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A little over a year ago, our group began playing a highly modified version of Cure of the Crimson Throne using the Pathfinder rule set (with some house rules). For a while several members of the group were very good at keeping in-character campaign journals – you can see them here.
... And then we all got a bit lazy, or time-poor. But, from the beginning we have been pretty good at keeping session summaries. The amount of detail that these summaries go into has varied somewhat, but we have some sort of summary for (just about) every session. I thought I’d start posting those summaries here for anyone interested in following our group’s continuing adventures.
The list of characters as they appeared in the first session (along with the board names of their players where appropriate) is as follows:
Agon Deparle –male half-elf variant Fighter, a member of the Korvosan Guard (played by Mister Deparle)
Ariadnae Merivanchi – female human Cleric (Pharasma), member of a minor noble family of Korvosa and junior cleric of the Church of Pharasma (played by The 8th Dwarf)
Marcus Merivanchi – male human Noble, member of a minor noble family of Korvosa (played by The Ordinary Kraken)
Marianna Merivanchi – female human Wizard, member of a minor noble family of Korvosa (played by Chubbs McGee)
Osric Geldheim – male dwarf Rogue, an (dis)honest businessman of Korvosa (played by Norian)
Tain Locus – male human Paladin (Abadar), paladin at the Bank of Abadar (played by Mothman)
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Introduction to the Campaign
''Visit beautiful Korvosa! They said. Join the guard. Raise your family. Be happy. What a laugh…
Under the kind rule of King Eordred the Second, Korvosa is actually seeing… happy days for once. The city is beautiful, truth be told, as it seems every tower, street corner, and building proudly bears Korvosa’s coat of arms, portraying the city's Cheliaxian heritage boldly.
The spires of the Academae glint in the sun’s glow, signaling that sunset is only a couple of hours away, while Castle Korvosa stands powerfully in the distance, towering above all else in the grand city.
Citadel Volshyenek, the Korvosan Guard’s fortress stands as a beacon of defense alongside the winding Jeggare river which widens in many places to seem more like a pristine lake then the river it is.
High above you, a pair of Sable Company marines proudly borne on the backs of hippogriffs soar through the sky to the excitement of children down below.
A quick walk through any of Korvosa’s marketplaces brings yet another rush of activity, despite the fact that sunset’s completion lies only an hour or so away.
A large gnomish band can be seen across the crowd in a raised pavilion playing jaunty tunes that whirl around your ears while a mixture of exotic smells overwhelm you, of spiced krenshar meat sizzling on a bed of hot coals, deep-fried guttersnipe shish-kabob, and warm gnomish goldspeck ale.
The sights, the sounds, the smells, all drown you in revelry.
True, and beautiful Korvosa.
But not all in Korvosa is beautiful. And you, of all people, know this. The city harbors evil in its alleyways, and death in its shadows. This city… harbors Gaedren Lamm. The man who destroyed your life.
Gaedren Lamm, hunchbacked thieving snake, plague on Korvosa’s forgotten children, and all around despicable wretch, is of apparently no concern to the Korvosan Guard, much too busy with other 'more important matters.' They have assured you of course that they are doing the best they can, but in such a large city, it’s easy for one man to get lost in the shuffle. It’s easy for Gaedren Lamm to roam free.
Some of you have been born here, while others have just been in Korvosa for the last few months. But one thing binds you together. And it begins with a simple card.''
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Session 1: Goodbye Gaedren “Gorden” Lamm
Abadius 21, 4708
An Invite & Dinner
The PCs find invites written on the backs of Harrow cards, inviting them to meet with someone who has been wronged by the vile Gaedren Lamm. For most PCs the invites appear seemingly out of thin air.
• Marcus and Marianna are enjoying a fine bottle of wine. Marcus reaches for another bottle and finds a harrow card sitting neatly on the wine rack. Marianna finds her card laying next to her drink coaster.
• Tain is breaking up a fight in the street when an urchin runs up to hand him his invite.
• Aria opens her prayer book and finds her card there.
• Osric enters his private, locked and well-guarded office to find his invite sitting on his Ledger.
• Agon is handling paperwork when he finds his resting between two sets of forms.
After some initial investigative work by various individuals the PCs eventually gather together that night to meet their mystery host. The location is a well kept though slightly run down Varisian terrace house in the dock area. The house, like so many in Korvosa, serves as both home and work place for a Varisian lady called Zellara. The PCs are initially greeted & seated by a young boy who tells them the lady of the house will be with them shortly, then serves an entree of soup.
Zellara makes her appearance, apologises for the unusual way of asking for help, and the sets to explaining why she called the PCs together. Gaedren Lamm's men stole her prized Harrow deck, a family heirloom of great power that allows Zellara to make her living as a Harrow reader. Zellara's son Eran retrieved the item but Gaedren's men tracked him down and murdered him. Eran's head and hands were sent to Zellara as both a statement of power and warning to her future.
Zellara implores the PCs to help her stop Gaedren Lamm and stop his vile existence from hurting more people. The PCs agree and set about finding the wretched scum. Zellara only knows an approximate location for his current whereabouts.
Preparing to face Gaedren Lamm
The group spent the next day researching Gaedren Lamm and planning their actions.
Tain searched the city records for abandoned buildings in the area Zellara indicated and found two likely candidates. Agon swapped his patrol over to the area so as to gain access to patrol records. Aria is informed at her temple's morgue of a severed leg being found floating in the water in the area Zellara indicated. Tain & Agon both remember that Lamm is rumoured to have a pet alligator... Through a process of elimination and observation the group found Gaedren Lamm's hideout - a slurry factory abandoned to the city some 6 months previously.
Marcus contacts other young nobles and discovers trade is dropping for various families. Every large company in Korvosa budgets a certain amount of product and profit to be tithed by the Thieves Guild. Lately more and more shipments are going missing and the Thieves Guild claims not to have any knowledge or involvement of these events.
During the day Osric receives notification that the notable Thieves Guild member Boule was murdered in broad daylight. During lunch several men walked up to him at a restaurant, drew swords and stabbed him to death before disappearing into the ensuing chaos.
The party decides to confront Gaedren Lamm that night. Marcus orders Marianna to stay at home however she magically disguises herself as an old Varisian lady and follows the group to the dock area. Marianna initially stands back to observe both the warehouse and the rest of the party.
The Confrontation
When the party arrives at the slurry warehouse/factory they see poor and hungry peasants being fed low-grade fish from the side of the factory. Apparently Gaedren Lamm offered free food to the down-trodden in his area. As they observe the building a ship arrives to offload aged and unsaleable fish at the dock behind the warehouse.
Osric scouts the area and reports only three guards outside the building. They decide to attack from an abandoned warehouse next to Gaedren's warehouse. Osric starts the assault by disabling one guard (sneak attack from behind with a throat-slash for good effect) as the others attack the second guard with crossbow & shortbow.
Aria and Marianna both feel something observing the events. Marianna senses something old and very evil, stirring something deep within her.
Osric climbs the building and takes position over the roof opening designed to vent the foul smells of the slurry process. Osric sees some 10 to 20 children working to gut fish, drags the fish remains through acid, then throw the remains into the processing vats. Two large men patrol the children, issuing threats and harsh punches to keep the children in line.
One child drops a fish into an acid vat by mistake. A guard forces the child to push his hands in to retrieve it. The child screams in pain as the flesh is stripped from his hands, pulling them out to see his bones laid bare and blood flowing everywhere. The guard silences the child by punching the child's temple so hard his skull fractures.
Tain and Aria hear the child's scream and immediately storm the factory floor leaving Agon & Marcus to handle startled factory workers left in their wake. Tain and Aria battle the two guards and quickly end their existences. The children flee from the building leading them past the works unloading the boat outside. Marianna stops these men from grabbing the children by dropping them to sleep. Aria stabilises the child whose hands were burned and skull fractured.
As the group reconvenes in the warehouse Gaedren Lamm makes his appearance. Gaedren treats the group with obvious disdain. He taunts the group with personal messages as to how he has wronged them. In his arrogance he brags to Tain how his wife cried for mercy before she died and how sweet those sounds were... Tain, Aria, and Marcus can't help but attack Gaedren in response.
From behind Lamm another person steps forward - alchemist Yargin Balko, Lamm's second-in-command. Lamm's pet alligator also comes forward to battle.
The group engage in combat. Lamm's pet alligator targets Marcus. Lamm casts a protection spell on himself and is shocked when an arrow from Agon can penetrate and strike his shoulder. Osric drops a nearby net onto the alligator; Marcus is trapped under the net but Marianna (still disguised as a Varisian) rescues him. Tain and Aria crush Gaedren's chest with their flails. Yargin offers a feeble attack involving two flasks of acid but is quickly incapacitated.
Aftermath
Marianna introduces herself to the group as a friend of Zellara who couldn't make it to the dinner meeting the night before.
The group search the warehouse and discover an amulet bearing the mark of Queen Ileosa.
When the group emerges from the warehouse they see a city block on fire nearby. People are screaming in the distance and there is the sound of melee and destruction. A mob of people round the corner a couple of blocks away, carring torches & yelling. A citizen running away from the mob yells out as he passes the group "The king is dead! The Queen now rules this city!"
What The Group Found
The factory reeks of rotten fish and acidic to the point the group can taste the bitterness in the air. Large vats of acid and slurry are scattered around the factory floor interspersed with tables loaded with fish ready for processing. Other rooms around the factory floor contain barrels of prepared slurry.
In the back corner of the factory floor is an alchemist's laboratory, of sorts. Yargin appeared to have worked on his slurry preparation acid here.
The side room which Gaedren and Yargin emerged from contains several bunk beds. The area is neat and well kept. Yargin's bunk is identifiable by the number of books stacked underneath the bed frame. Another doorway in this room leads to Gaedren's office.
Gaedren's office is well-kept with modest furniture that would not look out of place in any Korvosan mid-class home. A few books line a bookshelf, in front of which sits a plain desk. A lounge and several chairs give a cosy feel to the room. In one corner of the room is a trapdoor. The group would hazard a guess this is where unwanted... garbage... was disposed of.
Through searching the rooms the PCs find:
• 15gp in coins scattered about the bunks and Gaedren's desk
• A necklace bearing the family crest of the Queen
• A ledger on Gaedren's desk. The entries are in code; however with time it may be possible to decipher the entries
• Beside the ledger is a black, leather-bound book. No title and the writing is of another language.
• Several letters kept in a leather folder and stored the in the top draw of Gaedren's desk
• A map of the city of Korvosa. This map has a hand-drawn & shaded series of blocks, dividing the city into three roughly equal parts
• A small hand-written diary. The front page indicates the owner as one "L. Y. Marcella".
• A locked-box sitting at the side of Gaedren's desk. A key on Gaedren's body opens the chest. Inside are several items wrapped in cloth and tied with string. There is:
o A narrow teak cigar case
o A realistic - and scandalous - carved figurine of a lady doing very unlady-like things
o An obsidian rod. Aria and Marianna get a feeling this is of magical nature.
o A gold ring inscribed with the words "For Emmah - the light in my nights"
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The above summary (and most of the early ones) was written by our GM (board name Ollie); later summaries have been written by other members of the group.
I should mention a few houserules that we use in this campaign. Rather than the standard PF magic system we use the Spellweaver system, giving spell casters more flexibility in exchange for needing to pass Spellweaver / Spellcraft skill checks in order to cast spells. This system allowed Mari to greatly extend the duration of her disguise self spell in this session.
We also use Action Points, similar to the system presented in Unearthed Arcana, but with several differences. One difference is that we can use an Action Point to play a prop in a scene (subject to the GM’s approval). It was the result of a played Action Point that there was a conveniently placed net hanging from the ceiling of Lamm’s warehouse, that Osric was able to drop onto the alligator.
Our GM (and various other members of the group) kept referring to Gaedren as ‘Gordon’ during the session, hence the session title.
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Session 2: City in Turmoil and Returning That Brooch
“As you make your way out of the fishery, the first thing you hear, is the scream. A woman’s shrill cry pierces the night air. Your heroic instincts kick in, bringing you in a rush to the door and out into Korvosa’s streets, and that’s when you see it. Korvosa is burning.
Smoke rises on the horizon in all directions, and the frantic clang of alarm bells sing out in harmony with a multifarious cacophony of screams, the clash of steel on steel, painful moans and cries for help, and even the periodic explosion of arcane might.
Far above, a squadron of Sable Company Marines soar. You feel the light drops of rain upon your skin, before you realize it is blood. An injured hippogryph begins to falter as it’s rider lets out a terrified scream before the both of them meet a bone-crushing demise as they crash headlong into one of Korvosa’s many stone statues.
The others in his squadron do not even pause, as they soar at a breakneck speed for Castle Korvosa.
Amid the chaos the voice of a Korvosa herald cuts through the din: “The King is Dead! Long live the Queen!” only to be shouted down by the ragged cries of “Hang the queen!” and “The usurper whore must die!” Down an alleyway, you spy a small group of figures completely clad in black spiked full plate iron armor and horned helms. Hellknights. They seem to be pursuing a small gang of what appear to be looters.
Korvosa has gone mad...”
In Media Res
This session opens on the scene that ended session 1: A mob turning a corner a block or so away and 5 people are running for their lives, four of which appear to be Varisian. A city block is on fire nearby and the general sounds of disorder carry on the wind.
Tain and Ari prepare to fight the mob. Marcus uses his noble authority and bearing (game mechanic: Commanding Voice) to attempt to stop the rampaging mob. Mari casts hypnotism to bring the 4 people at the front to a halt.
Marcus asks what is going on and the mob leader informs him "The King is dead! That B~#%+-Queen rules, and it's all the fault of the Varisian scum!".
At this point in time Felix moves out of the crowd and begins helping to disperse people. This is achieved by being a general PITA to Agon.
Marcus directs some of the mob off to fight the fire nearby, sends others to help the kids rescued from the factory, etc. Some of the bad guys insist on fighting, but Tain and Ari detain them and frog march them off to be dealt with by their respective orders. As the group splits up to achieve these goals, Tain takes the items some of the items discovered in the warehouse for safekeeping.
On the way home
Agon heads off to work to help the city. Marcus and Mari head home. All of them see pairs of mages channeling energy and the city block on fire suddenly goes out. Marcus attempts to question the Acadamae magelings near him, but they treat him with disdain and basically ignore him before heading off.
Whatever happened to Zellara...?
Agon returns to Zellara's home to investigate and finds her home deserted. All the colours seem very dull, dust is all around the place and all the plants are dead. The main bedroom is torn to shreds with blood stains on the ground. Agon goes back to work to help quell the unrest. He is commended on performing his duty so well in the face of adversity.
Meanwhile, Felix arranges for an "accident" to happen to Lamm's former warehouse.
A productive brunch
On the next day Agon, Felix, Marcus and Mari meet for a late brunch at Brock House. Marcus and Felix look over Lamm's books and decide that over the last two months Gaedren moved approximately 100gp to 1000gp turnover and has 15 good clients moving his stuff. This seems an incredible increase in business for such a short period of time. This also aligns with the extra thefts and activity confronting trade & business in Korvosa.
Mari works out the mysterious rod is a wand of magic missiles (50 charges, 5th CL).
As they dine a missive arrives from a minor house, Bannyer. The sealed letter reads "In this time of peril we believe the noble houses should join together and present a unified front. We should meet." Sir Charles Bannyer, a relatively new family and considered a blow-in, is of Chelaxian decent who brought their wealth with them; with small holdings in the city but considerable backings. Marcus sends back a polite reply agreeing to meet them at 8pm that night.
Mari examines the untitled black leather-bound book and cannot decipher the glyphs in which it is written. She takes notes & copies a few glyphs to share with others for further help. Her intention is to research the glyphs further.
The group talk about the succession plan - for the next week the Queen is still the second-in-command of the city (city guardian). The Queen has to go through the naming ceremony during which time official petitions of rulership can be lodged or the Queen's validity challenged.
Marcus estimates the brooch is a pure Chelaxian blood gem, fine etching, valued somewhere in the vicinity of 5K to 6K gold. Marcus sends feelers out to friends, including Seth Jeggare from the last game, for help in contacting to the queen's household (a sealed message to Lady Elizabeth) containing veiled hints for the queen to realise he has the brooch. Felix decides to get a copy made of the brooch.
Mari organises her future mother-in-law, Ophelia Ornelos, to see if she can get Marcus an audience with the Queen.
Zellara, part two
The group go to visit Zellara's house and again take notice it is abandoned. It appears to have been derelict for a significant amount of time. As they walk through the house they discover the Harrow deck used to contact them previously; Felix draws a Harrow card and gets The Dance. As he does this, Mari gets a sense of magic: divine and necromantic in nature. Mari then draws The Mute Hag.
Agon searched the bedroom and determines murder took place here by at least two people to one. Marcus has goes next door to talk to the tailor there. Mari searches the kitchen and finds a severed head in a pot. She manages to keep her composure for a moment before retching. She directs Agon and Felix to the severed head. The group leaves the building; the door slam shut and light flashes from inside. Marcus steps up to the window. The window frosts over almost mirror like. A head appears in the window, silent and screaming, with pale flesh and jaw hanging low. Marcus jumps back in sheer fright, but keeps his cool in front of the others.
Felix is sent to get Arcus (old Varisian lady who helped Agon last session). She identifies the magic in action here (still ongoing) is not Varisian and leaves to warn others not to enter. The group goes door-to-door questioning people; Mari gets the feeling she is being observed by the same energy from the other night and casts detect magic. As she does the magic observation intensifies. Mari panics and demands to go home. She and Marcus leave to head back to Brock House. Agon and Felix stay at the house to observe it and hand it to the guard.
Back at the mansion...
Dante warns Marcus there is an important guest in the sitting room - a lady of high nobility. Lady Elizabeth is waiting for them; she is known as the Queen's closest friend who came out with the Queen from Cheliax. She is slightly contemptuous of the family.
Back at Zellara's house, Ari has sent her temple assistant Jen'taris to help (middle aged woman, reasonable looking). As Jen'taris goes to enter the house she pauses and goes, "Whoa, careful here guys". She can sense much death and anger gathering here. She thinks that someone brought a spirit back after much pain and death was wrought here. Agon fills her in on the details and decides to meet back up with Jen'taris tomorrow.
Hey let's meet the Queen
Back with Lady Elizabeth - she has trouble accepting a selfless act as handing back the brooch. She organises the group to meet at 8pm that night at the castle. This is a clash with the meeting with the minor noble organised earlier in the day.
Agon files the paperwork for the beheaded body at Zellara's and the mysterious factory fire down at the docks (filed under "forget it"). Gets an invite to reach the castle to meet the Queen. Felix comes along as well. Osric decides it is not in his best interest to attend. Ari comes along as does Tain. Marcus is accompanied by his wife Cristiana.
The group meets at 8pm at the castle. They wait in a lavish waiting area as they are scanned by mages (subtly) for magic items and spells etc. Wine on offer is a Merivanchi wine, best vintage from the last 10 years. Lady Elizabeth greets everyone and tells Ari, "Ah! Yes we've been watching you for some time. The Queen will want to meet you personally". When greeting Marcus's wife, she invites Cristiana to come hang out with her some time (uses more official language than that).
The group is escorted into the major dining hall where the heads and wives of each dock noble family, and a few minor houses, are already dining with the Queen. The group hear her say, "...and I feel if we stand together at this time of need, if you respect the traditions of Korvosa and the throne, we can make it through this time. I will take your advice and try harder to draw the affections of the lesser people".
Minor family head, Bruce Bolton and his wife Berril, strike up a great conversation. (Add her niece as a contact for house Merivanchi) and Marcus and his wife are invited to visit later in the week. Mari spends the evening trying to avoid Ophelia Ornelos.
The Queen comes up to their end of the table and thanks the group for their help. Offers Marcus's wife high tea for the week after her crowning.
After the dinner, the party is escorted to a private room. The Queen tells them the brooch seemed to have been stolen by Trinia Sabor, a lady she brought with her from Cheliax to entertain the Queen with her poems and singing. Trilia disappeared at the same time the brooch disappeared. The Queen wants her found and made an example of for the city.
The Queen excuses herself and Lady Elizabeth comes along to fill them in on the details.
In Attendance
• GM - Ollie
• Agon – Mister Deparle
• Felix -
• Marcus – The Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
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Well I didn’t actually make it to the second session ... oops. This session introduced an additional character, Felix (half-elf rogue), Agon’s twin brother. Although Felix’s player wasn’t able to attend more than a couple of sessions due to moving away, Felix himself pops up from time to time in the campaign as an NPC.
Lady Elizabeth is the Queen's 'right hand woman', a long time friend and retainer from Cheliax.
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Session 3: The King’s Killer? And Allegiances are Forming.
Downtime
This session started on the third day after the last session; in other words 2 full days of down time.
Tain checks to make sure the children rescued from Lamm were fine. Most were put into orphanages for now until their parents can be found.
During routine daily work Tain arrests a couple of trouble makers inciting trouble. Tain finds a strange coin on each of them; one side of the coin is marked with a meat cleaver and the other with a skull & crossbones. Tain receives permission to bring one of these coins to the meeting with the other players.
Agon meets with Jen'taris and finds out an exorcism was performed to cleanse Zellara's house. The final image of the spirit released does not match that of Zellara; was it Zellara's ghost in there?
During routine daily work Agon is called to a murder scene. Two local members of the thieves' guild have been found with their throats slit. Resting on their chests are coins - one side bears the images of a dagger, the other a dragon. Agon pockets one of the coins. There was a witness to the murders who proves unwilling to talk for fear of reprisal. Agon asks his brother Felix to follow the witness, leading to Felix finding a group of 5 men that make the witness scared. Following these 5 men leads Felix to the Sweeping Griffin Inn, located near Castle Korvosa.
Start of the game
26th of Abadius, 4708
The party reconvenes at Marcus' place. Through group discussion the party remembers and establishes that Trinia Sabore is known to have come from Cheliax as part of the Queen's coterie. Trinia is known to be an entertainer (singer) and handmaiden for the Queen. Rumours persist that Trinia was the Queen's secret lover; other rumours attest to Lady Elizabeth and/or Sabina Merrin being the Queen's lover.
Mari has been researching the myserious little black book found at Lamm's hideout. Ari and Tain recognise the text as centuries old but cannot decide upon the source. Ari remembers back to the encounter with Lamm and recalls Lamm's magic connection was quite weak. Ari surmises Urgathoa was not the god prophesied in the little black book.
Tain & Agon share their coin stories and compare them, discovering they are different. Marcus suggests looking through the coin purse found at Lamm's lair. Inside the coin purse they find other coins baring the meat cleaver/skull & crossbones symbols. Tain & Agon look at the map of Korvosa found at Lamm's lair and discover their coins were found in different areas as divided on the map of Korvosa. The group conclude the map is showing the new divisions of the city according to the theives' guilds pushing into on the established guild's territory.
The group examines the diary of L. Y. Marcella and conclude this must be Lady Yasmin Marcella, a minor cousin of House Arkona. The diary is quite boring until reaching the last month's worth of entries. During these final entries Lady Yasmin describes Mr X, someone perhaps attached to a rival family or the court, and the growing love between them. In last entry Lady Yasmin mentions longing to meet Mr X despite the fury her brother would have if he found out.
At this time the party discusses how House Arkona is often rumoured to be involved in illicit dealings but no proof has ever been found.
Lady Elizabeth and Sabina
Lady Elizabeth arrives with Sabina Merrin. Sabina meets Ari first, mentioning that she would be Ari's leader if Ari decides to join the Queen's personal guard. Ari politely delays the decision saying she is deeply attached to the church and needs time to consider. Sabina praises Ari for her dedication - it is one of the qualities that drew Ari to her attention.
Sabina takes some not of Agon - perhaps those awful rumours are rather untrue?
Lady Elizabeth informs the party that Trinia is in fact suspected of poisoning the King, not just stealing the brooch. From the description given Trinia would not survive for very long outside the court. The alchemists and advisors of the court have discovered a slow acting poison in the King's body. Suspicion has fallen upon Trinia because one of her duties was delivering the nightly meal to the King, and she disappeared with the brooch around the time of the King's death.
Before taking her leave, Lady Elizabeth suggests the party meet with Field Marshal Kroft, head of the Korvosan guard. Many guards have been leaving the service since the King's death and the city is stretched to the limit with the troubles still occurring on the street.
Tain and Ari believe the poison must have been magical in nature otherwise all the healers and alchemists would have detected the poison and/or healed the damage. They decide it might be a good idea to interrogate Balko (Lamm's former assistant and a knowledgable alchemist) to gather information.
Marcus wonders if perhaps Trinia would have connections with the performers of the court and/or city?
Tain and Ari, interrogators at large
Tain & Ari visit Balko in custody, at Abadar prison/hold to find out details of the poison. Balko is in an ok condition; he has been healed enough to close off the major wounds sustained but is far from full health. Balko exhibits the thousand yard stare.
The interrogation goes off on a wrong foot when Tain and Ari try to enter the cell together resulting in them becoming stuck in the door temporarily. Balko laughs at this. The duo lead Balko to another room. There Ari intimidates Balko, growling that the time for humour is over, the threat boosted by sending a charge of magic down into his shoulder as she pushes him into his seat. Tain crosses his arms and looks meanacing - at least until he backs into the wall and stumbles over. Again Balko laughs.
Ari regains Balko's attention by smashing his hand on the table with her mace. Balko maintains a flippant attitude until Ari has smashed both hands. At this stage Balko admits to having seen Trinia perform at some pub but claims to be too drunk to remember it's name. Balko denies any knowledge of the Queen's brooch.
Ari leaves the room to give Tain a chance to connect with Balko. Tain informs Balko they can implicate him in the King's death; Balko firmly denies this accusation. Ari returns to the room.
Balko realises what poison was used - a rare variation of Caulophyllum thalictroides (Blue Cohosh). This poison is prepared from Blue Cohosh and involves some dark magics. The only group known to make this is the Assassin's guild.
Balko also reveals the coin with the cleaver & crossbones symbol was Lamm's idea.
Felix's Research
Felix takes to the streets to see his contacts. First he stops to see Petrie Morrisy, tavern owner. Petrie shares knowledge of Trinia. He doesn't remember Trinia's name, per se, but does remember an accused traitor is in hiding in the lower quarter, claiming innocent and sanctuary from those who can protect her.
Next stop is Bloody Finch. Bloody Finch is slightly inebriated (two sheets to the wind rather than three). Bloody Finch has heard about Trinia being surrounded by a circle of Hell Knights. The Knights have circled 4 city blocks and stationed 10 men at each of the 8 intersections. Finch confirms, in a contemptuous tone, that they aren't monitoring the thieves highway.
Visiting House Bannyer
Mari & Marcus go to visit House Bannyer. Lord Haytham meets Marcus personally. He is a thin, wiry man with iron-grey hair and moustache. His skin is coppery in colour and his accent is rich; r’s are long and rolled and ch’s very harsh and throaty. Maybe 5’ 5” in height. Lady Alima is also present; she is dressed in Korvosan finery. Lady Alima looks young for her age and quite full of energy. Her skin is the same coppery color as Haytham's.
With them are their sons Kedar and Numair. Kedar is a younger version of his father, whilst Numair is taller and more muscular.
All four are dressed in Korvosan fashion. Each man wears jewellery; Haytham has a diamond-stud earring and many gold rings. Kedar has necklaces and a couple of gold rings. Numair is the most reserved of the three, wearing just a platinum ring on each hand.
The house holdings are of average quality for a noble house. The home is quite spacious and features furniture and carpeting of Eastern nature. The general feel of the home is somewhere between Turkish and general Arabic.
Lord Haytham and Marcus engage in a guarded conversation as to the throne. Haytham wants to know if Marcus is for or against keeping the Queen on the throne, and Marcus tries to determine Haytham's stance on this topic. Haytham states "If Queen Ileosa rules then I will surely be a willing subject. My loyalty is to the throne, not the ruler."
Haytham's shares his philosophy that the noble class owes an obligation to the rest of the city, to ensure a smooth transition to whomever shall rule the city-state. Haytham admits he has met with some three quarters of the houses. Further probing revealed that House Arkona and House Jeggare have declined to meet with him, and several smaller houses have yet to reply.
Lord Haytham says that most declare loyalty to the throne not to Queen Ileosa. He is guarded in his responses but ultimately revealed he fears there will be much bloodshed. There feels an undercurrent of impatience and opportunity through the houses.
Sweeping Griffin Inn
Ari and Tain have called into the Sweeping Griffin Inn to see what they can learn about Trinia. This turns out to be not much other than yes Trinia did perform there occassionally. Mari and Marcus decide to call into the same inn on the way home and so meet up with Ari and Tain. Tain leaves to head back to his temple due to work.
Marcus, Mari, and Ari leave as a group. At first they notice they are being followed by Agon who was coming to check-out the inn as well. Then all of the party realise they are being followed by at least one of the men Felix described.
Agon engages in melee with the man following him; the stranger uses two daggers as weapons. Mari, Marcus, and Ari are engaged in combat with another member ahead of them. The combat quickly shifts to a side alley, and Mari feels comfortable using her magic to help the combat. Their combatant is fast with his blades and hard to defeat; he seems particularly good at shrugging off the magic from Mari.
Agon is confronted by another 2 men as he fights. Through skill and good luck he bests one man and the arrival of the guard sends the other two running. Mari, Marcus, and Ari bring down their opponent and hold him captive.
End of session.
In Attendance
• GM - Ollie
• Agon – Mister Deparle
• Ari – The 8th Dwarf
• Felix -
• Marcus – The Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain - Mothman
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Another very detailed session summary penned by GM Ollie. This was an interesting session, as the party was split almost the entire time, and there was almost no combat – in fact, for Tain and Felix there was none (as I and Felix’s player had to leave early so as not to turn into pumpkins at midnight ... or something).
Maybe this was all too much for Felix, as I think this is the last we see of him as a PC (although the character will pop up from time to time).
This was also the infamous session where Tain and Aria kept rolling 1’s on Intimidate skill checks during the interrogation scene. Groan ...
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Session 4: Getting the Dirt on Amprei at Eel’s End.
26th Abadius.
Meeting with Field Marshal Kroft
After the street fight at the end of last session, the Guard arrived and whisked away the prisoners, taking Agon along with them. Ari sent a message for Tain to join them, and then he and the three Merivanchis head to the Citadel to see Field Marshal Kroft.
Upon arrival they are introduced to Kroft and her companion, the fencing master Vencarlo Orisini. They have a mission for the group, something that they want people capable and loyal, but with no obvious affiliation to the Guard to undertake.
The Chelaxian ambassador, Darvayne Amprei has long been suspected of secret schemes to stir up trouble and destabilize Korvosa’s economy, this is especially troubling now in the grip of the current crisis. Unfortunately, he has diplomatic immunity and the Guard can’t simply imprison or kill him. Kroft wants the group to find out what he is up to, and/or some way to get rid of him.
Orisini suggests that Darvayne is known to frequent Eel’s End, a collection of vice-houses run by a scumbag and minor crime boss called Devargo Barvasi. This Barvasi might know what Darvayne is up to.
Ari and Tain are lent armour that doesn’t bear their religious insignias, the group is given 1000gp in bribe money, and Mari and Marcus plan to wear some ‘common’ clothes. Kroft tells the group that Agon has other duties, and she doesn’t recommend he comes along on this mission in case he is recognized as a Gaurdsman by someone at Eel’s End.
27th Abadius.
Eel’s End
Next morning, the group head to Eel’s End, a collection of boats tied to an old wharf. One boat is a brothel, one a tavern, one a casino and one a drug den. The group head to the casino, thinking Barvasi will most likely be where the money is. Tain asks the floor manager to arrange a meeting with Barvasi, is told to piss off. Mari magically charms the bouncer (Six Foot Cubed) who is summoned to throw them out, and Marcus manages to talk the floor manager into letting them see Barvasi.
They are taken to Barvasi’s audience room, where the crime boss is in the midst of torturing some guy. Tain draws his weapon and tells him to step down – the fight is on. Tain smites Barvasi down with one big hit, then the group deals with three of his guards, whilst Mari’s charmed bouncer stays out of the fight. Aria and Mari close and lock the door before more guards can turn up.
Barvasi surrenders, but tells the group that if they kill him his guards will never let them leave the boat alive. Using a combination of intimidation, diplomacy and bribery, the group get information on Darvayne (that he would not want his wife back in Cheliax to know that he frequents the brothel here, his favourite being a lady named Bessy, or that he is having an affair with a certain lady Yasmin Marcella) and negotiate their safe exit from Eel’s End.
Barvasi tells them that the guy he was torturing in one of Lamm’s men, and that he has a thing for little kids. Tain agrees that he should be punished, but he will not see him tortured, and takes him into custody.
Another Ambush?
The group head back towards the citadel (prisoner in tow), until Marcus notices they are being followed by a man in a purple cloak. Marcus hides, then follows this man who continues following the rest of the group. Tain leads them in the direction of the Sweeping Griffon, hoping to spring an ambush. As they near the inn, he notices a shadowy figure lurking atop the roof of the inn.
The archer on the roof shoots at them, seemingly targeting their prisoner. The purple-cloaked stalker makes a run for it and Marcus gives chase. Tain and Mari find a way up to the roof via a fire escape, whilst Ari uses her sling against the archer. Tain attacks the archer whilst Mari hits him with an acid orb. Marcus tackles the man he is chasing to the ground, wrestling with him in the street. Ari tries to heal the prisoner, who was hit by a poisoned crossbow bolt.
The session ends with Marcus capturing his quarry, and Tain holding the archer out over the edge of the roof, asking him who he works for.
In Attendance
• GM - Ollie
• Ari – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – The Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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Session 5: Interrogations and Ambassador Amprei
Picking up where we left off...
This game starts directly at the end of session 4. Tain is holding a man by his neck and holding him over the edge of a building. Tain asks him to speak and reveal what he knows. The man on the roof admits to be being a member of The Thieves Guild. He was there to take on either Gaedren's men or the purple-cloaked men.
Marcus discovers the purple cloaks are magical in nature and resistant to attack. He struggles to pierce the material with his knife.
Tain & Mari come back downstairs with their prisoner. Ari hails a cab and the party plus prisoners head towards the Citadel of the Korvosan Guard, stopping to pickup Marcus and his prisoner along the way. Marcus finds 7 coins marked with symbols of a Dragon on one side and a Dagger on the other. Ari casts detect magic and finds the cloak and coins glow. She determines it is divine magic, low power illusion.
The member of the thief’s guild reveals his name as Sart. He is bound with strips of his shirt, across his arms and eyes. The purple cloak guy has his shirt pulled up over his head. The prisoner from the previous session has strips stuffed into his mouth. Sart threatens the other two prisoners, promising to kill the purple cloak man and finishing the job on the man he shot with his crossbow.
Interrogations
Once at the Citadel the party is escorted into an outbuilding and locked in as the Guard sends message to Field Marshal Kroft. The party begins interrogating the prisoners; the room is empty of furniture save for a bench running the length of three walls and a blackboard hanging on the fourth.
Mari hypnotises the Purple Cloak man. He opens his mouth to reveal his tongue is missing; the man writes with pen & paper to be understood. Mari uses Comprehend Languages to read his writing as the language is foreign.
The man reveals he works for an old organisation but is scared to say who. He believes magic will kill him if he reveals the name. Doesn’t give up any information on what the dagger/dragon coin represents but does reveal the cleaver & skull coins = The Harbingers of Doom. Mari reads The Prophecies to him, at which time the man throws paper and pen to the floor, going pale. Mari puts him to magical sleep.
Tain talks to Sart and asks about the purple cloak guys and Lamm’s men. Sart reveals the purple cloak guys turned up approximately 4 months ago. Tain calms Sart down by saying they want to get rid of both the purple cloak and Lamm’s groups. Sart is nervous at first but finally says that the purple cloak men started killing thieves’ guild members 4 months ago, then 1 month later sent a note claiming ownership of 1/3 of the city. Hostilities continue but each group basically stays within a third of the city to avoid problems.
Ari talks to the man they took prisoner from the previous session. This man is certain that there were no clerical or religious types around Lamm, leading Ari to conclude Lamm must have stolen the little black book. This man claims to have been just a box mover, which fits with the party’s recollection of letting this man go when they encountered him in Lamm’s warehouse in session one. Claims that Ambassador Amprei came in several times, a half hour each time except the last time – that was for several hours.
At this point in time the party realises they have given enough information away in front of these prisoners that any of the party could be found in no-time at all. Oh crap!
Ari talks to Sart, convincing him to lay low in prison for two weeks. For 20 sails he is going to have the thieves guild help find out about Ambassador Amprei and Lady M.
Marcus has each man write down their statements. Lamm’s man writes down his statement and later Marcus realises this man did not sign the document or reveal his name. Guards turn up to escort the prisoners away. Each man gives his name; Lamm’s man states his name as Barvasi, which Tain realises is the name of the man at Eel’s End during the previous session. The prisoners are escorted away before they can interrogate this man further.
Field Marshal Kroft
The party meets with Field Marshal Kroft and share their idea that Ambassador Amprei had Lamm kill Lady Y Marcella. Kroft asks the party not to tell the Ambassador about blackmail re Lady Marcella. Kroft wants time to negotiate with him.
The party is rewarded with 35g sails each to say thanks. Kroft suggests they go find Trinia now.
The party meets with Osric to get help planning on reaching Trinia. Osric suggests coming into the four blocks via the north eastern corner using the rooftops.
Ambassador Amprei
Upon returning home, Dante informs Marcus that Seth Jeggare & Ambassador Amprei are in the living room waiting. Everyone cleans up, put on fresh clothes, then come down to the waiting room.
Amprei reveals he knows the group has been investigating him; he appears not to know about Kroft’s involvement. Marcus & Amprei have a detailed discussion about Amprei building up wealth here in Korvosa so that he may give up his Ambassador title and live here with Lady Marcella.
Amprei says he will owe a great debt to Marcus should be find and return Yasmin alive. But if she died... well a man who has lost everything has no reserve.
In Attendance
GM - Ollie
Aria – The 8th Dwarf
Marcus – An Ordinary Kraken
Mari – Chubbs McGee
Tain - Mothman
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Session 6: Something In The Sewers
28th Abadius
Meeting at Brock House
Agon, Marcus, Mari and Tain meet at Brock House and discuss a number of issues. Agon is updated on recent events. How to find / get to both Yasmin and Trinia are discussed. Hellknights and Mari’s magic are also topics of conversation.
The group then leaves Brock House, Marcus, Mari and Tain in a coach headed for Grey to see Aria, Agon heading off in a different direction on patrol.
Monster Attack
An otyugh bursts out from beneath the street just in front of Marcus and co’s coach. The three heroes leap out to do battle with it. During the battle, Mari openly uses magic and Tain rescues two exiled Galtan noblewomen from the beast. Agon arrives towards the end of the battle.
The creature is defeated, leaving behind a scene of destruction and a gaping hole in the ground.
The Sewers
Agon and Tain climb down the hole into the sewers. Investigating the creature’s corpse they discover burn marks, indicating it was attacked.
Agon convinces Marcus and Mari to come down (promoting Marcus as a heroic monster slayer to the crowd), and the group explore the sewers, finding a door engraved with Thassilonian runes. The room beyond the door appears to be an ancient tomb.
The Tomb and the Demon
The group manages to overcome a fire trap at the tomb’s entrance to enter and explore. Tain discovers that the sarcophagus radiates evil, and Mari that it radiates magic.
Suspecting an undead creature or some fiend to be bound within, they send for Aria then prepare to fight the creature within.
Opening the sarcophagus, they discover it occupied by a still living half fiend / half human. They attack it – it uses magic against them, as well as its ancient Thassilonian arms and armour, but the group prevail. Marcus takes its weapons and armour as a prize.
In Attendance
• GM – The 8th Dwarf
• Agon – Mister Deparle
• Ari – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – An Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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Our usual GM, Ollie wasn’t able to make it for this session, but The 8th Dwarf stepped into the breach, taking inspiration from the picture on the front cover of Edge of Anarchy as inspiration, as well as wanting to explore the Thassilonian ruins beneath the city.
I think this is also the first session summary that Ollie didn’t write, being a bit of a group effort by all of us ... and far less detailed than the first several summaries!
The two exiled Galtan noblewomen that were rescued from the otyugh weren’t named in the summary, but both of them (‘Baroness’ Lellia Delamore and her daughter Lavinia) will make further appearances in the story.
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Session 7: Rescuing Yasmin
4th Calistril
Initial Research
Deacon Zellani asks for Ari to come visit so he can discuss the Harbingers as this is an area he has researched. Reveals they are from Absalom and are intent on bringing their dead god, Aroden, back to life. They have a book called The Book of a Thousand Whispers; it contains one thousand vague prophecies that the cult believes will ultimately lead to Aroden coming back to life. To this end the cult has spent years trying to make any of these prophecies come true. Deacon Zellani recalls the story of the cult leader who spent 20 years frequently dragging pregnant ladies to a certain high mountain trying to bring a prophecy to come to pass, leading many ladies to their deaths.
Tain and Agon visit Balko to gather information that may lead to rescuing Yasmin. Balko negotiates for some extra time outside during the days and a beer a day. Tain goes out to get beers, Balko and Agon decide to skip the beating & interrogation techniques and Balko sings like a canary. Balko gives up two addresses; one near Summoning Street (for holding onto high-level people moving silently through town), and another one outside near the thieves' camp. Tain returns with the beer and the interview soon ends.
Mari goes to look at the part of the Shingles they will come in on to find Trinia, decides the north eastern corner is the best to use. Her mentor teaches her the locate creature spell. Yes this is ahead of her level; mechanically she will be having a +2 to difficulty and using the "above her level" modifier to push herself to cast the spell at a higher level than she is capable. That balances her having the spell in advance.
Marcus spends his time getting supplies for the night's activities - ropes, grappling hooks, etc. from a family friend involved in shipping trade. Marcus requests people in his circle of friends (such as Seth Jeggare) to monitor the activities of the Ambassador.
Tain & Agon stop and meet an oracle on the street, seeking wisdom as to what to do next. Tain is torn - do the Good thing and rescue Yasmin or the Lawful thing and capture Trinia. The oracle asks Tain: What is the purpose of law if not to enforce the good? What use is it without good? Good surely comes first. They take this to mean they should rescue Yasmin first.
Finding Yasmin
Mari casts Locate Creature and fails. The backlash knocks her unconscious and leaves images of Yasmin floating around the room. The floating images of Yasmin allows the party to see what Yasmin looks like. She has long hazel hair & blue eyes; 5'6", medium build, plain but not unattractive. Small of stature, not much in the way of curves. Mari remembers her as pleasant company in civil society and a lady who appears to be happy with her status in life.
Dante greets Marcus as he comes home to inform him there has been an incident with Mari. Raethe, Vesania, and Claudia are helping Mari to recover. Dante is sent to fetch Ari and is surprised to run into her just outside the house. Osric has also turned up and Marcus quickly brings the dwarf inside before the neighbours can see (hopefully).
After recovering slightly, Mari recasts the locate spell and this places Yasmin on Summoning Street. Tain and Agon arrive at the house. Tain recalls the last time he patrolled the area and specifically the place in question. He remembers there is lots of room between properties so it is not possible to jump between roofs to access from there. The house in question however has a Queensland veranda, so can be used to climb up from the side of the house to access the upper floors.
The house has two stories, with stained glass windows, with large double doors opening on the front veranda.
Reconnaissance
The party leaves for the house. There are no sign of anyone coming in and out of the front double doors. Osric goes around the back to case it and finds a narrow open lane way used as the servants access to the houses in this block. A narrow small hedge runs along the back of this house, meeting at the left of the veranda. This is the servant's entry, allowing the servants to come and go unobserved.
Agon notices that no-one is coming and going from the house in question; there is a party at the house three doors up. People coming and going, with the top floor windows open revealing a number of people dancing upstairs. Music of troubadours floats down to the street. Marcus and Mari go into the party; the butler greats them and sends them upstairs to dance. Agon keeps watch out on the street. Outside Osric takes out one of the guards in the alley as Tain and Ari draw his attention.
Ari distracts one of the other guards out the back using her feminine charms, allowing Osric the chance to knock him in the back with his sap. This leads to a short struggle before they take the guy down. The third person in the alleyway is called back into the house - perhaps not a guard at all?
Ari, Tain, and Osric approach the house of interest and throw a grappling hook upstairs. It bounces loudly on the balcony and draws attention of someone upstairs. They hide on the veranda and luckily the person does not notice the grappling hook or rope.
Agon notices the butler has redirected him subtly so his only polite option is to go, as suggested, into the dancing upstairs. After working the room Mari and Marcus decide the upper level is just a bunch of people partying. Agon notices someone comes to the door downstairs but never comes up to the party. Clearly he has gone through the other door with the butler. They go back down and the butler asks "Have you had enough of the party sir?" Marcus flashes a coin and indicates he has been directed here. The butler asks for a name, Marcus fumbles, trying to be non-committal but luckily appearing to be inebriated. The butler says, "I will ask this one more time - Have you had enough of the party upstairs sir?" to which Marcus says yes, he is ready for more. The butler turns to the door. Agon notices he doesn’t seem to trust the group.
Agon stops the butler, says "He is new at this, forgive him." "And you sir? Are you new to this?" Agon says "Only here." Agon notices the butler subtly changes the key is reaching for to unlock the door. Agon takes this as a good sign.
Finding the Auction House
Back at the other house, after listening for noise, Osric cracks the lock on the house and they enter, looking for action. They enter the kitchen; obvious mess and smells of cooked food. Dessert appears to be the next meal to be served. Osric poisons the food (un-noticed by the other two) whilst Ari goes to investigate down at the basement. Ari finds a thick wooden door with two locks; listens then goes to get Osric. Tain stays upstairs to guard the kitchen in case more guards come through.
Osric can't pick the locks but finds the keys in the kitchen, and they open the door. Before that Osric notices the wall here is heavy masonry, to block noise and the doorway is framed such that it is light proof and sound proof. A clicking noise follows, something rattles, then the door opens a few millimeters. Osric's dwarven senses tell him the corridor drops down underground ahead.
Back at the other house Marcus, Mari, and Agon pass down the corridor, turn the corner and find a small room. Statues of a crouching tiger and crouching lion guard stairs down to another corridor. This new corridor is incredibly well lit, no torches, and Mari feels the magic in the walls. The magic schools are Evocation & Transmutation; permanent light. High level magic was used here; surely the nearby Academae was involved in this or at least knows about it? The tunnel turns back towards the other house, ends in a "wall"; it is an illusion that drops to allow them to see a large metal door. It is opened by a huge half-ogre; over 6 1/2 feet tall (can't stand straight in the tunnel), big thick muscles. he seems particularly intelligent for his species and carries himself with a certain dignity.
The half-ogre wraps magical wooden bamboo around their wrists, it snaps off and forms seamless wooden bracelets. The half-Ogre tells them: now we know where you are at all times, any bid you make you WILL be held accountable for, careful in the auction house - scratching your nose may make a bid. They turn another corner and see a big underground room, two levels.
They are on the upper level, what is effectively a mezzanine level thanks to the large observatory hole in the middle allowing those upstairs to observe the auctions downstairs. Two corridors enter this upper level, and on another wall appears a set of double doors. Two sets of stairs lead down to the lower levels. From here they can see the lower level contains a fenced circular area containing a raised platform from which an auctioneer is currently holding court. A large crowd pushes up against the fence. Some 30 or so people are lined up against the platform - the people awaiting auction tonight. 6 or 7 members of house Arkona wander the auction crowd downstairs; interestingly all are female. Several notable houses have representatives here that Marcus & Mari recognise.
Yasmin is not in the group of people awaiting auction.
Osric and Ari move down a lit corridor, ends in a solid wall again. The bouncer opens when they knock, and it appears to be the same half-ogre opening the same door and proceeds to give the same message. They walk down the corridor, entering the underground auction house opposite the other party members. Downstairs a new auction starts, selling a man's servitude starting at 100gp.
Marcus works the room discovers that most people up on this balcony are here for the boys club networking. No major noblemen, just lower level members although here clearly at the bequest of their sires. Agon approaches the double doors with Mari; as he heads to the door the bracelet gets hot. As he goes to knock on the door it gets hotter; the message is clear - they are not welcome here at this spot. Osric tries to move the braclet off his hand, but it shrinks as he does so. It keeps itself tightly on his wrist.
Peryarv and House Arkona
A tall (6' 3") gentlemen walks into the room after three men clear a path for him. Wirey, tall, thin, dressed in crushed purple velvet suit. Bald with a long drawn face. Marcus and Mari know this to be Peryarv Lagren, from the Council of Ushers in Magnimar, a nobleman and merchant from that city currently visiting on official duties. Peryarv passes within a few feet of Agon and Marcus. Marcus notices no band on his wrist. Agon notices the purple clothes (purples seems popular these days with bad guys doesn't it?), and butcher related images etched into his leather belt. Peryarv enters through the double doors through which the party briefly sees the head of House Arkona in the room behind plus some body guards. The doors close.
Downstairs the short, overweight mid-fifties balding auctioneer is calling out the next auction.
Two people approach Mari/Agon, two to Marcus. The two at Agon say "Why the magical disguise? Drop it or there will be trouble. Rules are rules." After some stalling and the bracelets warming up, Mari drops all the disguises. The room is somewhat surprised to see House Marivanchi in here. Ari and Osric cause a minor disturbance and distract the guards. The guards leave Mari and Agon, saying "No more magical disguises, or you won't be allowed again."
Peryarv comes storming out of the double doors, turns and warns House Arkona - "Last warning". Storms down the stairs, up onto the auction stage. Moves the auctioneer aside, throws down a bag of money, and states "All these people are now mine". Peryarv storms out an entrance on the lower level. Ari and Osric follow down the corridor. Several more of Peryarv's henchmen appear from the crowd and start marshalling the newly bought slaves.
Peryarv storms out a third entrance that starts on the lower level. It opens up underneath a gazebo facing out onto the alleyway Osric, Tain, and Ari were in earlier, just opposite the house of interest from earlier. Peryarv marches up to the double doors of the main house and throws them open. Ari sees several other guards, with Yasmin tied up sitting in the middle. Peryarv signals and they start leaving. Osric gets back to the metal door, isn't allowed in (rules are rules, one visit a night). Doorman runs a message for him to "Felix" saying it was time to go.
Rescuing Yasmin
As Peryarv walks off with his guards and Yasmin, Tain storms out from the servant’s quarters and charges the guards. Ari targets Peryarv, and in response he casts a spell throwing four icicles towards her. Two hit. Tain battles two guards. Osric shoots Peryarv with his crossbow. Peryarv throws icicles at Osric but misses. Ari smashes Peryarv up into his ribs.
Osric swaps to his sling and hits Peryarv. Marcus charges the two guards leaving with Yasmin. Mari hits Peryarv with magic missile. Ari hits Peryarv with an attack of opportunity as he casts. Peryarv sprays a wide flame from his hands, cooking her alive where she stands. Ari's god intervenes on her behalf - she is chosen after all - and keeps her alive, just (action points spent).
The rest of the party arrives. Agon tackles Peryarv. Tain drops a guard and attacks the other one. Peryarv drops Agon with a sleep spell, after Mari hits him with shocking grasp spell.
Marcus takes down one of the guards and places his blade to the tackled man's throat. This stops the other guard, who releases Yasmin.
Guards from the auction house arrive and stop the battle. The half-Ogre wants Yasmin released to him but Marcus does not want this - they have been tasked to bring Yasmin to the ambassador. The half-Ogre thinks for a moment and ultimately agrees to release Yasmin to Marcus, stating "that's ok - we know where you live." The half-Ogre knows House Arkona will be happy with the capture of Peryarv and knows Yasmin will be safe with Marcus.
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Agon – Mister Deparle
• Ari – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Osric – Norian
• Tain – Mothman
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Bringing in Trinia Sabor and the Queen is Crowned
5th Calistril
Brief Summary (as remembered by Agon, with additions, clarifications and edits by Tain).
Planning and Preparation
The group returns to Brock House after the events of last session to question Yasmin and plan their next step. Yasmin can shed little further light on the identity or motives of her captors. She thinks she was moved around during her captivity, including to a location outside the city (Tain and Agon suspect the Thieves Camp). She wishes to see Ambassador Amprei when it is proper to do so. Marcus has his servants deliver a message to Amprei.
The group decides that it would be best to try to get Trinia Sabor prior to the coronation (which is being held tonight). After some discussion, early afternoon (lunchtime) is settled on.
Mari used her magic to reveal the location of Trinia Sabor. She was not, as had first been indicated, within the cordon of the Hell Knights. She was located in a tenement building in Old Korvosa, on the corner of Fort Korvosa Boulevard and Wave Street.
Tain heads to his temple to ask about the Hellknights, discovers that they are in the city working with the Academae. They are letting no one out of their blockade and are warning away any who wish to enter; they will not be allowed back out.
Meanwhile, Agon spends the morning on an errand of his own.
An Unexpected Visitor
Marcus was visited by Sabina Merrin, the queen's bodyguard. Sabina was there, ostensibly, to inform Marcus and the team that they would be given a higher place in the rankings at the coronation ceremony that night as a reward for the service provided to the crown so far. She also gives them a physical reward of 100 gold pieces.
She enquires as to how the group is proceeding with finding Trinia. Marcus tells her that the group does not yet know where she is, but is following a promising lead. Sabina advised that delivering Trinia to Field Marshall Kroft was the "safest option". Sabina revealed that she and Lady Elizabeth do not see eye-to-eye. Sabina also seemed quite familiar with Agon, who is playing the peacock.
Going After Trinia
It was decided to bring Trinia in straight up. We would send Tain and Marcus in the front door (with Mari nearby and invisible), while Agon and Aria went around the back in case Trinia did a runner. Mari sent her familiar, Marcellano, up on to the Shingles as a scout (cloaked with mage armour and invisibility).
Trinia was alerted by a neighbour (after Tain, truthfully as usual, admitted they were there to find her) and did indeed do a runner. She used some kind of magic to place an illusion of herself in her room while she, cloaked by an invisibility spell, escaped via the roofs. Aria and Agon, however, were waiting on the rooftops of neighbouring buildings and were able to capture the accused murderer.
Trinia complained that Agon was betraying her. She claimed that Agon had been protecting her, and sleeping with her, for the last week. According to Trinia, Agon had also moved her from her previous safe house within the blockade. Apparently Felix, Agon's twin, had been pretending to be "Agon Deparle, respected Guard officer" and in this guise had been protecting Trinia.
The group questioned Trinia under the effect of Aria’s zone of truth spell. She claimed she did not kill the king, was innocent and they should let her go. She suggested she may have been framed due to the Queen being jealous of her. She admitted that she often brought the King his meals (so would have had opportunity to poison him). She mentioned that the Queen’s personality had changed in the months leading up to the King’s death, she had become mean, spiteful and controlling.
Trinia was placed under arrested, handcuffed, gagged and rendered invisible. She was then escorted from the building under the nose of Felix and his cronies (or people in the building who were trying to protect her).
Mari argued that the group should delay handing Trinia over to the Guard, but was overruled. Trinia was delivered to Field Marshall Kroft and placed in protective custody. Neither the Field Marshall nor the team thought Trinia was guilty of anything.
The Coronation
The team then dispersed to prepare for the coronation ceremony that evening. Everyone turned up looking wonderful. Marcus even remembered to bring his wife. On Marcus and Agon’s urging, Tain invited the Delamore ladies. Mari was dismayed to find her fiance and his family in attendance. Aria asked around about the Hellknight blockade and was told (by the high priest of Shelyn) that the purpose of the blockade is to keep a plague that has hit that part of the city from spreading.
The coronation went well. Mari and Aria felt some sort of strange malevolent presence hover over the crowd when the queen was crowned, but this soon passed once the crown was on Ileosa's head.
The newly crown Queen Ileosa then circulated through the room while music was played and couples danced. Agon asked the Queen for a dance! She seemed not at all offended but stated her first dance was reserved and suggested Agon dance with Sabina instead. Sabina and Agon then spent the rest of the evening dancing; meaning that Sabina was away from the Queen when;
Later in the evening, without warning, three black-clad intruders (one being the notorious Blackjack) came out of hiding. They yelled "death to the false queen" and threw knives. Tain leapt in front of the Queen, but the knives had been aimed at Lady Elizabeth! Mari tried but failed to stop the knives using magic. All three knives struck her divine chest and she fell.
Lady Elizabeth lay near death. Mari and Aria felt the evil presence again, as Elizabeth's life force waned the power grew, as it waxed the power receded. Aria was able to keep her from dying until other healers arrived. The assassins disappeared into the night. The crowd ran away and the coronation ceremony ended.
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Agon – Mister Deparle
• Aria – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – An Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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The Korvosan Times, 6th Calistril
Blackjack Attempts to Kill Our Queen
Shortly after the Queen’s coronation service last night, the masked vigilante known as "Blackjack" attempted to murder our fair Queen Ileosa. Barely an hour had passed into her official reign of Korvosa when Blackjack surprised the assembled nobles and civilians by launching an attack at Queen Ileosa. Several knives were thrown at the monarch.
Through an act of bravery by Church of Abadar paladin Tain Locus, the throwing knives did not reach their intended target. Tain threw himself selflessly in front of the Queen and the knives instead struck Lady Elizabeth, close advisor and companion to the Queen. Blackjack escaped in the ensuing chaos.
Many Church leaders were present at the ceremony and gave immediate aid to Lady Elizabeth. Lady Elizabeth yet lives despite critical injuries from the thrown knives – surely a testimony to the power of the Gods and skills of this city's healers.
Witnesses report that Blackjack made a threat about assassinating "the false queen" before throwing his knives. Reports also indicate Blackjack had assistants in this assault, an unusual step away from established legends and lore for this masked vigilante. Could it be that whomever has decided to pick-up the mask of Blackjack now is too cowardly to operate on his own?
Questions are already being asked about the security at the coronation. Sabina Merrin, head of personal security for the Queen, was dancing with a member of the Guard at the time of the attack. Seneschal Neolandus has not been seen since shortly before the attack last night. As the direct head of the Sable Company, why did he not ensure adequate security at the ceremony and celebrations?
The investigation into the attack continues. Readers are encouraged to contact their local Guard member if they have any information that could be relevant to this case.
Queen Ileosa is reported as being in full health.
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Blackjack – Return of the legend or imposter?
Witness reports of the assassination attempt last night report Blackjack was assisted by two similarly dressed men. In over two hundred years of legends and stories about Blackjack, not once has he ever been known to attempt assassination or work with other people.
Today we are calling upon our readers to contact us with their opinions on the return of Blackjack – is the “real” Blackjack back or is this merely an imposter? We will publish opinions in next Tuesday’s paper.
Blackjack hasn’t been seen in over ten years. The last official sighting of Blackjack occurred in 4697 when he interrupted a robbery and arson attempt at the Salsbury Orphanage for Lost and Wayward Children. Local lore states Blackjack received a sword wound to his chest during the battle with the vile criminals.
Many conspiracy theories sprung up from this event. Guards were on-scene soon after the supposed wound was inflicted. Rumour has it Blackjack was captured, being unable to escape with such a severe wound; these same rumours insist he is bound and locked away in a deep, dark corner of a Korvosan prison. Some even suggest he is a prisoner in the dungeons of Castle Korvosa itself!
Whether Blackjack was captured that night or not, his disappearance was certain. The question must now be asked – has the mantle of Blackjack been passed officially to someone else? Has someone stepped forward and decided to take over in Blackjack’s absence?
Will we see the real Blackjack come back?
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Book 2: Seven Days To The Grave
Summary for Session 9: It’s All Smooth Sailing From Here
19th Calistril
The Quiet Start
Thankfully the city is returning to normal, and all that can go wrong *has* gone wrong.
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Aria arranged to meet Tain at Brock House. The two wanted to share with Marcus and Mari what they had learnt of the plague, and Aria also wanted to discuss what else she had learnt about The Harbingers.
Two Guardsmen turn up at Brock House, with a writ from Field Marshal Kroft, requesting the group’s attendance at Citadel Volshyenek. Agon also receives a similar summons, and is relieved of his weapons. At the Citadel, it looks as though Agon is about to be court-marshalled, but instead is promoted to Lieutenant. The group go out drinking at local tavern to celebrate, Agon reveals that he made a deal with Lady Elizabeth and Sabine that if he brought Trinia in, he would get promoted.
Of Naked Men and Strange Cruises
There is a commotion outside, and the group observe a guardsman dressed in an Abadaran uniform chasing a shrieking, laughing, naked man down the street. Tain gives chase. Mari follows, after casting a Mount spell. Aria follows Mari. Marcus and Agon continue drinking until they belatedly realise everyone has gone. The two leave to find out what happened to Mari. Marcus walks along the street. Agon climbs onto a rooftop to view the scene from above.
Mari catches up with Tain, who gets onto the horse. The pair catch up with the naked man, and Tain leaps out of the saddle, knocking him to the ground and restraining him. Tain determines that the man appears to be insane, and gives of a strange, sweet scent. Mari, Tain and Ari interrogate the man and soon discover he was a crew-member of the Perraxian Eagle, a ship that had sailed into the city the night before. They notice that the man has a distended abdomen, and there appears to be some solid device lodged inside him. The man cannot reveal much information as a compulsion is upon him, causing him to start to blackout or have a fit whenever the questions turn towards the issue of how the device came to be inside him.
The Naked Man can tell them that a strange man was amongst them on their ship, a man who disappeared shortly before the crew started acting "funny".
Field Surgery
Mari casts a detection weave on the man's distended abdomen and this reveals faint traces of evil and necromantic magic. She informs Aria and Tain of this information, though she keeps a healthy distance from the man. Tain, Aria and Mari recognise the threat this man represents - he could be carrying a disease. Tain calls for backup to restrain the man. Aria gives Tain instructions so as to carry out a medical examination without her coming close to the naked man, for fear of contamination. They quickly determine there is a large device sealed inside his abdomen.
A group of guards arrive with a wagon plus an Acadamae mage. The mage checks the situation and asks that people remain back if they have not come into contact with the Naked Man. Tain and Ari go in the back of the wagon with the naked man, and the wagon heads out for Citadel Volshyenek. The Acadamae wizard calls for backup in dealing with containing the potentially infected area. The wagon contains gloves and aprons, give Ari the confidence to work directly on the Naked Man.
Ari and Tain do field surgery to remove the magical device. Aria lacks the ability to knock someone out and instead freezes the naked man to the spot. This man is fully awake and aware during the surgery. The device is revealed to be a large flat bronze cylinder, much wider than it is tall. The diameter is around that of a dinner plate and the height in the middle is some 2 inches that tapers to 1 inch at the sides. As Ari removes the device she notices a ticking and a sloshing noise. Ari also notices the symbol of Calistril tattooed on the man's ribs.
At the appearance of an Acadamae wizard, Mari wanders off down an alley with her summoned horse. She does not exit until the Acadamae wizards are on their way with Aria, Tain and the Naked Man.
As the wagon trip continues the ticking & sloshing increases in frequency. Ari heals the man for as much as she can. When the wagon arrives at the fort, Ari and Tain are eager to alight from the wagon for fear of the device releasing a biological agent.
On her summoned mount, Mari follows the wagon, though she takes an alternate route at various stages. She is curious about the man and whatever is inside him.
Rooftop Party
Agon notices a black-clad figure on a nearby rooftop .... Backjack! Agon approaches quietly, but is ambushed by a second, pudgy man in a Blackjack costume wielding a ... erm... blackjack. While Agon is dealing with this, he is hit from behind and falls unconscious.
When he wakes, Agon examines the scene on the roof and learns that the Blackjacks were casing a branch of the bank of Abadar. No doubt a robbery is planned, and Agon resolves to tell the Guard as soon as he has the chance.
Marvin the Martian Would Be Proud
Aria, Tain and their captive run from the wagon and call for help. As they run from the wagon an earth-shattering KA-BOOM erupts from the wagon. The fireball washes over the courtyard. The three of them are saved only by the quick reflexes of one of the Acadamae mages, who throws a barrier up just in time. Within moments 6 guards are dead and up to 20 more are affected by the fire. Acadamae mages port quickly to positions around the fort and raise a shield wall of solid air around the fort.
Following close by, Mari arrives in time to see the massive explosion. As the Acadamae wizards raise their magical protections to contain the blast, Mari moves into the courtyard to find her family and to lend her assistance to the wounded.
Too late!
Agon and Marcus race towards the scene of the explosion. They are too late and can only watch from outside the wall of force erected by the mages.
Aria and Tain work to help heal the wounded.
Agon gathers together some of the nearby surviving Guard and acts to secure the area and restore order.
Mari tells Marcus (through the magical barrier) to head to the docks and investigate a ship called the Perraxian Eagle, a suggestion which Marcus follows.
More Explosions
Marcus asks about the ship, finding out the circumstances of its arrival - it arrived last night, the crew appeared mad and the city officials quarantined the ship. One crew member managed to escape the ship.
Then the ship in the harbour blows up, and everything is starting to look like a Lethal Weapon movie.
Investigation
The nearby Bank of Abadar is robbed during the chaos of the explosion. Agon is sent to investigate. He teams up with Marcus (who arrives a short time later) to take statements. The two men dressed as Blackjack who robbed the bank used magic and fear tactics, making off with several thousand in coin.
Meanwhile, Aria, Mari and Tain are let out of the magically warded courtyard by the Acadamae mages. They take the (now cloaked) naked man with them to Osric’s warehouse for questioning. He no longer seems crazy and can speak broken Common. He reveals that his name is Rela. When asked certain questions (about how he came to be in his condition and who did it to him) his eyes roll back in his head and he begins having seizures, but the trio are able to determine a few things; the ship started from Qadira and made stops throughout the Inner Sea (including at Absalom) before reaching Korvosa. It did not stop in Magnimar. Someone (presumably important to the plot) boarded the ship in Absalom. He disappeared last night when all the crew went crazy. The symbol of the Harbingers also brings on the seizures.
The trio take Rela to the main Bank of Abadar for safe keeping and are told about the robbery at a lesser bank. They join Agon and Marcus there.
Blackjack on the Roof
Aria spots Blackjack on the roof opposite the bank, Agon and Tain move to intercept him. The champion speaks to Blackjack who assure Tain that it was not he who robbed the bank or attempted to assassinate the Queen, but it was he who stole away Trinia Sabor. Tain and Agon give chase, but cannot catch the fleet-of-foot vigilante. Mari follows at street level, on horseback.
The chase leads Tain, Agon and Mari to a warehouse owned by House Arkona. After the foreman tries to scare and then bribe off Agon, the Guardsman officer insists on investigating the warehouse. Mari casts invisibility so she can wonder around the warehouse to search for Blackjack. Tain supports him and the two claim that the warehouse is a possible hiding place of the fugitive Blackjack, bringing in a host of investigators.
Nearby, Marcus bumps into his fencing master, Vencarlo, out for a stroll in the warehouse district ...
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Agon – Mr Deparle
• Ari – the 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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Korvosan Times, 20th Calistril
Explosion Rocks Harbour, Fort; Multiple Deaths
Late yesterday two explosions brought the city to a stand-still. Witness reports say the first explosion occurred at Citadel Volshyenek, followed shortly afterwards by an explosion in the harbour when the Perraxian Eagle trading ship erupted. Damage from these two attacks include 6 guardsmen killed, dozens more requiring urgent medical attention, the destruction of the Chelaxian trading ship The Direption, and multiple burns and smoke inhalation victims.
Witness reports say a crewman from the Perraxian Eagle ran naked through the streets of Korvosa before being arrested by the Guard. This crewman was taken to the nearest Fort, Citadel Volshyenek, where the first attack occurred. Wizards from The Acadamae were on-hand to help control the damage caused by the explosion. "Thank Abadar the mages were here to help. This could have been much worse," said Corporal Jackson, guard member at the damaged fort.
Minutes later the Harbour was lit with fire as the Perraxian Eagle erupted. The ship was docked but under guard by members of the Sable Company. The force of the blast was so great that the sound of the explosion was reported on the other side of Korvosa. Multiple eye-witnesses claim the column of fire stretched well into the sky, and parts of the ship rained down several blocks away. Nearby warehouses and shops had their windows destroyed by the winds of the blast. Several hundred meters of dock walkway were scorched in the explosion. City engineers are currently assessing the damage.
At least 4 Sable Company men died in this attack, plus an unknown number of crewmen on the Perraxian Eagle.
Orson Freeward, public spokesman for The Acadamae, informed us The Acadamae did not register any magic release at the time of the explosion. This counters the rumours circulating the city that the explosions were an accident caused by one or more mages. Also Orson's information tells us this could not have been an accident at all.
Investigation continues into these attacks. The Guard and the Sable Company have established a joint task force to investigate the incidents.
Queen Ileosa issued a statement earlier this morning calling for calm. Queen Ileosa has announced increased security at our trade borders. All vehicles entering and leaving Korvosa will be examined by Guards, Hellknights, or Sable Company members. "These extreme measures are a temporary, but necessary, step in ensuring the security of Korvosa. I am sure the citizens of Korvosa will respect these new laws for as long as they exist." The Queen will host a ceremony to honour the fallen military men, to be held sometime in the next few days.
Lord Arkona, of the Peerage Review board, made a public statement this morning: "How could this happen in our fair city? Why did the Sable Company allow this clearly dangerous ship to dock in our harbour? Seneschal Neolandus is conveniently absent from court. The Queen should make him available for questioning immediately!"
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Brave Citizens Rescue Cargo
Brave citizens of Korvosa risked life and limb to help unload the cargo from the Chelaxian ship The Direption, after it caught fire from the explosion. It is believed all cargo was retrieved before the ship was burnt to the water line. Only two crewmen from The Direption were at the docks at the time of the incident; the Captain had received permission to disembark the crew only hours before the explosions.
The generosity and bravery of the citizens was marred somewhat by the reports of thieves making off with a couple of the smaller cargo boxes on the ship.
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Response to the attacks
Reaction to the attacks has been mixed. Trade in the city was virtually nil this morning as frightened citizens refused to leave their homes. Civil rights lawyers have been outspoken against the "draconian" laws enacted by the Queen, fearing these "temporary" rules may become permanent, helping to cement more power to the monarchy.
Churches this morning saw a large increase in attendance. "It is unsurprising in such trying times that people return to their beliefs," says Archbanker Darb Tuttle. Darb Tuttle led a service this morning at the temple of Abadar.
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Summary for Session 10: Helping Friends and Disease Strikes
22nd Calistril
Tain's Reward
Tain is given a sit-rep on the explosion at the docks. The Perraxian Eagle was destroyed entirely. The neighbouring ship, The Direption was severely damaged as well; crews were able to unload its goods before it burnt to the waterline. However several boxes were looted during the fire fighting.
Archbanker Darb Tuttle calls for a visit with Tain. A personal, one-one one visit. During this he comments that Tain has acted with bravery in attempting to save the Queen. The Church has been keeping an eye on him for some time and feels he has a great future with the Church of Abadar. In recognition of his devotion and advancements the Archbanker has commissioned a new suit of armour for him; +2 Chainmail, proudly displaying the logo of Abadar.
A Friend In Need
Lord Haythem, of House Bannyer contacts Marcus via a delivered note. It says he has an urgent matter, please come meet him at House Bannyer ASAP. Once Marcus arrived Lord Bannyer reveals a "friend" - Marcus deduces it must be Blackjack - came past his house approximately a week ago and brought Trinia Sabor to him to mind. Blackjack asked Lord Bannyer to find a way to get Trinia out of the city. Lord Bannyer has taken the week to get to know Trinia and now believes without a doubt that she is innocent of the crimes leveled against her. Could Marcus help in this manner? Trinia mentioned the group of people who captured her, and felt they were trustworthy people - if only they would not turn her back over to the city!
Lord Bannyer tells Marcus he thinks he has what it takes to get the job done. He suggests simply walking her out of the city in a simple disguise. There will be a House Bannyer wagon waiting on the other side of the city to take Trinia the rest of the way to his estates out east, where Trinia will be kept safe.
Peryarv & the Grey Council - Part 1
Aria meets with Mari at Brock House and informs her that Peryarv has been seen meeting with Arius. Could she go investigate Arius please? Mari is initially hesitant. Aria notices that Mari has dyed her hair black and appears particularly pale and thin.
Tain comes around, and Marcus comes back. Tain and Aria share the info they have gathered over the last couple of days - Peryarv buying a large number of cure disease scrolls, meeting with 8 seemingly random people (including Arius the wise), etc. There is some discussion amongst the players about Peryarv being the mage on the Perraxian Eagle, because he worships the god of doors etc.
Marcus privately discusses his meeting with Mari - he is hesitantly in favour of helping Trinia and hopefully finding out more about who the real killer might be, but he is concerned that Tain will not go with it. Mari wants to help her but does not want to bring trouble on the family. She suggests that Tain and Aria be consulted.
Tain and Aria discuss how to arrest Peryarv, but come to no conclusion. Marcus and Mari return. Marcus discusses - hypothetically of course - what Tain would do if Trinia Sabor were to be found, but asked to be smuggled out of the city. Before long this goes from a discussion of hypotheticals to an ethical debate with Tain over rescuing Trinia. In the end, Tain reluctantly he agrees he would help if proof could be found that her life would be in danger in custody, or that her trial would not be fair. Secretly Marcus decides it would be easier to just take Trinia out of town on his own than trouble Tain, and drops the matter.
Arius the Wise asks Mari to meet with him via a sealed letter. At the meeting, Arius tells Mari about the Grey Council, his place upon it, and feels it is time to introduce her to the greater network of non-Acadamae mages. If Mari will accept membership to the organisation then Arius and the council will call upon her to help investigate issues for them.
Mari asks Arius about the visit from Peryarv. Arius is surprised Mari knows about this, and admits Peryarv called in to see him. Peryarv has visited each of the 8 members of the grey council, asking for them to allow him to speak to them ASAP in regards to an urgent matter. Arius asks that Mari be present if and when the meeting goes ahead, and if she could bring trusted help that would be great - as he suspects trouble.
Down at the Docks
Tain and Aria meet with the harbour master who tells them the captain of The Direption is being kept in town at the city’s expense. The Direption gave a trading log before it docked and there is nothing special in the list. Just materials from Cheliax, plus a couple of small boxes of wood art. These boxes were the ones stolen from the docks during the rescue efforts.
Tain and Aria meet with the caption of The Direption - Captain Jack Harkness, an old sea dog weathered by his many years as a sailor. The Captain who reveals that the three stolen boxes were a special delivery to Korvosa from Egorian (Chelaxian capital). The Captain admits to only seeing into one of the boxes; the one box contained finely carved wooden statues some 3inches in height, looking much like chess pieces. Finally the Captain remembers part of the name of the trading company they were to be delivered to: Korvosan Trading co, or Korvosan something or other.
Earlier, Aria had sent word to crime boss Devargo Barvasi, asking him to have lunch with them (Aria, Tain, and Mari) at the Laughing Sails Inn. They are quite surprised when he turns up; even more surprised perhaps when he is cordial to them. During discussions Aria & Tain convince Devargo it is in his best interests to help the party to stop the The Harbingers and the Vanguard. After some further discussions Devargo shares what he knows of the other two groups, including his opinion that the Vanguard operates nothing like any other criminal organisation he has seen. The Vanguard provides only narcotics in their area; gambling, prostitution, theft has all been stopped - as far as being organised by them that is. They have also been fiercely protecting their territory at certain areas of the docks.
When asked about the stolen boxes, Devargo suggests that the thieves guild did not have them stolen (and accidently reveals his association with this group). He thinks that they may have been taken by locals, but suggestst to Aria that someone known to her (hinting at Osric or so Aria assumes) may know what happened to at least one of the boxes.
Devargo agrees to keep an eye and ear out for either group and contact the characters if he hears anything. Devargo then stays for his lunch, being quite the gentleman, before departing the restaurant.
Disease
Marcus meets with Haytham again, says yes to smuggling Trinia out of the city. Bannyer has already sent out a wagon, to go through the customs search now and be ready for Trinia on the other side. Marcus takes Trinia out on his own straight away. When walking Trinia through the city Marcus notes several sick looking people, from beggars to merchants, all displaying an ugly red rash and looking fatigued. This is in the south east part of the city.
As the group leaves the Laughing Sails Inn, Tain is approached by a dishevelled drunkard on the street. The man has recognised the Church of Abadar symbol on Tain's new chainmail and begs him to come help his family:
“My niece is sick. I don’t know what she has and neither does anyone in Trail’s End. She’s broken out all over in red pocks and can barely keep down food, or even the swill that good for nothing herbalist gave her. Her mother’s talking about going to the Bank of Abadar, but her family can’t afford to pay the prices their clerics would demand. My sister and I sat outside crying and praying; I felt compelled to run to every church and ask for help. Abadar has led me to you when all others have turned me away! Please you must help my niece!”
Tain and Aria offer their help, especially wary of the mention of disease.
The group follow the man, who calls himself Grau, to Trail's End -a fairly poor section of the city with a large Varisian population in the north east part of the city. Grau explains, almost apologetically, that his sister Tayce married a Varisian, hence they live in this section of town. Upon arrival the group is shown upstairs where they find the youngest daughter Brienna being treated by a junior cleric of Abadar, Ishani Dhatri. Brienna is showing strange symptoms - a blotchy red rash covers most of her face and upper body, high fever, sweats, a hacking wet cough, swollen lymph nodes.
Aria and Ishani discuss herbal remedies to try; Ishani is quite proficient in herbal remedies and has tried all options already. Mari searches for traces of magic, and Aria helps look for poison. They do not detect any such agents at work. This appears to be just a natural disease, but one that they have not seen before. Aria and Tain offer prayers and healing magic for the young girl and help restore some health and fortitude, albeit temporary - they realise that without more help, the girl does not have long to live.
The decision is made to send for a higher-level priest of Abadar to remove the disease with prayer as Ishani was too not able perform that prayer yet. Tain is impressed with Ishani showing care for the common people by coming here to help the girl when no-one else would, and for his comments about the money bringing a priest running. The family were 50gp short of being able to pay for the priest themselves. Tain doesn't hesitate to pay the remaining 50gp.
While Ishani fetches the priest, Tain and Aria talk to Grau and Tayce about how Brienne became sick. They discover others are also coming down with this disease, all around the area. Hesitantly Tayce and Grau reveal that Brienne was the first person to fall sick and that everyone they've had contact with in the last couple of days has now become sick too. It all started when they stole two silver boxes, containing a total of 30 silver Chelaxian pieces, from the docks the other day... The group recover the stolen boxes; Grau and Tayce have not had time to sell them yet.
The priest of Abadar returns shortly and removes the disease from Brienne. Aria, Tain, and Mari now have life-long friends in Tayce and Grau.
The trio discuss ways to stop the coins from being spread about, but soon realise that after two days the coins could be anywhere in the city. They head to the Bank of Abadar and speak to a senior priest about the possible severity of the disease, suggesting that the Bank try to segregate any Chelaxian minted silver piece that passes through any of its branches. Aria also informs her superiors in the Church of Pharasma about the disease.
Marcus & Trinia
Marcus delivers Trinia to her waiting transport. Before delivering her, Marcus takes the opportunity to find out what Trinia knew of the King's death and anything suspicious going on in the castle. Little is revealed that is not already know; new information is that the Seneschal was quite rude, patronising, to the Queen, Lady Elizabeth, and Trinia when they arrived from Cheliax and this attitude did not change for many years. Lady Elizabeth and the Queen had been life-long friends with Trinia until 3-4 months or so ago when Trinia noticed their humour had turned quite dark and sharp towards her. The friendships faltered then failed around this time.
Peryarv & the Grey Council - Part 2
Everyone meets back at Brock house. Mari is sent word by Arius the Wise that Peryarv wants to meet that night at 7pm at the slave auction house on Summoning Street. Mari asks the group to come with her but is reluctant to give many details other than this may be a chance to bring in Peryarv. The party arrives early to the meeting, geared up for a battle, and find the 8 members of the Grey Council present plus approximately 4 minders per council member, for a total of approx 40 people at the meeting.
Peryarv arrives on time with two large muscular men as bodyguards. Tain tries to detect evil on him, but senses nothing. As he walks into the middle of the auction area, where the 8 Grey Council members are standing in ceremony, he notices Aria and Mari. Peryarv approaches them and offers his apologies to Aria who replies with a terse "no hard feelings - yet". Peryarv looks Mari up and down before saying:
“You show great potential. It is a crime to keep you restricted like a leashed dog to just one teacher, even one as good as Arius. You deserve to be free, as do we all.”
The Grey Council is called to order. The leader recognises the new faces in the crowd and emphasises the need for secrecy by all those involved with the Grey Council. The leader then recognises Peryarv and gives him the floor. Peryarv says:
“My fellow wizards. Magic was once free in this great city. Magic was once respected, allowed to breath, to be its own creature. We all know there is no one true magic, just as there is no one true path to reach magic. Every form of magic and study must be respected, must be allowed to be free to develop to its full potential.
“The Acadamae... turned some 20 years ago. Corruption of the highest order brought their order into the sights of evil. They closed their hearts to the true nature of magic, began to think that their way was the only way for magic. That through them, and their training, all magic must come. They did not see the evil that tainted their thoughts, or their hearts, making them greedy for power. Wantonly they reached for control of magic in Korvosa, and I assure you it must be just a stepping stone onto their path to dominate the world.
“We cannot let that happen. The time has come for all arcane magic users to band together as one in this city, and stand before the so-called Acadamae and demand our freedom! That we may stand tall and proud as mages, that we are not lesser creatures because we choose another way to study and use magic. For the very life force of the universe manifests in us just as it manifests in them! We are arcane users! We shall be respected! We must stand and require that freedom!”
The Grey Council is startled. One voice speaks up:
“Your goals are worthy and you must know we have talked for 20 years of finding a way to come forward and claim our right to practice without the Acadamae ruling our lives. But they are stronger than us, they outnumber us, and we have been broken since the Day of Consolidation. Even if Lord Grestuv himself stood with us now, we would not be enough! And he lays dead at the hands of the Acadamae, killed on the Day.”
Peryarv threw his arms to the side and started channeling magic. Everyone felt the power drawing into the room. A white and purple aura started pulsing around him, and a translucent silver floated through the aura. The Grey Council reacted with shock. Peryarv address the council again:
“I am Lord Grestuv. Though severely wounded I managed to escape the city. It has taken me many long years to heal my body, many more still to reclaim the power I once held. Now I stand before you twice the mage I ever was before! And I will not let that so-called Acadamae of magic stand as it is! We must fight! Fight with me my brothers! Fight and reclaim our right to freedom!”
The Grey Council erupts into furious discussions. The player characters talk amongst themselves about what this will mean for the city. Eventually Peryarv's deep voice booms throughout the room:
“ENOUGH! We deserve our freedom! I will not let this so-called Acadamae stand! I fight them, with or without you! I declare WAR on the Acadamae!”
With this, Peryarv takes his leave of the meeting.
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Ari – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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So, a little background on this one; in the downtime between games, Agon, Aria and Tain had been investigating Peryarv (the ambassador from Magnimar) mainly because one of the ‘Blackjacks’ seen robbing the branch of the Bank of Abadar closely matched his physical description. Also in downtime, Marcus and Mari had a confrontation about Mari’s use of magic; immediately following the events of this session, the fight continued between the pair, amplified by Mari wishing to help Peryarv in his vendetta against the Acadamae and Marcus wanting to stay out of it. When they return home to Brock House the fight continues, and ends with Marcus burning Mari’s spellbooks and Mari storming out of the house.
One thing about Ollie’s version of Korvosa that I believe is somewhat different to the official version is that The Acadamae is really draconian in their regulation of arcane magic. Arcane casters in Korvosa must be registered with and taught by (or approved by) The Acadamae, and the penalties for non compliance are dire. The sale of arcane magical items is restricted (so there is a thriving black market). Twenty years or so ago, the Day of Consolidation, The Acadamae went to war with all the unaffiliated arcane casters in the city, either killing them, forcing them to join the Acadamae, or driving them away from the city or into hiding. The Grey Council is an alliance of wizards who oppose The Acadamae but keep their powers secret.
Mari is a wizard, but knowledge of this is pretty much restricted to her close allies (not even most of her family knows). She has not studied with The Acadamae, but with a member of the Grey Council.
At about this point in the game, Chubbs had decided to rebuild Mari as a beguiler rather than a wizard.
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Korvosan Times, 24th Calistril
Blood Veil Strikes
Over the last 4 days a new disease has been sweeping through Korvosa - The Blood Veil. To date more than three hundred cases have been officially recorded. One church official, speaking off the record, has estimated this number could be doubled given the poor in Korvosa have limited or no access to healers.
To date only 2 deaths have resulted from The Blood Veil. Many of those carrying the disease are worsening with the death toll expected to rise quickly over the coming days. It is not yet known if a person can recover from the Blood Veil naturally or requires magic to overcome.
Queen Ileosa is expected to give a speech later today on this emerging epidemic.
Lord Arkona, speaking on behalf of the Peerage Review, had this to say: "Another disaster is striking Korvosa. What is our young Queen doing to prevent deaths from this terrible malady? Response from our churches has been quick and I praise our clerics and priests for their care in this time. But our healers need support, our city is already has more sick and injured than can be cured. What is being done to find a cure for The Blood Veil?"
People are becoming infected faster than our priests can remove the disease. Questions are being raised over the city's ability to handle such outbreaks. Why do we not have a supply of disease-removing scrolls in the city vaults and/or the churches? Surely in our modern times our leaders would have prepared for an outcome as grave as this?
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Korvosan Times Exclusive
Our on-going investigation indicates a most unnatural source for this disease. The first sightings of The Blood Veil occurred on approximately the 20th of Calistril, the day after the explosion at the docks. Reliable sources say the Bank of Abadar has quietly been taking Chelaxian silver coins out of circulation with tellers instructed to only touch such coins when wearing gloves.
Meer coincidence or evidence of foul play? City officials are refusing to answer our questions in this matter.
Is this the latest in a series of attacks against our great city? Is Cheliax responsible for this latest development? Has the old empire declared a silent war against us?
Is The Blood Veil curable without magical assistance? Could this be the end of Korvosa?
Rumours persist as to the Hellknight & Acadamae restrictions in place in north eastern Korvosa. Word on the street is that another deadly disease is being contained there. Could there be any truth to this rumour?
Read on through today's edition for our exclusive reports into this epidemic.
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At about this point in the game, Chubbs had decided to rebuild Mari as a beguiler rather than a wizard.
I don't know that class, but I hope it doesn't need a spellbook, since her own brother BURNED HER SPELLBOOK!!!
I really like the format of the Korvosan Times. It's an interesting and original way of giving out information.
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At about this point in the game, Chubbs had decided to rebuild Mari as a beguiler rather than a wizard.I don't know that class, but I hope it doesn't need a spellbook, since her own brother BURNED HER SPELLBOOK!!!
I really like the format of the Korvosan Times. It's an interesting and original way of giving out information.
Yeah, Mari has an aspect called Magic In The Blood - even though she was a wizard, the ability to use magic is inherited amongst the Merivanchis like for sorcerers. Marcus burning her spellbooks was a plot device we used to get Mari to explore other ways to access her magic - part of an 'in-game' reason she became a beguiler (a class that doesn't use a spellbook).
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Korvosan Times, 25th of Calistril
New Military Group Formed by Queen Ileosa
Queen Ileosa stunned officials in Korvosa yesterday by announcing the immediate formation of a new military group called The Grey Maidens. This new organisation will be formed from the Queen's personal guard and report directly to Lady Elizabeth.
"The People of Korvosa deserve security and comfort in these trying times. The Korvosan Guard, Sable Company, and Hellknights are clearly stretched to their limits at this time. To ensure peace and order are kept, and to investigate this plague and the recent attack on our harbour, I am announcing the immediate formation of The Grey Maidens.
"The initial core of the Grey Maidens will be my personal guard, but we will actively recruit new soldiers as fast as possible. The Grey Maidens report directly to Lady Elizabeth; Sabina Merrin will be the lead officer under the rank "Colonel". Flyers will be erected on all street corners showing the uniforms of the Grey Maidens so that citizens may become familiar with this new group.
"The Grey Maidens have a narrow scope of responsibility. Citizens will find the Korvosan Guard, the Sable Company, and the Hellknights role in Korvosa unchanged. The Maidens first mission is to support our elite physicians and healers in investigating the source of The Blood Veil."
The Peer Review council were unavailable for comment at the time of the Queen's announcement. We can only assume they will be as surprised as our citizens at this turn of events.
Time will tell if this new "elite group" will be of any help to Korovsa during the time of this plague. Queen Ileosa is certainly correct in her assessment that the existing military are at breaking point. But do we really need another independent military unit? Read our Editorial section for letters from each of the Great Houses, as well as House Bannyer, Arch Banker Tuttle, and "The Hanging Judge" Zenobia Zenderholm.
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Death Toll Increases Overnight
The death toll for The Blood Veil increased over night, with an estimated 15 people dying from the disease. The official death toll now stands at 17, with no end in sight to the number of people infected.
The pressure on the churches and physicians increases with every day. Lines and mobs forming around the various healing centres are being kept in control - barely - by large numbers of guards and Hellknights. Several reports have come through of skirmishes between the authorities and the sick.
City Officials are asking all citizens to stay at home unless for urgent reasons. Businesses are reporting a significant drop in turnover in the last few days as panic grips the city. Trade was only beginning to return to normal after the recent riots and events following the death of King Eodred II. The further blow to Korvosan trade comes at a disastrous time, as figures released last week shows tax revenue for the year is now 20% less than forecast. Leading economists predict another 10% to 20% drop at least given this latest disease. One can only wonder how much longer Korvosa can hold together when the city runs out of money to pay for the Guard.
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Attack on Hellknights
Late last night several Hellknights were attacked in Old Korvosa whilst guarding the 4-block area locals call "The Zone". Eye-witnesses report a number of well-dressed men surprising the Hellknights at their corner station, attacking them from behind. It is believed at least 3 Hellknights were killed with another 5 seriously injured.
An extra unit of Hellknights were observed heading through the city to Old Korvosa in response to this attack. It is understood the Korvosan Guard are also looking into the attack but have so far both the Guard and Hellknights have refused to comment on the matter. The attack appears to be deliberate and well planned but without any obvious meaning.
Eye witness reports described the attackers as a group of 10 to 15 men all of average appearance. The attackers were described as wearing "some kind of uniform - they all had on the same type of purple cloaks and dark suits."
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Summary for Session 11: Disease and Ghouls.
25th Calistril
Marcus Merivanchi versus Arius the Wise
Seeking answers, Marcus travels to the University of Korvosa to confront Mari's tutor - Arius the Wise. He finds the scholar alone in his study within the white walls of the Twisted Tower. Marcus wants Arius to explain why his sister has been involved in arcane studies and potentially caught up in a war between the wizards in the city.
Arius calmly replies to Marcus that his intention was not to waste Mari's potential for the Art or to allow her risk to harming herself by remaining untrained. He promises Marcus that he had not wanted his sister to be harmed or to be involved in a war. Arius also tells Marcus that the Grey Council has not made a decision to side with Grestuv as yet. Marcus also threatens Arius, "remember Arius, we know the identities of your council now" and that if any harm comes to Mari he will bring the wrath of the heavens and hells upon Arius and his companions.
Marcus leaves mollified, though not in possession of the answers he originally sought. He returns unsatisfied to Brock House.
The Merivanchi Stand-Off
Leaving Vencarlo, Marianna seeks Agon out through his brother Felix. She finds him speaking to a small group of Varisians who are asking for minor boons. Initially, he does not recognise her and is surprised by her physical change.
Mari asks to speak to him in private and reveals that she has fled Brock House. Agon offers to rent a house for them, with Mari acting as his romantic interest. Instead, she proposes that Agon use the story that she is a cousin of Varisian descent who is visiting Korvosa.
The two decide that Mari and Agon will share the rent and upkeep. Mari also mentions her intention to bring her old nurse, Raethe, to live with them and act as a housekeeper.
Mari reveals her intention to visit Brock House and Agon decides to accompany her. On arriving at Brock House, they find a disheveled Marcus and a recently arrived Aria. The tension between Marcus and Mari is obvious, and they disappear for a little while to discuss their differences.
While the siblings argue, Aria and Agon discuss armour and weaponry, politely making small-talk. Aria fills Agon in on the investigations of the scions so far.
Marcus tells Mari that she is welcome back at Brock House, though she is angered that he has destroyed her arcane tools. She is unwilling to return and wants some time apart. Finally, Marcus agrees, though the two are far from reconciled.
Over a quiet drink in Marcus' study, Agon tells Marcus of his arrangement with Mari, restating that Mari is quite determined to live on her own. The young nobleman charges the Guardsman to look after his sister.
There were three boxes, now there is one...
The heroes decide to hunt down one of the missing boxes that were enchanted to contain and spread the Blood Veil disease. Two of the three boxes are in the possession of the authorities, with one missing.
Mari admits that she may be able to find the box, but emphasises that since Marcus destroyed her spellbook that it was now impossible. Instead, at the urging of Agon, she reveals that she could cast a locate spell from a scroll. She leaves to fetch one from Arius the Wise. Meanwhile, Agon, Aria and Marcus discuss the likely fate of the box.
Riding her horse, Prius, Mari rides to the University of Korvosa and demands a scroll of locate object from Arius the Wise. When she realises that she is being rude, she kindly requests the scroll and explains the risk if the box is not located as quick as possible. He gives her the spell and she rides back to Brock House.
Once at Brock House, Mari casts the spell without taking into account the duration of the weave. She rushes out on to the Janus Street and mounts Prius. Agon jumps on to the horse and takes the reins. They ride towards Castle Korvosa and the magic pinpoints the box to inside the castle - in the waiting room where the heroes originally met Queen Ileosa.
The Grey Maidens Revealed
Entering the castle is made difficult with the blockade set up by the Grey Maidens - the Queen's elite guard. The heroes' requests for entrance fall on deaf ears. Agon uses his position, then threats, then diplomacy again before finally the heroes are admitted to Castle Korvosa to seek out the box.
Once inside the castle, the heroes make their way to the waiting room to find two nobles playing chess. After using magic and a bit of investigation, the chess set is revealed to be diseased. Mari locates the box underneath the table and draws it out with her rapier.
Marcus, with advice from his cousin and Agon, reveals to the nobles that they are diseased. Alerted by the commotion of the heroes, and the panicked nobles, Lady Elizabeth and the Grey Maidens appear to take charge. Confronted with the outbreak of the disease within the castle, she allows the heroes to continue as they were before her arrival.
Lady Elizabeth is accompanied everywhere by the Grey Maidens who obey only her.
There are rats in that box...
Opening the enchanted box, diseased rats are unwittingly released and are poised to flee their felt lined prison. With sudden panic, the heroes stop the rats from fleeing using a combination of boots, magic and steel.
The heroes begin to question the inhabitants of the waiting room about servants or other potential conspirators who may have placed the enchanted box in the waiting room. The culprit is a servant who was asked to plant the box in the room.
The culprit, an elderly servant, dies quickly from the disease. The Grey Maidens refuse to answer Agon's questions, even when directed to do so by Lady Elizabeth. They too die quickly from the disease. Everyone, even lady Elizabeth is starting to freak out. The situation turns from bad to dire in a matter of seconds. Agon urges Lady Elizabeth to contact the Academae immediately; she does so by way of some strange orb carried in her pocket.
Instantly a priest of Abadar arrives with a cabal of Acadamae wizards teleport into the chamber. The wizards begin to set up a containment area and the heroes are cleansed of the disease by the priest of Abadar.
Once cured, and given the all clear, they search Castle Korvosa to continue their investigation. Those present, the heroes, are allowed to leave. Lady Elizabeth bids them to continue their investigation.
Talking with the Dead, a Lover and Field Marshall Croft
Aria decides to use her magic to talk to the recently dead. She tracks down assistance from the elders of her Church.
Agon finds Sabine, now the head of the Grey Maidens. The two share a quiet moment amidst the turmoil. Agon passes on the news of what has happened and what he knows about the outbreaks of disease.
Marcus and Mari return to Brock House.
Aria finds Agon and enlists his aid to question the servant who spread the disease. Agon is decidedly creeped out as dead spirits return the soul of the servant back from the Realms of the Dead to answer Aria's questions. The two learn that the servant's daughter had been kidnapped and held by the wizards at the Hall of Lies. The wizards said they would return her unharmed if the servant did their bidding.
Back at Brock House, the heroes meet and discuss what they have learned. Mari explains that the Hall of Lies is the school of illusion magic at the Acadamae. Deciding the issue is now very, very big, the heroes report to Field Marshall Croft.
Croft notifies them of the alley where the bodies of the victims from the disease are being kept on the orders of the Crown. While the alley is secure, there have been some disturbances. Agon asks to investigate the scene.
Gates and Ghouls
The heroes find a closed alleyway which has become a dumping site for the diseased dead of Korvosa. These corpses are piled against the back wall and guarded by a small number of the City Watch.
A gate blocks the dumping site from the road and partially obscures the dead left to rot. Seeking answers, the heroes investigate the gate and see that it has been scratched by some type of wild animal.
Aria and Marcus enter the blocked area to get a better look at the dead beyond the gate. In darkening light, they hear movement amongst the dead. Marcus lights a lantern, while Aria uses the divine power of Pharasma to make a stone glow with a cold, white light. She throws the stone near the pile and illuminates figures moving amongst the dead.
Agon, blessed with the legacy of his elven sight and having climbed up onto the fence, sees ghouls moving in the gloom. He readies his bow and calls a warning. Marcus draws an unusual weapon from his belt and fires upon the first ghoul with a bright flash of light and cloud of black smoke - widely missing his mark. He then draws his rapier and prepares to defend Aria.
Mari finally steps through the gate, closing it behind her, to face the threat with her family. In the resulting fight, the ghouls are destroyed, mainly through the power of Pharasma. However, Marcus is severely wounded by one and Aria suffers some minor wounds herself. Agon, having been 30 feet away, standing on a high fence and using a missile weapon, is unharmed.
In a few mintues, Marcus exhibits signs of the Blood Veil and Aria suspects she is infected as well. The heroes quickly leave the alleyway to find a cure for the disease.
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Agon – Mr Deparle
• Ari – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
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I was unfortunately away for this game, but Tain was not idle in the interim; he managed to convince the church of Abadar to arrest ambassador Peryarv (Tain was the arresting officer) under suspicion of armed robbery, terrorism, identity fraud, kidnapping and treason.
Upon questioning by the Bank of Abadar, Peryarv admitted to having been involved in the incident with Lady Yasmin, but claimed that he was rescuing her, after being told by his friend Ambassador Amprei that Lamm had kidnapped her and sold her into slavery. He claimed that after the heroes liberated her, he had been taken in by the Arkonas and tortured by Glorio Arkona until he agreed to join him in some venture.
He denied robbing the bank or being involved in spreading disease, but he told an outlandish tale of, many many years ago, discovering an ancient tome of prophecy at a Shoanti dig-site outside the city. The prophecy told of a great disaster and a plague hitting Korvosa. Queen Dominia, taking the information seriously, militarised the Acadamae and charged Peryarv (then known as Grestuv) and Toff Ornelos with coming up with a plan to save the city. They began stockpiling scrolls of cure disease, to be guarded by the Sable Company. However, the pair of mages had a falling out, and eventually came the wizard-war, where Toff killed Peryarv / Grestuv.
Peryarv claims he was resurrected by the divine intervention of Nethys, and hid out in Korvosa, rebuilding his power and magic.
The Bankers don’t know what to make of all these outlandish claims, and hold Peryarv pending more investigation.
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Summary for Session 12: Wererats!
26th Calistril
The Temple of Pharasma
Following the fight with the ghouls, Marcus and Aria seek a cure for the Blood Veil disease at the Temple of Pharasma. Agon and Marianna are left to wait. Restless and surrounded by guardsmen doing their duty to protect the temple, Agon quickly occupies himself for a while. After a short time, he appears to tell Mari that he is leaving. She remains behind to see her brother and cousin cured of the disease. Once she is satisfied, she returns with Marcus to Brock House. Then, when he is settled she leaves for the Cambion Estate.
Aria, having called upon her church for a favour to cure the disease that afflicted her and Marcus, is required to stay behind and attend to her duties, which will occupy her well into the next day. Marcus makes a donation of 200 gold sails to the Temple, before departing.
What Agon did that night
Concerned that the Arkona-backed smuggling ring may use the upheaval in the city to clear out their warehouse in the Midlands, Agon settles in to watch it overnight. Before too long he spies a red glow, as if from a large fire, a few streets away. His sharp ears pick out loud, but indistinct voices. Heeding the Call to Adventure, he abandons his stake-out and moves to investigate.
He sees a bonfire, the focus of an impromptu celebration. Several locals celebrate their triumph over a 'slinker', and hold their enemy's head on a spear over the fire.
A 'slinker', slang for those who creep around via the sewers and often meaning wererats, had been seen in the neighbourhood. Fearing this was the cause of the plagues, the locals hunted and killed the wererat. Flushed with success they repeated their act, venturing into the sewers to find and kill another; however their raid left three of their number behind, now mourned by their womenfolk.
Agon speaks with Gressa, one of the women left behind and with Hudak, the Shoanti-blood blacksmith who led the raids. He promises to help them, for each fears the wererats may seek to retaliate by raiding the surface.
Agon sends his twin brother Felix to see to the needs of the community and then seeks out Osric to ask the Dwarf merchant to provide some much needed weaponry and tools for the coming expedition into the sewers. Osric informs Agon of a contact of his who is something of an expert on wererats.
Breakfast at Brock House (of course)
27th Calistril
Marcus is awoken soon after dawn - he has a message and a visitor. The message is from Agon, saying that he and Mari (and possibly Aria and Tain) will be around for breakfast to discuss a matter of urgency - and does Marcus have any silver weapons?
The visitor is Ishani Dhatri from the Bank of Abadar. He was looking for Tain, but did not find him at the Bank or at his house. He tells Marcus that the Bank is trying to stop whoever in the city is selling false charms against disease, and is offering a 1,000gp reward to have the operation shut down. Marcus agrees to pass the message on to Tain, or try to deal with the problem himself. Ishani tells Marcus that he will attempt to reserve some healing spells for him if Marcus is in need.
Ishani leaves, and Marcus raids his silverware for knives, and casts a few silver bullets from coins for his pistol. He glances at his delivered copy of the Korvosan Times and notices that another fifty or so people died from Blood Veil during the night, and upwards of 2,000 more are suspected to be infected and in danger of dying over the next several days.
Agon and Mari arrive and inform Marcus of the wererat problem in Midland. Agon wants to deal with it as soon as possible, fearing a war between lycanthropes and humans that the city can ill afford at this time. He suggests that the group head down to the old fish market on Warehouse Way to see a contact he has been given by Osric, Eries Yelloweyes. As the group make ready to depart, Tain arrives and accompanies them.
Walking the streets, the fish markets and Osric’s warehouse
Posters denouncing the Academae have been placed throughout the streets of the city. This provokes a heated debate between the heroes as to the nature of the Wizard War. Mari believes that Grestuv may not be acting alone or it is a ploy by the Academae to draw out the enemy.
Tain reaffirms that Grestuv is still in custody and has not been in contact with anyone. Various suggestions by the group are that members of the Grey Council may have put up the posters, or other as yet unrevealed allies of Grestuv, or even the Acadamae, perhaps hoping to draw out opposition. The group notes that the posters are printed, and wonder about whom in the city might have access to printing presses, but soon come to the conclusion that there are likely to be several of them about.
The heroes interview Yelloweyes the fishmonger. Suspecting her true nature, Agon and Marcus send Tain off with Mari so they may speak to the wererat fishmonger known as Yelloweyes.
Marcus is suspicious and questions Yelloweyes as to her links, if any, to the plagues. Despite her nature, Yelloweyes claims to be a loyal citizen of Korvosa. Satisfied she is not responsible, Marcus listens to her case.
Yelloweyes knows of the wererats near Midlands, a group of radicals led by Gyrigg Razorclaw. She advises that they prepare to make war on the surface and asks, for the sake of continued peace between her people and the surface citizens of Korvosa, that some sort of accord be reached. When Marcus warns her that such an accord is likely to mean the death of the enclave, Yelloweyes deems the loss to be acceptable.
Yelloweyes tells Marcus and Agon that should they succeed, she will give them some information regarding the source of the plagues. Agon extracts a promise from Yelloweyes that should he and Marcus die, she will give her information to Felix.
At Mari's earlier suggestion, the two buy a large quantity of fish oil in order to disguise their scent from the wererats, along with a large quantity of snapper.
As the two heroes move away Marcus comments on the likelihood of violence. Agon cold-heartedly replies that was his intention all along, no matter what he said otherwise to Yelloweyes.
Joining the others at Osric's warehouse, the group takes advantage of the Dwarf's equipment and scrounging talents. They buy silver weapons, pepperbombs, thunderstones and some silversheen. Marcus hands over his Thassalonian short-sword to Agon, saying he is more comfortable with a rapier and feels Agon will make better use of the enchanted blade. Agon is genuinely moved by the gesture but Marcus waves off his gratitude.
Into the sewers
Preparing themselves to enter the sewers, the team uses Mari's magic to become invisible and conceal all sound. The team has prepared by distributing copies of their sewer map and agreeing to signals to be passed back and forth via means of a rope held by all parties.
Unfortunately, no-one can read the maps as they are invisible, no-one remembered to bring a rope, and being unable to see or hear each other the team is unable to communicate these issues. Eventually Mari, able to see the others as she had created the invisibility magic-weaves, finds a rope and shows Agon how to read his map.
The team moves into the sewers where they move unseen and unheard to the lair of the wererats, evading a dangerous Reefclaw along the way.
A loud and ominour roar is heard from near the wererat lair as if from a very large otyugh. The team stay focused and push on with their task.
The team ghosts into the wererat lair, led by Agon who displays a remarkable knack for sneaking about. Mari becomes suspicious that Agon is in fact Felix, a suspicion she is not entirely able to dismiss.
Wererat attack!
Sneaking along to the back entrance of the wererat lair, the team pulls up short of some kind of strange mushroom. Mari advises that it is a 'shrieker', a semi-intelligent plant that makes a loud noise whenever something moves near it. Using her magic, Mari places a barrier of magical silence near the mushroom and the team advance safely, destroying the mushroom as they go.
Finding a room with four wererats lounging around, the team realizes they cannot sneak past them all. Marcus suggests an ambush. Covered by Mari's weaves of silence and invisibility, the team bursts upon the four relaxing wererats and quickly kills them.
The room is searched. While the largest exit from the room leads into a cavern containing a swarming mass of rats, a narrower passageway seems to lead to the rear of the cavern complex, where Agon suspects Griggitz may be found.
Leaving Tain behind due to his large frame, Marcus, Mari and Agon cover themselves with fishoil and squeeze through the narrow passageway. Luck is with them and they shuffle through the narrow passage without incident.
Griggitz Razorclaws
At it end they find a large wererat, Griggitz, dressed in chainmail and carrying a fine rapier. The wererat studies a map of Korvosa and, thanks to Mari's magical weaves, is unaware of the danger he is in.
The team attacks! Griggitz screams for help.
Marcus aims his pistol at the wererat, but Agon charges across his line of fire, so he gives up and draws his rapier instead. Mari blinds Griggitz with her magic. Agon's blade strikes home again and again. The wererat tries to flee, but is checked by Agon who relentlessly attacks the blind wererat again and again.
A horde of rats enter the cavern, called by Griggitz' scream. As they boil over Marcus and Agon, Marcus calmly lights a prepared firebomb off his cigar and throws it into their midst. Mari leaps onto a stool and throws thunderstones into the horde. The cavern is filled with noise, flame, smoke, the screaming of rats and the clashing of blades between Agon and Griggitz!
From the chamber outside the cry of "For Abadar!" is heard as Tain charges against the three wererat guards who were coming to Griggitz' aid.
With Mari's weave ended, Griggitz regains his sight. The tide of the battle turns against Agon, with the wererat clearly the superior swordsman. The were rat deeply wounds the mercenary with sword and disease-filled bite. Agon does not fall, but his end cannot be far away.
Marcus disperses the last of the rat swarm and draws his blade to confront Griggitz.
Mari leaps from her stool onto Griggitz' back, jammig her fingers into his eyes and unleashing one last magical weave. She is thrown aside heavily, but her magic has done its work and the wererat is stunned by the weave. As Griggitz shakes his head and tries to regain his senses, Agon strikes, bringing the wererat to his knees.
"No-one touches my sister," is the cold comment from Marcus as the nobleman places the 'boom-stick' in his left hand up against Griggitz’ head and squeezes the trigger, blowing the wererats brains out.
The heroes relax and sigh, the battle is over.
And then they suddenly remember Tain!
Quickly drinking some magical healing potions to stem their many wounds, the heroes rush to Tain's aid. Between the four of them the two remaining wererats are easily overcome and killed.
The team thoroughly loots the enclave, finding many items that speak to the capacity of this group to make deadly raids against the surface.
The search for Jed and the other missing locals is a quick one. They are stuck outside behind an iron portcullis. Between them and the heroes, and another portcullis, is a large and angry otyugh. Coordinating their movements, the team collapses a wall leading from the tunnel to the wererat lair. The otyugh moves from its position trapped between two iron portcullis' in the corridor into the wererat lair where it begins to feed on the bodies it finds. Raising the portcullis the heroes rescue Jed and the others.
Having reunited the locals with their families, the heroes stay on for a bath and an impromptu street party. Marcus hands over a small quantity of coins to the leader of the trapped men and tells him that he has work for him or any of his neighbours that have found themselves unemployed in the recent troubles facing the city.
Items found....
• +1 silver rapier, decorated with runes along the blade and glows slightly (2,410 gp).
• +1 chain shirt (1,250 gp).
• Potion of Blur.
• Potion of Shield of Faith +3.
• Eversmoking Bottle, an ornate bottle of Katapeshi craftsmanship (5,400 gp).
• Four Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds.
• 60 gold pieces in an assortment of coins.
• An assortment of armour and weapons, including:
o Masterwork silver dagger (322 gp).
o Masterwork longsword (315 gp).
o Masterwork chainmail (300 gp).
o 29 daggers (2 gp each).
o 19 shortswords (10 gp each).
o Three light crossbows (35 gp each).
o 60 crossbow bolts.
o Four chain shirts (100 gp each).
• 12 flask of Alchemist Fire (20 gp each).
• Three Smokestick (20 gp each).
• 20 Tindertwigs (1 gp each).
• One Tanglefoot Bag (50 gp).
• A bent copper trumpet with a banner bearing the arms of the Korvosan Guard.
• A set of masterwork wood working tools in a well made timber case with brass clasps (55 gp).
Yelloweyes' revelation
The group returns to speak to Yelloweyes. She advises them that groups of humans in purple cloaks have been using the sewers to get around the city unseen. A group of these men were seen carrying a silver box into and out of The Zone via the sewers on the night of the attack on the Hellknights; they also left with a couple of sick looking, sweet smelling humans.
The purple cloaks have a lair under the city, near the location of the Castle. There are about forty of them encamped here. Yelloweyes does not give exact directions to the location, but hints that she or some of her people may be able to.
As a “friendly gesture” she recommends that any of the group who were bitten by Griggitz or any of the other wererats should get to a temple before the next full moon (in about a week’s time) unless they want to risk joining her people.
---
In Attendance
• GM – Mothman
• Agon – Mr Deparle
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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Summary for Session 13: False Cures and True Ones
27th Calistril
Looking For Help at the Bank of Abadar
Following the fight with the wererats, the heroes seek magical assistance to ensure they do not succumb to disease or worse --- lycanthropy. After stopping in at Osric's warehouse (where some of the group clean up, and Osric decides to accompany them), they call upon the Bank of Abadar, where the heroes are caught up in throng seeking the same divine healing. Chaos still reigns in the city as the plague continues to sweep through unabated.
The Banker they meet says plainly that healing the group could very well endanger the life of another Korvosan. Since they actively sought out the wererats, and brought themselves into contact with disease, the banker points out that he is unwilling to heal them over those already gathered outside - and most of the clerics are out of healing besides.
Lieutenant Agon Deparle, brave officer of the Korvosan Guard, even though he believes he has been cursed with lycanthropy and possibly some other sewer disease, refuses to take healing from another citizen and decides to seek assistance elsewhere. The noble Marcus Merivanchi, aristocratic champion of Korvosa, still nursing injuries from the previous nights fighting, also chooses not to ask for healing. This leaves the group with several injured and potentially serious ill members. These heroes do not count the cost, but battle on in spite of their wounds, ever mindful of the good of the people of Korvosa!
Although it helps that their wounds are somewhat alleviated by Tain laying on hands and giving his healing potion to Agon.
False Cures
The heroes decided to find the source of false cures on behalf of Iashani, the cleric of Abadar, who had healed them of their disease and wounds in the past. Marcus asks Baroness Lellia Delamore to accompany them to a perfumery near the Acadamae, one that is alleged to be selling false cures. She agrees to accompany the heroes (Marcus knows, after selling her a house, that she is canny and knows a lot about perfume).
As they near the perfumery, which is run by a woman named Vendra, the heroes see a crowd of over 200 people trying to push their way into a small storefront. After some discussion, they decide to venture around to a back entrance where they are confronted by two guards. When bluff, diplomacy and intimidation fail, Mari uses her magic to put the two guards to sleep. Osric, who remains outside, stows the bodies away and then proceeds to the roof of the perfumery.
The rest of the heroes enter the backroom of the premises to find a small operation underway. There are trays of vials filled with nothing but rain water and colouring - Lellia soon determines that the “potion” have no medicinal qualities. The false cures, it appears, are truly a scam! Mari investigates the small desk in the corner of the room, while Marcus and the others check out what is happening in the shop itself. There they see dozens of people pushing and jostling to buy the false remedies.
A woman and two assistants are working the counter. Neither of them sees the heroes and the crowd also seems oblivious. At one point, Vendra is out of stock and is about to enter the storeroom to get more potions, but Marcus hands her a crate of potions through the curtain, and the heroes remain unnoticed. This leaves some time to plan their next move.
Meanwhile, Mari discovers a small ledger which she hands over to Lellia and Marcus. Using his own professional experience as a bookkeeper, Marcus determines that the perfumery turned out its old stock awhile ago and began selling water as a false cure. He also points out that the perfumery is making a massive profit from this dubious trade.
Whilst this discussion is had, Agon and Tain argue the morals of whether or not Vendra should be arrested. Agon argues that the false cures give the people at least some hope, and that stopping the false cures without offering a real one will lead to despair. Tain argues that false hope is dangerous, as it may lead to a greater spread of disease if people think they are cured. In the end Agon seems to be swayed by Tain’s argument.
The heroes decide it is time to act. Stepping into the shop, Marcus and Tain accost the proprietor, her assistants and the crowds.
Making the Arrest
Marcus has a cunning plan to draw attention away from the perfumery by sending Agon and Osric into the streets with a tray of cures. With cries of "get your plague cures, only two gold sails" (a bargain price) Osric and Agon lead the crowd away from the store. This is too successful and the crowd begins a riot outside the perfumery and down the street towards the Acadamae.
Osrci and Agon, in danger of being crushed by the crowd, flee and make for the rooftops. Osric scatters the tray of 'cures' into the crowd to distract them and make good his escape. The two "heroes" flee the scene via the Thieves Highway.
Inside, Marcus and Tain order the crowds from the shop. Cowed by the presence of the two men, the crowd slowly back out of the shop and the doors are locked behind them. Outside the streets descend into chaos.
Making good their escape, Agon and Osric re-enter the shop via the rear lane. Agon (along with Lellia) join Marcus and Tain in the shopfront, where Agon and Marcus talk down Vendra’s two guards, whilst Osric joins Mari in the back room, where the two discover the safe.
Tain takes Vendra into custody. When the safe in the backroom is opened, she claims the heroes have robbed her, as the contents are missing. Tain suggests that the two guards from outside may have absconded with the loot - Osric checks on them and reports them gone. In reality, unknown to any of the others but Agon, who suggested the idea, Osric had earlier found and opened the safe and emptied it of its gold. Going one step further to hide his crime, the dwarf thief killed the two thugs as they slept by the back alley and disposed of their bodies down into the sewers - a clever, if amoral plan.
Calming the Crowd
Marcus and Mari decide to go outside to help settle the crowds. Mari casts a weave on Marcus to help him move easily on the rooftops. She makes herself invisible. Marcus is about to move forward to settle the agitated citizens, when Blackjack appears to do the work for him. This man resembles one of the Blackjacks that has been seen before (who led Tain and Agon on a rooftop chase), but there are some slight differences in the costume and the way he moves. Certain things about this man remind Marcus of Lord Bannyer. It is not the Blackjack that attempted to assassinate Lady Elizabeth at the coronation.
Standing on a rooftop nearby, Mari watches as another ‘Blackjack’ approaches. She decides to pursue this one and leaves Marcus alone with the crowds and the other vigilante. As she nears this newcomer, Mari notices that he moves in a way that is very familiar to her and that he is missing two fingers on his left hand. Believing she knows who this Blackjack is, she attempts to sneak up on him and surprise him.
Blackjack easily catches her blade in his mutilated hand and smiles calmly, recognising her. Mari and Blackjack (Vencarlo) sit down on the rooftop to share a brief conversation. He leaves soon after and she returns to help Marcus.
Marcus allows the other Blackjack to quell the crowd, offering shouted words of support. He also pleads for the citizens to remain calm as the Court is working on a cure and it will be available very soon. Marcus and Mari return to meet their friends near the Bank of Abadar. They both note that this could have been done better and they had risked lives by sending Agon and Osric out to misdirect the desperate citizens of Korvosa.
Back to the Bank
While Mari, Marcus and Osric are off trying to calm the crowd, Agon heads to the citadel to report to Field Marshal Kroft, while Tain and Lellia march to the Bank of Abadar with Vendra in tow. They hand the perfumer over to Iashani, who thanks them but says he cannot pay them a reward right now with the current ongoing chaos.
The pair retire to a nearby cafe to await the arrival of their friends. When Agon arrives, he and Tain have a quiet discussion about the possibility of recruiting wererats to help against the Vanguard of the Amethyst Lindorm (the ‘purple cloaks’).
Soon after everyone gets there, a messenger arrives, summoning Tain and his companions to a meeting with Archbanker Tuttle.
The heroes are asked by the Archbanker of Abadar to investigate Peryarv / Grestuv's claims that a magical scroll was sourced from the Sable Company headquarters.
Mari, using the meeting as a distraction, kneels down beside Peryarv - who appears more than a little worse for wear - to determine his sanity. He winks at her and she believes that while his imprisonment is affecting him, he is not insane - well, entirely insane, as the man does claim to have been resurrected by the god, Nethys. She casts a knock weave on his manacles and they open. Peryarv keeps the manacles covered as best he can to hide his freedom from the others gathered in the room.
As the meeting draws to a close, Mari hands her spell component pouch over to Peryarv. He winks at her again as she leaves to accompany her family to the Sable Company headquarters.
The pair are noticed only by the sharp-eyed Agon who simply shrugs, choosing not to meddle in the affairs of wizards.
The Tower
Calling on a favour from his cousin (a junior member of the Sable Company), Marcus is given the name of a trustworthy member of the Sable Company to speak with.
The heroes go to the Sable Company Headquarters, seeking the origins of a scroll that Peryarv Grestuv claims came from a hidden cache. Initially, the heroes are awed by the structure and the majesty of the marines on their hippogriff mounts.
Marcus speaks with his contact, who provides some background information on the structure of the tower. Apparently a large section of the tower's base do not contain any rooms and serve only as foundations. The heroes suspect this may be otherwise. They are also informed that the lower inhabited levels of the tower were used in the early days by members of the Academae. The group believes this indicates the presence of secret rooms beneath the tower.
Mari uses her magic to locate the scrolls, but fails on the first two attempts. She risks her health by over-casting her next weave and locates a room in the foundations of the tower that may be the source of magical scrolls the heroes are seeking.
The heroes quickly descend into the base of the tower to find a hidden corridor protected by a secret door in the floor. The corridor is illuminated by the same light weave that Aria and Mari identified in the corridors leading to the Slave Auction House. The heroes descend into the corridors, though Mari notes that an alarm spell has been triggered by their entry.
The corridor ends in a door that is protected by magical wards. Mari and Lellia attempt to decipher the nature of the wards, while the other heroes continue to watch for approaching marines or other entryways from the corridor. Agon tries one of the other doors leading from the corridor. A magical bolt of lightning strikes out as a result and it is only the warrior's preternaturally fast reflexes that save his life. Chastened, Agon leaves further investigation of the magical wards to the experts.
Mari, using her natural affinity for magic, is able to start the process of deactivating the magical weaves. Lellia recognises the pattern, using her knowledge of nature, and assists Mari in opening the large circular door.
Beyond the door is a stronghold filled with thousands of scrolls. As the two women stand agape, a figure approaches from the corridor they had entered by. Mari recognises the stranger as Toff Ornelos, Master of the Acadamae. Struck with fear, Mari attempts to weave herself invisible and is thwarted when Toff uses a weave of negation to strip her of the weave. This also removes the magic that was held by the Varisian tattoo on her back, changing her appearance back to the blonde, healthily fair Mari the others had previously known.
Toff confronts the heroes. Marcus, Agon and Tain draw their weapons and take up a defensive stance. Mari tries to placate the archmage by offering herself as the guilty party and using whatever influences she has with him. He states that she will live, as her family dies. Despite his words, his tone suggests an unpleasant fate for Mari should she fail to comply. Deciding that it was time to make a stand against House Ornelos, especially with her family at risk, Mari draws her blade and prepares herself to fight the archmage. A presence appears behind the unsuspecting archmage.
This presence is revealed to be Peryarv Grestuv. The fallen archmage gains a momentary advantage on his nemesis, before they descend into a mage-duel. Marcus tells the others to go on while he guards the corridor. They begin the process of investigating the stronghold room, leaving Marcus alone in the corridor. When the smoke clears, Peryarv emerges shaken and wounded, but mostly whole. He leaves Marcus alone with an unconscious Toff Ornelos, while he (Grestuv) enters the chamber of scrolls.
Deciding that the wounded and unconscious archmage (Toff) is too great a threat to his family, Marcus draws his dagger, and with a muttered explanation that falls on deaf ears, he slits the unconscious wizard's throat. Wiping the blood from his dagger, he then joins his companions in the chamber.
As Marcus brings about Toff's premature end, Agon and Osric are assisted by Mari in looting what has been discovered to be a horde of magical scrolls. The scrolls are scribed with remove disease. She turns Agon and Osric invisible to allow a stash of scrolls to be removed. Cloaked from sight by Mari's spell, Agon remains behind to spend some time gathering evidence, leaving the unscrupulous dwarf the task of making off with several sacks of scrolls. Mari stashes about ten scrolls into her own satchel.
As Sable Company marines arrive on the scene, Tain and Peryarv leave to warn the Bank of Abadar about the cache of magical scrolls. On returning to the Bank, Peryarv is given a reprieve by the Archbanker as he returned of his own volition after his initial escape. Tuttle offers Peryarv a place to stay as a guest, not as a prisoner.
The scrolls are distributed amongst the city’s churches, and the process of curing the masses begins.
---
In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Agon – Mr Deparle
• Lellia – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Osric – Norian
• Tain – Mothman
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Wow, again, it's so different from the original campaign!
Marcus killed Toff Ornelos! That's huge!!!!
Will Aria's player play Lellia from now on, or was it just a one-time deal?
I'm curious, why did you GM the mission against the wererats? Was that also a one-time thing, where the DM wasn't available, and gave you a self-contained assignment? Or are you co-GMing the campaign?
Wow, again, it's so different from the original campaign!
Marcus killed Toff Ornelos! That's huge!!!!Will Aria's player play Lellia from now on, or was it just a one-time deal?
I'm curious, why did you GM the mission against the wererats? Was that also a one-time thing, where the DM wasn't available, and gave you a self-contained assignment? Or are you co-GMing the campaign?
Aria/Liella's player here - I normally play homicidal axe wielding dwarves. When we started the game I wanted to play something I wouldn't normally play and Aria was a good character but I couldn't connect with her or her motivations, she just bashed stuff a lot.
So I went with the witch class that appealed to me a lot - Liella was a Galtian refugee that the party had rescued from in a previous game and I liked the background story that I created for Liella and her daughter for that game. I based Liella a little on The Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) from Dangerous Liaisons (not as evil though).
Liella is now my all time favorite character that I have played.
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Summary for Session 14: A Grisly Treasure Hunt
29th Calistril
Thousand Bones
Returning to Brock House after the warehouse meeting, Marcus and Mari (with Lellia in tow), find a letter waiting for them from Vencarlo Orisini, asking them to meet him at a small park between Northpoint and Cliffside.
He is there with a Shoanti shaman called Thousand Bones. Thousand Bones’ grandson was killed by the plague (after being almost caught up in a quarantine of Old Korvosa) and his body mistreated. Divination indicates it is in a place below Grey District called the Dead Warrens, Thousand Bones wants them to retrieve it. Vencarlo mentions that he has heard from Kroft that the order to dump the bodies came from the Castle - a foreign doctor that the queen called in soon after the plague broke out. Lady Elizabeth did not seem pleased with this order.
The heroes seek out Tain and Osric to help them in their mission. They travel to Grey and find the entrance to the Dead Warrens. Osric finds some unusual footprints around the entrance (ghouls and derro).
The Dead Warrens
Heading down to an ancient underground ossuary, the heroes defeat a group of skeletal guardians, and follow a tunnel to a cavern lit by a strange luminescent blue fungus. Three small creatures (derro) are experimenting on a dead body. After a brief battle, the group handily defeat the three derro, though one almost escapes before Mari shoots it with a magic missile in an adjacent corridor. When Osric goes to retrieve the body he is wounded by an acid trap.
A side tunnel leads to a cave inhabited by ghouls feasting on a pile of body parts. After destroying the ghouls, the heroes find the Shoanti’s severed leg in the pile of corpse bits. Heading back to and past the trapped corridor, the group encounter a carrion golem in another chamber, bearing the Shoanti’s arm, which they remove after defeating the golem.
Marcus notices movement down a nearby corridor, Mari turns invisible then sneaks down, sees a derro trying to urge a stupid looking ogre-kin to attack the party. Mari hides and waits for them to go past, then attacks derro from behind. Pumpkinhead the ogre-kin charges down corridor but is halted by Lellia’s hold person spell. Osric attacks him, then squeezes through his legs to reach Mari, Marcus tries to pull the ogre down, but it shakes off the spell and punches him away. Lellia blasts it with fires, but it keeps coming, single minded pursuit of Marcus, nearly pummels him to death before Tain and Marcus bring it down, assisted by a last minute Osric sneak attack after he and Mari take down the Derro.
Heading back to Pumpkinhead’s chamber, they rescue some prisoners, an incoherent man and a woman who tells them she was kidnapped at night and awoke here.
Another passage brings them to a locked door and a lab beyond, still lit by the blue light, where a golem lies on a slab. Its head is the Shoanti’s, and in a bin of discarded body parts nearby is the rest of his body. Mari hears spell-casting, casts glitterdust to reveal a hidden derro. Lellia lightning bolts him, Tain and Marcus attack, Osric begins dismembering the flesh golem on the table. After a battle involving lots of spells and spectacular moves, thrills and spills, Mari uses magic to send the derro necromancer into a catatonic state. They loot the place, grab the Shoanti body parts and the prisoners and head out.
Loot
• Wand of Ghoul Touch (44 charges) (4,500 gp new)
• +1 dagger (small) (2,302 gp)
• Ring of Protection +1 (2,000 gp)
• Elixer of Hiding (250 gp)
• Elixer of Vision (250 gp)
• Cloak of Resistance +1 (small) (1,000 gp)
• Robe of Bones (small) - human skeleton, human zombie, fast goblin zombie (2,400 gp new)
• Scoll of Identify (25 gp)
• Scroll of Geas (1,650 gp)
• Scroll of Command Undead (150 gp)
• Spellbook
• Library of books on anatomy, necromancy, medicine, plagues and diseases, and golem crafting
• 200 gp in assorted coins
• An assortment of small-sized weapons including strange hooked clubs (with rope), repeating crossbows, bone saws, etc.
• Alchemical supplies, preserving fluids, surgical equipment
• One slightly spoiled Shoanti corpse
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In Attendance
• GM – Mothman
• Lellia – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Osric - Norian
• Tain – Mothman
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This game was a bit of a non sequitur, I had to run the session at relatively late notice when Ollie couldn’t make the game. I chose an episode from Book 1 that Ollie had not run, it sort of doesn’t make sense given the momentous events of the previous session ... but anyway. ‘The warehouse meeting’ referred to at the start of the game summary actually happens at the start of the next session (and via email interactions between the players).
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Summary for Session 15: Tying Up Loose Ends
27th to 29th Calistril
Marcus arranges for the purchase of bulk food (grains and vegetables) from his cousin Pellius Merivanchi. The sale is arranged at above normal cost, but well below the current market value (close to 200%) of food in the city, and will be delivered to the warehouse in the next week or so. Marcus also recruits a further eight labourers to work on the warehouse project and the cleanup begins to take shape.
Marcus, Mari, Tain, Agon and Lellia meet at the warehouse to discuss their concerns regarding the role of the crown in the recent chaos and plagues. Aria appears unable to attend and Marcus sends word to her requesting a personal meeting.
Meetings are held between Lellia, Marcus, Tain and Mari and arrangements are made regarding the upcoming "thanking ceremony".
Marcus attempts to get hold of blueprints and plans of the city's sewers around the area identified as the Vanguard base. He manages to get some material from a contact in the Magistracy of Civil Works, but they are old and badly in need of updating.
30th Calistril
Invitations
Marcus receives a message from Lord Magnus Merivanchi informing him that he has met with the new Lord Vylenous Ornellos. He "insists" in the message that Marcus and Mari meet with Vylenous and "make things right". At the same time, Marcus receives a formally worded invitation for he and Mari to meet with Vylenous Ornellos at the "earliest possible convenience".
The Baroness Lellia Delamore also receives a request from Vylenous Ornellos to meet. The trio decide to attend together that same afternoon. No other members of the group receive such missives (to the best of my knowledge) and it is obviously House Ornellos attempting to keep things within the ranks of the nobility.
House Ornellos
Marcus, Mari and Lellia meet and make preparations before departing for their meeting with the new Lord Ornellos.
Upon arrival at the Ornellos Villa, Marcus, Mari and Lellia are escorted into a formal receiving area, while their servants are ushered aside into a common room. The new Lord Ornellos, Vylenous, arrives shortly flanked by numerous family members, scribes, and what is very likely the foulest of breeds - lawyers.
After an exchange of curt pleasantries, Vylenous begins by demanding to know exactly what occurred in the great tower three nights ago. Marcus tells a censored version of the tale, leaving out much of the threats made by Toff against the group, attempting as much as possible to sell our involvement as the heroes act on behalf of the city that it surely is.
Vylenous then discusses the fact that Mari, Marcus, Lellia and our retainers are now something of heroes about the city and that the name of his good family and previous Lord Toff Ornellous has been sullied. He demands to know who is responsible for the bards spreading tales through the city. After the trio denies any involvement or knowledge of the affair, Vylenous reveals he has three of the bards in "custody" and expects they will soon tell who hired them. Marcus still denies any knowledge (although Mari suspects Agon's part).
Veiled threats are thrown about as Vylenous rails about the slurs against his family name, that Toff is being painted as some form of traitor against the city. He all-but accuses Marcus of being involved in bringing his house into disrepute. Marcus again repeats his version of events, and denies any knowledge of the tall-tellers.
Finally, a compromise is reached in which Marcus (and possibly Mari and Lellia) will make a statement to the press that downplays any treachery on behalf of Toff Ornellos, stating simply that he arrived after sensing some great magic. With the arrival of Greystuv, the two engaged in a duel fuelled by a long rivalry between the two. The statement does not paint Toff Ornellos in any great light, but nor does it speak of his suspected hiding of a cure for the plague.
The marriage of Mari and Orlando are discussed and it is decided that the wedding will proceed, once an "appropriate" mourning period has been observed. Hopefully buying some time for final decisions to be made.
1st Pharast
Meeting with Aria
Marcus has previously sent word to Ariadne, requesting she meet to discuss "family matters". She returns Marcus' message and arranges to meet on the 1st of Pharast.
Aria reveals she accepted the post with the Grey Maidens partly due to a suggestion from her superiors, wanting a set of eyes in the organisation, and partly to serve her family in the same capacity. She passes on to Marcus what she has uncovered so far.
So far, over 150 Grey Maidens have been recruited. Many of the young women are ruffians. Most are young, idealistic, aggressive and dedicated to the Queen. Sabine, the supposed head of the Grey Maidens, has been overhead more than once complaining about the way "her military force" was being put together for her.
The Queen's personal Doctor the group had heard about is revealed to be a man called Doctor Devaulus. He arrived with a small staff of doctors shortly BEFORE the plague broke out across the city at the request of either the Queen or Lady Elizabeth. Lady Elizabeth has been heard speaking against the doctor, and has argued with the Queen regarding the doctor's presence in the castle and the disposal of the bodies. It can therefore be assumed it was not Lady Elizabeth who summoned Devaulus.
Ariadne departs, promising to keep Marcus informed of events within the castle.
Meeting Blackjack(s)
It is important to remember at this point that both Marcus and Mari believe they have identified one of the Blackjacks (a different one each) and have not shared this information with each other.
Marcus ahs previously sent word to Lord Bannyer, wishing to discuss the "purchase of furniture" with him, an aside in the message mentions the recent near-riot in the city. Lord Bannyer replies that he will have his business partner present at the meeting. Already suspecting there are multiple Blackjacks present in the city, Marcus agrees.
Upon arrival, Marcus finds Hathym Bannyer and Vencarlo Orisini fencing in the Bannyer practice room. The session seems heated and Hathym appears upset and distracted about something, allowing Vencarlo to get the upper hand in the contest. Upon noting Marcus' arrival, the two greet him and Vencarlo expresses surprise that Mari is not present. Marcus covers his surprise at this statement commenting that she was busy with other affairs and he would rely any information to her. Mentally, he makes a note to speak with Mari as soon as he returns to Brock House.
Vencarlo takes the lead in the conversation, commenting he believes that he can trust Marcus with the truth and that he has been following his, and his associates, activities with great interest and hope. He reveals he is in fact Blackjack, and has been for some time. Apparently, there have been many Blackjacks, each selecting a replacement to serve the best interest of the city's people and protect them from oppression. Some years ago, following the loss of two of his most promising students, Vencarlo looked elsewhere for a replacement and chose an idealistic nobleman - Lord Bannyer. There had for some time been little need for Blackjack to make an appearance.
With the recent troubles in the city, the two decided they needed to act. Working in concert they are both able to ensure that Blackjack is active at a time when one of them is clearly seen elsewhere in the city, ensuring no suspicion falls on them. They reveal they are deeply worried by what has recently occurred in the city, and have chosen to reveal their secret to a select few. At this statement, Lord Bannyer flinches as if troubled by something. Vencarlo tells Marcus he is pleased with his (and his colleagues) efforts to assist the city in the recent weeks.
When asked, Vencarlo admits that he was responsible for rescuing Trinia Sabor (and other persecuted innocents). When Marcus asks about the assassination attempt, he answers that neither he nor Haythym were responsible. The body language of the pair reveals they know more, and when Marcus pushes the point, Lord Bannyer reveals he has told his secret to some family members who have not reacted the way they had hoped. Marcus surmises (with the news that Haythym and his eldest son are not on speaking terms recently) that it is the eldest Bannyer sibling that was responsible. He tactfully pushes the questioning no further.
Marcus mentions he and his friends have identified two groups operating in the underground of Korvosa - the Harbingers and the Vanguard - and that a stronghold of one group was recently discovered. When discussing the Vanguard, Vencarlo mentions a new drug that has apparently hit the streets - Purple Dream - and it is surmised that the Vanguard may be responsible. No one is able to determine exactly what links the two groups may have to the Crown.
Vencarlo offers that he or Lord Bannyer may be able to provide some manpower from among their allies to assist when the group moves against the Vanguard. As they close the discussion, Vencarlo jokingly mentions Marcus' lack of confidence in scaling the rooftops of Korvosa recently and they present him with something "to help out".
(Marcus receives a pair of Boots of Dexterity +2)
Meeting Peryarv
Mari meets with Peryarv.
Meeting Blackjack (again)
Mari meets with Vencarlo to discuss the fact he is Blackjack.
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Lellia / Aria – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
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With a low player attendance, this game ended up very much a ‘tying up loose ends’ session as the title suggests. We will never know how Mari’s meetings with Peryarv and Vencarlo went as no summary was provided!
Between sessions, Ollie let us know that our characters had been invited to the Castle for a ‘thanking ceremony’ following the uncovering of the remove disease scrolls. Agon also detailed (via email) that he hired some bards to go around the city, telling the (modified) story of the group’s heroic deeds, so that their role in securing the scrolls would not be forgotten or overlooked.
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Summary for Session 16: Missing Prisoners
2nd Pharast
Missing Prisoners and Uninvited Guests
Tain learned that two prisoners, Balko and Vendra, who had been in the custody of the Bank of Abadar, were missing. They had supposedly been transferred to the custody of the Korvosan Guard but never arrived. Tain suspects that the Vanguard is involved, given that Balko and Vendra are both alchemists and the Vanguard is interested in producing drugs. He heads off to Brock House to consult Mari and Marcus.
Lellia receives a visitor, a man who wishes her to design a wedding gown for his bride. He gives her a book, but upon reading it she begins to feel drowsy. She manages to fight off the effect and calls for Gisgard (her servant) and Keiko her raven familiar. While Gisgard rushes to defend her, she tells the raven to fetch Mari. The man draws a dagger and cuts Gisgard, then Lellia as she attempts to levitate away. She casts a spell to put the man to sleep, then has Gisgard tie him to a chair, but then she and Gisgard succumb to the poison on the dagger and fall asleep themselves.
The raven summons Mari and Marcus, who arrive at Lellia’s house in a hurry to find everyone sleeping. Mari studies Gisgard's wound and establishes that the knife was poisoned. She also finds magic on the slumbering prisoner - his boots glow with a faint aura of magic. A book nearby also glows with magic.
They wake Lellia and Gisgard and discover what has happened, then prepare to wake and question the prisoner. Mari searches the prisoner, taking from him another poisoned knife and a bag of coins. She also takes his boots for good measure.
At this point Tain arrives, having been directed here by Claudio at Brock House.
The Perils of Interrogation
Tain, Lellia and Marcus attempt to intimidate the man, who gives his name as Tom, and says he was hired by someone - he doesn’t know who they were - to put Lellia to sleep and bring her to the docks. He swears he didn’t intend to hurt her.
The intimidating questioning seems all too much for him and he begins having chest pains and difficulty breathing. The group suspects he may be under some type of magical compulsion, but Mari can detect no magic about him. Lellia suggests that she will go along with a plan to go to the docks, pretending to be a prisoner, so as to find who is responsible - she suspects agents of the Red Revolution, whilst Tain thinks it is more likely the Vangaurd trying to “recruit” another alchemist.
As Lellia demands of Tom that he give up everything he knows about the meeting, he begins to have a heart attack. Tom complains about "a band around his heart".
While Lellia and Mari work to save him, Tain realizes that Tom would have difficulty getting a sleeping woman to the docks on his own and that he must have help. They did not see anyone out the front, so suspect there may be an accomplice waiting out the back.
Marcus runs out into the back garden and vaults the rear fence, seeing a man waiting with a cart in the rear lane. He tries to jump into the cart but doesn’t make it, landing in the street as the man begins to drive away.
Meanwhile Tain headed out the front door to get to the mouth of the laneway. He sees the cart and spooks the horses, forcing the cart to stop. The man runs off, and Marcus and Tain give chase. Looking back at his pursuers, the man does not see a refuse cart and runs right into it.
Marcus apprehends him, Tain slaps on some manacles and they drag him back to the house, or more accurately a tool shed for questioning. Although he is at first reluctant to speak, the man, who eventually gives his name as Dargan, gives the same story as Tom.
Meanwhile, Lellia and Mari (with Mari refusing to bash in his teeth at the Baroness' demand) have been able to stabilize Tom, but when they begin questioning him further he has a fit and dies. They realise he has been poisoned.
Further questioning of Dargan reveals that he was also instructed to kill Tom, giving him a slow acting poison which he has in a syringe. Marcus finds the syringe and sticks Dargan with it, saying he will give him an antitoxin if he agrees to help them. He does agree and Tain ensures that he is given the antitoxin, though Marcus warns Dargan that he will be keeping a pistol trained on him the whole time.
The plan is that Dargan drives the cart, Lellia is in the cart pretending to be asleep, Marcus hides in the cart, and Mari and Tain ride along behind.
The Fight at the Warehouse
The cart heads to a warehouse at the docks, not far from the Arkona warehouse. The cart is driven in the main street-side doors, while Mari and Tain sneak around to an open side door. Three men come through an internal door from another section of the warehouse to unload the Baroness, and Tain notices Dargan quietly signaling them that someone is hiding in the cart. He charges in, yelling an Abadaran war-cry and barrels over one of the men. Taking his cue, Marcus shoots Dargan in the back while Mari and Lellia both begin casting spells.
The remaining men surrender or flee, and Lellia flies up near the warehouse roof where she can see over a partition into a back room where some people are being kept in cages. She tells Tain this, who charges into the back, only to find himself in an antechamber that was unseen by Lellia, surrounded by four burly men with cudgels and another with two pistols. Tain is shot then attacked by the club wielders, but Marcus and Mari soon come to his assistance. Marcus gets into a duel with the pistol wielder, Tain begins smashing some of the cudgel wielders with his flail, whilst Mari uses her enchanted rapier to great effect, stabbing one of the men in the eye and another in the hand.
Lellia flies into the back room, where an alchemy lab and a cage of prisoners is set up. Two of the prisoners are Balko and Vendra, the other two look very sick or drugged. Five alchemists / guards are working in the room, Lellia bluffs and intimidates them into surrendering with a few choice displays of magic. She then uses her want to imbue her raven with the ghoul touch spell. The raven flies into the antechamber and uses the spell on Marcus’s opponent, paralyzing him and causing the room to stink. Marcus is sickened by the stench, as are a number of the enemy combatants, although he manages to hold his breath long enough to strike his opponent unconscious. Tain finishes off his second opponent, whilst Mari runs her second opponent through the abdomen and he calls for surrender. Tain heals everyone and three prisoners (the pistoleer and Mari’s two opponents) are brought into the back to be tied up with Lellia’s prisoners.
Some answers at last?
Balko and Vendra are released from the cage (then immediately taken into custody by Tain). Balko tells them that these guys are the Harbingers, they intercepted a shipment of the Purple Dreams drug that the Vanguard are selling, and are trying to get the alchemists to reverse engineer it. Lellia investigates the alchemical supplies and finds a type of plant that grows in the Land of the Linnorm Kings that exudes necromantic magic.
Tain, Lellia and Marcus question the pistoleer, who seems to be the senior member of the group. He doesn’t give up any useful information (apart from his name, Stewart Smithson), but Mari is secretly using magic to read his thoughts, and sees the following:
• A two-storey, well-to-do middle class house in the Heights.
• Blond haired, blue eyed, male human about 30 years old and a member of the Korvosan Guard.
• Stewart Smithson is linked to Harbingers of Doom.
• Image of a man reading a book, Korvosa on fire and citizens dying of plague.
• People wandering around soulless.
• The head of a gigantic purple dragon rising over the city.
• The title 'Lord of Hosts' that has something to do with the dragon.
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In Attendance
• GM – Ollie
• Lellia – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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I think Mari confirmed about three critical hits in the warehouse fight (we mostly use the Paizo Critical Hit and Critical Fumble decks). Marcus used our ‘play an action point to place a prop’ house rule to good (and comic) effect by having the fleeing thug run into a dung cart behind Liella’s place.
Aria was cool but Liella (sorry, the spelling and pronunciation of Liella’s name is continuously mangled by most of the group) is definitely a very unique character.
Yep she is not all there... Her husband was executed by guillotine, her young sons were torn apart by the mob, she has been hounded by agents of the red revolution and she made a deal with somebody very ancient and evil that she regrets.
As she becomes more and more powerful she becomes slightly more twisted. The only thing that is stopping her from embracing the darkness of her "gift" is keeping her daughter alive happy and safe.
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Summary for Session 17: The Thanking Ceremony
3rd Pharast
A Thanking Ceremony was hosted by the Queen in honour of the heroes who had recovered the magic healing scrolls that had allowed the city's churches to stem the plague. Present among the heroes were Marcus Merivanchi and his sister Mari, Tain Locus, the Baroness Delamore and Lt. Deparle.
The ceremony went as one would expect - a polite speech, polite applause, and polite conversation. Some interesting events were
a) the Queen thanking the nobles, but scorning Lt. Deparle (no surprise considering the Queen's bias towards anyone not Chelaxian, but Lt. Deparle still took it to heart)
b) peaceable relations between Mari and her future in-laws (quite a surprise considering the recent advancement of Mari and her friends in the eyes of the people has been at the expense of the reputation of her in-laws).
A poisoned batch of wine was served. The Baroness spotted this and, through Tain, advised the Queen. Too late for Marcus and Deparle though, for both were affected by the poisoned wine. Marcus told bawdy jokes, and Deparle stood on the table and mouthed off at the Queen. Deparle was dragged away by Lady Elizabeth and given a talking to.
Chasing after the wine poisoners, the sober heroes found the poisoners to come from some tunnels leading to the sewers under the Castle. Having gathered their now-sober companions, and aided by a mysterious fellow in black who may or may not have been the so-called Blackjack, the heroes went off to seek the poisoners.
It turned out the poisoners were cultists, members of the purple-clad Vanguard. Odd piping music lured the heroes further into the sewers, with Deparle being particularly affected.
Several combats ensured with guards left to guard the way. Mercy was neither asked nor given.
Eventually the heroes found large chamber with a ritual of summoning being conducted. They burst onto the scene, cutting down cultists left and right - all the while their blows feeding some growing entity in the ritual summoning circle. Both Tain and Deparle hacked down cultists with ever-growing bloodlust and abandon. Marcus and Mari blew up the ritual circle in time to banish the entity, but not before it revealed itself to be some kind of purple eyed demon/devil, and one who knew Mari's name, calling to her before it was banished back to the Hells.
Thrilling stuff!!!
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Summary for Session 18: Taking The Fight To The Enemy
3rd Pharast
In the aftermath of the attack on the Harbingers, the heroes surveyed the chaos and death around them. The gate had been closed with the demise of the wizards and their guards. The devil had been prevented from entering this plane through the efforts of the Heroes of Korvosa.
Blackjack, who had aided the heroes in their fight, slunk away into the sewers. Meanwhile, Tain and Lellia also took their leave, taking with them the loot recovered from the Harbingers who had fallen in the fighting. For all their altruism, the Heroes of Korvosa were hesitant to see their justly won loot stolen away by the Queen’s retinue and her increasingly overbearing Grey Maidens.
Agon, Marcus and Marianna discussed the situation before being interrupted by a squad of Grey Maidens. The warriors had been called to investigate the slaughter in the sewers. Among their number was Ariadnae Merivanchi. As Agon took his leave, Marcus and Mari quickly brought their cousin up to speed on the events surrounding the fight underneath Castle Korvosa.
The heroes had secured a scroll detailing the devil-summoning ceremony. Mari offered a connection between the Purple Dream drug that had disrupted the Thanking Ceremony, and the power need to open the gate. She theorised that the victims of the drug could be used as energy to call forth a devil. Given the mass distribution of drugged wine and the summoning ritual, the conclusion reached was that the incident constituted a grave threat to, and an assassination attempt on, the Queen herself and her entire court!
Agon and Marcus, having brought ignominy upon themselves after succumbing to drugged wine, were unable to impress the urgency or significance of what they learned on the Grey Maidens. Instead, notes were left and, their duty done, the heroes returned to the castle above.
Agon went directly to the Citadel to report to Field Marshall Kroft, while Marcus and Mari lingered in the Great Hall. Here they observed the sudden arrival, and even stranger behaviour of the surgeon who had been employed by the Queen during the Blood Veil plague. Realising they were useless in helping with the clean up process, the siblings parted ways to continue their investigations.
Meanwhile, Agon realised he had been overtaken by his twin brother, Felix, on the way. As usual, he was impersonating his brother and had gained access to the Field Marshall’s office where she had fallen victim to the Purple Dream. Felix had checked on Kroft, arranged help for her, and informed the guards present as to the danger. Every the opportunist, and now alone in the Field Marshall’s office, the professional smuggler and constant rogue took great advantage and liberties with Kroft’s files. He was soon disturbed by Agon, who chased his brother away before reporting to the Guardâ’s second-in-command. His report, a wild tale of fiendish conspiracies and a savage battle beneath the sewers, as well as the danger to city, was not readily believed. The commander commented on Agon’s unstained clothing, his lack of wounds and a report of his drunkenness. He sent the young lieutenant away with a warning that false reports would be punished.
As Agon dealt with Felix and his commanding officer, Mari went in search of help with the ritual she had retrieved from the sewers. Calling on her former mentor, Arius the Wise, she was unable to find out more than a few cursory details about the ceremony. This led her to call on her future father-in-law, Vylenos Ornelos, who was willing to help but could offer little more information that Arius. On her way back to the warehouse, Mari took the long route to find Vencarlo Orisini at this academy. Unfortunately, she was unable to locate him.
4th Pharast
The next morning, the heroes (Lellia, Mari, Marcus and Agon) gathered at Marcus’s warehouse and compared notes on the information they had gathered. While there were a few clue to pursue, they decided to seek out the man whose identity Mari had read from the thoughts of Harbinger in a previous encounter. This man was identified as Lieutenant Stevens, the subject of Agon’s corruption investigation! Set on a course of action to kidnap and question Stevens, the heroes departed to meet again in the morning.
A cunning plan was put together. The heroes would attempt to kidnap Stevens while he was taking lunch. Once his dining location was discerned, Mari disguised herself as a serving wench to deliver drugged food to the unsuspecting lieutenant. Once administered, the poison gave Stevens the urge to evacuate his bowls immediately. While relieving himself the heroes subdued him and took him away for questioning.
Back at the warehouse, the heroes began to physically and psychologically torture Stevens for information. While he was unwilling to divulge this information, he unintentionally gave up more than he intended via his surface thoughts - all caught through the use of a weave. These thoughts revealed Stevens to be an agent of the Harbingers of Doom. He knew much of their operations and their identities – including the identity of their leader, Seneschal Neolandus.
Nearing the end of their questioning, the heroes were interrupted by a force of the Vanguard seeking to make Stevens pay. On their way in, the Vanguard assassins killed a young boy and wounded Marcus. The situation descended further into violence with the Vanguard managing to kill Stevens at the cost of one of their own.
A truce was called for by the leader of the assassins. In spite of Marcus’s lust for blood and vengeance, Mari refused to allow the violence to continue. She demanded the Vanguard remove themselves and the dead from the warehouse. On her demand for reparations, the leader dropped a bag of gold to cover damages. The Vanguard was satisfied they had killed their man, one who was responsible for destroying all of their plans. None of the heroes corrected their mistake, for the Vanguard had mistaken many acts of the Heroes as having been done by Stevens.
As the Vanguard left, Mari cloaked herself with weaves of flight and invisibility to follow the departing assassins back to their lair. She was followed by the Baroness who used her own magic to create the same effects. Unwilling to let Mari and Lellia face those dangers alone, Agon and Marcus rode to their “rescue”, fired up to take bloody vengeance against the Vanguard.
Mari followed the Vanguard to a house in the Heights. The house was seen by Mari in the thoughts of a Harbinger thug in the conflict that led to the recapture of Balko and Vanda. As the Vanguard left the corpse of Stevens nailed to the door of the house, Mari used a weave to unhitch the horse from their wagon. Unable to flee, the assassins were forced to fight the Harbingers. In the ensuing confusion, Mari seized the opportunity to enter the house.
Inside the house she was almost discovered by Neolandus himself. The man, dressed in a robe, gave orders to his men to torch the house and leave Korvosa. Mari entered the room the seneschal had departed to continue her search. Here she found a book with a list of people who claimed membership within the Harbingers of Doom. As the men began preparing to burn the house, Mari followed two thugs into the basement where barrels of alchemist’s fire was stored. Realising the danger, she followed Neolandus to his carriage, hoping to capture the seneschal alive.
Agon and Marcus, arriving on galloping horses, stormed into the Harbingers manor, dealing death as they came. Anxious about his sister, Marcus refused to give quarter. Inside they found many the barrels of alchemist’s fire being prepared for ignition. Facing a score of foes, Agon blackened the rooms of the house with smokesticks. In the gloom, he moved as a wraith amongst his foes, slashing and stabbing as he dealt death to his enemies. Meanwhile, Marcus armed with blade and gun, stormed through the house seeking his sibling, cutting down any opposition.
For all of their skill, the two swordsmen could not prevent the Harbinger fanatics from lighting the fuel that was now spread throughout the house. As the explosion ripped though the building, a fireball soared into the air and set the neighbourhood ablaze. Agon and Marcus were forced to flee the house as fire consumed it.
Marcus landed poorly, bouncing off an adjacent rooftop. Agon, while he had thrown himself into a water-trough to shield himself from the blast, fared far worse. The strain of the combat and the explosion set off the reaction he had been fearing - lycanthropy. In place of Agon reared a snarling howling raving were-rat which set itself and its teeth into the flesh of fleeing cultists.
As the fireball soared into the air, Mari made her move on the seneschal. Invisible in his coach, she placed the blade of her rapier to his neck and convinced him to return to the remains of the house. Neolandus, defeated and confused, resigned himself to his new fate and relented.
As Marcus picked himself up from where had fallen, he saw a coach pull up outside the ruined house. Inside was the seneschal, the leader of the Harbingers, and next to him was Mari who had, with help of her rapier, had convinced the cult leader to help the Heroes and the city.
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Summary for Session 19: A Red, Red Flag and a Red Hot Time
2nd Pharast ?
A short interlude session in which agents of the Red Revolution kidnap the Baroness Delamore, leading to a high-speed chase through the city.
"Follow that Carriage"
A heavy sea fog lay thick over the city, leaving the Castle, the Great Tower and the highest points of Cliffside islands in a sea of white. It was still early morning as the Merivanchi siblings and their brother-in-law arrived at the warehouse. The fog had started to burn off but still clung thick along the low parts of the city along the river. Across the road the Baroness Delamore could barely be seen waiting for the trio, her carriage disappearing into the fog. Three other cabs stood a few yards further up the road, awaiting passengers or deliveries.
As Marcus, Mari and Tain are stepping out of their carriage, a muffled cry is heard across the street. Looking for its source, they see the Baroness has vanished from the kerbside and the three waiting carriages are pulling away into the fog. Marcus realises immediately that something is up, and alerts Tain and Mari. He leaps back into the doorway of the cab he and the others have just exited, and calls to the driver "Follow those carriages, there's a noble in it for you".
Tain climbs up onto the seat beside the driver and begins to load his ever-present crossbow. Mari decides instead to step into the shadows and spins a sorcerous weave concealing herself in a cloak of invisibility and taking to the sky.
As the three coaches disappear into the fog, Marcus and Tain give chase in the carriage, while Mari pursues in the air, making her way unseen for the middle carriage.
Boarding Actions
The men in the rear carriage realise quickly they are being pursued, and within moments a crossbow is fired through the rear window. The shot flies true and strikes Marcus' driver square in the throat pinning his wide eyed slack mouthed head to the carriage. Tain is forced to abandon his crossbow and seize the reins, skillfully controlling the carriage and rapidly closing the distance with the rear-most carriage.
As Tain maneuvers the carriage close, Marcus nonchalantly lights one of his trademark cigars, pulls a small firework from his pocket and climbs out onto the running board. Tain manages to bring his carriage alongside the enemy, when suddenly a jet of flame shoots out of the side window, scorching his clothes and setting the carriage on fire. Thankfully Tain maintains control of the carriage with one hand as he beats out the small fires on his clothing with the other.
Crouched on the running board, Marcus lights the small flash-grenade from his cigar and hurls it through the back widow of the enemy carriage before leaping for the luggage platform just behind the rear wheels. Unfortunately, he miss-times both his throw and his leap. The flash-grenade explodes just outside the window, still dazing the occupants, but not as effectively as Marcus had hoped. Instead of landing neatly on the luggage rack, Marcus misses his target by scant inches and instead finds himself hanging from the platform for dear life. As he begins to pull himself onto the platform, a figure leans out of the rear window, trying to draw a target at Tain. Putting all his strength into his left arm to hold position, Marcus swiftly draws one of his pistols. He jams the long barrel beneath the man's chin and pulls the trigger, sending a spray of blood, bone and grey matter across the ceiling of the carriage. The recoil of the shot almost causes Marcus to lose his grip, but he barely manages to cling in position and thrust his pistol back into its holster.
Meanwhile, Mari lands silently and unseen on the roof of the middle carriage and attempts to drive her rapier through the driver's chest. Unfortunately, the carriage swerves at the last moment, and instead she pierces the man's shoulder almost causing him to lose control of the reins. Now revealed from her invisibility, Mari sails skyward, pulling a flask of potent alchemist's fire from her belt pouch and hurls it at the wounded driver of carriage number two. Moments later, a volley of crossbow bolts fly towards her from the lead carriage, one of them striking and sending her reeling.
A second blast of flames sweeps over Tain and the carriage is now engulfed in flames, the horses wounded and panicked. Realising he is in immediate danger of crashing, Tain steers his carriage towards the enemy coach beside him and leaps from his seat at the driver of the rear enemy carriage. Moments later, the abandoned carriage veers sideways and slams into the corner of a building with a sickening crunch of timber and scream of the horses.
Clinging to the rear of the enemy carriage, Marcus manages to kick out with his feet onto the cobbles and swing himself up and scramble onto the side running-board. From here, he is able to discern two men in the carriage interior, a Chelaxian dressed in heavy robes and reading from a scroll and a Varisian thug loading a heavy crossbow. Marcus draws his second pistol and fires through the side window, wounding the wizard and sending a spray of glass through the carriage. In response, the Varisian blind-fires his crossbow straight through the carriage wall, grazing Marcus' shoulder. The Varisian thug then draws a large knife and starts to climb out onto the running board to confront Marcus.
Up-front Tain struggles with the driver of the rear carriage, wounding him grievously with his spiked gauntlet. As his opponent slumps down, Tain attempts to seize the reins, but struggles to control the horses. The carriage veers quickly left, then right and threatens to jack-knife and flip. Realising he won't be able to control the carriage, Tain shouts a warning to Marcus. Heeding Tain's warning, Marcus leaps from the carriage just as his opponent steps out to face him.
Marcus rolls to his feet just in time to see the carriage veer left once again and straighten out as Tain miraculously brings the horses under control. Marcus is left standing on the street watching as Tain races off in his carriage, continuing the chase.
The Enemy is Brought to Ground
Meanwhile, as Tain and Marcus are boarding the rear carriage, Mari weaves a spell over the occupants of the middle carriage, inducing acute vertigo in the Varisians trying to shoot her. She then flies low in front of the wagon, and manages to cut away the reins. As the middle carriage begins to veer out of control, she swoops after the lead carriage. The middle carriage eventually comes to a halt and rolls onto its side, as the occupants scramble out onto the street and start loading their weapons.
On the rear carriage, the Varisian on the running-board moves forward and jabs his knife into Tain's ribs. Thankfully, the Abadaran chain armour turns the blow, leaving him bruised but otherwise unharmed. Tain retaliates with a clumsy backhand swing of his mighty flail, but loses his grip and the weapon tumbles to the floor.
As he watches the carriages disappear, Marcus spies a young nobleman known to him, Stephano Jeggare, riding in his direction. Marcus rushes over, hailing Stephano and pleads with him for the loan of his horse, "in the name of mighty Korvosa". Stephano, obviously swayed by Marcus' words graciously swings down from his horse and offers Marcus the reins. Marcus climbs quickly into the saddle, thanks his friend, and plucks the nobleman's jaunty tricorne hat from his head to replace his own lost somewhere on the streets behind them. "I'll make it up to you good man", he cries behind him and rides north after his comrades.
The borrowed horse has a good pace and takes easily to Marcus' control allowing him to rapidly gain on the carriages. He draws level with the rear carriage as Tain struggles with the Varisian thug. He draws a third pistol from his belt and fires at the thug. A wet muffled "pfft" is the only result as the pistol misfires. Muttering curses under his breath, he replaces the gun and instead moves closer, attempting to grab the Varisian's shirt. Tain punches the thug, causing him to sway backwards slightly with the blow, allowing Marcus to grab hold of the man's collar. He then reins the horse sharply away from the carriage, pulling the thug clear and letting him fall roughly to the street with a screech of pain and crack of broken bones.
Giving chase to the front carriage, Mari is hit by a crossbow bolt and badly injured. As she struggles to maintain consciousness, she weaves an enchantment of telekinesis, lifting a metal horse hitch from the street and smashing it into the rear wheel of the lead carriage. She then flies off to one side and draws out a potion of healing to recover.
Tain and Marcus charge towards the wreck of the middle carriage, as the Varisian thugs prepare to fire their crossbows at Mari's back. Tain drives the carriage towards the group of thugs, forcing them to scatter and dive clear. One is not fast enough and goes under the hooves and wheels of the carriage, another has his foot crushed and scrambles for shelter. The third, a woman, lithely back-flips out of the way, and realising the fight is lost sprints off into the side streets.
With its rear wheel scrapping across the cobbles, the lead carriage slows and finally comes to a halt. Four men climb out, carrying heavy crossbows and form a line in front of the carriage, as Tain brings his vehicle to a halt a short distance away and Mari hovers down beside him. Marcus begins to circle his horse around the side of the foe. A crowd of onlookers gathers, forming a broad circle around the scene.
Unmasked
The leader of the men, his face concealed behind a red mask, raises one hand and calls out for parley in a thick Galtian accent. Mari responds, calling for him to release the Baroness. The leader responds that she is nothing but an enemy of the revolution and wanted criminal in Galt. Reminded he is not in Galt, the man responds he does not care for the rules and laws of "this pathetic little country". Big mistake.
Infuriated by the insult to his home, Tain leaps from the coach and charges the four men. Marcus calls to the crowd to help stop these "foreign kidnappers and saboteurs", leaps from his horse and moves to flank of the enemy.
The masked leader realises he is outnumbered and, making a small gesture, disappears from view, obviously fleeing. Tain smashes into the remaining men, and Marcus moves to assist. Tain makes short work of the men, and within moments two lay dying and the third has surrendered.
Marcus calls for the crowd to bring rope and bind the prisoner. As they do so, he opens the carriage door to find the Baroness Delamore bound and beaten on the floor of the carriage. He cuts her bindings and helps her from the carriage to the applause of the crowd.
Meanwhile, Mari casts an enchantment to uncover the invisible leader and gives chase, flying above the street. With all the enemies dealt with, Tain gives pursuit, following Mari's directions. Mari draws her wand of Magic Missile and starts sniping at the masked man. Her quarry tries to elude Mari by running into a nearby shop doorway, but quickly finds himself cornered as Tain arrives on the scene and he is taken into custody by the Paladin of Abadar.
Returning their prisoner to the street, he is unmasked and Lellia Dellamore identifies him as a young former-nobleman from her homeland, a turncoat and traitor who turned to the rebellion and handed over many of his fellows to the guillotine. In all, three prisoners are taken, the two Galtian revolutionaries, and one of their hired Varisian thugs. The Guard finally arrive to assess the damage inflicted and take the prisoners into custody.
Loot
A number of items are liberated from the Galtian "democratic" swine.
• Potion of Eagle's Splendor - taken by Marcus.
• Ring of Protection +1 - taken by Tain.
• Scroll of Animate Rope - taken by Mari.
• Masterwork shortsword, decorated with the crest of a Galtian family (380 gp)
• Masterwork heavy crossbow.
• Masterwork chain shirt.
• Masterwork dagger.
• Mask.
• Nice hat.
• 3 flasks of lamp oil with rag fuses.
• 2 shortswords.
• 40 tindertwigs.
• 360 gp in various coins. Marcus distributes 50 gp to each of the families of the civilians killed in the chase, and the heroes pocket 70 gp each.
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In Attendance
• GM – The 8th Dwarf
• Marcus – Ordinary Kraken
• Mari – Chubbs McGee
• Tain – Mothman
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This was a short, fast paced and very fun session ably run by The 8th Dwarf on a night when GM Ollie couldn’t make it and we had a small player roster. It takes place prior to the events of sessions 17 and 18, presumably either just before or just after the events of session 16 (The Baroness was obviously having one of those days where one just keeps getting kidnapped!)
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Very interesting to read, as always. How difficult is it for you guys to share GM-duties? And do you improvise the sessions when the regular GM is unavailable?
That chase scene was very interesting and sounded fun to play.
I'm curious: what classes and level are the characters now? I would guess at least level 5, since the spellcasters can fly. Also, there seem to have been some changes: Mari is a different class now, she seems to use her rapier more than before, and Marcus now uses guns.
It's too bad that Agon has left, his character was interesting. :(