The Crimson Echo Season Four

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-03, 09:56 PM (ISO 8601)

A continuation of The Crimson Echo: Season Three!

OOC Thread

Dramatis Personae

Spoiler: Our Heroes

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Spoiler: Allies

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Spoiler: Cressidia Kroft

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Field Marshall and commander of Korvosa's city guard, Cressidia is perpetually overworked and has become something of a practiced insomniac to keep up with the unending paperwork of her position, particularly after the recent troubles immediately following King Eodred's death and Lamm's uprising. With a dwindling guard force and rumblings of further unrest due to Trinia Sabor's situation, it doesn't look like she will be getting more rest anytime soon, either. Old friends with Vencarlo Orsini, Grau Saldado, and Sabrina Merrin - whose friendship has soured into barely concealed hostility following Kroft's election to Field Marshall several years ago.

Spoiler: Portrait

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Spoiler: Enemies

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Spoiler: Important People

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Spoiler: Of Korvosa

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**Inspectre** · 2024-02-03, 11:09 PM (ISO 8601)

Locations

Spoiler: Korvosa

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Spoiler: Map of Korvosa

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Spoiler: Districts and Neighborhoods

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Spoiler: East Shore and Gray

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Spoiler: Midland

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Spoiler: North Point

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Spoiler: The Heights

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Spoiler: Old Korvosa

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Spoiler: South Shore

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**Inspectre** · 2024-02-03, 11:21 PM (ISO 8601)

Other Important Information

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-03, 11:34 PM (ISO 8601)

The Story So Far:

Spoiler: How It Normally Goes

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The party is brought together by Zellara, a middle-aged Varisian woman who is a Harrow (fortune) reader. She claims Lamm has wronged her too, and has brought all of you together to take revenge against the old criminal who has wronged each of you in some way.
Following intel provided by Zellara, the party goes to an old fishery that has been serving as Gaedren Lamm’s base of operations. After fighting through the couple members of Lamm’s gang, you confront the old man in his lair and kill him.
Searching Lamm’s lair reveals Zellara’s severed head, leading to the revelation and confession from her that she is a ghost and has been this entire time. She brought you together after her death to take revenge on Lamm, and selected all of you because she sensed that you had some greater fate to play beyond just killing Lamm.
Amongst Lamm’s possessions is an incredibly detailed and expensive brooch that is the property of Queen Ileosa, King Eodred’s wife – how it came to be in Lamm’s possession is a mystery, although theft by one of his little lambs seems most likely.
Later that night, King Eodred dies and the city is thrown into chaos. The party is forced to seek shelter indoors, perhaps back at Zellara’s old house, or perhaps at your own nearby residence. Along the way, the party has to deal with angry rioters, rambunctious imps enjoying the chaos, and possibly even a hungry otyugh.
After the city has calmed, the party eventually goes to the royal palace to return the brooch to Queen Ileosa. After a brief meeting with the solemn queen-in-mourning, the party is generously rewarded and asked to meet with the head of Korvosa’s city guard, Field Marshall Cressidia Kroft, to aid the city further.
After meeting with Korvosa’s most overworked civil officer, Field Marshall Kroft asks the party to investigate a group of city guardsmen who deserted their posts and have taken up shop in a butcher shop known as All the World’s Meat.
Investigating the butcher’s shop reveals that while the ringleader of the deserters, Verik Vancasterkin, is indeed knowingly guilty of desertion, he is unaware that his men have set up a murder-for-hire business on the side, disposing of the bodies of their victims as part of the free meat distributed out to the desperate citizens of Old Korvosa.
Following the party’s success in capturing Verik and his gang of miscreants, Kroft assigns a new task to the party – dealing with the smarmy ambassador from Cheliax, Darvayne Amprei. Amprei has been taking advantage of the chaos following Eodred’s death and his position as ambassador to enrich himself at the cost of the city, and Kroft wishes to convince him to back-off. How she intends to do this is acquire evidence of his misdeeds, or at least compromising information that could undermine his position back in Cheliax.
A friend of Field Marshall Kroft, Vencarlo Orsini, is present at this meeting and explains that he is aware of someone who likely has such damning evidence on Damprei, and who probably would be willing to part with said information in exchange for a good amount of coin – Devargo Bravarsi, the so-called King of Spiders, who is a major crime boss running a den of sin and inequity known as Eel’s End in Old Korvosa.
The party travels to Eel’s End, bargains with Devargo, and convinces him to part with his evidence against Damprei – a series of love letters between him and his mistress, which also includes details of several occasions where he has exploited his position as the Chelish ambassador for his own personal gain.
By this point, there is a growing belief that Eodred was murdered rather than simply died of advanced age, and one popular suspect in his murder is Queen Ileosa herself. Another potential suspect is a young painter that King Eodred hired a few months ago, Trinia Sabor, who Kroft asks the party to quietly bring in for the girl’s protection.
Despite the party’s best efforts, the apprehension of Trinia Sabor goes sideways, with the young painter proving to also be a talented acrobat as she leaps out of her apartment and races out onto the Shingles, the twisting maze of roofs, clotheslines, and bridges that span across the top of Korvosa’s slums.
Things tend to go one of three different ways here - the party manages to catch Trinia, Trinia eludes the party long enough to run directly into a wandering patrol of Hellknights who promptly arrest her, or previously unknown assailants attack Trinia in the streets, killing her before the party can intervene.
In the Shizu-verse, which is where two of our PCs are from, unknown assailants fire crossbows at the fleeing painter, wounding her at a critical moment and sending her tumbling to her death on the streets far below. The world shifted into its new state shortly after her death, and the party had no idea what follows this point, as they abruptly found themselves in a new world, with a similar but much different set of memories sitting alongside their memories from this first world. They have jumped to different worlds several times since then, as we have recruited new people a couple times before this recruitment drive.
You may wish your character to come from a world where one of the other two outcomes with Trinia happened instead.
If your PC caught Trinia, and decided that she was innocent of the King's murder and thus should be protected:
You hid Trinia away, to attempt to smuggle her to safety later as the city at-large is now aware of the accusation from Queen Ileosa that Trinia murdered the King. Several days later, it was announced that Trinia Sabor was apprehended and would be publicly executed, under the orders of Queen Ileosa. The real Trinia was safe where you put her, so this was an either a fake or a case of mistaken identity.
If Trinia got away from your PC (until she blundered into the Hellknights, anyway) or iff your PC caught Trinia, and decided that she was guilty of the King's murder and handed her over to the guard for punishment:
You handed Trinia over to the guard, letting Field Marshall Kroft, who had approached you about finding Trinia in the first place to learn the truth, decide what was to be done with her. Several days later, it was announced that Trinia Sabor was apprehended and would be publicly executed, under the orders of Queen Ileosa - and against Kroft's protests.
Your last assignment from Field Marshall Cressida Kroft, who you had been working with over the past couple weeks since returning the Queen's pendant to her, was to resolve a potentially severe diplomatic incident with the Shaonti, the native "barbarians" who had originally lived here before Korvosa was founded (and driven off by the Chelish settlers). It seems during the riots a prominent Shaonti, Kynndor Thok, was murdered and rather than his body being handed over to his father for burial in the Shaonti tradition, it had been carted off to the Grey District to be dumped in an unmarked mass grave with everyone else who had died during the recent unpleasantness. As his father was a leader amongst the Shaonti people, this was going to be a serious diplomatic incident and could push the already unfriendly remaining Shaonti towards war - which in Korvosa's weakened state due to the succession crisis following King Eodred's death, would likely not end well for anyone.
Your attempts to locate the body of Kynndor Thok hit an additional roadblock when you learn that his body was stolen from its mass grave, apparently by a group of derro for experiments with necromancy, a school of magic all but forbidden in Korvosa. You venture down into their lair beneath the Grey District, in a warren of catacombs known as the Dead Warrens, eventually dispatching their leader Vreeg and recovering Thok's body. You return to Kroft triumphant, only to be greeted with the news of (fake or real) Trinia Sabor's scheduled execution.
Your last memory is of attending the execution of the hapless painter, Queen Ileosa addressing the crowd and rallying them against Trinia, promising her blood as a balm for their recent sorrows caused Eodred's death and the riots. Perhaps you attempt to rescue the painter from the executioner's axe, sway the crowd and the Queen to mercy as the painter girl is innocent, or simply watch on helplessly. In any event, it all goes wrong and much as during the Shizu-verse chase in the alley, Trinia dies in front of you despite any attempts to help her. Your perception shifts to your new world shortly thereafter.

Spoiler: How Its Gone This Time

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(A similarly rough, general summary of the Crimson Echo, Seasons One through Three, is provided below.)

Seeking to avoid a repeat of the original disaster, Silas goes to Trinia’s apartment first thing before King Eodred is even announced dead. Silas and Trinia are attacked by several gang members who seem intent on kidnapping the girl as part of some wider conspiracy. While Trinia is knocked unconscious by a poisoned crossbow bolt, she survives the ambush and Silas gets her to safety back at his place. A bit later on, corrupt guards show up at Silas’s place looking for her, seemingly part of the same conspiracy. Silas and Trinia again escape from harm and releasing the girl is in more terrible danger than previously believed, he takes her to Vencarlo Orsini’s house to hideout. While not happy to get a babysitting job dumped in his lap, Vencarlo agrees to keep the girl safe and out-of-harm’s way for now.
Eventually, the party is once again assembled by Zellara, who again sets them on the trail of Gaedren Lamm as his old fishery base, although she notes that the threads of Fate seem oddly out-of-alignment.
Arriving at the old fishery, the party once again fights through Lamm’s goons, albeit considerably more of them this time as Lamm seems to have found the money to hire a local gang for protection. Lamm ultimately escapes from the party aboard the old boat he has moored at the back of the old fishery, a previously ruined derelict that he has suddenly found the money to repair into a sailable vessel. While Lamm makes his escape, the party has to contend with the leader of the hired gang, who consumes a vial of shimmering orange liquid, promptly gains magical powers, and starts ranting at the party about how the city was all going to burn and rot.
The drug that the local tough consumed was almost certainly a new drug called Shudder, a potent substance that (apparently truly does!) gives the drinker magical powers – albeit at the cost of going stark-raving mad. Lamm is apparently the sole distributor of the drug currently, which is certainly one reason he could be considerably richer and more powerful in this brave new world.
The party still finds Zellara’s severed head, along with his stash – although the queen’s special brooch is notably absent from the minor hoard.
King Eodred dies, and the city again plunges into chaos. The party deals with angry rioters, a few obnoxious imps, and a squad of Hellknights, members of the local mercenary band of the Order of the Nail, who are brutally putting down every rioter in sight with horrific amounts of violence. The party manages to largely steer clear of the Hellknights, although Aliani sends one of their officers – a dead-eyed Hellknight named Xerxes – chasing after Lamm.
Through the chaos in the streets, the party rescues several people – a local fisherman known only as Fishguts Jim from some reefclaws, Nadine - a ballerina who is old friends with Aliani - from some thugs, and Beautrice – Nadine’s twin sister – from the psychotic leader of a street gang known as the Dusters who had burned Beautrice’s face with acid, leaving her gravely ill and on the edge of death.
As things begin to calm down, the party is approached by Field Marshall Cressidia Kroft, who is aware of the party’s existence thanks to Vencarlo Orsini as well as Dalen approaching her prior to the riots to offer his services.
The Field Marshall is badly overworked, and lacks the resources to attend to a request from Queen Ileosa, namely to see to the safety of the Chelish Ambassador, a woman known only Lady Andaisin. The ambassador has a small nondescript home in Old Korvosa, and with the riots still ongoing, the party is being asked to find her and escort her to the royal castle for her own protection.
Ambassador Andaisin is unharmed, although the party finds her unsetting and suspicious, particularly after noticing that there seems to be blood and signs of a struggle inside the house (seen through the open front door) despite the ambassador claiming nothing happened the previous night. Nonetheless, the party obediently escort her to the royal palace, where they briefly meet with the ambassador’s old and close friend, Queen Ileosa Arabasti. The queen thanks the party for their efforts at protecting the ambassador, and offers them a new task – escorting her elven handmaiden Elliana, around the city tomorrow to survey the damage from the rioters and present her with a list of problems the crown could attempt to solve.
During the meeting with the queen, Aliani brings up Beautrice’s condition, leading the queen to dispatch her personal physician, Dr. Reiner Davaulus, to attend to her now infected injuries. Dr. Reiner manages to cure Beautrice, although he is unable to remove the scars left on her face from the acid.
While having some misgivings about the entire thing, the party ultimately agrees and returns to the palace the next morning to pick up the curious handmaiden. The queen’s personal bodyguard Sabrina Merrin, believed to be the city’s most skilled warrior, is very insistent that no harm come to the handmaiden.
In the course of escorting the handmaiden around the city, the party comes across the handiwork of the Order of the Nail, in the form of numerous impaled and crucified bodies left in the middle of the street. They also meet the drunk and demoralized guard sergeant Grau Saldado, eventually managing to convince him to pull himself together for the good of the city despite the horrors he had witnessed the previous evening, both from the rioters and the Hellknights.
The tour of Korvosa goes sideways when Aliani suggests to go investigate the suspicious Ambassador Lady Andaisin’s house, which handmaiden Elliana reluctantly but finally agrees to do.
[*}The inside of Lady Andaisin’s house is a death trap full of horrors, including animated furniture that attempts to murder the party (Elliana included), and the re-animated bodies of a kill squad Lamm sent after the ambassador (and surely the source of the blood upstairs that led to this suspicion in the first place). Worst of all, the party discovers a booby-trapped shrine to Urgathoa, goddess of disease, gluttony, and undeath which ultimately sets the entire house ablaze in an attempt to destroy the evidence. The party ultimately escapes, but Handmaiden Elliana is badly shaken and vows to inform Queen Ileosa of this discovery.
While down in the basement the party also learns a bit about Elliana’s backstory - that she grew up as an orphan on the streets of Westcrown in Cheliax, that she came to Korvosa along with Queen Ileosa and Lady Andaisin, and that she is a worshiper of the Empyean Lord Lorris the Savior Hound (with a small medallion of Lorris tucked under her clothes)
On the way back to the palace, the party comes across a group of Hellknights who are publicly executing a group of civilians that they had supposedly caught rioting and looting the previous night. Handmaiden Elliana marches forward to confront the Hellknights and challenge their legal authority to summarily execute Korvosan citizens, when the whole thing is rendered moot by the arrival of Korvosa’s most famous vigilante and masked hero, Blackjack, who frees the civilians and engages the Hellknights in a duel to keep them busy while the remaining prisoners make good on their escape. The party aids Blackjack discretely, and Elliana is injured by a stray lightning bolt after she pushes aside a child who would have otherwise been caught in the bolt and killed. Miraculously, Elliana sustains only minor injuries as well (nothing a few CLW spells can’t fix!), although Sabrina is less than amused when the party arrives back at the palace and Elliana’s injuries are discovered.
The party handles various personal business over the next few days, before they again meet with Field Marshall Kroft. Kroft introduces the party to one of her top detectives, a clean-shaven man named Rhev (who was also a drunk slob, disgraced ex-guardsman, and member of the party in the original timeline). Rhev had been assigned tracking down Gaedren Lamm, due to his Shudder business, his apparent involvement in Eodred’s death, and his stated intention to lead a revolt against the city’s nobility and topple its government. Rhev announces that he is looking into several potential leads into Lamm’s business, including references to a “painter” that he apparently used, possibly to poison Eodred. The trail of evidence Rhev has found so far seems to lead directly back around to Trinia Sabor.
Shortly thereafter, the party is invited back to the royal palace for a luncheon with Queen Ileosa. There the queen presents the party with several personal gifts as a reward for escorting her handmaiden around the city on what the queen felt was a most productive survey. While there, the party broke the news that they believed King Eodred was murdered via poison, leaving Queen Ileosa distraught as she had apparently been uninformed of Kroft’s suspicions.
The topic of Trinia Sabor came up during the conversation, and the party advocated for the girl’s innocence, learning in turn of another possible suspect – King Eodred’s tiefling brother Venster, a quiet embarrassment for the Arabasti family due to his heritage, and thus his somewhat secret existence within the castle. Investigating Venster’s tower also revealed Trinia Sabor’s work area, where she had indeed been diligently working on a secret painting, still half-finished, commissioned by King Eodred to be a gift for Ileosa, rather than anything illicit.
This seemed to be enough to convince the queen of Trinia’s innocence, and ultimately led Silas to petition the queen to protect Trinia, as it was believed she would be better able to protect the girl than Vencarlo. Wishing Trinia to finish the painting that Eodred had commissioned, Ileosa promised to ensure her safety and asked the party to bring her here, which the party did (over Aliani’s protests).
Around this same time, Aliani’s mentor, Haeluna Summersun, had recruited him fully into her secret organization of Milani worshippers. Aliani reluctantly accepted her offer to become a leader within the movement, and encouraged the party to come with him and meet the other leaders at an upcoming secret meeting. During this meeting, Gaedren Lamm made an appearance, announcing his intentions to topple Korvosa’s government, and requesting – as a former member of the Milani group – their formal assistance in his revolution. With Lamm is a certain dead-eyed Hellknight – Xerxes, the same Hellknight Aliani directed to chase after Lamm the night of the riots. Ultimately, thanks to the party’s arguments, the other Milani leaders voted against supporting Lamm, and the criminal leader stormed off.
There were some insinuations from Haleuna that Gaedren Lamm may in fact be Aliani’s father as he was apparently close with Aliani’s mother several decades ago when he, Haeluna, and Aliani’s mother were all leaders within the Milani group – but no one really believed this to be true.
The party has another brief meeting with Queen Ileosa at this point, escorting Trinia Sabor to the palace. They arrive just in time to overhear the queen formally hiring the Order of the Nail to conduct a series of extensive patrols of the roads outside of Korvosa, which will effectively remove nearly all members of the Order of the Nail from Korvosa for an extended period of time.
Shortly thereafter, the party was again approached by Rhev, who had apparently found the drug lab where Gaedren Lamm was currently manufacturing Shudder. Wanting to shut the drug lab down, Rhev offered the party the opportunity to participate in the bust.
The party approached the lab from the sewers, discovering an underground entrance guarded by several wererats. After a brief fight, the party secured that exit and then decided after barricading the door to go back up and enter the lab from the top rather than this secret underground entrance, believing that with this hidden exit now sealed, anyone inside the lab would be trapped.
While the human guards on the ground floor of the lab were easily subdued, what was waiting for the party in the actual lab down in the basement was a much different story. Here the source of Lamm’s Shudder was revealed – a group of derro, insane little blue men that most believed to be urban legend rather than real. Their leader, a derro known as Vreeg, wielded a strange artifact he referred to only as The Eye – a literal eyeball impaled upon an iron spike that slowly leaked a black liquid. While the derro themselves were not that frightful, Vreeg’s pet, a giant cytillipede mutated by Shudder into a fire-breathing abomination that he called Odium, certainly put the party to the test. Ultimately, Vreeg escaped with the Eye through a tunnel smashed out by Odium, and the badly wounded party elected not to follow the two as they made good their escape.
Returning from the drug bust not being a total success, the party yet again gets summoned to the royal palace, only to learn from Sabrina Merrin that Queen Ileosa was missing. Apparently she had slipped out with her Handmaiden Elliana, obstenibly in order to carry out an ill-conceived plan to hunt down Gaedren Lamm and kill him. Sabrina asked the party to find the two and convince them to return to the castle before they got hurt. Worse still, the council of nobles had announced they would be meeting tomorrow to determine the city’s new seneschal, a position with a great deal of influence over confirming Queen Ileosa as the city’s new monarch, or removing her in a favor of a new candidate (and likely sparking a civil war). The front-runner for that position was currently Chelish Ambassador Lady Andaisin.
The party is unable to discover Queen Ileosa’s whereabouts, but they do eventually track down a trail left by her Handmaiden Elliana, a trail leading to Eel’s End and Devargo Bravarsi, King of Spiders. The good news was that Devargo had established himself as a rival and enemy of Gaedren Lamm’s, and had reached out to the party to meet for discussing a mutually beneficial relationship.
With the open invitation to meet, the party is able to be shown into Devargo’s presence with relative ease, and they are eventually able to establish that Handmaiden Elliana had been here as well. Unfortunately, Handmaiden Elliana had been rather rude to the King of Spiders in demanding information on Lamm’s whereabouts from him, including attempting to charm him. Devargo had not been amused, and had his pet spiders capture the handmaiden with the intention of teaching her a lesson in respect, although the party was eventually able to convince him that laying a hand on the queen’s personal handmaiden was a *bad* idea.
As Devargo was going down into the spider-infested hold to convince his pets to give up their prize, his warship came under attack by water elementals summoned by Lamm, who was seeking to eliminate his rival ahead of a meeting amongst all of the heads of the criminal underworld later that night (Lamm had apparently taken to recruiting the crime lords across the city, having failed to recruit the Milanites).
The party battled into the spider-infested hold of the ship has it began to take on water, fighting through several frightened Dream Spiders and invading water elementals, cutting Handmaiden Elliana free and escaping from the hold before it flooded.
Undeterred by her near-death experience, Elliana continued to advocate that the party move on to this meeting of the underworld, being held beneath the Kendell Ampitheater, rather than return immediately to the palace. This resolve softens somewhat when the handmaiden learns why the queen’s immediate return is so pressing (to advocate before the council of nobles tomorrow to try and block Andaisin’s nomination). Ultimately during this discussion, the handmaiden excuses herself and returns to reintroduce herself to the party sans disguise – as Queen Ileosa Arabasti.
Here Queen Ileosa now reveals her reasons for running off alone to attempt to track down Gaedren Lamm – she did not believe that the council of nobles would support her selection for monarch, and she would either be shuffled off into exile or placed in a gilded cage for the winner of the following civil war to claim as a literal trophy wife. As such, she wanted to do one final good thing for the city – purging it of Gaedren lamm, the murderer of her husband King Eodred.
Queen Ileosa also explains that Elliana was a real person, a fellow orphan in Westcrown who looked after her until she disappeared while trying to acquire medicine & food for a gravely ill Ileosa. Shortly thereafter she was found by Lady Andaisin, leading into her relationship as Andaisin’s pupil. In memory of Elliana, Ileosa uses her likeness now as a disguise as a way to honor her first friend.
Queen Ileosa further reveals the nature of her close relationship with Lady Andaisin. More than just a mentor, Andaisin created Ileosa the noblewoman – the real Ileosa was nothing more than a commoner street rat from the streets of Westcrown in Cheliax that Lady Andaisin found and adopted. They came to Korvosa as a pair of grifters, and Ileosa seduced King Eodred into marrying her, and then manipulating him to enact various policies by whispering into his ear – many such policies which were in turn whispered into Ileosa’s ear by Andaisin. Ileosa’s true nature was therefore a secret which could destroy her if it ever got out, and Lady Andaisin was very much aware of that fact.
Despite her misgivings, the party is ultimately able to convince Ileosa to stand against Andaisin at tomorrow’s trial, destroying her candidacy by revealing her status as a worshipper of Urgathoa, technically not illegal within Korvosa but nonetheless strongly frowned upon.
Despite the party’s misgivings, Ileosa is eventually able to convince the party to go forward with interfering with Lamm’s meeting with the various Underworld bosses.
The party sneaks and fights their way inside to the meeting, overhearing that the reason Lamm has called this meeting to get their assistance and fealty, and to prove his capability of becoming the new overlord of Korvosa’s underworld, he will rob the impenetrable Bank of Abadar, a feat of daring that would certainly prove his skill, if he could pull such an impossible task off.
The party then interrupts the meeting, alongside of Blackjack who has also shown up to dispatch Gaedren Lamm. A fight breaks out, prompting Lamm to reveal a new pet spider infused with Shudder that had acid for venom, but the party succeeds in cutting the criminal mastermind down, only to discover that it is only a derro in magical disguise. Quite possibly this derro had also been appearing as Lamm during the previous times the party encountered him.
As if Blackjack and the party themselves are not enough interlopers to this meeting, another group of cowled and masked spellcasters break into the meeting and start arresting various members of the criminal network. After convincing them that they were on the same anti-Lamm side, the party learns these cowled figures are a secretive sub-group of Hellknights, the Order of the Eye, essentially a black-ops splinter group of the Order of the Nail who are still operating within Korvosa and chasing after Lamm.
While the party is dealing with the secret sect of Hellknights, Ileosa in her Elliana alter-ego is negotiating with one of the crime bosses who has not disappeared into the darkness just yet. She manages to strike a deal with the representative of the Scarzni at the meeting to come up with a holy symbol of Urgathoa, which she can present tomorrow as fabricated (since everything burned) evidence that Lady Andaisin is a worshipper of Urgathoa.
The party eventually manages to extricate themselves and return to the palace with Elliana/Ileosa. The next morning, they are invited to the council of nobles meeting by Queen Ileosa to watch their fates play out.
While intimidated by Lady Andaisin, Queen Ileosa ultimately testifies against her before the council of nobles, explaining the party’s presence as a group of investigators that she hired to look into possible misbehavior by the Ambassador. What they uncovered, of course, was a bunch of re-animated corpses, along with a shrine to Urgathoa, which the party testified to the council about while Andaisin futilely attempted to deny everything. Queen Ileosa’s final stroke was the presentation of the (forged by the Scarzni) holy symbol of Urgathoa, which she claimed the party unearthed from the wreckage of Andaisin’s house.
Exposed as an Urgathoa, Lady Andaisin is publicly humiliated and quickly voted as dismissed from consideration by the council of nobles. With a final comment that she was very disappointed in Ileosa, Andaisin stormed out of the meeting, and the discussion turned to other potential candidates.
Ultimately, the field of candidates is discarded for one reason or another, and as they near the end of the list Glorio Arkona of House Arkona finally breaks the stalemate by suggesting the mediocre – but neutral to all of the Great Houses – suggestion of Darvayne Amprei as Korvosa’s next seneschal. Furthermore, in a surprise move, and perhaps inspired by Ileosa’s initiative in exposing Andaisin (although almost certainly due to some ulterior motive), Glorio Arkona further proposes that in order to establish some degree of stability in Korvosa’s usual chaotic succession of rulers, that Queen Ileosa be coronated as Korvosa’s new official monarch. Amprei as his first action as the newly appointed seneschal agrees, and the motion is swiftly confirmed by the rest of the council – Queen Ileosa will be Korvosa’s next monarch, her coronation to be held one week from now, much to everyone’s surprise.
Later that evening, while the party is celebrating their success with stopping Andaisin from becoming the city’s seneschal, they come across a rabble rouser attempting to incite a crowd to riot with the reveal that King Eodred had been murdered (poisoned), a fact which Field Marshall Kroft had been keeping quiet and was going to announce tomorrow. This rabble rouser, a scummy lawyer named Adonis Kreed, was challenged by the party and verbally thrashed, leading the crowd to abandon Kreed’s idea of marching on the castle to demand answers from the new monarch.
The next morning, Field Marshall Kroft approaches the party to formally discuss the matter of King Eodred’s poisoning, which had been confirmed as fact after a second examination by Dr. Reiner. The second examination had revealed the source of the poison as Reaper’s Kiss, an exotic poison designed to make a slow death appear as a natural decline in health. Rather than be ingested, the poison is absorbed through the skin, and traces of it were found on Eodred’s fingers, left from frequently handling something that had been coated in the poison repeatedly over the course of weeks or months.
This new information casts suspicion on both Queen Ileosa, who had regular access to Eodred, as well as Trinia Sabor who was a painter and thus could easily smuggle the poison into the castle amongst her painting supplies. With news of Eodred’s death being a murder rather than natural causes going public thanks to the efforts of rabble rouses like Adonis Kreed and others, there is a renewed potential for widespread riots and Kroft is under a tremendous amount of pressure to produce a guilty party to pin the blame for King Eodred’s murder on.
In an attempt to help clear their names, Field Marshall Kroft requests the party’s help in convincing Trinia Sabor and Queen Ileosa to talk to her. They all return to the palace and Kroft interviews Trinia Sabor, leading to the revelation of several more pieces of circumstantial evidence against the painter – namely that her paint supplier had been found dead and had apparently been mixed up with Gaedren Lamm.
While this meeting is going on, one of the few remaining maids in the castle, a young woman named Violet, suddenly panics and attempts to flee the party’s presence after she is asked a relatively innocuous question about who was working the night of Eodred’s death.
Violet is swiftly apprehended by the party and Kroft, but the strange case takes a horrifying turn as a magical curse begins to cause acid to weep from the girl’s body, nearly killing her and reducing her body into sludge. Only the party and Kroft’s combined efforts manage to save the girl’s life, and from there they discover that Violet has been put under a Geas through ancient Thassilon runes carved into her skin. It is suspected that this may be the handiwork of Rolth, a dangerous and deranged necromancer who was imprisoned in Longacre several decades ago, and was believed to be executed . . . or perhaps not.
Returning to the original conversation, Kroft also learns of the existence of Venster Arabasti, and investigates his residence inside the tower. Venster is presently not home, which is quite curious given he was essentially a reclusive shut-in. Around this time, the party also learns from the maid Violet that she saw Lady Andaisin pay a late night visit to Venster shortly before King Eodred’s death.
Lady Andaisin, who is still living in the palace at this point, shows up, refuses to answer any of Kroft’s questions while citing diplomatic immunity thanks to her position as ambassador, and declares that after Ileosa’s betrayal, it’s clear she is unwelcome here and will be leaving to find another private residence. She then leaves and disappears to some location unknown to the party or Ileosa (and otherwise refuses to elaborate).
Later that night Dalen attempts to learn more about the Eye by casting Pagebound Epiphany. He unexpectedly taps into an ancient trove of Thassilon knowledge about the Eye, claiming it is an ancient evil along with some research notes on the Eye’s involvement in blood magic that result in the transfer of magical traits, along with a seemingly unrelated set of research notes on the existence of parallel dimensions. Dalen’s research is interrupted by the triggering of an ancient magical booby trap as well, which interrupts his epiphany by casting Phantasmal Killer at him. Dalen manages to survive relatively unscathed save for some spontaneous bleeding from his right eye, but learns no more about the Eye.
Additional research into what Lamm’s planning reveal that he has stolen a cache of weapons from Haeluna’s Milani group, and that he is going to do something at the Longacre Building, the city’s courthouse and civil center, or possibly the Deathshead Vault – the prison beneath Longacre. This could be a feint to distract from the bank robbery, or his main objective, and the party endeavors to pass along this information to their allies.
The party attempts to contact Blackjack by leaving a note at a dead-drop the vigilante had told them to use to get in touch with him. Said dead-drop is outside Giotorri’s toy shop, and whoever dropped the note off across the street is approached by Pearl and Garnet Giotorri, his “daughters” who despite appearances do not appear to be human. They are nonetheless friendly and reveal that Blackjack is a “friend of the family”, hence their curiosity before excusing themselves and returning back into the toy shop.
The party arrives at Longacre the next morning to find that the building is suspiciously closed, even the areas open to the public. The party investigates further and discovers that Lamm’s men have taken over the building after entering disguised as guards, and are now holding the civilians inside as hostages. Blackjack also shows up around this time, explaining that he received their message and that there had been an abortive attempt at robbing the Bank of Abadar just now – a couple men with crossbows running inside the bank and immediately getting taken down by the security. The bank robbery was the feint and Longacre or the prison beneath it was Lamm’s main objective.
Breaking into the employee entrance at the back of the building, the party fights its way through corrupt guards and several Shudder-mutated dogs (Thunder hounds). Meanwhile, Blackjack breaks into the main courtroom through a skylight and begins fighting the men guarding the hostages there. The grand melee gets more desperate as a corrupt guardsman named Baldrago who has had several run-ins with the party before now joins the battle as a Shudder-corrupted madman.
Baldrago and the corrupt guards are eventually all defeated, saving the hostages and allowing Chief Arbiter Zenobia Zenderholm to emerge from her locked office, which Lamm’s men had been attempting to break into when the party arrived.
Several members of the Sable marines, Korvosa’s military arm, also arrive at this point to take control of the scene. Their commander, Marcus Endrin, is also present and explains he had provided himself and some of his men to the city guard today to serve as a rapid response team – Kroft and the other city guards were on their way over from the Bank of Abadar.
While Lamm is not here, it seems he went down into the Deathshead Vault below to stage a prison break of some sort. The party, Blackjack, and Marcus Endrin descend down into the prison to attempt to find Lamm, despite the fact that the prisoners had been released and were now in a full-on riot.
The party deal with a group of prisoners who have taken a some prison guards hostage, along with an acolyte of Pharasma, Kira Nightshade, who was there to provide medical aid. Blackjack personally rescues the acolyte, earning himself a fangirl in the process. From Kira and the guards, the party learns that Lamm had passed through here, freeing the prisoners on his way to Cell Block C, only a moderate security portion of the prison rather than Cell Block D where the more dangerous prisoners were kept. Apparently Lamm is looking for a Professor Hans Leithold, who is an expert of Thassilon lore and its language. Xerxes the Hellknight was also here, going into Cell Block D to apparently rescue his brother Darius, a notorious gunman and murderer-for-hire. The party elects to chase after Lamm rather than the disgraced Hellknight.
The party catches up with Lamm just as he is breaking into the Professor’s cell and Vreeg unleashes a magical fog that begins to re-animate all of the dead guards and prisoners within Cell Block C into zombies. Despite planning to get away yet again through a secret derro tunnel, Lamm is caught by Silas and finally killed by the party. This time it’s apparently the real Gaedren Lamm, although thanks to the fog and the low doses of Shudder he’s been drinking, he gets back up as an undead abomination. Lamm is quickly killed again for the second and final time shortly thereafter.
Despite the party’s best efforts, however, thanks to another appearance by Odium, Vreeg escapes along with the Professor. Still dealing with the rising undead and with wounded, the party wisely decides not to follow.
Searching Lamm’s body, in a concealed pocket the party finds the queen’s brooch, along with a letter written by lamm and addressed “To my Killers”. The letter is a written confession that Lamm was indeed responsible for poisoning King Eodred, and exposes several other members of the conspiracy. First, Lady Andaisin as the apparently ringleader of the conspiracy, who provided Lamm with funding along with the queen’s brooch (actually given to her by Queen Ileosa as a gift) as insurance for Lamm’s safety. Adonis Kreed (contact between Lamm and Andaisin), Haeluna Summersun (provided the poison), and Trinia Sabor (smuggled the poison into the palace) are also listed as members of the conspiracy.
With Lamm dead, his revolution is seemingly at an end, although Vreeg is still at large with the Professor. More troublingly, the party learns from Silas’s daughter Vjala – Blackjack’s mole within Lamm’s organization – that Lamm had discovered some sort of ancient Thassilon weapon and was planning on using it, but needed the Professor to translate the controls.
Lamm’s allies are also still in play, as while emerging from Longacre the party overhears Lord Jeggare of House Jeggare berating Field Marshall Kroft over an apparently robbery at his museum, where the thieves stole his owlbear skeleton, which seems like something only a necromancer like Rolth would be interested in.
Returning to the palace the party learns that Trinia Sabor has gone missing. Investigating reveals that it appears she was spirited away from the castle by agents of the Church of Asmodeus, and is now being kept within their great cathedral a short distance away from the castle.
Seeking a diplomatic solution, the party returns to the castle to learn that while they were away Queen Ileosa had finally dealt with Ambassador Andaisin. After learning of her role as head of the conspiracy to murder Eodred, along with the proof via the brooch Ileosa had gifted Andaisin, Ileosa had finally snapped and confronted Andaisin with the evidence personally. This nearly backfires when Andaisin responds with physical violence, grabbing Ileosa and crushing her Lorris medallion, but Ileosa turns the tables when she reveals that she has spoken with Empress Abrogail Thrune of Cheliax about Andaisin’s worship of Urgathoa. In response Cheliax has revoked her ambassadorship, and is demanding that she return home immediately, likely to face a heretic’s death. Or, Andaisin could remain here and be imprisoned from her crimes against Korvosa. Faced with such a choice, Andaisin chooses quiet exile back to Cheliax over Ileosa’s “mercy” and leaves aboard the Direption which was already in the harbor.
The next day, Queen Ileosa, Sabrina, and the party travel to the Cathedral of Asmodeus to negotiate Trinia Sabor’s release. The high priest of Asmodeus in the city, Ornher Reebs, reveals that they have already extracted a confession from Trinia as to her guilt in Eodred’s death (they are very efficient that way), and threatened that they had a secondary confession which implicated Queen Ileosa as the mastermind for this murder. In return for ensuring that the confession where Trinia claims she acted alone reaches the Arbiters, the Church of Asmodeus wanted Queen Ileosa to recall the Order of the Nail back to Korvosa.
There is some negotiation back and forth for the Church to surrender Trinia into the party’s custody rather than execute her themselves, in return for further concessions from Ileosa, when the negotiations are entirely interrupted by a giant mechanic snake smashing through the roof. Lamm’s ancient Thassilon weapon has been activated, by Haeluna Summersun, who reveals that she was always on Lamm’s side, and that she was the one who had killed Aliani’s mother, not Lamm (and Aliani’s reason for going after Lamm in the first place).
while Haeluna continues to smash up the church, the party attempts to free Sabrina from the rubble as Ileosa runs for safety (Orhner Reebs already having used Word of Recall to escape to elsewhere in the cathedral). Xerxes the Hellknight and Darius the gunslinger emerge from the metal snake construct to give chase to Ileosa, but are stopped by the party. Darius shoots Sabrina in the face with a dragon pistol, shredding her face but accomplishing little else but piss her off (thanks to the party’s efforts at freeing her from the rubble, otherwise it would have been a coup-de-grace).
Darius falls in battle, alive but left by the party to be dealt with by the Church of Asmodeus. Xerxes swears revenge and escapes via invisbility.
Haeluna manages to snatch up Queen Ileosa in the snake’s mouth and then flies the construct off, kidnapping the queen. Thanks to magic items produced by Dalen, Sabrina and the party are able to track Queen Ileosa’s location, leading them directly to lamm’s old base of operations within the Grey District, the city’s graveyard.
Accompanied by Sabrina and Marcus Endrin, the party finds a way into the Dead Warrens, a network of tunnels beneath the graveyard, through the abandoned tomb of House Poryphia, a disgraced group of nobles who had been banished from Korvosa by King Eodred’s mother Queen Domina.
Waiting for the party inside the tomb was more re-animating mist and a large group of exploding skeletons, although with Jeggare’s owlbear skeleton, repurposed by Rolth into a dangerous necrocraft.
Overcoming the undead through clever spellwork by Dalen, Aliani’s channeling, and good teamwork (as well as Marcus and Sabrina slaughtering everything that came within reach), the party stands ready to proceed deeper into the tomb, Lamm’s apparent base of operations within the city, seeking Queen Ileosa, Haeluna, and the ancient Thassilon weapon.
Moving deeper into the Dead Warrens, the party soon finds itself even further beneath Korvosa, in the underground region known locally as “the Vaults”. These ancient sewers and tunnels were made by parties unknown, with the extremely dangerous monsters living this far beneath the city making it difficult for scholars to make much progress in determining this information. However, the primary theory is that these were made by the servants of Runelord Sorshen, who ruled over this land many thousands of years ago. This theory seems to be correct as the party discovers a sanctuary and laboratory built by Sorshen.
Sorshen’s laboratory, although haunted by some sort of psychic remnant, seems to finally offer a plausible cause for the multiverse hopping that has brought the party together – Sorshen was experimenting with a tenth-level spell to allow for multiversal travel. How this travel was accomplished, why she was researching such a thing, and what relevance this discovery from the ancient past has on your current situation all remain shrouded in mystery.
Beyond the laboratory, the party discovers the hangar containing the ancient Thassilon snake construct that Sorshen had built, and Haeluna has co-opted, along with Queen Ileosa who is narrowly evading discovery and capture by Vreeg and Haeluna.
The party ambushes Vreeg after reuniting with Ileosa, slaying the derro leader and escaping from pursuing derro reinforcements through an illusionary doorway to an even deeper still part of Sorshen’s hidden laboratory. What other strange secrets await discovery?
After navigating a series of traps, the party comes to a final strange puzzle set as a challenge by apparently Sorshen herself. Evidentially the ancient Runelord had anticipated the party's arrival here, as the challenge was a scale balanced against three concerns - What the Party Served, What the Party Feared, and What the Party Hoped to Save. Small stone and metal figurines lined up small recessed alcoves along the walls near the scales, depicting a wide variety of gods, beasts, and men . . . including the party members themselves, locked in battle against a figurine of Queen Domina - not Ileosa - perched upon the Crimson Throne. Ultimately the party figures out the puzzle, and unlocks the door to a treasure vault prepared for them by Sorshen, along with what passes for an operations manual for the ancient Thassilon construct that Haeluna put to used in severely damaging the Cathedral of Asmodeus.
Upon attempting to leave the vault, the party was again accosted by Haeluna, this time with the Eye. Replacing one of her eyes with the Eye itself, Haeluna was transformed into a terrible amalgamation of flesh and plant, speaking in a voice not her own as she taunted the party with their inevitable defeat.
Despite her boasts and terrifying power, the party is ultimately victorious over Haeluna, although almost at the cost of one of their own left clinging at death's door. The way is now clear to finally leave the tomb, returning Queen Ileosa to the city and preparing for new threats now that Gaedren Lamm's legacy seems to finally be extinguished . . . although a few very important loose ends remain to be solved, including the fate of Trinia Sabor.

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-04, 02:54 PM (ISO 8601)

Interlude I: Of Embers Extinguished in Blood

Theme Music

Ileosa strides through the twisting corridors of Castle Korvosa, making her way up from the treasure vaults down in the basement towards the royal bedroom. Dimly, she is aware that she must be dreaming, reliving the events of that awful night when her world was turned upside down. But the rush of emotions from that night quickly wash away any rational objections to being here again.

The surge of confidence which she had felt upon first leaving the secret treasure vault that had contained the strange crown she now wore was gone, replaced by a growing unease as she walked through a castle gone mad. Servants ran back and forth through the halls with a panicked urgency with seemingly no actual destination in mind, save to flee. Several crashed into her as they hustled away, nearly knocking her over as they staggered and kept moving, either not recognizing her or not caring in their haste to get away from the castle. Ileosa already knew through her linked pendant that her husband, King Eodred Arabasti the 2nd, was dead but nothing could have prepared her for this level of chaos. Desperate to return to her husband's side so that she could honor his last request to bring the crown now on her head back to him, Ileosa hurried onward, not stopping to reprimand the careless servants nor attempt to bring them back in control of themselves . . . and she wasn't entirely sure they would have listened to her anyway.

Another sense of deja vu washes over Ileosa as she nears the top of the castle and comes to stand in front of the large window looking out over Korvosa. She would sometimes come to this window at night to look out over the entire city and marvel at all the little warm lights glowing across the city, each one coming from a streetlamp or the window of a home. It was comforting to look out at all those countless tiny markers of lives lived beyond the gilded cage that kept Ileosa apart from them, and idly speculate on what sort of details made up their relatively peaceful lives.

But there was no comfort forthcoming from that window now, for the peaceful scene of Korvosa at night had been transformed into a scene of horror. Korvosa was burning. The countless warm lights spread out over the city had been replaced with the dancing light of fires burning in the streets, and even from so far away Ileosa could still hear the cries echoing out over the city - "The King is dead! Down with the Whore Queen!" She had stood transfixed before that window, gazing helplessly out at the devastation before her for an unknown amount of time before Sabrina had found her, her bodyguard's armor stained with the blood of the dozen men - Lamm's men - she had slaughtered outside Eodred's bedroom while she was away in the treasure vault.

Sabrina does not appear this time, stepping out of an adjourning hallway - instead it is Eodred himself, impossibly alive again albeit with his face now heavily scarred and missing his right eye. Ileosa ran to him all the same, arms outstretched in relief to embrace him - perhaps this was not such a terrible dream after all! Ileosa's hopes of such are immediately dashed, however, when Eodred raises a hand as if in greeting - only to bring it crashing down in a hard, open-handed slab to Ileosa's face! Ileosa crumbles from the blow, her left cheek stinging in pain as she blinked and gasped, more from the shock than the actual pain. Eodred had at the start of their marriage been coldly indifferent to her, but he had never raised a hand against her. And while even before his sickness he had been a bit feeble with age, he could always have had other people inflict pain on her if that is what he had desired.

"Why!?"

Ileosa cries out, looking up at her former husband in pained confusion. The king merely offers his hand down to her, helping to pull her back up onto her feet.

"A sovereign does not beg or plead."

Eodred intones. And then he hits her again, another stinging slap to her other cheek that again sends her crashing to the floor.

"A sovereign commands and is obeyed."

Both cheeks stinging now, Ileosa blinks away the tears coming unbidden to her eyes as she glares up at Eodred now, as the former king offers her his hand again.

"Stop it!"

"Make me stop."

Theme Music

Again Eodred drags her back up to her feet and again pulls a hand back to slap her for a third time, but this time Ileosa is ready. Twisting her wrist of his grip, she raises both arms up in front of her face, blocking Eodred's blow with her forearms. He was strong, impossibly strong, as the impact sent numbing shockwaves trembling up and down her forearms, and Ileosa is sent stumbling backward away from him - but she keeps her footing and remains upright. The two monarchs, past and present, stand glaring at each other for a moment, and then Eodred seems to nod his head ever so slightly in satisfaction. He turns away from her, gesturing to the window overlooking a burning Korvosa.

"Your people are dying. Even now, their bonds fray and splinter, their fealty melting away before the flames of rebellion. Without a firm hand to lead them, they will shatter completely."

"No! We stopped Lamm! He-

"Was merely a symptom of a broken society. Without a strong arm to guide them, the people will elect another to take his place. Your city will continue to burn, until all that remains is ash and sorrow.

“I will not let that happen! I will do whatever I have to, in order to save this city and its people! To keep them safe from Lamm and whoever would try to follow in his footsteps! I will pay whatever price I must!"

"This is not something that can be solved by money or tears. Without a strong will to command them, the people will inevitably seek to follow their own self-destructive desires, to the doom of all.”

“I said that I would pay whatever price I must! If I have to shed my own blood, down to the last drop to save them then I shall do it! Just tell me what I must do!”

Here, Eodred seems to lose his patience a bit, as he slams his fist into the stone sill of the window, cracking it. Ileosa flinches at the crack of stone, her cheeks starting to sting again in sympathy.

"I told you before, a sovereign commands, she does not beg and plead! Blood and fear is the only thing that will hold the chaos back, and that is not a price that you yourself can pay."

Ileosa loses her own temper here, grabbing Eodred by the shoulder and spinning him around to face her directly.

"Then how am I to save the city, if not through my own tears, sweat, and blood!? I have no army I can employ to enforce my will upon the people! They will only do whatever I can convince them to do for themselves! And given the lack of respect most have for me, I cannot even manage that much most of the time! If you think you have all the answers, then tell me what they are! What am I supposed to do!?"

Eodred simply gazes intently at her for a moment, but just as she is about to look away, no longer able to meet that intense one-eyed stare, he speaks again, as if explaining the simplest concept to a child.

"A sovereign commands. If you do not have those who will obey, then find them."

Ileosa considers the straightforward instruction for a moment, pondering the implications, and then shakes her head. She turns to look back out the window at the burning city with a mounting sense of hopelessness as she is trapped between what she wishes to be and what the city needs her to be.

"I do not want others to bleed and shed blood on my behalf! If there is such a price to be paid in order for my city to be safe, then let me pay it alone! I do not wish to be that kind of sovereign, that forces others to obey at the point of a sword!

And here Eodred gives a rasping, mocking laugh.

"You do not have a choice. Either you will find others who will obey your will, or you will watch as your city splits apart and consumes itself in the fires of civil war. A sovereign commands, she does not beg or plead. If you cannot do even that much, then throw your crown away for someone worthy to take it up in your place, and return to the filth from whence you came, street rat."

That final insult brought the unpleasant memories of Ileosa’s true childhood flooding back to the forefront of her mind. Of scraping by through begging for food, of hungry and cold nights on the streets of Westcrown in Cheliax, and countless days spent huddled out of sight for fear that being seen would mean enslavement or worse. And then memories of that insult being used by her mentor Andaisin during moments of particular cruelty, promising to return her to the streets from whence she came if she could not be molded into a proper lady after all.

Gritting her teeth, Ileosa forced those bad memories away with more recent ones. The eventual warmth Eodred showed, at least in private, after their heart-to-heart conversation in the garden. Sabrina’s strength and ever-present concern over her wellbeing. And her friends, who had fought through Lamm and other untold horrors to save her time and again. Together, surely they could accomplish a miracle and save this city without having to break it!

“I will find a way to save this city, even from itself! I will stitch its disparate pieces together with the desire for the common good! There must be other people in this city that do not wish to see this city burn! I will find them all, and together we will –“

Again, the voice interrupts her a final time, but this time it is merely a fading echo for as she turns to glare at Eodred she finds that he is gone.

“Fool. A sovereign commands, for a sovereign stands alone.”

A moment later, the progression of events continued as they had in the past, as a blood-stained Sabrina charges in from the adjourning hall. Her bodyguard rushes over to her, checking her for injuries while scolding her for running off by herself again, a familiar refrain that manages to chase away some of the chill left by the false Eodred.

Then at her orders, the bodyguard escorts her back to the royal bedroom. They have to step over the bodies littering the hallway, but this time Ileosa does not struggle to keep her stomach from roiling, nor stop to check whether any of them are still alive.

Then they reach the royal bedroom, where she finds Eodred in his bed, thin arms folded on his chest as if merely asleep. While Sabrina had dealt with all the would-be assassins, someone else – whether a missed member of Lamm’s men or a vengeful servent – had come into the room and scattered a dozen dead stirges onto the bed around him. The Stirge King was what some had called Eodred, sucking the life out of the city with spendthrift policies so that he could hoard all the wealth for himself. It had never occurred to them, nor the one responsible for this, that Eodred’s spendthrift policies were to recover the treasury after his beloved mother Domina’s economic policies had led to a great boom in the city’s fortunes – but had left the crown dangerously far in debt to various other noble houses.

Tears coming back to her eyes at the disrespectful sight, Ileosa repeated history as she went over to the bed and knelt down, carefully brushed the desiccated bodies of the striges aside and untangling their claws from Eodred’s hair.

“I will save this city, beloved. I swear it!”

Queen Ileosa promised Eodred’s corpse, replaying her conversation with the imposter over and over in her mind with newfound determination to prove him wrong. She would do whatever she had to in order to save Korvosa, pay any price. And woe be to whoever dared to place themselves in Lamm’s shoes next!

------------------------------------------------------

Theme Music

In her private quarters below decks on the Direption, now a full day out from Korvosa, Andaisin languidly watches a small spider scuttle its way down from its web in a dark corner and start across a beam in her general direction. Apparently, it was having little luck in catching prey with its web, and so was now going out on a hunt. Andaisin watched it until it made it about halfway to her before she grew bored and decided to solve its hunger for it – reaching under her dress to brush her fingers across her symbol of Urgathoa, she unleashed the slightest wave of the negative energy her patron granted her. Immediately the spider curled up and rolled off the side of the beam, falling to the floor without a sound. One vermin down, at least.

But this small rebalancing of the scales between life and death didn’t even move her to a smile. A reckoning of her own was coming due, although it would be yet weeks or even months before she actually arrived back in Egorian. To have a final interrogation by Her Imperial Magestrix and her torturers as to what exactly she had been up to in Cheliax’s wayward colony-turned-trading partner, and why she thought a filthy heretic was worthy of representing the mighty empire as its ambassador. There would be no acceptable answers to give that would not end with her being burned alive as a heretic, assuming she was even permitted to do more than mewl, moan, and scream as the torturers took care of the preliminaries prior to that final blaze of dishonor.

But at least it would be a private affair, as Her Imperial Magestrix would not wish to appear a fool who did not properly vet her ambassadors to the people of Cheliax. Staying in Korvosa would have meant much the same fate in the end, but the preamble would be even more torturous and degrading, as she would no doubt have been paraded in front of the masses by her treacherous protégé. Come see the wicked Urgathoite, the disgraced ambassador who conspired to murder your king! Pay no attention to the street rat whore she raised to become your queen! The low-brow filth of Korvosa deserved their new low-born sovereign, and Andaisin’s only regret was that she would not get to watch them march hand-in-hand to the ruin they all so richly deserved!

The faintest squeak of a loose board outside her dingy quarters on this floating vermin nest stirred Andaisin from her latest daydream of that eventual day of ruin for that damnable city and its disgusting denizens. While not fully aware of her situation, the crew did know that she was an ambassador being called back to Egorian, and thus was not likely long for this world. She had left the door to her quarters unlocked in the hope that one dark night one of the crewmen would attempt to take advantage of the situation . . . and much like the spider in its web, give her one last good meal to slake her thirst for death before the end. But to Andaisin’s surprise, the door swung open a moment later to reveal not a drunken sailor not long for this world, but an unexpected old acquaintance.

“You!”

Andaisin hissed, swinging herself up off the bed and onto her feet as she lunged at the figure of her own patron, the liaison to the dissatisfied nobles who had approached her with the idea of replacing Eodred sooner than planned. Those promises of greater wealth and power than she had ever dreamed were all but ashes now, and as she closed in Andaisin intended to repay this provocator in kind and in full as she breathed the words to her deadliest spell. It was Andaisin’s second surprise of the night when this seemingly pompous mouthpiece nobody sidestepped her outstretched hand, drove their fingers into her throat, and then spun a leg around up into the side of her head, sending her crumbling back onto her narrow cot wheezing for breath.

“Is that any way to greet a friend, Lady Andaisin? I thought you at least would know better than to bite at the hand that fed you, unlike certain other members of your inner circle who have already reaped the whirlwind.”

Recovering her breath enough for another spell, Andaisin wheezes through the words as she stretches out her hand again, this time filling the doorway and hallway outside her quarters with summoned hellfire. She does not see her patron-turned-assailant emerge from the flames, but a moment later there is a hard blow to the back of her head and a vice grip around the wrist of her outstretched hand. Her arm is twisted painfully behind her back as another hand on the back of her neck forces her face down into the ratty blanket of her bed.

“If you think continuing to attack me is going to result in a fast death for you, I’m afraid you are gravely mistaken. If you attempt to cast one more spell in my presence, I will simply beat you into bloody unconsciousness, and leave you to the tender mercies of Cheliax’s witch-hunters!”

Her patron hissed into her ear, and then relented their grip on the back of Andaisin’s neck by a few inches.

“Or, you can sit here and listen to my alternate proposal like a reasonable human being. Nod if you understand!”

Andaisin briefly considered simply releasing her negative energy aura to its fullest extent, but after the previous two displays she wasn’t entirely sure that her patron didn’t possess a counter to that as well. So after a moment to consider her non-existent options, Andaisin reluctantly nodded and was hauled back up into a sitting position. Her former patron sat next to her on the bed, head held close to hers as if they were lovers sharing a private conversation – but Andaisin’s arm was kept twisted behind her back.

“Now then. I have come to offer you an alternative choice to the one put to you by our new queen – a third choice if you will. I will not insult your intelligence by claiming that this new offer will advance your station, nor even restore it to what it was before – you’ve managed to screw that up beyond repair I’m afraid. No, in all likelihood at the end of this you will still be dead – but you won’t be going into the arms of your Goddess alone. Before that inevitable moment comes, I am offering you a chance at revenge – against your treacherous protégé, against the interlopers who turned her against you, against the common filth of Korvosa who rejected you simply because of your Goddess. Is that something that might interest you?”

Andaisin’s nod was much quicker this time, and given with a bloody grin as her renewed patron released her arm.

“Good. Now then, we will speak on this matter at length once we’ve arrived back in port. I imagine that the current crew will object to our new destination, however. Would you mind convincing them to join our cause? I understand that you have a bit of a specialty in that area of expertise.”

Her bloody grin only growing wider, Andaisin rose from her bed and strode out into the hallway, where the first sailors were finally arriving to investigate the noise from her aborted rebellion against her patron. It did not take long for the screams to start.

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-04, 03:48 PM (ISO 8601)

Returning Characters – Aliani, Dalen, Bellinda

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The new world you find yourselves in settles into existence around you quite rapidly, although your new memories are a few moments in catching up this time. The result is an unevenness to your perception, as if looking at the world underworld – while standing on the prow of a boat rocked by waves. The queasy sensation this leaves you with slowly begins to fade as you look around and see familiar touchstones with where you were moments ago.

Haeluna is still dead, lying over there in a pool of . . . well, the melted away ectoplasm and the foul-smelling black liquid taint could either of them hardly be counted as her blood, but it was the closest word for it. Dalen is still lying next to her in a pool of his own decidedly-still-normal blood, although at least he is still breathing. Ileosa is lying on the floor a little more than ten feet away, near to Sabrina, unconscious but not bleeding at all despite Haeluna’s threats. As your memories filter in, your lives are thankfully all pretty close to exactly the same as they were before, sans a few minor differences such as what you had for breakfast this morning.

But there are some differences too – such as Silas and Marcus are missing. Your new memories soon explain their absence, as Silas remained behind with Cressida Kroft to try and convince the Asmodeans to release Trinia Sabor over continuing to use her as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the queen – which Haeluna interrupted with an attack on the cathedral. Marcus still came to the tomb with you, but in a seemingly heads-to-tails coin flip change, decided to remain topside to await the inevitable arrival of a whole lot of pissed Pharasman clerics and guardsmen. Magenta is gone entirely from your experiences in this world, evidentially having never met up with your group at all – and therefore, her fate remains unknown to you.

There are a few new additions to your group as well – a dark-haired half-elf magus called Rina (NPC) who seems to be a grim woman of few words but has occasionally displayed an unusual and frankly a bit alarming skill at magic far beyond your own abilities, and a dark-skinned man with fiery (almost quite literally) red hair named Jeqem (razorfloss) who hasn’t yet revealed much of his own past and motivations to the group but is a fellow worshipper of Sarenrae who Bellinda has seen at the temple several times, and seems to have shared your hatred of Lamm and his efforts to bring Korvosa crashing down into anarchy.

Both of their skillsets proved quite helpful in putting Haeluna down in this world, as without Silas’s steadfast armor and own cold-iron blade her pet plant abomination was considerably better able to defend Haeluna. However, just as against cold-iron there was little it could do, Jeqem’s summoned flame blade likewise proved adept at hacking through the brambles to strike Haeluna directly. Rina, meanwhile, was slower than the rest of you in coming around from the nightmare visions, seeming to have a severe traumatic reaction to whatever she saw as she shrank back and cowered away from Haeluna even after regaining control of her body. She came literally roaring back into the fight with a vengeance a few moments later, however, as she unleashed a simultaneous barrage of three Scorching Rays into the writhing mass of plant ectoplasm and ex-human flesh. Ultimately, you again prevailed over the corrupted beast that had once been Aliani’s mentor and surrogate mother, but again almost at the cost of Dalen’s life.

Aliani

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Looking down at the battered remains of your former mentor, your relief that it’s over without anyone else dying by her hand is tempered by your sorrow that it was necessary at all. It still was difficult to believe that this woman who had supported you, encouraged you, and pulled you from the depths of despair had been the same one who had pushed you down into it by murdering your mother. Her own friend of many years – it still made no sense why she had done it in the first place, but with everyone dead from that original group – Rose, Haeluna, and even Gaedren Lamm - it seemed unlikely you would ever learn what had happened between them.

But maybe now with all of the old guard of Milani worshippers in Korvosa dead, it didn’t really matter who had hurt who, and what had driven Haeluna and Gaedren to become monsters. Perhaps in death, and with the Everbloom’s blessing, there could even be healing and eventual life anew on the barren fields they had left behind. Whatever her motivations had been for helping you, whether sinister or a twisted attempt at redemption, Haeluna had given you that gift already. The barren ground left by your mother’s passing has started to become overgrown with new companionship, belonging, and a burgeoning sense of purpose – and it was Haeluna who had first planted those seeds, and convinced you to water them.

Unbidden, a memory bubbles up to the forefront of your mind, a dismal day that started much like any other in those bleak several months following your mother’s death. It had finally become clear to you that the city guard Just. Didn’t. Care. about your mother’s death, and this first lesson in how justice was conducted in Korvosa left you broken. You had not been taking good care of yourself in the weeks leading up to this, but now you simply spent all of your time lounging in your bed in your dingy apartment, staring at the ceiling and largely debating between attempting to find and kill Gaedren yourself (likely suicide) or simply cutting out the middle man and doing it yourself.

Not even bothering to knock on the ratty door to your rathole of an apartment, Haeluna let herself in with the key she had “borrowed” from you few weeks earlier. Walking up to the side of your bed, she abruptly declared that the day was too young to waste on sleep, and that a youngling such as yourself needed sunlight just as much as any other sprout. When you had sullenly – and rather rudely – told her to get lost, and that you were staying right here in bed today, she had produced a small watering can. And following an announcement that if you were going to stay planted, then she might as well water you, Haeluna turned the watering can upside down and started sprinkling water all of you and the bed.

*That* got you up, and with a bit more cajoling Haeluna had convinced you that she needed help in her flower shop today, and you were the only person she could count on to know the difference between a rose and a tulip. There was more back and forth arguing on just how useful a starving artist and failed son could be, but eventually she got you down to the flower shop to work the counter and talk to some of her customers. That was the day you met Nadine, as she came in to buy some fresh flowers to wear in her hair during a street performance.

She was the most beautiful woman you had ever seen – and you wanted nothing to do with her. But of course Haeluna couldn’t resist meddling and dragged her over to you and insisted that her “little nephew” was the most brilliant floral decorator in the city. You sort of stumbled through the sale, picking out several colorful flowers with long flat stems that would be easy to weave into her hair, but (in hindsight) completely blew off her (flirting) attempt to convince you to show her how to do so by weaving the flowers in yourself.

The following day, the cycle repeated itself, although at least this time Haeluna hadn’t actually needed to douse you with the watering can, merely threaten to do so. And yet again the same gorgeous woman came into the store and wanted you to pick out some colorful flowers to weave into her hair for an upcoming street performance. You were more than a little annoyed that this woman had seemingly forgotten what you had just told her yesterday, and said as much at her face. Which got you an invitation to join her for an early dinner at a nearby cafe as an apology, which you again were about to rebuff when Haeluna suddenly announced that was perfect because she was closing early!

Outnumbered and betrayed, you sullenly gave in to the request, only to wonder if you were drunk or dreaming when one beautiful woman with flowers woven into her hair multiplied into two almost perfectly identical copies. And that was your first real introduction to the twin sisters of Beautrice and Nadine, although it would be another year before you became co-performers in a small production, and several years more before you became . . . well . . .but it had all sprouted from that little seed of effort Haeluna had planted.

In more than one way, you would not be here today without her, and perhaps that was the better way to hold her memory than the twisted broken tangle of hatred and ambition that lay before you now.

Dalen

Spoiler: Dreams

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They say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. You have always found that saying a bit of oversimplified tripe – Pharasma certainly didn’t need a hasty repeat of a person’s life to remember what they did prior to judgement, and a person’s dying brain was hardly likely to scroll back through everything that person had done as a refresher prior to that sentencing either. You are annoyed to learn that saying is in fact true to an extent, but even more galling is that your own brain has managed to utterly fail to keep things in a tidy order for you. Instead of a neat and orderly retread through your life, you fall down through a jumbled maelstrom of conversations and impactful moments of your life.

There’s your first meeting with the queen – in her disguise of her handmaiden – outside the Kendall Ampitheater. “Elliana Guildenstern. I had thought it would be safe enough for me to attend a performance at the Kendall Amphitheater without an escort. Apparently I was wrong.”
Then you’re back in the Acadamae, studying for your final on Enchantment magic. Your instructor, a stern experienced mage from Cheliax who went by the name of Terentius, was quite hard to please, and despite all your hard work it was starting to look like you were going to be in the half of the class that was going to be cut. There had to be an easier way to convince Old Terentius you were worthy of remaining at the Acadamae . . . and then it came to you. The simplest, most straightforward solution – Charm Person, that was an Enchantment spell, one you had studied in-depth in this very class, hadn’t you?
Back to the future, yet another argument with Aliani, this time in All the World’s Meat, in front of Verik Vancaskerkin, no less. Wait . . . Aliani hadn’t been there when you and Silas went in and cleared out the butchery of Lamm’s men, who had discovered Verik was actually working as a double-agent for Kroft, and . . . oh damnit, this was a memory from your home timeline, the one where you and Aliani and Silas had first stepped into this mess, though it was still unclear to you what had caused the three of you to be . . . selected? . . . for this nonsense. Damn, this is going to get confusing very quickly if your brain kept-
Back to your teenage years, the day when you first joined the Acadame. You were shown into a slightly younger Toff Ornelos’s office to sign the official papers marking you as a full-time student of the Acadamae. As you were signing the papers, a burr on Toff’s pen had nicked your thumb, causing a single drop of blood to leak through your skin and drip onto the signed contract. Toff had apologized profusely for the minor injury, promising to dispose of the defective pen and reassuring you that despite the bloodstain your papers were still valid. It had been such an inane moment that you had put it out of mind and forgotten all about it until your dying brain had dredged it up. Now, with what you know, this brief interaction with the Acadamae’s headmaster didn’t seem so banal and benign.
Forward again, and forward to yet another world you had traveled through . . . you were going to need to start labeling these damn things with some sort of nomenclature before they all started to run together in your mind, much as was happening here. Here you are gathered at Aliani’s house with Silas, and Jakkin, and that Hellknight fellow, what had his name been again . . . oh yes, Gavin Dimir. Elliana had just transformed herself back into Queen Ileosa, confirming your suspicions of such, and goes on to tearfully hand you all the means to destroy her politically – ““Everything I told you that day in Ambassador Andaisin’s basement is true. I was born an orphan on the streets of Westcrown. I would have died an orphan if not for the kindness of three people – the acolyte of Lorris the Savior Hound who gave me this medallion, my good friend Elliana – whose face and name I now use as a disguise to honor her memory – and . . . Lady Andaisin.”
Back now to your Acadamae days, although this is again all the way back to your original world. You can’t quite recall now what you had done exactly that had pissed Gaedren Lamm off, but he had framed you by planting a few doses of Shiver, Pesh, and other illegal drugs into your dorm room at the Acadamae. You were now being hauled into the Headmaster’s office, and as you passed by a shield emblazoned with the Acadamae’s heraldry, your hyper-active brain now notices something on the replay (DC 20 Int check passed!) There in the heraldry, concealed by all the noise of arcane sigils and imps wrestling with pseudodragons and all that was the same sigil of your infernal patron, as revealed by Sorshen’s little figurines. It made sense, really, given the Acadamae’s heavy leaning on Infernal Conjuration, but here was actual proof of the connection! And perhaps, a further lead on tracking down your elusive patron, given it was highly unlikely that you were the only so “blessed” wizard who had attended the Acadamae.
Forward again to the council meeting of the city’s noble houses, to select a new seneschal. Bolstered by your group’s urgings to ensure Andaisin did not become seneschal despite being the front-runner (although you had suggested that the queen should play along with Andaisin to buy more time rather than force a direct confrontation now), Ileosa had “betrayed” her former mentor by exposing her position as an Urgathoite to the council. *That* had quickly led to her being rejected for the position of seneschal, and a spineless-weasel-bureaucrat by the name of Darvayne Amprei to be selected instead. For a moment from the way her eyes bored through your soul, you had half-expected Andaisin to start casting spells in an effort to kill you all right there in the council chambers, but she had merely stormed off . . . although it occurs to you now that someone had tipped the Asmodeans off that Trinia Sabor was in the castle, and Andaisin had seen Trinia during one of her luncheons with the queen.

And then you are somewhere else entirely. For just a moment in your muddled state, you feel a sharp stab of fear that with the jumbled replay of your life now over, you were in the Boneyard – Pharasma’s realm. It was certainly dark enough to be the end of the line – impenetrable shadows surrounded you on all sides, although you could just barely make out the faintest light burning in the distance off to your right. With that as your only landmark to reference, you set off towards it, no longer moving at the speed of thought but actually slowly walking across stone, judging from the sound of your footsteps – wait, ghosts made footstep sounds? Now and then you hear the rattle of chains in the darkness around you, and harsh whispers that echo and bounce out of the shadowy darkness – more replayed conversations from your life, albeit some of the far more sinister ones.

”Bull fighting, you say? Shall we test that theory, master wizard?”
“Dance about on the strands of the infinite web as much as you wish, insect, but know that you will still learn as she did that the future is immutable!”
”Glitter? Is that the full sum of your arcane strength, Master Wizard?”
”The story changes but the end remains. And no mortal, god, or meddling little runelord can scour away what has already been written. You will fail. You will *always* fail.”

Finally, you reach the source of the light that has acted as your goal, only to be greeted by another enigma. Waiting for you within the circle of light there is no grand throne with the Goddess of Fate itself perched atop it, merely a drab stone table above which hang a dozen or more chessboards from chains in a scattered, haphazard fashion ascending up into the darkness. The table itself is surrounded by a ring of eight high wooden chairs that stand empty – save for one.

Seated in one of the chairs across the table from you is a slumped figure, their features entirely obscured from you by a crimson-colored cowl. Thick black metal chains criss-cross over themselves all up, down, and around the figure, turning the cowl into almost more of a funerary shroud. Only one hand remains free to flit to-and-fro over the one chessboard currently sitting on the table in front of the figure, although the quiet clatter of chains at each movement of the figure’s hand and occasional slips of the one still-free corner of the cowl from the hand it conceals offer glimpses of a thick shackle locked around a slender wrist. Above the figure at the top of its chair is affixed a small, faded bronze plaque that has almost had its face corroded and scoured away entirely, although with considerable difficulty you manage to make out the Thassilon runes that label the chair’s occupant – and somehow understand them to mean “Love & Fertility”. As you step into the circle of light, the cowled figure wearily raises its head as much as the chains will allow, revealing the next layer of obscurement - an ornately detailed porcelain mask that despite its artistic painted swirls and embedded gemstones only gives the vaguest impression of a feminine face. With a quiet clatter of chains, the figure raises its shackled-yet-free hand up in front of the mask, extending one gloved finger up to tap its lips – sshhh – and then points at the chair across from her, with its back directly to you.

Cautiously you circle around the table partway towards the strange figure, and see that there is not one being seated at the table after all, but two. Seated across the table from the masked prisoner of “Love & Fertility” is an amorphous mass of shadow, a single eerie cobalt blue eye burning from atop the vaguest sense of a sinuous neck, its focus seemingly on “up” at the array of chessboards hanging from chains above the table. The chair that it is presently “sitting” in is more a battered mass of splinters than a functional piece of furniture, barbed chains also looped around the wooden frame but here seeming to be more holding it together than binding the shadow in place. The bronze plaque above it reads “Toil & Prosperity” but the plaque has been nearly pried out of the wood entirely, and around it two fresh words have been harshly scoured into the wood, over and over again in an overlapping infinity-esque helix – “Suffering & Fear”.

“Take your best shot, Pretender.”

The shadow booms, chortling a bit at something only it could see in the shadows above the table, beyond the hanging chessboards. Clearly it was distracted by whatever it was watching . . . although a twisted knot sinking to the bottom of your stomach suggests that you know exactly what it’s watching right now. Continuing to try to take advantage of its distraction, “Love & Fertility” beckons you over with a crooked finger, and then points at the chair nearest to you currently, almost exactly halfway between the two occupied chairs at the near end of the table – this one labeled clearly as “Succession & Ash” by the bronze plaque on the back of the chair. With only the logic of a dream to guide you and the cowled figure’s emphatic finger pointing, you carefully slip around the chair and sit down at the table.

Now seated, you can clearly make out the details of the chessboard laid out on the table between the two opposing forces . . . and that the pieces are the same figurines as you saw before the treasure vault. It’s clear now also that this was not a match of chess, for no match of chess was ever this lop-sized, a handful of sparkling white marble pieces scattered across the board, each surrounded on all sides by half a dozen or more times their number of opponents cast in obsidian. Your eyes are drawn to the largest concentration of white figures that appear to have cornered one black piece at the edge of the board – sure enough, those are the figurines of you and your allies, surrounding Haeluna. As you watch, the cowled figure directs Aliani’s figurine, not so much by touching it with gloved fingers as you first thought but merely gesturing and sliding the piece over into contact with Haeluna via telekinesis.

“Well done, Pretender.”

The shadow grunts as Haeluna’s figure topples, striking the chessboard and not so much shattering as splattering open, dark ichor bursting out to form an inky pool around the broken figurine. As the shadow continues to prattle on about the inevitability of your demise, the cowled figure hastily dips a fingertip into the ichor and paints a wide circle around one of the few marble figurines standing at a distance away from your group – the same strange tattooed man you had seen as multiple figurines in multiple scenes outside the treasure vault. After inscribing the circle in gore, the cowled figure taps the board next to it for emphasis, and then writes something in Thassilon next to it – but here your understanding fails you. The cowled figure again taps the board next to the figurine for emphasis, then seems to realize that you can’t understand the message that is trying to be relayed.

The figure begins writing again in Haeluna’s gore, faster and faster, line after line of text down and across the surface of the board in front of you. At first you don’t understand, but after the first several lines you realize that it’s an alphabetical translation of Thassilon into Common! You are literally being given a lesson on the Thassilon alphabet! It’s a bit of a slow process to go letter by letter, your eyes flicking back and forth between the letters still being translated and the figurine, but you manage to start the translation of the message – “F-i-n-d K-u-s-a-s-f-a . . .” and –

A loud, shrill scream of agony suddenly pierces the silence of this place, as the board in front of you is abruptly yanked up by the chains at its corners, up and out of sight into the darkness. A new board is slammed down into its place, rattling the pieces on its surface as it lands. This one’s board state seems even more dismal, the distance between marble pieces even further apart and the obsidian figurines seem to have multiplied again. “Love and Fertility” begins hurriedly sketching a message onto the new board, only to finally run out of fresh ichor to smear onto the board partway through. Without the full alphabet list to reference now, translating what did manage to get written is difficult, but you think you got the gist of it – “A-n-s-w-e-r-s i-n B-l-o-o-d-s”. The cowled figure seems to be trying to form the last few letters with their gloved fingers, but there is suddenly a loud clatter of chains and the entire hand is yanked back off the board, out of sight behind the figure’s chair.

“Still trying to cheat Fate, even after everything you’ve suffered?”

The shadow booms from its seat, and you glance over to see that the eerie blue glow is now firmly settled on you and the chained figure – you’ve run out of time.

“Heh heh heh. Such a wasted effort – the Master Wizard is never going to understand in time, no matter how much help you slip to him. But very well, if you wish to prolong both of your suffering for the thousandth or ten-thousandth time, I will indulge you a little more. Here, why don’t I offer my own assistance to the child.”

The glowing eye turns to fixate fully on you, and you reflexively cringe back into the chair as an overwhelming aura of dread presses down on you.

“They say that Prophecy is dead, Master Wizard. But as you lie awake over the nights to come, tormented by visions of these moments to be that you fail to avert, perhaps you will have a different opinion.”

The shadow exhales deeply in your direction, but it is a whirlwind that strikes your face rather than a cloud of hot breath. The chair you are sitting on tips over backwards into the darkness, sending you tumbling, and then the wind lifts you up off the ground entirely, spinning you out of the circle of light and abruptly into a nightmare, or series of nightmares.

You stumbling, slipping, and then crawling away from a cowled figure as it drops Greg’s lifeless body halfway across the doorstep of your front door. As you flee further into the depths of your own home, flames wick up the walls and turn the room into an inferno.
You standing on a crowded dock, watching the crowd scream and scatter as a ship out on the Jeggare river comes full-speed into dock itself, timbers crashing and breaking apart before its prow. A black banner flies from the main sail, depicting a skeletal hand, middle finger upraised.
You looking out over a silent Korvosa, black flags flying from every flagstaff, as fires burst into existence along the river separating the city from Old Korvosa.
Queen Ileosa sitting slumped on the Crimson Throne, it now living up to its name as both it and she are soaked in blood, likely due to the catastrophic hole in Ileosa’s chest.

And then you gasp and find yourself alone again in the inky blackness, although . . . something seems oddly familiar about this darkness . . . wait, are you lying in your own bed at home?

(*cue Dalen’s own unconscious dream of learning some new spells)

Bellinda

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Through the mounting stress and fear that came from fighting alongside Aliani and Dalen and the others to get down here, find the queen, and then get her out, a brief sense of relief cuts through as Haeluna finally falls. Doubtless there were some in the church of Sarenrae who would caution against feeling relief from the death of another thinking being who could have been somehow saved and convinced to turn to the side of light. But Haeluna had been given those chances to renounce her path, and tossed them aside in favor of continuing headlong down her path of darkness until it led her to becoming that thing. Gaedren Lamm had been the blackest soul you had ever met, and yet that thing – and the Eye that spawned it – had eclipsed his evil in a matter of moments. Instinctively, you knew that there would be no reasoning with the being responsible for that, no mercy or compromise possible, just resistance or submission followed by death once your usefulness was over. Sarenrae had doctrine about such irredeemable Evil as well, but it was deeply unsettling to actually meet such a being in the flesh and being forced to fight for your literal life and soul.

And yes, it was with a feeling of relief that you watched as Aliani took his shot, caved Haeluna’s skull in, and she actually stayed down this time after a final taunt from the monstrosity. City will rot . . . that certainly did not bode well for Korvosa’s future, but that would have to be a concern for tomorrow.

Yes, tomorrow – that reminds you of a sermon that you had heard recently, around the time of King Eodred’s death, immediately following that first awful night of rioting in the city. You had been brought together by the machinations of Zellara, a Varisian fortune teller who had sent a message to you promising revenge against Gaedren Lamm. That was how you had met Dalen and Aliani, and together with Silas you had gone off hunting Gaedren Lamm at his current hideout in an old fishery along the Docks. He got away from you there, and then the riots kicked off that same night. Concerned about possible violence against the Church of Sarenrae, you had broken off from the others and headed back to the modest chapel that served as your new home now rather than ride out the riots at Dalen’s house.

It was little surprise, then, to find that a great number of people who wanted no part in the madness outside on the city streets had taken shelter within the simple chapel. There was no money to hire actual guards, and so the actual clergy had taken up armor and weapons to stand guard around the chapel, and allow inside only those who were not here for violence. Of course, you stood beside them through the night, despite a few initial offers to go inside and take shelter with the other civilians instead. Thankfully, the chapel of Sarenrae was in one of the nicer parts of the city – the Heights as it was called, only a few blocks away from Castle Korvosa – and so no actual violence came near the chapel, save for a pair of vagrants looking for easy looting, who skittered away into the night once they saw you and others.

With the break of dawn, the chaos of the riots backed down to a simmering rage rather than outright anarchy. And about an hour after daybreak, a tired Lord Valdur Bromathan had arrived with half a dozen guards to relieve you in protecting the chapel. The head of a very minor noble house, Lord Bromathan was a friend to the church and occasional practicing member of its clergy, when he could find time to visit. Accompanying you and the others inside, Valdur (as he preferred to be called rather than Lord Bromathan) looked over the huddled masses of citizenry that had taken shelter overnight, and immediately moved up to the pulpit. From there he began a sermon meant to reassure the masses that there would be a tomorrow.

“Friends, I do not know if it was faith in the Dawnflower or fear in the darkness and chaos outside that brought you in here, but I want you to know that you are safe here regardless. Yes, there is darkness and chaos in this world, but there is also light and hope! If you look outside right now, you will see for yourselves that the dawn is here. That is the Dawnflower’s promise to us, that even the blackest of nights must eventually give way to the light of day. So it will be with our fair city in the face of this troubling time! My friends, we have been given that most precious of gifts – tomorrow! Another day, another chance to make our city a brighter and better place. Let us not turn away this chance out of fear of the darkness, but embrace it and step boldly back out into the light. So that we can make tomorrow’s sunrise even brighter!”

Bringing an end to Gaedren Lamm’s organization should have brought about a brighter tomorrow. Now, you aren’t so sure that Korvosa is through its long night just yet.

Jeqem

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The old lady-plant-monster-thing was dead. Good. The beast had burned like any other at the touch of flame, but the nightmares and unhappy memories it had dredged up from the depths of your own mind had been rather unsettling. You glance around to see that most of your allies were still standing too, with the exception of the wizard – acceptable losses. At least Bellinda appeared to be mostly unharmed save for a few thorns left by the creature’s breath weapon – it would have been a shame to lose a fellow worshipper of the light.

As you ponder what to do now, you reflect back on what had led you to this point. You had been one of those seeking shelter at the Church of Sarenrae during the night of the riots. It had seemed the natural place for you to go, after recently learning of the Dawnflower and converting yourself into one of her few followers in this damned city. With the breaking of the dawn the next morning, one of the noblemen who fancied himself a priest of the Goddess stopped by to visit, and gave a brief sermon to smooth the frayed nerves of the masses.

“Friends, I do not know if it was faith in the Dawnflower or fear in the darkness and chaos outside that brought you in here, but I want you to know that you are safe here regardless. Yes, there is darkness and chaos in this world, but there is also light and hope! If you look outside right now, you will see for yourselves that the dawn is here. That is the Dawnflower’s promise to us, that even the blackest of nights must eventually give way to the light of day. So it will be with our fair city in the face of this troubling time! My friends, we have been given that most precious of gifts – tomorrow! Another day, another chance to make our city a brighter and better place. Let us not turn away this chance out of fear of the darkness, but embrace it and step boldly back out into the light. So that we can make tomorrow’s sunrise even brighter!”

A simple speech, perhaps, but it had encouraged some of the crowd to go back out into the city and reclaim their lives, such as they were. You had also been inspired, and asked one of the lesser priests if there was something you could do to help. That had eventually led you to be paired up with Bellinda, a more senior member of the congregation, if only by a little time. Bellinda was on the trail of Gaedren Lamm, a foul blight upon the city in need of being cleansed. Eager to prove yourself, you had tagged along on Bellinda during her various adventures with the others seeking to end Gaedren Lamm, and had made yourself useful.

Now Gaedren Lamm was dead, the last of his followers – that devil woman Haeluna – was dead, and perhaps the city would be able to move on. Although perhaps things would not be that simple, given the last dire dying words of Haeluna – this city was destined to rot. Good, more blight for you to cleanse. You did like to make yourself useful, after all.

Turk

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You had gotten involved in this case much like anyone else – find Gaedren Lamm and put him out of everyone else’s misery. The path you took to get there, however, was a little different in that Lamm had never wronged you personally . . . not in this world, at least. But you had been troubled by waking dreams, flickers from another life in a different world, one in which Lamm had arranged for your fall from grace. As such, you knew what he was capable of, and so when the call went out – discretely, as always within the Society – for members to keep an eye out on activity associated with Gaedren Lamm so that it could in-turn be tipped off to the Guard, you started paying attention.

Your specific route into the wake of destruction left by Lamm across the city was the rogue Hellknight Xerxes, a member of the local order of Hellknights, the Order of the Nail. He had been presumed missing after the first night of the riots, but resurfaced several days later, now apparently helping Lamm instead of hunting him. Hoping you could kill two birds with one stone, you focused your efforts on Xerxes, figuring if you could find him you’d find Lamm in close proximity. Plus there was a bit of professional pride on the line – while not a sworn Hellknight of the Godclaw – you would have needed to travel to Cheliax and petition the Order directly for that honor – your family had served that Order faithfully, leaving behind several relics for your use to carry on their work in keeping Korvosa a civilized place ruled by laws.

Rather than waste time running down blind alleyways and beating up snitches, however, your investigation focused on what someone like Lamm could possibly offer a man like Xerxes. And your investigations turned up an unlikely lead – Xerxes had an older brother who was not part of the Order. Instead, Darius had forced his own path as a mercenary, thug, and later on a killer for hire. That last career choice had gotten him eventually a spot in the high-security dungeons of the Deathshead Vault beneath the Longacre courthouse.

So the rogue Hellknight had a brother locked up in an infamous prison . . . that could be reason enough to join a brigand seeking to turn the entire city upside down. Figuring out how to take advantage of this information proved to be even more difficult than finding it, however, as prisoners in the Deathshead Vault didn’t get visitors. That was fine, you didn’t need to actually talk to Darius, just figure out the other part of the problem, which was when and how Lamm was going to free the gunman.

Here you got a bit lucky – or unlucky, depending on how you saw it – as Lamm’s men boldly attacked the courthouse while you were inside waiting for your audience with the Arbiters. There were a few too many of Lamm’s men present to fight on your own, so you opted for the better part of valor and hid in a side room, biding your time. When you heard the sounds of fighting out in the courtroom nearby, you made your dramatic re-entry into the fight, coming to the timely aid of an intrepid band of heroes who as it turned out, were also hunting Lamm. And also Blackjack, the notorious vigilante who for centuries had haunted Korvosa, in various guises, fighting criminals, righting wrongs, and just generally being a nuisance to the ruling class. Allying with such a criminal wasn’t ideal, but at that moment everyone had the goal of stopping Lamm, and it was still several against your one, so biding your time was back to being the order of the day. Besides, a high-profile criminal like Blackjack was sure to give you plenty of other opportunities to bring him to justice later, after Lamm was dealt with.

Fighting your way down into the prison itself, you came to an impasse when it became clear that Lamm and Xerxes had split up. The others – Aliani, Dalen, Silas, and Bellinda you believe their names were – chased after Lamm immediately, while you decided to continue hunting Xerxes. Splitting your forces unfortunately turned out to be a mistake, as while you caught up to Xerxes he managed to get away by turning himself and his brother invisible. While you had been aware Xerxes, like all members of the Order of the Nail, were some kind of arcane spellcaster, you hadn’t been briefed that he knew that particular spell. Oh well, at least the others had managed to do right by the city and actually bring Lamm down, putting an end to this threat for good.

Or so you had thought before your continuing hunt for the wayward Hellknight and his brother brought you to the Cathedral of Asmodeus, again on the day that Lamm’s associate, Haeluna, had descended on the cathedral with some sort of gigantic mechanical flying magic snake construct, smashed in the cathedral’s roof, and made off with Queen Ileosa who had been present for a meeting with the high priest of Asmodeus, Ornher Reebs. Sure enough, that same band of plucky heroes-in-the-making had also been present as some sort of extra muscle for the Queen beyond just her bodyguard. Xerxes also made an appearance with his brother as Haeluna’s own back-up, and while the party managed to drop Darius, leaving him to the not-so-tender mercies of the Asmodeans, Xerxes had again turned himself invisible and ran off after swearing revenge. You had considered trying to chase after him again, but seeing how you still had no countermeasure for his invisibility you had little hope of pulling that off. So rather than split your efforts to futility yet again, you cautiously agreed to join the others in their headlong pursuit of Haeluna’s mechanical monster.

That chase had led you to the Grey District, Korvosa’s sizable graveyard, watched over diligently by the Church of Pharasma – which was good given something in the cursed soil of the Grey periodically rose the dead from their slumber. Unfortunately, the group hit a serious schism when the trail led directly into the mausoleum of House Poryphia, a defunct noble house within Korvosa (though with still thriving branches in other cities throughout Cheliax). The Pharasmans were quite zealous in their prevention of desecration to tombs as much as they were about putting down the undead, and stomping through a noble mausoleum was a serious violation of at least half a dozen other legal statutes, despite the extenuating circumstances. Rather than wait for the Pharasmans to inevitably arrive so that you could have permission granted to investigate the tomb, the queen’s bodyguard insisted on an immediate breach. The commander of the Sable Marines, Marcus Endrin, argued rightly in favor of waiting, but ultimately nobody was going to stand in the way of the rumored deadliest swordswoman in the entire city – that Sabrina Merrin was a very scary lady when she was half-mad with worry. So neither you nor Marcus weren’t going to try to arrest her, but crossing into the threshold without permission proved to be a compromise of principles that was too much for you.

So you both waited for the Pharasmans to arrive, and as it turned out you didn’t have to wait all that long – within a few minutes a heavily armed patrol arrived, followed by two more groups attracted by the sight of a wing of Sable Marines plunging down into the Grey to land near an old tomb. It was several minutes after that before they managed to get in contact with the High Priestess, Keppira D’Bear, but thankfully her response was immediate and decisive – if enemies of the city were using a resting place of the dead as shelter, then they needed to be driven out post haste.

Now with your presence authorized – along with a whole hell of a lot of pissed-off Pharasman reinforcements – you and Marcus descended down into the tomb, swiftly following the party’s wake of destruction through the tomb. Apparently a necromancer had taken refuge down here along with what was left of Lamm’s organization, according to now even angrier Pharasman clerics who surveyed the scattered bones across the tomb’s floor with a knowing eye. A break in one wall of the mausoleum led to a claustrophobic warren of low-ceiling tunnels, apparently carved by the mythical derro, blue-skinned insane halfling-esque boogeymen of Korvosa’s urban legends. Well, apparently they had been real, as the ones you came across were all quite dead, more handiwork of the party and the queen’s bodyguard.

Eventually, the warren gave way back to stone walls, and here the Pharasmans got nervous. They said that these were part of the Vaults, an ancient network of constructed tunnels that snaked far beneath Korvosa, and that had never been fully explored. Most of those who went down to attempt to map them never came back, presumably killed by ancient traps and even more ancient and fearsome monsters than the derro. No one went this deep if they could help it, not even large, heavily armed bands of pissed-off Pharasmans, apparently.

Seeking yet another compromise, you had offered your services to scout ahead of the main group, confident that the party had – probably – carved as safe a path through this portion of the Vaults as readily as they had managed against the undead and derro. That presumption had immediately paid off, as immediately after you slipped down the long flight of stone stairs in front of you, you had arrived at the impossible sight of a well-manicured garden deep underground, no doubt the result of some rather impressive magic. And you had found the party of would-be heroes, having managed to cut a swath through the last of their enemies, laid Haeluna low, and rescued the queen. . . although she was apparently unconscious, along with one of their own number, a wizard named Dalen.

Arin

Theme Music

You awake as you always did these days – with a sharp intake of breath in preparation for a scream, only for the terror that waked you to be smothered immediately down to a somewhat disconcerting numbness by the strange new blessings that had accompanied your return to the living. Despite the disorientation that came from having your emotions suddenly go from full-on terror down to nothing, you much preferred it to the alternative. You don’t know how you would have coped with having intrusive thoughts of the Bad Place pushing in on your waking moments as well. Lots of alcohol probably, not that you had the coin for that at the moment. Nor were you entirely sure how your unusual new body would process it. That was your other unusual blessing, your rebirth as a squat, green-skinned, yet physically fit . . . creature you couldn’t quite identify.

But there was no time today to reflect on your unusual re-origins. Today, you were finally going topside, back up to Korvosa, and hopefully up to find some answers. Answers to what Nira had done to you, how you could escape the Bad Place for good, and perhaps most important, just what the Hells was going on with this gods-forsaken city now.

Gathering up your gear, you head out along the path you had cautiously mapped through the tunnels over the past week, finding safer potions of the city’s sewers you could walk through without getting accosted by wererats, otyughs, or any more – yugh! – godsdamned derro. You had seen more of those blue-skinned freaks than you could handle at this point.

You eventually manage to slip your way out a loose sewer grate overlooking the thin stream of filth it was dumping into the Jeggare River, scramble up the hillside, and just like that you were back in Korvosa. Near the Midland Docks, by the look of it. Perfect! It looked like today was even going to be a quiet day in the city, with no one running around screaming that the city was doomed or the “Whore Queen” was going to bring ruin upon the city.

Your first stop was Citadel Volshyenek, home to the city guard. With some old friends you had made within the guard, including the grudging respect you had earned from their commander, Field Marshall Cressidia Kroft, you should be able to get your bearings there at least. That was just a short walk from here along the docks, and as you padded along the rough cobblestones barefoot, you got some curious stares from passerby, but at least no one was running away shouting “monster!” just yet.

Eventually you make it to the front gates of the imposing citadel, to find that it was – relatively speaking for recent days at least – a swarming hive of activity, with over a dozen guardsmen manning the front gates. Evidentially they were expecting some kind of trouble sooner rather than later for Kroft to call up so many of the guard’s diminished number after the riots and corruption and desertion induced purges of the guard rolls.

Fortunately, while the guards moved to block your way from proceeding inside the citadel, neither did they immediately attack you either.

“Move along . . . citizen.”

One of the guards manning the front gates snapped, brandishing his longspear.

“Citadel’s closed for the rest of the day, Field Marshall’s orders.”

“Hey, hey now! There’s no need to be rude, Brandt! I’m sure she’s just curious about what’s going on.”

A familiar voice called out from behind the front rank of guards, as a familiar face stepped out into your line of sight – Sergeant Grau Saldado. Your luck was improving! While it is true that the sergeant had hit on you the first time you had met, he had been completely ****-faced drunk, and seemed to think you were some old friend of his called “Neffi”. You’d eventually managed to get him to go home and sleep it off . . . in the other? world, in your past life, and had been at least friendly acquaintances after that. Of course, your hopes of managing to just bat your eyelashes at him and get him to do whatever you asked were quashed when he knelt down in front of you, and said.

“It’s probably not going to be safe out here in a little while, sweety. You should probably run along home to your parents.”

Great. So your potential in to get some answers on the state of this world thought you were a literal child.

**DarkOne-Rob** · 2024-02-04, 04:15 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Inspectre

Bellinda sweeps in from the side, her movements a prayer to Sarenrae - a prayer which is answered as her new blade again arcs in between Haeluna's ribs, scouring another deep wound in the creature's chest that would have outright felled a mortal opponent...

"Well . . . done . . . Pretender."

And then . . . the world goes sideways...

...You also feel strangely stronger, as if either your trials here in this world were harsher, or perhaps merely as a side effect of passing through the veil between worlds to arrive here. Whatever the future may hold, it seems you would need to work together with these newcomers to your group to find answers, and continue to protect Korvosa from the Eye's final threat.

City shall burn . . . City shall rot

Bellinda Swiftfoot
Female Lawful Good Halfling Bard (w/ 2 Archetypes), Level 5, Init 4, HP 37/37, Speed 30
AC 19, Touch 15, Flat-footed 15, CMD 16, Fort 5, Ref 10, Will 6, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 3
“Dawnbringer” (+1 Cold Iron Scimitar) +13 (1d4+10, 18-20/x2)
Light Mace +8 (1d4, 20/x2)
Dagger +8 (1d3, 19-20/x2)
Mithril Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Dex, +1 Size)
Abilities Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16
Condition Battle Dance (Inspire Courage, +4 vs charm/fear and +4 on attack/damage rolls)
Arcane Strike (+1 damage and magic)

Bellinda blinks her eyes as she looks around, seeing her friends victorious against the monstrous plant-creature-betrayer hybrid. Seeing Dalen fall, unconscious but still breathing, she rushes over and begins praying over his spine body, "Dawnflower - heal our friend! Let him see your sunlight again!"

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

Cast Cure Light Wounds as many as three times to get him conscious: (1d8+5)[7], (1d8+5)[12], (1d8+5)[7].

Once Dalen opens his eyes, Bellinda sighs in relief before awkwardly stepping back to give him and the rest of the party room. She then looks over to the other fallen (NPCs) and tries to help them too, with what healing magic she has left after Dalen returns to consciousness.

Finally, looking at what is left of Haeluna, Bellinda sadly shakes her head. "Not sure I will ever feel safe again after seeing that..." she says quietly before kneeling down and closing the remaining eye of the dead woman. Then, she looks around and notes the missing artifact. "Hey! Does anyone see that fearful eye? We should destroy it...if it is still around at all..."

**Darvin** · 2024-02-04, 11:29 PM (ISO 8601)

Spoiler: Dalen unconscious

Show

Everything is pitch dark. Well, that's certainly annoying. Dalen reaches about blindly in the inky blackness, finding a lamp and lighting it. He's in his study, his spellbook splayed open on his work desk and surrounded by ink, reagents, and the copious notes he'd been taking these past few days.

He sits down to the table and pores over the diagrams he'd painstakingly drawn, frowning as he notices a minor error that had escaped his attention previously. So obvious now, he quickly scratches in the corrections. Then he notices an inefficency he could improve, so he begins to scribe those corrections. He had to optimize, be more efficient. He didn't have the power of the archmage, so he would have to make better use of every scrap of arcane energy at his disposal.

"What's this that has your attention? Anything you care to mention?" Rhetoric lands on his shoulder.

"I'm trying to figure out how to bypass the limitations of the Sleep spell. I've developed three distinct methods of casting the spell already, but they all share the same limitation. See here, the there's the connection with the nervous system. The body will simply force the mind back awake, as quickly as a lightning bolt, so this connection must be saturated with arcane energy first. The bigger the body, the more power required. Even a weak-willed troll is completely impervious to my existing version of the spell as a result. But that's just half the problem. See here, on this diagram, the stitch between the material plane and the dimension of dreams that pierces the soul. That needs to be frozen, otherwise the soul's resonance with the dimension of dreams will disrupt the fragile and artificial slumber. The brighter the soul, the more energy we'll need to deliver to achieve that," Dalen feels an uncanny buzz as he describes the connection to the dimension of dreams, as if there's something he should be noticing. Odd, but he's too focused on his explanation to stop, "the spell's magical payload is simply not enough to saturate all these points, and will pass over strong individuals with no effect,"

"So stop the glower, and use more power," Rhetoric suggests the obvious.

"Even if I did have that much power - which, to be clear, I don't - the full payload would need to be delivered simultaneously or it would just pass over the victim. To achieve this I'd need to simultaneously cast the spell... three... times," Dalen stops as a realization strikes him, and rapidly flips between the three versions of the spell he'd worked on. They could be superimposed. But he'd need to be efficient, he'd need to remove every unnecessary line of spellwork to fit them together. But it could definitely be done. Dalen sets to work, his mind totally focused on achieving this breakthrou

"While your work is sublime, you're almost out of time," Rhetoric's beak turns towards the inkling of light coming from the window. Dawn was coming.

"I just need to go faster, that's all," Dalen grits his teeth. He could see the spellwork in his mind's eye, his eyes darted across the page as he converted rapidly from diagrams and runes to mental construct and back again.

"Ileosa is waiting for you," Rhetoric drops the rhyming. The comment irritated Dalen; he hardly had enough time for his studies. Not to complain about having such a powerful and generous patron, but he was overworked. He was quickly becoming her full-time court wizard at this rate, what with the matter of the kidnapping, the Asmodeans...

"I can't go faster than this," Dalen grits his teeth, his hand was moving faster and faster but it couldn't keep up with the spellwork in his mind's eye. Just another limitation for him to optimize. At the speed of thought his mind built and unbuilt the spell lines, like he'd practiced thousands of times before. But he needed to do it faster this time. Maybe he could use the lines themselves to speed up the process... that was a novel idea. He constructed new scaffolding in his mind, lines with which to rearrange spell lines that would make and unmake spell lines. Something didn't seem right, the orderly structure of arcane magic in Dalen's mind seemed different than how he left it. Like walking into a dark bedroom and tripping over a bunch of junk strewn about that he hadn't left there. Well, this was the raw material he needed to complete the spell so he may as well use it. He didn't have time to question where it came from.

Light streamed into the window. He snapped the spellbook closed, panting. Not only had he developed a much more potent version of the Sleep spell, but to do it this quickly he'd developed spell work to massively accelerate himself and others for short periods of time. And he could use these principles more generally going forward. He felt exhausted, physically and mentally, but above all else he felt pride. This was what it meant to be a Master Wizard. He quite liked that moniker, who was it again who had used it?

"It's done, I figured it out," Dalen chuckles as he walks to the window, "it would have been quite useful yesterday to have this. During the giant snake attack, the delving into the Thassilonian ruins. The battle against that Haeluna woman... wait, how did that end?" the memory of a claw tearing a hole through Dalen's sternum... Ileosa casting something... as a Sorcerer? That wasn't right, but it was definitely real, Rhetoric grabbing his wand as it slipped from his hand and then...

"Oh. Oooooh. Am I dead?" Dalen wonders aloud. He closes his eyes, and feels the slight tug of his empathic connection to Rhetoric. Not the figment of his mind that had been talking to him a moment ago, but the real one. He could feel his familiar's concern. That connection would have snapped if he were dead, so he was still alive. And he could feel terror being replaced with concern. So Haeluna was not alive. Unfortunate, he would have very much liked to have gloated over her, but in all fairness the last word belonged to Aliani. In any case, he sighed, "no, I'm just unconscious. Strange, though, this feels a little too real. I can definitely feel my own arcane energy, and these are the exact notes I've been working on. Which means..."

Dalen rushes over to his desk. Most of his notes have disappeared, and all that remains is the diagram showing the connection of the mind, soul, and dimension of dreams, "I really need to pay more attention to this kind of thing,"

"Yes, you do," a raspy voice emanates from where the dream Rhetoric was perched. Dalen turns around, but sees only a yawning void. His study disintegrates as he tumbles into it, and his mind fractures into discordant dream.

Dalen gasps as Bellinda's magic courses through him. He coughs and a spattering of blood comes out of his mouth. It was both excruciating painful and tasted awful. His clothing was torn up, and blood soaked. He casts Prestidigitation on himself to at least remove the blood. He'd need to prepare Mending tomorrow to fix the tears and rips left by Haeluna. But looking over his shoulder it was apparent his threads were in better shape than she was.

"Thank you," Dalen says, "if you or anyone else could spare another two or three more, I'd appreciate it,"

He walks over to Ileosa, retrieving and stowing his wand. He kneels and checks to make sure she's okay. When Bellinda mentions the eye, Dalen responds.

"I'm not sure if it's within our power to destroy it," Dalen sighs, "but if anyone does see it cover it immediately lest it cause more havoc,"

**Darius Vibrtrar** · 2024-02-05, 02:07 PM (ISO 8601)

Having fought Durro through the forsaken crypts of banished nobles, Turk had been chasing after the queens kidnappers. He had nearly taken after Xerxes, the fallen hellknight. Cursing under his breath he was once again too late to the scene to make an impact. He comes across the scene with pools of ichor everywhere, and the infamous, or rather rising stars of the city and queens champions were rising from throughs of battle.

Turk is a Tall Varisean, tanned skin with violet eyes, and white hair. He is of average build for his height. Around his waist and shoulder is a turquoise scarf, embroidered with pictures like a tapestry. He wears the commanding leather armor of a Hellknight, with the icon of the Order of the Godclaw proudly on display. A leather helm with lenses sits atop his head as he scans the area.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

60ft range, Detect Chaos, will observe for 3 rounds to determine alignments and if there is a chaotic paladin/cleric type from powerful aura detection

"Clean up crew has arrived, what assistance is needed. Where is the queen?"

**DarkOne-Rob** · 2024-02-05, 05:46 PM (ISO 8601)

Bellinda Swiftfoot
Female Lawful Good Halfling Bard (w/ 2 Archetypes), Level 5, Init 4, HP 37/37, Speed 30
AC 19, Touch 15, Flat-footed 15, CMD 16, Fort 5, Ref 10, Will 6, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 3
“Dawnbringer” (+1 Cold Iron Scimitar) +13 (1d4+10, 18-20/x2)
Light Mace +8 (1d4, 20/x2)
Dagger +8 (1d3, 19-20/x2)
Mithril Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Dex, +1 Size)
Abilities Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16
Condition Battle Dance (Inspire Courage, +4 vs charm/fear and +4 on attack/damage rolls)
Arcane Strike (+1 damage and magic)

"She's over here - unconscious, but alive!" Bellinda answers her...friend's(?)...question. "I see no wound, but she won't wake up..." she continues, obviously worried about the Queen.

**Darius Vibrtrar** · 2024-02-05, 07:04 PM (ISO 8601)

Turk advances and kneels beside the queen and holds a hand above her, closing his eyes as his hand gives a gentle glow.

Spoiler: Spellcraft DC 15

Show

Detect Poison
(1d20)[6] DC 20 Wisdom to know the poison

"She could have inhaled something, or touched something, we cant rule out assassination attempts."

**Stelio Kontos** · 2024-02-05, 07:32 PM (ISO 8601)

As the fatal blow landed, and Aliani's world fell apart competely, he sank to his knees. Dimly, in the back of his mind, was a recognition of all else that was going on. Bellinda was taking good care of Dalen -- better care than he could have himself provided in that moment. Ileosa and Sabrina were out of it, in their own ways, but not dead, and would almost certainly recover (with, if nothing else, better than he himself could provide).

That he had killed his mentor, the woman who had more or less saved him from the depths of despair five years ago, made his stomach turn. Even if she had been responsible for every bit of that despair... that was not the woman she had been. She was, he finally decided, both of those things, the peacock and the cockatrice in turn. That she had been unable to suppress the cockatrice was ...

... he finally decided that it was, above all, a failure of hope. That things COULD get better. That change WOULD come, if one but stayed the course. That a better day lay ahead, if one but worked for it.

He knelt over what was left of her body, a few tears running down his cheek. It was all right to shed tears at a loss. He sat silently for a few moments, offering a silent prayer to recover whatever may have been left of her soul. The last two words were a bit louder, in the voice of the angels, a long forgotten homily come to mind.

"Resurget cineribus".

A further moment of silence followed.

**razorfloss** · 2024-02-12, 10:44 AM (ISO 8601)

Jeqem stares into space as if a thousand miles away and his red hair and orange eyes have dimmed like a dying flame and mutters to himself This is wrong. I should be dead as he pats himself down absently as if looking for wounds that should be on his person yet are not. He looks around seeing faces that are both familiar yet not as memorious that are his yet not pour in his head showing his adventures with Aliani, Dalen and fellow Sarenrae worshiper Bellinda and various others that are no longer here. He feels a since of sadness but it feels distant as if scabbed over from time before he shakes his head as his red hair and orange eyes seems to ignite again and his attention turns towards Dalen. Noticing his bruised and battered appearance he digs in his bag for a second before pulling out a green looking potion that seems to look like mold in a bottle and walks towards him Here drink this it's a healing potion. Yes, it looks disgusting. No, I can't get it to look better. Yes, I have tried. I promise its good for you and I swear on my Goddess it is what I say it is

Spoiler: OOC

Show

If that color is hard to look at it i can change it

**Darvin** · 2024-02-12, 05:53 PM (ISO 8601)

"Thank you, but you should preserve such expensive curatives. I can await treatment from the bards once they're satisfied their magic isn't needed elsewhere," Dalen tries to avoid wincing, "I've expended a great deal of parchment today, and I know all too well how expensive it will be to replace,"

Spoiler: OOC

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Given the remaining spell slots, I suspect Dalen can be brought up to full health without expending consumables

**razorfloss** · 2024-02-14, 09:19 PM (ISO 8601)

Jeqem raises an eyebrow and looks Dalen up and down taking note of his various bruises and injuries before shrugging and says If you say so but if you change your mind, it's still available while looking dubiously at his comment before muttering Sarenrae save me form well-meaning idiots and goes to check on the queen. Upon seeing her unresponsive he checks to make sure shes still alive.

Spoiler: OOC

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Heal check (1d20+10)[21]

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-14, 09:53 PM (ISO 8601)

Slowly, the party pulls itself back together after the difficult battle against the Eye-empowered Haeluna. Dalen is brought round by a healing spell from Bellinda, and then offered another curative by Jeqem although the wizard turns down the consumable in favor of more easily regenerated daily magic. None of that seemed to be forthcoming for him, however, as Aliani stood over the body of his fallen mentor and everyone turned their attention to the comatose queen. Turk arrived on-scene during the examination of the queen, pitching in his own magics to determine if she was suffering the effects of some kind of poison - not a terrible expectation given Haeluna's obvious love of poisons. But there didn't seem to be anything outwardly wrong with the queen, save for a small scrape in her scalp, left no doubt by the jagged metal crown she worn when her head hit the floor after collapsing, leaving a thin trickle of blood to stain her already copper hair an even darker shade.

Off in a corner of the garden by herself, the normally taciturn Rina wheezed and coughed, clearly struggling to overcome her own lingering bout of Haeluna's blast of magical terror. She had seemed to be more heavily affected by it than anyone else with the exception of Sabrina, spending the first few seconds of the fight against Haeluna running off to that corner and cowering in lingering fear. That had eventually gone away, replaced by a bout of berzerker fury as she screamed out a trio of scorching rays that blasted gaping holes in Haeluna's shoulder. Now it seemed she was back to struggling to try and reclaim her composed, unflappable demeanor. She does manage to call out to Aliani, however.

"You did what had to be done, Aliani. You saved us . . ."

The magus trails off into silence, but gives a grateful nod to the playwright before returning to her brooding.

Spoiler: Perception DC 15

Show

". . .like you always do."

Spoiler: Sense Motive DC 11

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Although she generally maintained this aloof, edgelord "don't come near me or I'll cut you" air about her, in this moment right now Rina is really struggling to control her emotions. Something about Haeluna's transformation and fear attack had deeply traumatized the magus, and she was really struggling to put her untouchable façade back together. And that look of gratitude she had given Aliani just now, mixed in with a host of other emotions . . . that was the same sort of look Nadine, Beautrice, and hopeful groupies sometimes showered the playwright with. It wouldn't take much effort on the playwright's part right at this moment to potentially add another to his tally of romantic attachments . . .

Despite her recent comatose state, Sabrina is much more rapid in her processing of what just happened and getting over it than Rina. To wit, she immediately pushed her way through the group of people clustered around Queen Ileosa and knelt down beside her, reaching down to pick her up and cradle the queen in her arms.

"We need to get out of here, now!"

Theme Music

Sabrina declares, and without another moment for debate hefts the queen up, carrying her in her arms despite a grunt of pain as the effort pulls on her still-wounded shoulder. Still, the bodyguard persists in her efforts to carry Ileosa's limp body to safety and out of this strange underground garden made by a possibly ancient and certainly eccentric wizard. She - and by extension all of you - are met at the stairs leading up out of this place by a dozen stern-looking Pharsman clerics and guards. With them, at least, is a pair of friendly faces - Marcus Endrin and Kira Nightshade, the acolyte of Pharasma the party had saved during Lamm's prison break.

"Well, you guys certainly aren't looking good!"

The acolyte exclaims, lifting up her holy symbol of Pharasma and unleashing several waves of positive energy in rapid succession - which succeeds in healing everyone's wounds including Sabrina's shoulder and Dalen's missing kidney, but fails to cause the queen to even stir from the depths of her unconscious state.

"Well, it seems that you've managed to rescue Her Majesty, that's one positive thing, at least. Unfortunately, it seems that any remaining compatriots of Lamm managed to escape out through one of that maze of tunnels that lead us down here."

Marcus explained as you all began to make your arduous way back up to the surface, Sabrina not stopping for a moment, leaving everyone having to hustle to keep up with her back out the way you all came. You gather more Pharasmans as you move through the warrens, until you have an escort nearly two dozen strong as you emerge back into the sunlight from the Poryphia tomb.

"Perhaps one of us should examine the queen . . ."

Kira offers, immediately trailing off as Sabrina skewers the young acolyte with a glower.

"No, the only one who is going to examine her is the royal physician. He'll know what to do . . . he has to."

"It would be much quicker to the castle if we fly there on my hippogriff."

Marcus offers, whistling his mount down out of the sky, and for once Sabrina simply nods in agreement rather than arguing.

"I will provide escort." Rina says simply, casting a spell on herself before beginning to hover up off the ground a short distance above and to the right of Marcus's hippogriff. Sabrina awkwardly pulls herself up into the saddle behind Marcus with one arm, her other arm continuing to cradle the queen. She simply glares anyone who attempts to help her back, and eventually manages to get up into the saddle, keeping one hand around Marcus's waist and the other around the still comatose Ileosa. Before he lifts off into the sky, Marcus turns to the group and smiles.

"Well, while I return Her Majesty to the castle for treatment, perhaps you all should report to Field Marshall Kroft. One of my men stopped by while I was waiting for the Pharasmans to arrive, and reported that the Field Marshall has had some surprise success in . . . hmmm, "negotiations" with the Cathedral of Asmodeus about the status of a certain infamous painter."

Marcus's smile falters as he chooses his next words carefully.

"Unfortunately, there have been some . . . complications, as well. I'm sure the Field Marshall can explain!"

And then Marcus' hippogriff leaps up into the air, banks around sharply for a moment, and then shoots off towards the castle, Rina trailing closely behind in the air.

(OOC: The world is your oyster again! Although I imagine that you will probably want to get over to Citadel Volshyenek sooner rather than later *hint hint*

)

**razorfloss** · 2024-02-15, 02:19 AM (ISO 8601)

Seeing Sabrina and company fly off and bickering over the health of the queen Jeqem scroffs and rolls his eyes Ignore the trained healer of course. It's not like I'm trained healer or anything. It's not like I'm vetted by the resident church of the dawnflower. I'm not insulted one bit nope. Not. At. All!! As he says this his hair and eyes seem to come aflame getting brighter and brighter. As he finishes his rant he yells knowing damn well they won't hear him SHES FINE BTW JUST NEEDS SOMETHING TO SHOCK HER OUT OF HER VISION AND OR WAIT FOR IT TO END. finishing his rant he turns towards the party Anyone else needs a pick me up he says looking at Dalen and frowning.

**Darvin** · 2024-02-15, 02:51 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Inspectre

"We need to get out of here, now!"

"Agreed," Dalen pants, and braces himself for the pain of ascending in his broken state.

Seeing a Cleric at the surface brought him untold relief, as truth be told he felt like he was going to collapse under his own weight.

Originally Posted by Inspectre

"I will provide escort." Rina says simply, casting a spell on herself before beginning to hover up off the ground a short distance above and to the right of Marcus's hippogriff.

Dalen watches the spellwork with curiosity, marveling at the power Rina was capable of exerting. A spark twinkled in Dalen's eye, the rare awakening of the child who once looked upon the world with wonderment but now only occasionally peered through these adult eyes. It might take a bit of prodding, but Dalen had to get a chance to study her spellbook and copy that spell. What could he offer her... hmm... he pops open his own spellbook idly as he ponders it then stops cold. Color drains from his face as he sees an entire section added to his book. He snaps it shut. He'd seen many impossible things today, but the scope was so grand that he was practically numb to it. This, though, he could understand the impossibility of this. This was his spell work, his lines, his own though process and unique style. He'd done this, while unconscious, and he had no idea how.

Originally Posted by Inspectre

"Unfortunately, there have been some . . . complications, as well. I'm sure the Field Marshall can explain!"

"Well, best to make haste then," Dalen proceeds to cast a Mount spell. He climbs atop the steed, then turns to his compatriots, "If anyone else is coming, I can manage one more horse,"

He waits a moment to see if there are any takers, then departs directly for Volyshenik.

**Darius Vibrtrar** · 2024-02-15, 11:41 AM (ISO 8601)

Turk follows along with the procession as everyone leaves the underground. He watches with understanding as the bodyguard will let no one near the queen while she is unconscious. He smiles seeing the glare from several people who are self conscious.

While walking his eyes will often fall upon the one individual among them who is emitting enough chaos aura to be a demon themselves, or just worship a being of chaos. He would have to observe and decide how to handle that situation.

"To the Citadel then"

He looks over to Jequem in confusion.

"Visions? You have evidence to prove the queen is receiving visions?

**DarkOne-Rob** · 2024-02-15, 05:11 PM (ISO 8601)

Bellinda Swiftfoot
Female Lawful Good Halfling Bard (w/ 2 Archetypes), Level 5, Init 4, HP 37/37, Speed 30
AC 19, Touch 15, Flat-footed 15, CMD 16, Fort 5, Ref 10, Will 6, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 3
“Dawnbringer” (+1 Cold Iron Scimitar) +13 (1d4+10, 18-20/x2)
Light Mace +8 (1d4, 20/x2)
Dagger +8 (1d3, 19-20/x2)
Mithril Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Dex, +1 Size)
Abilities Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 16
Condition Battle Dance (Inspire Courage, +4 vs charm/fear and +4 on attack/damage rolls)
Arcane Strike (+1 damage and magic)

Bellinda leads the party to the Pharasmans before stepping back out of the way as they discuss and argue. She nods in support of Jeqem, remembering(?) their common faith and feeling confidence in his healing skills in spite of her muddled memories messing with her mind. "Thank you, but I'll pass on the horse - a slow, steady walk will do my racing heart some good, and the sun feels good after that night..." she says in answer to Dalen.

As they head towards the Chelish-influenced citadel she whisper-sings several songs of praise to Sarenrae, apparently grateful to be safely out of the underground catacombs.

**razorfloss** · 2024-02-15, 08:00 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Darius Vibrtrar

He looks over to Jequem in confusion.

"Visions? You have evidence to prove the queen is receiving visions?

Jeqem sighs the long the sigh of medical professionals everywhere when someone unqualified questions their skills his hair dimming slightly all the while before responding in a cold sterile tone as if discussing the weather and not the health of the queen. Only my experience as a healer. Physically she's fine however going by her eye movements which seem erratic and unfocused. She's either having a vision or having a pretty bad dream probably form stress. In my professional opinion she's probably reliving a particularly bad day brought about by stress and this is purely psychological. She will awake in a few hours a day at worst. Unfortunately, this affliction isn't uncommon among those who have gone through traumatic experiences and the queen has been though a lot. My suggestion a few days rest before she gets back to work. Is that sufficient proof?

**Darius Vibrtrar** · 2024-02-15, 08:13 PM (ISO 8601)

Turk listens calmly and patiently. He nods, actively listening and not immediately dismissing the healers diagnosis. He pulls out some paper and writes some notes on the diagnosis.

"That is a well thought out diagnosis, and a reasonable hypothesis based on your experienced observations. But I wouldn't call it proof. Thank you for your input, I will take it with the weight
expected from someone of your station. I hope that you are correct and the queen will be well.

He continues on the way to the castle.

**Stelio Kontos** · 2024-02-16, 12:56 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Inspectre

"You did what had to be done, Aliani. You saved us . . ."

The bard looked back up at her, a sad, forced smile pursed on his lips. Under normal circumstances he might well have reciprocated the look that had flashed across Rina's face ... but these were not normal circumstances. "If you say so" he whispered, before returning his gaze to what was left of the body before him. Reluctantly, he rose to his feet as the group departed, covering what was left behind with whatever was left of her clothing.

He was as happy as everyone else -- well, not quite as happy as Dalen, but pleased nonetheless -- to see the Pharasmans. They appeared less pleased to see the group, however.

"My deepest apologies for the intrusion upon this sacred ground. Under normal circumstances, we would never have considered such a breach of decorum. I am afraid that, well ..." he waved at the queen limp in Sabrina's arms "... as you can see, there were mitigating factors. Time was of the essence."

"Miss Nightshade ... do you think you could help me arrange for a proper burial and ceremony? I realize this may not be the best time to ask. I would of course make whatever contribution might be necessary." He looked back down the stairs at the mangled corpse. "A dear friend of mine passed away today. I would like to honor her, as I remember her -- not as she now is."

The next few moments passed by with Aliani deep in contemplation. It was Marcus that finally snapped him out of it; Aliani's head cocked up immediately. "Trinia? Did they get her out of there? Tell me they got her out of there." There was a certain invigoration about him, a new purpose, after those words. "You can save the horse. I think I'd like to walk, if it's all right. I need some fresh air, and a bit of time to ... process things."

He'd leave the thoughts of just what had happened to the queen to the others. They could figure that out well enough. That the newest member -- was that right, 'newest'? It was getting harder to tell. At any rate -- that he was giving Aliani strange glances periodically did not escape the playwright's notice. For now, at least, he ignored it, walking at a brisk pace towards the castle. It was probably going to be a long night.

**Darvin** · 2024-02-16, 02:54 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Stelio Kontos

"You can save the horse. I think I'd like to walk, if it's all right. I need some fresh air, and a bit of time to ... process things."

"Quite understandable; if you like, you can drop by my workshop this evening and we can talk. I can understand that this was particularly hard on you," Dalen stops and proceeds to cast Message, pointing at Aliani.

Spoiler: Aliani only

Show

"or perhaps you might be able to arrange for the chance to speak with the dead if you petition your goddess," Dalen whispers to Aliani. Their breakthroughs in power had thus far been synchronized, and if so then Aliani could now cast a Speak with Dead spell, and perhaps get Haeluna to share in death what she would not in life.

**Stelio Kontos** · 2024-02-16, 07:17 PM (ISO 8601)

"I would very much like to talk" Aliani replied quietly, before cocking his head to the side as though listening to a far off voice.

Spoiler: Dalen only

Show

"There are other ways. Even if it were permitted, I very much doubt she'll want to speak to me again."

**tonberryking** · 2024-02-17, 09:53 PM (ISO 8601)

While it may well have been the literal place of her birth, or rather: rebirth, Arin wonders if it would be an affront to her goddess if she literally swore to never return to the sewers, but time and circumstance would later make a liar out of herself.

Do all paladins think about these sorts of things? The fear of The Bad Place had since faded, because while awake she literally could not sense fear, but the lack of a proper direction haunted her still. So she had best get a start on something she kept telling herself as she unfurled the white cloak she'd kept clean and away from the filth of the sewer for this very moment. Somehow, the cloak flourished in a sudden breeze as if all the gods wished for her to experience a flare of drama before getting on with her new reality, which helped her move with purpose. That, and the size of the cloak hid (most of) the fact she was rather well armed... The sword she carried was new, unused by her hands but she carried it with a preternatural familiarity so she didn't trip up or stumble with it, even as she tugged on a set of boots she'd also not worn until she was well out of the sewer. Fortunately she was adroit enough to avoid stumbling even while keeping a stride, too.

But being mistaken for a child... that was a different kind of stumble altogether...

"I'm afraid, Sargeant Saldado, that while I am no less an acquaintance, you have mistaken me for someone else," her voice is even and slightly deeper than that of a preteen, "But I'm afraid I must insist on making a social call to the Field-Commissioner. Especially with all that's been going on. Don't worry though; I'm much too small to make any waves that you good servicemen would need concern yourselves with..."

Spoiler: OOC/Rolls

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Diplomacy: (1d20+10)[19]

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-18, 09:18 PM (ISO 8601)

Arin

At your deeper voice and eloquent speech, Grau closed his eyes and gives an exasperated smile, as if you've just played a trick on him and he's finally getting the joke. A few of the guards back at the barricade they're assembling in front of the citadel's gates snicker at his misfortunate to assume a smallfolk was an actual child.

"My apologies for the mistake, little Miss. I'm afraid that the Field Marshall is involved in a private meeting, and will not be available for the rest of the day . . ."

Grau explains politely, although then he seems to get a good look at the sword and armor underneath your cloak, and trails off, clearly thinking. Making a decision, he gets back up to his feet and gestures through the gates.

"On second thought, little miss, if you happen to be looking for work, I think the Field Marshall would be happy to speak with you. Truth be told, we could use every hand that we can find for tonight . . . a storm's coming. Here, I'll escort you."

For a moment, you feel a spark of irritation as it seems Grau does not, in fact, know you at all. Then the realization catches up to you that you're an anomaly in a new world different from your home - so *of course* Grau wouldn't recognize you. At least he's still a bit of a gullible lout like he was in the past world, or maybe the guard really is that desperate for whatever trouble is about to hit the city next.

(Additional update is posted below under the "Everyone" section.)

Everyone Else

Apparently the leader of this particular band of Pharasmans, lkikely because she's an actual cleric of Pharasma despite being only a young acolyte, Kira speaks on the church's behalf.

"Bishop D'Bear is certainly not happy that expediency took precedence over proper procedure in disturbing the dead, but I am sure that she will be pleased to learn that everything worked out in the end, and the queen is unharmed . . . more or less."

At Aliani's request for burial services, the acolyte nods respectfully, giving him a comforting, practiced smile.

"Of course, Mr. Rose. We will gather up the bodies for identification prior to burial. That will likely take a few days regardless, so there will be time to come back and make arrangements later."

No one else takes Dalen up on his offer for a mount, so the wizard simply rides along beside the group as you casually walk the hour or so through the city streets to get down to the Docks and Citadel Volyshenek. When you get there you find that the home base of the city guard is a hive of activity, an unusual sight after much of the city guard has been attrited away by deaths from the riots, desertions, and Kroft's own dismissals. They are clearly preparing for the worst as they set up barricades in front of the citadel's already formidable front gates and erect other temporary additional fortifications. Recognizing all of you by now, you are swiftly waved through with an acknowledgement that the Field Marshall was expecting you, and hurried up into her office.

Everyone

Arriving in the office of the Field Marshall near the top of the citadel, you once again find it in its by-now familiar disarray, with papers scattered about on all of the available surfaces. What is different is that the debris has been cleared away from one back corner of the office now, and a cot has been set up in the cleared space. Lying face down on the cot is a familiar blond-haired painter with a knack for getting into trouble - Trinia Sabor, while a cleric of Abadar - another familiar face, Ishani Dharti, administers to the welts and weeping cuts on Trinia's bare back with some sort of poultice. Kroft meanwhile, is pouring over some notes at her desk, not watching the two, but looks up as you all enter, reaching for her sword but relaxing as she sees that it is only all of you. Silas is also standing in the corner, the tiefling fidgeting and chewing on his right index finger nervously as he watches Trinia's treatment finish.

"N-now, this will need to be a-a-applied s-several more times over the n-next c-c-couple of days, but you s-should make a f-full recovery without scarring."

Ishani explains with his usual stammer to Trinia before he steps back, allowing Trinia to sit up and then helping her slip back into a loose buttoned-up tunic marked with the sigil of the Korvosan guard that appears to be several sizes too large for her. Trinia seems to need the help as she flinches and hisses in pain when the cloth touches her back, and also due to the manacle that is locked around her left wrist, connecting her to the frame of the cot by a thin chain.

"As you can see, I managed to convince Ornher Reebs to turn Miss Sabor over to my custody, after I threatened to close the cathedral down due to structural concerns and march the entire guard in there to force an evacuation."

The Field Marshall explains, gesturing over at Trinia and Ishani, and then closes her eyes and gives a tired sigh.

"Good thing that he caved to that; don't think I would actually have enough guardsmen left to loose if I had to force the issue and the Asmodeans resisted. Unfortunately, now we have another problem - when he handed over Miss Sabor, High Priest Reebs also handed over a signed confession that his inquisitors extracted from Miss Sabor last night, confirming that she is one who poisoned King Eodred."

"Oh Gods, is THAT what I signed!?" Trinia exclaims, growing pale as Kroft nods and continues.

"Unfortunately, I was duty-bound to in turn hand that over to the Arbiters. Combined with the letter from Gaedren Lamm calling her out by name as part of the conspiracy to murder the King, as well as other circumstantial evidence such as the fact that she did have access to the castle and the King due to the painting he had commissioned her to create, and it doesn't look good. The Arbiters are deliberating tonight, so we should have a verdict by tomorrow morning - I have a meeting with them in a couple hours to offer my perspective of the "evidence" against Miss Sabor. But it is entirely possible that the Arbiters will declare her guilty, in which case I will have no choice but to, in all likelihood, remand her back to to the Asmodeans for them to carry out the standard sentence . . . death by slow torture."

"What? No . . . no you can't! Please don't send me BACK THERE!"

Trinia screams, climbing up onto the cot in order to back away into the corner, at least as far as the manacle on her wrist would allow her to go. Silas silently goes over to comfort her with a hug, glaring back over his shoulder at the Field Marshall.

"It gets worse - tell them the rest."

Sighing, the Field Marshall digs around on the papers on her desk, coming up with a copy of the Korvosan Gazette which she hands over to Dalen.

"I have a friend at the Gazette who owed me a favor - this is an advance copy of tonight's edition."

Flipping the gazette over to see the whole cover, Dalen reveals the words "KINGSLAYER CAPTURED! CITY AWAITS JUSTICE FOR KING'S MURDER!" as the title for the edition, with an artist's rendition of Trinia Sabor standing over a sleeping King Eodred, a dripping dagger clutched in her hand (quite the sensationalized picture, given Eodred was murdered with a slow poison absorbed through the skin, not stabbed with a poisoned dagger).

"It seems that High Priest Reebs - or at least an "overzealous acolyte" as he will claim - leaked the confession to the Korvosan Gazette, as well as the fact that we've picked up not just Trinia Sabor, but also Adonis Kreed from his offices earlier today - he's down in the holding cells right now. Given the chaos that King Eodred's death unleashed, I can only assume that news of his supposed murderers' capture will kick off another round of anarchy tonight after that edition of the gazette hits the streets. I've asked the Gazette to consider waiting to hold off on releasing this until we have an actual verdict to report from the Arbiters, but was denied - "the City needs to know!"

Kroft parrots bitterly, rolling her eyes.

"So I'm expecting a rather large, rather angry mob out in front of the Citadel gates tonight. I am not going to transfer Miss Sabor nor Mr. Kreed to Longacre or any other facility, just in case there's still a guardsman out there stupid enough to decide to take "justice" into their own hands. Given Kreed seems to be only a minor member of the conspiracy, he should be safe enough down in the cells tonight, but as for Miss Sabor . . . well, you can see the Gazette's opinion of her. And with Lamm dead, there's no one else for us to hold up in front of the public as the one responsible for King Eodred's death. I'm afraid that the entire city is rapidly going to turn against Miss Sabor, regardless of the exact truth of her innocence or guilt."

Kroft scowls and raps her gauntleted fist against her desk.

"But regardless of my being bound to uphold the laws of this city, I will be DAMNED if I let some angry mob decide what justice should be! Miss Sabor will be sleeping here in my office for the night, and I will be personally standing guard. I've already called in all of the remaining guard for tonight as well - it'll have to be enough."

Kroft sighs.

"But I don't know how bad this is going to be tonight. I'm expecting an angry mob at the gates, but after the riots on the night of King Eodred's death who knows what will happen. I could really use your help tonight in keeping the city calm and *not* burning to the ground while all of my guardsmen are tied up here."

Godsdamnit. It would seem that your already long day was going to get just that much longer.

**Darius Vibrtrar** · 2024-02-18, 09:57 PM (ISO 8601)

With a salute of a Hellknight, palm to his chest followed with a quick and curt bow, Turk showed his respect for the Feild Marshall before speaking.

"Field Marshall Kraft. I am Zandu Hellspire of the Godclaw. You may call me Turk."

He flicks the turquoise scarf hanging from his side with a moment of purpose, causing it to flare out to attention, showing his pride in his Varisean heritage.

"Defense against an expected mob of a size even half of what we've come to expect from recent events will proof difficult, and perhaps even futile with our current fortifications and manpower. But if you were to order it, I would gladly stand against the tides of chaos and show the order of the nail what it means to be a Hellknight. Or....

Turk turns to the side, no longer looking directly at the field marshal, he looks to the painter, cuddled up on the cot. He scans her for any strong chaos auras. He continues to talk while watching her.

Or. We can try to put down the riots and mobs before they get here, and call for some additional muscle to fortify the compound against the over zealous. There are people in this town who have laid down roots that Laam has tried to uproot. Those who would come to this Ladies aid to spite Laam. Those whose blades, hands, and boots are not clean. From spotters who can whisper about a curfew, to small pay offs to go to bed early instead of joining this sensational evening. This evening could go quite smoothly with... a Cerulean Solution.

With that he turns back to look to the field Marshall.

"With proper negotiations, and accommodations, the defense tonight could not only be a success. It could be little more than a nuisance. Sir."

Spoiler: ooc:

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diplimacy!!! (1d20+18)[37]
May he be desperate enough to listen to the idea without having Turk killed!

**Darvin** · 2024-02-19, 01:34 PM (ISO 8601)

"Pah, confession by torture? What, were they too lazy to get her to confess to the murder of Aroden while they were at it?" Dalen scoffs, "nonetheless, I anticipate the Arbiters will find this a convenient scapegoat and with the added pressure of this publication I find it hard to believe they'll come to any other verdict,"

Dalen looks about the room, "if there is any hope of averting this ruling, it will be in poking a hole in the confession. In our investigations under Ileosa we have determined many facts about the murder. We need to undermine that confession by showing it inconsistent with those facts, that the specific acts Trinia confessed to were not the means by which Eodred died. It will be difficult to convince the Arbiters, but getting them on Trinia's side is a trifle compared to the mob,"

Dalen eyes Silas and Aliani, "one way or another, time is drawing short for Trinia Sabor. If there is anything you plan on doing on her behalf, it's now or never,"

He then turns to Kroft, "I have some magic that can harmlessly incapacitate a dozen to two dozen townsfolk, but perhaps more useful would be a simple divination spell. It can pick up on information passing as rumor and hearsay through the town, such as the identities of anyone attempting to lead this mob. It could make apprehension relatively quick. But the spell can't determine anything that will happen in the future, so our timing window is narrow,"

**Inspectre** · 2024-02-19, 08:38 PM (ISO 8601)

"It is nonetheless considered legally admissible evidence. One of Domina's many contributions to our fair city's "improved and expediated legal code."

Kroft says with more than a hint of bitterness.

"Nonetheless, the Arbiters are not complete fools - they are aware confessions for anything can be extracted, even for the absurd - such as the murder of a god. If enough hard evidence can be provided to counter what Trinia claims to have done, and prove her own viewpoint false, it may be possible to convince them to ignore it as false testimony. In fact if this was not a high crime of treason and thus immune to such a defense, I'm sure some lawyers would attempt to argue a case of temporary insanity, arguing for rehabilitation rather than punishment."

"Great, so I'd just be locked up for the rest of my life getting "help" in an asylum rather than tortured to death . . . I'm so ****ed."

Trinia groans, sitting back into the corner with her knees drawn up to her chin, clearly trying to make herself as small as possible as she fights back tears.

"I'm so sorry I made another problem for you all. They were hurting me and I just wanted the pain to stop."

"It does feel like Fate itself wants you dead, Miss."

Grau says, speaking up from the corner by the door he had taken up, prompting Silas to suddenly look up, a thoughtful twinkle in his eye.

"Aye . . . it certainly feels like that. I wonder if in a different world, under different circumstances, the outcome would be the same."

Silas offers, clearly hinting (i.e. Secret Message via Bluff) at something that only each of you know - you have all come here from different worlds than this one, but each of them had Trinia Sabor die in them. Now admittedly that might not be that unusual - Eodred has died in all of your worlds that you've seen too, and the general course of events have played out along similar lines - you kllling Lamm (eventually), Ileosa becoming chosen as Korvosa's official new ruler, etc. But you had tried to help Trinia in those other worlds too, and she had inevitably died in some horrible manner in every one of those worlds. Almost like, as here in this world, Fate itself is pushing back against your efforts to save her and force the outcome of her death for some bizarre cosmic reason. And for those who had seen Haeluna's transformation and been subjected to her horrific mental assault, that chilling, thunderous voice mocking you from the darkness - "You will fail. You will always fail."

Kroft glances at Silas for a moment with a raised eyebrow, and then simply dismisses whatever she was thinking with a shake of her head.

"I'm only concerned about what's happening in this world, right here and now. And I certainly would like to know where the Gazette got their information from - it seems a little too convenient for them to not only know the Arbiters are deliberating over a potential Kingslayer, but to have a description of Trinia good enough to sketch that relatively close facsimile."

"PLEASE don't call me that!"

Trinia cries from over in the corner, prompting Ishani to reflexively place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, only to immediately jerk his hand away when she hisses in pain at his touch.

"I b-b-believe in your innoc-c-c-ence, M-Miss S-S-Sabor."

The cleric offers, clearly not knowing what else he can offer at the moment.

Then Turk gives his offer of aid from the Cerulean Society, and Kroft goes quiet for a long moment, clenching her hands into fists on her desk.

"I swore when I took this position that I would *not* be like Field Marshall Jeggare, applying the Law subjectively and not just surrendering to corruption and convenience but welcoming it! I have done everything in my power to rebuild the Korvosan Guard as the beacon of justice and even-handed application of the law that my fa . . . that *I* dreamed it could be. I'm sure that your Masters at the Cerulean Society, "Turk", will be delighted to have a new "understanding" with me about how its members should be sentenced for their crimes, over the common riff-raff of the city. And all it will cost me is my soul . . . damn you from bringing me this offer, Zandu Hellspire of the Godclaw."

The strength and conviction in Kroft's face melts away as she slumps in her city, looking down at her hands, seeming less like the Field Marshall of Korvosan in that moment and more a weary and beaten-down young woman, not that much different from Trinia.

"But I suppose it's only proper for a Hellknight to offer me something for that. If my soul can purchase the safety of Korvosa's citizens for at least one more night from this recent madness, then it's a price I will gladly pay. Go tell your Masters that if they help keep the rioting and looting to a minimum for the duration of this Kingsl - until Trinia's innocence is proven, then we can come to a new understanding."

Thread: The Crimson Echo Season Four

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Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

Re: The Crimson Echo Season Four

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