The Coma Chronicles

For once I write while not recovering from some puny grievous wound. The events of today warrant a special into my journal.

After procuring the required resources to raise Gritt from his untimely demise, I was contacted by a member of the watch who advised that Kroft wanted to speak with us. Kroft will have to wait. I returned through the blockade. The next morning Mandraiv’s new squeeze was happy to revive Gritt. Good old Mandraiv, always happy to take one for the team, I’m happy that I only had to get diamond dust.

As we were unable to get the whole party across the river during the day, the infatuated Mandraiv insisted we help find his girlfriend’s artist. We did not find the artist, but we did find that someone did not like his work and burnt down the theatre where most of his art was and also signs at his house that he had been kidnapped. Apparently a guy called “The Emperor” is behind the abduction, but no one in the party knows who this bloke is. Everyone is a critic. Across in New Korvosa there also seemed to be something seemed to have upset the Sable Marines as there was a heap of activity around the citadel with a lot more going than coming. Having exhausted most of our immediate leads we did a reading from the Harrow Deck. Turns out the city is going to hell in a hand basket and the cards think i’m an idiot and a paladin. Random, though we and it becoming dark, we risked the crossing to have our meeting with Kroft. For the sake of Sparrowhawk we stopped at the Citadel on the way. Turns out that the Commandant had been killed by the Queen as a traitor and the remaining marines had until sunrise to place themselves under command of the city watch. This explained the exodus from the city.

Our meeting with Kroft confirmed many of our suspicions. The Queen had the commandant killed, but not before he put and arrow into her eye and out the back of her skull. Apparently this only amused her and she was otherwise unaffected. We may need to reconsider our plans regarding how we depose her, but she will be deposed. Kroft suggested we may wish to take an out of town vacation till thing die down, but before we left she wanted us to collect Vencarlo and a couple or our priestly allies who were now enemies of the state. Kroft also told us that the Emperor was a criminal working in Old Korvosa and who was recruiting people to his delusional attempts to take over the city.

After stashing the priests in the fortune tellers abandoned house we headed for Old Korvosa and Vencarlo’s place. We returned to find Mandraiv’s girl communing with some head. This is one crazy bitch. Turns out some of the Emperors people came round looking for Vencarlo. Liaora was good enough to leave one alive and he didn’t take much persuasion before telling us where we could find the Emperor. We conducted a thorough search of his house and turned up a locked chest that resisted all attempts to finesse open. I’ll need to get back to this one later. We found no trace of Vencarlo and though we should ask the Emperor.

We were waylaid along the way a couple of groups of the Emperor’s thugs. They would not listen to reason and needed to be put down. Why such puny weaklings, follow such puny leaders, I’ll never understand. And why they continue to refuse our help. These people waste their freedom as well as their lives.

At the Emperor’s compound things got interesting. A few more thugs, and then the Emperor himself complete with a guillotine and Fyffe. That rat bastard Fyffe had thrown himself in with the puny wannabe ruler.
‘Fyffe, I told you I’d be back!’
Like our last meeting, Fyffe was ready for us, however he was too slow and Helious pumped two rounds straight into his guts. These shots alone would near crippled him, but the nerve impulses never reached his demented brain as Sparrowhawk put an arrow straight through his upper spinal cord. Death unfortunately would have been instantaneous and unfortunately completely painless, sometimes justice is too forgiving.

After all this time it is done. Almost an anticlimax. I now realise that I have moved on from that pain, and have been drawn into something bigger. Something that I need to see through.

With Fyffe terminated, we set about destroying the Emperor and his minions. Aside from a nuisance confusion spell, some mirror images and a particularly angry gnome, we cast aside the puny emperor and his fledgling regime with extreme prejudice.