KORVOSA's page

One of the mooks responds to the proprietor below by pointing out the blatantly obvious to his boss, Baku. "Hey Boss," the mouth-breather begins, "Wally The Dick says the dinosaur-Tiefling broke the hatch going down." He looks over the bar to the floor, "It don't look broke, just open."

Baku raises his eyebrow for a moment at Sabella's mentioning of "her other companions," only aware of the Infernal guard dog and the Dineh. And also is keenly aware of being flanked by those guardians. "Oh, a Dineh, I never even seen one of you before." 'If only I could cast Stoneskin.

He comments over Lady Sabella to his mooks in The Soiled Sow, "We're not here for that." Then Baku the Mage looks to Lady Sabella and again 'turns on' his agreeable face, trying to be charming, "No need for any official assessment. Like you and, uh, 'your allies(?),' we're here looking for something. I saw the drunks leave here a second ago -- usually they stay here passed out a bit longer in the early morning. Please tell me, was any among them a big human with crazy eyes and a bit bloody?"

Inside The Soiled Sow, the gangsters have effectively stopped their search, having found nothing, and listen with half an ear to Baku and Lady Sabella. "Nothing here Boss; he must have gone Invisible."

And from below, from underneath The Soiled Sow where the squinty, sleezy proprietor lairs, his squeaky voice whines out. "Hamfist! Hamfist, help! Those bullies broke in my bar and did 500 gold coins of damage!
"

Of course, Baku the Mage doesn't see 'those bullies,' he sees Lady Sabella and is aware of what his unlearned colleagues think is a rattlesnake Tiefling.

I think that everyone is Invisible except K'Tak. Technically, there is a way that Lady Sabella may not be Invisible, if she did not momentarily step inside The Soiled Sow to reap the effects of the Dwarf's spell. Also, if K'Tak really wants, he could have paused long enough to have not gotten the Invisibility -- though the information inside the Spoiler is still in effect. I feel K'Tak should not be Invisible since his post of climbing up to the roof came a day after Muziel Moreau said he'd cast Invisibility inside The Soiled Sow on anyone that wanted it. But it's not that big a deal in this case -- if K'Tak really wants it I don't care. Likewise, Lady Sabella didn't say she moved in to get it but, it was the weekend, if Monkeygod would've posted Lady Sabella to get in there real quick for the Invisibility, sure, absolutely no problem.

But I kinda have it as follows:
-Muziel Moreau, Par Joakimson, Artemisia Burningleaves, Invisible and inside The Soiled Sow.
-Lady Sabella & The Hell Hound Invisible and outside The Soiled Sow (unless you'd have stayed in after Muziel cast his spell.
-K’Tak’Ktah’hal on the roof of The Soiled Sow, or outside but clinging to the wall, Not Invisible.

And the six down at Breakwater Pier are about to start walking up the boardwalk to The Soiled Sow, following The Lantern Man's trail.

Inside The Soiled Sow Muziel Moreau casts an encompassing globe of illusion, making Invisible all within.

K'Tak, having climbed up to the short roof of The Soiled Sow, sees nothing on the roof at all, let alone the kind of threat a Hound of Hell may consider a threat. He allows himself a few seconds to look around to make sure, but the roof is empty.

From inside, now Invisible, neither Artemisia nor anyone else hears anything on the roof either.

Poking his head back down through a window into The Soiled Sow, K'Tak reveals a look of confusion to his invisible allies, indicating that nothing is on the Roof. From above him, though, K'Tak now thinks he just barely hears what may be tinkling crystals or soft, faerie-like whistling.

Meanwhile, down at Breakwater Pier, the six thugs have used their six or twelve seconds to look at the murder scene and have just noticed the trail through Flotsam that The Lantern Man made wading his way to The Soiled Sow. Because of your Invisibility, they do not see you. They look as though they are about to start walking your way.

Climbing out of the shaft leading to The Soiled Sow's shouting proprietor -- squealing not unlike his pigs in fury about the bloody amulet you're 'stealing' -- K'Tak and Par make it back up to the tavern with Muziel Moreau and Artemisia Burningleaves, allowing the drunks to leave. (Through the windows is line of effect to Breakwater Pier.)

Just outside with a Conjured Hell Hound, Lady Sabella is aware of a potential 'something' on the roof that the Hellish creature is aware of.

And 70 or so feet away, on Breakwater Pier, six cloaked figures are just now starting to inspect the bloodstain left by The Lantern Man's murder of Raif.

Alrighty here goes, wish me luck:

The Soiled Sow is a 15' by 15' area, 3 squares by 3 squares. There is a door frame and three window frames, but no door or shudders (empty spaces providing effective line-of-sight / line-of-effect on all four sides). The roof is flat-topped and only ten feet high.

Inside The Soiled Sow the eight 'outer' squares are filled with drunks who are passed out (now awaking and staggering away).

The 'inner' square, the center of The Soiled Sow, is a 'bar.' A little enclosed place from which the proprietor can pass out his pig-blood beer and take money. The floor of that square has a (formerly) locked hatch going down. The shaft goes down about five feet (via rope ladder). Underneath The Soiled Sow the virulent mud of Flotsam has been sorta embanked in a drift-looking mound to hide this shaft.

Below Flotsam, under The Soiled Sow, is a Small area that has somehow buttressed the mud above it and is where the pigs live in squalor. On that floor is another hatch going down -- under street level -- where the proprietor lives.

Hope that helps. I realize it's not as sufficient as me being able to post an image of it. Alas, if only I had been born in the 90s instead of the 70s I would be more proficient with this computer thingy. I swear it's on my To-Do list to learn Google.Docs or something to provide maps. Getting through The Styes is tricky without maps but not impossible. But the combats in Hell and later in The Abyss, yeah, I Have to get y'all the maps.

I'm pretty sure I'll be using Obsidian Portal for that; I just have to figure out how to do maps there. I have used Obsidian Portal for text for a good decade now, I think longer. So I'm comfortable with it. Though I've never had success uploading maps.

About the time the six cloaked figures reach Breakwater Pier and Lady Sabella finishes casting her spell, a few more of the drunks begin to awaken and, sensing the temperature of the situation, attempt to stagger away as quickly as their hungover minds allow them. Below, the proprietor of The Soiled Sow snaps at Par in futility: He doesn't have time to walk all the way up Garrison Hill to Fort Korvosa to collect the gold; you should just pay him here! Why should he have to leave his bar -- his home -- because you broke into his place. And now his beloved pigs are stressed; you should pay for their pain and suffering. And he was trying to sleep after a long night at work when you interrupted him; you owe him. He seems sincerely upset. Not unlike a roach complaining about having to flee when a lamp is turned on, illuminating a room.

About the same time, Lady Sabella finishes conjuring the infernal canine and the Hound immediately whips its nose up to the roof, short as it is, of The Soiled Sow, and bares its fiery fangs. But upon hearing the command to guard against the six in the distance, turns its muzzle away from the roof of The Soiled Sow.

Regarding the url, I was hoping to link specifically to the 20 gp 'Simple Lock' but alas, could not.

Having disabled the lock you know it was a Simple lock. And after listening to this weasel for six seconds you are confident he only paid a few gold for it at best. Um, and that he's serious about taking you to court if you hurt one of his pigs. Not because he loves his pigs, mind you, but because 'money.'

The little wormy man is relieved for a moment when you say you're not rough-necks from Hamfist, but the look on his face makes it clear he is not stepping out of the "safety" of his home (at least not without far more reassurance). He apparently figured out quite quickly that his bluff of being some kind of powerful sorcerer didn't work and he could yet be in danger.

Within just six seconds, though, it is becoming a bit more clear exactly what kind of personality it is you're dealing with:

He shouts in the direction of Par Joakimson, "'Brimerack,' what in the Name of Asmodeus is a 'Bremherak'? .... Hey up there, you better not break my rope ladder. ... And you better not hurt my pigs; I'll sue you. ... If you broke my lock upstairs you have to pay for it. It's a 250 gold piece lock! Where's my money?! ... Hey, that amulet is mine; don't touch it; put it back."

In fact, it seems as though the man would have kept acting like a petty little weasel had the bloody murderer not been mentioned. "What, that big oaf climbing up from Flotsam?! He was getting blood all over my customers and acting crazy. I sent him away -- I already asked that Captain woman from the Korvosan Guard: Cora or something. ... There, I answered your question. Leave now. And don't take my amulet; drop it. ... And pay for that lock up there you broke. It's 275 gp!"

The brewer finishes unlocking the hatch and cracks it open an inch or two to see a big desert-snake-man veritably nose-to-nose with him. You are obviously not looters or vandals. And you are obviously not The Korvosan Guard. He is confused and quite scared. " I paid my protection money; tell Hamfist if he bullies me I'll go elsewhere for protection. No more free beer!"

He's a little man, squinty eyes and a sharp nose join with an almost squeaky voice to make a caricature of a comical, greedy little bartender.

K'Tak my be surprised when a voice shouts out from under the hatch leading further down.

"You get out, trespassing vandals! I'll cast a Devil's Fireball at you!"

And it sounds as though the voice on the other end of the hatch is unlocking the hatch -- or maybe setting off some kind of trap or alarm.

As Par attempts to go down the rope ladder behind K'Tak it quickly becomes apparent just how little room there is at the bottom of the five-foot shaft leading to the pigs. K'Tak can fit down there, squeezing in the area, and Par probably could though he'd be squishing pigs. And in that case K'Tak would not really be able to try and disable the lock on the second hatch (that leads below street level). It is pretty clear that Par can stay in the shaft, holding the rope ladder.

From Artemisia's vantage at the bar, she can shoot Par (in the shaft) and K'Tak's left leg from the knee down. Maybe a pig.

K'Tak wiggles his way down the five-foot shaft via the rope ladder to the grimy floor below. In only a few seconds he befriends the domesticated pigs, a dwarf-breed obviously, and better sees how they are indeed cut and bled -- very obviously to be turned into some pig-blood-beer for the proprietor. Sadly, the pigs seem comfortable in their little sty, despite probably never having seen grass or clean air.

More importantly, K'Tak also immediately sees yet another hatch, closed and locked, going down to some kind of lair or apartment or whatnot. Very likely, the place in which this hatch leads houses the proprietor of The Soiled Sow, and is under street-level of The Styes.

Finally, on the ground under a pig (noticeable when the pig moved to greet the Dineh) is a bloody amulet. The amulet is cheap and non-magical -- perhaps the property of Raif or The Lantern Man, perhaps the property of one of The Soiled Sow's customers (but it is covered in blood).

With her Arcane Eye Lady Sabella can see that, while all six thugs have a similar looking Cloak, one of them has nicer items underneath those tatters than the other five. Indeed, Lady Sabella is surprised to note that the six Cloaks themselves, though they superficially look tattered, are almost certainly Enchanted -- good disguise job though. The five mooks each wield a sap, and under their Cloaks also wear enchanted short swords and chain-shirt armor. The 'leader' also wields a sap but under his Cloak he veritably sparkles with enchanted items, from Rings to a Headband, from an Amulet to Bracers -- and carries two Wands.

In her initial glance at this, Lady Sabella can instantly relay the pertinents to her fellow Pathfinders.

Outside The Soiled Sow, Lady Sabella Arvanxi has been keeping half an eye on a group of six cloaked figures heading toward the area from Bridgefront. As the boardwalks are limited in number and the individuals are not paying attention to The Soiled Sow, it has been mostly a non-issue. But now it looks as though this small group is heading straight for Breakwater Pier, and they don't look dressed for climbing into the Alika Narrows for oysters or clams. Indeed, one of them points out the blood stain ahead of them, whereupon The Lantern Man murdered Raif. Lady Sabella estimates in another six seconds, perhaps twelve, the group will reach Breakwater Pier and the scene of the crime you are also investigating, and within a moment of that, they will see the trail through Flotsam leading to The Soiled Sow.

K'Tak easily opens the hatch to reveal a five-foot shaft and rope ladder down to the ground. The living area below, what you can see of it with your tunnel-vision, is small with a Small ceiling. A few scrawny pigs waddle on the ground and K'Tak can see poorly healed slashing marks on their bodies, as though they are bled from time to time. As small as the 'apartment' or ground-area is below the 5' shaft, people of 'normal' size will be in very tight quarters below. The stale air smells strongly of pig offal and dank mildew.

Of course, K'Tak isn't squeezing into the area here since he's Medium and the area is Medium, but I do have this image of a seven foot dinosaur-man bent over the bar, squeezing himself into this tiny little area to reach the hatch on the floor, and, er, being stealthy.

The two drunks you have awoken are like, "Nah, he never leaves any booze out -- we always check before we pass out -- it's all locked up."

Looking at the hatch on the floor insider the bar, K'Tak figures it would not be too terribly difficult to disable the lock for one who knows the skills and has the proper tools with which to bypass locks and traps.

The drunks, for their part, peer into their empty mugs as Val, Muziel and Artemisia discuss the culinary questionability of ale from The Styes' finest, 'Soiled Sow.' "If you don't ask what's in it, you'll never be disappointed," is about the best they can muster, along with the often spoken answer in situations such as these, "What you don't know can't hurt you."

Listening at the hatch going down as he inspects the lock, K'Tak does admit the squealing and snorting below sounds piggish.

The two poor drunks look up to Par as he offers Lesser Restoration. "Can you drink it?" At first they joke and and jest, but quickly realize the seriousness of who you all are. Unfortunately, they are all too eager and friendly, and answer quickly. "Oh sure, we know where Jamey Lover is. Yeah, uh, yeah, he's out fishing. He'll be back an hour or so before sundown, parks his boat by The Rigg -- other end of The Alika Narrows in Old Dock. So, uh, can I have some Silver?" But it's clear they're making it up as they go. Alas, despite their willingness and friendliness, they seem to know nothing.

.

Peeking over the bar one can easily see a hatch on the floor, apparently locked from the inside. Exiting the Soiled Sow and looking over the boardwalk you see a mound of mud in a drift, all the way up to the center of The Soiled Sow. It is quite obvious that the mud of Flotsam conceals a small shaft that goes, presumably, to where the proprietor lives -- probably a makeshift apartment or something beneath Flotsam.

From below the hatch, listening carefully, perceptive persons can just make out a slight squealing or snorting noise.

Looking at a splintered, stained, wooden mug, Muziel Moreau smells an odd liquor, as though a bit of blood, perhaps human, was used in the fermentation of this beer. Even for the Dwarf Wizard of Janderhoff, it may be distasteful to drink the house ale from the Soiled Sow. But apparently the patrons had their pleasure with it and are now snoring it off.

Artemisia Burningleaves looks to Par Joakimson as though he were an expert on drinking too much 'blood'(?) beer and the Battle Oracle of G'rom shows his appreciation by shaking the shoulders of those passed out on the floor, just in case Artemisia is wrong and a witness to Raif's murder remains.

Lady Valeria jokes about her university days back in Cheliax, but it's perhaps just an attempt at levity, as these poor sods, unlike wealthy and gifted coeds, drink to forget their lifelong misery, even for a night.

Finally, Par Joakimson uses magic to conjure fresh, pure, crystal-clear drinking water -- like a glorious gift of largess from the gods themselves, over a couple of the drunks, awakening them in a shower of refreshing cleanliness.

Squinting themselves awake they look at you bleary eyed, and, as is their addiction, check any standing mugs for remaining drink.

Both are men, tanned and weathered and malnourished, perhaps in their late 30s and suffering from Red Face.

A nine-foot roof over a fifteen-by-fifteen shack is the totality of The Soiled Sow. It lacks a door in the door-frame and the windows lack shudders, perhaps allowing the foul breeze outside to flow through the place, perhaps allowing the smell out. The place reeks.

Twelve sleeping, or rather, passed-out, patrons are unconscious on the floor. It is still quite early in the morning. In the center of The Soiled Sow is a small, roughly circular drinking-bar from which a proprietor could serve his or her customers the House Beverage. The bar is only about five feet high and is wide enough to barely enclose its owner.

.

Outside The Soiled Sow, the people of The Styes are beginning their dreary day. In the distance, closer to Bridgefront, you see a couple of children using what looks like a makeshift sled to enter the virulent mud of Flotsam, not to play, but rather to look for tools or treasure or even food.

Above Flotsam, at the base of Garrison Hill at the far end of The Alchemists' Quarter, two Korvosan Guard patrolmen stand near a crumbling, half-burnt-out lighthouse.

And in The Alchemists' Quarter you see Silas Ledbetter opening Ledbetter Apothecary, as well as a few other alchemists opening their own shops.

K'Tak is certain that the dried blood that has cooled on Breakwater Pier and the trail through Flotsam are as old as the last Lantern Man murder, and can answer Par's question with or without a tone of incredulity.

As you make your way safely back onto the boardwalks over Flotsam to The Soiled Sow only about 90 feet from Breakwater Pier (70' through the rough terrain, virulent mud of Flotsam).

Muziel's eldritch armor ripples with energy as he anticipates conflict soon.

K'Tak'Ktah'Hal begins his own search as Lady Sabella takes a few minutes to cast her divination spell. K'Tak finds bits of broken and rotting everything, from charred wood to mangled Chokers, long dead. The recently dried blood he finds is almost certainly not from The Lantern Man, but rather from the victim, Raif.

And Lady Sabella Arvanxi's Arcane Eye begins a closer look at the swath of broken mud that The Lantern Man made through Flotsam. Not noticing anything at first, she has everyone pause briefly on the boardwalk so she can take her time to search more thoroughly. Eight minutes pass as she gazes into the trail through her divination, but even by about the sixth minute she concludes there are no other clues left behind from The Lantern man. When he climbed up the pilings of the boardwalk to get to The Soiled Sow, he would have had to use both hands, implying he didn't have a weapon in one hand. And both Sabella and K'Tak notice where The Lantern Man fell in his first attempt to climb up to The Soiled Sow -- yet is is clearly not a difficult climb attempt.

The search complete, K'Tak easily climbs up and meets everyone else outside The Soiled Sow. Not looking any worse for wear, K'Tak nonetheless smells precisely like a dead Otyugh.

Looking at the blood splatter stains on Breakwater Pier you certainly deduce that, whoever murdered the victim here used the same amount of savage brutality as the murder near Pythoness House.

Looking around, you see a dried pool of blood a few feet away, separate from the murder scene. Looking closely at the spatter and the distance from the main gore, it is most likely that some object was separated from the body, a bloody object, and it must have landed here, a few feet away. Either Cpt Cora Crandon of the Korvosan Guard found it and took it as evidence, or a local found it and has it, whatever it was.

The trail leading into the mud of Flotsam is erratic and made by a big person, exactly like the trail leading from Pythoness House to Fever Dream Alley. And, like the first trail, this one is staggering and haphazard, almost like that of a drunk, but also goes straight to The Soiled Sow up on the boardwalk.

It is possible that, were you to walk through Flotsam, searching for more clues, you may find one. But you can smell the poison in the foul mud and you would certainly become contaminated within it.

Or, you can get back on the Boardwalk and walk the short distance to The Soiled Sow to continue your investigation.

Making your way down from Fort Korvosa onto Garrison Hill -- The Alchemists' Quarter specifically -- you can see through the yellowish smog of The Styes into the western portion of Bridgefront now called "Flotsam."

Mud and silt from Conqueror's Bay came with the tidal wave and, when it receded, formed a swath of death that also included the devastation of flotsam and jetsam from other parts of Bridgefront. Broken planks and beams jut from the dried mud, as do shafts of roofs and other buildings' accouterments. Equally certain are you that, were you to dig a few inches deep into the mud of Flotsam, you'd find the corpses of fish and men, the corpses of rats, chokers & otyughs, and most tragically, the bodies of children. But that's under the surface. What is also unavoidable knowledge, especially walking down Garrison Hill through The Alchemists' Quarter, is that the effluvia from the alchemists all drains into Flotsam, as does the open channel sewage from Bridgefront.

But where crowded urban areas need real estate, even a virulent cesspit such as Flotsam can not stay unexploited too long. And a series of boardwalks haphazardly crisscrosses Flotsam from stem to stern, and a large number of small shacks have been built at wider spots on the boardwalks. Indeed, even in the mud itself, an excavated circle has been 'buttressed' (almost) and citizens are prospecting the hole for potential building growth.

At the far western edge are the remains of Breakwater Pier. A tangled, sundered structure, mostly destroyed and standing in the water that separates Conqueror's Bay from the Saint Alika Narrows. (Plenty of other wrecks also choke the waterway, including the hull of a large ship.)

Making your way to Breakwater Pier, what's left of it, it is not hard to guess that the victim, Raif, was likely one of the wretched souls who wades into The Alika Narrows for oysters, or other such task that would find him here. You can readily see the blood splatter from where The Lantern Man killed him -- and you can readily see a trail into Flotsam where The Lantern Man fled after killing Raif.

Without entering the virulent mud, you can see that the trail goes to a specific shack built up on the boardwalks.

A billboard sign above the shack reads: 'The Soiled Sow.'

Mister Refrum finishes the salve he was making for an unrelated customer only minutes after everyone is awake, fed, and ready to resume the investigation.

”14 days ago, the first murdered body was found near The Library of Thought, a drug den posing as a meditation lounge.” It is clear from Mr. Refrum’s tone that he disapproves of the place, emphasizing the drug den aspect and condescending the meditation aspect, if not disbelieving it altogether. ”It is on Garrison Hill, as are most businesses in The Styes and, also like everyone here, the owners hope to be able to relocate to Korvosa proper as the people of Bridgefront are getting poorer and poorer and the gangs of Old Dock are getting violenter and violenter. At The Library of Thought, one pays an entry fee to come in and lounge in rotting sofas and threadbare divans where incense burns from every shelf or in-table. But it is not really incense, it is an indica tranquilizer. …. Atoka the Paladin talked to a few of the dancers that work there but they didn’t like him because he doesn’t suffer from Red Face (is an outsider) and his bribe was too low.

”9 days ago a body was in Market Square under the Reaper Clock.” Refrum lets out a sigh of disappointment for The Styes. ”Anywhere else the market square would be a bustling, lively location of stalls and merchants – like ‘the gold market’ in Korvosa proper. But no children play games there; no lovers dance in the moonlight to their own music. Here in The Styes, market square is an empty no-mans land. No one, no one, crosses market square. All the eyes of Bridgefront can see you if you do. All the gangsters of Old Dock will know where you are. ….There are no hiding places in the market square. It is an 85’ by 65’ concrete void – it separates Bridgefront from Old Dock. Even the weeds that pop up from the cracks and fissures dare not grow too tall. …. Atoka knew that Old Dock had to witness The Lantern Man murder, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to get anything from them. He asked people that lived in Bridgefront close by and got a general description of Jarme Loveage using a boat hook to murder the poor woman. But he didn’t stop; he took a broken shard of concrete to mutilate the corpse’s face, then stalked off into Old Dock. In The Reaper Clock, Atoka tried to talk to Aida Grethwell but he gave her a compliment; she didn’t take it courteously and didn’t give any more information.

”8 days ago a man was brutally murdered right outside The Sticky Mermaid on the edge of Old Dock and Garrison Hill. The Korvosan Guard barely looked at it at first because fights usually break out there, being where low-grade gang members of the various crimelords get drunk on fishjack beer. Every few months the fighting gets too wild and Cmdr Jute closes the place down, only for some new manager or proprietor to pay Korvosa a bunch of fines and get permission from a Magistrate to open it back up. (Of course, at each new ‘grand reopening’ a big fight breaks out – at least, after the drunken mooks get a taste of the new fishjack beer.) …. By the time Atoka tried to question the drunks, two days ago, no one could distinguish that gruesomely bloody murder from the standard fist fights that usually erupt. Pathetic.

”6 days ago a body was found hacked apart in the Alika Narrows right by the stone bridge leading to North Point. This was when The Korvosan Guard began their investigation as the gruesomeness and randomness indicated a serial killer. …. Atoka talked to some of the people who live in Bridgefront around there, as well as some of the folk who climb into to St Alika Narrows to scrounge for oysters. But no one saw anything.

”And that brings us to 4 days ago at Pythoness House (or rather 5 days, now). The Korvosan Guard had two days of investigating and that’s probably why someone bothered to ‘see’ the murder happen and get a description of Jarme Loveage. His sister came to me and I to Atoka – once he realized he was in over his head. I am very thankful to Sheila Heidmarch that you are here to help.”

Crap, I couldn't get the post out for the murder locations and timeline earlier today. The first half of tomorrow at work is fully loaded so it'll be the second half of the work day before it's possible. Here's what I remember from my notes:

Murdered body near The Sticky Mermaid which has a good paragraph on the PF Wiki.

Murdered body near The Library of Thought.

Murdered body found in The Alika Narrows.

Murdered body found in Reaper-Clock Market Square.

Night at Mister Refrum's passes uneventfully. The Rope Trick keeps those not on watch comfortably; the alchemical Healer's storefront floor is comfortable for those during watch. Mr. Refrum himself awakens late during the final guard watch and quietly works on an Alchemical salve for a local customer after nodding acknowledgement to thee on last watch.

As everyone else awakens and prepares spells, eats morning rations, vacates bowels in a loaned chamber pot, and otherwise gets ready for what promises to be an eventful day, Mr. Refrum answers questions.

1) Without too much apathy or cynicism, he more resignedly says that the bodies of Wights and the other Undead likely won't add much more plague in The Styes. Nonetheless, if you want to take them to The Mortuary (also on Garrison Hill), they will cremate the bodies. Of course, if you all go, and go looking like 'that' (rich), you will be fleeced for huge amounts of Silver. Better to look poor and pay a few Copper. .... As for the heads, he can prepare an Alchemical Gentle Repose for you at cost. .... And while he can't absolutely guarantee it (your own talent at diplomacy being a variable), it's very likely Cmdr Jute will accept your story and the heads as well sufficient evidence.

2) The Lamplighter also lives on Garrison Hill near Bridgefront (directions given) and is given a generous endowment to light the streets each evening -- by one of the most powerful Nobles in all of Korvosa! It is The Lamplighter's choice to pay young-and-upcoming kids to light the street lanterns. (While most respectable people of The Styes raised suspicious eyebrows at first, the fact is that those are the safest kids in The Styes, many take the responsibility seriously and have a better chance at getting Out of The Styes when they're older, and pretty much never join the gangs in Old Dock or get into drugs.) Rumors say he can see through the flames of his streetlights with his scrying sorcery!

3) Mr. Refrum doesn't know of any power blocks in Korvosa that animate intelligent Undead. He's certain that the 'law of averages' means someone in Korvosa Does animate powerful Undead, but he is not privy as to whom.

4) Mr. Refrum knows that an agent of The Aspis Consortium is new in Korvosa -- within the last 18 months. As far as he knows The Aspis Consortium is Not on friendly terms with The Crown, or The Academae, and certainly not Field Marshal Cresida Kroft of the Korvosan Guard! Though the Aspis Consortium likely has an ally among one of the 19 Nobles and a Magistrate or four. How else could the agent have so seamlessly and effectively infiltrated so quickly into Korvosa? Moreover, and this is something almost no one knows -- very rare knowledge: The agent is a Half-Drow named Eugardi Zanda, an Assassin, who is absolutely a master of Stealth, and that skill is his most used tactic.

5) Silas Ledbetter's suspicious son at Ledbetter Apothecary: Poor little Albin doesn't have any friends and was cursed with short stature and mental handicap. But I see him from time to time making his way across Garrison Hill to somewhere with a big grin on his face, and I am sure (having known Silas Ledbetter for years) that Albin lies to his dad about what he does.

6) The Treasure map from the ear: Mr. Refrum takes only a moment to realize what the map reveals. This is a map of the small estate in North Shore (not too far from Longacre Prison, City Hall, and Whitecaps Inn) of a powerful Magistrate named Thornwell. The Magistrate of Fresh Water, he has a gift for Oratory (Bard) and is a devout Disciple of Asmodeus. As the civil servant in charge of all sources of fresh water for the city, Thornwell is among the most powerful non-Nobles in Korvosa.

Lady Sabella Arvanxi has seen, sporadically and with no interest to the group, Invisible Imps and Invisible Pseudo Dragons in the air around Bridgefront. It is possible that some other Imp or Pseudo Dragon was spying much earlier and it was unknown to the group. None, however, have been following you or even looked at you since you cast your spell at the beginning of your tracking The Lantern Man through Bridgefront.

A few rats scurry here and there around the unconscious here. As before on Garrison Hill, K'Tak tries to feed a few to make tentative allies. And, as before, the small plague-carrying vermin are extraordinarily skittish, far more than seems possible. While there are none here that seem like minions of Rodenthome (as one did seem near Pythoness House), the ones here are equally suspicious. K'tak gets the sense that, and perhaps through the influence of intelligence from Rodenthome, the rats of Old Korvosa are too wise to trust anyone making friends. They are, after all, a primary source for food for the vast majority of the human population.

Nonetheless, one very young mouse, perhaps naive and inexperienced in the ways of avoiding human traps meant to capture mice for food, accepts some of the Dineh's morsels. Using his Speak with Animals ability, he gets about the same amount of value of information that Lady Val got from the addicts: effectively nothing.

But the small mouse is Indifferent to K'Tak, and could be made helpful. Still, it is clear the rodent has no useful information about a human from four nights ago.

Most of the drug addicts are passed out; one you find has passed away and is rotting where she lies. A few are able to be brought to consciousness but not lucidity. And a few are able to answer questions.

Hoping for drugs, even to the exclusion of water, they are shameless in begging. They readily answer questions in the vain hope doing so will entice you to provide narcotics, or even food or other valuable commodities with which they can trade for drugs.

But it quickly is evident that the answers these individuals give are invented and useless. They readily say they have all the answers, but just fabricate information that sounds to them plausible.

'Fever Dream Alley' is quickly, after a mere ten minutes, turning into a dead end.

Tracking the days-old trail of blood and viscera from The Lantern Man's axe deep into Bridgefront you are reminded again of how destitute and poverty stricken the people are. Inside burnt-out, crumbling tenements, roofed with sagging, lashed-together 'Shingles' sometimes two or three stories 'thick,' the reek of plague is thick in the air.

Inside the ground-floor hovels and upper-story shanties and lean-tos can be heard the wheezing and snoring of hundreds, even thousands of the hopeless poor, sick, and malnourished. A few flickering lamps here and there, provided by The Lamplighter through a nobleman's generous endowment, reveal no gangsters or predators or cat-burglars. There simply isn't anything here of value to steal.

You successfully follow the trail: A clump of dried guts here (chewed on by rats); a dried pool of blood there (crawling with lice). Until eventually the trail ends in a 50'-by-35' soiled open square of the truly desperate. Perhaps once long ago this was a park, or perhaps a wide crossroads, or even just a spot where the tenement building was completely razed and is gone forever. Above, frayed nets, wispy rigging-lines, and rotted planks form a web of a foundation for yet more 'Shingles' -- making this alley both invisible from above, and providing darkness even in day.

This alley is where people not able to secure themselves in a proper shanty or tenement shell sleep on the concrete among their own kind. The homeless of The Styes.

One thing is readily apparent; the stink of plague and despair hanging in the air is completely different: This alley reeks of drugs. Indeed, every sleeping person here is suffering not just from Red Face and other plagues, not just malnutrition and exposure, but of the sad effects of narcotics use.

The trail ends here. The Lantern Man, four nights ago, slept here with the homeless drug addicts.

As K'Tak begins using his survival skills and the alchemical reagents to track The Lantern Man, Sabella Arvanxi casts her divination in the ephemeral, red stains. About a minute later, with a preternatural pall of necromantic divination, trickles of sanguine blood form in condensation droplets on K'Tak's back, answering the Chelaxian's spell:

'I was Titorus, a scavenger and 'down-on-my-luck' metalsmith, out of work for over a year after the depression from losing my family to the Bloodveil plague impeded my work ethic. Four nights ago as I left Pythoness House after paying for an augury, The Lantern Man charged at me from the shadows, cleaving my stomach in twain and mutilating my pulpy corpse. Behind his crazy yellow hair were eyes wild with true insanity and feverish hunger. I thought I saw a fetish or statuette dangling from a length of netting from his neck, though I could not describe it. His eyes, his Eyes! He was mad, and not the rage of a barbaric gladiator, but a foaming-mouthed-wolverine, lost in unquenchable horror and confusion. After he killed me he calmed for a moment before staggering away in a daze or trance.'

A few steps away from Sabella Arvanxi, K'Tak turns back to his allies smiling with the success of finding The Lantern Man's tracks. He does not see the enchanted blood fading from his back revealing the last biographical moments of Titorus' life. And then the blood is gone.

Looking at the crime scene it is obvious that a horribly brutal murder took place here, 50 or so feet from Pythoness House. No tracks remain visible, until tracking powder is used, and then a faint trail can be followed into the depths of Bridgefront.

No further sight of any large, inquisitive rats are readily seen -- though at this time of night, with the smog and sickly-yellowish, misty-miasma hanging in the air -- it is very possible a rat from Rodenthome is watching from the darkest shadows and crevices of Garrison Hill.

Your two captured spies are both subdued, but their hostility still overrides their fear -- though the looks on their Red-Faced, pocked visages, they know they are in for an evening of Intimidation. They are bracing themselves emotionally to resist your threats.

Perhaps Mister Refrum can tell you where to find The Lamplighter, who it is said can see through the flames of the street lamps. And Mister Refrum can tell you of the other locations of the murders. He can also answer questions about this-or-that location in The Styes, should the need arise.

Pythoness House

Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth listen to you briefly go over your names without really giving any information about why The Lantern Man is so special. 'Perhaps The Lantern Man is really a Fiend in disguise and this gentleman Par, and this Paladin of Shelyn, are often hired to hunt Fiends. An Elf with Sword-and-Spell and the rest of them together do look like such.'

The women seem clearly over their heads. They only see opportunity for profit. What little information they have, they can sell. "So, would you like to pay top know which Magistrate sent his minions here to ask us about the Lantern Man murder?"

Looking back to Artemisia, they reiterate the information about the victim:

The murdered victim was a long resident of Bridgefront who lost his family during the Bloodveil Plague of a few years ago. He was hoping to divine the weal or woe of moving to one of the empty shacks adjacent to old 'Salvatore Scream's' house closer to Old Dock. (The terrifying Spectre haunts his old home and, desperate and impoverished as they are, no one risks getting too close to Salvatore Scream's!)

Moments after he left (the Augury had been positive) The Lantern Man came out of nowhere and struck him with an axe in the chest; then he hacked away at the man's corpse. A few of The Lamplighter's kids saw what happened then: The Lantern Man lit a lantern, illuminating his bloody axe, dripping with viscera, and the mutilated chunks of the corpse. The kids saw him looking over the remains for s moment before staggering off.

Pythoness House

The women continue as Lady Val offers to write a letter for them and Sabella supports the women's claims of not being afraid. They quickly acknowledge they can hear a Chelaxian accent in Lady Sabella Arvanxi's voice, and the more Lady Val speaks, the more the women wonder, perhaps are guessing, about her Chelaxian roots -- especially having mentioned a Devilish tutor and the contracts.

Both Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth are thirstily interested in to whom a letter-of-introduction from Lady Val. The look on their faces reveals that such letters, in Korvosa as in Cheliax, can carry much power.

Pythoness House

Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth listen to the words of Artemisia over wine. "Danger? Loose Ends? My dear you misunderstand us. After the murder four nights ago those we mentioned came here asking questions, not about us, about The Lantern Man. Hardly even about the victim. I don't think anyone has bothered at all about the victim -- or us. They just want The Lantern Man. All we could tell them was what we told you. We are not a loose end. But with each passing day it becomes more and more clear that this serial killer is far more than just some common murder-hobo. Too many people who should not care a calico-cat about it are all the sudden very interested and are chasing every possible lead to find him.

"Tell us, what is so unique about The Lantern Man? Why is he special? What are you chasing after him for? We see you're not from The Styes, your accents don't sound Korvosan either, even Chelaxian. Who are you?" Neither of the women have apparently heard the little Chelaxian in Lady Valeria Thrune's accent. For good or ill, they don't recognize Lady Val as from Cheliax.

I just deleted my Gameplay post (accidentally) and I have to get ready to host my homegame in a few hours. I'll redo the post but in a nutshell:

Val & Artemisia in Pythoness House w/ Par having stepped inside (I miswrote Par on the roof; he never was.) .... Maquent & Radanna take the 100 gp and provide wine and tea from their own pantry (they don't really sell food or drink to customers). .... They are concerned about what's going on outside but are choosing not to get inbetween you and whoever's up there. .... They are not surprised you "gangsters" are here, nor surprised of the spies on the roof -- Ever since The Lantern Man killed the poor guy four days ago several powerful people have been here asking -- not just Commander Jute of the Korvosan Guard. 'It doesn't take a Diviner to discern The Lantern Man is more than just a serial killer!' They realize. .... Monks from 'The Truth and Light' commune were asking. .... So was someone from The Darklight Sisterhood. .... And finally, someone from a Magistrate, obviously those details would cost more than 100 gold coins, considering the danger of outing a Magistrate. .... If they can, they admit, they will sell their information to get closer to being able to afford getting out of The Styes and into Korvosa peninsula.

. . . .

On the roof K'Tak sees a second spy escaping down the back. .... Mishanter questions the captured spy and discovers he's obviously not from one of the gangs of Old Dock. (An Intimidate check -- which can be aided by another PC's Diplomacy -- is needed to get him from 'Hostile' to at least 'Unfriendly,' if not 'indifferent.') .... What you can superficially observe is he is a Stealth specialist and was NOT expecting to be seen. .... Muziel is also on the roof.

. . . .

Sabella Arvanxi is the pivot, not inside Pythoness House but could be quickly; she is not on the roof but could be quickly. She is connecting the two, keeping everyone in communication.

On the roof of Pythoness House the captured spy admits he was charged with scouting specifically for anyone asking about The Lantern Man. He 'says' he was tasked with the assignment from one of the Korvosan Guard Officers known to accept bribes for one of the Old Dock gang leaders.

Inside Pythoness House with Artemisia, Sabella Arvanxi promptly gets to the business at hand while here capable allies interrogate a captured spy above. They share with the Elf their anger that a spy is on their roof. But, considering The Styes, the can't feign too much shock or outrage.

The women answer: The murdered victim was a long resident of Bridgefront who lost his family during the Bloodveil Plague of a few years ago. He was hoping to divine the weal or woe of moving to one of the empty shacks adjacent to old 'Salvatore Scream's' house closer to Old Dock. (The terrifying Spectre haunts his old home and, desperate and impoverished as they are, no one risks getting too close to Salvatore Scream's!)

Moments after he left (the Augury had been positive) The Lantern Man came out of nowhere and struck him with an axe in the chest; then he hacked away at the man's corpse. A few of The Lamplighter's kids saw what happened then: The Lantern Man lit a lantern, illuminating his bloody axe, dripping with viscera, and the mutilated chunks of the corpse. The kids saw him looking over the remains for s moment before staggering off.

Perhaps there is a bit more to the tale, though the memories of Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth are sometimes short, and it is quite late now. Maybe you would consider more information to be valuable?

Inside Pythoness House with Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth, Artemisia sees the women react with seeming surprise and concern about what is happening just outside their door. Somewhat unsettled by the group's arrival 'in force' a moment ago, now it seems as though something potentially dangerous is happening.

Pythoness House

Mistress Maquent clearly appreciates Mishanter, moreso after his flirting (obviously cheesy and juvenile though it is). This could be interpreted as unusual, perhaps, as there are more charismatic people who may have dealt with this woman of Pythoness House before without intriguing her such. But for whatever reason, she seems to be susceptible to his (limited) charms.

Mistress Maquent does, however, look up in confusion at the tilting, mostly broken chandelier, listing from a rusting fixture in the first-floor ceiling -- as does Radanna Scalth.

Madame Radanna Scalth, for her part, looks curiously at the Elf with sword-and-spell. A quizzical expression mars her face as she is clearly not making sense of the chaotic discourse from the devotee of Korada.

Both women answer Lady Val's question: "An Augury of our casting ability is 95 coins of pure gold and is as pure as the gold itself. Greater Divinations take far longer and are more costly. And exhausting."

The rat that K'tak noticed earlier and pointed out to his friends is about 40 or 50 feet away, an incalculable number of little cracks and crevices and holes or hiding spots around it.

It does not look like a Familiar (a Magical Beast) but likely one couldn't know from such a superficial view from this distance. But it is watching you, and has been for a few minutes.

It is not precisely where Mistress Maquent pointed to as the spot where the murder took place four nights ago, but is relatively near.

Pythoness House

Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth, Red Face in full bloom, recognize immediately that you are not common fisherfolk or day laborers in Bridgefront or gang members in Old Dock. Healthy faces (even if scarred), obviously magical wondrous-items, accents, and the confidence that comes with power.

Radanna Scalth quickly focuses on Muziel Moreau, perhaps it was his floridness, but she answers with charm. "Auguries, Divinations, even greater spells of learning. We are Sorceresses, the Divination magic is in our Bloodline, bestowed to us from our god, Mephistopheles. I can see you're a Wizard; you know all about Somatic Components to spells. Surely it can not be a surprise that for Sorcerers, Somatic gestures in spellcasting is different than yours." Looking at Trogs she smiles, and lies to get you to talk more about yourself. "What a striking Familiar, both handsome and cute -- is it a raccoon, ....a Dwarven cat?"

Maquent is visibly but only briefly off-put by Val's Holy Symbol to Shelyn (and obviously better physical attraction). "My, what a comely lady you are dear," she says to the older woman-Paladin. "We charge normal rates for spellcasting services," she slyly says with the twinkle of a bluff in her eye.

Turning to Par Joakimson, both Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth nod in understanding. Maquent answers, "Yes, The Lantern Man brutally murdered one of our departing customers four nights ago, right down there," she points to roughly where the gentleman who just left was walking, back down to Bridgefront. "Commander Jute was here with the Korvosan Guard within an hour getting all the details."

The way she emphasized the name, 'Commander Jute,' was not unlike the way Lady I spoke with a stern and intense voice, one of name-dropping authority as though the Korvosan Guard commander's name was grave and important.

Both women wear symbols of Mephistopheles and there are objects d'art in the foyer depicting The Merchant of Souls.

Pythoness House

As dusk fades to dark on Garrison Hill you reach a bend where The Winding Way (apparently a print-shop/propaganda publishing store) and The Temple of Aroggus (obviously a cenobite god) are nearly adjacent to Pythoness House. It's a crumbling manor with a stone foundation, but the wood and plaster two-story manse reeks of mildew, and fire damage is readily apparent. Nonetheless, a heavy wooden door and in-tact, shuddered windows set Pythoness House (painted words on the door proclaiming it such) from the poor hovels of Bridgeport below you.

As you approach you see a customer leave, a concerned look in his eyes as though he received an ill augury. Still, a crooked half-smile suggests the Divination Reading wasn't all bad.

Coming to the front door you briefly overhear two women: Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth, discussing how close they are coming to be able to afford rent in Midlands, aspiring to leave The Styes in another year or so, as you assume is the ambition of many people here.

Looking around the area there is no obvious sign of a bloody murder from four nights ago.

The STYES

.

Par Joakimson, walking through Bridgefront and then up Garrison Hill has been keeping an eye out for the rats, cats, birds and bats that skulk about at night, hoping to use his ability to make contact.

That is when he notices something odd immediately. While there were sea birds in East Shore on the other side of The Jeggare River, and sea birds and alley cats in Midlands and North Point -- the Sarkorian has seen neither feline nor fowl in The Styes.

Retrospectively, he supposes it makes sense; why would birds fly into the sickly, yellowish smog of The Styes -- and cats are man's competitors for food when man is this poor.

Rats, on the other hand, are prevalent in The Styes.

And he is certain that one of the rats is staring at him (from a 'safe' distance).

The STYES

.

Walking through Bridgefront toward Garrison Hill to purchase some Tracking Powder, you reiterate among yourselves the clues that indicated the dead bodies were nothing noteworthy. (K'tak has seen violent death before and those five were just normal cases.) It was no surprise, then, when Artemisia learned that the city worker is paid to pick up the dead every few days from Citadel Volshyenek and Longacre Building (the jail). Nonetheless, upon reaching Ledbetter Apothecary you peripherally notice a new bank of black smoke pouring from the squat, stunted chimney of The Mortuary -- having just seen the sad departed who are now the fuel for that cremation, it somehow makes it more depressing that you can now smell the slight change in the air as the wind blows the smoke into the yellow haze of The Styes.

. . . .

Albin (son of alchemist Silas Ledbetter)

Having initially disregarded the poor boy as a curious gawker, his lingering stare from behind a curtain becomes suspicious. He seems to be looking at each of you as though he's trying to commit your appearances for memory, and likely even making note of which alchemical product it is that you're buying from his father, Silas Ledbetter. You are quite certain that he is what he appears to be, an unfortunate midget son with some mild retardation, rather than some elaborate disguise or bluff. But perhaps someone takes advantage of Albin's simpleton nature and gets him to look out for odd things. (Certainly a large group at night looking like you, people not suffering from Red Face, is significant, even to one such as Albin.)

The Alchemist’s Quarter on Garrison Hill

After several minutes you reach the base of Garrison Hill and begin your incline left, to the western side of The Styes and The Alchemists’ Quarter. Seven shops are here, their effluvia and run-off trickling into ’Flotsam’ and The Alika Narrows below. Ledbetter’s Apothecary is one of the two grandest. Awaking the older Silas Ledbetter is not a problem, so Mister Refrum assures you. Though there is a moment of tension as two alchemical Flesh Golems arise to protect Ledbetter’s Apothecary from the inner depths of Silas’ home and storefront. Once the venerable alchemist recognizes Mister Refrum he commands his constructed guards back to their station.

It is no problem at all to purchase a dose (or more) of Alchemical Tracking Powder, 300 Silver coins each; payment in Gold is acceptable.

{Perception DC 12}
From out of the back of Silas Ledbetter’s storefront you catch a glimpse of a midgeted teen son who peaks at you. Mild, uncontrollable drooling and cross-eyedness suggest the poor boy suffers from slight mental retardation as well as achondroplasia. At first you may easily dismiss his staring as innocent awe, which is likely all it is, but as it lingers your experienced, adventuring-in-danger sense may wonder if there is something more.

. . . .

Mister Refrum’s Workshop is a humble, cluttered storefront and home in The Alchemists’ Quarter very close to Ledbetter’s Apothecary. After you finish your business with Silas Ledbetter, he takes advantage of the convenience to check his own locks and makes sure everything is secure.

He gives you directions to Pythoness House, across The Alchemists’ Quarter and past the Mortuary and then past Madame Carrington’s and next to The Winding Way and The Temple of Aroggus, on the other side of Garrison Hill. His directions are easily understood. Though he can accompany you, he would like to retire for the night and meet you tomorrow morning. Fatigue is setting in. (He offers a key to his shop if you are staying here for sleep.)

The STYES

The Styes

Coming to the northern edge of North Point you see the old stone bridge with no rails, a dozen or so feet wide, cross the 40 feet span of The Alika Narrows to The Styes. An oily slick of grease taints the surface of the still, briny water below you, and the smell of raw sewage, rotting fish, and urban effluvia wafts up in a nearly tangible miasma of mist. But this is almost fresh, however, in comparison to the heavy, hazy, sickly-yellow smog hanging over the lower stretch of The Styes, emanating from pollutants churned and fermented from the edifices on Garrison Hill. As you look upon The Styes from the bridge, a city worker passes you with a cart, a threadbare blanket covering the bodies of five persons deceased today in Korvosa, natural causes: infirmity or age or violence. Tonight they will be cremated in The Mortuary on Garrison Hill, its stunted, squat chimney ready to add these poor people’s ashes to the yellowish miasma floating over Korvosa’s district of the destitute. Next to you Mister Refrum rubs the inflammation of his left ear as his Red Face begins acting up on him. The gentleman pushing the cart also suffers from Red Face, an indication he lives here in The Styes (yet is lucky enough to have a job that affords him a reason to visit Midlands). For a few Copper coins’ bribe, he will allow you to look under the blanket, for he knows voyeurs will often pay to see the unfortunate dead.

In The Alika Narrows below you a handful of citizens of The Styes begin lowering themselves into the fetid, viscous brackishness to hunt for oysters, mussels, clams, or freshly dead fish with which to feed their families. The stronger among them can even swim for crabs and other bottom-feeders. On honest night’s labor for the working class who spent the day fishing in Conqueror’s Bay to feed the middle-class of Korvosa in ‘ The Midlands.’ You can see plenty of chunks of flotsam and jetsam protruding from The Alika Narrows, providing a multitude of life-savers where the men and women can climb up for air. At the western end of the channel, a mile down, you see the wrecked hull of a large ship wedged at the mouth, doing a tireless job of keeping the tide from cleaning or recycling the near-stagnant water.

Entering The Styes from North Point you feel the claustrophobia of oppression, the incubation of illness, and the weight of sorrow all baked into the ground-floor buildings. Squalor. Destitution. Decay, and mold, and despair. The lower part of The Styes is ‘Bridgefront.’ As Mister Refrum leads you toward Garrison Hill, he talks about his home. ”Two centuries ago, Bridgefront was a bustling market, and the lively strip of Korvosan society. Today it is skid row, crowded with decaying tenements sagging under the weight of rooftop hovels, themselves buckling under the weight of ever more haphazard and rickety shanties.” He coughs and wheezes a bit, allowing you to see for yourselves. Door and window frames are mostly empty, as only the unmovable stone foundations have not been looted for other purposes over the years. Above you, as you walk through tiny alleyways, are planks and nets and poles connecting ‘The Shingles’ above like they do in Midlands – though far more haphazardly and carelessly. In Bridgefront the stone frameworks of the tenements are all blackened from the soot of many, many city fires. Long dried blood and viscera cakes the surfaces like grime, and plague veritably drips from the sad walls. Soft snoring sounds slowly begin replacing the noise of families settling in for the night: mothers cooing babes to sleep, small children playing before bed, teens and young adults hiding away for a moments’ privacy in the densely packed apartments. You hear an older sister’s sharp scolding of her little brother to not sleep too near a window, less a Choker take him in the night. Mister Refrum confirms that that is a real danger in The Styes, though the Magistrate of Pest Control, Rashlen, does an admirable job of paying for bounties on such nuisances.

Whitcaps is an ancient four-story, square structure of bricks, many cracked and breaking. It looks old, smells old, and feels old. A retired Sable Company Marine is coming on nighttime security duty and looks you over nonchalantly as you pay for a room from an hoary proprietor who barely gives you all a second glance, as though he has seen a great many worldly renters in his decades.

65 Silver coins per person is the cost per 18-hour-stay.

Each room accommodates ten to eleven people in four clean beds; a sturdy object of furniture is also in each room for use. Or, if any prefer, the common-room floor is 10 Silver coins per 18-hour-stay (currently 16 people are in the common-room, mostly going to sleep now.) If you don’t want the possibility of sharing a room with other renters, you must pay the remaining 65-Silver per person – an additional 195 SP for a room if you seven want absolute privacy. There is a bath house one city-block away for anyone interested; a few places nearby sell food or drink. The room-key you are given is very high quality and is made with etchings of Abjuration magic, tuned to a specific door lock which radiates mild Abjuration and Divination magic. After only a few minutes of securing a room or a spot on the common floor, Mister Refrum continues to lead the way to The Styes.

Mister Refrum reiterates his offer to sleep in his alchemy shop for free – the storefront floor, admittedly, but free nonetheless, and reasonably comfortable.

Korvosa

"We can go to Ledbetter Apothecary first; he will be going to sleep soon so we must hurry." Mister Refrum stands himself upright again, after the pause to catch his breath, to continue to lead you to The Styes. But first he smiles at Val to answer her question.

.

Pointing south, back to the Midlands from which you have walked, Refrum explains the geography of Korvosa as a starting point to answer about the opera house. "You can see that Korvosa is built on a slight hill. As you see, 'Midlands' is built on the leeward side, as is 'North Point' where we now stand, facing east. Of course, North Point is high elevation, almost as high as the crest or spine of the peninsula, where begins the windward side of Korvosa, facing west -- where the nobles and other rich people live." Having pointed back into the Midlands from where you just walked, Refrum now tilts his pointing fingure slightly to the right "Southwest, on the Windward side over there, is Marbledome, Korvosa's opera. For years it had a poor reputation and tyrannical manager, but I heard a rumor recently that things have begun to change." You get the impression that rumor and older, very common, knowledge is all Mister Refrum can provide about Marbledome.