"It is public. The queen just made sure everyone she deems important to be invited, that it is not missed."
"So off you go, if you visit that or not. I have things to do before I hurry there too."
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"For sure they don't need her for a trial. But you can't do an execution in absentia."
As you arrive at the garrison you are stopped in the courtyard and Kroft is informed. As Kroft gets sight of the corpse she is aghast. "They won't take that well." is the first thought she voices. As Ernhild tells of the plan to stitch the corpse together she balks at the idea. "We don't know much about their customs and rituals in regards to the deceased. And this is already a catastrophe. We are not going to add to that by trying to fix it. Put the cart in the room over there, and I'll contact Thousand Bones. He shall decide what happens next with the remains." "Also you don't have time for that. There was an announcement that the trial of Trinia Sabor came to a conclusion. Queen Ileosa has announced that the assassin is to be executed at sunset and has invited many of Korvosa’s nobles, military officers, and anyone of any real import to Castle Korvosa’s public courtyard to witness the event." "I'll be there if I can manage. And I'd expect you to be at least as curious as I am to see what is going on there."
"If the chosen could now get at the task? I need a Shoanti corpse, compelte, and preferably in one piece."
"You deliver on the tasks given to you. No complaints about that." Kroft replies. "But it's crazy times. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're doing it. But in normal times I could hire a hundred mercenaries to go through the Dead Warrens, kill anything that moves and bring back every young, male, dead Shoanti they find. And it would still be cheaper." "But in these crazy times I can't get a single person to sign up for the guard." she tells, throwing her arms in the air. "And look at you. Some random group whose main recommendation was that you had found the queens lost jewellery. It's desperate times when I as the head of the guard have to delegate things that decide between war and peace to you."
"Yes, I remember. Anything else before you busy yourself in preventing a war?" She ponders something for a moment, then adds "It's ridiculous. I have to pay you amounts of money to get stuff fixed, that the guard should take care of with the regular personnel. And in normal times I could hire a small army for that amount of gold."
"Yes. Why make a map of something you'd prefer not to exist?" "You know the old Lamm?"
"I don't know how patient those people are. The faster you resolve this, the better." Kroft replies. "Korvosa’s graveyards, in the Gray District, are riddled with underground chambers, some of them burrowed by ghouls or other monsters, others remnants of ancient Shoanti burial grounds. Some of these warrens are patrolled and kept clear of monsters by the church of Pharasma, yet the Gray District is a large place and the tunnels below are vast and tangled. The Pharasmins focus on containing the problems with undead and necromancers, but as soon as they wipe out one, it seems as if two are ready to spring up in its place. The problem’s particularly vexing in Potter’s Ward, where the bodies of the poor and homeless are buried. According to Thousand Bones, the Dead Warrens were one of his people’s burial vaults. You can find the Dead Warrens in the chambers that lie under Potter’s Ward." Regarding the status of the criminal investigation Kroft tells "We have the man who sold Gaekhen’s body to Rolth in custody: a simpleton named Elkaris. He spilled everything when we told him what was going on and how much trouble he was in. In any event, Elkaris says he delivered the body via wheelbarrow to a partially collapsed mausoleum deep in Potter’s Ward, near the southern edge. A toppled and headless statue of a sword-wielding gargoyle lay in the dirt near the mausoleum’s entrance—he was told to leave the body behind the gargoyle. This location matches where Thousand Bones believes the Shoanti burial grounds called the Dead Warrens are located, so that’s the best place to start the search." To Briggi's question Kroft replies "Thousand Bones described Gaekhen as about 18 years old with short brown hair and a distinctive scar from a firepelt’s claw on his left cheek. Furthermore, Gaekhen had several large and distinctive Shoanti tribal tattoos on his arms and torso. It’s unlikely that any other freshly killed Shoanti are in the Dead Warrens today, so that should be a dead giveaway." "As for Rolth Lamm, he has long been a thorn in my side. A failed Academae student, Rolth’s a monster of a man who was expelled after the true nature of his experiments were revealed. He was butchering vagrants, stray animals, and anything else he could get his hands on to try to build some sort of golem from their collected parts. The Academae didn’t press charges because it didn’t want to cause a scene—it just quietly expelled him and the man’s been trouble ever since. Personally, I suspect he’s responsible for a large number of additional murders over the past decade, each involving mutilation to the body, but he’s a slippery one and I’ve never been able to find any evidence against him. He might or might not be in the Dead Warrens, but anything you can find there that could lead to his arrest would be greatly appreciated."
"Great isn't it. After riots there is a war to bo averted." She opens the drawer of her desk. "Here the pay for the last job." "Any questions about the new one?" She puts a pouch on the deak for you to take.
Cressida Kroft isn’t alone as you arrive at her office; with her is an elderly Shoanti man of 60 winters. He regards you sternly while Kroft introduces him "This is Thousand Bones, a shaman of the Skoan-Quah, the Clan of the Skull." She guestures for you to sit. "You know what went on in the city the last days. Among that, a mob murdered a Shoanti man. I'll leave it to you - Thousand Bones - to give the details."
"So no questioning the witness seither. How convenient." Kroft voices her disappointment. "I'm leaving, there is nothing more to find out here for me. Trinia shouldn't be seen by anyone here in town again. Get her out of town today and without anyone noticing." "And you better practice the art of never been seen anywhere close to Korvosa again. If you show your face again, I'll personally drag your dead body to the queen." "Have a nice day y'all." Kroft leaves this place that stinks of death and fish.
"Yes he was. It was no secret, at least in the circles who had to know." Kroft cuts that short. "So as of now we have the testimony of a palace guard who saw Trinia doing something suspicious. With no detail given. And the witness now being dead after 'falling' off the castle wall." "Together with the fact that there is no trial planned to find out more and Trinia's totally unprofessional behaviour for a professional assassin I think I see the picture." Kroft states. "Have you found anything else that could shed more light into this situation?" she inquires from her agents.
"I am. But I can't be seen with you other than with a squad of my guards putting you in chains. So you have to put up with this look." Croft replies calmly. "How about you tell me about what you know. How did it happen that you were hired, what was your job and how was it executed?"
"No meal for me here. I've seen how this guy makes drinks and it is disgusting enough. I'm ready to go." Kroft tells and downs the rest of her drink.
"He still is a sad sack compared to his former days, but he is mostly sober again and doing his job."
A woman that you don't recognize, dressed in well used farmer's clothes, approaches your table and sits down on a free chair. "I'd be interested in that too." The voice you recognize. But the facial features, and the ginger haircolor don't fit to what you hear.
"Well then. Pick me up at dusk at the Overlook. Try not to look suspicious and don't search for me. I'll find you there."
"Maybe there was a misunderstanding. I asked you to bring her here, so I can interrogate her." Kroft replies. She looks not amused.
"Only half the team and without the wanted person?" Kroft inquires when Ernhild and Briggi enter her office.
"I want her in one piece. I'd prefer that she comes voluntarily, but once the word is out, she probably won't. That you work for me is no problem. You arrest her. Of course if we later find that she is innocent and don't want her executed, it might be easier if no one knows we had her in the first place." "You do what you can to make my life easy, but the priority is getting her before someone else does." Cressida adds "You are probably taller than her."
"It is in the shingles. You know the place, where the poor people stack their 'homes' in that cramped area?"
"Supposedly she slipped something in the king's tea on the last day finishing the portrait. There was a confession of a guard that noticed something of that kind but didn't speak up until he got some special interrogation treatment." "Like I said, I'd like to have the a word with Trinia myself before the mob lynches her or she gets publicly executed without further ado by command of the queen."
"1600?" Kroft calls out wide eyed. Then she looks at 'her boy' with scrutiny. "Well..." she puts a coin bag on the table . "We wouldn't want you to starve." "But if you want to actually earn money, you have to be more careful on your spending." "Payment on the next one only on success. 1000gp. Trinia was the king's portrait artist. That shouldn't be too dangerous for you." Kroft dives a description of what the woman looks like. 5'4" tall, short blonde hair, slender, 20 to mid 20 in age.
"I'll double check with Vencarlo, but I believe that is what he was talking about. When that checks out, we'll check with the ambassador if it is legit." she tells with a smirk. "But things are on the move and there is the next task already. You might have heard the rumors that the king was murdered. Now the killer has been named. Soon this will be made public. Yet there’s something more going on here, I’m afraid. Queen Ileosa could have quietly had this Trinia Sabor arrested at any time, yet the way in which she will reveal the information to the city seems to me like she wants the riots to come back. With the city the way it is, the girl doesn’t stand a chance of a fair trial. They’ll lynch her the moment they catch her. Even if she did kill the king, mob justice isn’t the way. Worse, if she’s innocent, the real killer—if indeed the king was murdered at all in the first place — can use this distraction to throw us off the trail forever." "Before Trinia is captured and executed, I need to be absolutely sure she’s guilty. And that means we need to catch her before someone else does. I’ve managed to determine her last known address - a flat in Midland at 42 Moon Street - but soon, so will the rest of the Guard, and the mob itself, for that matter. This news may rile up the locals and even bands of Hellknights of the Order of the Nail might jump on this. On top of all this, word is that Queen Ileosa’s not satisfied with what the Korvosan Guard’s been doing to address the situation, and that she’s preparing to disband the Sable Company and reveal a newly founded order of specialized guards to help bring order to the city. For now, I’ve still got a fair number of Korvosan Guards who are loyal to me, but the problem is that I’ve got them at work keeping things from getting any worse — and if I were to send them into Midland, they’d trigger a riot." "I’m sure you can see where this is going. I need you to get into Midland, find Trinia, and bring her back to me so we can deliver her, safe and sound, to somewhere she can be interrogated—preferably with magic, so we can be absolutely sure about her role in Eodred II’s death. Get in there, catch her, and get out without letting the mob or the Hellknights or the queen’s guards get their hands on her. I’ll have loyal agents and officers nearby to take her into custody. If you can get her to one of them, we’ll be in the clear. Any questions?"
"No surprise there." Kroft takes the parchment and looks at it skeptically. "You know by chance what is written there? This doesn't look like any language used around here."
"Welcome back. Did you manage to meet Delvargo? How did it go?" Kroft greets you.
"I don't need it today, but don't put it on the shelf."
"No you're not. You remember, no association with the Guard?" Kroft reminds Briggi. "You have Guard written all over you."
"I couldn't have said it better." Kroft takes a heavy coin pouch out of her coat pocket and hands it to Tisha. "That is the bribe money - 100 platinum. Like I said, what you don't need of that to complete the mission is yours to keep." "I assume you know where Eels end is?"
"We don't know for sure how much weight his voice has. The issue isn't starving out the city. The issue is that people have financial obligations. And if sanctions ruin your income for a month or two, and you can't pay your installments, then the bank will forclose." "That happens all the time if you fall on hard times with your business. We just can't have that guy create the hard times and then profit from it by buing everything that gets forclosed. We want Korvisa to stay a free city and not a vasall to Cheliax." "As for Devargo, his enterprise is officially in gambling, drugs and fornication. Inofficially he also gathers information and earns additional money by blackmailing and such. And if you mangage to anger him on his turf, he'll probably feed you to the fish." "But besides not letting us onto his ships, he is really nice to us. He pays his vice taxes and doesn't let fugitives hide on his ships."
"I guess he'd laugh you out of his lair - best case. In normal times we might be able to take him down, if he doesn't hear of it before so he can't pull some strings to have us called back. But nowadays, I wouldn't even have enough manpower to send there." "If you want a stick, carve one of your own."
"Vencarlo has learned something that could degrade into sanctions, embargoes, or even war against Cheliax if we don’t act now. This problem is a man named Darvayne Gios Amprei, an ambassador from Cheliax whose disdain for Korvosa is well documented, though he’s taken great pleasure in what our city has to offer. Even before this recent unrest, this man was ready to recommend to his government a sanction on trade, or perhaps even an embargo." "Vencarlo has learned through his own considerable sources that Ambassador Amprei’s actual goals are to undermine Korvosa’s economy to the point where he can buy up large portions of the city from desperate landholders. He plans to establish himself in a position of power here before advising the end of the sanctions with his allies in Cheliax. We can’t let his bias or personal plans hurt Korvosa. Yet neither can we take drastic action—not only would killing him be wrong, but it’d simply martyr him in Cheliax’s eyes." "Fortunately, the ambassador has his foibles. Again, Vencarlo has learned that Ambassador Amprei has been making fairly regular visits to a place in Old Korvosa called Eel’s End. This den of vice is run by a dangerous man named Devargo Barvasi, better known in Korvosa’s alleys as the King of Spiders. I’d love to put Devargo out of business, but he pays his vice taxes regularly and never causes any problems—in fact, since he keeps his business constrained entirely within the five ships moored at Eel’s End, he’s actually one of the least of my worries." "Truth be told, I can’t decide whether Devargo is a stirge or a kraken. He seems like a bloodsucking pest most days, but sometimes I fear just how far his tentacles have wormed their way into our great city. In this case though, his insidious web stretching across Korvosa’s underworld might be to our advantage." "Devargo would never let someone he recognizes as an ally of the Guard into Eel’s End, but your group’s a different case. I’d like you to pay a visit to Eel’s End and secure an audience with Devargo. Find out what he knows about Amprei, get proof of any illicit goings-on the ambassador might be involved with, and bring that proof to me. I can use it to undermine any forthcoming attempts by him to get Cheliax to cut us off." "Devargo might not be willing to part with his information easily. I’ll supply you with some gold to bribe him, and whatever’s left over you can keep for yourself. Remember: Devargo is dangerous, but so are you—if things get violent, I wouldn’t mourn his passing."
This time, when the group visits Kroft in her office, she’s not alone. A handsome man sits in one of the chairs at her desk, and as the group enters, he rises and bows. "Wonderful, you are here. Let me introduce you to an old friend - Vencarlo Orisini." "Vencarlo, these are the 'volunteers' I told you about."
Nevertheless, the cart is packed and rumbles out of the butchery, hiding from curious eyes, that their favorite meat suppliers are leaving involuntary their business. As it is late at night, or very early in the morning the welcome is curt. Kroft receives you with sleep in the eyes, orders the three prisoners to be put in a cell, hands you the promised reward and sends you off again. "Come later again, around noon. I'll have another job for you." Pouch: The pouch contains 500 gp
"Interesting approach." Kroft comments when informed about the state of events so far. The guards are put in a cell for now until the job is finished.
"Don't make things more complicated than they need to be."
Kroft throws her hands in the air playing drama "The queen is going to ruin the city! Let's ruin it even faster with rioting!" "Even if Vancaskerkin were right, the way he chose and the time are bigger problems for the city now than the issue of how fit the queen is to rule this city." "But anyway, neither you, nor me get to judge the queen, so lets turn to the task at hand. There is gold that needs earning."
"Ah, it's you again. And this time you are sent by Queen Ileosa. Greetings! As you know I'm Field Marshal Cressida Croft, and heroes of your caliber are exactly what the Queen thinks Korvosa needs now. I'm not 100% convinced of that, but I'll give it a try. You’ve been on the streets. You know how bad things are out there. It’s breaking my heart to see Korvosa tear itself apart like this. If you’re willing, I’d very much like to retain your services as agents of the Guard. You will, of course, be well compensated for these services." Assuming you agree to hear her out, Kroft continues. "Korvosa’s got enough troubles as it is without my own guards losing their way. Many have deserted their posts, more concerned about friends and family than the city. I can understand this, yet not all of the deserters have family - some of them are simply using the riots as an excuse for personal gain. One such man is Verik Vancaskerkin. Worse than a lone deserter, he’s convinced a small group of fellow guards that Queen Ileosa is going to ruin the city. Whether she does or doesn’t isn’t the point—right now, we’ve got a city-wide crisis on our hands, and I need all of my guards working with me to see us through." "A deserter is worse than a lost resource - it’s an infection. I can’t afford to pull any of my other patrols off duty to deal with Vancaskerkin, and I’d rather not expose any of them to him anyway, since I don’t want Vancaskerkin to infect more guards with his talk of secession, nor do I want some overly patriotic guard killing Vancaskerkin outright. I need impartial, skilled talent. Talent like you." "Vancaskerkin and his followers have holed up in an abandoned butcher’s shop up in Northgate - a place once called ‘All the World’s Meat.’ I need you there. Try to avoid killing any of the deserters if you can, but if you must, they brought it upon themselves when they threw in their lot with Vancaskerkin. I’d really prefer it if you could capture Vancaskerkin alive and return him to me for interrogation, but if he makes that impossible, I’ll accept his body as well. Finally, see if you can find out why Verik deserted - if there’s more to it than simple personal politics, I need to know immediately." "Bring me Verik alive, and there’s a five hundred gold in it for you. Dead, he’s worth only half that."
Ernhild is surprised to not find the log book on the table when she wants to grab it. Kroft nods to the request.
"If we're going to use titles and ranks, it's Field Marshal Kroft."[b] Kroft replies. [b]"And for me that is just another creepy knife, as long as it doesn't stick in a corpse. The last thing I need in this situation is a serial killer revival. And you told the guy you found it with is dead, so... if you have nothing else that is actually important, I have work to do."
Kroft opens the ledger and crossreads a few pages. "You said you dealt with Lamm. I haven't seen him in a cell, does that mean he will never cause any trouble again? Then I'm not interested in his unintelligible bookkeeping. He wasn't that big a fish." She closes the book an pushes it back to Ernhild. On seeeing the knife she contorts her face. "Don't tell me, you found that in a butchered corpse in a otherwise untouched and locked home." "Otherwise that is a case as cold as a night in Abadius when you live under a bridge. You're welcome to check the 'evidence'. Which is a large collection of such knives, 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." "It is in the archive, third floor."
"Ah finally, took you long enough. Put him in a cell to sober up, I'll have a word with him later." The watch captain greets Briggs. "Who are those other people you brought?"
"You mean the well known swordmaster Vencarlo Orisini? I don't know any Sabina. Why though." The captain scribbles a note, signs it and puts an official seal on it. Then she hands it to Briggi. "Tell private Grau that he got demoted and then you drag his drunk ass here." The note is the written and signed demotion.
Private Briggi reporting for duty Sa! He salutes and speaks to the desk sergeant. I recovered a valuable brooch from a well known criminal by the name of Gaedron Lamm. Several deputized civilians aided me doing so and I wish to fill out a report on it. The brooch has been reported as stolen from the nobility. "Stolen goods? Do I look like I care about stolen goods? There are riots going on in town and you want to write a report? You go out there again and either find a patrol you can join, or you find and bring me Sergeant Grau. DISMISSED." The watch captain is obviously in a bad mood. |