Gern listens with great interest to the story. It would seem as though bad luck alone had brought this child into contact with the disease.
What was more worriesome was the fact if the urn did carry this trouble, they had now passed it on to someone else.
Turning to Alandra, the dearven fighter asks "If yerself cannae cure the lass, then let me go collect someat as can. Ifn' ye can scribble some instructions onto som paper fer meself, I can take it to yer church and see fn' we can rustle up some form o' healin' fer the lass. Aye, and maybe any others as well."
He turns to teh priest of Abadar and directs his next question to him. "Ifn' ye be nohelp here, mayhap ye could return to yer own church and gather some gear as well. Either meself or the big man here.." (indicating Elian) "..could travel with ye. Let us know costs and we'll see what can be done eh? Lets be movin' folks, I dinnae like ter see young ones suffering, and the longer this goes, the more I'm worryin'."
Subdued by the grim news Zalen wonders tohimself ' Does every cloud have a leaden lining too then?' Could they not have just good news for once?
Still though, they owed much indeed to the departed sooth sayer and Zalen was always one to pay his debts. Finishing closing up shop and instructing Owen to take the children on home, Zalen indicated to Grunheld and Narshel to stay back with him. Idly playing with the Deck as they wait for the others to return from Grau's house Zalen suddenly decides to fill the Dwarf and the Gnome in on some of the more pertinent parts of the whole adventure concerning the wretch Lamm that had started this whole thing off..
the Dwarf and the Gnome in on some of the more pertinent parts of the whole adventure concerning the wretch Lamm that had started this whole thing off..
I assume you tell them about the fact that she is a ghost and all
Narsel stares a long while at Zalen, then at Grunhild and then back to Zalen again. "So what you are telling is us that you have been employed by a... ghost... to kill this scum bag, and that this ghost is still 'living' in this deck of cards? Come on, you think us fools?"
Grau's look didn't grow any less concerned. "I... well. This entire matter is highly suspicious. There have been no bodies washed ashore the next day. Very little flotsom of any value, only these... urns. I'm afraid something is very wrong with this ship, and Breeze here might just have been struck with the worst luck." He looked towards the smaller children, and leaned over conspiratorially "Also, I am not so sure the urn was all Breeze found. We heard they originally were found stuffed with silver coins."
Outside, Gern quickly caught up with the junior priest. "If you can honestly say the donation won't drive you into ruin, sir dwarf, I can have one of my brethren here before dusk, and have little Briena seen to."
Elian answers Grau concerns "I am as worried as you, maybe this ship needs to be investigated further. If these urns come from the ship, maybe we can find some more in it and check them for disease. But maybe we are worrying too much and it will just turn out to be a bit of bad luck"
and then when Gern comes back with the promise of healing for Brienna
"Gern, I can also contribute to Brienna healing. She is the niece of a fellow guardsman and that makes it almost familly."
Ishani nodded, visibly relieved. "Thank you, good people. I am certain this is a good sign. I the poor girl, I always wished I could do more, and now I can, if indirectly. I will make certain someone comes looking for her right away."
Grau nodded. "Right now there's not a lot to go on, but... I've got a bad feeling about this. It may all be a coincidence, but it would be a much too... damned coincidence."
Ishani nodded, visibly relieved. "Thank you, good people. I am certain this is a good sign. I the poor girl, I always wished I could do more, and now I can, if indirectly. I will make certain someone comes looking for her right away."
Grau nodded. "Right now there's not a lot to go on, but... I've got a bad feeling about this. It may all be a coincidence, but it would be a much too... damned coincidence."
Zalen gives Narshel a cross look for a second at the implied insult of his telling them a lie, but then he looks down at the deck in his hands and suddenly grins and laughs as he considers how crazy the story must sound to someone who wasn't there.
[b]"Ha! Well, now that I hear it put that way, it does sound rather like a tall tale indeed. But I assure you my friend, every bit of it is true, as you will have the chance to see for yourself tonight, if you wish. One thing I'd add though is that Zalera didn't really so much as hire us to kill Lamm as to, through her arts, manage to gather together a group of people who, for our own various reasons, very much wanted to see that 'scum bag', as you put it, dead anyway...although even scum bag is far too kind of a term for the likes of Geadren Lamm..."
When Terra is able to tell us how much we made this day I'll let everyone know how much we made. I am going to assume though that Zalen had needed to put every single coin he had left into the venture. So he's currently at Zero too.
As for Eel's End Terra, maybe an easier way to keep track would be just to tell us how much a week we get and then let us know each time a week has gone by?
"Well, Narsel, I've heard weirder tales in my time. I, for one, believe that our host is telling the truth." Or at least believes he is telling the truth, he thinks to himself. "I'm curious, however, why would this spirit still linger here after her revenge had been sated. And what does she want with all of you ? In any case, I'll stay here tonight. I want to see this 'Zalera' for myself."
Night had fallen in Korvosa, as the party regathered at the repurposed fishery. What had once been Lamm's treasury and retreat had now become a small office where Zalen stored both the earnings and those peaces he had no intention off parting with.
Only a single candle lit the room as the darkest hour of night approached. It cast moving shadows on the wooden walls, which seemed to dance with a life of their own. Each leap brought forth new patters of shadow and light.
Slowly, the shadows grew more vibrant, gaining hue and luminescence rather than just being plays of the wind and flame. A young woman's body moved into view, dark but not black, the tint usually associated with poverty and dishonesty among Korvosa's Chelaxian elites. Dark locks of hair, and eyes that seemed like coals waiting to be fanned to fiery life.
She took a look through the party, with a sad smile. "My city is in pain, friends. She was good to me all my life, so it is fitting i return the favor now. Yet dark days lie ahead, a test of fortitude and constitution, which is already underway.
With a flick of her wrist, she called the deck of cards to her hand, hovering in mid-air as she offered them to the group. "I need your living destiny, your connection to a fate I have passed beyond. Shuffle these cards, and I will see what I can glimpse of what is to come."
Still somewhat nervous around the Spirit, Zalen gulps silently once and then slowly moves forward to shuffle the cards. As he finishes he asks Zelera quietly "Do..ah...do you want All of us to shuffle them?"
Grunhild is fascinated by the vivid appearance of the ghost. He had read so many stories involving lingering spirits but to be part of one was certainly special. He just wondered why they always had to speak in such cryptic ways. "A test of fortitude and constitution ? What do you mean ? Will the city be attacked ? Do you really only do this to help your city ?"
The initial doubt of Zalen ghost story is quickly dispelled by the apparition and the grim news she bears reinforce Elian worry. But before voicing his fears, he watches how Zalen, Gern and Alandra interact with the soothsayer.
Zellara did not reply immediately, but out of the deck, nine cards pulled forth, folded before her face. "My city is the reason for me loitering behind. It has suffered, and will suffer more still - unless I can help prevent it. Maybe, eventually, that will speed me along to the boneyard your mistress prepared so carefully" She cast a glance towards Alandra.
The nine cards hovered before her. "Choose one each. It will lock your place in the coming troubles. After the choosing, I will lay the cards, and they may tell more than my dire premonitions alone"
Alandra shudders at the words of the ghost and extends a trembling hand to choose a card.
"I hope it does." she says and mutters a prayer under her breath as she reveals the card.
Waiting for Alandra to take her turn, Zalen looks at the cards, looks up at Zalera, then looks at the cards again as he says firmly
"I choose the 5th one."
"The last" adds Elian reaching quickly and flicking it face-up.
Without a word, Grunhild take the seventh card. He reveals it and takes some time to examine the colorful art of the cards.
The cards selected turned face towards the party before Zellara's form. She adressed Alandra first, watching her intently as she revealed her part in this new thread to Korvosa. Her card showed the Teamster, mercilessly driving his charge forward. "You will both excert and experience great pressure - but your duties will, shall, can not be cast aside. There will much toil for a servant of the lady of graves, when the time comes that you face the color of death, favor will find you."
Elian received a less promising one, called "The Sickness", a card of entropy. Zellara eyed the guardsmen "Disease in Body and mind will surround you when fate conspires in your favor. When you reach the heart of our troubles, the moment shall be close at hand. Watch out well, or you might miss it."
Ironically, Grunhild received the Brass Dwarf, usually a good omen and card of fortune. Zellara, however, did not raise her hushed voice in jubilation. "The current peril leave some unharmed, for they were broken already. That which is dead inside will live outside. The nexus you seek is amidst the ashes of nobility, gorging herself on her own pain and depravity."
When Zalen's time to choose came, he picked one of the best cards of the suit - the survivor, normally signifying rebirth and celebration. "You may well prevail. Fate favors you, if you can grasp the reigns and reach the heart of the taint. Yet be careful, for every victory harbors the seeds of defeat. Rebirth brings forth saints and monsters in equal measure."
With a short motion of her hands, Zellara send the cards ashuffle, orbitting her form and finally combining themselves to a full deck. A cut later, two equal stacks landed in the hands of the party, were shuffled and cut again before Zellara motioned them to cease. She spoke a short conjuration over them, and laid out a grid of nine cards, signifying hope, prospect and danger, past, present and future.
The cards of the past turned over as one. It showed the twin, the locksmith and the midwife. Zellara meditated over the omen for some time, before announcing her findings. "The Locksmith is dominant. He symbolizes the keys of our city having been reforged. Where once all were welcome, now the gates close to some, and strangers were called in to evict those who used the old keys. The host would lock out the starving and wretched, for they mar the house. The midwife is against her type. The new arrivals are dire, births of filth and death to all who reside here. Beware the newborn, because it is death, spawned from death and favored by its mother. Only those claiming the blood of the father will be spared the plague-child's wrath."
The next column showed itself, symbolizing the present. The mountain man took the position of hope, while the Raskhasa occupied the center of the grid, and the mute Hag sitting ugly in the lowest position. "Blood has been spilled in payment, for payment. Flesh has been given for duty. Souls shall be reaped in service. The darkness is upon us, one festering wound at a time. She pecks at the wounds and rips them apart. Only once unmask will Korvos stop drinking her venomous brew." Zellara's sad gaze shifted to the future, as the sole source of solace.
"See what the future shall hold." She announced, and the last column of cards turned. The tyrant, the dance and the forge. "Tyranny will not prevail. The price will be steep, and the healing long. For some, it may never come. Faces extinguished and voices silenced will not return to us. But the darkest of darknesses shall not take hold, and as doom is forestalled, those standing against it will be like steel cast and hammered until no impurity remains. Yet be cautious, the body will need fight the feaver before proper healing can begin.
Grunhild listens intently as the ghost spins her tale and vision of the future. He's so focused that he almost forgets to breathe and to swallow his saliva. After a clear and audible gulp, he clears his throat and speaks. "Fascinating ! If a bit cryptic and gloom, but I suppose that would be the way of a dead Varisian cartomancer. Death, disease, pain, blood and tyranny, you paint a dark picture lady Zellara." He turns to the rest of the group. "Any of you know this Korvos ? It would seem like the name of someone."
"Sounds like Korvosa. Was he the founder of the city maybe?"
Elian shivers at the seer tale and pales when she describes the future. But his mind still works behind, trying to figure out the meaning of the words.
"You speak about diseases. Could there be a link with the new one we have seen today ? And what of the sunken ship ?"
Merry christmas everybody.
Zellara nodded at the question, and bowed back towards the column signifying the past. "The Plague-Child is among us. Newborn and midwifed by the crows, its growth will be rapid and dire. None knows its nature yet, and thus, none will know to slay it. Left unchecked it will strangle us all."
Her eyes narrowed, as her gaze turned from the two dominant cards towards the one of lesser potency. The twin lay in the position of positive past, and she prodded it thoughtfully. "The the serpent is two-fanged. This is to our advantage, though i hesitated to see how. An open knife and a hidden thorn, but they are faces of the same coin. But each harbors the other's secret, and unmasking one in full will leave the key to unlocking the other."
Still not believing that their fortune is being read to them by a ghost, Narsel watches the others for sign of spell casting. Seeing none he starts scanning the room, shaking his head when he see nothing.
While Grunhild loved listening to the ghost's dire warnings, if only to satisfy his anthropological research and curiosity, he was getting a bit frustrated with her cryptic answers. "So, you say an epidemic threaten the city ? That can't be good ... I thought Korvosa had already had enough trouble for at least a year. Is there something you would have us do ? Somewhere we should search ? Surely your metaphorical serpent left some traces."
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The spirit sighed, an otherworldly sound that reverbated in the room, and shook her head slightly. "It is hard to see. The twin sometimes poses a duplicious face, shows one thing but means the other. The best way to cut through these deceptions is to move straight. Seek out the obvious culprit, the one who you blame on reflex, and it might lead to the true menace."
She faded slightly, becoming less a person and more a smear of colors shifting against each other as she whispered. "You visited the source. Find those who assisted her, and you will find allies."
"I still don't get it." Alandra shakes her head "Zalen, what does she mean?"
"I don't pretend to have understood everything she told us but she said we visited the source ... The source of what ? With all her allusions to plague and disease it has to be the source of an outbreak. Could it be the sister of the sergeant that visited the business earlier ? Didn't he mentioned she was sick and in pretty bad condition ? Maybe she can at least lead us to the source. Also, there were a lot of mentions of keys unlocking clues and all that. Perhaps this was her cryptic way of saying we should seek the help of the grand Abadar, father of civilization and master of vault and key."
The group discussed the cryptic musings of their deceased seer, and found Grunhild's theory to be sound - this really was the most sensible way to start things. After some discussion, they narrowed down the list of potential leads. First off, the sick girl had been pointed out relatively clearly. Also, the Abadaran priest who had initially helped her might be a good first contact - he was concerned with this new disease as it was. Finally, the sunken ship was a possible culprit. With these three leads in hand, the group had a good starting point.
Zalen had been silent through much of the night. He was deep in thought and appeared to be greatly disturbed by the dire warnings of the phantom fortune teller. Finally though with a great sigh he says
"Well, it's seems like those three things are all we have to go on now my friends. If it's all the same to the rest of you, I'd like to start off with Grau's niece. I'd like to check on how she's doing anyway and she seems to be very close to the beginning of this mystery. If she's feeling any better by now perhaps we can question her. Other than that, I say we all head off to get what rest we can, for I fear we have many long, difficult nights ahead of us. Let us say we meet back here at noon tomorrow?"
"Sounds good, Z. We will visit the sick girl tomorrow."
"I know i've only just met you guys, and most of you seem well acquainted, but i was wondering if it was okay if i came along tomorrow? This sunken ship sounds like it could hold some interesting things"
Zalen seems a bit surprised at the Gnome's question but then smiles a tired smile as he says "Ah yes, of course, Narsel, I had just assumed you would be coming but please know you would be most welcome to join us. I fear we shall be needing all the help we can get before we see Korvasa through her next crises."
Grunhild looks pensive as he looks at Zalen. "I can't say I've known you for much longer then Narsel, but I would also like to see the end of this story and the meaning of Zellara's prophecy. Now that I've heard it, I can't help but wonder what's in store for us. Hopefully, we'll make a better future then what she showed us. In any case, I'll be here tomorrow." Grunhild quickly gathers his things and prepares to leave the store.
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The group regathered at noon, back at the Emporium. The day was overcast, long shadows between the buildings of Korvosa. Elian and Alandra were both feeling through the wind, lightheaded and fatigued, with their skin feeling entirely too tight for themselves.
The opressive feeling was only increased by the appearance of Grau Soldano just as the meeting was about to start. He was led in by a surely-looking Ayen. "Mister Soldano" - she intoned the word as if it was contaminating in and by itself. "Would like to speak to you again."
Zalen gazes with concern upon Alandra and Elian and is just about to ask them how they fare when he is interupped by the entrance of Ayen and Grau.
Frowning at Ayen's manner he says to her
"Thank you Ayen for so politely bringing our friend Mr. Soldano in to see us. You may go now."
As she turns to leave the young man shakes his head in frustration at his difficult ward, yet he says nothing further. In a gesture he has made a thousand times and more he unconsciously brushes away the unruly raven locks that have partially spilled into his face as he waits to make sure the surely young lady is out of earshot. He then turns to the Seargent of the Guard saying
"Please forgive Ayen's rudeness, Grau, I have been having some...difficulties with her, and perhaps I have put too much pressure on her young shoulders by asking for her help in running the Emporium..." shaking his again again to himself her continues "But I am sure that is not why you have come to speak to us. We were just about to discuss once more Korvosa's possible new plight, do you have anything further to tell us?"
Elian night had been horrible with the Disease harrow card floating around his head. As he arrived at the shop, he looked for Alandra.
"Alandra, I do not feel well, I may have caught this illness. How do you feel, yourself?"
"Not too good."
She looks at Elian closely. "Yes, i think we might have caught what that girl has."
"Not too good."
She looks at Elian closely. "Yes, i think we might have caught what that girl has."
"Really? That's an unfortunate turn of events. I suppose our quest has just become very personal for the 2 of you ... Hopefully, we can find a cure quickly."
Ayen nodded briefly towards Zalen, and let Grau in. She was the picture of helpfulness and sweetness again, quite suddenly trading her rebellious demeanor for a pretty smile, innocent eyes and doelike behaviour.
Grau entered, smiling broadly. "I came to thank you. The Abadarian priests came even before nightfall, and Brienna is well on the way to recovery. She's keeping bed for the next week, though - poor girl is still pretty weak." He stiffled a caugh, wiping his eyes and cheeks. "But that's not all I am here for."
With no small bit of pride, he pulled forth a tightly rolled-up scroll of parchment. "I just had an inivitation to the Field Marshal's office. High honors, never thought I'd see her again. She... found it fitting to personally inform me of my promotion. As of today, I am a captain of Korvosa's guard, entitled to all the privilege and position that entails." The document confirmed it. Grau, who just recently had been close to throwing his life away in the insurgency, had finally managed to get back on track.