For our Korvosa campaign, we spent a good bit of time with character creation. Specifically, I brought in the notion of background phases from Fate to start to tie the characters together before we began the campaign and to learn just a little bit about who they are. Instead of focusing on that, this session recap is going to jump right into the first “adventure” proper. All of the player characters did have at least one background phase that included how a decrepit miscreant by the name of Gaedran Lamm who either wronged the PC themselves or those around them. Jen had to miss the part of these sessions.
There are definitely spoilers below for the Haunted Fortunes adventure from Book 1: Edge of Anarchy from the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path below the break.
We began the campaign on the 16th of Calistril, during the celebrations of King Eodred II’s birthday. The player characters were either enjoying the celebrations are going about their normal lives when the discovered a Harrow card in a location that one should not be. Aimar found one in a block of marble upon which he was sculpting. Mac found his in Stan’s ear. Pop found his in a mug of ale that he had just finished. Darcy found hers in her coin pouch. Isabella found hers inside her lute as she was playing. Each card had blood stains upon it and writing on the back asking the recipient to come to 3 Lancet Street on the evening of 18 Calistril.
The PCs individually took the opportunity to do a little bit of investigation prior to the meeting time, checking out the location of the meeting and learning more about the Harrow deck. Highlights include:
- Aimar seeking out an occult bookstore and finding the Black Cat and its own Pink who seemed to take an immediate like to him, even asking him to dinner. Aimar got out as soon as possible.
- Isabella sought out Ilya, a Varisian Harrow reader, and learned that the cards were real and legitimate.
- The others cased the location a bit and only learned that it appeared empty…no one coming and going and no lights.
18 Calistril
The time for the meeting arrived and each of the PCs. As various PCs recognize each other (based on background phases we did), they realize that the door to 3 Lancet is open and they go in.
- A note next to the door asks for them to come in and be seated.
- Inside is a small room setup for Harrow readings. There are exactly six chairs around the table, one for each of them and their host. Refreshments are also on the table. Stairs lead up to the second floor.
- Soon after seating, a woman comes down the stairs. She is Varisian and introduces herself as Ellara and she has a gaping wound in her neck. Ellara explains her story.
- Lamm’s thieves stole her Harrow deck. Her son recovered it, but Lamm’s thugs caught him and killed him.
- Ellara sought justice via the Korvosan Guard, but they had were not willing to do much.
- She hunted down Lamm herself. She was caught by Lamm and he cut open her throat.
- This was three months ago and she does not know why she is still here.
- The party agrees that Lamm needs to be brought to justice for all the wrongs he has committed.
- Ellara shares that Lamm’s current hideout is in the Old Fishery down on the Midtown docks.
- She does do a Harrow reading and two things come out of it: 1) if the party gets an opportunity, they need to take it before it passes; and, 2) Mac might have some relevant information without realizing it.
- Ellara then diappears.
This, or course, is the initial plot hook to bring the party together and is the only “prepared” part of the campaign.
- The party heads to Mac’s place in Old Korvosa to get his rowboat (he likes to fish) and head up the Jeggare river to the Midtown docks. They check out the Old Fishery from out in the middle of the river. They can see an old ship lashed to dock area and that’s about it.
- Darcy gets dropped off and cases the Old Fishery. She spots a few doors and windows (all shuttered) and can hear snoring from behind one door. They all head off to retire for the night…slumber party at Mac’s!
19 Calistril
- The group reconvenes at the Sticky Mermaid for breakfast, including some who had not stayed at Mac’s place. They decide to ask around a bit about the Old Fishery and to check it out during the day.
- Neither Aimar nor Pop learned much from their contacts.
- Darcy and Mac walked around the area. Some double doors were open. Some children could be seen shoveling rotting fish into a bin. A deep voice from a mostly unseen individual (just boots up on a desk) threatened the children if they don’t get the job done…something about getting fed to a dog.
- Meet back up at the Happy Halfling in the Halfling Enclave for dinner in the evening.
- Around 10pm, they head back out in Mac’s rowboat and watch the Old Fishery for a couple of hours before deciding to approach.
20 Calistril
- Just after midnight, the party rows the boat to the ship lashed to the Old Fishery. It is pretty rotted and very creaky. No sound can be heard from the ship. A door to a cabin on the deck is opened after boarding the ship.
- Inside the cabin are a lot of spider webs with an obvious passage through them leading to some stairs heading down to the hold. A cat-sized spider attacks, dispatched quickly.
- In the hold, the party finds a variety of old crates and barrels and more webs. LOTS of smaller spiders (a swarm) drop down from the ceiling and attack. They are little dream spiders as was the one above. During the fight, Pop gets badly bitten and Darcy smashed a hole in the hull of the ship…it starts taking on water. Due to being lashed to the Fishery and its pilings, the ship does not sink.
- Retreating back to the deck, the party tends to wounds and then takes the rowboat to the dock near one of the Old Fishery’s doors. Sneaking in, they find a large room with various things. Most interesting are probably the opening down to the river with manacles next to it and the hammocks on the walls with children sleeping in them.
- The party takes some stairs up to the upper level. Here they encounter some resistance. First, a guard dog that they quickly knock out but not before it barks. Then a waking human, gnome, and half-orc in another room. They human is knocked out and the others killed…although not before the half-orc tried to flee through a wall, leaving a small opening out to the street.
- A little more exploration turns up some chalk slates with various transactions for old fish purchased and chumcakes sold, mostly to more seedy taverns.
- All of the noise has woken the children. The party speaks with them. They learn that the children work for Lamm, they are beaten if they don’t do a good job, and those who fail too much are manacled and lowered into the water to feed Gobblegut, Lamm’s pet alligator. Canta, the “leader” of the children, assures the group that Jargen, the human, won’t tell them anything. He and Lamm go back a long way. Jargen is killed as is the dog. The bodies are fed to Gobblegut by the party and the children.
- Further exploration and information from the children eventually (after fighting some sharks underneath the Fishery) finds a way into another lower level via a hidden door on the ship. This leads to Lamm’s area.
- In this area, the party finds a number of interesting things along with a lot of junk and filth. Overall, they find the following in a couple of different chambers:
- A coffer with 20 vials of Shiver (an illegal drug).
- A container of some sort of pungent smelling salve.
- A strongbox with the following:
- A ledger written in a coded Varisian.
- A silver ring with an inscription, “For Emma, the light in my nights.”
- A dagger with a blade shaped almost like a key with the inscription, “For an inspiration of a father.”
- A jeweled brooch with a broken clasp. The brooch depicts a house drake and an imp coiled around each other. Drake’s eye is an amethyst and the Imp’s is an emerald. The party recognized this as a piece of the Queen’s jewelry that went missing.
- A hatbox containing Ellara’s head and her Harrow deck was also found. It looks like someone has been applying cosmetics to keep up the head’s appearance in a rather grotesque manner.
- Lamm, however, was nowhere to be found. When the party headed out, the children had already left and they found that Mac’s rowboat was missing.
This wasn’t the end of our early sessions or even the end of one of the sessions, but I think that is enough for this post.
