Briggi scratches his head and tries to help Ernhild
"It's going to take forever to go through it all. Any magic knives in this pile?" she asks Narciso.
...
Narciso gives Ernhild a hard look and points out the obvious "I'm thinking they'd keep magic knives in a separate pile.."
Then he sighs and checks the knives with detect magic.
The knives are a collection of sharpened keys and daggers modified to have a resemblance of a key. None are magical. The forms are similar, but some are more intricately worked than others. But none of them have any inscription.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well this could be like the others, but I don’t see another with an inscription. So maybe that matters: “For an inspiration of a father”. Maybe Garidian had a family or one of the Lambs looked up to him as a father figure? But going from serial killer to petty thief seems odd.
Unless he took this from someplace else like the rest of the items in the box.
The documents contain what the field marshal told. Stomach turning drawings of gruel mutilations, and hundreds of pages of horrified witnesses' testimonies who have seen nothing, heard nothing and have no clue how the murder came into the house. The only thing that is odd, is that they didn't even come up with a likely suspect. Not a single person was interrogated in that regard.
|
Ernhild summarizes the content of the documents to the rest of the party in a few words. "That's weird," she concludes. "You'd think a crime scene within the space of your own house would trigger some questions about everyone's alibis. Or a list of likely suspects."
She double-checks the documents to see if there's a pattern of victims, or if there's some prominent names in the witnesses' testimonies.
Narciso turns to Briggi "Does the watch have a smith or an armorer on staff who could tell a new forging from old? I don't have the skill, but if that knife we found is a new forging, that would be a good thing to know... and we should talk to someone who will keep his mouth shut."
Aye, we can go ask the smith and check around at other places that deal in weapons. I suspect that these weapons need some skill to make, no ordinary butcher's blade.
"If you'd ask me, I'd tell you that the smiths working here are just good enough to repair agricultural equipment. Or have you seen the Filed Marshal wear anything they made? In the whole of Korvosa there are almost no proper smiths found. The ironworks ruined most of the aspiring smith's buisinesses. It's a pity."
Most of them are crude garbage with the changes made putting the structural integrity of the blade into question. If you had to take a guess, you'd suspect the murder to be an amateur smith at best wo did the changes himself.
"If you'd ask me, I'd tell you that the smiths working here are just good enough to repair agricultural equipment. Or have you seen the Filed Marshal wear anything they made? In the whole of Korvosa there are almost no proper smiths found. The ironworks ruined most of the aspiring smith's buisinesses. It's a pity."
The Ironworks? What’s that?
Zellara, I really need to learn more about this city, so I don’t sound like some clueless foreigner all the time. Can you do a reading or something that points me to someone who might be able to teach me?
"That is that loud, smoking factory that mass produces all the metal products this city needs."
I figure they no doubt did it at home on a personal forge. Sigh...This might be a dead end.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In the evening, muttering under his breath, Narciso takes the ledger into one of the bedrooms. Clearly challenged by the intellectual puzzle of the code, he spends the evening working on substitution codes...
1 rank + 4 int
Narciso manages to decipher the relatively simple code after a few hours
of work.The ledger contains a remarkably complete and concise accounting of much of Gaedren Lamm’s criminal activities.
This should be worth something to the Korvosan Guard as it might solve some supposedly (as Lamm was never caught) open criminal cases.
Briggi gets in some much needed legwork to get to know the city better. He had been jump simple headthumper before and he really needed a better attitude and get cracking on things other than skulls.
He also visited some smiths that he knew worked for the guard and got some pointers on metalwork. If they needed to dig deeper into these daggers, he best know what he was looking for.
Tish spends a bit of time talking with Zellara learning about the city from one who has lived here for years, trying to get a feel for the districts that the city has.
Then she clears more space in Zellara’s house and starts practicing with her spear while she waits for the others to come back.
When the group gathers again she finishes her Kata and addresses the group.
Should we try to return the Brooch this evening? Hopefully the riots have all settled down now.
Ernhild indeed finds some more 'documents' in an antiquarian bookstore. One is a raunchy short novel about an alchemist who wins some married women over for adultery by applying chloroform. And then a while later, he visits them at home to reap the unripe fruit of what he sowed for his experiments to create a spawn from hell.
The second one is just two pages of a matter of factly report who comes to a straight forward conclusion who is the culprit
Yea, let's get this brooch returned tonight.
The streets are not really calm yet. A thick tension lies over the town, especially around the castle. Castle Korvosa can be approached from all four directions — ramps and stairways allow access up the sides of the pyramid to the courtyard surrounding the central structure. Normally, petitioners to the monarchy would approach from a broad ramp, wait in a public courtyard to speak to the Korvosan Guards on duty, and hope for a chance to be heard. In these frantic times, the Castle has been locked tight and bristles with swords and crossbows. The guards on duty that block the ramp demand to know the business of the group approaching.
Private Briggi from the city guard, we are here to return property that has been stolen from the queen. I present the brooch. "It was in the possession of a criminal by the name of Gaedron Lamm.[/b]
|
|
Ernhild is content with letting Briggi handle the discussion with the guard while she gets lost in her own thoughts.
She was never one to pay too much attention to the comings and goings of the royal family or the aristocratic. Who moved in those high spheres were not part of her regular clients, and had little to do with the life of the temple.
Yet she seemed to remember the Queen as a recent addition to Korvosa. There might have been some talks when she married her royal consort, even in the most sacred enclave of Abadar's infirmary.
1 rank +4 int
Whispers of King Eodred Arabasti II taste for scandalously young companionship have dogged the king throughout his rule, and when he finally wed late in life, it was no surprise that his bride was barely a third of his age. Queen Ileosa was a woman of breathtaking beauty, and some of Korvosa’s nobles worried of the dangers of placing a “trophy wife” within reach of the Crimson Throne, but Ileosa’s interest in the city seemed secondary to her desire for the life of luxury it afforded—and with the more-than-competent seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis currently guarding Castle Korvosa’s interests, these noble families felt they had little to worry about.
"The brooch - ok. You need to leave all weapons here and will be guided inside." the guard in command informs you and waves over four other guards. In full gear, sword at their side, loaded heavy crossbows in hand come over for the escort.
Briggi disarms and will follow the guards
Tisha also sets aside her spear, sap, dagger and crossbow/bolts.
Then she stands quietly watching the guards and awaiting any further commands. Do the guards look particularly on edge, or does this seem normal?
Ever been to the castle before Zellara?
Narciso leaves behind his longspear, dagger, cestus, crossbow and quiver of bolts. (He keeps his spell component pouch).
The obviously nervous guards escort the group up to the castle. As the group reaches the top of the pyramid and the wide stairs curling up to the castle’s third floor, where the Crimson Throne awaits, they are greeted by a stern-looking woman dressed in magnificent full plate armor. "Greetings. What is your business here at the castle?"
After a short exchange between the woman and the group and verification that you indeed have the brooch she steps aside and holds out a hand to welcome you into castle Korvosa.
To the guards she tells "You may return to your posts. These heroes pose no threat to the queen."
She then leads the way and asks how the group would like to be introduced to the queen.
Ever been to the castle before Zellara?
Hehe, no.
Private Briggi Plantenn He tries to remember if he has seen the woman
"Narciso of Theumanexus College"
Oh. Cleric of Abadar. That makes a lot of sense.
Knowing that her formal name is title enough for these humans, Tisha simply tells the woman:
Latisha Nerifaren
The woman, Queen Ileosa's personal guard, leads you further to the trone room. "It is people like you, skillful, honorable and loyal to the queen that Korvosa needs the most at the moment."
As you round the corner, she announces their arrival with a loud, clear voice, introducing you with the names and titles given. Then steps aside to allow you to enter the throne room.
Queen Ileosa sits upon the Crimson Throne. She is a vision of beauty despite the black mourning dress and veil she wears in honor of her husband’s death. The throne room itself - an open area with a vaulted ceiling, stained-glass windows of past kings and queens looking down from the eastern wall, and crimson tapestries hanging along the others - is pristine but strangely empty.
An immense fireplace offers additional light and heat to the hall, and a silk carpet provides a gently arching path to the throne’s base. The personal guard takes the brooch from you, hands it over to her queen with a flourish, and then takes up a position at the throne’s left side as Ileosa addresses you.
"This brooch was stolen from me some time ago—I had not expected to see it again, truth be told. And yet, here on my darkest day, you come before me with kindness. The return of this brooch is much more than an honorable deed. It is inspiration. It is hope."
"I love Korvosa, as my husband did before me. His death has shocked the city as it has me, but I will not see his legacy destroyed in death, and I shall not see my city torn apart. All Korvosa stands at the precipice of a disaster wrought by her citizens—these riots cannot continue. You have already done my heart a great service in returning this precious heirloom to me on this dark day, and you shall be rewarded. Yet perhaps
you can serve your city more."
"The Korvosan Guard is stretched thin, and it could certainly use the aid of heroes such as you. If you so choose, I shall have Sabina see to it that you have an escort of guards when you leave here—they can see to your safe journey to Citadel Volshyenek. I shall send word ahead of you to Field Marshal Cressida Kroft to let her know you are on the way. Now, I need to retire to my chambers—my grief has drained me. Again, I thank you for the kindness you have shown me, and I hope your days of serving the crown are only just beginning."
With this, the queen directs the personal guard to hand over the reward for returning the brooch. The bodyguard swiftly does so, handing a small silver chest to you. Inside the red-velvet-lined interior rest 12 gold ingots imprinted with the royal seal of Korvosa — each bar is worth 100 gp.
At this point, Queen Ileosa excuses herself. With a whirl of the hem of her mourning dress, Queen Ileosa is gone from sight.
The personal guard escorts you back out of Castle. There she offers you an escort to the Citadel, which houses the Korvosan Guard.
The personal guard escorts you back out of Castle. There she offers you an escort to the Citadel, which houses the Korvosan Guard.
"That's not necessary, I'm sure you have important things to do, and Briggi here knows the way.."
Narciso is quick to dismiss the need for an escort (he wants to have a private chat with Tisha and Ernhild about being drafted).