Ch 4, Part 1: The Clan of the Skull

Harse

The heroes flee Korvosa, taking with them a number of allies, including Vencarlo, Neolandus and Slyvania (plus the two other priests of Shelyn, Kira and Oswald)

They safely reach Harse where Neolandus finally lays bear what he knows ...

·         When Neolandus confronted Queen Ileosa about King Eodred II’s death, her response was to send Red Mantis assassins after him—proof enough of guilt to Neolandus. Through a combination of luck and knowledge about the castle’s layout, Neolandus barely managed to escape with his life and went into hiding with his friend Salvator Scream in Old Korvosa.

·         After he recovered from the attack but before Salvator handed him over to the Arkonas, Neolandus spent much of his time in Old Korvosa researching the situation by interviewing key people, poring through records in Endrin Academy, and piecing together information and rumors he heard to try to determine what caused Queen Ileosa’s sudden personality change from a petulant spoiled queen to a scheming murderous tyrant.

·         Neolandus’s suspicions grew, but until Queen Ileosa’s first public appearance after the plague, he tempered his suspicions with hope. He knew that Queen Ileosa had been “borrowing” the treasury key to look through Korvosa’s holdings. Neolandus was also familiar with several old and obscure legends about the chambers below Castle Korvosa— chambers, it was whispered, that were old even when the Shoanti dwelt here, and that used to hide something of great power or evil. There was little more information to go on, but he did uncover mention in some documents from Korvosa’s earliest days of something called Midnight’s Teeth, and that these teeth were believed to be some sort of sacred relic of great import to the Shoanti. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the Shoanti kept these teeth in the chambers inside the pyramid that now serves as Castle Korvosa’s foundation.

·         Neolandus’s further research uncovered an old legend that chilled his soul. Several hundred years ago, a powerful blue dragon and agent of Zon-Kuthon named Kazavon brought the orcs of Belkzen to their knees and began conquering the neighboring nations of Ustalav and Lastwall, until he was finally defeated and his remains scattered. Some of these remains, according to certain Zon-Kuthonic scriptures, contained fragments of Kazavon’s essence. One of these relics was the Fangs of Kazavon.

·         By piecing together his evidence, Neolandus suspects that Midnight’s Teeth were none other than the Fangs of Kazavon. The description of the queen’s new crown sounds to Neolandus as if she now wears the Fangs of Kazavon on her brow, the implications of which troubles him greatly.

·         Neolandus wasn’t able to gather much more information before the Arkonas took him, but he doesn’t suspect there was much more to learn. Hard facts about Midnight’s Teeth were sparse to begin with—Korvosa’s founders didn’t think it important to preserve much in the way of Shoanti culture. Yet there is still some hope. The Shoanti have very strong oral traditions, and if anyone knows the truth behind Midnight’s Teeth, that truth is doubtless hidden among their historians up in the Cinderlands.

The heroes waste now time in setting out into the Cinderlands, with them they take both Trinia Sabor and Slyvania.

The Road North

The heroes travel without incident north, through the Caer Maga, the city of strangers on to Kallow Mounds where they meet with Skoan Quah and reaquaint themselves with the shaman, Thousand Bones.

On the same day a Krojan and powerful warrior from the Sklar Quah (The clan of the sun) visits and finds the intruders. He is angered and insulted that the Skoan Quah would allow outsiders into their camp. He challenges the party to a game of Sredna, a primitive tug of war using a leather loop wrapped around each persons neck. The party accept and both Watson and Grit try to be beat him but fail.

The warrior expected as such but he appears to gain a small measure of respect for the party.

That night the heroes discuss their the issue of the Midnight Teeth. Unfortunately Thousand bones cannot help them, only the Sun Clan shamans can but first they must gain their respect.

A complicated plan is hatched. One of the heroes must be swallowed by the a sacred beast called the Cindermaw and be reborn as Shaonti. Before they can face the Cindermaw they must first find a truth speak ... a shaonti that has never lied. There are none in the Skull Clan, but there are in the Moon Clan. To gain their aid they must first gain the mark of Desna from the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers.

So ... the next mornign the heroes set off for the Acropolis. On their journey they notice they are being followed but they are unable to find their pursuers.

A cinderstorm forms just as they reach the acropolis, so they head inside to explore. Inside they quickly awaken an ancient beats whose tentacles attack from deep below, at the same time some red mantis assasins arrive and attack the party.

Yet another difficult battle follows which sees the mantis assasins slain and the heroes retreat from the tentacles. Stranger yet, another mysterious priest of Zon Kuthon arrives with demon wench in tow to aid the heroes. Together they fend of the beast and escape to safety, although Hellious is seperated and in desperation he flees to the lower levels

Encounter	Grit	Helious	Mandraiv	Sparrowhawk	Sol	Watson
Pre-session	70,104	66,204	72,804	66,054	70,154	66,704
Level	8	8	8	8	8	8
Journals	0	0	1600	0	0	0
rp: Loved ones in Harse	800	0	800	0	0	0
A game of Sredna	0	0	0	0	0	0
red mantis assassins	3200	3200	3200	3200	3200	3200
Tentacles	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1200
Total	75,304	70,604	79,604	70,454	74,554	71,104