treatment.
What are you doing now?
.
Bridgita follows Kayleigh into the Hospice, not wishing for her to go in without someone to back her up. She also wears facial covering. And looks at the Nurse with a furrow in her brow, wondering why she became a nurse with her outlook.
She leaves the talking to Kayleigh, stands next to her, while looking for danger or gaurds.
As Kayliegh and Brigita enter, Ariadne studies the building and it's surroundings.
"Vedika, think you can do a quick perimeter check without being noticed? See if there looks like a way out for emergencies or a secret body dump site at this place too?" she asks their stealthiest member.
"Good day," Kayleigh says in greeting to the receptionist. "We're a couple of concerned citizens and were just wondering if the Queen's physicians have had any luck in terms of curbing the blood veil, because it's still quite prevalent throughout much of the city. I'm a healer and can cast remove disease spells, but if the Queen's physicians have learned any mundane methods of fighting the disease, I'd like to hear them so I can use them myself. Or...if my healing skills could be of help here, I'd be happy to pitch in and do my duty to aid Korvosa in its time of great need."
Not having much to add both in terms of diplomacy and subterfuge, Zahur remains behind but alert.
"Vedika, think you can do a quick perimeter check without being noticed? See if there looks like a way out for emergencies or a secret body dump site at this place too?" she asks their stealthiest member.
"Yeah, you got it."
(+1 vs. traps)
The serpent-woman makes a slow perimeter, moving cautiously as she checks seams, corners, and spaces where something might possibly conceal an alternative entrance, exit, or trigger mechanism.
When one of the Arkona Imports warehouses on West Dock was purchased nearly 4 months ago, few people raised an eyebrow. That the shrewd Arkonas would sell one of their half-full storage houses struck most as simple
business sense.
As expected of the rumor mill there were whispers that the warehouse was one of the Arkonas’ most secret and secure smuggling dens.
No sign of any secret entrances.
Kayleigh, the nurse ignores your words and indicates the register. Clearly expecting you to sign in as a prospective patient.
What now?
Kayleigh plays the wide-eyed ditz, standing where she is as if still waiting for the woman's reply. She takes the time to casually examine the front room for doorways into the heart of the building, as well as looking for anything unusual or out-of-place in the area.
"Is the list for asking questions or for being treated?" Brig asks, looking at the nurse with a furrowed brow that both says, Question and Annoyed.
But she signs the register anyway.
Studying the building from outside, Ariadne frowns to herself. Looking over at Zhur, she voices her skepticism.
"The Arkona's selling this place 4 months ago, seems more than a little suspicious that it's the perfect place for Queen's physicians to set up shop no? Especially since they supposedly didn't exist then." she muses. "At least not officially."
"Perhaps, but I do not know if there were intermediaries between then and now. Could be something, could be nothing, but with the Arkonas it is probably something."
Kayeligh hears and smells a ward full of ill people behind the thick leather curtain, groans and wheezing. The stench of alcohol, sickness & waste.
Brigita signs the book and is sent to wait in the queue behind the sufferers.
She's not letting you jump the queue. What are you doing now?
Kayleigh makes a sudden break for the leather curtain, shouting at the receptionist, "Someone cried out in pain just now! Didn't you hear that?" Not her best bluff attempt....
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As soon as Kayleigh makes a plausible distraction, Vedika vanishes and sneaks into the back.
(Usual +20 for invisibility probably applies)
Brigita huffs a little but as much as her hand tightening around her hammer shaft speaks differently, she cannot bring herself to do violence just to get out of a queue.
She was about to suggest waiting outside, when Kayleigh makes a break for it.
"Sit" she growls at the nurse and glares at the guards (if any of them moves toward Kayleigh).
.
Kayleigh moves towards the oddly swinging curtain, the 'nurse' immediately moves to stop her and bellows an alarm. She is ignoring Brigita for now and is moving to restrain Kayleigh, not attack her.
Vedika slips past the leather curtain into a scene of horror!
F2 Sick Ward
The warehouse’s vast interior has been converted into one gigantic convalescent ward. The stench of alcohol, sickness, and waste chokes the breath, and tight rows of low, stained cots cram the stone-floored hall. Every bed is filled with a pitiful story—men and women of all walks groaning and wheezing as they’re consumed by blood veil, their sufferings multiplied by the echoing chamber.
More than 60 cots fill the area, each holding a helpless citizen; most are too weak to even rise from their stinking sick beds. While much of the room is filled with beds and the dying, the northeast holds an improvised kitchen with room and supplies enough to make the patients their daily watery gruel.
Vedika can see the Queen's physicians wandering the room observing the patients, they react immediately the moment they hear the nurse bellow.
She can also see the 4 Grey maiden foot soldiers guarding the room. 2 guarding the stairs to the north. 2 on the catwalks 20' overhead. The 2 on the catwalks have bows.
Ariadne & Zahur are just outside the door. Vedika is inside the sick room. Brigita & Kayleigh are in the reception room dealing with the nurse. The Foot soldiers are getting ready to fight. The Physicians are moving towards the entrance. What are you doing?
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"So much for 'without making a lot of noise'" Ariadne mutters to herself, sharing a look with Zahir before racing toward the door, one hand reaching up to tap the center of her breastplate as she releases a pulse of arcane energy that brings sigils flaring to life on her armor as she does, uttering a defensive spell that brings flashes briefly before fading into an invisible shield of force. She holds off on drawing her sword in the hope that this doesn't end in all-out mayhem.
Brigita holds up her hands in a peaceful gesture, well as peaceful as one can holding a massive hammer in one of them. "We are not hear to fight." especially not in a room full of sick people.
Zahur was just returning from his exploration on the outside and then rushes after Ariadne. "It is a warehouse, there are doors on the back... lets back off and try those if possible."
Kayleigh gives an uncharacteristic growl of frustration and anger as the receptionist cuts her off. "You don't care one bit what happens to those poor, sick people, do you?" she spits at the woman.
Brigita can hear footsteps coming towards the reception area in a hurried pace.
Kayleigh is correct in her statement, the 'nurse' is completely indifferent towards the sick.
The 'nurse's' attempt to grab Kayleigh is weak and clumsy.
What are you doing now?