Curse of the Crimson Throne: Recap # 20 [RPG]

 [17 Desnus, 4708 A.R. continued]

After pinpointing what they believe is the location of Rolth Lamm, the Harrowed Heroes split up for supplies for a planned raid.  Ralph heads to Hedge Wizardry in search of magical scrolls, and is referred by Phaeton to a nearby bookstore called Basha’s.  The cranky proprietor has what Ralph is looking for, but insists on also selling him a “treasure map” that seems to have been made up on the spot!  Meanwhile, Goldcape flies on Rocky’s back at top speed across the city, earning curious looks from Sable Company marines mounted on hippogriffs.  Goldcape makes it to the Stalwart Shield in North Point just in time before they close, and purchases some new armor.  She asks why the armorer has a “no dwarves” policy and learns that the three brothers who work there were once turned away from apprenticeships in the dwarven city of Janderhoff.

Goldcape meets Yraelzin and Ralph as planned in Eodred’s Walk.  Goldcape purchases a special alchemically-made smoke arrow from Jope Chantsmo, and hears that a clever way to disable spellcasters is to fire an arrow at them that has been previously enchanted with a magical silence spell.  Goldcape is intrigued by the idea, but with Hedge Wizardry and Basha’s closed, she can think of only one place a magical scroll of silence could be obtained: the Gilded Orrery.  The problem is that the store is closely affiliated with the Acadamae, and its plump, mirthless proprietor refuses to entertain customers off the street.  Goldcape arrives in the middle of a book signing and fails to impress the proprietor enough to gain admittance.

By the time everyone in the group is back together, darkness has fallen over Korvosa.  Ralph looks at the map obtained from the wererat den and notes indications of heavy excavation being done under the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden—but the area wouldn’t be accessible to anyone who can’t make themselves as small as a rat!  Yraelzin raises the issue of whether raiding the Hospice will get them in trouble with the authorities and suggests calling in the Korvosan Guard, but he’s persuaded that if the Queen’s Physicians are harbouring Rolth Lamm, then the city’s government is already implicated in wrongdoing. 

Queen's Physicians

Goldcape and Rocky circle the recently-renovated building from the air.  They see some Queen’s Physicians, escorted by Gray Maidens, entering the front door while carrying a stretcher with a presumed plague victim on it.  But the front door isn’t the only potential access point—the building was previously a warehouse, and there are several loading doors around back.  Goldcape shares what she’s seen with the others and fashions a crude mask to hide her identity from those within.  Ralph, who has changed into The Reckoner, suggests entering through the rear doors.  Although they’ve been boarded over, he’s not shy about simply smashing the doors open with his battle maul!

The sounds of his assault carry throughout the hospice, and just as the Harrowed Heroes enter a loading bay filled with barrels and crates, a pair of Gray Maidens appear to investigate.  The Reckoner shouts that they’re harbouring a known criminal, but seeing an armed, mask vigilante breaking and entering doesn’t predispose them to conversation!  Yet, despite their fearsome reputation, the heavily-armored female soldiers are battered into unconsciousness by The Reckoner’s onslaught.  Goldcape snaps at The Reckoner for having used her name in the brief scuffle.  Before the intruders can venture out of the loading bay, they’re set upon by four Queen’s Physicians wielding hardwood clubs.  Their plague masks and uncanny ability to coordinate attacks in complete silence lend the resulting battle an eerie feel, but once Goldcape directs Rocky to attack, all four defenders are quickly overwhelmed.

Some nurse!

Curtains separate the loading dock from the warehouse’s vast interior, which has been converted into one gigantic convalescent ward full of dozens of groaning and wheezing Korvosans afflicted with blood veil.  Intent on finding Rolth Lamm as quickly as possible, The Reckoner rushes through to another back room and sees a cargo lift but no stairs leading downward where the diviner said Rolth would be.  The Reckoner begins searching carefully and realises something startling—there’s a missing button in the lever controlling the cargo lift that would allow it to descend!  The Reckoner tries to jury-rig the device to work without the button, but it’s too complex for him.  While Yraelzin keeps an eye on things in the convalescent ward, Goldcape rushes across and toward the front of the building.   She bursts through another curtain into a waiting room, where a burly nurse wearing scarves over her mouth is sitting behind a long wooden desk reading a broadsheet.  Startled, the nurse jumps to her feet and demands to know what Goldcape is doing there, but diplomacy fails and fisticuffs ensue!  The battle is a comedy of errors, as both Goldcape and the nurse’s weapons end up slipping out of their hands at some point.  Eventually, Goldcape gets the better of the nurse and the woman drops to her knees and surrenders.  When asked, she says there’s no basement and she’s never heard of any wrongdoing in the facility.  As far as Goldcape can tell, the nurse seems to be telling the truth.

Back in the convalescent ward, a pair of Gray Maidens appear on the catwalks above and loose arrows at Yraelzin and The Reckoner.  The intruders take cover under a platform, forcing the Gray Maidens to dispense with their bows, draw steel, and start rushing down stairs towards them.  The Reckoner rushes up to meet them halfway, and the battle is underway!  The Gray Maidens have the high ground and land some cuts on The Reckoner.  Worse, Yraelzin’s magical curing spells inexplicably fail to work!  But The Reckoner perseveres and manages to defeat the two just as Goldcape and Rocky join him.

The Harrowed Heroes climb the stairs up, past the landing to the catwalks, and onto the partial second floor of the warehouse.  The rough functionality of the warehouse below gives way to beige tile and a whitewashed hall that ends in a pair of teak-wood double doors engraved with images of rampant gazelles.  Lacking a key, The Reckoner one again loudly smashes his way through.  Past the shattered doors is a smaller room with patients on cots, but the Harrowed Heroes are too late!  The Queen’s Physicians in the room have slit all of the patients’ throats and are busy burning notes of whatever work they were doing!  Goldcape leaps dramatically on a large worktable in the center of the room, while The Reckoner circles around to the side.  The foes work in perfect synchronicity, and Goldcape is badly hurt when the fighting is finished, with one prisoner kept alive for later interrogation.

The Reckoner and Goldcape begin to argue about whether the vanara should have to pay to use the masked vigilante’s magical wand of healing.  The matter is unresolved.  Remnants of the burned notes seem to refer to experiments being done to discern why some Varisians seem naturally immune to blood veil.  Goldcape takes the papers back downstairs to prove to the nurse, Bhrunlida Torthus, that her employers are evil indeed!  When Bhrunlida, still terrified, refuses to come upstairs to see the murdered patients, The Reckoner comes down and drags her up.  But then Goldcape realises something strange—they’ve overlooked another door in the experimentation chamber, and it’s now standing wide open!  The adjoining room looks like a combination office and personal laboratory, but there’s no one to be seen.  The Reckoner quickly surmises that someone may be moving about while invisible, leading Goldcape to draw upon her nature magic and adopt the aspect of the wolf.  By carefully smelling the air around her, she realises there is indeed the scent of another human that they can’t account for!

But following the scent takes precious time, and soon the raiders hear the sound of the cargo lift in operation!  They rush down the stairs and into the lift room to see it beginning to descend.  The operator’s invisibility is flickering away to reveal a well-dressed man in an elegant waistcoast, with a rapier fashionably buckled to his belt.  He looks up at the group with a look of mild curiosity.

The Harrowed Heroes have breached the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden and learned that not everything going on inside is in the best interests of the city.  But their brash raid, although effective, hasn’t been subtle.  If there are any further hostile beings below the building, chances are, they’ll be ready and waiting!

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GM's Commentary

The PCs in this campaign are a funny mix of very clever (assembling clues, hiring diviners, gathering information) and and very brash (just smashing their way into the building).  It's a pattern we'll continue to see later on, as these PCs aren't much for scouting, stealth, infiltration, etc.  

This part of the chapter was challenging to run, as there were a lot of enemies in adjoining places each with particular responses to the alarm being sounded, and the PCs splitting up at one point didn't help.  But although it was chaotic and confusing at points, it was also pretty exciting.