Posts
[Moonday, 13 Erastus 4708
A.R. continued]
After weeks traversing
the rocky red wilderness of the Cinderlands, the Harrowed Heroes have returned
to Korvosa! But plumes of smoke indicate
portions of the city are aflame, and patrols of Gray Maidens on hippogriffs,
lances gleaming in the sun, are also visible.
The group decide to visit Hedge Wizardry first, so The Reckoner expends
several charges from a magical wand to allow them to glide over the city
undetected. But when they arrive at
Eodred’s Walk (the collection of permanent stores next to the temporary stalls
of the Gold Market), they find the place almost completely deserted! An unfurled scroll tacked to the front door
of the shops proclaim a week of feasting through Founders Day in honour of
Queen Ileosa and her founding of “New
Korvosa”.
Fortunately, Phaeton
Skoda is visible through the window of his shop, apparently trying to bring a
semblance of order to the cluttered and chaotic shelves inside. The Reckoner taps on the glass to get his
attention, and Phaeton ushers his visitor in quickly. Still grateful for the rescue of his cousin
months ago, Phaeton’s willing to do business despite the official ban. He explains that an enormous statue of Ileosa
has been built on Jeggare Isle and is to be officially unveiled tomorrow, on
Founders Day, and that pretty much everything in the city has been closed to
“encourage” residents to attend. When
asked, Phaeton explains that the fires were set deliberately by the Gray
Maidens to destroy any houses or buildings they suspect are linked to the
rebellion that started in the Shingles.
And apparently, it’s now public knowledge that Grau Soldado is the
leader of the rebellion as he was attacked by Red Mantis assassins and is now
believed either dead or in hiding.
Once outside, The
Reckoner shares what he’s learned and turns everyone invisible again as they
use the Sun Shaman’s spell to drift silently to the former’s safehouse in Old
Korvosa. Perhaps surprisingly, this area
of the city—recently a place of rioting, anarchy, and would-be warlords like
the “Emperor of Old Korvosa”—seems safer and more sedate. Visible patrols of guards wearing the livery
of House Arkona indicate that perhaps Glorio has decided to expand his
influence and fill the vacuum of authority in the area. Anorak checks over his nearby workshop and
finds everything exactly as he left it—including the mysterious box given him
to by the strange baker, Mortimont.
[Toilday, 14 Erastus 4708
A.R.]
Founders Day is
traditionally a day of feasting and frivolity in Korvosa, a holiday for the
primarily Chelish population to celebrate the establishment of the colony 300
years ago. But today, as the Harrowed
Heroes discover walking the streets invisibly, the mood is not one of joy. Instead, a gloomy air of resignation fills
the few citizens visible on the streets.
Patrols of Gray Maidens are everywhere, and martial law and the hunt for
suspected rebels continues.
The newly-returned travellers make their way to the Gray District, the massive cemetery overseen by the Church of Pharasma. Goldcape and The Reckoner lead Anorak into the utter stillness of Potter’s Ward, the final resting ground for Korvosa’s poor and homeless. There, in one of the many crumbling mausoleums, Cressida Kroft’s own band of rebels have been planning a dramatic strike for several weeks. But when The Reckoner notices a gravedigger lurking around the mausoleum, he suspects either a spy or a trap. Still invisible, the vigilante silently approaches and then leaps on the man, grabbing him around the shoulders and demanding to know what he’s doing there. The man is shocked, even moreso when he sees the crudely-disguised Red Mantis mask that The Reckoner wears. The man puts up a struggle, and the fact that the edges of his shovel have been sharpened to a razor-edge demonstrate he’s no mere gravedigger. Goldcape intervenes, as everyone’s heard of “The Golden Monkey”, but still the shaken man is suspicious it could be illusion magic. When Goldcape allows him to (painfully) pull a yellow hair from her arm, the man is finally satisfied. He doesn’t apologise, but tells the group he’ll deliver the message that they’ve arrived and then unlocks the door to the mausoleum and disappears inside.
A few minutes later,
Cressida Kroft emerges, looking bemused.
“You have got to stop wearing
those Red Mantis masks,” she says wryly.
It looks as though the past few weeks have done wonders for both her
mood and her health—she no longer looks as exhausted, mentally and physically,
as she did when she was leading the Korvosan Guard under Ileosa’s reign. She leads the visitors through a trap door in
the floor of the mausoleum and into an ossuary below that is lit with torches
on the walls and the strange blue light from patches of glowing mold. There, it is clear that final preparations
are in way for today’s operation, as several individuals bustle about preparing
weapons and looking at maps. Kroft points
out Bishop d’Bear, the head of the Church of Pharasma, who has been the
rebellion’s liaison with The Reckoner during his time in the Cinderlands. With a sigh, Kroft points out another
individual—a florid and heavyset man with short brown hair and dark eyes. Goldcape recognises him as Boule, Guildmaster
of the Cerulean Society!
The Reckoner is immediately put off both by Boule’s mannerisms and his association with Glorio Arkona, suspecting this may be part of a stratagem to gain influence within the resistance as a natural alternative to Ileosa as leader of Korvosa. Wary of a trap, The Reckoner grabs Boule by his shirtfront and almost growls for assurance that whatever plan Boule is proffering is legitimate. Boule is definitely shaken, but as he gives those assurances, he is also clearly seething at the indignity of being threatened—especially so publicly. Kroft interjects, and says Boule has explained the situation poorly. She says the reason they’ve been waiting for Founders Day is that much of Ileosa’s security forces will be at the statue unveiling. This makes it feasible to launch hit-and-run raids on the Longacre Building from the surface (by she, d’Bear, and their allies) to draw out defenders, while another group (The Reckoner, Goldcape, and Anorak) enter the Deathhead Vaults from below to free prisoners, steal plans, and generally throw the Gray Maidens into disarray. Regaining his composure, Boule explains that he knows about the secret entrance because the Cerulean Society once used it to smuggle out valuable Guild members and others who happened to find themselves incarcerated. He shows the group a map with a route through the sewers, points out where the secret door is, and even proffers a key. And with a flourish, he reveals something even Kroft didn’t know: he’s “leaked” a set of fake “coded documents from the rebellion” into the hands of Kordaitra, the Gray Maiden’s second-in-command, who fancies herself a codebreaker—and thus, she will likely be in the building during the raid and vulnerable to capture or assassination! With the attacks planned for noon (the same time Ileosa’s statute is to be unveiled), the Harrowed Heroes agree to the plan despite strong reluctance on The Reckoner’s part over Boule’s involvement.
Boule’s map leads the group through the sewers of Korvosa all the way from Midland to North Point. Long stretches of the route are through ancient, abandoned sewers that are completely dry, and fortune seems to favour the group as they encounter no obstacles for most of their journey. But then the map leads them into a brick-lined tunnel that has a wide trough of murky water on one side and a narrow, slimy walkway on the other. After some minutes, a wall of rusty iron bars with an equally rusty gate atop the walkway blocks passage further into the tunnel, but the map indicates the secret door should be along the wall at a point somewhere past the gate. Before they can decide how to proceed, a strange half-roar, half-bleating sound echoes down the tunnel and then a massive beast with a boar-like head, antlers, a thick bullish body, and cloven hooves charges the gate from the far side! With just seconds to act, the Harrowed Heroes prepare their defences. The beast snorts and bleats again, and then exhales a cloud of horrid gas that fills the tunnel. The Reckoner and Goldcape each catch a whiff and rapidly become deathly ill. The creature charges the gate again and again to break through, but—despite its appearance—it’s actually of new, solid construction and holds. The Reckoner and Goldcape retreat while Anorak launches a few fireballs to drive the beast back into the darkness.
Although Anorak
and Rocky managed to hold their breath and are completely fine, The Reckoner
and Goldcape barely survive whatever toxins were in the monster’s breath. Knowing they can’t go forward in their
present state, The Reckoner volunteers to make the trek back to Eodred’s Walk
alone. It takes him a good 45 minutes to
get there through the sewers, and when he emerges, he finds Phaeton isn’t
there! He decides to try to pick the
lock to the back door, but receives a nasty electrical shock for his
effort. A look at the windows reveals
magical alarms that he’s not equipped to deal with. Stymied, The Reckoner knows time is of the
essence if the planned simultaneous assault from above and below is to work—yet
time is slipping away . . .
---------------------------------------------
GM's Commentary
A giant statue of Ileosa being unveiled? That sounds like. . . foreshadowing!
I always like working in natural holidays on the calendar, so when I saw Founders Day coming up, I made sure it served multiple purposes.
I don't remember the name of the beast at the end, but its poison breath attack sure was nasty--I think it did something like Constitution damage.
No comments:
Post a Comment