How did you handle The Blooding (p 402 in the Hardcover) in your campaigns?
I may have introduced it a bit too fast through one of the characters sister at the end of the first module. Now my players have started asking around, reading up on the history of the church of Asmodeus and also visited the place.
They were quite convincing and got an audience with Archbishop Ornher Reebs who said The Blooding was for the good of the city but didn't reveal anything else.
The players kept asking about the ritual with 13 virgins 30 years ago (Guide to Korvosa) and the names of the involved and if any of them were still alive. Reebs told them that the priest in charge of the ritual returned to Cheliax and to talk to his acolytes maintaining the archive regarding the 9 resurrected virgins. The player characters were supposed to return in a week. Then the bloodveil happened.
Now I could just let the church of Asmoedus not let them in because of the Bloodveil but I really want their research to pay off in some way without derailing the rest of the campaign. Letting them track down one of the virigns and perhaps get some info. Not sure what.
After Seven days to the grave I was planning to do Academy of Secrets tuned down levelwise and later on in Escape from Old Korvosa give hints through the painter (whats his name) of the queen dealing with hell. But what can I give them right now?
Cheers
So, normally I have the Blooding be a more official and mandatory part of the Queen's rule, with the creation of "blood passports and visas" created from samples of blood drawn from anyone entering or leaving Korvosan holdings. That said, I also have Ileosa become a bit more expansionist, to the point that she uses Togomor (Sermignato) and his knowledge of Kaer Maga to capture the city and other outlying areas of Varisia south of the Storval Rise as a rival empire to Cheliax. So all of this begins after book 3 while they are gone through books 4 & 5, if you want to use that.
If you want to hint at devils, use Academy of Secrets to hint that the Queen is vying for power, but also that whatever she gains won't matter. (I also normally have Lorthact become a third final boss as he has positioned himself to ascend to the throne should an heir never be found, either via loophole in his contract with Ileosa if she remains the rightful queen or by vacancy and centuries old politicking from the rise of the first of the Arabasti line; he of course wants Korvosa both as a foothold for Hell on Golarion like the Worldwound for Demons and as an offering for his own return to Hell.) Use the deals offered by his lieutenant Contract Devil Chyvvom to hint at her own search for power within the Devils of Acadamae and especially the search for greater knowledge. Because you are moving the timeline up from the end of book 4, Ileosa has just met Sermignato and is about to institute him as her new Seneschal, meaning that she has likely read his works, but knows nothing about where the Sunken Queen is, how to activate it, nor the power pull it all off (she starts the AP as a Aristocrat 2/Bard 4 and ends it as a Aristocrat 2/Bard 18). Basically, there's several stages of separation still from her and her nefarious plan, meaning even Chyvvom might not even realize Ileosa's bid is anything more than a search for her own strength and to strengthen Korvosa the Chelish way.
Personally, I think you can just leave the 9 virgins as a red herring, as it doesn't have anything to do with what the Church of Asmodeus would be doing now. You can even delay it till after the Bloodveil is taken care of, because while it may be months of real time to run the whole module, it's only a week or so in character before the plague is brought under control, which is perfectly normal time to delay a meeting. This way, they can begin to find out that deals with devils are indeed nefarious things (maybe the survivor they speak to admits she was charmed), but it doesn't tell them much about what this new blooding is.