Gritt's Tale Part 5

Once outside, Gritt took up a steady striding pace, and began to head through the Shingles, moving through the milling groups of people with surprising ease.  The scribe seemed to keep catching himself on the elbows of passers-by, almost tripped up several times, and was soon sweating with effort.  Although still shrouded in shade, the sky was clear and it looked like it was going to be a pleasant day.  Once he had caught up with Gritt, the old man started speaking again.

“Well, we spent 6 weeks waiting for Kroft to give us some work.  Can’t say that we spent the time constructively.  Things seemed to have settled down, but we kept hearin’ those rumours about the Queen being responsible.  Figured someone was trying to stir up trouble still.  Cheliax, by my reckoning.  But, with the hell-knights marching around, trouble wasn’t going to break out.  Then we caught wind of something else that didn’t smell right.  Apparently, they were pinning the murder of the King on some artist – a young girl.  The mob bought the story straight away.  Kroft came and spoke to us about it.  Wanted us to catch the girl, bring her in, afore she got lynched.  Gave us the address.”

Gritt stopped walking, and crossed the street.  He turned, and stared up at a dilapidated building, that looked typical of the Shingles – kids playing on balconies, rope bridges strung from verandahs, crumbling walls.

“42 Moon Street.  Right here.  We turned up.  Tried to speak to the neighbours.  They figured we was the law.” He shrugged.  “Can’t say I blame ‘em – they were kinda right.  We found the girl’s  place.  Saw her leggin’ it out the back though.  We had to chase her.  You ever been up there in the Shingles?  It’s a warren.  Real hard to get a bit of speed up – specially if you’re weighed down with armour and a decent weapon.  Thought we weren’t gonna catch her.  Watson surprised me.  Turned out he had some talent when it comes to scampering about on roofs.  He managed to catch up with her  - busted clean through a wall and made a jump like a damn spider-monkey, then grabbed a hold of her.  Me and Justin weren’t so quick.  Matter of fact, Justin fell off the building trying to get past me and catch her.  Lucky he landed in a something soft.  Pity ‘bout the smell though.”

The scribe stared up at the building, trying to picture what had happened.  Looking at the precarious thinly tied ropes, he gulped nervously at the thought of running across one or leaping to the next building in pursuit of someone.  Then he noticed Gritt looking at him.  The scribe nodded to Gritt, and Gritt resumed walking and talking.

“Anyway, we shoved her in a sack and got her to Kroft in one piece.  Then we asked her some questions.  Sol cast himself a spell.  This symbol appeared above the girl’s head.  Told us if she was lying.  Turned out she hadn’t had anything to do with the King’s murder.  Also turned out that Sparrow wasn’t interested in that – just had a real unhealthy line of questioning into who the girl had slept with.  Didn’t know better, I’d say Sparrow was interested in getting the lass into the sack herself.  She was quite a looker.  Anyway, even though she was innocent, Kroft wouldn’t let her go.  Apparently, they had to do things by the book.  Can’t say I thought it was right, but weren’t no point in kicking up a stink about it.  Kroft said she was going to hand her over to the Palace for questioning.”

“Well, after that, there was a bit of disagreement about what we should do.  Mandraiv figured the whole thing was a plan by the Queen and Sabina to find a scapegoat and get the people to like the Queen again.  I didn’t see it that way.  Too many holes.  Way I figured it – if someone figured stirrin’ up rumours wasn’t enough to get the people rebelling against the Queen – there’d be a better way.  Get the Queen to accuse and then execute some beautiful young girl, an artist no less, for the murder.  Then, what’d you know, out comes some evidence to show it couldn’t have been the artist – and it looks like the Queen’s just tried to frame an innocent girl to get people to love her.  That’d turn the people real angry – Hellknights or not – wouldn’t like their chances then.  Plus, didn’t sit with the way the Queen and Sabina dealt with us.  Seemed like the Queen was genuine to me.  Sabina too.  Figured I’d go and speak to Sabina.  Like I said, she was a real fine figure of a woman, and I planned to get to know her better.”

“Gotta’ admire Mandraiv’s persistence.  Man followed me all the way to the palace, trying to talk me out of it.  But, like I tried to tell him – man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.  I don’t know what it is – whether Lamm did something to Mandraiv he didn’t do to the rest of us – but Mandraiv was a bit different.  Didn’t see things the same way as the rest of us.  Wouldn’t trust no-one.  Hoped I could show him that not everyone was bad.”

“Well, I got in and spoke to Sabina.  She was just as beautiful as I’d remembered.  Real serious though.  Kinda added to her beauty.  Well, I ain’t got no silver tongue like Mandraiv or Sol, so I just kinda told her I’d like to get to know her better.  She said she was already involved with someone.  Kinda cryptic.  Still, I invited her to come see us at the Three Rings sometime. When she said she was involved, couldn’t really tell whether she meant she was too busy guarding the Queen, or something else.”

“Spoke to her about the guard who’d fingered the artist, Trinia, for the crime.  His name was Reginald.   She let me have a word with him.  The man was lying.  Told him I knew so, but he wouldn’t tell me what was going on.  But, the way he was worried about his family – seemed like he was making up the story that implicated Trinia ‘cause someone was threatening them.  He was in a tough situation right enough – just wish’d I could have convinced him to tell the truth.  But, like I said, I ain’t got a way with words.”

“Well, after that, we had a chat with a few people.  Spoke to Grau.  He didn’t know Reginald.  Different type of guard he said.  Also told me that Sabrina liked whisky.  And beer.  Gotta say, made me feel pretty good for a while.  My kind of girl.  Then he said that she don’t like men, just women.  Same as Sparrow.  Well, don’t know whether that’s true or not.  I’ve heard enough people say that when a girl hasn’t chosen ‘em.  Figured I’d like to hear Sabina tell me herself.  The way rumours keep spreadin’ even when there’s no truth to ‘em – well, I don’t hold no stock in what people say.  I like to get a feel for someone myself.”

“Met Reginald’s wife.  The woman was too emotional.  Didn’t matter what any of us said, she just bawled us outta her home.  Felt sorry for her though.  Left her some money to look after her kids.”

“We told Kroft about what we’d learnt.  She introduced us to an old Shoanti.  Creepy old guy.  Name of Thousand bones.  Real angry.  Apparently his grandson got beaten to death in Korvosa.  Said if we didn’t get the body back, his sons’d likely declare war on the city.” Gritt shook his head with a saddened expression. “Sounded like they was just as bad as the Korvosans – willing to blame a whole bunch of people who ain’t had anything to do with anything just ‘cause of where they lived.  Anyway, we said we’d bring the body back, so they could do the right thing for the grandson – send his sould on its journey the right way.  Then he and Justin had a chat with each other.   Jabbered away in Shoanti.  Couldn’t make head or tail of it – but looked like they knew each other.”

“Anyway, Kroft told us who’d got the body.  Some alchemist by the name of Ernest Fyffe.  When she said his name – well, Watson went all pale, like someone walked over his grave.  Turned out he was imprisoned by Fyffe for a few years.  Strapped to a wheel, had to push it around, month after month.  Had to watch Fyffe cutting folks up for fun.  Didn’t say much more about what happened there.  Wondered how much more there was to the tale.  Between what Fyffe and Lamm had done to him, I was starting to understand why Watson was so strange.  Talked funny, real naïve in some ways, and real reckless at times.  Well, I hoped he’d feel better if we got rid of Fyffe."

"We went to the Dead Warrens where Fyffe was hiding.  Headed underground into his hideout.  It was a mausoleum.  A crypt full of the dead.  Pits full of bones.  Damnedest thing happened.  Just about as soon as we got in there, a bunch of skeletons clambered out of the pit and attacked us.  Creepiest thing I’d ever seen – their gaping mouths, the clattering noise.  Sure, I’ve seen a lot of stranger things since – but that was the first time I’d seen the dead walk.  They weren’t the problem though.  The problem was a great big skeleton.  Some kind of weird bird animal.  Great big skeletal big on a thing as big as a bear.  It grabbed a hold of Watson and damn near pecked him to death.  Justin, me and Sparrow tried to take it down while Mandraiv, Artox – his snake – and Sol took down the skeletons.  Watson managed to wriggle out of its grip and backed away.  The thing grabbed a hold of me.  I was hoping Watson was going to come and bash it while it was distracted from dealing with me – but he went and fought against the last human skeleton still going.  Well, luckily I managed to smash the weird skeleton before it ripped me apart, with Sparrow’s help and some well-timed healing from Sol.  Figured I’d have a word to Watson about how we was gonna fight things later.  Way I saw it – best to take out the real deadly foes first – leave the minor threats till later."

Mandraiv's Diary 4

Wow.  The big gay bastard with the two handed sword is a bloody-minded freak with no consideration of the damage his actions might cause me.  His desire to put himself at massive personal risk is great when, as a group, we’re in a fight – but to deliberately risk my incarceration and potential execution, if not assassination simply to pursue what is, by his twisted personal barometer “right” is just plain madness.  Has he no regard for my safety?

To recap the actual events of the last couple of days, we spent a few recovering from our massive, crucial and potentially city-saving battle with the spider king.  The rioting was put down effectively by the hellknights, until a rumour sprang up that the king’s assassin had been identified.  Apparently, one of the royal guards confessed to letting the king’s artist into his bedchamber late one night, and he was found dead the next morning.  The woman’s identity was spreading around the city like wildfire, prompting the city watch captain to come to our inn and enlist our assistance in locating the suspect, in order to ensure that she survived to stand trial.

Having the supposed assassin’s address, we made our way into the shingles to grab her.  Unfortunately she saw us coming, and a hectic roof-top pursuit almost saw her get away, with the other big dumb one managing, at the end, to outdistance the rest of the party and catch the slippery bitch.  Once we had her, turned out she was incredibly hot, and so stripping her of her armour was quite entertaining, although given the sensibilities of some of the others, our questioning of her was less entertaining than it could have been.  Anyway, we questioned her thoroughly, established that she almost certainly didn’t kill the king, put her in a sack and took her to the city watch captain.  Further questioning, aided by a truth spell from the cleric indicated pretty conclusively that she was innocent.  Regardless, we left her with the guard captain to face trial.

It was at this point that the gay warrior decided that since she was innocent, we’d have to get involved in trying to get her freed.  This led to a long argument between us, where despite my immaculate logic he refused to accept that the queen or her right hand lady were most likely involved in setting the girl up, and that we were definitely best off letting the matter go to trial.  I even suggested that we would have a better chance of helping the girl if we tried to rescue her from her sure to be public execution after the trial.  He never mentioned a concern that she mightn’t make it to trial, and listened to everything I said before agreeing with me a deciding to see the queen’s second in command anyway.  So despite agreeing that the scheme had to have been initiated by one of the two women, he was going to talk to one of them about it.  I gave up arguing at the citadel gates and returned to the inn to await the royal guard escort to the royal dungeons.

Eventually, the fool returned, and apparently he’d managed to ascertain a few truths without landing us all in hot water.  He apparently asked the royal handmaiden out, convinced her to let him speak to the royal guard being held for letting the assassin into the king’s bedchamber and convinced himself that she had no part in the plot.  His visit to the guard apparently indicated that he was probably lying and was accepting the blame (and death penalty) on the basis of helping his family.

Naturally, his gayness was still unwilling to let this now apparently royal plot alone, and we went to visit the guard’s family.  Finding out about the address from the drunk guard we spoke to a couple of weeks earlier, we also found out that the queen’s handmaiden plays for the other team, perhaps explaining why our gay warrior is trying to pick her up – surely a harmless way for him to conceal his natural tendencies with no risk of a successful campaign to woo the maiden.  Despite convincing arguments of the presumed truth, the guard’s wife wanted nothing to do with us or any of our very sensible advice (like fleeing the city) and we were shortly on our way back to the inn.

We then went to report this lot to the captain of the city watch, she offered us more work.  Finally, something we can get paid for while leaving royal plots alone.  Anyway, apparently some Shoanti bloke was killed by one of the recent mobs, and unless the body is returned to his people, there will be war.  How many times can we save the city from war in a month?  Anyway, the captain told us that the body was taken by some alchemist into the catacombs beneath the city’s main cemetery, and we headed off immediately.  Apparently there is a connection to one of the group with this alchemist, but since the big fool refuses to talk about it, we let the matter drop and soon found ourselves headed down through a trapdoor in the floor of a mausoleum and down into the catacombs.  We were attacked shortly thereafter by a bunch of skeletons, which we destroyed and then prepared to continue on to find this alchemist.  Hmm, a necromantic alchemist.  Interesting.  Wonder what kind of loot he’ll be hoarding?

Mandraiv's Diary 3

With a crowd milling out the front looking for a free meal, we decided to butcher what animals were in the holding pens and give away the meat, telling the people that there would be no further charity from this shop.  We decided to ignore a couple of crab people we discovered in the sewers under the shop, figuring they’d starve soon enough and that they weren’t a danger to the populous as they were trapped in their little area.  We loaded our prisoners onto a cart and used the cow we saved from slaughter to pull it to the guard house, where Kroft, the guard captain, was surprised that we had bought them all in and handed them over to her questioner to establish the truth.

Kroft also told us that she wasn’t really able to hold our gnome prisoner, and that the courts would likely just fine him and set him free, so a couple of us took him out the back and beat the crap out of him, explaining that if we ever heard of him mistreating children again, we’d come back and kill him.  She (Kroft) also offered us a place to stay in the barracks, and then agreed to set us up at a tavern instead.  We retired to the tavern for the evening, figuring on returning the next day to discover the fate of our captives.

At the tavern that night, some drunk guard named Grau approached our priest (a man with a remarkable attraction to nutters and desperadoes, it seems) before being convinced to return to his post and that desertion was not the answer.

The next morning we returned to the guard’s citadel to witness the hanging of the five deserters which went off with only a limited hitch as our queer warrior tried to intercede on behalf of Varik.  It turns out that as well as desertion he had been trying to start a rebellion against the queen, and he danced the hempen jig with his companions.  Interesting to see some of the internal drivers for some of my new companions, but it looks as though they’ll generally listen to reason and shouldn’t get in my way too much.

We then met again with the guard captain, and soon had our next mission.  Go and talk to an underworld figure, the king of spiders, and bribe him to reveal useful information to prevent an ambassador to the city from destabilising the economy.  We were taken part of the way by some fencing teacher, who apparently had a long history involving the queen’s 2IC and Grue, although we couldn’t get the whole story from him.  Somehow, I’m sure we’ll meet again and find out more then.

We went to the spider king’s lair, a group of ships offering all manner of vice and secured an audience with him.  While trying to establish an appropriate figure for the bribe to get the information we needed, the bloke recognised the only female member of our group, a big, ugly women and member of the sable marines as such, and ordered his thugs to attack.

A long fight ensued in which we dispatched or chased off all of the thugs on board the head ship of the bunch, and knocked out the spider king, a bunch of his spiders and some kind of half spider monster.  Searching afterwards revealed the information we needed, as well as another nice pile of loot.  This adventuring caper is a sure winner for gaining cash fast.  And in Korvosa, first you get the money, then you get the power.

Once we had finished looting, we entered a discussion about the fate of the spider king.  As Kroft had told us she felt that he had powerful influence in the underworld, I felt that he had to die – if charged he would face a vice tax and be released to exact his revenge on us.  One member of the group, name of Watson or something, big bastard anyway, stubbornly resisted my logic, insisting that it was wrong to kill the spider, but I was finally able to distract him long enough to slit the crook’s throat and chuck him in the river prior to our leaving the ship.  We got many a strange look leaving the area, but were left alone by the thugs, and soon returned to the guardhouse where Kroft was pleased that the spider king was no longer a threat to the peace of the city.

Mandraiv's Diary 2

We left the warehouse to discover an absolute shitstorm.  Apparently, the king had died and the city was in chaos.  There was extensive rioting, and in order not to tarnish my currently golden reputation with these new people, I agreed that we needed to get our captive to the guard, and not to join the looting.  We even managed to resolve a couple of issues on the way to the guard house, rescuing some noble named Armen Gelentro from a gang of commoners, running into some insane man who seemed fixated with the priest, as well as seeing the hellknights trying to restore order to the city.  Impressively efficient unit, the hellknights.

After we dropped off the gnome we figured our best course of action was to lay low for the night, as a curfew was in force and the hellknights weren’t really listening to reason before enforcing the associated penalties, as well as sable marines flying around putting down citizens seen on the streets.  So we headed back to the Varissian witch’s house to wait for the next day.  The witch appeared again, and thanked us, as well as telling us that her cards were magical, and that we should hang onto them.

Since the priest apparently caught something from the madman, we headed to the Bank of Abadar to pick up a little healing, both for the priest and for Artox, who was suffering some lingering effects from the previous day’s fighting.  We then headed for the heights to try to get a reward for finding the queen’s brooch, stopping off again along the way, this time at the church of Shelyn.  Turns out the gruff warrior with the ragged voice is a bit of a queer.

We eventually reached the heights and secured an audience with the queen, meeting her second in command along the way.  A fine looking pair of women, but still only women.  I guess the queen could be useful to me in my rise to power, but I can’t afford to be indebted to her in the process, and anything I gain from her can be as easily taken away.  Best bet was to play it cool, I guess, so I did.  But it was definitely worth collecting the influence and kudos I have coming to me for retrieving the brooch.

We were rewarded for returning the brooch, but then the queen volunteered us to help the city guard quell the riots.  Not impressed at all, but then again the queen owing me a favour can only be useful to my goals, so time to perform some civic duty and hopefully garner some a bit of a reputation with some of the city’s leaders.

Heading to the guard house, we met the captain of the city watch who asked us to grab a deserter from the watch by the name of Verik.  Apparently growing numbers of guards were deciding that their jobs weren’t much fun anymore, with the unrest in the city needing to be put down requiring a lot more work than their usual routines of, presumably, shaking down small business owners and beating petty criminals.  Verik was apparently at a butcher’s shop, with a bunch of other deserters, so we headed there immediately.

We entered through the back of the shop, once again our efforts at sneaking in ruined by some of the noisier members of the group.  I hope they learn some stealth at some point – if we’re going to continue hanging around together, we may at some point come up against opponents we need to get a tactical advantage over.  But then again, so far it’s not been a real issue.  We found ourselves up against Varik and a few other guardsmen, and soon had them all down, although surprisingly without any fatalities.  Even to the deserters.  Searching the building, we found evidence that they had been providing human meat to people, and we soon managed to establish that although Varik was pretty much unaware of any serious wrongdoing, his lackeys had been taking money to beat people up, then decided to upgrade to murdering and butchering them, and giving the meat to the people Varik was trying to help with free food.

Mandraiv's Diary 1

While taking a break from my studies, sitting in the park overlooking that dubious Acadamae of amateur conjurers, reflecting on my imminent rise to power, I stumbled across some kind of card, with a picture of a small man equipped with some kind of scourge riding an ogre with the caption of “The Teamster”.  On the back was in invitation to meet with some people with a grudge against Gaedran Lamm in order to get him, apparently with information about where he is holing up these days.

Arriving a few minutes late, I was surprised to see five other people in a small house, apparently the others who wanted to get Gaedran.  Should be able to get him with just his address, but then if others want to come to watch me exact my revenge, so be it.  If it wasn’t for the bastard, I’d be in the Acadamae showing them all how it’s done, surely a power in the city already.  So he has it coming.  And a few witnesses won’t do my reputation any harm.

Some Varisian witch arrived shortly thereafter and told us that Gaedran had stolen her harrow deck, apparently making it difficult for her to predict the future.  She had already used the deck to discover us, a group of people wronged by Gaedran, and figured we’d help her get the cards back.  Still, I’ll happily trade the return of some artefact of Varissian trickery for the address and my chance to get back at Lamm, so I figured I’d go and sort the bastard out.  The witch gave us all a fortune telling before we left, some mumbo-jumbo about our supposed futures.  As usual, the predictions were vague, general and without time frame, and as such almost certain to come true.  Still, it seemed to give some comfort to the other people there, except one massive bastard who started to drop one shoulder and lean his head to the opposite side afterwards, as if there was something weighing down one shoulder.

The six of us headed to Lamm’s place, some kind of warehouse stinking of fish, and as I was sneaking in some of the other were seen.  We were immediately attacked by a bunch of orphans – clearly Lamm’s work practices remain the same relating to the young and unfortunate, and their bosses.  The fight was intense, and the help of the others was actually useful, although Artox and I could have taken them if we needed to, while one of us, the priest, kept telling the orphans to leave us alone and flee.  Since they seemed to be wavering in their commitment to the fight and were of little consequence to me, I joined in this myself, and soon the children tuned on their oppressors.  Good idea that form the priest.  We killed one of Lamm’s lieutenants, a half-orc, and captured another, a gnome.  Then we wasted some time questioning the orphans before telling them to flee, suggesting they find their way to an orphanage or church for somewhere to sleep and maybe start a new life.

We then proceeded towards where Lamm had to be hiding, and eventually found him down below the warehouse on a rickety dock, accompanied by a crocodile and another lieutenant.  Setting Artox after the beast and angling for a clean shot on Lamm, I was pleased to see some use from the others as they managed to keep the henchman and croc busy while I took care of Lamm.  He tried to talk us down, but after a few seconds his left eye started twitching, the way it used to when he was about to start beating me, so I put a quarrel through it.  The henchman was also killed, and the croc escaped into the river.  With my revenge taken care of, in front of an audience appreciative of my marksmanship as a bonus, we set about looting the place.

We found plenty of goods, including the pack of cards we had agreed to retrieve, a broken brooch supposedly belonging to the queen, and most strangely the head of the witch we spoke to earlier.  Seems she was dead, an interesting development worth investigating – I’d never really considered summoning back the dead, but this could be a great way to develop my power, influence and wealth.  Figuring that tonight’s work, while personally gratifying, probably constituted an adventure, and returned more money that I could normally expect to make in a year, I decided on a new career path and a sure way to rapid advancement.  If I can continue to gather cash this quickly, I’ll be able to buy the Acadamae in no time and put all those pathetic posers out on the streets.  Returning the queen’s brooch has to be a good star on gaining true political influence too.

Gorum

Gorum is a headstrong and impatient deity, prone to impulsive and emotional outbursts. His first reaction to

an unexpected situation is typically violence, and when he spies something he likes, he takes it. He sees no value in diplomacy or negotiation. His idea of art is blood spattered on a shield. To him, music is the ringing of metal on metal, the crack of breaking bone, and the screams of injured foes. Poetry is the recitation of challenges and the retelling of battles, victorious or otherwise. He laughs at pacifists, especially at the fear on their faces as he chops them apart. He cares nothing for anything but war, and only valorous war—using poison, disease, or other cowardly methods to kill is the path of the weakling.

Cleric's Role

Followers of Gorum like to adorn their weapons and armor with spikes like those their god favors (some take spikes from fallen enemies as trophies for their own gear). Like the god himself, Gorum’s followers tend to be impulsive, violent, and prone to grabbing whatever they feel like owning; as a result, there are far more

evil followers of Gorum than good. Like Gorum, his followers don’t care about the problems and schemes of

other deities, but they fight whoever gets in their way. Fights between the faithful are common, though usually

not to the death, and are done to establish dominance, claims over treasure, lovers, or just for entertainment.

The church values strength over age or knowledge, and the senior priest in any tribe or temple typically reaches that position by defeating many enemies and beating down all rivals.

Spells

Clerics and druids may prepare rage as a 3rd-level spell and iron body as an 8th-level spell. Clerics may prepare heat metal as a 3rd-level spell. Druids are forbidden from using the rusting grasp spell. Inquisitors may take rage as a 3rd level spell known and heat metal as a 3rd level spell known.


Gorum ’s Armor
School transmutation; Level: Clr 1, Inquisitor 1 (Gorum)
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (1 iron spike)
Range touch
Target 1 suit of metal armor (including shield)
Duration 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw Fortitude negates (harmless);
Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
Description
The targeted armor sprouts thousands of tiny iron spikes like porcupine quills. These do not harm the armor’s wearer (though donning or removing it takes twice as long), but they act as armor spikes (and shield
spikes, if a shield is present). Any creature attacking the wearer with natural weapons takes 1 point of piercing damage for each attack that hits. At 5thlevel, the spikes gain a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage.

Thousand Bones

Thousand Bones is a Way-Keeper for the Skoan-Quah, the Clan of the Skull. He is a tall, rail-thin Shoanti man of 60 winters. He leans heavily on a walking stick, the polished femur of some giant beast crowned with a firepelt cougar’s skull. He wears a shirt decorated with countless jangling animal bones, many painstakingly scrawled with dozens of tiny symbols and glyphs. A bearskin cloak is draped about his bony shoulders, and warpaint in the shape of a skull decorates his face. The Shoanti’s eyes are milky as if he were blind, though he sees better than most men half his age. He is never without his familiar, a regal red-feathered razor crow named Eats-Eyes. 

He and Justin appear to know each other. He refers to Justin as a Tshamek.

Trinia Sabor

Trinia Sabor is pretty young artist that was commissioned by the king to do some painting for him. Rumour has it that she fell in love with the king but grew jealous and angry that he would not leave the queen for her. So she killed him.

The heroes have tracked her down and captured her. She says she is innocent and truth telling spell seems to confirm it.

Part 4: The Queen's Scapegoat

The heroes are given some time to rest and recover. Over the following weeks the riots are quelled and city returns to a semblance of normalcy. However in its heart Korvosa still simmers; rumours of the queens involvement in the king’s death continues to circulate and will not die.

That is until the murderer is identified. An investigation by the Royal Guard discovers that a young artist by the name of Trinia Sabor was the last to the king alive and that she had coerced her way into the King’s chambers at night. A Royal Guardsman had confessed to accepting sexual favours in return for allowing her to pass. That night the King was found dead.

The city erupts again into chaos as lynch mobs once again take to the street, this time to find the assassin and bring her to justice. Field Marshal Kroft goes through the trouble to find the heroes at the Three Rings Tavern and ask that her favourite adventurers once again perform another service for Korvosa: to bring in this young artist/assassin for questioning before she is discovered by the mob.

The party accepts the mission and quickly locates her in the heart of the shingles within Midland. Artox and Watson quickly spot her fleeing across the rooftops. The heroes take chase. Trinia is fleet of foot and clearly well used to traversing the shingles. She almost escapes but Watson captures her with some fleet footed nimbleness of his own.

The heroes question her and she resolutely declares her innocence. She is taken back to the Citadel Volyshenek (in a sack no less) and brought before Field Marshal Kroft for questioning. With the aid of a truth spell from Sol; they learn that her account is truthful and that she did not murder the king. (Though there is some doubt over whether there was some romantic connection between her and the king).

Trinia is taken to the Royal Palace, but most of the heroes believe she has been setup and some nefarious scheme is afoot. Gritt wants to question Sabina but Mandraiv strongly argues for caution; believing that Sabina may well be one of the masterminds. An interesting debate follows but ultimately Mandraiv  is not able to sway Gritt from his course of action; in fact it quickly becomes evident that Gritt has other motivations for seeing the beautiful swordmaiden.

Gritt (with Watson in tow) is able to convince the guards to allow them to meet with Sabina.  The meeting with Sabina goes well and both Gritt and Watson seem to be satisfied that she is honest and well meaning. Gritt even manages to get permission to the see the detained guard (Reginald Smythe). He also rather boldy asks her out for a drink, but she politely declines saying that there is already someone else in her life. Gritt, while disappointed does not give up and leaves an open invitation to drop by the Three Rings Tavern sometime for a quick drink with the heroes.

Gritt visits the guard; who admits to allowing Trinia in to see the king. He appears guilt ridden and accepts that he has betrayed the crown and deserves to die. Gritt doesn’t believe a word of it and after a little intimidation, the guard mentions rather cryptically that his family will be well looked after and that he just wants to be left alone to face his execution. This is as much as Gritt can get from the guardsman who starts calling for Gritt to be removed from his cell.

The heroes turn to Grau, who has just been released from kitchen duty after six weeks. He knows nothing about the Royal Guard or Reginald Smythe but offers to try to find where he lives. Gritt also quizzes him on his relationship with Sabina and whether she was ‘available’. He learns that there was a rather messy love triangle between him, Vencarlo and Sabina, though Sabina did not reciprocate the advances of either man. In a moment of jealousy Grau turned both Vencarlo and Sabina against each other which resulted in a duel that left both of them scarred.

True to his word Grau locates the address of Reginalds family and the heroes pay the family a visit. Rena Smythe, Reginald’s wife is initially angry at her husband, believing the rumours but when the heroes present their theory that he has been setup she becomes hysterical. Nothing the heroes say can console her and they are eventually ordered out of her house.

They also bring their theory to Field Marshall Kroft who promises to dig deeper; but in the meantime she has a new mission for them and asks that they come see her early the next day.

The Dead Warrens

Early the next day when they meet Field Marshall Kroft they are introduced to an old shaonti shaman called Thousand Bones. It is immediately clear that Justin and Thousand Bones are aquainted and they exchange a brief conversation in Shaonti.

Thousand Bones then speaks to everyone, he is angry and frustrated and bemoans Korvosa’s treacherous ways. He explains that his grandson, a young Shaonti warrior has been slain at the hands of some thugs and his body stolen away. His tribe is angry and wants to join with the Sklar Quah to wage war on Korvosa. If nothing is done, the Shaonti tribes will go to war. He believes if the heroes can find the warriors body, then his spirit can be properly sent on to the after live. If Korvosa can do this, the Thousand Bones believes he can convince his tribe to stand down.

Unfortunately the body has been stolen by a wicked alchemist named Ernest Fyffe who is believed to have a secret lair somewhere in the Dead Warrens. The heroes also learn that Watson has a connection to this alchemist though he is mostly tight-lipped  about their history and reveals very little.

The heroes set off to the Dead Warrens and locate the hidden lair in the Potter’s Ward. They descend into a secret complex where they are beset upon by some undead skeletons. The skeletons are slain and the heroes are poised to explore the complex further.

Encounter	Grit	Justin	Mandraiv	Sparrowhawk	Sol	Watson
Pre-Session	5,054	4,654	4,554	4,654	4,654	4,654
Journal	200
Capturing Trinia	200	200	200	200	200	200
Investigating the Reginald	200	200	200	200	200	200
RP: Debate between Mandraiv & Gritt	300		200
Humour: Courting Sabina	300
6 Skeletons	135	135	135	135	135	135
1 Owl bear skeleton	100	100	100	100	100	100
Total	6,489	5,289	5,389	5,289	5,289	5,289

Gritt's Tale, Part 4

Gritt tucked into the juicy steak, and chewed contentedly while the Scribe sat watching.  After he had mopped up the eggs and mushrooms, Gritt sighed contentedly.

“Well, we finished searchin’ the butchers.  Found a couple of boars, and cut them up for their meat.  Gave it to the folks waitin’ outside and told them the place was shut. We left the reefclaws in the sewer alone.  No-one was real keen to kill ‘em – ‘spose no-one saw the need.  Didn’t like they’d be coming out to pester folks.”

“We took all the guards back to the Citadel, and handed ‘em over to Kroft.  She gave em’ to a guy named Seth.  Real shifty looking fella – can’t say as I liked the look of him.  Anyway, his job was to get the truth out of them – and it looked like he wasn’t going to be doing it over tea and cake with a friendly word."

"Kroft asked what we wanted to do with Hookshanks.  We didn’t have any hard evidence, and neither did she.  Justin took him.  He met up with us later on.  Didn’t say what had happened – but he didn’t need to.  The bruises on his knuckles and the flecks of blood on his sleeves told the story by themselves.”

Gritt shrugged.  “Some figure a good thrashing can turn someone around.  Don’t know about that.  Way I see it – fear ain’t that good a way to motivate people in the long run.  Only works for a little while.  Still – figured we’d find out if we ever saw him again…”

"That night we stayed at a tavern.  It was run by a retired adventurer.  She looked like she’d seen a bit of action.  She gave me a warning.  Told me people who took up adventuring tended to start worrying about gold a bit too much.  They started up wanting to help people, save the world, then started caring only about the treasure.  Sounded like words of wisdom to me.  Turned out she was dead right – but I’ll get to that later.  There was a feller in the bar named Grau.  Thought he recognised Sol as someone called Neev.  We put two and two together and figured out he’d abandoned the guard.  Way he was getting onto a drunk, looked like he wasn’t too happy with himself neither.  We talked him into going back – didn’t take much talking – he knew the city was in a bad way.  Justin took him back to the guardhouse."

“Anyway, next morning, we went back to the Citadel.  All the guards we had taken back was going to hang.  Included Verik.  Didn’t see that was right, and I said so.  Ain’t my way to stand back and watch something going ahead that ain’t right.  Spoke to Kroft.  She said he hadn’t been handing out the meat just to do good – but was doing it to make people unhappy with the Queen.  Don’t know about that – but I still don’t agree with it.  Expressin’ an opinion about someone ain’t a crime worth killing, or dying, for in my book.  Ain’t right to stir up trouble – but that don’t make it right to hang ‘em either.  Still, that’s the way city life is."

"Anyway, even though I interrupted her execution, Kroft was still pretty happy with us all.  Introduced us to a man named Vencarlo.  Used to teach swordplay.  Not my style though – used a rapier.  Together they gave us the next job.  Said the ambassador from Chelliax had been stirrin’ up trouble, and they wanted to get some information on him.  They said there was a fella down at Eel’s End would know – guy by the name of Devargo – they called him the King of Spiders tho’.  We headed out straight away.  No point moping around."

"On the way to Eel’s End, had a chat to Vencarlo.  Turned out he used to teach both Grau and Sabina.  Small world.  Reckoned there must have been some kind of story between the three of them.  He wouldn’t tell us – but he had an old wound on his hand."

"Still, set my mind to wonderin’…  Vencarlo said Sabina didn’t have a man in her life.  Seemed like she’d had a boyfriend tho’ – either Vencarlo or Grau – not much else would get folks so on edge and miserable that they couldn’t talk about it. The chat brought her straight back to mind’s eye – she was a real beauty.  A woman I’d really appreciate it.  Decided I’d try and get to know her better, If’n I got the chance, seeing as she didn’t have a man.  Found out that Sparrowhawk liked women.  Sounded like she was interested in Sabina too.  Guess’d we’d find out what kind of woman Sabina was sooner or later."

“We got to Eel’s End.  A few ships, all tied together.  All kinds of vices available.  We just went in , all business.  Mandraiv and Sol had a few words with me aforehand.  Said they wanted to try things their way – use a few honeyed words and talk folks into seeing their way.  If they could pull it off – all the better. They both tried it when we got to this Spider King’s ship.  Guards outside wouldn’t let ‘em in nonetheless, till I made it clear things weren't going to go well if they didn't open the door“

“Didn’t go so well when we met him either – they were jawin’ on about deals and negotiatin and prices and information when that King of Spiders picked Sparrowhawk for a Sable Marine.  Well, that was the end of talkin’ sure enough.”

“We had a real tough fight on our hands.  The King of Spiders was pretty handy with a couple of blades he was carryin’, plus there were all his thugs from outside.  Once we were gettin’ the better of him though, he took off, below deck.  Got a bit creepy down there.  Place was infested with spiders – some damn near as big as a man.  Anyway, made me really appreciate Sparrowhawk.  There was no doubtin’ who was the marksman – or I should say markswoman – she wouldn’t appreciate bein called any kind of man – her arrows were causin’ a lot of trouble.  Justin shot off his gun a few times too.  Nailed a spider with it – looked like it could be pretty deadly.  Kept moanin’ about how expensive it was though.  Reminded me of what Theandra, the barkeep, had said“

“We managed to cut them all down – including some thing that was half spider half man.  Real ugly thing.  Poisonous too.   Couldn’t figure out if the Spider King was his dad or not – the thing rushed out to save him though. If you ask me – it ain’t right if you ask me for a man to get friendly like that with a great big fat spider. I mean – a spider?”

Gritt shook his head in disbelief and sighed disgustedly.  The scribe’s mouth hung agape and he paled, as he couldn’t help picturing the scenario.

"Anyway – after the fight, turned out the Spider King wasn’t dead – just out cold.  There was a bit of talk about what to do with him.  I figured I didn’t care one way or the other – he was broken – and if he got out of line, we could just come back and fix him up.  Justin was worried he was gonna be sending assassins after us.  Sounded just like an excuse for killin’ if you ask me.  Still, no doubt the man was a real bad sort – Korvosa would be better off without him.  Anyhow – Mandraiv took matters into his own hands.  Just stabbed him to death while he lay there unconscious.  Then Mandraiv and Justin tossed his corpse overboard."

"I realised Mandraiv was a different sort to some of us – whatever Lamm had done to him must have killed a bit of his soul.  Made sense given what he was sayin’ when we was fightin’ the orphans – sounded like the only reason he wasn’t killing them was cause we thought it was wrong – not cause he cared one way or the other.  Kind of got me thinkin’ about why Mandraiv did it though.  Didn’t know whether he was pissed off with all the yakkin’, whether he thought the same way as Justin that the man was just too dangerous to let live, or whether he just enjoyed killin’.  Guess’d I’d find out if we were gonna be spendin more time together."

"Mandraiv just talked Watson into lookin’ the other way.  Don’t know what happened in Watson’s past, but he seemed real worried about doin’ the right thing, and wanted to take the Spider King somewhere for justice.  Poor kid was real naïve – hadn’t figured out that there weren’t no real justice to be had in Korvosa from those in charge – not in those times anyway.  If you wanted justice, you had to deal it out yourself."

"We were pretty beat up after that fight.  Headed back to Kroft, who told us take a few days off.  We needed it to get ourselves right – most of us got bit by those spiders, and weren’t feelin too good."

"Say, scribe, you feel like stretchin’ your legs?  Wouldn’t mind going for a walk.  You able to remember what I’m sayin and write it down later?"

The scribe nodded eagerly.  Gritt stood, gathering up his pack and sword.  He strode towards the door, back still straight and strong, and nodded at the bartender, on the way out.  The scribe scrabbled to gather his quills and inks, and scurried after him.

(to be continued…) 

Abadar

The god of cities is stern but rewards those who work hard and whose actions benefit others as well as themselves, though he is morally ambiguous enough to recognize that not every person can benefit from every decision. Misusing slaves or beasts of burden is a waste of resources and detrimental to the profitability of a farm and civilization as a whole, and using cheaply-paid laborers rather than slaves is a better option, but Abadar understands that the world changes in small increments and the most advantageous option for society is not always the most workable in the present. He respects cautious thought and rejects impulsiveness, seeing it as a base and destructive whim. He teaches that discipline, keen judgment, and following the law eventually leads to wealth, comfort, and happiness. He does not believe in free handouts, and because of this his temples sell potions and healing spells or scrolls rather than giving them to those in need. Any who protest are pointed at the temple of Sarenrae.

The Cleric's Role

Although Abadar’s temples are mercenary when it comes to providing healing, as guardians of civilization they are more generous when protecting the public health. Likewise, when traveling with others (such as an adventuring party) they do not charge their companions for healing any more than they expect a fighter to charge for each swordswing or a rogue to charge for each picked lock. Like a business, questing and traveling requires teamwork, and it is part of the cleric’s responsibility to provide healing and magical support.

A typical cleric has at least 1 rank in Knowledge (local) in order to be familiar with the laws of his home city. Most also dabble in knowledge of local history and nobility or practice some sort of craft or profession always something useful to a developing or established settlement. Clerics are not permitted to give money to those in need, only to lend it at a fair rate and record the transaction for the church’s record. They are required to tithe, and most clerics have small investments in local businesses that generate enough income to cover the tithe. Those with no mind for business but a talent for dealing with people often work as teachers, educating children and adults so they can advance themselves and better serve the community. Every cleric belongs to a city temple, even those touring remote areas. If circumstances warrant distant travel or a long period near another city, the home temple files paperwork transferring the cleric’s affiliation to a closer temple.

Summon Monster

Abadar’s priests prefer summoning paragon beasts and embodiments of perfect law. They can use summon monster spells to summon the following creature in addition to the normal creatures listed in the spells (rangers can use summon nature’s ally to summon creatures from the same-level summon monster list).
Summon Monster II
Two-headed celestial eagle (LN)*
Summon Monster III
Celestial hippogriff (LN)
Summon Monster IV
Two-headed celestial giant eagle (LN)*
Summon Monster V
Celestial griffon (LN)
Summon Monster IX
Kolyarut (LN)
*These creature have two heads. They gain a +2 racial bonus
on Listen, Spot, and Search checks, but do not gain an extra
bite attack.

New Divine Spells

Clerics of Abadar may prepare word of recall as a 5th-level spell if their designated sanctuaries are the temples of their home city; paladins may do so as a 4th-level spell under the same circumstances. Abadar’s followers have two additional spells only available to those of the faith.


Abadar’s Truthtelling
School enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting]; Level cleric 1, paladin 1
Components V, S, DF
Effect Range touch
Target creature touched
Description
This spell functions like zone of truth, except as noted above.
Abadar’s symbol appears above the head of the target so all present can see that he is affected by the spell.

Blessing of the Watch
School enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting]; Level cleric 1, paladin 1
Duration 1 hour/level
Description
This spell functions like bless, except as noted above. It only works in the caster’s home city, specifically referring to areas under the jurisdiction of the city watch. For example, if the watch patrols a shantytown outside the city walls but not the city’s ruined subterranean tunnels, the spell works in the former area but not the latter.