Several
days have passed since the dramatic rescue of Trinia Sabor by Blackjack an
instant before the queen’s order to execute her could be carried out. Apart from proclaiming a 5,000 gp reward for
the recapture of the fugitive, Queen Ileosa has largely retreated from public
view. The disorder in Korvosa has
lessened, and although there are still occasional outbreaks of unrest and
visible scars from the rioting, it seems much of the populace has returned to
going about their lives. Indeed, martial
law has been lifted, the curfew is no longer in effect, and even the Hellknight
Order of the Nail has returned to Citadel Vraid.
But
Yraelzin, Goldcape, and Ralph Blackfeather have not been idle. Yraelzin takes advantage of his growing
renown as a champion of the underclass by assembling a small flock of
worshippers in Old Korvosa and turning an abandoned warehouse into a shrine to
Razmir. Goldcape teaches Rocky how to
deliver messages and packages to people and places across the city and does some
archival research at the University of Korvosa’s Jeggare Library. She finds accounts of Blackjack dating to
more than two hundred years ago and establishes the likelihood that the
legendary vigilante has been a series of men whose identities must be protected
through magical means. Intriguingly,
Goldcape realises that until his recent reappearance, Blackjack hadn’t been
seen for ten years—which is right around the time The Harrower began operating
in Korvosa. For his part, Ralph hits the
streets day and night, gathering information on three individuals. He learns that Gaedren Lamm did indeed have a
son—a boy named Rolth, who was kicked out of the Acadamae years ago for
disturbing even that institution’s staff with his experiments in necromancy. Nowadays, word on the street is that Rolth is
still in Korvosa, has multiple grisly labs for experiments hidden all over,
associates with a pesh-addicted elf named Jolistina, and has been seen in West
Dock in the company of some mysterious newcomers to the city. Ralph then turns his attention to Blackjack,
and talks to enough eyewitnesses to conclude that the masked avenger must have
a major safe-house in Old Korvosa and be quite skilled with a rapier. Ralph also digs into Meliya Arkona, the
alleged “secret lover” of Verik Vancaserkin, and learns she is one of the heads
of House Arkona—a powerful noble family with reputed ties to the criminal
underworld and a force to be reckoned with.
Goldcape’s and Ralph’s digging has turned up valuable information, but
raises a disturbing possibility: what if word gets back to the subjects of
their research?
[9
Desnus, 4708 A.R.]
Spring is about to turn to summer in the middle of Desnus when Yraelzin,
Goldcape, and Ralph each find that the card given to them by the Harrower is
glowing. From their scattered locations
in the city, they each respond and reassemble at their safe-house in
Midland. Inside, the small house looks
clean and well-appointed, and the mysterious Harrower bids the trio to be
seated. She reads the Harrow for them,
and the results are ominous as Sickness is revealed in the spread’s primary
position representing the future. The
Harrower explains that this could be interpreted literally as meaning that a
great plague and mass death are in the city’s future, or symbolically as
meaning that something is rotten in the city’s core. In any event, she performs a Choosing for
each person in attendance. The Reckoner
draws the Tangled Briar, and is told that an exclusive focus on justice will
leave him caught in a morass from which he cannot escape. Yraelzin draws the Fool to much laughter from
the others, and is told by the Harrower that he must not let the façade he
projects become reality. Goldcape draws
the Avalanche, and is told that she must think before acting or a precipitate
decision could bring disaster. The
Harrower ends the reading and disappears as the candles suddenly flicker out,
but not before uttering a final prophecy: “We shall meet again, but we shall
never meet here again.”
When
the candles begin to flicker again, the safe-house once again looks like it
normally does—as an abandoned fortune-telling shop. The Reckoner and Goldcape exchange
information on what they’ve learned.
Yraelzin is sceptical about some of the information, saying that people
shouldn’t put too much stock in gossip and rumors. After all, he says, some people say terribly
scurrilous things about Razmir himself!
Goldcape remains focussed on the threat that Rolth Lamm poses (assuming
that’s who visited Old Lady Cloggins).
The trio discuss whether some sort of spell could be cast on an object
that Rolth left behind. Goldcape flies
on Rocky’s back and asks his landlady if the visitor handled anything, but
doesn’t meet with luck. Later that
night, the vanara follows Yraelzin to his new shrine and witnesses a midnight
ceremony. Goldcape doesn’t convert, but
proclaims herself Yraelzin’s personal bodyguard to much applause from those
street urchins in attendance.
[10 Desnus, 4708 A.R.]
When
Ralph arrives at the “Temple to Razmir” the following morning, he can see just
how ramshackle the place is. Ralph puts
together a plan to disguise himself as a drunk to scout the West Dock area of
the city in hopes of spotting Rolth Lamm while Goldcape flies overhead as
back-up. Unfortunately, there’s very
little activity on the streets as it’s a Sunday, and no information is
gained. Goldcape, however, notices the
sun glinting off a reflective surface in the direction of Citadel Volshyanek,
and as she flies closer she sees she’s being signalled by Sergeant Clenkins
using a mirror. He explains that Field
Marshall Kroft was hoping to speak with her.
Goldcape meets with the visibly dispirited leader of the Korvosan Guard. Kroft explains that the rumblings of
reorganisation of the city’s law enforcement and military authorities are
continuing. She says the Queen’s
personal palace guards have been augmented and reorganised as the “Gray Maidens”
and given authority over every other agent of the crown! Kroft admits her own position is tenuous, and
that it’s probably better if her connection to Goldcape, Ralph, and Yraelzin
remain “off the books.” In short, she
regretfully asks them not to visit her again (in public, at least) for
everyone’s safety. The two agree that
messages can be relayed through Grau.
But Kroft has one matter that she says Grau shouldn’t be privy too: her
old friend (and his former mentor before a falling out) Vencarlo Orisini has
asked for discrete assistance. Goldcape
agrees to visit the man’s sword-fighting academy and see what the problem is.
After
Ralph and Yraelzin are filled in, the Harrowed Heroes travel to 16 Hillcrest
Street in Old Korvosa only to see a sign hanging from the door that reads
“Classes Cancelled Today.” After they
knock, a serious-looking man in his 50s opens the door—a man they met briefly
in Field Marshall Kroft’s office some weeks previously. Vencarlo Orisini seems surprised to see them,
but upon hearing they’ve been sent by Kroft, he ushers them inside and thanks
them for coming. He leads them into a
tightly-curtained study, knocks twice at a closet door, and opens it to reveal
Trinia Sabor! The young woman wears a
wig of long red curls and is excited to see Goldcape. “Sorry about the trouble I gave you in the
Shingles!” she says. Vencarlo explains
that the evening of the planned execution, he answered a knock at the back door
of his academy to see Blackjack and Trinia.
As a fellow critic of Korvosan politics, he says he’d had some dealings
with Blackjack some years ago, but was still surprised to be entrusted by the
vigilante with Trinia’s safekeeping. But
Vencarlo explains he can no longer keep her hidden—his academy has been visited
three times in recent days by the authorities, and he’s only barely managed to
turn them away without a search. In
short, he needs help getting Trinia out of the city and somewhere safe.
The
Harrowed Heroes quickly agree. Vencarlo
says he’s arranged for the girl to join a band of dwarven adventurers called
the Kodar Kneecappers at a wayside inn halfway between Korvosa and the town of
Harse. He advises them to leave via the
High Bridge and then up to Dwarfwalk Road, mingling with the afternoon
merchants leaving the city. Ralph
disguises himself as a drunk and Trinia as a peasant girl, with Goldcape and
Yraelzin to travel separately and serve as a watch-out and distraction if
needed. When the group get underway,
they notice that the number of guard patrols seem to be increasing as they
closer to High Bridge and Citadel Volshyanek.
Ralph makes a quick decision to backtrack and try the much closer North
Bridge. It’s only lightly defended, and
the guards are easily distracted by the shenanigans of a “monkey flying on a
bird” (Goldcape and Rocky). The
travellers make it safely out of Korvosa, suspicious of why Vencarlo would have
recommended the High Bridge to begin with—was he trying to lead them into a
trap?
The
twelve miles to the wayside inn, called Trots, is uneventful. Having noticed that Vencarlo Orisini fits
many of the characteristics about Blackjack uncovered by his previous research,
Ralph asks Trinia more about the night the vigilante spirited her away from the
execution. Trinia is somewhat vague and
evasive, and it’s clear she has suspicions of her own that she’s reluctant to
share. At the inn, the travellers meet
the members of the Kodar Kneecappers. It
seems they specialise in fighting giants, and are planning to head out into the
Cinderlands to harry any advance scouts sent by the enemy army to the
north. One of the Kneecappers, a dwarf
named Marnay, laughs at Goldcape’s assertion that the army is led by a
super-powerful wizard. Trinia is nervous
but excited to be adventuring with the band, and relieved to be out of
Korvosa. She gives Goldcape and the
others a warm farewell.
Arriving
back in Korvosa later that day, the weary trio go their separate ways with
plans to meet again in the morning. That
night, Goldcape has a nightmare involving herself, her mate Longtail, and a
fire in the jungle. A voice that sounds
much like The Harrower’s urges her to wake up.
And when she does, Goldcape realises her treehouse is on fire! A flaming arrow is stuck in the trunk, and
more are streaming down! The vanara
quickly shoves her possessions to safety on the ground below and rushes out,
only to see that the main house is on fire as well! Leaping through a wall of flames, some of
Goldcape’s fur catches on fire as she races through the house. She manages to pat them out and reach Old
Lady Cloggins’ bedroom and help the disoriented old woman to safety
outside. Goldcape hears the joyous
laughing of a woman carried in the night’s air as a final flaming arrow reaches
the ground—a figure is on a distant rooftop, but quickly sprints away into the
night. Fortunately, Old Lady Cloggins’
neighbors react quickly and form a bucket line to save the main house. Unfortunately, Goldcape’s treehouse is mostly
destroyed. As dawn comes, friends of Old
Lady Cloggins arrive to take her in until the house can be repaired. Goldcape takes one of the spent arrows, it smouldering
with flame, she smouldering with anger.
[11
Desnus, 4708 A.R.]
Goldcape
barges into the Burnt Honey Inn early in the morning, clutching the arrow in
her hands. “They’ve struck!” she shouts
when she finds Ralph. The two find
Yraelzin, and together figure out how to use the arrow to discover who fired
it. The Bridgefront neighbourhood in Old
Korvosa is known for having a concentration of occult-themed businesses, and
one such establishment is “Madame Carrington’s Oneiromancery.” A gifted spiritualist, dream traveller, and
object reader, it’s said that Madame Carrington is highly regarded as a
credible occultist in a sea of frauds.
When the trio visit, they have to wait in a front room while a séance is
conducted in the rear. When it has
concluded and the satisfied patrons have departed, the trio enter to see that
Madame Carrington is paralyzed on the left side of her body. After explanations are made, Madame
Carrington takes the arrow and concentrates deeply on it for several minutes
with her eyes closed. “I hear laughing .
. . an elf . . . female . . . dressed in
a harlequin’s motley . . . she is doing a favour but is overjoyed . . .
her heart is black.” Ralph
instantly realises the archer is probably Rolth Lamm’s sometime lover, the elf
Jolistina!
The
group renew its effort to search the West Dock area for signs of Rolth or
Jolistina, and Ralph even asks Majenko to search. But the subsequent hours pass
fruitlessly. If the criminals are indeed
operating in the neighbourhood, it seems like they’ve worked out ways to avoid
easy detection.
[12
Desnus, 4708 A.R.]
When
Ralph comes down for breakfast in the common room of the Burnt Honey Inn, he
finds a (fortunately sober) Grau Soldado waiting for him. Grau explains he’s looking for Yraelzin
because his niece is quite sick, and no one can figure out what she has or how
to heal it. He says her mother’s been
talking about going to the Bank of Abadar, but Grau doubts she can afford what
they’d charge. Ralph takes Grau to
Yraelzin’s shrine, and they also find Goldcape there (she’s been sleeping in
the building since her treehouse burned down).
Yraelzin jumps at the chance to impress a member of the Korvosan Guard
and earn further plaudits for his promise to help the “poor, pathetic, and
downtrodden” of Korvosa.
The
four cross North Bridge and into the small neighborhood of Trail’s End that
hugs one bank of the Jeggare. Trail’s
End looks to be made up primarily of Varisians, and is clearly a poor
community. Scarni gangs are loitering on
the streets, but they recognise Grau and don’t harass the party. The Soldado home is a squat, two-story wooden
building in desperate need of repair—but the inside is remarkably clean and
well-kept. Worried about catching
something, Ralph decides to stay outside.
Grau asks Goldcape and Yraelzin to wait in the living room as he jogs
upstairs. In the kitchen, a man wearing
white robes with the symbol of a key around his neck is brewing some concoction
that smells of cinnamon and anise. Angry
whispering can be heard from upstairs before Grau comes down, looking annoyed,
accompanied by a Varisian woman in her late thirties whose simple beauty is
marred only by the lines of concern on her face.
 |
| Tayce Soldado |
The
woman introduces herself as Tayce Soldado, Grau’s sister-in-law, and tells
Yraelzin how grateful she is for his coming.
She leads Yraelzin and Goldcape upstairs into a bedroom loft to see her
daughter, Brienna. A young girl lies in
one of the beds, her slight frame dwarfed by the bed’s size and the pile of
pillows, afghans, and quilts surrounding her.
Splotches of an angry red rash cover her face and arms, appearing in
irregular shapes and sizes; suddenly, her restlessness is interrupted by a
violent fit of hacking coughs that jerk her entire frame. The spasm passes after a moment, dropping her
back to the bed, but seemingly having done little to ease her breathing. “Oh my,” Yraelzin whispers, his eyes wide
behind the implacable iron mask. He
examines the girl and then shakes his head slowly. “This is . . . beyond me,” he says to
Goldcape. “I’ve never seen the like of
this before. But you may be able to
offer temporary respite.” He asks the
vanara to use the intuitive magic she’s learned from her time in the jungle to
restore some of the girl’s strength, and although it takes all of Goldcape’s
skill, it works. Brienna Soldado wakes
almost immediately, befuddled by the strangers in her room, and asks her mother
if lunch is ready yet. Tayce shrieks
with relief and throws her arms around Brienna before thanking Goldcape and
Yraelzin profusely.
Goldcape and Yraelzin return downstairs, and beckon Ralph inside to
share that they’ve only been able to ameliorate the worst of the symptoms, not
cure the mysterious disease affecting the girl.
The white-robed man emerges from the kitchen and speaks to the
group. He gives his name as Ishani
Dhatri of the Bank of Abadar, and sighs in frustration at hearing that Yraelzin
wasn’t able to cure the disease. Ishani
says he’s already entreated the Golden One for several healing miracles this day,
and that in any event the tenets of his church require him collect payment for
such deeds—which he suspects the Soldados couldn’t afford. It’s clear he feels awkward and ashamed by
not being able to do more than prepare herbal balms for the girl. He adds that the girl isn’t the first person
he’s seen recently with the symptoms, and that the disease can progress quite
quickly until the victim is on death’s door.
Worried of a full-on outbreak, he can only wonder at his superiors’
refusal to allow for free healing of those affected.
Grau
speaks up, saying he’s heard that rumors are spreading about a virulent new
disease, which for now seems mostly confined to the poorer areas of the
city. Some suspect a ship sunk in the
Jeggare a few days ago may be the cause.
The vessel arrived in the middle of the night sporting yellow lanterns
on the figurehead, a traditional nautical warning about a ship under
quarantine. When it didn’t respond to
signals and continued sailing into the river, the Korvosan Guard unit on North
Bridge opened fire with heavy trebuchets and sunk it. But there were no signs of anyone aboard,
before, during, or after its sinking.
As
the others talk, Goldcape slips back upstairs and talks to Brienna. At first, the girl lies about what she had
been doing before getting sick, but Goldcape persuades her how important it is
to share what she knows. She admits that
she found a bulging belt pouch in an alleyway near the river in Trail’s End,
and inside was fifty silver coins! She
says she raced into the city to spend her fortune, visiting all sorts of stalls
in the Green Market. She didn’t want to
tell anyone because she felt guilty for not sharing the money with her family.
It
seems like The Harrower’s dire portents are coming true: a strange new plague
is striking Korvosa. And given how
rapidly the disease progresses, it may indeed just be seven days to the grave
for those afflicted.
-----------------------------------------------GM's Commentary
This is a *long* recap--perhaps the longest one of the campaign. The explanation is that between each Chapter of the AP, I give the PCs 3d6 days of Downtime where they can retrain, gather information, craft items, etc., without fear of attack or the plot progressing past them. Summarising that plus a session that had a ton of role-playing and story development (with no combat encounters) meant for a lot of exposition and description.
We get the first passing mention of the Gray Maidens here, and they of course become very important later on.
In regards to Trinia, I came up with the idea of her joining the Kodar Kneecappers (an adventuring group of dwarves from the Rival Guide) for a couple of reasons. First, I always like making connections; second, it seemed more interesting than just having her hide out at a ranch; and third, I thought she (and the Kneecappers) could make a dramatic reappearance in Chapter Four. The little bit about the bridge was completely unplanned on my part, but it turned out to be a nice misdirect about Vencarlo.
Jolistina's attack on Goldcape's house was an exciting bit. I added it in to make sure they really hated Rolth Lamm and to remind them that a vanara flying around on a giant roc would make for a pretty visible target.
The occult seance NPC came from The Horror on Hook Street module. That adventure is set well after the AP, but I was happy to use one of the NPCs from it.
Goldcape's player did some fantastic role-playing in the scenes with Brienna. For a kid who was only 9, he put the adults at the table to shame!
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