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[Moonday, 10 Arodus 4708 A.R. continued]
Secure in The Reckoner’s safehouse,
the Harrowed Heroes plan long into the night.
[Toilday, 11 Arodus 4708
A.R.]
The ringing of handbells
in the street outside wakens everyone at dawn.
Goldcape sneaks out, invisibly, to see what all the clanging is about
and learns it’s a horse-drawn cart to collect the bodies of those killed overnight
by the terrible blood magic curse still striking down victims across the
city! Sadly, Mifeg—the homeless woman
the group had some contact with months ago—is one of the deceased. Goldcape returns to fill the others in on
what she’s seen. But although bodies may
continue to accumulate as long as Ileosa lives, the group agree to plan their
strike on Castle Korvosa carefully instead of acting rashly.
Goldcape decides to walk
to Old Korvosa to check on Sergeant Clenkins and the other members of the rebel
cell she organised there. The vanara is
recognised by friendly House Arkona soldiers at the bridge and waved across. Although the perpetual gloom of the nearby
Black Tower puts a damper on things, she’s surprised to see how much the city’s
most notorious slums have improved in recent weeks! Rubbish has been hauled away, no gangs roam
the street, and there’s even early signs of new construction. But curiously, her rebel cell is nowhere to
be found. There’s no sign of violence or
disorder in the abandoned building, but it looks like everything other than
Goldcape’s personal gear has been packed up and moved out.
She decides to learn the
rebels’ fate by directly asking the most important man in Old Korvosa: Glorio
Arkona himself! In Arkona Palace, after
having her identity confirmed through a quiz from Glorio’s majordomo (apparently shapechanging
assassins are a risk), Goldcape is immediately brought to meet the artistocrat
in a well-appointed salon. Glorio is
welcoming and flattering, and explains that Sergeant Clenkins and his troops
found it “unnecessary” to maintain their protection of the Black Tower after the
forces of House Arkona arrived. Instead,
Glorio explains, they’ve joined the siege of Castle Korvosa. Along with refreshments and a gift of
platinum coins, Glorio hints that, should he become leader of post-war Korvosa,
he would offer her a major position of responsibility: Commandant of the Sable
Company Marines!
After leaving the palace,
Goldcape realises she’s near Vencarlo Orisini’s old fencing academy and decides
to pay a visit to her mentor. The two
speak carefully in case spies for the Queen are listening in, but Goldcape
subtly confirms that the mission to Scarwall was a success while Vencarlo talks
about rebuilding the academy with the aid of a wealthy student. He welcomes Goldcape to stop by for lessons
anytime. Goldcape says her farewells and
makes it back to The Reckoner’s safehouse in the early afternoon.
Meanwhile, Protosilaus and The Reckoner haven’t been sitting idle! Leaving Lorien and Yraelzin behind, the two walk to a particular alleyway not far from the safehouse to meet with one of The Reckoner’s informants. In this case, that informant is Xoza, a dandasuka in the employ of House Arkona who is magically-bound to spy for The Reckoner! Xoza reports progress on the three tasks assigned to him by The Reckoner before the Harrowed Heroes left the city for Scarwall. First, Xoza reports a (not-so-stunning) revelation: the vigilante Trifaccia was an efreeti agent of The Queen! Given that Grau Soldado took care of that problem some time ago, the information is now of little value. Second, Xoza was charged with learning what House Arkona was planning, and again the little spy has information that may be too late to be of much value: the aristocratic family has entered into an alliance with the queen of the xill from the Black Tower. In exchange for military support, House Arkona lets the xill implant their spawn in the bodies of captured Ileosan loyalists! Third, Xoza says his third task (to find out Glorio Arkona’s weaknesses) faltered due to the man’s security and that, as far as he knows, Glorio is just a human. But The Reckoner gets a hunch that Xoza has doubts about that, and presses him to reveal not just what he knows, but what he suspects: that Glorio is a rakshasa! Xoza doesn’t seem able to articulate exactly what that means or what the differences are between different kinds of rakshasa, but insists the only weakness of a “true rakshasa” is a blessed crossbow bolt. The Reckoner asks Xoza to next look into finding information about the Queen and her new seneschal, the bloodmage Togomor.
The surveillance part of
the plan also provides valuable intelligence.
Protosilaus conjures a magical invisible flying eye that he can somehow
see through, and sends it on multiple journeys in and around the castle. The witch-doctor learns that the group’s
originally-planned incursion site (a salon on the fourth floor) is the barracks
for a contingent of Red Mantis assassins—one of whom spots the eye and sounds
the alarm so another can dispel it! But
Protosilaus always has another spell, and is able to conjure more eyes to
continue the reconnaissance. He’s unable
to see into the throne room or the queen’s bedroom due to the stained-glass
windows, but is able to discern the shape of
. . . something . . . in the latter.
A look into the armory and Sabina’s room doesn’t provide confirmation
that there really are secret doors as Sabina said, but the sight of a corpulent
imp raiding the kitchen and barbed monsters in the mess hall support her story
about Ileosa consorting with devils.
Still, the crucial
question remains: has Sabina provided the group with everything they need for a
surgical assault or instead simply set the bait for an irresistible trap?
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GM Commentary
One of the areas that a GM in a campaign like this really has to exercise judgement on is the control of information. I like it when PCs are smart and plan ahead with things like reconnaisaince, the recruitment of spies, divination magic, and so forth. But it can be challenging to decide what their efforts should yield. There's a balance between not giving them enough (leading to discouragement--"that was a waste of time, I guess we're supposed to just attack") and giving them too much ("hey guys, here's the adventure with room key and encounters, just read it yourselves"). A couple examples where I had to exercise that judgment came in this session, with Xoza (a player-favourite NPC) who had been spying on Arkona for weeks and the magical floating eyes used by Protosilaus to check out Castle Korvosa.
Sir Tolgrith is an NPC from the 3.5-era module Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale. Bloodsworn Vale is an important aspect of Korvosa's history, and although Tolgrith isn't mentioned in Curse of the Crimson Throne, I thought it would make sense (and be fun) to include him in a cameo role since the module had been completed by a group of PCs in my Magic Mirror/Roots of Golarion campaign.
