I’m just going to jump right in below the break and continue exactly where the prior post left off rather than provide a mini-summary here. Mostly because we still have definite spoilers for Haunted Fortunes and I want to make sure all the spoilers are below the break.
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.
20 Calistril (continued)
- The party puts all of the stuff they took into the found strongbox. Mac has Stan take it with him when the eidolon returns to his home plane. They definitely did not want to be caught carrying a stolen piece of the Queen’s jewelry.
- As the group heads back to Ellara’s, Darcy spies Canta following them. The boy could not evade Darcy when she hung back to catch him. They arrange that Canta can put a piece of red fabric on the Salthouse Dock if he or the other children needs the group’s help. Darcy will check every other day and will meet at sunset at the King Eodred I statue at the corner of Warehouse Way and Bromathan Street. (Darcy also gave her name to Canta which had some of the other players a little concerned.)
- Pop, Mac, and Darcy (the others having taken their leave) make it to Ellara’s and gain entrance.
- Ellara appears, fainter than before. She states that she feels weaker and is easily distracted by her somewhat translucent appearance.
- Mac summons Stan with the strongbox. Ellara immediately focuses on it and wants to know what is in it.
- Pop takes the hatbox into a closet, Ellara’s gave follows and she starts to as well. Pop grabs one of the Harrow cards from within and holds it up as he comes out.
- Ellara laughs hysterically as her spirit is sucked into the card.
- The card is the Joke (and yes, it was randomly determined).
- The trio return to their respective homes (as does Stan).
21 Calistril
- Regrouping in the morning, Isabella remembers that a serial killer, the Keylock Killer, had committed around a half dozen murders in the period of 4703-4705 (the year is currently 4708).
- All of the victims had key images carved into their bodies.
- All were young women and all lived alone. Most lived in Midtown.
- Maybe the odd dagger found at Lamm’s is related to this.
21-25 Calistril
- The party goes about their normal daily lives with some investigation tossed in.
- Isabella takes Ellara’s Harrow deck to Ilya. As soon as Ilya touches one of the cards, she jerks her hand back and explains that it contains a spirit. After some discussion, Ilya indicates that it would be very important to know if the Joke had been aligned or misaligned when Ellara’s spirit entered the card. Isabella does not know and none present at the time got a good look before Pop dropped the card when the spirit entered it.
- Pop and Mac hunt around for Mac’s rowboat. Pop gets a lead that a “working girl” at the Midtown Docks had seen something. The pair meet Fede, an elderly prostitute, and learn that the rowboat looked like it had been pushed out from one of the northernmost Midtown Docks before sinking, obviously scuttled to do so. Fede shares that walking around with Pop and Max reminds of her of walking around with her young children so long ago…before they disappeared.
- Aimar runs into one of the Luto daughters, Fabinia. The Lutos run Luto’s Luxury Loupe, a high end jewelry shop and repair. The pair have tea and Fabinia (an inveterate gossip) shares some information about the missing piece of the Queen’s jewelry.
- It had a broken clasp that was going to be repaired by her father.
- Cressida Kroft, the Field Marshall, had been tasked with the delivery. The brooch was stolen, or so Kroft claims, on the way.
- Rumor has it that Kroft and the Queen have an intimate relationship, but they are on the outs right now. Maybe the brooch wasn’t stolen and Kroft still has it due to their “spat.”
- Darcy leaves a note for her mentor, Gero, at their prearranged drop spot indicating that she needs to see him.
- A couple of nights later, Gero shows up at Darcy’s while she is sleeping. Darcy shares a good bit about the recent exploits of her and her new friends.
- Gero offers to “discretely” get the Queen’s brooch to Ludo’s. He also gives Darcy a friendly reminder that she could probably do the same.
- He also didn’t really think that the Queen and the Field Marshall had the intimate relationship that rumors suggested, that they were in a spat, or that the Marshall intentionally lost the brooch.
- Gero will also look into getting some information regarding the Key Lock Killer.
- A couple of nights later, Gero shows up at Darcy’s while she is sleeping. Darcy shares a good bit about the recent exploits of her and her new friends.
- Isabella did a Harrow reading using Ellara’s cards for the group regarding their current situation. Both the past and present cards seemed to ring true. The future card was the Queen Mother in the unclear future position. Perhaps this foretells some sort of interaction between the party and Queen Ileosa.
- The night of 25 Calistril, Mac is walking his friend and co-worker Matilda home after a shift at the Sticky Mermaid. Just before they reach her home in Old Korvosa (above Stonefell Crafts…a shop run by her parents), they hear a scream.
- Mac finds a body on the ground down an alleyway. It looks to be an “empty” (the term that Korvosans use for indigent and jobless individuals).
- It looks as though something had burst out from within, opening their entire torso…chest and stomach. The individual’s eye sockets were also completely empty.
- A trail of blood led away. As Mac followed the trail, it seemed to grow larger even as the blood became fainter…as of something was growing as it moved away.
- The trail ended suddenly and Mac could hear a buzzing sound quickly moving away.
I think I’ll bring this post to a close. This was actually the end of, I believe, our third session. Our next session revealed a lot of new information so I’ll save that for the next post…coming soon.
