Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 28 [RPG]

[28 Desnus, 4708 A.R.]

The “Emperor of Old Kovosa” has been deposed!  With the cruel and unpredictable man dead and his henchmen fled, the crowd starts to slowly disperse until and unless a new figure seizes the “throne.”  The Harrowed Heroes and their ally Katash are unsure what to do with Jabyr (the Emperor’s unconscious executioner) and end up leaving him to whatever fate has in store.  The group decide to continue searching for Salvatore Scream, following up Amin Jalento’s hunch that Vencarlo Orisini might have fled to the artist’s house after the assassination attempt by the Red Mantis.  But some shouted queries to the dwindling crowd about the location of Salvatore Scream results only in a variety of contradictory responses.

A thorough search of the tenement “palace” begins.  One chamber combines the executioner’s bedroom with a grisly trophy hall of poorly-preserved severed heads.  Another turns out to be a storage room of theatrical costumes and props, though one piece of costume jewellery turns out to be a magical ring of disguise!  Yet another chamber holds danger in the form of several chokers hidden on the rafters above.  The Reckoner spots them in time to alert his companions and the resulting battle goes well--even when Katash falls through a crumbling piece of flooring, a magical spell slows his fall so he lands safely. Yraelzin even seems to be getting the hang of firing his strange underwater crossbow, hitting both of his shots after enduring Goldcape’s mockery.

Another room, obviously the Emperor’s personal quarters, is decked out with once-fine furniture that is now stained, threadbare, and moldy. But three paintings on the wall are truly magnificent despite—or perhaps because of—their grisly subject matter.  The first painting depicts a full portrait of a thin humanoid wearing shadows as he stands framed by a dolmen of great size.  The figure’s brilliant blue eyes are the only true points of color in the piece, and they seem to almost glow with anger.  The second painting depicts a ragged mountain range above a desert under a harsh blue sky; in the foreground, a quartet of Vudrani tusked camels race across dunes that, upon closer examination, consist of tiny skulls.  The third painting is the most disturbing, for it depicts a handsome man in the process of peeling away the flesh of his arms as if he were taking off a pair of gloves, but underneath, his arms are muscular and covered with glittering blue scales. The man’s expression is one of delight, but his eyes are empty pits of blackness and behind him, half seen in the shadows, are thousands of humans impaled on towering wooden poles erected in the shadow of an indistinct shape looming on the horizon—perhaps a castle, maybe a mountain, but likely something more.  Even a layman can tell the paintings must be worth thousands, though Yraelzin suspects the images hold a deeper significance that he just can’t quite grasp.

The Reckoner gets a chance to exercise a rarely used skill (lock-picking) to provide the group access to what turns out to be a cell—for Salvator Scream himself!  Flea bites cover the sunken-eyed man’s skin, and he looks like he’s barely slept in days as he stands before an almost-finished painting of immense fiends attacking a village.  Scream speaks in a tone of lethargy and pessimism, seemingly depressed for having lost his muse.  But he acknowledges his rescuers and says he wants to leave the Emperor’s service.  The group agree to escort him back to his house on Wave Street.

After walking barely a block, however, they see someone waiting for them in the middle of the street.  Mifeg, the “crazy old lady” who they rescued from a beating by the Emperor’s thugs just hours previously.  Mifeg goes up to Goldcape and gives her a most unexpected gift: a small seven-toothed cog made out of pure gold!  Conversing with Mifeg isn’t easy, as her mind seems to wander, but it seems that she found the cog in the sewers, that there are more of them, and that she doesn’t mind showing the group how to get there. 

Anxious to follow the detour, The Reckoner asks Salvatore Scream if he wouldn’t mind walking the rest of the way home by himself.  The man shrugs and nods.  Before leaving, he’s asked about Vencarlo.  Scream explains in a vague recounting that, after the unrest started and no one was buying artwork, Vencarlo would pay him for information on some of his former patrons.  Scream says Vencarlo was particularly interested in Neolandus Kalepopolis (Castle Korvosa’s seneschal) and how Neolandus turned up at Scream’s home on the morning that King Eodred II died.  Neolandus was desperate and begged for a place to hide, saying that the Queen was dangerous but “the more he knew, the less safe he’d be.”  Scream suggested Neolandus seek help with other powerful patrons of his—the Arkonas—and escorted Neolandus there personally.  But soon after, Scream says, the Emperor of Old Korvosa’s thugs raided his house and kidnapped him, and he doesn’t know where Neolandus is now.

Scream departs, and the group follow Mifeg down a series of streets and alleys.  Word has clearly spread about the morning’s battle, and no one in the slums has the temerity to accost the newcomers.  Mifeg stops at a large, jagged-edged hole in the street caused by debris from a crumbling building.  With surprising alacrity, she clambers down into the hole and the filthy sewer tunnel underneath.  Yraelzin provides magical lighting, though The Reckoner is able to see easily in the darkness thanks to a magical mask taken from the Red Mantis (having attempted to disguise the symbol of the notorious assassins).  With assured ease, Mifeg leads the group through various twists and turns before stopping at a fissure in the tunnel wall.  A soft glow can be seen coming from the other side.  “That’s where the dead gold man lies,” Mifeg says.  She sits down and begins eating some half-rotten meat from a cloth bag full of scavenged items, leading the others to provide her with fresh rations.

Slipping through the crack in the wall, the intrepid explorers find themselves in a corridor made of smooth, marble walls that bear not even the smallest sign of age.  A human-shaped figure lies on the ground about halfway down the corridor, but instead of flesh its skin is made out of metal, and instead of organs there is a complex array of gearwork visible inside its damaged torso.  The corridor opens up into a rectangular chamber, and on the far wall is a large bronze door covered in strange runes.  Two more of the clockwork figures are here, but these are undamaged and stand at attention, like soldiers, wielding halberds.  The skeletons of dozens of small animals are scattered across the floor of the room, and it seems clear that crossing the threshold will activate the automaton-sentinels.  Goldcape pleads with the group to turn back, but The Reckoner and Katash feel confident in their ability to destroy the clockwork soldiers and uncover whatever treasure they protect.

Given time to prepare, the Harrowed Heroes are fearsome foes.  Yraelzin magically imbues his teammates with super-normal speed, Goldcape conjures a lightning storm and icy spears, and The Reckoner and Katash dash into the room together to attack.  Even the clockwork soldier’s dense metallic skin can’t fully protect them from the rain of blows that fall on them, and soon both are destroyed.  Yraelzin studies the runes on the door and realises they’re in the language of Thassilon, an ancient empire that occupied Varisia millennia ago!  He says the runes are the so-called “seven virtues of rightful rule” and reads them out: wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger, and rest.  As soon as he finishes pronouncing the last word, the door cracks open.

On the other side is a seven-walled shrine with murals depicting the seven virtues of rightful rule.  A seven-sided ornate altar stands in the center of the room, and in the corner opposite the entrance, another clockwork creature—different than the others, with a crystal wand embedded in its chest—watches silently.  Katash hatches a plan to race into the room and yank the crystal wand free from the automaton’s chest, but it reacts faster than he anticipated!  The crystal wand glows, and suddenly a massive explosion rocks the room, burning Katash and Goldcape.  But the clockwork mage is quickly surrounded and smashed into pieces before it can do any further harm.  The Reckoner searches the room carefully and notices the altar contains a secret compartment.  Inside are magical treasures dating to the age of Thassilon, including a curious, seven-sided coin that can curse those who practice what the empire considered the greatest sins: greed, lust, pride, gluttony, wrath, sloth, and pride.

Korvosa contains many secrets, and every time the Harrowed Heroes discover one, more questions result.  What happened to Neolandus Kalepopolis at Arkona Palace?  Is there a connection between the seven-sided shrine and the so-called Runelord of Thassilon that leads the army of giants far to the north?  And can anything stop Queen Ileosa before it’s too late?

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GM's Commentary

I really liked the inclusion of Salvatore Scream and his paintings in the AP.  The paintings have some excellent foreshadowing and the character is interesting and fun to roleplay.  Unfortunately, this was the only session he appeared in.  By asking him to walk home alone, the PCs also missed out on meeting an extremely popular NPC: Laori Vaus.  That's the fun of gaming--no matter how much prep you do, you never know how things are actually going to actually play out.

The stuff with the clockworks was "Enter the Septagon", the Curse of the Crimson Throne Chapter Three side quest from the comic book Pathfinder: Runescars.  I was happy to include it because it was something different (clockwork automatons) and I wanted to work in some more about Thassilon.

The Reckoner, and later all the PCs, went mad for those masks of the mantis--they are an extremely good magical item for the slot if you don't have darkvision, and the ability to see invisibility is also quite handy.  Through occasional NPC role-playing, I tried to present the downsides of walking around looking like a member of a notorious assassin cult, but it wasn't enough to dissuade anyone from wearing them.