Savage Korvosa Session 23

In our last session, the party started to discover what has been causing the Shiver Killings and associated monsters to appear. They were led by the Green Lady to her creator, to her mother and grandmother, a young girl and her mother, Elda and Suria respectively. Various information is shared before Suria feels that they need to flee their home as all that she has shared could have easily been overheard by nearby neighbors. Homes in the Shingles do not prioritize privacy in their construction. Meanwhile, Pop was having issues of his own. He had attracted the attention of the Queen’s Guard by mistakenly magically messaging one who was following him. Then he was swept up with Tarquin before being fished out of the Jeggare River by a salvage guy.

The bulk of the party and guests made their way to their current hideout, the Old Fishery. Pop returned to Korvosa from wherever he had been and was fetched by the Green Lady to join the others. We pick up the session from there.

Everyone was in attendance for this session. Although I do not know if there are any spoilers for elements of the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, there are potential spoilers regarding some of the movers and shakers of Korvosa. There are also references to sexual assault and more general abuse and mistreatment of Suria by yet to be named parties. As usual, my GM comments are in italics.

17 Pharast

• Arriving at the Old Fishery just shy of midnight, Suria asks that Viria (as Elda has named the Green Lady) take Elda up on the roof. She obviously does not want her daughter to hear what she is about to share. Darcy goes up to the roof as well just to make sure that pair do not make themselves conspicuous to any nearby travelers.
  • Suria shares quite a bit of information (info dump and backstory incoming).
    • She is from a minor noble house in Cheliax. As a child, an explosion occurred at her home and killed everyone else. Just before the explosion, she remembers that her father was engaged in a heated argument with some visiting “adventurer” types.
    • An uncle took her in and brought her to Korvosa. She was soon enrolled at the Acadamae as she was exhibiting nascent magical abilities. An instructor took an interest in her and took her under his wing (not really an instructor as you’ll soon see).
    • In time, she began to fall behind in her studies and soon began to fail. Students who fail at the Acadamae typically do not ever leave the Acadamae. Suria was smuggled out by this same instructor and was set up in a “safe house.” All of her needs were seen to, but she was not allowed to leave.
    • Soon, the instructor who was actually Volshyenek Ornelos, the Undying Lord and who was believed to be dead, began to experiment on and with Suria to unleash her magics. He referred to her abilities as “wild magic” and hoped to teach her to control it…and not for any selfless reasons.
    • As part of these experiments, she became addicted to Shiver. Volshyenek had used it to try and unlock more of her potential. She has remained addicted ever since.
    • A tielfling guard, Yiri, was also on staff at the house. It was not too long before he began to sexually assault Suria in her less than lucid moments while under the influence of Shiver. She believes that Volshyenek was fully aware of Yiri’s depredations and may have even encouraged them.
    • Eventually, during one of the assaults, Suria’s power was unleashed and the entire home was destroyed by flames and all within killed except, of course, for Suria. The death of the servants who were in the home still haunts Suria. The death of Yiri is something she is glad of.
    • Suria fled into Old Korvosa and into the Shingles. She eventually began working at the Eel’s End and also give birth to Elda. Yiri is the father. The pair of kept as low of a profile as possible to avoid attracting the attention of Volshyenek or his allies.
    • Suria has always feared that Elda would inherit her wild magic, that Volshyenek would find them, and that he would begin his experiments on Elda. If Elda is creating the monsters and causing the killings, it is totally unconscious and unintentional. She does not believe that Elda could ever do anything like this on purpose.
      • Suria realizes that it probably is Elda and it is all Suria’s fault. It isn’t just because she passed down this magical power. When Elda was younger and asked why Suria used Shiver, Suria responded that it was to chase the monsters away. That is probably why Elda’s power has been manifesting in this fashion.
    • Lastly, Suria shared that Volshyenek is not dead. He’s not even human. He’s a devil.
    • Spent with sharing all of this, Suria begins to quietly cry and hug herself.
  • Darcy gets messaged and so she, Elda, and Viria come back inside and everyone settles down for the night.
    • Darcy drew a rough sketch of the two noble types that they’ve seen getting involved with the Shiver Killings. Suria identifies the older of the two as Volshyenek.

18 Pharast

• During the night while Isabella was on watch, there is a loud splash of water coming from the main floor of the fishery where it opens up to the river below. Before going to check it out, Isabella realizes that Pop is also missing. She and Mac looked around the fishery but see no signs of what made the splash or of Pop.
  • Mac attempts to magically message Pop but it does not get through. Aimar attempts to locate him using the “beacon shard” he had slipped to everyone with no success. Even Viria cannot locate him and notes that her hunger for him is gone. (She had previously shared that she could sense where Pop was as she had partially fed upon him.)
  • The group decides that there isn’t really anything they can do and settle down for the rest of the night. (I don’t want to share what was going on with Pop because RJ has not shared what was going on. We were playing a little side game of texting during the session that kept it private from the group.)
• In the morning, Pop returns with a loud splash. He is badly cut up and wounded but tight-lipped. Aimar heals him.
• Suria agress to not use Shiver this night like she usually would.
• Everyone just hangs out at the Old Fishery for the day. The Green Lady had departed before dawn.
• Later that night, they head out to the bridge where they expect Sango, the latest Shiver victim, will appear and become a monster. Pop heads down the Narrows of St. Alika hoping that it’ll be less likely that he’ll get spotted by authorities. The others spread out a bit on the bridge around the location that Vel, her husband, indicated that they had shared their first kiss.
  • A ghostly apparition matching Sango’s description appeared, walking down the bridge. It did not respond to anyone. Upon reaching the spot Vel had shown the party previously, the spirit stopped and, apparently, replayed the kiss.
  • The spirit’s head is then thrown back with their face frozen in a scream of agony. It begins to pulse, expanding with each one but never shrinking on the backside of a pulse. It grows to forty feet tall and explodes. In its place was a massive reptilian creature with a massive crocodilian head (think Godzilla as a spinosaurus) and armored plates.
    • Aimar strikes it with his spiritual weapon with no effect. Similarly, a bolt from Pop does nothing. Both just attract the things attention. Mac summons a shroomy that can fly which quickly is snapped in half by the creature.
    • The party scatters as the thing spits a line of acid that melts even the struck buildings. Fortunately, everyone had reached enough cover to be away from the attack.
    • Pop is caught up a large wave of water displaced by the creature. He just keeps control of the small boat.
    • As everyone flees, Darcy gets the things attention. It gives chase and she stays just ahead of it. The hope is to get it go towards the bay. (The players kind of all discussed getting it out of the city or pointing it at the Acadamae.) This helped to keep the devastation to the area near the Narrows rather than going deeper into Old Korvosa or Korvosa proper.
    • This was also leading it towards the Great Tower, home of the Sable Company. Members of the Company are “launching” from the tower and attacking the creature. Although they do not appear to be doing much damage to the thing, they do get its attention. But not without cost. A number of the Sable Company are caught in the acid streams spit by the thing or otherwise harmed in the conflict.
    • It is pretty clear that the Sable Company is attempting to lead the thing away from the more populated areas of the city.
    • Panic has set in across old Korvosa and people throughout are fleeing wherever they could to avoid the devastation. The thing starts to focus on the Great Tower, realizing that the things pestering it were coming from it.
    • Members of the Acadamae, as the creature in the vicinity of the school, involved themselves in the fight. Their magical attacks were much more effective than those of the party or the Sable Company. The Acadamae attacks, however, did not seem to show any concern for the surrounding city. Defensive magics were thrown up solely to protect the Acadamae.
    • Everyone in the party was able to escape the area in the panic and confusion, making their way back to the Old Fishery.
    • As Darcy starts to flee the scene, she hears some groaning from around a corner of a building. Investigating, she finds a fallen member of the Sable Company. The woman is badly injured, both legs with compound fractures.
      • It was quickly clear that Darcy did not have many options. She could release the woman from from the intense pain that she was clearly in, leave the scene completely, or get the attention of someone to get the woman aid quick enough to save her. There was no way that Aimar could make it in time to employ his magical healing.
      • Darcy waves and gets the attention of flying member of the Sable Company. A captain lands and he and Darcy are able to get the woman on the captain’s hippogriff and he climbs up into the saddle.
      • As he starts to leave, he asks for Darcy’s name. Darcy provides her first name. He pointedly asks for her last name. She reluctantly says her last name is Wells. The captain points out that Darcy is wanted by the Queen’s Guard.
      • The unnamed captain asks why she stopped to help his compatriot despite the risks. Darcy says that the woman would have died otherwise.
      • The captain simply responds that this interaction never happened and flies off.
    • As Pop fled the area, the Green Lady showed up and confronted him regarding where he had been. She asks Pop if he is a threat to her creator (Elda) and Pop responded, “No…not anymore.”

That is where we ended the session.

Lots of new information, new “growth” for the Green Lady, and a monster that appeared largely impervious to the attacks of the party. The Sable Company showed bravery and sacrifice in attempting to lure the monster away to minimize the damage to the city and the death toll of its citizens. The Acadamae showed that such damage and death toll of the citizens.

Did the unnamed captain of the Sable Company let Darcy go because he had to save his fellow member of the Company? Was there more to it? These are the little things that I like to toss out as hooks that can take and become something more…or not…based on how the campaign goes.

I had decided a little bit ago…when the party first learned that Sango was terrified of crocodiles…that this next monster would be a kaiju type creature. It also reflects a pattern of greater threat the players have picked up on with each successive monster. Lazy me, I hadn’t really prepped the monster yet so I just grabbed the tyrannosaurus stats from the forthcoming Bestiary 2 and bumped them up slightly for the larger size, including heavy armor. It let me display some of the city’s power groups and show how their interests align. I hadn’t really thought about how much structural damage would be caused by a creature like this rampaging through the city. Oh no there goes Korvosa, Go Go Croczilla, yeah.