Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 38 [RPG]

[Sunday, 14 Sarenith 4708 A.R. continued]
 
With the corpse of an accuser devil on their hands and no clue who or what it was working for, the Harrowed Heroes decide to get rid of the evidence.  Mounted on Rocky, Goldcape dumps it in the river.
 
[Moonday, 15 Sarenith 4708 A.R. continued]
 
In the morning, members of the group begin a final day of preparations before a planned departure to the Cinderlands the following day.  The Reckoner tells Majenko that he’ll be leaving Korvosa temporarily, and Majenko replies with valuable intelligence: the Gray Maidens have started training on the disbanded Sable Company’s hippogriffs.  In time, the skies above the city may no longer be safe. 
 
For now, however, Rocky provides the group with an unmatched aerial advantage.  They put this advantage to good use, scouting the shops of Eodred’s Walk and the nearby Gold Market from the air.  They spot several Gray Maidens lying in wait on rooftops, their full plate armor gleaming in the sunlight.  Goldcape has Rocky set down on a distant rooftop to avoid the ambush.  She uses a magical ring to disguise herself, lends her magical hat to Anorak so he can disguise himself, and Ralph Blackfeather makes himself look like a common day-laborer.  Yraelzin, however, would rather remain completely out of sight and decides to stay with Rocky on the rooftop while the others split up to go about their errands.

Goldcape makes a quick stop at Old Lady Cloggins’ house to retrieve some gold coins stored there and then makes her way back to Eodred’s Square.  There, she buys a magical robe covered in patches, each of which can be removed and turned into a real object! In addition, Goldcape finds a magical scroll that will allow her to turn Rocky into a hand-sized stone miniature and back again.  The vanara then decides she would be less conspicuous in the city if she weren’t always travelling by roc, so she flies Rocky across to East Shore to the city’s horse market.  She asks if there are any horses for sale that have been on the market for a long time, and is told of Nipper, a fast stallion that has the unfortunate tendency to bite anyone who gets too close.  But upon examining the horse (and speaking with it through magic!), Goldcape realises part of the reason for its foul disposition is a cracked hoof and an infected wound on its leg.  Once she applies some healing ointment and has the hoof re-shod, Nipper no longer seems so unfriendly—at least to her.  Goldcape sends Rocky to fly back to Yraelzin on his own and leads Nipper across High Bridge.  There’s a tense moment where it looks like the detachment of Gray Maidens on the bridge might recognise her, but they let her through.

At the same time, Anorak purchases several new magical scrolls and material components from Hedge Wizardry, nearly exhausting his funds.  Ralph enters as well and (after revealing to Phaeton who he is) learns the man’s cousin is doing well.  As Anorak continues shopping, Ralph does a favour for Goldcape and looks into the circumstances of her boyfriend’s death a year previously.  Goldcape knows only that Longtail, a professional acrobat, was seen being murdered in an alley behind Kendall Amphitheater by men working for Gaedren Lamm.  Ralph starts at a tavern called Bard’s End which is right across the street from the playhouse.  Posing as a collector of ghost and horror stories, Ralph chats with the bartender and an old regular and learns that Longtail was murdered by Lamm’s enforcers because he refused to help them steal the performing company’s take after a show.  Longtail’s body, it turns out, was picked up by a city street-sweeper’s cart and thought to be an animal carcass.  Ralph follows the trail all the way to the Gray District, where he learns that the body of an unidentified vanara was buried in a numbered pauper’s grave at about the same time that Longtail went missing.  In lieu of a donation, the mirthless Pharasmin who helped Ralph find the grave asks him to reflect on how best to spend the dwindling number of days ahead of him.

Having spent the better part of the afternoon on the task, Ralph realises his new armor should finally be ready at the Stalwart Shield in Northpoint.  He changes into his alter ego as The Reckoner just before entering.  Only one of the three brothers who run the shop (a man in his mid-forties named Kriskin) is present, and he confirms that the armor is ready and is in the back.  But he seems strangely nervous.  Just before disappearing into the backroom to get the armor, he motions The Reckoner towards the front door with his eyes.  The Reckoner takes the hint and starts making for the exit.  But before he’s completely out of the door, four figures emerge from the rear of the armorer: Red Mantis assassins!  Immediately, all four begin a strangely entrancing series of gestures and movements meant to lull their prey into a completely befuddled state before slitting his throat.  But The Reckoner is as strong mentally as he is physically, and resists the assassins’ hypnotic power.  Three then rush him, while a fourth races out the back door to come around from the front and cut off The Reckoner’s retreat.  Despite the fact that he’s outnumbered, taken by surprise, and wearing a temporary, ill-fitting suit of armor, the assassins are no match for him!  One by one, they fall to his enchanted earthbreaker.

After the battle, Kriskin steps out warily and apologises profusely, explaining that he had no choice—his brothers were tied up in back, and the assassins said they’d kill him if he didn’t take part in the ambush.  The Reckoner absolves him of any shame, and eagerly collects his new armor: a heavily-enchanted masterwork that has been given sapience and a devotion to protect Korvosa!  Given the nickname “Plate”, The Reckoner’s intelligent armor is fully supportive of his master’s endeavours but seems a bit of a know-it-all. 

After meeting at Old Lady Cloggins’ house, where everyone is treated to tea and biscuits, the Harrowed Heroes make their goodbyes and return to The Reckoner’s safe-house in Old Korvosa (with Nipper having been left in Old Lady Cloggins’ care).  During the journey there on Rocky’s back, they see some hippogriffs lift off from the parapets of Castle Korvosa, but the Gray Maiden riders are unskilled and rapidly left behind.  Once back in the safe-house, Ralph tells Goldcape what he’s learned about Longtail, and they agree that when they get back from the Cinderlands, they can arrange for a proper headstone.  Ralph also explains to Plate that, in order to defend Korvosa, they need to leave the city.

Having completed their preparations for the journey, there’s no longer anything standing in the way of the Harrowed Heroes departure from Korvosa.  But even if they succeed on their mission in the Cinderlands, what will the city be like when they return?

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GM Commentary

From one perspective this is a classic "shopping session", as the PCs get everything ready for their departure to the Cinderlands.  As the GM, I could secretly enjoy the fact that they all assumed it would be a quick "go there, talk to this guy, come back" errand--they had no idea they'd spend weeks (both in game and in real life) journeying through the Cinderlands on a quest that would take the entirety of Chapter Four to complete.

The stuff with Nipper was a bit of improv fun.  I think I rolled on a random table somewhere to figure out the horse's quirks (a biter) and then took it from there.

This session sees the first use of carry companion scrolls by Goldcape, which proved very useful when having a roc around would be too ostentatious or would cause a spell like teleportation to exceed the number of creatures in the party.

We also get the first appearance of Plate, a suit of intelligent armor.  In future campaigns, I don't think I'd allow PCs to craft or purchase intelligent items--they're surprisingly cheap, distort the action economy of the game, and force me to role-play yet another NPC.  I do like Plate's personality (at least when I remember to portray it, which unfortunately isn't as often as I should!).

It was very sweet of The Reckoner to use his skills to investigate the death of Goldcape's boyfriend (the backstory event that tied into Goldcape's campaign trait).  I don't know what prompted The Reckoner to do it, but it provided some nice closure even if I had to think fast to flesh out some of the details.