After the demise of King Eodred II civil unrest spreads through the city like wildfire. The people are divided between those who support Queen Ileosa and those who regard her as an opportunistic Chelish gold digger. After all, in her first months in the city the Queen dismissed Korvosa as a backwater place and her family -important Chelish nobility- were openly against the marriage.
It doesn’t help there are rumours about the kings illness – some claim he died because he was poisoned over time- and that the Seneschal disappeared when the first riots broke out. His fate is as of yet unknown.
The party decides to check the Citadels list of missing objects, to see if any of the items they found in Gaedrens lair have been reported stolen. They find it hard to make their way to the Citadel because the streets are overcrowded and the air is thick with fighting imps and pseudodragons and with Sable Marines who try to restore the order to the best of their abilities.
While they push their way through the throng, Jenny is grabbed by an old madman, who shouts gibberish at her before disappearing into the crowd. The party is surprised: what is happening to their city?
Finally they reach the Citadel. Several of the objects they found are indeed on the list, among which the gold ingots they had used to buy healing potions. As the ingots were stolen from the Vault of Abadar and they bought the healing potions at the same place, they decide to let it rest, seeing the gold returned to its original owners after all. The Kraken belongs to a lesser noble from somewhere in the Heights, and the amulet with the Queens coat of arms is reported missing by the Queen herself. The other stuff is not mentioned on the list, so: finders, keepers.
After they sell the remaining loot, the party crosses the city again to return the Kraken statue to Pellius Gallo in the Heights. As they just enter the Heights they hear yelling, as if someone is about to be lynched. They come across a young noble who is harassed by a group of angry, drunk labourers. Though they cherish no particular sympathy for the Korvosan nobility, the odds of many against one cause the party to step in on behalf of the young noble. Miraculously Victor manages to talk the labourers into leaving the noble unharmed, without the need for Ulfgard to bash some skulls. Their good deed earns them a platinum piece each from the grateful boy.
A few streets down the Heights they find the manor of the wealthy businessman Pellius Gallo. They are received by Neravia Gallo, his daughter, as the man himself is away on a business trip. She accepts the statue on his behalf and offers the party a reward of 8 gold coins each for returning the property.
After a drink to celebrate their accumulation of wealth they decide to pay a visit to the castle to return the brooch to the Queen. There they are asked to return the next day in the afternoon.
Grau Soldado
That evening they visit a bar to celebrate their successes but their evening is interrupted by a very drunk man, named Grau Soldado. He greets Victor as his long lost friend, though Victor has no idea who the man is. Grau claims to be a sergeant of the Guard and tells them in a slur he´s been drunk and not on duty for four whole days. He loudly proclaims he despises the Queen. Piousa feels little sympathy for the man, but Victor recognizes him as an honourable and reliable member of the Guard and he tries his best to put Grau straight by telling him the city needs him in this time of trouble and that the Guard serves the city, not necessarily its rulers.
The party cleans Grau up and delivers him to the Citadel. Once there, Grau sobers up enough to realize he doesn´t really know Victor at all. He thanks the party for their help and they seem to have gained a friend in the guard, something which might prove itself useful one day…
The next morning they all meet up again and early in the afternoon they go to Castle Korvosa. There they are received by Sabina Merrin, the personal bodyguard of the Queen, who leads them to Queen Ileosa herself.
The Queen is very touched by the return of her brooch. She tells the party how happy she is to find the city still harbours honest people and consequently offers them a job at the Guard.
The Guard is an instrument of the laws of the city. Sometimes the Guard needs to act outside the law, and that is where the party would come in. They would operate in the shadows, under the command of Field Marshal Cressida Kroft, and do the things she can’t officially give orders for to her guards. Of course, there will be a handsome reward for each job…
The group agrees to sign up and they walk to the Citadel of the Guard, accompanied by a few of Ileosa’s men. Suddenyl an Otyugh breaks through the surface and madly attacks everyone in sight. Otyughs are creatures who are held in the sewers and are used to dispose of the city’s waste, but it seems this one has gone out of control.
After a brief fight the party managed to defeat it. The only death to mourn is the death of Laurens summoned rat. It died from friendly fire and Victor, who suffers from fear of rats, is kindly told never to lay a hand on one of her rats again, to prevent future misunderstandings. The palace guards remain at the hole in the road to make sure no one goes in and more importantly nothing comes out again.
Cressida Kroft
At the Citadel the party is received by Cressida Kroft, Field Marshal and head of the Guard. She nearly repeats the Queens words, expressing her gratitude at finding honest people in Korvosa, and hands the party their first assignment.
With the King’s demise the loyalty of many guards has dwindled. One man in particular knows well how to play the guards and is responsible for too many desertions to be left unpunished. Cressida asks the group to bring him to her, preferably alive. She explains she cannot have the guards act because it would undermine their morale even more to have to arrest one of their own, especially one so popular and well liked as Verik Vankaskerkin. The Field Marshal tells the party they will find him and his gang at an old butchery named “All the world’s meat’.
She also offers the five free food and permanent lodging in “The Three Rings”, an inn near the Citadel, while they are working for the Guard but much to Victors disappointment they all decline. He hopes to be able to convince the others to take the offer in time, during which he decided to move into the barracks, considering it a better alternative for the slum he’s been living in the past years.
The next morning they all gather for breakfast and to make a plan. They decide Jenny will observe the butchery during the day and Lauren and Ulfgard during the night, to get an idea of what they’re up against. It’s a building with two floors and it seems to do well during the day, with lots of people comgin in and out again. The butchery closes at 19:00, after which only one light remains lit in a room on the second floor.
Victor, in the meanwhile, asks around to see what information he can find on the butchery and the people that run it. He learns the butchery is run by deserters of the Guard, the “Cowhammer Boys”, who are well loved by the poorer people because they distribute meat for free. Verik Vankaskerkin, the leader, is some kind of local hero. When he tries to get free meat for himself, he receives it without many questions asked. After taking a sample off it for investigation, he passes it on to a family in the Shingles he’s acquainted with.
Jenny spies on the butchery for another day and she sees a wealthy man entering the butchery and leaving again, without meat, but while having talked to two of the deserters. She tells this to the party when they come together to switch watch, and they decide it’s time to put Veriks activities to a halt.
That night the group hides in an alley until they see four ex-guards leave. To buy the others time to enter the bucthery, Lauren uses both her charms to entertain the men as long as possible, but has to let them pass eventually, as they are apparently on their way to an important meeting.
In the meanwhile Jenny spies on the butchery and notices the light in the one room is still lit. They decide to go round the back, break in and try to capture Verik, who they assume to be the one upstairs. Past the pig stables Ulfgards axe takes care of the back door of the butchery.
Inside they come across a cooling chamber populated with frozen carcasses of unknown origin, but they put that aside for later investigation as the carcasses are dead already and won´t be going anywhere.
They reach the stairs but aren´t all that quiet. Suddenly Piousa, who walks in front, is shot from above with an arrow. Everyone jumps aside to make room for Ulfgard to charge up the stairs, and after an uncomfortable fight at the top he manages to incapacitate the deserted sergeant.
In the meanwhile the four men Lauren tried to distract earlier come back and attack the other party members, who are still at the foot of the stairs. With some skill and a lot of luck, they manage to overcome their attackers. They kill the henchman, but manage to capture Verik himself alive, as Cressida preferred.
Verik Vankaskerkin
After the battle they discover the gruesome truth behind the butchery´s “free” meat supply. The four henchmen of Verik Vankaskerkin used it as an easy way to dispose of corpses of people they killed for money.
Quickly they call in the guards and have them bring Vankaskerkin to the Citadel, where he will be questioned and tried for his deeds.
Cressida is pleased with the swift and succesful action and rewards the party with a nice sum of gold.
Loot: 668 G and one silver dagger
Tags: cressida, grau, vankaskerkin