Still beneath the Hospice of the Divine Matron, the party continues their attack, achieve a great prize (at least for Pop), speak with the dead, rescue some prisoners, and receive some GM mercy whether they realized or not. A little confusion about the goal of the attack popped up and it looks like we’ll be back to talky talky discussions in the next session. Details below the break as we pick up with the party having come upon three women sleeping in coffins in a crypt…ones who seemed quite keen on killing, eating, or converting various members of the group.
Everyone was in attendance, although Adam had to depart early for work. Although I do not think there are any specific 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. As usual, my GM comments are in italics.
1st of Gozran
- Darcy instructs one of Darcy’s Maidens to step forward and speak on behalf of the group. She explains that the group had gotten lost, some misunderstanding about their instructions, and accompanied by some mercenaries (the party).
- The lead woman seems to accept this and tells the group to be on their way. Varra and the Captain will definitely hear about this intrusion AND if it happens again, the lives of the party are forfeit. (Yes, this was a bit of GM mercy. This could have been a rather difficult encounter for the party and they had more potentially encounters ahead so I let them off the hook.)
- The party heads back to the door from which they had previously heard some sobbing. It opens to a long hallway with cell doors lining one side.
- Moving forward quietly, they find that the hall turns 45-degrees and continues. This arm of the hall is also long and also lined with cells. From about half of the cells, the sound of breathing can be heard.
- This hall also turns to another long hallway lined with cell doors.
- Along this middle of these three passages are also a couple of double doors. The sound of fighting comes from one…sound very similar to the training that Darcy’s Maidens had undergone previously. From the other is the sound of soft chanting…very similar to the chanting that Lamm had done while creating Darcy’s Maidens. The group quietly bypasses the first of these doors and goes to the second.
- Quickly entering, they spot Varra Ornelos chanting over a partially created Gray Maiden.
- Darcy springs forward and, leaping from the table in front of Varra, forcefully slips her rapier through the ribcage, through the heart, and into the wall beyound…the blade bowing under the force behind it. (It was a massive amount of damage with dice exploding. Rachel gave the initial description of the kill and I embellished it. It might not be the most climatic end to a behind the scenes foe who has touched on various things the party has been involved in, but it was fortunate for the group. If Varra had not been taken by surprise and out in a single blow, she probably would have been a handful for the group.)
- Around the room are five tables, each with a body that has been prepped for the creation of a Gray Maiden.
- Aimar sprinkles some grave dust (from the Fantasy Companion) on Varra’s corpse. Her eyes open and she reluctantly answers his three questions.
- Is Volshyenek using the Queen to advance his own plans? Yes.
- Is work on the Urgathoa plague continuing? No.
- Is spreading the plague part of the Queen’s plan? Yes.
- (Does this help the players put some more pieces together? I hope so.)
- Varra had little on her…a magical stone on an amulet, a holy symbol of Zon-Kuthon, a key, and robes.
- A couple of chambers beyond this “lab,” include an office and an unused bedroom. Some papers from the office are taken without examining them.
- The group then starts to check all of the cells along the long hallway(s).
- Captain Vindo is in one of the cells, He is unconscious and looks to have been tortured quite badly. Naked, they wrap in some robes and carry him.
- Checking the other cells, there are a total of a dozen women…all but one are Varisian. Other cells hold the armor, weapons, and other equipment of Gray Maidens.
- When Darcy goes to free the non-Varisian woman (she’s Chelaxian), the woman begs to not be treated like all of the others. She’ll pay, she points out that not like the “dancers” or the “empties” or a “horser” (all derogatory comments for marginalized populations in Korvosa).
- Darcy assures her that they are here to free her and then stabs her through the heart. She then takes the woman’s shoes and gives them to one of the Varisian women who has none herself.
- (The look on Adam’s face was worth the price of admission for this campaign. Darcy/Rachel had good reasons for her action and Isabella/Jen certainly would agree.)
- Darcy assures her that they are here to free her and then stabs her through the heart. She then takes the woman’s shoes and gives them to one of the Varisian women who has none herself.
- With the former prisoners in tow and Vindo over Stan’s shoulder, the group made their way to doors from which they can hear the fighting/training and burst in.
- Two Gray Maidens are training. A Captain sits in a barred of section of the room, watching. At least a couple of potential exits might also be in the room.
- Darcy’s Maidens attack, along with the party. The Captain immediately notes that the first Darcy Maiden to enter is “not one of mine” and then notes that she belongs to no captain.
- The group takes out the two who had been training relatively quickly. The Captain rises to join the fray but is magically stunned just long enough for the party to retreat. (Although we did not stop the fight for a moment. Some of the players were keen on continuing to fight and attack the Captain. I’m not sure if the objectives were forgotten in the excitement or bloodlust was high, but I pointed out that they had completed what they had come to do and asked if they really wanted to continue fighting and killing the witness that they had wanted.)
- The objectives of this “mission” were complete. Varra was taken out (a secondary objective) and at least one witness saw the group controlling a Maiden. Perhaps even better, the Captain KNOWS that these are Maidens not beholden to anyone in the normal chain of command.
- The party retreats as the Captain is raising the alarm, sending the former prisoners ahead to flee as best they can, but the Captain pursues. One of Darcy’s Maidens is ordered to be a rear guard and engages the Captain.
- Armored boots can be heard approaching and Pop raises his bone wall, effectively cutting off pursuit…for now. Darcy can sense that her Maiden on the other side of the wall is “killed.”
- The group catches up with the Varisians. They lead the way through the sewers until they find a good spot to go up to the surface.
- On the surface, the group starts to make their way through Old Korvosa (the Hospice was on the western side) to Elvo’s territory in the Shingles.
- They make it most of the way there before they get spotted by a Gray Maiden patrol. Darcy sends her Maidens to engage the patrol, outnumbered three to one, as everyone else escapes. Again, Darcy senses their “death,” but it worked. Everyone else makes it to Elvo’s.
- Elvo agrees to take in the women and help to smuggle them back to their homes (after dark) with some food.
- On the surface, the group starts to make their way through Old Korvosa (the Hospice was on the western side) to Elvo’s territory in the Shingles.
And I believe that is pretty much where we ended the session.
I think we can say that the party was successful in accomplishing their objectives with attacking the Hospice. They lost all three of Darcy’s Maidens in the attack, but they were already somewhat expendable. Lamm, presumably and hopefully, is still under the guard of Stefaneto in a hidden location in the sewers. (We just had Isabella join the group rather than still helping to guard Lamm so Jen get start playing right away.)
So now what? That’s the next question. My understanding of the larger plan is the hope that this attack could somehow lure the Queen out of Castle Korvosa. If the Ankh of Hmah can be taken from her. The only approach discussed much so far is using Lamm to accomplish this. We’ll be starting with figuring out this next step at the start of our next session.
I am a little concerned that the full weight of this task might not have sunk in yet. The Queen has the Gray Maidens at her command. She is winning the “war” against the Korvosan Guard and Sable Company and, according to Divo, if things don’t change soon, they will be defeated soon. The Queen appears to have the Acadamae, or at least House Ornelos, on her side. She also seems to be supported by the Cult of Urgothoa. Per Kalthrax, the Queen is also supported by at least one faction of Hell. There is also the Red Mantis who are working with the Queen. Oh, and of course, there is also the Queen’s newfound power that Divo noted. I don’t think we’ve established where other factions in Korvosa stand outside of the Cerulean Society (remaining neutral) and some of the street gangs (a mix of support for the Queen, opposition, and neutrality). Yikes…when I write it out like that, it certainly does look like things are stacked against party.
There is also the question of just how long does the party have to be proactive after this attack. Will the Queen’s forces respond quickly? If the bulk of your forces was comprised of some sort of construct over which you thought you had total control and then you found out that you might not have control over all of them, would you take action quickly or wait around for a bunch of pesky adventurers to act first?
The whole Temple of Urgathoa “adventure” was intended to give the players a more straightforward dungeon crawl…a break from the more investigative Shiver Killings. I’m pretty sure I even shared that when that was all going on. But Pop just had to go and get himself taken by the Gray Maidens at the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden and the party to come save him. That action pretty made this element of the setting become central to the narrative of the game and the party. So I guess this is all Pop’s fault…but then, at least for our player group, isn’t everything always RJ’s fault…even if he’s not there? Don’t we all have that one friend like that? <evil grin>
